Opinion writer Lindsey Crouse says protesting outside Kavanaugh’s home isn’t enough

A New York Times opinion writer urged the pro-abortion activists protesting outside the house of Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh to escalate their illegal protests.

Lindsay Crouse, who earned notoriety after disclosing that her ex-boyfriend is dating Lady Gaga in a 2020 op-ed, said in a May 8 tweet that protesters should target the Chevy Chase Club because that way, she said, their cries “will reach not just Kavanaugh but also Justice Roberts—both are members.” She deleted the tweet, but only after it elicited praise from activists who Shared The Address of the club across the platform. 

There is a near consensus among legal experts that targeted protests against federal judges are criminal. A 1950 law expressly prohibits any picketing “with the intent of interfering with, obstructing, or impeding the administration of justice, or with the intent of influencing any judge.”

Times Guidelines bar staff from “posting anything on social media that damages our reputation for neutrality and fairness.”  Crouse’s posts come just over a month after the paper’s executive editor, Dean Baquet, issued a memo to staff pressing them to spend less time on Twitter and said its extensive use would “damage our journalistic reputations.” That memo was prompted by internal concerns that the conduct of some staff may interfere with the ability for others, such as court reporters, to cultivate sources or gain access.

Baquet also pressed staff in 2017 to exercise transparency after removing a social media post and “quickly acknowledge the deletion in a subsequent tweet.” Crouse did no such thing. 

Neither the Times nor Crouse responded to a request for comment. 

Crouse’s tweets are the latest example of bubbling tensions between staff who want to openly advocate for their political views and management who wish for the paper to appear impartial. The Times, which has been the epicenter of the debate in legacy media over objectivity, fired editor Lauren Wolfe last year after she tweeted that she felt “chills” after seeing President Joe Biden’s plane land.

Aside from columns asking questions such as, “How do you compare yourself with Lady Gaga?” after she dates your ex, Crouse has written about how former Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg served as her “fitness idol.” Her focus for the Times opinion section is “gender, ambition, and power,” according to her Author Bio.

Since the leak of the draft Dobbs decision, conservative justices have been the target of heated protests outside their homes. On Wednesday, the Washington Free Beacon Reported on an internal DHS memo outlining threats from pro-abortion extremists against members of the court and clergy.

“Domestic violence extremists (DVEs) and criminal actors have adopted narratives surrounding abortion rights to encourage violence, likely increasing the threat to government, religious, and reproductive health care personnel and facilities and ideological opponents,” the memo reads. The memo later states that most of the threats against justices and their staff are circulating on social media.

Earlier this month the Senate passed a bipartisan bill bolstering security for members of the Supreme Court and their families. That legislation has since Stalled in the House, with Democratic leadership refusing to provide a date for an expected vote.

https://freebeacon.com/media/nyt-writer-urged-activists-to-escalate-protests-targeting-kavanaugh/

A liberal dark money group bankrolled by a foreign billionaire gave millions of dollars to failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams’s effort to overhaul America’s voting laws.

Sacramento-based dark money group Fund for a Better Future in 2020 gave more than $3 million to Abrams’s Fair Fight Action, its tax forms show. Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss is by far Fund for a Better Future’s top donor—his advocacy group, Berger Action Fund, gave the dark money group more than $45 million from 2016 to 2020.

The sizable contribution marks yet another attempt from Wyss to meddle in America’s elections. Abrams’s Fair Fight has spent big on ads urging Congress to pass the For the People Act, Democrats’ massive election overhaul bill that would give the federal government unprecedented power to control American voting. Wyss has also contributed millions of dollars to redraw electoral maps in Democrats’ favor and lobby for the Biden administration’s alternative energy initiatives.

Fund for a Better Future’s generous support of Fair Fight also gives Wyss a back-door way to earn favor and influence with Abrams, who is running for governor of Georgia against Republican incumbent Brian Kemp. Foreign nationals cannot contribute to U.S. political candidates but can fund nonprofit organizations. Wyss in 2014 revealed he only carries a Swiss passport and does not have a U.S. green card. In a 2021 SEC filing, Wyss called himself a “citizen of Switzerland.”

At least one watchdog group believes Wyss’s liberal philanthropy violates U.S. law. In May 2021, Americans for Public Trust filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that Wyss “indirectly funded federal electoral advocacy through his nonprofit organizations.” Wyss has contributed tens of millions of dollars to liberal dark money groups that help elect Democrats—U.S. law, the complaint notes, “prohibits foreign nationals from making contributions to political committees whether directly or indirectly.”

“The intended recipient of these funds was ultimately a variety of organizations whose primary purpose is to engage in electoral advocacy,” the complaint states. The FEC has failed to act on that complaint over the last year, prompting Americans for Public Trust in April to sue the federal agency in search of a decision.

“Until the FEC takes action, we won’t know the full extent of [Wyss’s] foreign interference in our electoral process,” Americans for Public Trust executive director Caitlin Sutherland said in a statement.

In addition to his lavish liberal advocacy spending, Wyss sits on the board of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. He has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to left-wing groups over the last two decades.

Fair Fight Action did not return a request for comment. Fund for a Better Future could not be reached for comment.

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/liberal-dark-money-group-bankrolled-by-foreign-billionaire-gave-millions-to-stacey-abramss-voting-nonprofit/

Accused of racism by an incoming McKinsey consultant, bar bent over backwards to appease Brown’s diversity commissars

Students at Brown University extracted an apology from a blue-collar bar after a soon-to-be McKinsey consultant accused its employees of racism, prompting a student boycott and a shakedown from the school’s diversity office.

The Graduate Center Bar apologized on April 27 for removing three black students who were roughhousing in line, after one of the students, Okezie Okoro, confronted the bouncer who told them to knock it off. The confrontation took place on April 7 and occurred after the bouncer let them inside. When Okoro gave the bouncer grief for reprimanding his friends, an argument ensued, culminating in the students’ ejection from the bar.

A week later, Okoro posted on social media a 2,000-word denunciation of the bar, replete with a “content warning” and a list of demands. The post accused the bouncer of racism and attacked the bar’s manager, Susan Yund, for dismissing that accusation.

“When we students voice concerns that someone has been harmed,” Okoro wrote, “we expect at the very least a response that attempts to deepen understanding.”

The bar capitulated, sending Okoro a fawning apology that outlined the steps it was taking “to be diverse, queer, and safe for all.”

“We should have had policies in place that would have made you feel safer and heard when you took issue with the situation,” the bar told Okoro. “We should have engaged with you more respectfully, patiently, and compassionately when you disagreed with us.”

Okoro, a senior at Brown University and the president of the school’s Black Consulting Initiative, will be working as a McKinsey analyst upon graduation, according to his LinkedIn profile. Starting salaries at the prestigious consultancy typically top $100,000.

The apology, which Okoro posted on Instagram, promised “de-escalation training” and the “addition of bar cameras,” as well as updates to the bar’s harassment policies. Those commitments came six months after the bar reopened with reduced capacity limits and days after the bar’s managers met with Okoro and Brown vice president for institutional equity and diversity Sylvia Carey-Butler, according to the Brown Daily Herald.

Housed in the basement of an undergraduate dormitory, the bar is run by blue-collar locals and depends on the university for survival. It requested the sit-down amid a student boycott organized by Okoro, who told the Daily Herald he hoped his campaign would be “restorative.”

Okoro, Carey-Butler, and the Graduate Center Bar did not respond to requests for comment.

The episode is the latest example of how privileged students weaponize race against less privileged service workers, often with the backing of college administrators. At Smith College, a janitor was placed on leave after he called security on a black student eating lunch in a closed dorm. At Oberlin College, students and faculty protested a local bakery for calling the police on a black shoplifter who’d assaulted a clerk. The protests led to Oberlin suspending its purchasing agreement with the bakery—and to a lawsuit that forced the college to pay $11 million in damages.

That sort of riposte seems unlikely for the Graduate Center Bar, which is still reeling from the pandemic. Because the bar rents space from the university, it is required to comply with Brown’s COVID restrictions, some of the strictest in the Ivy League. The university closed the bar in March 2020 and did not let it reopen until November 2021, by which point vaccines had been available for almost a year. Several bartenders filed for unemployment while the bar was closed, the Daily Herald reported.

It is unclear how rowdy Okoro was being in line: Though the future McKinsey analyst claims he was “play-fighting (without physical contact),” Yund said the antics went beyond “merely tapping each other on the shoulder.”

“In the narrow hallway that is the GCB’s entrance it can be dangerous if people are moving their arms or elbows around unexpectedly,” she emailed Okoro after the incident. “We know this from experience.”

That didn’t satisfy Okoro, who ridiculed Yund’s email in his post. The bouncer’s reaction, he said, “was a manifestation of respectability politics and shows how black people often have to withhold from expression in order to comfort and conform.”

It could also show that the bar takes safety seriously. Rhode Island has one of the strictest fire codes in the nation, the legacy of a nightclub fire that killed 100 people and injured 230 more. Since the bar is tucked away in a basement, alums told the Washington Free Beacon, it enforces strict capacity limits and generally has a long line, which requires careful crowd control in the cramped corridors of the dorm. Pictures of the bar posted on Brown’s website confirm the tight confines.

The boycott began on April 13 and lasted a week and half. Okoro’s Instagram post announcing it was shared over 700 times, he told the Daily Herald, suggesting a number of students participated in the boycott.

But on other social media platforms, Okoro’s demands met with derision—especially his call for the “indefinite suspension of the door person” who told him to cut it out.

“Imagine very reasonably being kicked from a bar bc you’re dicking around and then being an ass about it…then using your bruised ego to try to get a working class Brown employee fired,” one user posted on Dear Blueno, an anonymous message board for Brown students. “You literally are pissed that you got corrected in public and now you wanna fuck up this guy’s life over it?”

“Why argue with the bouncer after getting let in?” another user asked. “That would get you thrown out of most bars. Either the kid is an idiot, or he caused a scene because he wants to be the center of attention.”

Okoro nonetheless demanded an “apology to the affected students,” which he described as “an integral step to rectifying the harm committed.” That harm, Okoro said, was nothing short of existential.

“As a fourth-year black student, with significant academic and extracurricular engagement at Brown, it is discouraging to experience this in a Brown University space,” Okoro wrote. “My investment in and experience at the school can go unrecognized and erased, revealing the only thing that matters: my blackness.”

https://freebeacon.com/campus/brown-university-students-extract-groveling-apology-from-working-class-watering-hole/

President Joe Biden’s administration is pushing amendments to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) governing regulations to give Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus unilateral authority to declare a public health emergency in any nation based on whatever evidence he chooses.

The proposed U.S. amendments were forwarded to the WHO in January for consideration next week by the UN’s 75th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland.

In a Jan. 26 letter to a virtual meeting of WHO’s executive board, Loyce Pace, Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) described “the importance of equity and equitable access to medical countermeasures and the negative impacts of misinformation and disinformation related to the pandemic. We agree that we must all do better.

“The United States led an inclusive and transparent process to develop this decision, as we are mindful that updating and modernizing the IHR [International Health Regulations] are critical to ensuring the world is better prepared for and can respond to, the next pandemic.”

Among the proposed U.S. amendments, one removes an existing requirement in Section 9 that WHO “consult with and seek to obtain verification” from officials in a nation in which a health crisis is suspected before making any public declarations. The same amendment provides that “WHO may take into account reports from sources other than notifications or consultations” from the nation with the suspected problem.

A proposed change to Section 5 would direct WHO to establish “early warning criteria for assessing and progressively updating the national, regional, or global risk posed by an event of unknown causes or sources.”

A proposed amendment to Section 10 requires that the WHO, in the event the nation with the suspected problem doesn’t cooperate within 48 hours, shall “when justified by the magnitude of the public health risk, immediately share with other [nations] the information available to it.”

Nowhere do the amendments or accompanying documents explain how or why U.S. public health officials believe the equity issue in health care would be addressed by giving Tedros the authority to declare a public health emergency on the basis of information provided by a source other than the affected nation.

A search of the White House Press Office website found only one veiled reference to the WHO amendments. That reference was in a Feb. 2 Fact Sheet issued by the White House saying the U.S. “will continue to advance health security and pandemic preparedness abroad, including through strengthening WHO, working with partners towards targeted IHR amendments.”

The proposed amendment Section 5 of the WHO regulations also appears to parallel the Biden administration’s reference in a fact sheet on its proposed 2023 federal budget that was issued in April.

That reference commits the Biden administration to support “global threat detection innovations through a globally connected network of public health surveillance systems that optimizes disease prevention and health promotion as we strengthen surveillance initiatives to provide necessary actionable data before, during, and after a pandemic.”

“The budget includes $2.47 billion in mandatory funding for CDC to include enhancements to domestic sentinel surveillance programs, expansion of domestic and global wastewater surveillance, and investments in global genomic surveillance approaches, as well as global respiratory disease surveillance platforms,” the fact sheet states.

Respiratory surveillance platforms include video cameras and recorders that alert authorities when members of the public are seen coughing or otherwise acting in a manner that could indicate the presence of an infectious disease or help spread one already present in a population. Such equipment is widely used in China.

The Biden WHO amendments are the latest step in the current president’s efforts to reintegrate the U.S. with WHO after his predecessor, President Donald Trump, slashed U.S. funding to the international health organization and then gave notice of U.S. withdrawal.

One of Biden’s first acts as president was to withdraw Trump’s withdrawal notice and to restore U.S. funding, which accounts for half of WHO’s budget. Trump’s dissatisfaction with WHO stemmed from what he saw as the international health organization’s excessive deference to China regarding the origin of the CCP virus, which causes COVID-19.

A White House spokesman didn’t respond to The Epoch Times’ request for information on the amendments and the administration’s rationale for the proposals. An HHS spokesman also didn’t respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.

Critics of the amendments such as Dr. Peter Breggin, however, have not been reluctant to comment on the proposed amendments.

“The amendments would give WHO the right to take important steps to collaborate with other nations and other organizations worldwide to deal with any nation’s alleged health crisis, even against its stated wishes,” Breggin said in a May 4 post under a byline shared with his wife, Ginger Ross Breggin.

“The power to declare health emergencies is a potential tool to shame, intimidate, and dominate nations. It can be used to justify ostracism and economic or financial actions against the targeted nation by other nations aligned with WHO or who wish to harm and control the accused nation,” Breggin wrote.

Peter Breggin is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist, former U.S. Public Health Service officer, and former National Institute on Mental Health (NIMH) consultant. Ginger Ross Breggin is a journalist, author, and medical reform advocate.

Travis Weber, vice president for policy and government affairs at the Washington, D.C.-based Family Research Council, told The Epoch Times that “the American people need to express concern with the White House, especially as our president representing us on the world stage—we need an explanation of what you are doing here and why.”

Weber said Biden administration officials have “not really talked about this, so we need reporters to ask them at a press conference what are they proposing and really get them to explain it. People can express their concern about that to the White House and express concern to their members of Congress, and we need Members of Congress to challenge the administration to explain themselves. Part one of this is: ‘What is going on, what are you proposing, and why.’”

Similarly, Mat Staver, founder and chairman of the Florida-based Liberty Counsel public interest law firm, told The Epoch Times that if the U.S. decided not to cooperate with WHO on a possible health emergency, and “say you had Trump back in office who wants to pull out, or you have somebody else who doesn’t want to deal with WHO, they could bring it before the International Court at the Hague for fines or some other form of restriction. They could coordinate with their other member nations to take actions with regards to supplies, sharing data or other documentation for trade, and who knows what the consequences of that would be.”

Liberty Counsel also pointed out in a statement on May 12 that a UN report claimed in May 2021 that the pandemic would have been avoided had the international health organization had greater authority.

That report also recommended that WHO be given “an adaptable incentive regime, [including] sanctions such as public reprimands, economic sanctions, or denial of benefits” to nations that don’t cooperate with it.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/biden-seeks-new-unilateral-powers-for-who-chief-to-declare-public-health-emergencies_4472126.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&utm_campaign=mb-2022-05-20&utm_medium=email&est=VxJs9w5q8RelWjsSr7gS%2BsOusMY4sS9vjU03ycImXCiGo84lQzODivtseD6QymEn2g%3D%3D

The New York Times on May 19 falsely reported that thousands of children have died during the pandemic from multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), a rare syndrome that develops in some youth following COVID-19.

In a story reported by Apoorva Mandavilli, the paper stated that “nearly 4,000 children aged 5 to 11 have died from” MIS-C.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), just 68 children in total have died from MIS-C during the pandemic.

The false statistic quickly drew criticism.

“In this breaking news article, pushed by [NY Times], award-winning science journalist (whose work is apparently not fact checked) claims that there have been 4000 deaths in kids 5-11 from MIS-C. CDC only lists 6,” one Twitter user wrote. “What is going on here?”

“I just wanted to flag this (and couldn’t DM you) so tweeting instead,” David Zweig, a freelance writer, added, tagging Mandavilli.

The story was later updated to say that nearly 4,000 children between the ages of 5 to 11 “have been diagnosed with” MIS-C, with no mention of the number of deaths.

The update was a so-called stealth edit, or an update without notification to readers. No correction or editor’s note explained the change.

After The Epoch Times reported on the falsehood, the New York Times added a correction.

“An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to the numbers of children aged 5 to 11 with multisystem inflammatory syndrome. About 4,000 have been diagnosed, not died, with the syndrome,” the correction states.

Mandavilli acknowledged what happened, telling critics that the false reporting “has been fixed.”

“Diagnosed with, not died. It was fixed,” she wrote on Twitter.

A New York Times spokesperson and Mandavilli didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Mandavilli has gotten a similar statistic wrong before.

In an article in October 2021, she falsely wrote that “nearly 900,000 children have been hospitalized with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and about 520 have died.”

The actual number of hospitalizations among children up to that point was approximately 63,000. In that case, a correction was added to the piece, which stated that the article “misstated the number of Covid hospitalizations in U.S. children.”

“It is more than 63,000 from August 2020 to October 2021, not 900,000 since the beginning of the pandemic,” the correction stated.

Mandavilli has drawn attention during the pandemic for claiming that there were “racist roots” to the theory that SARS-CoV-2 originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the first cases of COVID-19 were reported. SARS-CoV-2 causes COVID-19.

Mandavilli later deleted the post, but wrote in another that “a theory can have racist roots and still gather reasonable supporters along the way,” adding that it “doesn’t make the roots any less racist or the theory any more convincing, though.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/new-york-times-falsely-reports-thousands-of-children-have-died-from-covid-linked-syndrome_4478036.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&utm_campaign=mb-2022-05-20&utm_medium=email&est=PTDE3%2FxU4VOwG1Zdr1PjxIbZbHrtkm%2F%2FtgFFjtskJ%2FGtB9YFeL%2FHX2oZpCTQdRbHzA%3D%3D

WASHINGTON—Former FBI Director James Comey and his top deputy were briefed on claims against then-presidential candidate Donald Trump brought to the FBI by a lawyer working for Hillary Clinton’s campaign, the bureau’s former general counsel testified in court on May 19.

James Baker, who was the bureau’s top lawyer at the time, met with Michael Sussmann, the Clinton campaign lawyer, on Sept. 19, 2016.

During the meeting, which took place in Baker’s office, Sussmann handed over white papers and thumb drives that allegedly contained data proving a secret back channel between Trump’s business and a Russian bank—claims that were later deemed false by the FBI and CIA.

Baker, testifying during Sussmann’s trial on a charge of lying to the FBI, said Sussmann repeated what he had told his friend the night prior—that he was bringing the information on his own accord, not on behalf of any clients.

“It was part of his introduction to the meeting, ‘I’m not here on behalf of any particular client.’ I’m 100 percent confident that he said that,” Baker said.

Sussmann told Baker that media outlets were preparing to publish stories on the claims. Within minutes of getting the data, Baker picked up the phone and called Bill Priestap, a top FBI official.

“It involved Russia, and this bank had links to the Kremlin. That seemed to me, on its face, to be a potential national security threat,” Baker said, noting that the bureau was already investigating alleged connections between the Trump Organization and Russia. “It was a very high priority for me.”

During a meeting with Priestap, Baker vouched for Sussmann, who he has described as a friend. The pair met while working in the same Department of Justice division.

Baker repeated Sussmann’s claim—which led to a criminal charge against Sussmann and the trial—that he wasn’t bringing the information on behalf of a client, but noted that Sussmann had represented the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign.

Baker said he gave the data the next day to Peter Strzok, another top FBI official.

“I wanted to get rid of this material as quickly as possible. I hated having it on my desk. I didn’t want to have this material any longer than I needed to,” Baker said.

The FBI lawyer soon spoke to Comey, the bureau’s director at the time, and Andrew McCabe, the bureau’s deputy director, about the allegations.

“It seemed to me of great urgency and seriousness that I would want to make my bosses aware of this information,” Baker said.

He recounted both men being “quite concerned” about the allegations.

FBI experts who analyzed the data found that it didn’t support the claims, FBI agent Scott Hellman testified earlier this week. The CIA in early 2017 determined that the allegations weren’t only “untrue and unsupported,” but that the data was “user created” and “contained gaps.”

It became clear “that there was nothing there,” Baker said.

Priestap came back to Baker, who was thinking of publishing an article, to inquire about the report and Baker reached out to Sussmann to get the identity, which turned out to be Eric Lichtblau of The New York Times.

Baker met twice with Lichtblau. During the first meeting, the reporter agreed to delay the story. In the other, FBI officials conveyed that the bureau had concluded the materials didn’t substantiate that there was a surreptitious connection between Trump’s business and the Russian bank.

“We concluded there was no substance,” Baker said.

The New York Times, in an article published on Oct. 31, 2016, said the FBI “ultimately concluded that there could be an innocuous explanation” for the purported link. It hasn’t been updated to include information that has entered into the public sphere since its publishing, such as the CIA’s conclusion.

Defense lawyers after a lunch break tried to portray Baker as an unreliable witness, as they have in hearings and filings entered before the trial began.

Sean Berkowitz, one of the lawyers, pointed out that  Baker told the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General in mid-2019 that Sussmann told Baker in the meeting that he had information “that he said related to strange interactions that some number of people that were his clients, who were, he described as I recall it, sort of cyber-security experts, had found.”

Baker also told prosecutors with special counsel John Durham’s team in 2020 that the topic of Sussmann’s clients didn’t come up during the meeting.

On the stand, Baker said his statement to the inspector general’s office was mistaken and that the truth is that Sussmann told him in person that he wasn’t bringing the information on behalf of a client. He said he didn’t consult his texts or otherwise prepare before speaking to the DOJ watchdog or prosecutors.

“Did it ever occur to you … to look at your phone for any text messages?” Berkowitz wondered.

“For better or worse, it did not occur to me,” Baker said.

Prior to the trial, Durham’s team revealed that it had obtained a text that Sussmann sent Baker asking him to meet, in which Sussmann stated that he had “time-sensitive (and sensitive)” information and that he was “coming on my own—not on behalf of a client or company—want to help the Bureau.”

Baker also challenged notes taken of a DOJ meeting involving him and high-ranking officials in 2017, during which the Alfa Bank allegations were raised. According to the notes, said to have been taken by a DOJ lawyer, McCabe said that the allegations were sourced from an “attorney” who “brought [them] to [the] FBI on behalf of his client.”

Baker said he did not recall that moment during the meeting.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/fbi-lawyer-says-he-briefed-mccabe-comey-on-sketchy-trump-russia-claims_4477481.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&utm_campaign=mb-2022-05-20&utm_medium=email&est=M299vLir3hQZiNeN3sklragZbFIc45LrmZGMqcXOBFUrxySxWOEjEXXh8m%2BhQxi3fg%3D%3D

THE PAPER COMES HOT ON THE HEELS OF A NUMBER OF WHITE HOUSE LOSSES REGARDING FEDERAL WORKER VACCINATION AND MASK MANDATES.

Anthony Fauci’s wife – who is also head of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center – authored a paper defending the ethics of corporations “pressuring employees to get vaccinated” and “embarrass[ing] vaccine resistors.”

The study – “The Ethics of Encouraging Employees to Get the COVID‑19 Vaccination” – was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center and the National Human Genome Research Institute and counted Christine Grady, Fauci’s wife, amongst its authors.

Published in March 2022, the paper followed attempts by the White House as well as Democratic Party politicians across America to mandate COVID-19 vaccination for federal and state workers.

Grady’s paper focuses on the “ethics of encouragement strategies aimed at overcoming vaccine reluctance (which can be due to resistance, hesitance, misinformation, or inertia) to facilitate voluntary employee vaccination.”

Grady and her three co-authors outline how it is “ethically acceptable” to “subtly pressure employees to get vaccinated”:

While employment-based vaccine encouragement may raise privacy and autonomy concerns, and though some employers might hesitate to encourage employees to get vaccinated, our analysis suggests ethically acceptable ways to inform, encourage, strongly encourage, incentivize, and even subtly pressure employees to get vaccinated.

While discussing vaccine mandates, the paper posits they can “be ethically appropriate” if there is “clear articulation about the consequences of not complying with the policy.”

“In that circumstance, employees have a choice between getting vaccinated or accepting the consequences of a choice to remain unvaccinated,” it explains.

Grady outlines other tactics employers could use to boost COVID-19 vaccination rates within their company, such as sharing “targeted statistics (such as 75% of the company or unit have been vaccinated) to spur competition or even implicitly embarrass vaccine resistors.”

MUST READ:  Wuhan Lab Publishes Study Manipulating H7N9 Virus To Be More Lethal.

“There can be social consequences associated with peer communication about vaccination, such as stigma and ostracization of those not vaccinated,” the paper asserts.

“Individuals who choose to make the workplace less safe for others through their vaccine refusal should be able to foresee the possibility of this kind of social consequence,” it continues, appearing to endorse the aforementioned “stigma and ostracization” of individuals unvaccinated against COVID-19.

“When a policy is tied to group vaccination metrics, unvaccinated employees may feel implicit (or explicit) pressure from peers or supervisors to help the group meet its return-to-work goals,” Grady and her co-authors outlined before describing the approach as “ethically appropriate”:

“Despite worries about a perception of unfairness, we argue that the selective easing of public health restrictions is ethically appropriate when done transparently and tied to objective public health guidance.”

The unearthed paper comes amidst controversy over Fauci’s decision to fund research on “killer” bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Additionally, Grady’s prominent role in supervising the ethics of NIH research and policy appear to present a conflict of interest given her husband’s role in shaping America’s COVID-19 response and vaccination guidelines.

BACK AT IT.

A scientific journal published by top Wuhan Institute of Virology researchers shared studies appearing to engage in gain-of-function type research, a controversial method of studying pathogens that can increase their lethality.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology is believed to have engaged in the risky form of research regarding bat coronaviruses, as now-deleted webpages reveal the lab manipulating bat coronaviruses to “replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells and achieve in vitro titers equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV.”

Now, the latest edition of the lab’s journal, Virologica Sinica, appears to contain a similar style of research with the H7N9 virus in chickens and mice. The publication’s Editor-in-Chief is Wuhan’s infamous “bat lady,” Shi Zhengli, who is the lab’s premier bat coronavirus researcher and a recipient of funds from Anthony Fauci through Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance.

Virologica Sinica published the study “Combined Insertion of Basic and Non-basic Amino Acids at Hemagglutinin Cleavage Site of Highly Pathogenic H7N9 Virus Promotes Replication and Pathogenicity in Chickens and Mice” in its most recent edition, published February 2022.

The paper’s abstract outlines how researchers “generated six H7N9 viruses,” analyzing how various amino acids altered the virus’ virulence and infectivity.

“We characterized the reconstituted viruses in terms of viral replication in avian and mammalian cells, thermostability and acid stability, cleavage efficiency, the virulence in mice, and pathogenicity and transmissibility in chickens,” outlined the study.

“The I335V substitution of H7N9 virus enhanced infectivity and transmission in chickens, suggesting that the combination of mutations and insertions of amino acids at the HACS promoted replication and pathogenicity in chickens and mice,” explained researchers.MUST READ:  Study Finds ‘Positive Correlation’ Between Higher Mask Usage And COVID-19 Deaths.

While the study conducted experiments on mice and chicken, it noted that H7N9 variants are “also highly transmissible in ferrets, posing the threats of pandemic potential in humans.”

In one case study, the H7N9 variant caused a 35 percent mortality rate in mice, with researchers noting that certain amino acids “increased the pathogenicity”:

Surprisingly, the monobasic mutants (i.e., PEIPKGR/G) showed clear symptoms of infection, including shaggy hair and abdominal breathing, after the second day of infection, followed by 15% of weight loss compared to the initial weight and death, with a mortality rate of 35%. In addition, each H7N9 viruses can replicate efficiency in lungs of the infected mice PEVPKRKRTAR/G (P ¼ 0.0109) significantly increased viral titers in the lungs of mice compared to that of the PEVPKGR/G group, indicating that the insertion of KRTA increased the pathogenicity of mice.

“Notably, we observed that the insertion of non-basic amino acids TA and IA in H7N9 viruses caused death in mice despite having the same viral titer, which suggested that HPAIV H7N9 inserted with a non-basic amino acid posed a potential threat to humans,” added the paper.

The paper follows continued revelations about the Wuhan Institute of Virology engaging in “gain of function” research with U.S. taxpayer funds from Fauci’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) agency.

Read:

Both U.S. congressional chambers in May passed a bill allocating $40 billion for Ukraine.

See how each member voted below.

Senate (86-11) 

Senators who voted for the bill:

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.)
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.)
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.)
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.)
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.)
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.)
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash)
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.)
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.)
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.)
Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.)
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.)
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine)
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.)
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas)
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.)
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.)
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.)
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas)
Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.)
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.)
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa)
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)
Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.)
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)
Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.)
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.)
Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.)
Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii)
Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.)
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.)
Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.)
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.)
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.)
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.)
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.)
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine)
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)
Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.)
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)
Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.)
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.)
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.)
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.)
Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.)
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.)
Sen. Jon Ossoff (R-Ga.)
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.)
Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.)
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio)
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.)
Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho)
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah)
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.)
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.)
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii)
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.)
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.)
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.)
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.)
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.)
Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.)
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.)
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska)
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.)
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.)
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.)
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.)
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.)
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.)
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.)
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.)
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)
Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.)

Senators who voted against the bill:

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.)
Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.)
Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.)
Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho)
Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.)
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.)
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah)
Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.)
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.)
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.)

Senators who did not vote:

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.)
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.)

House (368-57)

Members who voted for the bill:

Rep. Alma Adams (D-N.C.)
Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.)
Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.)
Rep. Rick Allen (R-Ga.)
Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas)
Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.)
Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.)
Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.)
Rep. Cynthia Axne (D-Iowa)
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.)
Rep. Jim Baird (R-Ind.)
Rep. Troy Balderson (R-Ohio)
Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.)
Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-Calif.)
Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.)
Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio)
Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-Ore.)
Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.)
Rep. Donald Beyer (D-Va.)
Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.)
Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.)
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.)
Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.)
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.)
Rep. Mike Bost (R-Ill.)
Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux (D-Ga.)
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.)
Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas)
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.)
Rep. Anthony Brown (D-Md.)
Rep. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio)
Rep. Julia Brownley (D-Calif.)
Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.)
Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.)
Rep. Ted Budd (R-N.C.)
Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas)
Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.)
Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.)
Rep. George Butterfield (D-N.C.)
Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.)
Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.)
Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-Calif.)
Rep. Mike Carey (R-Ohio)
Rep. Jerry Carl (R-Ala.)
Rep. Andrew Carson (D-Ind.)
Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.)
Rep. Troy Carter (D-La.)
Rep. John Carter (R-Texas)
Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.)
Rep. Ed Case (D-Hawaii)
Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.)
Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.)
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas)
Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio)
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.)
Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.)
Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.)
Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.)
Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.)
Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.)
Rep. Ben Cline (R-Va.)
Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.)
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.)
Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.)
Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-Va.)
Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.)
Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.)
Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.)
Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.)
Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.)
Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.)
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas)
Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.)
Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.)
Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas)
Rep. John Curtis (R-Utah)
Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kan.)
Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.)
Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.)
Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.)
Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.)
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.)
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.)
Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.)
Rep. Antonio Delgado (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.)
Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.)
Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.)
Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.)
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.)
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas)
Rep. Michael Doyle (D-Pa.)
Rep. Neal Dunn (R-Fla.)
Rep. Jake Ellzey (R-Texas)
Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.)
Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas)
Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.)
Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Pa.)
Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas)
Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa)
Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.)
Rep. Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.)
Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.)
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.)
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.)
Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-Texas)
Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.)
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.)
Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.)
Rep. Scott Franklin (R-Fla.)
Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.)
Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.)
Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.)
Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.)
Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.)
Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas)
Rep. Jesus Garcia (D-Ill.)
Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.)
Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine)
Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.)
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas)
Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio)
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas)
Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas)
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.)
Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas)
Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.)
Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.)
Rep. Al Green (D-Texas)
Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.)
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.)
Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.)
Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.)
Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.)
Rep. Josh Harder (D-Calif.)
Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.)
Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-Calif.)
Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.)
Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.)
Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.)
Rep. James Himes (D-Conn.)
Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa)
Rep. Trey Hollingsworth (R-Ind.)
Rep. Steve Horsford (D-Nev.)
Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.)
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.)
Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.)
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.)
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.)
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas)
Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.)
Rep. Chris Jacobs (R-N.Y.)
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.)
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Eddie Johnson (D-Texas)
Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio)
Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.)
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.)
Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.)
Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio)
Rep. John Joyce (R-Pa.)
Rep. Kaiali’i Kahele (D-Hawaii)
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio)
Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.)
Rep. William Keating (D-Mass.)
Rep. Fred Keller (R-Pa.)
Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.)
Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.)
Rep. Trent Kelly (R-Miss.)
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.)
Rep. Daniel Kildee (D-Mich.)
Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.)
Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.)
Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.)
Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.)
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.)
Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.)
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.)
Rep. Ann Kuster (D-N.J.)
Rep. David Kustoff (R-Tenn.)
Rep. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.)
Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.)
Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Pa.)
Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.)
Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.)
Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.)
Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.)
Rep. Robert Latta (R-Ohio)
Rep. Jacob LaTurner (R-Kan.)
Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.)
Rep. Al Lawson (D-Fla.)
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.)
Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.)
Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-N.M.)
Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.)
Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.)
Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.)
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.)
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.)
Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga)
Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.)
Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.)
Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.)
Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.)
Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.)
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.)
Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.)
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.)
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Sean Maloney (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Kathy Manning (D-N.C.)
Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.)
Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.)
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas)
Rep. Riordan McClain (R-Ohio)
Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.)
Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.)
Rep. Donald McEachin (D-Va.)
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.)
Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.)
Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.)
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.)
Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.)
Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.)
Rep. Carol Miller (R-W.Va.)
Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa)
Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.)
Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.)
Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah)
Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.)
Rep. Joseph Morelle (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.)
Rep. Frank Mrvan (D-Ind.)
Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.)
Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.)
Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.)
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.)
Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.)
Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.)
Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.)
Rep. Marie Newman (D-Ill.)
Rep. Donald Norcross (D-N.J.)
Rep. Tom O’Halleran (D-Ariz.)
Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.)
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)
Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah)
Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.)
Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.)
Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.)
Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.)
Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.)
Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.)
Rep. Donald Payne (D-N.J.)
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
Rep. Greg Pence (R-Ind.)
Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.)
Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.)
Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas)
Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.)
Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine)
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.)
Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.)
Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.)
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.)
Rep. David Price (D-N.C.)
Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.)
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.)
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.)
Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.)
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.)
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.)
Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.)
Rep. Deborah Ross (D-Calif.)
Rep. David Rouzer (R-N.C.)
Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.)
Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.)
Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.)
Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.)
Rep. John Rutherford (R-Fla.)
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio)
Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.)
Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.)
Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.)
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.)
Rep. Mary Scanlon (D-Pa.)
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.)
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.)
Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.)
Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.)
Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.)
Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.)
Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.)
Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.)
Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.)
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.)
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.)
Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho)
Rep. Albio Sires (D-N.J.)
Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.)
Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.)
Rep. Adrian Smith (R-Neb.)
Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.)
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.)
Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.)
Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.)
Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.)
Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.)
Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.)
Rep. Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.)
Rep. Pete Stauber (R-Minn.)
Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.)
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.)
Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.)
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.)
Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah)
Rep. Thomas Suozzi (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.)
Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.)
Rep. Van Taylor (R-Texas)
Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.)
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.)
Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.)
Rep. William Timmons (R-S.C.)
Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.)
Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.)
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.)
Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Norma Torres (D-Calif.)
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.)
Rep. David Trone (D-Md.)
Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio)
Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.)
Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.)
Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.)
Rep. Juan Vargas (D-Calif.)
Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas)
Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.)
Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.)
Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.)
Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.)
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.)
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.)
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.)
Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas)
Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.)
Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.)
Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio)
Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.)
Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.)
Rep. Nikema Williams (D-Ga.)
Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.)
Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.)
Rep. Robert Wittman (R-Va.)
Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.)
Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.)

Members who voted against the bill:

Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas)
Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas)
Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.)
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.)
Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.)
Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.)
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.)
Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.)
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.)
Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.)
Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.)
Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas)
Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.)
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.)
Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio)
Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.)
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.)
Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.)
Rep. Ron Estes (R-Kan.)
Rep. Russ Fulcher (R-Idaho)
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.)
Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-Ohio)
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas)
Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.)
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.)
Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.)
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)
Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.)
Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.)
Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.)
Rep. Yvette Herrell (R-N.M.)
Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.)
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.)
Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.)
Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas)
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.)
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio)
Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.)
Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.)
Rep. Tracey Mann (R-Kan.)
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.)
Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.)
Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.)
Rep. Barry Moore (R-Ala.)
Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas)
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.)
Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.)
Rep. John Rose (R-Tenn.)
Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.)
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas)
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas)
Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.)
Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.)
Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.)
Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas)
Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.)
Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas)

Members who didn’t vote:

Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.)
Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.)
Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.)
Rep. Marilyn Strickland (D-Wash.)
Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.)

https://www.theepochtimes.com/full-list-how-members-of-congress-voted-on-40-billion-for-ukraine_4477278.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-19-4&utm_medium=email&est=CMkCpyGaviWgLWHqMBK%2FSdcaQwdS0zjwqcBG7DgFWM5jcOrvpqigy%2BYprxL2TD5IBg%3D%3D

An international coalition of aviation and medical professionals from countries like the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Switzerland have published a statement raising serious concerns about the compromise in aviation safety due to COVID-19 vaccine injuries among the flight crew.

Advocacy groups, scientists, and doctors are receiving reports of COVID-19 vaccine-injured airline pilots on a daily basis, claimed the signatories in the statement. Harms suffered by pilots include blood clots, cardiovascular issues, auditory and neurological issues, and more.

“Many of our pilots have lost medical certification to fly and may not recover the same. Others are continuing to pilot aircraft while carrying symptoms that should be declared and investigated, creating a human factors hazard of unprecedented breadth. The very foundation of our just safety culture—non-punitive reporting—no longer exists,” according to the May 18 statement.

“Pilots have suffered and are suffering medical issues that at least correlate to receiving COVID-19 vaccinations. Their spectrum of symptoms is broad, ranging up to death. Pilots who report their injury face possible loss of licensing, income, and career while receiving little to no support from their unions, and a prosecutorial invective from employing airlines.”

The statement represents more than 30 airlines, thousands of pilots, and over 17,000 physicians and medical scientists. Signatories of the document include Free to Fly from Canada, US Freedom Flyers, UK Medical Freedom Alliance, Airliners for Humanity from Switzerland, and more.

Pilots who have been let go have resorted to working in a variety of industries to generate income, including manufacturing and processing plants, truck driving, furniture moving, and graphic design, said Greg Hill, Director of Free to Fly.

“It’s really about control,” Hill told The Epoch Times, referring to the Canadian government’s vaccine mandate policy. “Why are the Canadian airlines not raising their voices to demand that these mandates be dropped?”

According to the policy, all citizens over 12 years old need to be fully vaccinated in order to board domestic or international flights, as well as trains.

Regarding alternate modes of transportation, Canada has a breadth of 8,850 miles (5,500 miles). “We have people from Quebec whose parents are dying and they can’t get to see them without driving for 4–5 days. It’s absolute cruelty and makes no sense.”

Indifferent Stance of Corporations

Many airlines have indemnified themselves from liability against damages suffered by airline staff who have taken COVID-19 jabs, mentioning it in the same documents that forced vaccine mandates on employees.

Documents from Pfizer as well as regulatory documents from organizations like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Health Canada, European Medicines Agency (EMA), and the UK’s Medicines Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) show that they have withheld “essential safety and efficacy information” from the public, the groups claimed.

To make matters worse, airlines, aviation regulators, or unions seem to have not performed any of their due diligence on COVID-19 vaccines and their impact on pilot performance and health, which is at “complete odds with existing aviation medical standards,” according to the statement.

Failure to address these matters brings harm to the traditional aviation mantra of “safety first, always,” the groups argued.

Airlines and unions have been repeatedly warned of dire repercussions by several signatories of the statement. Yet, “little meaningful action” has been taken; instead, there has been silence and “stone-walling,” the statement said.

The joint statement lists some of the airlines that have allegedly had pilots injured due to COVID-19 vaccines, which includes eight from the United States, two from the Netherlands, one from Germany, and three each from Australia, Canada, and France. The U.S. airlines include American, JetBlue, Delta, Southwest, Spirit, United, Frontier, and Alaska.

The signatories called on the aviation regulatory bodies in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and the European Union to begin fulfilling their obligations.

The statement asks that: COVID-19 vaccination mandates are discontinued; a permissive environment for self-reporting is emphasized by both airlines and regulators; pilots and cabin crew be subjected to “thorough and objective aviation medical screenings;” and airline and regulators retain data regarding “sickness and medical certificate suspension,” with the data being analyzed by independent third parties either to establish or rule out COVID-19 vaccination as a possible cause.

The public statement from the coalition comes as multiple stories of COVID-19 vaccines ruining the lives of pilots are coming to the fore.

Multiple Adverse Events

Bob Snow, a captain with a major U.S. airline, received a Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 shot on Nov. 4, 2021, due to the vaccine mandate of his employer. A little over two months after taking the vaccine, he began to experience medical issues.

On April 9, after landing at Dallas-Forth Worth International Airport, Snow suffered a cardiac arrest. He was diagnosed as having suffered a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). Before the incident, he had no history of prior significant cardiac issues, as shown by two electrocardiograms he has taken every year for the previous 10 years.

Snow has been recuperating from home since April 15 and does not believe he will fly again. “[F]or now, it appears my flying career—indeed, likely all flying as a pilot—has come to a rapid and unexpected conclusion as SCA is a red flag to FAA medical certification,” he said to The Defender. This has resulted in “a significant loss of income and lifestyle.”

According to data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), which is the primary government-funded system for reporting adverse vaccine reactions in the United States, there were 1,498,159 cases of adverse reactions as of May 6 among individuals who had taken COVID-19 vaccines.

This includes 27,968 deaths and 51,996 cases of permanent disabilities.

According to the VAERS disclaimer, “reports alone cannot be used to determine if a vaccine caused or contributed to an adverse event or illness.”

Dr. Robert Jackson, a physician who has been working in the field for 35 years, vaccinated roughly 3,000 people with COVID-19 jabs. He found out that 40 percent of his vaccinated patients had suffered a vaccine injury while 5 percent continue to remain injured.

“It’s very difficult for these pilots who were coerced into taking the jab in exchange for their job to now go against the airlines who think they’ve absolved themselves of all the liabilities for these harms,” said Hill.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/aviation-associations-highlight-concerns-of-covid-19-vaccine-injuries-among-pilots-and-cabin-crew_4474835.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-19-2&utm_medium=email&est=YXLBvL6lfpBtveO%2BmQt4xy2o5owo4n8YZlKzhiI5YQURbNoWWtdBKlPH0AQ%2FcL0dwQ%3D%3D

It’s becoming more and more apparent as to why Pfizer tried – albeit unsuccessfully – to withhold their COVID jab trial data for 75 years. Now, with the release of the data, internet sleuths are uncovering problems suggestive of fraud and manipulation, including the suspicious site 4444.

Story at-a-glance

• In November 2021, Brook Jackson, a whistleblower who worked on Pfizer’s Phase 3 COVID jab trial in the fall of 2020, warned she’d seen evidence of fraud in the trial
• With the release of Pfizer trial data — which they tried to withhold for 75 years — additional problems suggestive of fraud and data manipulation are coming to light
• Trial site 1231, located in Argentina, somehow managed to recruit 10% of the total trial participants, 4,501 in all, and they did so in just three weeks, and without a contract research organization — a feat that has many questioning whether fraud was committed
• The lead investigator for trial site 1231 is Dr. Fernando Polack, who also happens to be a consultant for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (RBPAC), a current adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, an investigator for Fundación Infant, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, and the first author of Pfizer’s paper, “Safety and Efficacy of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine,” published at the end of December 2021
• Site 1231 held a second enrollment session, given the designation of “site 4444.” The 4444 trial site data raise another red flag. It supposedly enrolled 1,275 patients in a single week, from September 22 through 27, 2020 — the last week that recruitment could take place to meet the data cutoff for the FDA meeting in December 2020. Was “site 4444” fabricating data to create the appearance that the jab was having an effect?

In November 2021, Brook Jackson, a whistleblower who worked on Pfizer’s Phase 3 COVID jab trial in the fall of 2020, warned she’d seen evidence of fraud in the trial.

Data were falsified, patients were unblinded, the company hired poorly trained people to administer the injections, and follow-up on reported side effects lagged way behind. The revelation was published in The British Medical Journal. In his November 2, 2021, report, investigative journalist Paul Thacker wrote:¹

“Revelations of poor practices at a contract research company helping to carry out Pfizer’s pivotal COVID-19 vaccine trial raise questions about data integrity and regulatory oversight …

[F]or researchers who were testing Pfizer’s vaccine at several sites in Texas during that autumn, speed may have come at the cost of data integrity and patient safety … Staff who conducted quality control checks were overwhelmed by the volume of problems they were finding.”

Jackson, a former regional director of Ventavia Research Group, a research organization charged with testing Pfizer’s COVID jab at several sites in Texas, repeatedly “informed her superiors of poor laboratory management, patient safety concerns and data integrity issues,” Thacker wrote.

When her concerns were ignored, she finally called the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and filed a complaint via email. Jackson was fired later that day after just two weeks on the job. According to her separation letter, management decided she was “not a good fit” for the company after all.

She provided The BMJ with “dozens of internal company documents, photos, audio recordings and emails” proving her concerns were valid, and according to Jackson, this was the first time she’d ever been fired in her 20-year career as a clinical research coordinator.

BMJ Report Censored

Disturbingly, social media actually censored this BMJ article and published pure falsehoods in an effort to “debunk” it. Mind you, the BMJ is one of the oldest and most respected peer-reviewed medical journals in the world! The Facebook “fact check” was done by Lead Stories, a Facebook contractor, which claimed the BMJ “did NOT reveal disqualifying and ignored reports of flaws in Pfizer’s” trials.²

In response, The BMJ slammed the fact check, calling it “inaccurate, incompetent and irresponsible.”^3,4,5 In an open letter⁶ addressed to Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, The BMJ urged Zuckerberg to “act swiftly” to correct the erroneous fact check, review the processes that allowed it to occur in the first place, and “generally to reconsider your investment in and approach to fact checking overall.” As noted by The BMJ in its letter, the Lead Stories’ fact check:⁷

• Inaccurately referred to The BMJ as a “news blog”
• Failed to specify any assertions of fact that The BMJ article got wrong
• Published the fact check on the Lead Stories’ website under a URL that contains the phrase “hoax-alert”

Pfizer Trial Data Raises Suspicions of Fraud

Now, with the release of Pfizer trial data⁸ — which they tried to withhold for 75 years — internet sleuths are finding additional problems suggestive of fraud and data manipulation. May 9, 2022, a Twitter user named Jikkyleaks posted a series of tweets questioning data from Pfizer trial sites 1231 and 4444.⁹

Trial site 1231, located in Argentina, somehow managed to recruit 10% of the total trial participants, 4,501 in all, and they did so in just three weeks, and without a contract research organization (CRO). CROs like the Ventavia Research Group, which Jackson worked for, provide clinical trial management services. The lead investigator for trial site 1231 is Dr. Fernando Polack,¹⁰ who also happens to be:¹¹

• A consultant for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (RBPAC) since 2017
• A current adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee
• An investigator for Fundación Infant,¹² which is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation¹³
• The first author of Pfizer’s paper,¹⁴ “Safety and Efficacy of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine,” published at the end of December 2021

As noted by Jikkyleaks, Polack “is literally the busiest doctor on the planet,” because in addition to all those roles, he also managed to single-handedly enroll 4,500 patients in three weeks, which entails filling out some 250 pages of case report forms (CRFs) for each patient. That’s about 1,125,000 pages total. (CRFs are documents used in clinical research to record standardized data from each patient, including adverse events.)

This recruitment also took place seven days a week, which is another red flag. “Weekend recruitment for a clinical trial would be odd. Staff are needed to fill out that many record forms (CRFs) and there are potential risks to the trial, so you need medical staff. It would be highly unusual,” Jikkyleaks notes.

Is Polack just a super-humanly efficient trial investigator, or could this be evidence of fraud? As noted by Steve Kirsch in the featured video and an accompanying Substack article,¹⁵ Polack is the coordinator for a network of 26 hospitals in Argentina, so perhaps it’s possible he could have recruited 57 patients per week per hospital, but it seems highly unlikely.

Questions Surround Site 4444 Data

Now, “site 4444” does not exist. It’s actually the same as site 1231. It appears site 1231 held a second enrollment session, and these were for some reason given the designation of 4444. The 4444 trial site data raise another red flag.

Site 4444 (the second enrollment session for site 1231) supposedly enrolled 1,275 patients in a single week, from September 22 through 27, 2020, and the suspicious thing about that — aside from the speed — is the fact that this was the last week that recruitment could take place to meet the data cutoff for the FDA meeting in December 2020. Jikkyleads writes:¹⁶

“My guess: they needed enough numbers of ‘positive PCR tests’ in the placebo group to show a difference between groups for that VRBPAC meeting on the 10th Dec, and they didn’t have them. So, site 4444 appeared and gave them their ‘perfect’ result. Bravo.”

Kirsch notes:¹⁷

“Was there fraud in the Pfizer trial? Without a doubt. The story of Maddie de Garay is a clear case of that. Brook Jackson has evidence of fraud; she has 17 lawyers working for her. If there wasn’t fraud, these lawyers wouldn’t be wasting their time.

This new data on Site 1231/4444 looks suspicious to me. It looks too good to be true. But we can’t make the call without more information. Undoubtedly, the mainstream media will not look into this, Pfizer will remain silent, and Polack will be unreachable for comment. The lack of transparency should be troubling to everyone. That is the one thing we can say for sure.”

Pfizer Documents Reveal COVID Jab Dangers

Among the tens of thousands of Pfizer documents released by the FDA so far, we now also have clear evidence of harm. For nurse educator John Campbell, featured in the video above, these documents appear to have served as a “red pill,”¹⁸ waking him up to the possibility that the jabs may indeed be far more dangerous than anyone expected, including himself.

In the video, Campbell reviews the documents listed as “5.3.6. Postmarketing Experience,” which were originally marked “confidential.” They reveal that, cumulatively, through February 28, 2021, Pfizer received 42,086 adverse event reports, including 1,223 deaths.

To have 1,223 fatalities and 42,086 reports of injury in the first three months is a significant safety signal, especially when you consider that the 1976 swine flu vaccine was pulled after only 25 deaths.

As noted by Campbell, “It would have been good to know about this at the time, wouldn’t it?” referring to the rollout of the jabs. Campbell has been fairly consistent in his support of the “safe and effective” vaccine narrative, but “This has just destroyed trust in authority,” he said.

158,000 Recorded Side Effects — A World Record?

The first really large tranche of more than 10,000 Pfizer documents was released March 1, 2022. (You can find them all on PHMPT.org.¹⁹) In this batch were no less than nine single-space pages of “adverse events of special interest,” listed in alphabetical order²⁰ — 158,000 in all!The first side effect on this shockingly exhaustive list is a rare condition known as 1p36 deletion syndrome, which results in severe intellectual disability, seizures, vision problems, hearing loss, breathing problems, brain anomalies, congenital heart defects, cardiomyopathy, renal anomalies, genital malformation, metabolic problems and more.

To see the first page, click the link below. The first side effect on this shockingly exhaustive list is a rare condition known as 1p36 deletion syndrome. This condition, caused by the deletion of DNA in chromosome 1p36, results in developmental delays, severe intellectual disability, seizures, vision problems, hearing loss, breathing problems, brain anomalies, congenital heart defects, cardiomyopathy, renal anomalies, genital malformation, metabolic problems and more.^21,22

Life expectancy depends on the amount of DNA that has been deleted. This, at bare minimum, sounds like something a pregnant woman might want to know before she gets the shot.

CRF Anomalies Raise Questions of Fraud

After reviewing some of the released CRFs in the March 1 tranche, investigative journalist Sonia Elijah also discovered several problems, including the following:²³

• Patients entered into the “healthy population” group who were far from healthy — For example, one such “healthy” participant was a Type 2 diabetic with angina, a cardiac stent and a history of heart attack.
• Serious adverse event (SAE) numbers were left blank — Ventavia site No. 1085 has a particularly large number of missing SAE numbers.
• Missing barcodes for samples collected — Without those barcodes, you can’t match the sample to the participant.
• Suspicious-looking SAE start and end dates — For example, the so-called “healthy” diabetic suffered a “serious” heart attack October 27, 2020. The “end” date is listed as October 28, the next day, which is odd because it was recorded as serious enough to require hospitalization.

Also, on that same day, October 28, the patient was diagnosed with pneumonia, so likely remained hospitalized. “This anomaly raises doubt as to the accuracy of these recorded dates, potentially violating ALOCA-C clinical site documentation guidelines for clinical trials,” Elijah writes.

• Unblinded teams were responsible for reviewing adverse event reports for signs of COVID cases, and to review severe COVID cases — Yet in some cases they appear to have dismissed the possibility of an event being COVID-related, such as pneumonia. This despite the fact that Pfizer’s protocol (section 8.2.4) lists “enhanced COVID-19” (i.e., antibody dependent enhancement) as a potential side effect to be on the lookout for. As noted by Elijah:

“Inadvertently, this could have led to bias, as the unblinded teams would have been aware which participants were assigned the placebo and those who received the vaccine. They might have been under pressure by the sponsor for the trial to go a certain way and for events like ‘COVID Pneumonia’ to be classified simply as pneumonia.”

• Impossible dating — The diabetic who suffered a heart attack followed by pneumonia (which may have been unacknowledged COVID pneumonia) died, and the date of death is listed as the day before the patient supposedly went for a “COVID ill” visit.

Clearly, it’s impossible for a dead person to attend a medical visit, so something is wrong here. The clinical investigator note states: “There cannot be a date later than date of death. Please remove data from the COVID illness visit and add cough and shortness of breath as AEs (adverse events).” “What kind of pressure was being exerted here?” Elijah asks.

• Second dose administered outside the three-week protocol window.
• Observation period appears to have been an automatic entry — According to the protocol, each participant was to be observed by staff for a minimum of 30 minutes.

A majority of the CRFs state 30 minutes, which raises the question: Were participants observed for adequate amounts of time, or did they simply put down “30 minutes” as an automatic entry? Why is there so little variety in the observation times? If participants were not adequately observed, their safety was put at risk, which was one of Jackson’s concerns.

• Adverse events listed as “not serious” despite extended hospital stay — In one case, the participant fell and suffered facial lacerations the day after the second dose and was hospitalized for 26 days, yet the fall was not reported as serious.

Other anomalies in this particular case include listing the fall as being caused by a “fall” unrelated to the study treatment, and the facial laceration being the result of “hypotension” (low blood pressure). The SAE number is also missing for the facial lacerations.

Elijah writes, “Doubts can be raised over the credibility of this information given the fall and facial lacerations were intrinsically related. So, if facial lacerations were due to ‘hypotension’ then the fall should be due to that too.” Might low blood pressure be an effect of the experimental shot? Possibly. Especially when you consider the patient fell the day after being given the second dose.

Even more suspicious: the causality for the fall was recorded as “related” (to the treatment) on the serious adverse event form, but listed as “not related” on the adverse event CRF. A note states, “Please confirm correct causality.”

• Dismissing brand new health problems as unrelated to the treatment — For example, in one case, a female participant with no medical history of impaired kidney function was diagnosed with kidney stones and severe hypokalemia, requiring hospitalization, one month after her second dose. Yet despite her having no history of kidney problems, both events were dismissed as “not related” to the study treatment and no further investigation was done.

In closing, Elijah wrote:²⁴

“All the evidence gleaned over a limited time appears to back up whistleblower Jackson’s claims of poor trial site data management and raises questions as to how Ventavia conducted the Pfizer clinical trials.

The errors and anomalies in the CRFs also allude to her claims that the clinical research associates were not trained adequately, with many having had no prior clinical experience history. If such egregious findings are true at these sites, could they manifest at other trial sites around North America and beyond?”

Can You Trust Pfizer?

Pfizer, which was quickly given emergency use authorization (EUA) for its COVID-19 mRNA gene therapy shot, has a long list of criminal verdicts against it:

Despite its tarnished history, we’re now expected to trust that everything Pfizer does is above-board. I don’t think so. A company that continues getting caught committing the same crimes over and over again clearly has a deeply established ethical rot within its corporate structure that fines simply have no effect over.Has Pfizer committed fraud in its COVID jab trials as well? It sure looks that way. Time will tell whether attorneys will have enough for a conviction in the future. If fraud did take place, Pfizer can (and likely will) be held liable for the more than one million injuries its injection has caused in the U.S. alone, and we all look forward to that reckoning.

Originally published May 17, 2022 on Mercola.com

Sources and References

• ¹ The BMJ 2021; 375:n2635
• ^2, 3 Reclaim the Net December 17, 2021
• ⁴ Medscape December 20, 2021
• ⁵ ZeroHedge December 20, 2021
• ^6, 7 The BMJ 2021;375:n2635
• ⁸ Icandecide.org Released Pfizer Data
• ^9, 11, 16 Twitter Jikkyleaks May 9, 2022
• ¹⁰ DavidHealy.org March 24, 2022
• ¹² Infant.org.ar
• ¹³ Gates Foundation Fundacion Infant
• ¹⁴ NEJM 2020; 383: 2603-2615
• ^15, 17 Steve Kirsch Substack May 9, 2022
• ¹⁸ Steve Kirsch Substack March 11, 2022
• ¹⁹ PHMPT.org Pfizer Documents
• ²⁰ Peckford42 WordPress March 3, 2022
• ²¹ Applied Clinical Genetics 2015; 8: 189-200
• ²² Medicinenet.com 1p36 Deletion Syndrome
• ^23, 24 Trial Site News March 7, 2022
• ^{25, 26, 27, 29, 31} Healthcare Policy May 2010; 5(4): 16-25
• ²⁸ U.S. Department of Justice September 2, 2009

Though dozens of media outlets claimed otherwise this week, the Georgia State Elections Board has not debunked any assertions made in the recently released “2000 Mules” documentary.

Elections board members seemed to suggest during a May 17 meeting that they had disproven allegations from the documentary that alleges widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.

But the board has yet to review any claims made by True the Vote, the organization featured in “2000 Mules.”

As described in the documentary released May 7, Houston-based True the Vote spent a year and a half analyzing cell phone data and dropbox surveillance videos to show patterns of what they call illegal ballot trafficking during the 2020 elections. The nonprofit focused its work in five jurisdictions in five swing states won by Democrat Joe Biden—Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

None of the complaints of voter fraud associated with the documentary were taken up at Tuesday’s meeting.

Still, throughout the meeting, three elections board members repeatedly referenced the documentary before hearing evidence from a state investigator, and while discussing three complaints alleging election misconduct.

Two board members repeatedly cautioned against bringing false allegations, with one warning that it could bring penalties.

In an apparent swipe at movie-makers, board member Sara Tindall Ghazal said that “real harm has been caused by these unsupported allegations asserted by individuals seeking to profit off of them.”

But during the meeting, the only matter concerning True the Vote’s complaint was an update on when an investigation can begin.

Georgia Secretary of State General Counsel Ryan Germany said an effort to look into a broad complaint filed by True the Vote in November is on hold until the organization complies with subpoenas issued April 21.

The hold-up centers on True the Vote’s concerns about the safety of their informant, the organizer’s founder, Catherine Engelbrecht, told The Epoch Times. Germany acknowledged that those are “genuine concerns.”

The informant, known as John Doe in the True the Vote complaint to the state, provided details about election fraud that sparked the organization’s investigation, Engelbrecht said. Revealing his identity could put him in grave danger, she said.

More than anything, Engelbrecht wants the information her organization uncovered to be thoroughly investigated, she said. And she’ll gladly turn over all the information used in the analysis after her informant’s safety can be guaranteed, she said.

Engelbrecht appears in the documentary. The film alleges that illegal ballot trafficking took place on a scale significant enough to have flipped the 2020 elections.

Some say the film decisively shows irrefutable patterns of voter shenanigans that signal well-orchestrated, criminal misdeeds. Critics mock the movie, saying they’re not convinced.

About a year before the movie’s release, Engelbrecht brought her findings to officials in Georgia, where the first part of the analysis was complete. But officials with the Georgia Bureau of Investigations dismissed her concerns.

She brought her evidence to leaders of the state’s Republican Party, and then to the state’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp. She said she was shocked that none of them took action.

Kemp will face the first hurdle in retaining his job as the state’s top official in the May 24 GOP gubernatorial primary. His chief competitor is former Sen. David Perdue, who lost his seat in a run-off during the election cycle questioned by True the Vote’s analysis.

Perdue was endorsed by Trump, who has always contended the election was stolen by coordinated fraud. Trump has relentlessly criticized Kemp for not taking action to investigate. Kemp is endorsed by former Vice President Mike Pence.

On Nov. 30, Engelbrecht officially filed a complaint based on her findings with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who’s also seeking reelection. He was the first state official to launch an investigation of True the Vote’s findings.

In an official complaint, True the Vote describes an informant who claimed he was “one of many individuals paid to collect and deliver absentee ballots during the early voting periods of the November 2020 General Election and the January 2021 Runoff Election.”

“John Doe’s assignment included collecting ballots, both from voters in targeted neighborhoods and from NGOs [non-governmental organizations] that had their own ballot collection processes, delivering those ballots to other NGOs, picking up designated ballot bundles from the same group of NGOs, and depositing ballots into drop boxes spanning six counties in the metro Atlanta area,” the complaint continues.

“Each drop box delivery would typically include between 5 to 20 ballots. John Doe described a payment validation process that involved taking cell phone pictures of the dropbox where ballots were deposited. Participants were compensated, typically at a rate of $10 per ballot. John Doe stated he had been paid directly by one of these NGOs.”

True the Vote requested and reviewed four million minutes of dropbox surveillance video, which is required under law for the monitoring of dropboxes. To some of her requests, officials have responded that the video doesn’t exist and they can’t explain why, documents provided to The Epoch Times confirm.

As part of their plan to check the informant’s claims, True the Vote purchased cell phone data—emitted signals called pings—showing phone locations. The data—once acknowledged by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to be highly accurate—are created by phone apps and sold to brokers, usually for marketing purposes.

The purchased data allowed True the Vote researchers to establish “what devices were at a particular location at a particular time,” without disclosing “any private information about a person’s identity.”

By mapping 10 trillion cell phone pings, True the Vote found that “in six counties in and around Atlanta, 552,987 cell phones came within a narrowly defined distance of ballot drop boxes” during early voting, the complaint states. “However, 242 unique devices made repeat trips to drop boxes averaging 23 trips each,” and “also went repeatedly, averaging eight trips each, to specific NGOs.”

By matching that time-stamped cell phone information to surveillance video at dropboxes, True the Vote researchers observed people stuffing in multiple ballots, the complaint states. Many of the cars used by those ballot handlers seen in the videos were rental cars, and ballot handlers often could be seen photographing the dropboxes, a practice the informant said was necessary for payment, the complaint states.

True the Vote dubbed the ballot carriers “mules.” The organization repeated the work in key areas of the five swing states, identifying more than 2,000 so-called mules.

In Georgia, “these 242 individual devices went to drop boxes a total of 5,668 times with approximately 40% of the visits occurring between the unusual hours of 12:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m,” the True the Vote complaint states.

And in December 2020, “after Arizona authorities announced that fingerprints on absentee ballot envelopes helped uncover an illegal ballot harvesting scheme in that state,” some “individuals depositing ballots into drop boxes in Georgia are seen wearing blue surgical gloves. They often put them on just before picking up their stack of ballots and remove them as they exit the dropbox area,” the complaint states.

During the Georgia elections board meeting Tuesday, though they didn’t hear or consider any information provided in the True the Vote complaint, board members did vote to dismiss three complaints brought by a Georgia resident. A state investigator described his findings to the board one by one.

All three cases involved surveillance video of activity at ballot dropboxes, like that requested by True the Vote and shown in “2000 Mules.”

All three videos showed drivers getting out of cars and depositing multiple ballots in dropboxes, the investigator told board members.

He was able to track down the drivers of the cars using their license tags. In all three cases, the drivers’ stories checked out—they were depositing ballots belonging to family members, the investigator said.

State records confirmed that their family members’ ballots had been left in the drop boxes on the day the ballot carrier appeared on the surveillance video, the investigator told board members.

During a discussion of a case involving a white Ford SUV, board member Edward Lindsey asked the investigator, “Do you know whether or not this individual was one of those people whose car and car tag and picture was published publicly?”

“I have not seen the movie True the Vote (sic),” the investigator replied. “But I did see a True the Vote representative on Tucker Carlson [Tonight] show, and in the background they had that video clip playing of that subject and the white SUV.”

The clip was, indeed, shown on the FOX News program. But there was no allegation made that the driver was doing anything illegal. The video played, but wasn’t discussed during Engelbrecht’s interview with host Tucker Carlson on May 5.

The video, one of several surveillance clips shown in a montage during her interview, was used because it was clear enough to illustrate a ballot box being visited by people dropping off multiple ballots, Engelbrecht said.

That particular dropbox also was significant because it was visited by 271 people over one 25-hour period True the Vote monitored, Engelbrecht said. But when they watched a video of the ballot box being emptied by elections workers, it seemed to hold far more than 271 ballots.

When True the Vote requested and checked the log of that ballot box, they found there’d been 1,962 ballots deposited by those 271 people.

It’s legal for someone to deliver the ballots of family members living in the same home, but only if they add their name to the outside of the sealed ballot envelope.

When Engelbrecht asked the state for information about how many of those 1,962 ballots had the required signature, the answer was “none,” she said.

At Tuesday’s meeting, after a second complaint brought by a Georgia resident seemed to show no indication of misdeeds, Lindsey asked the investigator if the video clip referenced in the complaint had appeared “in any kind of documentary or anything like that? Do you know, in this situation, that happened again?”

“I have not seen any my personal self,” the investigator testified. “I have not watched that movie yet.”

Lindsey then chastised, “If you see something that you find questionable, turn it over to the authorities, but don’t simply go out and start questioning the integrity of individuals alleging crimes without any further evidence that could subject you to some kind of liability from that individual, who rightly might take exception to having their good name questioned.”

A third case alleging potential ballot-harvesting and brought by a Georgia resident also was dismissed after the same investigator said the ballot carrier’s story checked out.

After the meeting, dozens of media outlets—including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Associated Press—published news accounts saying the board had debunked claims made in “2000 Mules.”

It had not. Whether intentional or by mistake, the assertion infuriates Engelbrecht. But she remains optimistic.

She says she hopes the film will sound an alarm that wakes Americans to the fact that they must start paying attention to elections in this country, and that their involvement in elections can help restore integrity to voting. She hopes Americans will call for more state officials and law enforcement agencies to take True the Vote complaints seriously.

Currently, True the Vote is working with law enforcement agencies in Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin, Engelbrecht said.

She’s anxious to provide details to Georgia investigators that, she says, may show outcomes of the 2020 elections were changed by fraud. But she has to feel confident the whistleblower will be protected.

“We’ll provide everything,” she told The Epoch Times. But only when she’s confident turning it over won’t “get people hurt…or worse.”

Natasha Holt contributed to this report

https://www.theepochtimes.com/georgia-elections-board-didnt-dismiss-cases-related-to-2000-mules-allegations-despite-media-claims_4475998.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-19-2&utm_medium=email&est=OJN6pZr2SX5FCVJ78WmoAulY9wH0yygpf316ya6WbJymEss6NQPSw5OmD9%2BhtnUSqw%3D%3D

A so-called blasphemy murder of a Christian student in Sokoto, Nigeria, on May 12 was attended by scores of armed, uniformed policemen who did not intervene, according to eyewitnesses who spoke to The Epoch Times.

One eyewitness, who asked for anonymity to escape government retaliation, said that at least 50 uniformed policemen, including six officers of the Department of State Security, were on the scene of the stoning of 22-year-old Deborah Emmanuel, but none acted to defend her.

Emmanuel’s father, Garba Emmanuel, was in Sokoto that day but did not see his daughter being killed by the crowd, according to Dr. Bola Adewara, a veteran journalist who interviewed the father for Elifeonline.

Another eyewitness was one of three uniformed members of the Department of State Security (DSS), which is often compared to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, who attempted to help the victim escape but were pushed back by the crowd.

“The police were nearby, but they utterly failed to rescue the girl,” the official said.

Commissioner of Police Kamaldeen Okunlola disputed the figure of 50 policemen at the scene but said there were “about 15 uniformed police there” and acknowledged that many had assault rifles, in a telephone interview with The Epoch Times. Videos of the mob scene on the campus show more than 100 young men carrying sticks and shouting.

Okunlola said the policemen did not fire their weapons.

Deborah Emmanuel, who was accused by fellow students of blasphemy in a WhatsApp message on May 11, was swarmed by 180 protestors calling for her death for the crime of blasphemy.

The account of all media follows the narrative of Sokoto police who said, according to the Washington Post, “the school authorities quickly deployed security personnel to protect Emmanuel, but they were overpowered by angry youths.”

A far different account has been given by eyewitnesses. The DSS source told The Epoch Times that the school authorities were monitoring internet chatter by students who were planning to attack Emmanuel on the evening of May 11 but failed because she was not in her student hostel.

They say that she called her father for help from her classroom on May 12 at 9:00 a.m. local time and told him people were trying to kill her. Two classmates attempted to help her escape to a waiting taxi but were pursued by a mob. She was locked by college security employees in a gatehouse for her own protection with a fellow student near the entrance of Shehu Shagari College of Education.

“Finally, the man with the key to the gatehouse arrived and let Deborah and her friend out where four or five policemen met her,” according to a relative who stood 60 feet away from the locked gate of the college.

“However, the mob took her from the policemen and dragged her to the rear of the gatehouse where they beat her with sticks and then threw stones until she stopped moving,” the relative said.

“No policemen tried to stop the crowd,” he said.

Emmanuel’s family members stood with about 1,000 other observers outside the fence of the college and watched the events.

“Some police outside the fence fired tear gas grenades to scatter the crowd,” one witness said.

Inside the fence, he saw no fewer than 7 police trucks near the gatehouse. There were about 100 police inside the campus, but 50 went to the main block, while 50 were standing near the site of the killing, he said.

Human rights advocates in the United States denounced the atrocity and the complicity of the Nigerian police.

“The police must have clear orders to intervene to stop any violence, including mob lynching such as this,” Nina Shea, a religious liberty specialist at The Hudson Institute, said in a text to The Epoch Times.

“They either lack such orders or even are instructed to stand down when violent Muslims attack defenseless Christians. This incident also underscores that Islamist extremism is rapidly spreading across northern Nigeria, despite the US State Department’s refusal to acknowledge this danger,” Shea said.

According to multiple media reports, Emmanuel had gotten into a dispute with fellow students on a WhatsApp messaging channel created by the college to share topics related to courses. When asked how she passed last semester’s examination, she replied “Jesus O.”

She also used the phrase “nonsense prophets,” and some students interpreted this to be a slight on the prophet Mohammed. Two Muslim students demanded that she apologize, but she refused and replied, “Holy Ghost fire! Nothing will happen to me.”

Shortly after 9:00 a.m. Thursday two students brought some nonstudents to the college to threaten her. She called her father for help.

“Deborah was going to graduate in November with a degree in Home Economics. She was engaged to a young man and planned to marry, then start a catering business,” according to the relative who watched helplessly as she was beaten to death at the back of the gatehouse.

“Until now, even after four days, the family has received no message of apology from the college administration or from police who didn’t protect her and no offer of reimbursement for burial expenses or medical bills for her relatives who were injured,” the relative said.

“We believe the family cannot sue for damages. We decided to leave everything to God.”

Both the governor of Sokoto state and the national Muslim religious leader, the Sultan of Sokoto, quickly denounced the killing on May 12 and called for full prosecution of the criminals.

Two young men were arrested on May 14, one of which is a student and one who is not, according to the eyewitnesses.

“The horrible murder of Deborah Emmanuel over her beliefs is tragic and infuriating,” human rights activist Tina Ramirez said in a message to The Epoch Times.

“That it coincides with the birthday of Leah Sharibu, kidnapped by Boko Haram four years ago, is a sober reminder of how far we still have to help local leaders learn to push back against the culture of violence and impunity,” Ramirez added.

“But horrendous cases such as these demonstrate the deep-seated and entrenched hatred we are up against.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/nigerian-police-stand-by-as-christian-student-is-stoned-to-death_4470702.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-19-1&utm_medium=email&est=m5%2FpAGfNalMqceSSoLoPgG6SyqbflwdlH%2BcMph1D8di8uHn2uuYjY0EHvOWKL1O%2BtA%3D%3D

Aspiring MSNBC host Jen Psaki’s penultimate White House press conference was an object lesson in how Democrats and their media allies work to undermine negative press.

Psaki dismissed a Washington Free Beacon report on taxpayer-funded crack pipes as a “bit of a conspiracy theory,” echoing the administration’s response to earlier stories on the subject. It’s hardly the first time the Biden administration has cried conspiracy. The White House often waves away inconvenient stories as misinformation, a move that bolsters social media platforms’ efforts to censor the stories.

The Biden campaign deployed this tactic to great effect in 2020 when it worked with social media companies to bury the New York Post’s story about Hunter Biden’s laptop. Twitter barred users from sharing the story, while other media outlets dutifully refused to report on the allegations until after the election.

Never was this reflex clearer than during COVID-19. During the pandemic, numerous allegations that would eventually prove true or at least plausible were initially rejected as conspiracies. Senior administration officials insisted that COVID-19 emerged “naturally,” and media outlets denounced the lab leak theory as racist. Many of the same outlets have since changed course.

In addition to burying the lab leak theory, social media companies silenced criticism of Democrat-backed COVID mitigation strategies. Tech platforms slapped a disinformation label on content critical of masks, social distancing, and vaccine policies. Numerous accounts, including those of newspapers and whistleblowers, were banned from social media platforms for sharing these stories.

Even as the Biden administration seems poised to scrap a planned “Disinformation Governance Board,” Democrats show no signs of changing their approach on the issue. The Democratic National Committee has called for the government to build a more robust partnership with tech companies to police what can be said on social media. Leading Democrats, including former president Barack Obama, have called for similar controls.

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/how-democrats-use-disinformation-to-bury-negative-press/

Policy change makes it difficult for military spouses to maintain federal employment

The State Department is making it more difficult for federal employees who travel overseas with their military spouses to keep their jobs.

Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.) and Maggie Hassan (D., N.H.) say a recent change to the State Department’s employment policies make it difficult—if not impossible—for federal workers who accompany their military spouse overseas to maintain their jobs while abroad. The change also affects the federally employed spouses of government workers assigned to overseas posts.

Blackburn and Hassan are investigating the State Department over the policy shift, which was issued in a little-noticed change to the agency’s employment guidelines. It is unclear why the State Department tightened restrictions on those trying to work overseas, particularly in light of the coronavirus pandemic, which massively affected the State Department’s workforce.

The lawmakers allege the Biden administration is essentially denying “all telework requests for federal employees assigned to or near military installations.” They wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken requesting the State Department provide a host of documents related to the policy change.

“These recent changes to the policy guidance have had a negative impact on federally employed spouses who are accompanying their spouse on government assignment or military orders overseas,” the lawmakers wrote, saying that they are in touch with government workers who have been told their work-abroad agreements are “at risk of being revoked” due to the policy change. Others, they say, have been placed on extended leave with pay pending a review of their requests, while still others “have been denied approval entirely” despite having an approved telework agreement.

The shift in policy comes at a delicate time for federal workers as coronavirus restrictions wane and employees return to their offices. The federal government faces employee shortages and other complications as a result of the COVID vaccine mandate, to which an unknown number of federal employees have objected. Those who are unvaccinated have been barred from their offices in some cases and forced to take leaves of absence.

The Domestic Employees Teleworking Overseas program (DETO), which has historically accommodated those who must travel overseas and want to maintain their job, is particularly important for the federally employed spouses of American military members. Preventing these individuals from continuing their work overseas is expected to impact recruiting and retention for the U.S. military, which also is facing staffing issues due to the COVID vaccine mandate. Around 40,000 active service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines face expulsion for challenging the vaccine mandate, though the official number is unknown, according to estimates by congressional investigators.

Though teleworking agreements are rare in the federal government due to the associated costs, Blackburn and Hassan want to know why the program has been scaled down.

“As continued affects [sic] from COVID-19 remain ongoing, has the Department of State looked into potentially raising any numerical caps to allow federally employed trailing spouses, including military spouses, to continue to use, and expand the use, of DETO agreements?” they ask Blinken in their letter.

They also want to know what prompted the policy change. The lawmakers asked for information on how many federal employees are currently on leave or leave without pay due to a pending telework agreement request. This also includes the number of applications that have been outright denied.

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/state-department-ices-out-military-spouses/

The Department of Homeland Security is warning law enforcement about potential violence against members of the Supreme Court and clergy following the leak of a Supreme Court decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade.

A memo from the agency’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, first reported by Axios but obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, outlines the “potential for threats to public safety in response to abortion debate.”

“Domestic violence extremists (DVEs) and criminal actors have adopted narratives surrounding abortion rights to encourage violence, likely increasing the threat to government, religious, and reproductive health care personnel and facilities and ideological opponents,” the memo reads.

DHS states that the agency identified “at least 25 violent threats on social media” that included “burning down or storming the US Supreme Court and murdering Justices and their clerks, members of Congress, and lawful demonstrators.”

Other threats mentioned include members of the anarchist “Boogaloo Boys” encouraging violence against pro-abortion protesters in hopes that it will spark a civil war.

The Free Beacon previously reported on efforts by House Democrats to stall bipartisan legislation to boost security for the families of Supreme Court justices. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called on Congress to pass the bill, citing the DHS memo outlining the security threats against the Supreme Court.

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/read-the-dhs-memo-on-left-wing-threats-against-judges-and-priests/

Parkland student-turned-liberal activist in interview with Chinese propaganda paper slams US as ‘white supremacist country’

A survivor of the 2018 Parkland, Fla., high school shooting who has since become a liberal activist labeled the United States a “white supremacist country” during an interview with a Chinese propaganda outlet.

“This is a white supremacist country,” Ryan Deitsch told the Global Times, which is operated by the Chinese Communist Party. “Our constitution was written by slave owners and white supremacists. We continue to uphold these doctrines.”

“This is a white supremacist country. Our constitution was written by slave owners and white supremacists. We continue to uphold these doctrines.” @Ryan_Deitsch, a survivor of Parkland shooting massacre, told @WenwenWang1127 what he thought of the Buffalo attack in #ITalk show. pic.twitter.com/qmv9aWpdTj

— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) May 18, 2022

After the shooting, Deitsch made multiple media appearances, including a confrontation with Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) at a 2018 CNN town hall, and has since became a left-wing activist. He says he was a delegate on the Democratic National Committee’s platform committee, appointed by socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.). His LinkedIn profile says his work on the committee was focused on “clarifying language around sex worker protections.”

China for years has been carrying out a genocide against the ethnic Uyghur minority. In December, Congress passed a bill sanctioning China for its human rights abuses and banning imports from Xinjiang, where a large Uyghur population lives and works.

Left-wing pundits and Democratic politicians have frequently accused their opponents of “white supremacy.” In August, a Minnesota Democratic official celebrated the rioters who burned down the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct during the summer of 2020, saying that “fetishizing decorum … is a hallmark of white supremacy.” Activists have similarly overwritten traditional educational curricula and abolished admissions tests as vestiges of “white supremacy.”

While Deitsch talked about the Saturday shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, in which an 18-year-old white nationalist gunman on Saturday shot and killed 10 black people, he did not mention the separate racially motivated shooting that occurred the next day. A gunman on Sunday shot up a California church filled with Taiwanese congregants. The local sheriff’s office reported the shooter was a Chinese immigrant motivated by his hate for the Taiwanese.

https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/the-other-david-hogg-is-now-a-willing-chinese-propaganda-tool/

A top partner at U.S. law firm Dechert leaked damaging information about a client as part of a scheme to inflate his legal fees and then “lied continuously” about it in court, a British judge ruled on Monday.

In a scathing ruling, a High Court judge said Dechert’s head of global white-collar litigation, Neil Gerrard, was a “dishonest witness” and suggested that he was “so obsessed with making money from his work that he lost any real sense of objectivity, proportion or indeed loyalty to his client.”

The judgment caps off a 10-year legal battle between Dechert and the Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation, an African mining company, and could leave the embattled law firm on the hook for tens of millions in court fees and damages.

It is also a significant blow to Dechert’s reputation, coming three years after another lawyer at the legal powerhouse, Andrew Levander, threatened to sue the Washington Free Beacon for reporting on a lawsuit that claims Gerrard was involved in an international hack-and-leak operation targeting critics of the Iranian regime.

The mining company retained Gerrard in 2010 to assist with an internal investigation into corruption issues at some of its work sites. The attorney later leaked the company’s records to The Times and took other steps to “kick-start” a British government anti-corruption investigation into his own client, according to the court ruling. Gerrard then charged his client millions in legal fees to help it resolve the investigation he surreptitiously initiated, court records claim.

After the U.K. Serious Fraud Office launched an investigation into the mining company based on the leaked documents, Gerrard allegedly boasted to associates about shaking down his client for cash.

“I’m in rape mode,” he reportedly told two associates during a lunch meeting, adding that he would “screw these fuckers [the Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation] for $25 million,” according to witnesses.

During cross-examination, Gerrard denied that he made the comments, and also claimed he suffered from memory lapses due to “long COVID” and “global amnesia.” But the judge did not buy it.

Dechert, in a statement released after the judgment, admitted that Gerrard’s alleged behavior is at odds with the law firm’s ethos and said it is trying to learn lessons from the case.

The judgment is likely to impact other ongoing cases involving Gerrard, including one launched by an Iranian-American businessman who claims the former Dechert lawyer played a role in a hacking scheme that was launched over a business dispute with the Ras al Khaimah, or RAK, a Dechert client and one of the seven monarchical states that make up the United Arab Emirates.

As part of that case, Farhad Azima, an aviation magnate, alleged in court documents that Gerrard threatened he would become “collateral damage” if he didn’t broker a financial settlement with one of RAK leader Sheikh Saud bin Saqr al Qasimi’s top business partners. Days after this alleged threat, when the deal wasn’t concluded, dozens of sites appeared on the internet housing his hacked data.

Dechert and Gerrard are also being sued by a Jordanian businessman, who claims the lawyer illegally detained and tortured him while working for RAK leader Sheikh Saud.

https://freebeacon.com/courts/judge-finds-shocking-malpractice-at-law-firm-that-threatened-free-beacon/

A Montana high school health class received a questionnaire that seemingly called heterosexual people rapists and child molesters, according to a report from a local NBC affiliate.

NBC Montana reported that a concerned parent reached out when her freshman “felt uncomfortable” after receiving a questionnaire in health class. The parent alleged that the assignment was handed out at the end of class “with no discussion.”

The questionnaire asked a litany of questions about why “heterosexuals” or “straights” are responsible for rape and child molestation. One question insinuated that “straights” struggle to stay in marriages.

Trending: Great Replacement Theory is fueled by woke progressives gloating about America becoming non-white

Questions included:

• “Do you think straights flaunt their sexuality? If so, why?”
• “40 percent of married couples get divorced. Why is it so difficult for straights to stay in long-term relationships?”
• “Considering the consequences of overpopulation, could the human race survive if everyone were heterosexual?”
• “99 percent of reported rapists are heterosexual. Why are straights so sexually aggressive?”
• “The majority of child molesters are heterosexuals. Do you consider it safe to expose children to heterosexual teachers, scout leaders, and coaches?”

Missoula County Public Schools (MCPS) said in a statement to NBC Montana that the questionnaire “was not a part of the approved curriculum.” (RELATED: Maryland Elementary School Invites Kids To Pledge Allegiance To Pride Flag)

“When the handout was brought to the District’s attention, there was an immediate investigation and the handout was removed. MCPS has a ‘challenged materials’ procedure that anyone can access,” the district said. “Generally, the challenged materials procedure is used when there is a challenge of curriculum material used in our classrooms. However, the handout in this particular incident was not part of the curriculum and should not have been used, as it is not part of our approved instructional materials for this unit.”

The worksheet was handed out approximately one month after Sentinel High School’s principal was placed on administrative leave for facing criminal charges.

Parents Defending Education, a nationwide concerned parents organization, told the Daily Caller that examples like this explain the perceived lack of trust between parents and the education system.

“It’s little wonder parents across the country are clamoring for transparency,” Nicki Neily, co-founder and president of Parents Defending Education said. “Trust between families and the education [system] has been destroyed, and leaked lessons like this illustrate precisely why.”

Missoula County Public Schools did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.

https://libertyunyielding.com/2022/05/13/high-school-questionnaire-asks-why-straight-people-are-so-sexually-aggressive/

The New GOP voter says environmental, social, and governance scoring has been weaponized

Elon Musk called the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scoring “a scam” in a series of Twitter posts on May 18, citing S&P Global’s inclusion of ExxonMobil Corporation in its ESG Index while his own electric car company, Tesla Motors, was removed.

“Exxon is rated top ten best in world for environment, social & governance (ESG) by S&P 500, while Tesla didn’t make the list! ESG is a scam. It has been weaponized by phony social justice warriors,” Musk wrote.

In subsequent Twitter posts, Musk claimed that Tesla has done “more for the environment than any company ever” and asserted that S&P Global “has lost their integrity.”

The comments come in the midst of Musk’s fight to acquire Twitter and shortly before Musk again announced that he planned to switch his vote from Democrat to Republican.

“In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party. But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican. Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold,” he wrote.

A spokesperson for S&P Dow Jones Indices (DJI) told The Epoch Times that ExxonMobil wasn’t ranked among the “top ten best in the world” on ESG by S&P. In actuality, ExxonMobil was highlighted in a May 17 blog post on S&P’s ESG index because it’s among the 10 largest companies in that index by market capitalization.

In that blog post, S&P DJI’s Margaret Dorn attributed the removal of Tesla to its relative decline in the Automobiles & Components sector, as well as the absence of a carbon strategy, its codes of business conduct, and allegations of widespread racism at Tesla’s Fremont, California, factory.

Dorn also cited Tesla’s “handling” of an investigation into Tesla’s phantom braking problem, which was announced by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in April.

“While Tesla may be playing its part in taking fuel-powered cars off the road, it has fallen behind its peers when examined through a wider ESG lens,” wrote Dorn, who serves as senior director and head of ESG Indices, North America, for S&P DJI.

Tesla’s removal also comes after Musk and other Silicon Valley billionaires have publicly criticized the ESG concept on various grounds.

At an April Bitcoin conference in Miami, venture capitalist and prominent Republican donor Peter Thiel told the crowd that ESG is a means of exercising totalitarian control, including over the development of cryptocurrencies.

Thiel’s words came within weeks of a Biden administration executive order on cryptocurrency. That order stressed the administration’s interest in a potential U.S. digital dollar, or central bank digital currency (CBDC).

“What’s the difference between ESG and CCP—the Chinese Communist Party? They are into social and governance. Environmental is sort of fake—it’s probably also fake in a lot of these cases. When you think ESG, you should be thinking CCP,” Thiel said.

Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape and the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, has also taken to social media to skewer the concept of ESG.

“ESG -> Surrender domestic nuclear, oil, natural gas -> Reliance on unreliable transient solar and wind -> Dependence on foreign energy powers,” he wrote in a February Twitter post.

Andreessen has cited conservative James Burnham who, writing in the mid-20th century, theorized that an elite made up of technocratic managers was displacing an earlier elite made up of property owners.

Taking what he described as Burnham’s position, Andreessen said that the rise of “wokeness” and ESG can be traced to “the oligarchic managerial elites who run the corporation, pledging allegiance to their managerial elite counterparts who run institutional investment funds and who regulate the markets.”

“Actual shareholders are mostly irrelevant,” he said.

Musk wrote on April 3 in response to one of Andreessen’s tweets, “I am increasingly convinced that corporate ESG is the Devil Incarnate.”

Tesla and Musk didn’t respond to requests for comment by press time.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/esg-is-a-scam-new-gop-voter-elon-musk_4475329.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-18-4&utm_medium=email&est=NytAwUwcaf2yQJqvIQIcg6VzNOX7XhPzK1eWlCM0mbgY%2BVaWhgqAmvZZiPyhqYHjxQ%3D%3D

Alaska Airlines fired Lacey Smith, a dedicated flight attendant for expressing her religious beliefs in direct violation of federal Civil Rights law prohibiting workplace religious discrimination. The woke madness that is now governing our nation’s companies, from the boardroom to the break room, is forcing this religious employee to choose between her job and her faith.

Not Backing Down From Her Beliefs

When Alaska Airlines proudly declared on the company’s internal message board its support of the passage of the deceptively-called Equality Act, it invited employees to comment. First Liberty client Lacey Smith responded on the company’s online forum with a simple, genuine question about her employer’s support for the legislation. Lacey asked, “As a company, do you think it’s possible to regulate morality?” Over this one question, she was promptly fired.

But Lacey is not backing down from her beliefs anytime soon.

This brave patriot has resolved to be the one to stand by her God-given rights to believe as her conscious and faith dictate, not the official “woke” narrative from a corporation.

Flight Attendants Sue Alaska Airlines and Union Claiming Religious Discrimination in Firings

First Liberty Institute has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of two flight attendants against Alaska Airlines after the airline terminated them because they asked questions in a company forum about the company’s support for the “Equality Act.”

https://firstliberty.org/alaska/?utm_source=generallist&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2022LFN

Nearly half of President Joe Biden’s followers on Twitter, which number about 22.2 million, are fake accounts, according to an audit conducted by Newsweek.

Using an audit tool provided by software firm SparkToro, Newsweek discovered 49.3 percent of all Biden followers to be “fake followers.” The analysis took into consideration multiple factors such as new users, default profile images, and location data.

This comes just as billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has paused his plans to buy Twitter for $44 billion due to concerns about fake accounts.

“20% fake/spam accounts, while 4 times what Twitter claims, could be *much* higher. My offer was based on Twitter’s SEC filings being accurate. Yesterday, Twitter’s CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%. This deal cannot move forward until he does,” Musk wrote in a May 17 tweet.

Having 20 percent fewer users would mean that the company might be overvalued. As such, paying $44 billion with one in five users being fake might not be a good deal.

Musk had agreed to purchase Twitter at $54.20 per share. If he were to back out from the deal, the entrepreneur would be required to pay the company a termination fee of $1 billion and might face litigation.

According to a joint analysis published on May 15 by SparkToro and Followerwonk, 19.42 percent of a sampled set of Twitter accounts were found to be fake or spam accounts.

For the analysis, they used 44,058 public Twitter accounts that were active during the previous 90 days, selected randomly from a set of more than 130 million active public profiles.

On May 16, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal published a tweet thread about fake accounts on the network.

“We suspend over half a million spam accounts every day, usually before any of you even see them on Twitter. We also lock millions of accounts each week that we suspect may be spam—if they can’t pass human verification challenges (captchas, phone verification, etc),” Agrawal wrote.

However, the “hard challenge” is that many accounts that seem fake are actually profiles of real people, he said. In contrast, some of the spam accounts can appear totally legitimate but might end up being the “most dangerous.”

According to the company’s estimates every quarter, fewer than 5 percent of monetizable daily active users (mDAU) are spam accounts. For the last four quarters, these estimates have held up, Agrawal claimed, while insisting that the error margins on the estimates give the company confidence in its public statements.

But the company’s estimates cannot be mimicked by third parties because Twitter can’t share the private user information that would be required to do such an analysis, he added.

“Let me state the obvious: spam harms the experience for real people on Twitter, and therefore can harm our business. As such, we are strongly incentivized to detect and remove as much spam as we possibly can, every single day. Anyone who suggests otherwise is just wrong,” Agrawal said.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/audit-reveals-half-of-bidens-twitter-followers-are-fake-as-musk-pauses-purchase-newsweek_4474526.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-18-3&utm_medium=email&est=ufvfWdGtgPc1HYNfu3DUIDHH4vUc%2BaKmNjeWpMVy%2FwD1TR8SXaGPyE1qGK5w5vkYMA%3D%3D

WASHINGTON—The technology executive who was one of Michael Sussmann’s clients when Sussmann took sketchy claims to the U.S. government was terminated as a confidential informant by the FBI in 2021, prosecutors revealed during Sussmann’s trial on May 17.

Rodney Joffe, the executive, exploited his access to non-public data at multiple technology companies to conduct opposition research into then-presidential candidate Donald Trump ahead of the 2016 election, according to court filings. The firm Joffe worked for, Neustar Security Services, had a Domain Name System (DNS) contract with the office of the presidency in 2016.

Joffe was a confidential informant for the FBI but was terminated “for cause” in 2021, prosecutors said.

Brittain Shaw, one of the prosecutors on Special Counsel John Durham’s team, revealed the information during the questioning of FBI agent David Martin.

The termination was because of how Joffe was involved with the scheme to compile information on the alleged connection between Trump’s business and a Russian bank, Andrew DeFilippis, another prosecutor, said later.

Sean Berkowitz, an attorney for Sussmann, raised concerns during closed session, or without jurors in the room, with remarks about Joffe’s status, asserting they were “prejudicial,” Reuters reported.

U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper, the Obama appointee overseeing the trial, agreed.

Cooper, speaking while jurors weren’t in the room, ordered prosecutors not to discuss the topic again. He said how Joffe handled the information was not part of the trial, and noted the termination did not come for years after the events that are being explored during the trial. In 2016, Joffe was a respected expert, the judge said, echoing the defense.

Joffe was one of Sussmann’s clients, a group that included Hillary Clinton’s campaign, at the time. Joffe has said he was offered a position in the U.S. government if Clinton won the election, which she did not.

According to prosecutors, Joffe not only conducted opposition research on Trump but enlisted researchers from a university, identified as Georgia Institute of Technology, to help him.

Prosecutors said Joffe, Sussmann, and Perkins Coie, the campaign’s legal firm, engaged in a coordinated scheme to distribute the opposition research to the FBI and media outlets in an attempt to influence the 2016 election.

As part of the effort, Sussmann passed sketchy data alleging a link between Trump’s business and a Russian bank to an FBI lawyer in September 2016. Sussmann claimed he was not bringing the information on behalf of a client, which was false, prosecutors say. Sussmann was charged with lying to the FBI.

Steve DeJong, an executive with Neustar, took the stand later Tuesday, telling the court that Joffe was “very well respected.” He said Joffe asked him, as a favor, in August and September of 2016 to look through data logs to find queries for names in political campaigns.

“In retrospect, it was mostly around the Trump campaign,” DeJong said.

DeJong said he was also doing things for Joffe like gathering data on “DNS traffic between utility companies during a hurricane.” Sussmann, to his knowledge, was not “in any way involved” in collecting or analyzing the data. He had never heard of Sussmann before.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/technology-executive-who-pushed-clinton-lawyer-to-go-to-fbi-terminated-by-bureau-prosecutors_4474180.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-18-2&utm_medium=email&est=PWR180bF6033mNsBkF4ujbGokX58ZPPsAE2LKn7Fftq3ZtIFWVu2ufSyFQGmh1K2dg%3D%3D

Missouri lawmakers passed legislation that prevents state licensing boards from disciplining doctors who prescribe ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.

Sponsored by Rep. Brenda Kay Shields (R-Mo.), HB 2149 also bars pharmacists from questioning doctors or disputing patients regarding the usage of such drugs and their efficacy.

With a convincing 130–4 vote in the House, HB 2149 passed both chambers on May 12 and currently heads to the office of Gov. Mike Parson to be potentially signed into law.

“The board shall not deny, revoke, or suspend, or otherwise take any disciplinary action against, a certificate of registration or authority, permit, or license required by this chapter for any person due to the lawful dispensing, distributing, or selling of ivermectin tablets or hydroxychloroquine sulfate tablets for human use in accordance with prescriber directions,” reads the draft of the bill (pdf).

It adds, “A pharmacist shall not contact the prescribing physician or the patient to dispute the efficacy of ivermectin tablets or hydroxychloroquine sulfate tablets for human use unless the physician or patient inquires of the pharmacist about the efficacy of ivermectin tablets or hydroxychloroquine sulfate tablets.”

Critics of the bill have noted that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not given approval for usage of the drugs. Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine have been divisive drugs and politically polarized throughout the pandemic.

“But, nevertheless, the Missouri legislature has chosen to ‘own the libs’ by issuing a gag order against every pharmacist in this state from offering their medical opinion on taking either one of those medications—even if it could kill their patient,” wrote former Democratic nominee Lindsey Simmons in a May 12 Twitter post.

Although 22 countries across the world have approved the use of ivermectin in treating COVID-19, the FDA maintains that the current data show the drug to be ineffective. Large doses can be dangerous, it says.

A recent study published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases analyzed a national federated database of adults that compared ivermectin with the FDA-approved COVID-19 medication, remdesivir.

“After using propensity score matching and adjusting for potential confounders, ivermectin was associated with reduced mortality vs remdesivir,” researchers wrote. “To our knowledge, this is the largest association study of patients with COVID-19, mortality, and ivermectin.”

According to The Associated Press, Missouri state Rep. Patty Lewis, a Democrat, agreed to the bill to satisfy a group of conservatives in the Senate. She added that the bill will not change anything significantly as medical boards do not engage in punishing doctors who prescribe drugs legally.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/missouri-bill-prevents-doctors-being-disciplined-if-they-prescribe-ivermectin-or-hydroxychloroquine_4473952.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-18-1&utm_medium=email&est=PBn0F0%2BhGV3WhIO2c%2FwHa4nuVjnUxDPAHd%2Bz4zkW7TOsJASDudC2u%2BSK5Eo0nGqijw%3D%3D

A George Soros-linked dark money behemoth has a peculiar partner in its bid to sink voter ID expansion in Michigan—a group of Republican operatives led by a sitting Republican senator’s son.

Over the past year, liberal dark money group Sixteen Thirty Fund has spent $2.5 million opposing a Republican-led petition drive to expand Michigan’s voter ID requirements. Nearly $400,000 of that money has gone to Groundgame Political Solutions, a shadowy consulting firm that a trio of Republican operatives—including Sen. Roy Blunt’s (R., Mo.) son, Andy Blunt—privately launched in May 2021, corporate filings show.

The firm, which Blunt first registered in Delaware before expanding it to 10 other states, functions as a stealthy subsidiary to Blunt’s public-facing canvassing company, HBS+. The setup has allowed Blunt and his partners, fellow Republican operatives Gregg Hartley and Meghan Cox, to rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars from deep-pocketed liberals without alienating their conservative clients.

The revelation shows just how far liberal operatives are willing to go to tank the ongoing voter ID expansion effort in the Great Lakes State. In at least one case, for example, the Sixteen Thirty Fund used its Republican allies at Groundgame to pay canvassers tens of thousands of dollars not to work on the issue.

That ploy saw Groundgame reach a November agreement with a Michigan petition gatherer that paid him $50,000 not to work on any “election reform” issue. Cox personally signed the contract, which the petition gatherer called a “scheme to pay off circulators not to engage” in the voter ID initiative. Just one day before Cox sealed the deal, Groundgame received a $56,000 payment from an equally shadowy political action committee, Protect MI Vote, that the Sixteen Thirty Fund bankrolls to fight voter ID in Michigan. According to campaign finance disclosures, that payment went to Groundgame through a Jefferson City, Mo., address registered to Blunt’s consulting firm, Husch Blackwell Strategies.

Blunt, Hartley, and Cox did not return multiple requests for comment. All three have professional ties to Blunt’s father. Blunt managed his father’s Senate campaigns in both 2010 and 2016, while Hartley from 1997 to 2003 served as then-congressman Blunt’s chief of staff. Cox, meanwhile, has directed field efforts for the Republican senator, her online bio states.

The three operatives teamed up to launch HBS+ on May 6, 2021. According to a press release announcing the move, which lists Cox as CEO, the firm exists to “create ballot access strategies and manage influence campaigns.”

Just 13 days after the launch, business records show, Blunt, Hartley, and Cox registered Groundgame Political Solutions, LLC—an HBS+ subsidiary that the trio did not publicize—in Delaware. The operatives used a corporate compliance company to do so, which allowed them to keep their names off of the filing and distance themselves from Groundgame.

But Blunt, Hartley, and Cox went on to register Groundgame in 10 more states, some of which require filers to disclose more information about a company’s leaders. In Florida and Texas, for example, Groundgame’s filings name Blunt, Hartley, and Cox as directors and list the Missouri address the firm used to accept hundreds of thousands of dollars from Protect MI Vote. Similar filings in Nevada and North Carolina also name the three operatives and refer back to Groundgame’s original Delaware registration.

Groundgame first accepted a $300,000 payment from Protect MI Vote in June 2021, just days after the Sixteen Thirty Fund-backed committee registered with Michigan’s secretary of state. The committee exists solely to oppose Michigan Republicans’ effort to expand voter ID laws through a signature gathering initiative—it hosts, for example, a “petitioner sighting hotline” that sends counter-organizers to areas where “paid petition circulators” are spotted.

If successful, the Republican-led initiative would require voters in the state to use their IDs or social security numbers to submit absentee ballots, among other provisions. Should the campaign gather roughly 340,000 signatures, Michigan’s Republican-controlled legislature could approve the proposal in a manner that circumvents Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s (D.) veto power.

Groundgame, however, has helped make that event increasingly unlikely. According to the Detroit News, Michigan candidates are struggling to collect signatures due to a canvasser shortage, an issue that Groundgame’s scheme to pay petitioners not to work likely exacerbated. The firm’s efforts to tank voter ID expansion in Michigan is at odds with its founders’ rhetoric—Hartley has urged Washington, D.C., to “just say yes to better voter id!” and suggested voter ID laws would stop voter fraud.

“Dems keep claiming voter fraud doesn’t happen. Voter ID not necessary,” Hartley tweeted in 2016. “But this story suggests otherwise.”

The Sixteen Thirty Fund, which is part of a vast liberal dark money network managed by D.C.-based consulting firm Arabella Advisors, is able to bankroll Protect MI Vote thanks to contributions from some of the world’s richest liberals. Soros, a billionaire left-wing megadonor, gave the group nearly $10 million in 2019. Foreign billionaire Hansjörg Wyss has also contributed at least $12.4 million to the Sixteen Thirty Fund since 2010.

https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/tales-from-the-swamp-how-a-republican-senators-son-partnered-with-a-liberal-dark-money-group-to-sink-voter-id-expansion/

Ivy League school leans on second investigation into Joshua Katz’s decade-old consensual relationship with a student

Princeton University is planning to fire one of the most distinguished classics professors in the country, Joshua Katz, after his criticism of the school’s racial politics made him the target of student protests and the subject of two separate university investigations.

University president Christopher Eisgruber—who in 2020 alleged that Katz had failed to exercise his free speech “responsibly”—passed his recommendation that Katz be stripped of tenure and fired to the university’s board of trustees last week, according to three sources with firsthand knowledge of the situation.

It is rare for a university to fire a tenured professor, and even rarer for a university to fire a professor with Katz’s record: By the university’s own admission, he did not commit fraud or sexual misconduct, two of the most common grounds for revoking tenure. Rather, the university is citing as grounds for dismissal a consensual relationship Katz engaged in with a student more than a decade ago, and for which he was already disciplined by the school in 2018.

The board is all but guaranteed to accept Eisgruber’s recommendation when it meets on Wednesday, the sources said. Board members include Yale Law School dean Heather Gerken, who has presided over several high-profile free speech-related scandals on her campus, including the intimidation of a second-year law student by university administrators.

Princeton University did not respond to a request for comment.

Katz’s dismissal is likely to spark a heated debate about the real reasons for his ouster.

The Ivy League classicist has been the subject of two separate investigations over the past two years, in part because he has been a vocal critic of the argument—advanced by Eisgruber and others—that Princeton is a systemically racist institution. The university had settled the matter of his relationship in 2018—with Katz taking a year’s unpaid leave as a suspension—but decided to investigate it again in the wake of his controversial remarks, leading to speculation the events are linked.

Katz is perhaps the campus’s most outspoken critic of the school’s backbreaking political correctness, including calls from faculty members to award their minority colleagues extra sabbatical time, “course relief,” and “summer salary.” His criticism has been frank and unsparing: “It boggles my mind that anyone would advocate giving people—extraordinarily privileged people already, let me point out: Princeton professors—extra perks for no reason other than their pigmentation,” he wrote in July 2020 in an essay for Quillette. Eisgruber responded in the Daily Princetonian, saying that he objected “personally and strongly” to Katz’s statements.

“While free speech permits students and faculty to make arguments that are bold, provocative, or even offensive,” Eisgruber said, “we all have an obligation to exercise that right responsibly. Joshua Katz has failed to do so.”

It initially seemed like Katz would weather the blowback. On July 26, 2020, he wrote in the Wall Street Journal that he had “survived cancellation” after the university dropped an investigation into the Quillette essay, which characterized a Princeton student group as a “local terrorist organization.” That characterization came amid criticism of an open letter, signed by hundreds of Princeton faculty, that claimed “anti-Blackness is foundational to America” and demanded the university “acknowledge, credit, and incentivize anti-racist student activism.”

Katz was describing Princeton’s Black Justice League, which in 2015 occupied Eisgruber’s office and demanded “cultural competency training for all staff and faculty.” The group “made life miserable for many (including the many black students) who did not agree with its members’ demands,” Katz wrote.

Michael Flower, the chair of the classics department—as well as Eisgruber himself—subsequently denounced the essay. Katz’s “false description of a Princeton student group,” Eisgruber said, “unfairly disparaged” Princeton students.

The university announced on July 12, 2020, it would “be looking into the matter,” but informed Katz later that month that it had dropped its investigation, according to the Wall Street Journal op-ed.

Though the university did not formally sanction Katz, it did include him on a list of racists—such as the notorious segregationist Woodrow Wilson—who have marred Princeton’s legacy, which was published on a university website and presented at a mandatory orientation session for freshmen in August.

The second investigation, conducted by the dean of the Office of Faculty, sealed Katz’s fate. In February 2021, the Daily Princetonian reported that Katz had engaged in a consensual relationship with an undergraduate student in the mid-2000s, violating the university’s ban on student-faculty relations.

The university had already adjudicated the violation confidentially, quietly disciplining Katz with a yearlong suspension after a separate investigation in 2018. Katz, who was in his 30s at the time of the tryst, admitted it was inappropriate and accepted the suspension without protest.

But when the liaison became public through the Daily Princetonian’s report, Princeton launched a second investigation, telling Katz that certain details in the article “remain uninvestigated and unaddressed.” Under pressure from students, the school tasked two separate bureaucracies—the Office of the Dean of Faculty and the Office of Gender Equity and Title IX Administration—with investigating the tryst. Though the former undergraduate declined to participate in the 2018 investigation, she did participate in the 2021 inquiry, alleging not just impropriety but sexual harassment.

Her allegations came as campus activists were demanding the university fire Katz. His “continued presence in the classroom,” a petition in the Daily Princetonian read, “actively puts students in harm’s way.”

But the Title IX office found that Katz hadn’t violated the school’s harassment policies. “Conduct must, among other things, be ‘unwelcome’ in order to constitute sexual harassment,” Michele Minter, Princeton’s Title IX coordinator, said in a report reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. But both Katz and his student “were willing and active participants” in the relationship.

“Accordingly,” Miller said, “I am dismissing the formal complaint with respect to sexual harassment.”

But the Office of the Dean of Faculty found other violations. It claimed that Katz hadn’t been fully forthcoming in the 2018 investigation and that he’d discouraged the undergraduate from receiving therapy—a charge Katz repeatedly denied.

In November 2021, Princeton dean of faculty Gene Jarrett recommended the school fire Katz, according to documents obtained by the Free Beacon. Katz appealed the decision, alleging that the investigation was effectively a “retrial” of the 2018 investigation.

“I was already punished—and rightly so,” Katz wrote in his appeal. With the new inquiry, “I am being subject to double jeopardy,” a classic due process violation.

The appeal went nowhere. Katz was informed last week that Eisgruber recommended his dismissal.

https://freebeacon.com/campus/double-jeopardy-princeton-prepares-to-axe-star-professor-who-raised-hell-over-woke-lunacy/

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk issued a warning on Monday about the rising economic power of China — and how the United States can remain competitive.

During an interview with the “All In” podcast, the world’s richest man said that Americans must “stop the infighting” amid the growing hegemony of China.

“What we’re going to see with China, for the first time that anyone can remember who is alive, is an economy that is twice the size of the U.S., possibly three times the size of the U.S., and it’s going to be very weird living in that world,” Musk explained, as reported by Fox Business. “So, we better stop the infighting in the U.S. and stop punching ourselves in the face. There’s way too much of America punching itself in the damn face, it’s just dumb, and think about, hey, ‘We gotta be competitive here.’”

With $23 trillion in economic output last year, the United States presently boasts the world’s largest economy. However, China — which boasts a $17.7 trillion economy and has averaged 10% annual GDP growth since 1978 — continues to expand its consumer sector and draw attention from businesses in the Western world.

“There’s a new kid on the block that’s going to be two to three times our size,” Musk warned. “We better step up our game and stop infighting.”

Amid the rise of China, Musk urged American businesses to stand down from political controversies. “The point of a company is to produce useful products and services for your fellow human beings,” Musk said. “It is not some political gathering place.”

Indeed, Musk has formerly condemned American companies’ efforts to make businesses more “socially conscious” — including Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), an investment and management philosophy that seeks to promote progressive causes in addition to maximizing shareholder returns.

Earlier this year, when software entrepreneur Marc Andreessen criticized ESG funds’ willingness to “make the weapons required to fight wars with hostile regimes we buy energy from” and simultaneous refusal to invest in energy companies, Musk pointed out that “ESG rules have been twisted into insanity.”

Musk, an independent voter, also revealed that he will begin to branch out and support Republican candidates. “I have voted overwhelmingly for Democrats, historically,” Musk acknowledged. “Like I’m not sure, I might never have voted for a Republican, just to be clear. Now this election I will.”

The billionaire has also been highly critical of President Joe Biden. After the commander-in-chief’s State of the Union address in March, for instance, Musk called attention to Biden’s decision to ignore Tesla in favor of Ford and GM’s new electric vehicle ventures.

“Ford is investing $11B to build electric vehicles — creating 11,000 jobs across the country,” read a post from Biden’s Twitter account as the State of the Union speech concluded. “GM is making the largest investment in its history — $7B to build electric vehicles, creating 4,000 jobs in Michigan.”

“Tesla has created over 50,000 US jobs building electric vehicles & is investing more than double GM + Ford combined,” the billionaire entrepreneur responded as an “fyi to person controlling this twitter.”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/we-gotta-be-competitive-here-elon-musk-issues-dire-warning-about-the-rise-of-china-pushes-back-against-corporate-wokeness?utm_medium=email&utm_source=cnemail&seyid=2067

A Utah garbage collector who once served in the U.S. Marine Corps was caught on camera rescuing an American flag from the trash, to fold it and treat it with the honor it deserves.

Mom of two Brooke Cowley, 35, didn’t know Huntington sanitation worker Don Gardner before witnessing his patriotic act. But thinking the sight was a “good teaching moment” for her family, she soon got to know him.

“It was April 19,” Brooke told The Epoch Times. “The night or the weekend before that we had a severe windstorm. It actually destroyed our shed on the side of our house, and it spilled some of our garbage, and that’s when it broke our flag.”

She added, “I was cleaning up our yard and trying to pick up all of the debris, and I picked up the flag and the pole, wasn’t thinking, and threw it in the trash.”

After coming home from school, Brooke’s children began their homework at the dinner table; Don’s activity on the street outside their house piqued their interest.

“They asked what the garbage man was doing,” said Brooke. “I looked out the window and he had gotten out of his garbage truck, he was taking our flag off of the flagpole, and then he started to fold it.

“It took him over 10 minutes to fold that flag. He did something that he didn’t have to do, and he did it when [he thought] nobody else was watching.”

Brooke’s shock and embarrassment turned to admiration when she realized what Don was doing. The former Marine, who’s collected trash in Emery County for 11 years, was retiring the flag in honorable fashion. Tossing the flag was a mistake, she admits, so she filmed his dutiful act to share on social media as a lesson for others.

“It was an accident that I threw it in the trash, because my husband is a veteran; he actually has spoken at flag retirement ceremonies, so I know how to properly retire the flag,” Brooke said. “I just was not thinking in that moment when I was cleaning everything up.”

Touched, Brooke’s kids wanted to repay the patriotic garbage man. Online, they ordered him a “challenge coin” — a popular collectors’ item among veterans.

“Military people collect these if they go over to different countries or different troops,” Brooke explained. “The coin we got him, on one side it says, ‘Thank you for your service,’ and on the other side it says, ‘Your country salutes you.’”

Brooke’s kids presented him the coin and a handwritten thank-you card. They also apologized for their honest mistake. Don understood.

“He did say he knew it was a mistake for us, but he said a lot of people don’t make that mistake, they just throw it away and trash the flag and it makes him really mad,” Brooke said.

Don told Fox News, “I took an oath once to defend this country and our flag, and I still do.”

He has volunteered to retire any discarded flags on his route, and advises others: old flags can be properly burned, buried, or recycled by the American Legion or Boy and Girl Scout groups in flag retirement ceremonies.

Since sharing her run-in with her dutiful sanitation worker on Facebook, Brooke was contacted by both veterans and patriots who acknowledged her admitting her mistake. Don also got the recognition he deserves.

“A lot of people, especially military members, have reached out,” Brooke said. “It’s been really nice to see how he’s touched a lot of lives because of what he’s done.

“He did it just out of respect for our flag; what he’s done for our nation, he should be respected for that … it really touched our family.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/video-patriotic-garbage-collector-sees-flag-in-trash-rescues-folds-it-when-nobody-else-was-watching_4447513.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-17-4&utm_medium=email&est=cbu7Va5fuEvJ%2BUMWeeAKBXoAeOVuNs%2BWVVcbIaIbpzmRY2KLer6F9odvWzfrftbUIQ%3D%3D

Oregon is a state that has been under progressive Democrat control for the last six administrations and its largest city, Portland, has been a hotbed for violence connected to the Marxist revolutionary group Antifa. In response to this, Kerry McQuisten, a native Oregonian and Republican, is running for governor.

She said the current generation of young people have been convinced that they are being marginalized, and this is leading them to accept socialism and eventually communism.

“You know, [Yuri] Bezmenov said that all it took was for them to get [a] hold of one generation of our children, and it would … flip us into communism,” McQuisten told the host of NTD Capitol Report during a recent interview.Play Video

She said this effort to achieve the Marxist goals in the United States requires that a generation feel they don’t have individual rights and reacts as a collective. “And that’s the first step toward communism, you know, these folks have to be a generation convinced that they don’t have these individual rights, they may not see themselves as individuals, they have to slide into this hive mentality.

“And that’s absolutely what we’re seeing in our education system here in Oregon. You know, it’s as if we’re the test run here in the United States to see how far they can push this.”

McQuisten said she is pushing back on the current administration’s effort to use the education system to indoctrinate youth to this type of thinking, and if elected would end the teaching of the critical race theory-based curriculum, which seeks to divide groups based on their race.

Other Republican governors have signed bills into law prohibiting the teaching of such ideology in schools, saying it is divisive and goes against America’s founding principles. Elected specifically on an anti-CRT platform, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, after taking office, signed an executive order (pdf) prohibiting the teaching of CRT.

CRT redefines human history as a struggle between “oppressors”—normally considered to be white people—and the “oppressed” individuals from minority identity groups, and has Marxist underpinnings.

In addition, McQuisten said the gender ideology being pushed in schools does not make sense. “Everything in Oregon is upside down at this point, from crime to education and beyond.

“So aside from critical race theory, we’re seeing right now, at the end of the last legislative session, Kate Brown, our outgoing governor, had signed into law The Menstrual Dignity Act.”

This legislation seeks to put tampons in boys’ locker rooms and school bathrooms. An Oregon Department of Education toolkit (pdf) in part states that the goal is to “provide free menstrual products for all menstruating students in public schools in Oregon.” It later continues, “Importantly, this law affirms the right to menstrual dignity for transgender, intersex, nonbinary, and two-spirit students.”

McQuisten said “what I’m looking at across the United States, and especially Oregon right now, and seeing is that assault on our constitutional rights and our assault on our representative constitutional republic.”

If elected, McQuisten would join a number of governors that are pushing back against this type of ideology.

“I think it’s great legislation,” McQuisten said about Florida Gov. Ron DeStantis’s effort to require that the history of communism be taught in schools. “We need to make people aware of this, because I’m completely aware that communism and socialism is how evil manifests itself through our political system.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the “The Victims of Communism Day” legislation (pdf), saying Florida will not “whitewash the history of communism” and will stand for liberty.

“Through HB 395 and the funding announced today, we are guaranteeing that the history of those who fled communist regimes and their experiences are preserved and not forgotten by our students.”

Brown also commuted the sentences of close to 1,000 criminals, said McQuisten. “So, the Democrats in our state have actually created this pro-crime agenda.”

Brown said she granted clemency to nearly 1,000 criminals who were “nonviolent adults” that faced a high risk of COVID-19, battled the wildfires in 2020, or are facing “unjustly long sentences they committed as youth,” in an April social media post.

Meanwhile, McQuisten said Oregon is on “the edge of a cliff” and it needs a leader to fight back against these destructive trends.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/hive-mentality-first-step-toward-communism-oregon-gov-candidate-kerry-mcquisten_4463841.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-17-4&utm_medium=email&est=paEXTth4Li4LKIxAIALXng8u8PZt97I46M4Y6MIOap23MYr7GVJI56OIM9pZBdUPRg%3D%3D

“If we think that the energy leverage Putin had over Europe was substantial, the leverage China potentially has over America and the West is extraordinary.”

I sit down with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, to discuss how the Chinese regime has been systematically co-opting our elites for decades and leveraging the American system against us, from our innovation to our laws to our free markets.

If the supply chain for any “key industries—ranging from medicine to fighter jets, from technology to food—if any of it comes from China, we should assume that that will be weaponized against us in the future,” Rubio says.

China’s extreme “zero-COVID” lockdowns and the subsequent supply chain disruptions are one of the main drivers of rampant inflation in the United States, says Sen. Rubio. “And this is something they didn’t intend to do. It’s just happening. Imagine if they intend to do it.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/sen-marco-rubio-how-the-chinese-regime-co-opts-our-elites-and-weaponizes-our-systems-against-us_4472373.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-17-3&utm_medium=email&est=0rUzyOfhc1pJ4XiSHeljGdp2d0Sso3YwQF7%2Fmv1zWojikUwl9vpjDmunF1KKiq6oMw%3D%3D

DEL RIO, Texas—U.S. Border Patrol has started to use, on a mass scale, a special “parole” exception that was previously used sparingly to allow tens of thousands of illegal immigrants to stay in the United States for at least a year, The Epoch Times has learned.

Under parole status, illegal immigrants don’t have to provide Border Patrol with evidence of credible fear for asylum and are permitted entry without any preconditions, except a quick background check in the U.S. crime database.

A Customs and Border Protection spokesman said the parole designation allows for overwhelmed Border Patrol stations to process large numbers of illegal aliens “significantly faster” and release them into the country much faster than the more involved current system—which releases an illegal alien with a notice to appear that includes a court date for their first immigration hearing.

Parole should be a “very, very boutique thing,” said Andrew Arthur, resident fellow in law and policy at Center for Immigration Studies and a retired immigration judge.

“This is the exact opposite of what Congress said. This is a misuse and abuse of that immigration authority that borders on malfeasance,” he said.

Through the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), Congress mandated that all inadmissible and illegal aliens be detained until their status is determined, after which they are either deported or granted entry with a legal status.

Parole is an exception and, although it’s not a legal status, it permits entry on “a case-by-case basis” for “urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit,” according to the INA.

The status allows foreign nationals “who may not otherwise be admissible to the country under the immigration laws” to live and work in the United States temporarily “without being formally admitted to the country and without having a set pathway to a permanent immigration status,” according to a 2020 Congressional Research Service report.

Arthur said parole should be used, for example, when a family member needs entry into the United States to donate a kidney to his brother, or if a witness to a criminal case is needed to testify. As associate general counsel in the former federal immigration agency, he would see a handful of parole cases a year.

However, in the first seven months of this fiscal year, CBP has mass-released more than 120,600 illegal aliens under the new “Parole+ATD” category. ATD is an Alternatives to Detention program, which is acting as a workaround of the legal requirement to detain illegal aliens.

Under ATD, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issues the illegal alien a trackable cell phone (or sometimes an ankle bracelet) that he or she can use to check in with the agency on a regular basis.

The CBP spokesman told The Epoch Times that overwhelmed Border Patrol stations are shifting to processing more illegal aliens as parolees.

“It’s more a functionality of the processing conditions at the location where they are giving out the parole-ATD,” he said.

“It’s a functionality of: How do we deal with the people that we’re encountering and how do we keep our population low for people that we cannot Title 42 back to Mexico? That’s the underlying issue.”

The spokesman said, aside from discovering a criminal record, whether an illegal alien is paroled depends on whether detention or transport space is available, the demographic of the person, as well as if the agent thinks the person is likely to abscond.

CBP didn’t provide historical data on parole numbers, or information on the nationalities of current parolees. A Border Patrol agent in Texas told The Epoch Times, on condition of anonymity, that his station is paroling Venezuelans, Cubans, and Nicaraguans.

Border Patrol agents are currently apprehending more than 7,000 illegal aliens on average per day along the southern border, and the Department of Homeland Security has warned agents to expect up to 18,000 per day in the coming months.

Failure to Show Up

The use of the parole category replaces the notice to report, which wasn’t a legal designation, but an ad hoc designation used heavily last year as Border Patrol stations were overwhelmed. The notice to report was a request to illegal aliens to report to their nearest ICE office within 60 days.

More than 104,000 notices to report were issued in the five months between the end of March and the end of October in 2021. Of those, 47,705 individuals failed to report to ICE by January this year, according to official data received by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.).

“It was an honor system [and] we got beat over the head with that. So they went back and they looked at the Title 8 law,” a CBP spokesman told The Epoch Times.

“One thing you can do is you can parole somebody who is coming into the United States as an arriving alien, and you can parole them for a year, so that they can take care of whatever humanitarian issue or whatever issue that they have to deal with.”

Parole status effectively kicks the can down the road to ICE, which issues a notice to appear once the illegal alien reports to the agency.

“The thing about parole is it gives them that year to go in and get that done,” the spokesman said.

If no contact is made, at the end of that year, the alien would revert back to the status he or she had upon arriving as an illegal alien and would be removable, he said.

Almost one-third of parolees released between July and December last year have failed to show up to ICE, according to Homeland Security data received by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas).

“Mayorkas’s DHS has refused to detain migrants—as required by law—has failed to remove innumerable people who have no right to be here, and are abusing their parole authority to continue to release tens of thousands of migrants,” Roy told The Epoch Times on May 4.

ICE’s stated priorities are such that field agents, when considering an illegal alien for removal, must obtain permission from supervisors, as well as weigh up if the individual “might be suffering from serious physical or mental illness,” or if they have ties to the community, or family members in the United States.

The agency’s available detention space for illegal immigrants has decreased in recent years, going from 51,379 detention beds in 2018 to 30,000 currently. President Joe Biden’s fiscal year 2023 budget asks for Congress to shave a further 5,000 detention beds in ICE facilities, as well as eliminate all 2,500 family beds.

Risks of Mass Parole

Arthur said the mass use of the parole designation is “a huge vulnerability.”

“The likelihood that you are going to release somebody who poses a danger to national security is extremely high. The risk that you are releasing somebody who poses a danger to the community is extremely high,” he said.

“You can run their [fingerprints], but are you going to run their criminal record in San Pedro Sula [in Honduras]? Are you going to be able to run their activities in Yemen? The vetting is only as good as the intel, and the intel isn’t that good.

“But here’s the biggest issue. This becomes a vicious circle. Because the more people who come in, the more overwhelmed you are, the more that you release, the more people are going to come in.”

During April, Border Patrol agents released more than 40,000 illegal aliens as parolees and an additional 21,769 with a notice to appear, according to CBP statistics. That’s 15,000 more parolees released than in March and the first month the parolee number has exceeded the number of those who received a notice to appear.

An amendment published in the Federal Register that will go into effect on May 31 argues the case for parole when detention space is lacking.

“Individuals placed in expedited removal proceedings would be eligible for consideration for parole from custody in accordance with section 212(d)(5) of the Act, if DHS determined, in the exercise of its discretion and on a case-by-case basis, that parole is warranted because, inter alia, detention is unavailable or impracticable (including situations in which continued detention would unduly impact the health or safety of individuals with special vulnerabilities),” the rule states.

Arthur said that interpretation isn’t how Congress intended parole to be used.

“You’re basically allowing the population to drive how you apply the law. That’s not how it works. The law determines how you handle the population,” he said.

The Trump administration used parole as a stop-gap measure before the “Remain in Mexico” program was implemented in January 2019, which then acted as a solution to the lack of detention space.

Remain in Mexico, or the Migration Protection Protocols, allowed for DHS to send illegal immigrants back to Mexico to await their immigration court proceedings—after which they’d either be denied entry or granted legal status in the United States. About 70,000 illegal immigrants had been enrolled in the program by the end of 2020.

Biden paused new enrollments in the program when he took office and, in June 2021, his administration axed the program altogether, despite being sued by Texas and Missouri in April 2021 to keep it in place.

The states argued that the program can’t be rescinded because it’s the only solution that meets the congressional requirement that illegal aliens must be detained until their cases are resolved.

The Supreme Court ruled in August 2021 that the program must continue, at least until the justices make a final ruling. In its deliberations, which began in April this year, the high court is addressing the mandatory detention aspect of immigration law, which may also ultimately determine if mass parole can continue.

Since November 2021, when the administration was forced to resume enrollments, 1,795 illegal aliens have been sent back to Mexico to await their cases, according to CBP data. The DHS has remained vocal about its intention to ultimately end Remain in Mexico.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/exclusive-border-patrol-using-rare-parole-exemption-to-quickly-release-tens-of-thousands-of-illegal-aliens-into-us_4472447.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-17-3&utm_medium=email&est=%2F6BWT1RMyZjQubcKgWko6scfwB6OV%2FQqQxsvrKRFhGzVwfNWr2OAXxlGkjsrKSwy3Q%3D%3D

Former President Donald Trump told supporters on May 14 that he’s writing a book on alleged voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, titled “The Crime of the Century.”

“I don’t think you’ll enjoy it. You’ll be very depressed when you read it, but we want to have it down for historic reasons,” Trump said during his one-hour speech at the Austin Convention Center in Texas, as part of the larger American Freedom Tour which gathers conservatives in various cities across the country.

Addressing a crowd of thousands on Saturday as the last speaker, following former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Trump railed against mail-in ballots and alluded that votes were falsified during storage.

“It starts so early, and then they want to finish late, right?” Trump said during his speech. “This is the greatest hoax, heist. This is one of the greatest crimes in the history of our country. And sadly, the prosecutors don’t want to do anything about it.

”This is the crime of the century. I’m actually writing a book about it called ‘The Crime of the Century,’” Trump said, who has also authored about 20 other books, including his best-known “The Art of the Deal” from 1987 and “Our Journey Together”—his first book since leaving office, featuring over 300 official White House photographs.

The announcement mentioned no release date.

Trump also encouraged rallygoers to watch “2000 Mules,” a new documentary by Dinesh D’Souza, described as an expose of “widespread, coordinated voter fraud in the 2020 election.

“It is the greatest documentary I’ve ever seen,” said the former president. “It is so impactful, and it’s determinative.”

The movie analyzes cellphone records paired with ballot drop box surveillance footage. Filmmakers said that the volume of ballots inserted into the boxes and the fact that the people—described as mules—went to multiple boxes to drop ballots off shows what happened was illegal, although some states allow people to gather ballots from certain people and drop them off.

Trump asserted reforms such as new voter identification requirements and outlawing drop boxes and private funding would help ensure election security and justice for the future, according to his May 14 remarks.

Besides touching on national issues including inflation, public education, and border security, Trump also highlighted several GOP candidates he endorsed at the event as midterms loom. It came 10 days before the Texas primary runoffs on May 24, when the candidates will face off with rivals running for state and local office positions.

Saturday’s feature speakers also include Donald Trump Jr. and former Trump adviser Kimberly Guilfoyle. The tour with the former president will make the next stop in Memphis, Tennessee, on June 18.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-announces-forthcoming-book-about-the-2020-election_4471686.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-17-3&utm_medium=email&est=kCgrCJ2JCgM9tvXOvNMgS7ki2sPwcB5vwCDUUHVzPc0FPE%2FCx0kcn5FhSMW5u8m9%2Bg%3D%3D

The Senate on May 16 decided in a bipartisan vote to advance a $40 billion military aid package to Ukraine, invoking cloture on debate over the objections of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

The 80–11 vote included the support of vast swaths of both parties; 11 Republicans voted against invoking cloture. The bill will now await a final vote in the Senate, which may come as early as May 18.

In comments on the Senate floor, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) decried Paul’s effort last week to block the legislation.

“Senator Paul’s obstruction of Ukraine funding is unacceptable, and only serves to strengthen Putin’s hand in the long run,” Schumer said.

“I would urge the senator from Kentucky to reconsider his objection,” Senate president pro tempore Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said later.

The bill, the latest in a series of billion-dollar aid packages to the European nation, was blocked by Paul on May 11, even though House and Senate leaders were unanimous in their agreement to proceed with passing the package.

Paul refused to advance the bill until changes were made to the legislation that would ensure an inspector general could monitor exactly how the billions of dollars were being spent. Ultimately, the Senate invoked cloture without making any changes to the final draft of the bill.

“My oath of office is to the U.S. Constitution, not to any foreign nation, and no matter how sympathetic the cause, my oath of office is to the national security of the United States of America,” Paul said on the Senate floor on May 12.

“We cannot save Ukraine by dooming the U.S. economy. … Gasoline alone is up 48 percent, and energy prices are up 32 percent over the last year. Food prices have increased by nearly 9 percent. Used vehicle prices are up 35 percent for the year, and new vehicle prices have increased 12 percent or more,” he continued.

Paul noted that inflation “doesn’t just come out of nowhere” while pointing to deficit spending, noting that the United States spent almost $5 trillion on “COVID-19 bailouts” which have led to sky-high inflation.

“Americans are feeling the pain, and Congress seems intent only on adding to that pain by shoveling more money out the door as fast as they can,” Paul said.

Following Paul’s successful effort to temporarily halt the bill, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) promised Ukrainian leaders during a weekend visit to Kyiv that the bill would still pass with the support of an “overwhelming majority of Republicans in Congress.”

Paul’s lone objection to the bill in the Senate was only the latest in a series of complications that have stalled its progress.

President Joe Biden originally requested a much smaller aid package on April 28.

Biden’s request included $20.4 billion in military assistance along with $8.5 billion in economic assistance. The package also included $3 billion in humanitarian assistance to address food shortages around the globe. Ultimately, the bill would have cost American taxpayers about $33 billion.

“The cost of this fight is not cheap, but caving to aggression is going to be more costly if we allow it to happen,” Biden said during a live address on April 28. “We either back the Ukrainian people as they defend their country, or we stand by as the Russians continue their atrocities and aggression in Ukraine.”

Later, lawmakers added about $3.4 billion to the humanitarian and military aid components of the bill, but the legislation quickly got bogged down in partisan disputes.

Some Democrats hoped for the addition of about $10 billion in domestic COVID relief funding, which was opposed by Republicans, who cited billions of dollars of previously-allocated relief funds that had not been used.

On the other side, some Republicans pushed for an amendment to overturn Biden’s plan to end Title 42, a Trump-era COVID emergency policy allowing Border Patrol agents to turn back many of the illegal immigrants apprehended at the border.

Still, after a period of stalling, the $40 billion taxpayer-funded relief bill is expected to head to Biden’s desk by the end of the week.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/senate-advances-40-billion-ukraine-bill-overruling-sen-rand-pauls-objections_4470036.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-17-1&utm_medium=email&est=HOGhe6HrS8VRgWlZTmp8nShIGRGYDEcF7VjhyldfOWBbMzm2pgvTQLsW97hZKiBKNg%3D%3D

After the release of “2000 Mules,” a film exposing the alleged ballot trafficking scheme that took place across the country, many people have been asking what the next steps are to combat this practice.

And the answer is rather simple: now that the data has been collected, the election watchdog group behind the investigation is giving presentations to the different state legislatures, in order for them to launch their own probes. 

At the end of the day, it’s the individual states—with their own police forces and their own election offices—that have the power to subpoena evidence and launch criminal inquiries.

And that appears to be exactly what’s happening.

The state of Georgia, which was featured prominently in the film, has not only launched its own investigation into ballot harvesting, but it has now also issued official subpoenas in order to identify and speak with the ballot mules and also the organizations funding them.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/facts-matter-may-16-2nd-state-featured-in-2000-mules-issues-subpoenas-for-the-names-of-ballots-mules-and-funding-ngos_4470123.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-17-1&utm_medium=email&est=DY2AdctZruL4TFpJPFqFO9T7ocDN7pqwXL6Wszcl9H2FbDzHrh%2BSUiFMQQAAiLW19g%3D%3D

• Project Veritas published a new story on Tuesday night featuring footage of Twitter Lead Client Partner Alex Martinez discussing the company’s ideology, criticizing the acquisition of the company by Elon Musk and at times denigrating Musk for his expressed views on free speech.
• Martinez: “Right now, we don’t make profit. So, I’m going to say ideology, which is what led us into not being profitable.”
• Martinez on free speech: “The rest of us who have been here believe in something that’s good for the planet and not to give people free speech.”
• Martinez on censorship: “People don’t know how to make a rational decision If you don’t put out — correct things that are supposed to be out in the public, right?”
• Martinez on Musk: “Elon Musk as a person is whatever. I don’t- like, he’s a loony toon. He has- he has Asperger’s.”
• Martinez on Musk: “He has Asperger’s… So he’s special. We all know that. And That’s fine. So here, no wonder he’s going to say some f***ing crazy sh*t because he’s special.”
• Project Veritas published a new story on Tuesday night featuring footage of Twitter Lead Client Partner, Alex Martinez, discussing the company’s ideology, criticizing the acquisition of the company by Elon Musk and, at times, denigrating Musk for his expressed views on free speech.
• Martinez: “Right now, we don’t make profit. So, I’m going to say ideology, which is what led us into not being profitable.”
• Martinez on free speech: “The rest of us who have been here believe in something that’s good for the planet and not to give people free speech.”
• Martinez on censorship: “People don’t know how to make a rational decision if you don’t put out — correct things that are supposed to be out in the public, right?”
• Martinez on Musk: “Elon Musk as a person is whatever. I don’t, like, he’s a loony toon. He has, he has Asperger’s.”
• Martinez on Musk: “He has Asperger’s… So he’s special. We all know that. And That’s fine. So here, no wonder he’s going to say some f***ing crazy sh*t because he’s special.”

[NEW YORK – May 17, 2022] Project Veritas has published the second part of their series on Twitter. This story features undercover footage of Lead Client Partner, Alex Martinez, an employee for the tech giant, who sometimes speaks on behalf of the company at events. This footage shows a very candid Martinez speaking about how the company’s “ideology” led them to be less “profitable,” among other incendiary comments.

In the video, Alex Martinez also criticizes Elon Musk’s vision of free speech on the platform saying, “The rest of us who have been here believe in something that’s good for the planet and not just to give people free speech.” He also broached the subject of censorship on Twitter saying, “People don’t know how to make a rational decision if you don’t put out — correct things that are supposed to be out in the public, right?”

Despite this, Martinez acknowledges that this very reality seems to be what Musk wants to change. “If we’re implementing all these rules…and Elon wants to dismantle them, then technically our ideology has led us to not making money because we’re not making money, and Elon wants to turn it the other way so that we can make money,” Martinez said.

Martinez even made distasteful comments about Musk having Asperger’s. “He has Asperger’s,” Martinez says at one point adding, “so, he’s special.” Going further, Martinez later says, “We all know that and that’s fine. So here, no one’s going to say some f**king crazy sh*t because he’s special.”

Last May, as he was hosting Saturday Night Live, Musk revealed that he was the first person to host the show with Asperger’s. In the video published on Tuesday, Martinez can be seen saying, “I’m like- you’re special needs! You’re literally special needs, literally though, you really are.  So, I can’t even take what you’re saying seriously cause you’re special.”

Ironically enough, Martinez can also be seen in the footage discussing an internal company memo Twitter administrative staff sent in the aftermath of Project Veritas’ first part of the series.

“It’s [Project Veritas] like some group that’s just trying to out the employees,” Martinez says. “Like, they’re trying to go on dates with them, like this, and record them.”

At the time of this writing, Twitter has yet to respond to a request for comment.

About Project Veritas

James O’Keefe established Project Veritas in 2010 as a non-profit journalism enterprise to continue his undercover reporting work. Today, Project Veritas investigates and exposes corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud, and other misconduct in both public and private institutions to achieve a more ethical and transparent society and to engage in litigation to: protect, defend and expand human and civil rights secured by law, specifically First Amendment rights including promoting the free exchange of ideas in a digital world; combat and defeat censorship of any ideology; promote truthful reporting; and defend freedom of speech and association issues including the right to anonymity. O’Keefe serves as the CEO and Chairman of the Board so that he can continue to lead and teach his fellow journalists, as well as protect and nurture the Project Veritas culture.  

https://www.projectveritas.com/news/twitter-executive-mocks-elon-musk-for-believing-public-can-make-their-own/

Statistically speaking, 90% of all murders occur WITHIN racial groups, despite what the news and the left endlessly promote. Check for yourself. (US Patriot)

Democratic mayor Lori Lightfoot is imposing a weekend curfew for all minors in Chicago following three shootings downtown last weekend that left one teenager dead.

“Young people are absolutely welcome downtown, but in the evening hours they must be accompanied by a responsible adult,” Lightfoot said on Monday after she announced the 10 p.m. curfew. The fatal shooting occurred on Saturday in Millennium Park during a weekend that saw 33 total shootings, 5 of which were fatal.

Hundreds of teenagers gathered in the Chicago Loop over the weekend, in a chaotic scene that halted traffic and saw some jump up on top of cars. Police superintendent David Brown said the crowds appear to have coordinated their efforts on social media. Twenty-six minors and four adults were arrested in connection with the Millennium Park shooting, and police found seven guns among the arrestees.

Chicago in 2021 had its deadliest year in a quarter century, with 797 homicides recorded. Under Democratic governor J.B. Pritzker, Illinois ended cash bail the same year. Law enforcement leaders have criticized the elimination of cash bail, citing cases of released criminals who committed other crimes. In August, a man released on bond bought a handgun that was later used to kill a police officer.

Lightfoot has a strained relationship with city law enforcement, who in 2020 blamed her for surging police retirements following a summer of anti-police protests.

Chicago has long had a curfew for minors at 11 p.m., but it is unclear how strictly it’s been enforced. In addition to beefing up park security, Lightfoot said she has directed the Chicago Police Department to increase tracing for guns found in the possession of minors.

The Illinois ACLU decried the mayor’s curfew order, saying “the promise of strict enforcement will result in unnecessary stops and arrests and further strain relations between CPD and young people of color.”

More than 200 citizens have been murdered this year in the Windy City. About half were younger than 30, and three-quarters were black.

MEANWHILE…

The Washington Post reported seven fatal police shootings of black Chicagoans in 2021. There have been none so far this year.

The Palestinian Authority allocates hundreds of millions of dollars to terrorists and their families even as the Biden administration pumps U.S. taxpayer funds into the Palestinian government, according to a non-public State Department report issued to Congress and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The report, published on May 10, details how the Palestinian government runs afoul of a U.S. law that bars it from receiving American aid dollars until these terror payments, known as the “pay-to-slay program,” are stopped. The PA in 2019, the most recent reporting period available, allocated over $150 million to convicted terrorists. Another $191 million was paid to the families of terrorists who were “martyred” while conducting attacks against Israelis and Americans. There is no sign these payments will end, with Palestinian leaders voicing support on the international stage for the program.

“The PA has not terminated payments for acts of terrorism against Israeli and U.S. citizens to any individual, after being fairly tried, who has been imprisoned for such acts of terrorism and to any individual who died committing such acts of terrorism, including to a family member of such individuals,” the State Department concluded. The PA makes these payments in cash as part of an effort to obfuscate its actions and stop the international community from holding it accountable for awarding terrorists and their families, according to the State Department’s findings.

The report comes as the Biden administration pushes to increase U.S. aid dollars to the PA, which were terminated during the Trump administration as a result of the “pay-to-slay” program. More than $360 million in U.S. funding was given to the PA in 2021, potentially in violation of a bipartisan law known as the Taylor Force Act, which prohibits the American government from giving the Palestinians aid as long as they pay terrorists. The Biden administration maintains that the aid programs do not violate the law, though it is unclear what safeguards have been put on the funding to ensure it is not used to pay terrorists and their families. The State Department confirmed that no “economic support funds” were withheld as a result of restrictions in the Taylor Force Act.

“The Biden administration is strongly opposed to the prisoner payment system and has consistently engaged the Palestinian Authority to end this practice,” a State Department spokesman told the Free Beacon. The U.S. Agency for International Development’s “assistance in the West Bank and Gaza is implemented consistent with U.S. law.”

Republicans in Congress disagree with this assessment. Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), for example, says the Biden administration cannot guarantee that the PA is not using U.S. funds as part of its terror financing program. Since the PA moved to a cash system, it is even harder to track which tranches of money are being used to fund “pay to slay.”

“The Biden administration is ideologically committed to elevating the Palestinian government and pouring money into Palestinian territories,” Cruz told the Free Beacon. “They’ve been doing this while they clearly knew that the same Palestinian government was inciting terrorism and using fungible money to reward terrorism against Israelis and Americans. It’s disgraceful and unacceptable.”

The PA “now makes the payments in cash and known recipients are unable to deposit the funds in bank accounts in the West Bank and Gaza” due to Israeli laws that bar financial institutions from supporting the program, according to the State Department’s findings.

Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas and prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh endorse the “pay-to-slay” program and say they will not give in to the international community’s pressure to end it. Both officials “reaffirmed the PA’s commitment to continuing the payments for prisoners, including those convicted of acts of terrorism,” according to the report.

In March 2021, for instance, Shtayyeh “publicly pledged his commitment to continue financial allowances to Palestinian prisoners and ‘martyrs’ even if Israel continues to deduct these amounts from the PA’s tax revenues,” the report notes.

Abbas in a September speech before the United Nations pledged his support to terrorists and their families: “Why should we have to clarify and justify providing assistance to families of prisoners and ‘martyrs,’ who are the victims of the occupation and its oppressive policies? We cannot abandon our people and we will continue striving to free all our prisoners.”

The State Department also concluded that the Palestinian government still teaches violence to its children as part of official school curriculums. While portions of this agenda have been reformed, “some incitement to and glorification of violence or terrorism still exist in school textbooks.” Efforts to reform the PA do not include plans to reduce incitement against Israel.

The State Department told lawmakers in its latest report that the administration “at all levels … continues to privately engage the PA to end this abhorrent practice.”

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/how-the-palestinians-pay-terrorists-as-biden-pumps-millions-of-aid-dollars-into-their-government/

‘Rodham’ imagines a political career unburdened by a horny husband

Hulu, the streaming platform behind the 2020 documentary Hillary, has rejected another project based on the life of the failed presidential candidate.

The network has officially passed on Rodham, a project based on Curtis Sittenfeld’s bestselling novel by the same name, which envisioned an alternative universe in which Hillary Rodham met and dated Bill Clinton at Yale Law School but never married the prolific philanderer.

Actors Claire Danes, 43, and Dakota Fanning, 28, have already signed on to play Hillary at various stages of her life. The project, which will be written and produced by former House of Cards writer-producer Sarah Treem, is currently being shopped to other streaming platforms.

Published in May 2020, Rodham provides an alternative history of Hillary’s life in which Bill persuades her not to marry him because he knows he could never be faithful. She goes on to become a successful law professor at Northwestern University and eventually a U.S. senator from Illinois.

The book culminates with Hillary making history as the first woman elected president of the United States in 2016 by defeating Republican Jeb Bush in the general election—with Terry McAuliffe as her running mate.

In this universe, Hillary recently attended the Met Gala, where she was photographed smiling on the red carpet as a black man in a protective face mask tended to her fancy ball gown.

https://freebeacon.com/media/hillary-clinton-claire-danes/

The gunman who shot up a Southern California church filled with Taiwanese congregants is a Chinese immigrant motivated by his hate for the Taiwanese, the Orange County sheriff’s office said Monday.

David Chou, 68, of Las Vegas killed one congregant and wounded five others during the shooting at Geneva Presbyterian Church on Sunday. He was subdued and hog-tied with electrical cords by parishioners until law enforcement arrived, an act of “exceptional heroism and bravery,” according to one sheriff’s official. All of the victims were seniors.

“I join the families of the victims and Taiwanese American communities in grief and pray for the speedy recovery of the wounded survivors,” said Taiwan’s ambassador to the United States, Bi-khim Hsiao, on Twitter.

The shooting came a day after a racially motivated rampage in Buffalo, N.Y., in which an 18-year-old white nationalist shot and killed 10 people at a supermarket.

https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/california-church-shooter-was-a-chinese-immigrant-motivated-by-hate-for-taiwanese/

Joe Biden’s sister was warned ahead of her appearance on The View that one of the cohosts planned to ask about Hunter Biden’s legal troubles.

Valerie Biden Owens, a longtime Democratic political operative, appeared on the daytime talk show in April to discuss Biden “family dynamics” while promoting her book, Growing Up Biden. But Vanity Fair reports that Owens had “been warned during a commercial” to expect a question about Hunter from conservative View guest host Alyssa Farah Griffin.

Members of the media have repeatedly run interference to protect the Biden family from stories of Hunter’s exploits. Shortly before the elections, CNN, NPR, Politico, and other outlets suggested the reports of Hunter’s illicit activities were “Russian disinformation.” Multiple outlets including the New York Times have since confirmed the veracity of those initial reports.

https://freebeacon.com/media/sneak-pre-view-bidens-sister-got-tip-about-hunter-question/

Steve Schmidt’s abasement makes public what we’ve known for a long time

No Books. No Money. Just the Truth. That’s the title of the meandering Substack post Steve Schmidt threw up last week at the tail end of a two-day Twitter bender. In that time, he didn’t take more than an hour away from the keyboard, tapping out stilted and overwrought attacks against the late war hero John McCain and his daughter, Meghan.

Since then, he’s widened the aperture, lashing out at the living, from Republican lawmakers (New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts) to journalists (Maggie Haberman, Matt Lewis, Jonah Goldberg) and another subset of former colleagues (sorry, Lincoln Project).

Schmidt, in what is obviously a mental unraveling, denies any responsibility for McCain’s decision to tap Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008. He claims he didn’t even sit down with Palin until after McCain had made his choice and that, in the end, he didn’t even vote for the old man.

“This was a lapse in John’s judgment, not mine,” he writes. “My mistake was leaving John McCain alone in a room with her.” Schmidt elaborated days later in an interview with the Kyiv Post. “The first time I had a conversation with her was after the decision had been made,” he said of Palin, adding that he went “bananaramas” over the decision—whatever that means.

Well, there was a book! It was called Game Change, and Schmidt and his fellow turncoat Nicolle Wallace were the primary sources for it. The book eventually earned Schmidt a red-carpet appearance with Woody Harrelson, who played him on the big screen.

According to Game Change, Palin’s vetting was hardly outsourced. The authors describe an hours-long conversation between Schmidt, Palin, and McCain aide Mark Salter that took place before her selection at the Flagstaff, Ariz., home of McCain supporter Bob Delgado. Schmidt “wanted to be sure Palin was ready for what she’d face and would toe the line.”

But he and Salter, by their own account, dropped the ball. “They asked her nothing to plumb the depths of her knowledge about foreign or domestic policy,” the book recounts. “They didn’t explore her preparedness to be vice president. They assumed she knew as much as the average governor, and that what she didn’t know, she would pick up on the fly. They weren’t searching for problems. They were looking for a last-second solution.”

It wasn’t just the book. There were news reports, too! A 2012 New York Times article chronicled how Schmidt had parlayed the disastrous McCain campaign into fame and fortune through “self-criticism and challenges to his own party.” (Sound familiar?)

“It was Mr. Schmidt who first championed Sarah Palin as Mr. McCain’s running mate, a bold move, he told Mr. McCain, that could win him the White House,” reporter Adam Nagourney wrote. “My regret,” Schmidt told Nagourney, “is I should have been the guy to say, ‘Stop, it’s too risky.’ As opposed to the guy saying: ‘Let’s take the risk. We have to win this.'”

Was Schmidt lying then, or is he lying now? That’s a trick question. He’s been lying the whole way. That includes his complaint that, when the McCain campaign ended, “Sarah Palin lashed out at Nicolle Wallace and me” and “smeared us as disloyal leakers.”

Schmidt’s public self-abasement has made clear for all to see what was evident to those who served on the campaign: He is disloyal and he did smear Palin in an attempt to preserve his reputation with the same reporters who breathlessly regurgitate the bullshit of a deranged man 14 years on. (Attention, New York Times reporters, the link to your archive is here.)

Now Schmidt says he’s converting to Judaism. We hope that’s a lie, too, but if not, we await the epic Twitter thread denouncing Hashem. It can’t be long.

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/leaker-liar-turncoat-nut-job/

In a 6–3 vote, the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional a campaign finance rule regulating the repayment of loans by a candidate to his own campaign, handing a win on May 16 to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who challenged the Federal Election Commission (FEC) regulation.

“[The decision] is a resounding victory for the First Amendment,” a spokesperson for Cruz told The Post Millennial.

“Sen. Cruz is gratified that the Supreme Court ruled that the existing law imposed an unconstitutional restriction on free speech that unfairly benefited incumbent politicians and the super-wealthy. This landmark decision will help invigorate our democratic process by making it easier for challengers to take on and defeat career politicians.”

The appeal to the Supreme Court was brought by the FEC after a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia unanimously ruled against the agency last year.

The legal provision in question is in Section 304 of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) of 2002, which imposed restrictions on post-election contributions by limiting the amount that a candidate may be repaid from such funds to $250,000.

Cruz lent his campaign committee money, and the committee deliberately failed to categorize the unrepaid part of the loan—$10,000—as a campaign contribution in order to launch a First Amendment-based challenge to the rule.

The case grew out of the 2018 election cycle that culminated in the Republican U.S. senator’s victory over Beto O’Rourke, a Democrat, by 2.6 percentage points. O’Rourke raised more than twice as much money as Cruz in the high-profile, record-breaking $115 million Senate race.

Cruz wrote in a brief that Section 304 unconstitutionally deters candidates from lending money to their campaigns by restricting the campaign’s ability to repay.

The $250,000 repayment limit, “by substantially increasing the risk that any candidate loan will never be fully repaid—forces a candidate to think twice before making those loans in the first place.” As the district court found, this limit burdens a candidate’s right to speak freely in favor of his own election and “runs afoul of the First Amendment.”

The Biden administration had argued that disallowing the rule would open the door to bribery in elections, but the high court found that the restriction on candidates’ post-election use of political contributions to recover personal funds lent to the campaign ran afoul of First Amendment speech protections.

The decision (pdf) in FEC v. Ted Cruz for Senate, written by Chief Justice Roberts, was joined by the court’s five other conservative justices. Justice Elena Kagan wrote a dissenting opinion that was backed by Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor.

“The question is whether this restriction violates the First Amendment rights of candidates and their campaigns to engage in political speech,” Roberts wrote.

“There is no doubt that the law does burden First Amendment electoral speech, and any such law must at least be justified by a permissible interest.”

Roberts then directly quoted the 2014 plurality opinion in McCutcheon v. FEC, saying that “when the government restricts speech, the government bears the burden of proving the constitutionality of its actions.”

The government “is unable to identify a single case of quid pro quo corruption … even though most states do not impose a limit on the use of post-election contributions to repay candidate loans.”

The government failed to demonstrate that Section 304 of the BCRA “furthers a permissible anti-corruption goal, rather than the impermissible objective of simply limiting the amount of money in politics,” according to Roberts.

The rule “burdens core political speech without proper justification.”

Kagan wrote that the Supreme Court, which in recent years has been weakening campaign finance restrictions, was making a mistake.

“In striking down the law today the court greenlights all the sordid bargains Congress thought right to stop. … In allowing those payments to go forward unrestrained, today’s decision can only bring this country’s political system into further disrepute,” she wrote.

Kagan embraced the bribery argument advanced by the Biden administration.

“Repaying a candidate’s loan after he has won election cannot serve the usual purposes of a contribution: The money comes too late to aid in any of his campaign activities,” she wrote. “All the money does is enrich the candidate personally at a time when he can return the favor—by a vote, a contract, an appointment.

“It takes no political genius to see the heightened risk of corruption—the danger of ‘I’ll make you richer and you’ll make me richer’ arrangements between donors and officeholders.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/victory-for-ted-cruz-as-supreme-court-rebuffs-biden-administration-strikes-down-campaign-spending-rule_4468762.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&utm_campaign=mb-2022-05-17&utm_medium=email&est=2%2BzWYsq0U2DyZ5BVDGeiuVXVLd0HEbw3dPStJBuUTBOj39uSLBa2smHY9y8wKbF5IQ%3D%3D

Two key National Institutes for Health (NIH) executives in positions of influence on decisions about who gets grants from the agency received a total of 77 previously undisclosed royalty payments from outside firms between 2010 and 2014.

The secret royalty payments, which were first reported by The Epoch Times, are among thousands estimated to total at least $350 million paid between 2010 and 2020. Former NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins received 14 payments, Anthony Fauci, who heads NIH’s National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), received 23, and Clifford Lane, Fauci’s chief deputy, got eight payments.

Acting NIH Director Lawrence Tabak conceded during questioning last week by Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) that the undisclosed royalties had the “appearance of a conflict of interest,” but he insisted that the agency has sufficient internal safeguards to prevent such problems. Federal law and ethics regulations bar federal employees from activities that present either the appearance or an actual conflict of interest.

Dr. Michael Gottesman, who has been the NIH’s deputy director for intramural research (DDIR) since 1994, received 70 royalty payments during the five-year period from 2010 to 2014, according to documents recently obtained by the nonprofit government watchdog Open the Books (OTB) as a result of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for extensive data on all payments from 2o10 to the present.

Open the Books is a Chicago-based nonprofit government watchdog that uses federal and state freedom of information laws to obtain and then post on the internet trillions of dollars in spending at all levels of government.

According to his official resume on the NIH website, Gottesman “coordinates activities and facilitates cooperation among the 24 Institute- and Center-based Scientific Directors to achieve the scientific, training, and public health missions of the NIH Intramural Research Program.

“He provides guidance for the entire intramural program and reports to [Acting NIH Director Lawrence Tabak]. He oversees and ultimately approves the hiring of all NIH principal investigators, and he is the institutional official responsible for human subjects research protections, research integrity, technology transfer, and animal care and use at the NIH.

“During his tenure as DDIR, Dr. Gottesman has created the post-baccalaureate training program, the Graduate Partnerships Program (which permits graduate students to conduct thesis research at NIH); implemented loan repayment programs; institutionalized an intramural tenure track and new career tracks for clinical investigators; created the NIH Intramural Database (providing online information about all researchers and research at NIH); and spearheaded multiple other programs in the realm of diversity, equity, research integrity, and leadership.”

Gottesman announced in July 2021 his resignation from the DDIR position, pending the selection of his successor. He plans to remain as chief of the Laboratory of Cell Biology in the NIH’s National Cancer Institute after his DDIR successor is chosen.

The NIH initially ignored OTB’s request until the nonprofit filed a FOIA lawsuit in federal court. At that point, the NIH agreed to begin producing the requested documents in a series of monthly tranches.

But who paid the 70 royalties to Gottesman, the amounts of the payments, and for what purpose the payments were made isn’t known, since the NIH is redacting payment amounts and the payers’ identities from documents the agency is providing to OTB as a result of the FOIA.

The Epoch Times has requested from NIH the names of the payers of the 70 payments to Gottesman, the amounts of each payment, and the purpose for which the payment was made. The NIH hasn’t responded.

An additional seven royalty payments of unknown amounts from unknown payers were made to Roger Glass, the NIH’s associate director for international research. Glass was appointed to the post in 2006.

Congressional Democrats, including Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chairwoman Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), were silent when asked last week by The Epoch Times about the secret royalty payments.

Republicans on Capitol Hill, however, ripped the payments as an obvious conflict of interest and called for full disclosure of all the facts.

“NIH receives tens of billions of taxpayer dollars and is entrusted with making unbiased scientific assessments and recommendations,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) told The Epoch Times. “Their top officials, like any public officials, need to be held to the highest standards of transparency and accountability to prevent conflicts of interest and ensure the American people’s health and safety remains the agency’s top priority. The NIH must be held accountable to the American people.”

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) called the NIH “a dark money pit.”

“They covered up grants for gain-of-function research in Wuhan, so it is no surprise that they are now refusing to release critical data regarding allegations of millions in royalty fees paid to in-house scientists like Fauci. If the NIH wants to keep spending taxpayer dollars, they have a responsibility to provide transparency.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said, “This report is disturbing and if it is true that some of our country’s top scientists have conflict of interest problems, the American people deserve to have all the answers.”

Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) called for an investigation, noting: “Of course it’s a direct conflict of interest for scientists like Anthony Fauci to rake in $350 million in royalties from third parties who benefit from federal taxpayer-funded grants.

“Anthony Fauci is a millionaire that has gotten rich off taxpayer dollars. He is a prime example of the bloated federal bureaucracy. This royalty system should be examined to ensure it isn’t making matters worse.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/key-nih-research-executive-received-70-secret-royalty-payments-colleague-got-7_4470235.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&utm_campaign=mb-2022-05-17&utm_medium=email&est=VRD4igyJ%2Bwgi%2FIHeX2FDbowHtMWpbXaspC3cmshlAEW0p3Mvs8Itn2J6dTt6V9dHtw%3D%3D

The protection afforded against the Omicron coronavirus variant fades quickly after a second and third dose of Pfizer–BioNtech’s COVID-19 vaccine, according to a peer-reviewed study published in the JAMA Network.

A Danish study published in the JAMA Network on May 13 found that there was a rapid decline in Omicron-specific serum neutralizing antibodies only a few weeks after the administration of the second and third doses of the vaccine.

The study evaluated 128 adults who were vaccinated, and of that number, 73 people received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, and 55 people received three doses between January 2021 and October 2021 or were previously infected before February 2021, and then vaccinated.

“Our study found a rapid decline in Omicron-specific serum neutralizing antibody titers only a few weeks after the second and third doses,” an abstract of the study reads. “The observed decrease in population neutralizing antibody titers corresponds to the decrease in vaccine efficacy against polymerase chain reaction–confirmed Omicron infection in Denmark and symptomatic Omicron infection in the United Kingdom.”

The antibody levels, which are associated with protection against future infections, dropped within a few weeks of getting the vaccine doses. They were also much lower than the antibodies specific to the Delta and original COVID-19 strains, according to the study.

The proportion of Omicron-specific antibodies fell to 53 percent between the eighth and tenth week from 76 percent four weeks after the second dose. At weeks 12 to 14, these levels dropped even more to only 19 percent, according to the study.

Those antibodies increased with a third dose, increasing 21-fold three weeks after the dose before dropping to eightfold at week four. But with the third dose, antibody levels dropped as early as three weeks, falling 5.4-fold between the third and eighth week, the researchers said.

They concluded that it may be needed to provide additional booster doses to combat the Omicron variant, which emerged last fall, primarily among older individuals.

However, a study from Israeli researchers published in early April in the New England Journal of Medicine found that a fourth dose, or a second booster, of the Pfizer vaccine, doesn’t offer strong protection.

“Overall, these analyses provided evidence for the effectiveness of a fourth vaccine dose against severe illness caused by the omicron variant, as compared with a third dose administered more than 4 months earlier,” the study’s authors wrote at the time, after analyzing data from the Israeli Ministry of Health. “For confirmed infection, a fourth dose appeared to provide only short-term protection and a modest absolute benefit.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/pfizers-covid-vaccine-protection-against-omicron-fades-after-a-few-weeks-study_4469611.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&utm_campaign=mb-2022-05-17&utm_medium=email&est=CLUXXB%2FCyhF%2Fd7FmmyIECSeyZVA1UBLSupqh%2FVP85k028wWVF7Wm5RtRz9VKHV%2FKCA%3D%3D

• Project Veritas published a new story on Monday night featuring footage of Twitter Senior Engineer, Siru Murugesan, discussing how employees at the tech company “hate” Elon Musk’s impending acquisition of Twitter among several other explosive soundbites.
• Leaving no doubt to one of the primary sources of the rift between Musk and employees at Twitter, Murugesan at one point says: “Twitter does not believe in free speech… Elon believes in free speech.”
• Murugesan: “Our jobs are at stake, he’s a capitalist and we weren’t really operating as capitalists, more like very socialist. Like we’re all like commie as f**k.”
• Murugesan on attempts to prevent the Musk deal: “We did all we could to like revolt against it. A lot of employees were revolting against it.”
• Murugesan on Twitter offering equal access to both parties: “I don’t know if two parties can truly coexist on one platform.”
• Murugesan on how Twitter employees are dealing with the changes at Twitter: “They’re like, ‘this would be my last day if it happens…’ a lot has changed. Like, we’re stress eating a lot. Like, we’re all worried for our jobs.”

In the video, Twitter Sr. Engineer, Siru Murugesan, says many of his colleagues have voiced “this would be my last day if it happens,” referring to Musk’s high publicized intended purchase of Twitter. He also says employees at Twitter are “stress-eating” and “worried for our jobs.”

More significant than those soundbites are the reasons he says employees at Twitter feel this way.

“Our jobs are at stake; he’s a capitalist and we weren’t really operating as capitalists, more like very socialist,” Murugesan says before adding, “we’re all like commie as f**k.”

Murugesan also pointed to free speech being one of the core issues employees at Twitter have with its new likely owner, Elon Musk.

When asked about the difference between Twitter’s definition of free speech and Musk’s, the Sr. Engineer left no room for interpretation. “Twitter does not believe in free speech,” said Murugesan answering the undercover journalist.

Back in March, Musk said he was a “free speech absolutist” and clarified his comments further adding, “By free speech, I simply mean that which matches the law. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law. If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people.”

Murugesan also explained how Twitter employees did all they could to “revolt against” Musk’s takeover of the company.

“We did all we could to like revolt against it. A lot of employees were revolting against it, but at the end of the day, the board of directors have the say.”

He added that he thought the board “… acted on their best interests ‘cause they didn’t want to get sued…. they’re always looking out for themselves at the end of the day.”

At the time of this writing, Twitter has yet to respond to a request for comment.

About Project Veritas

James O’Keefe established Project Veritas in 2010 as a non-profit journalism enterprise to continue his undercover reporting work. Today, Project Veritas investigates and exposes corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud, and other misconduct in both public and private institutions to achieve a more ethical and transparent society and to engage in litigation to: protect, defend and expand human and civil rights secured by law, specifically First Amendment rights including promoting the free exchange of ideas in a digital world; combat and defeat censorship of any ideology; promote truthful reporting; and defend freedom of speech and association issues including the right to anonymity. O’Keefe serves as the CEO and Chairman of the Board so that he can continue to lead and teach his fellow journalists, as well as protect and nurture the Project Veritas culture. 

https://www.projectveritas.com/news/twitter-senior-engineer-talks-elon-musk-takeover-in-new-undercover-video/

JOE KENT AND JAKE BEQUETTE ARE NEXT.

America’s involvement in Ukraine presents a clarifying contrast for the 2022 elections.

The old guard, establishment GOP supports plunging America deeply into a regional conflict in Eurasia. Interventionists like Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, and Kevin McCarthy lock arms with radical Democrats to fund an escalation of a war for the eastern border of Ukraine. Meanwhile, America’s own border has been vaporized. Literally millions of unvetted illegals stream into the United States, welcomed in by our political elites.

Ukraine, in fact, proved pivotal in the come-from-behind victory of JD Vance in the Ohio GOP primary for the US Senate. Powerful globalist forces poured massive resources into advertising against Vance. Ukraine became the starkest policy difference of that tough primary race, with Vance insisting that America work to de-escalate the crisis. He also boldly asserted that the war there, while tragic, involves no strategic US national interest. Vance himself was deployed to Iraq as a US Marine and knows well the realities of unnecessary war. Though the corporate media and establishment GOP howled at Vance’s America First foreign policy of realism and restraint, the voters of Ohio rallied to this agenda.

Upcoming races could unfold similarly.

At the voter level, the GOP has been transformed into a pro-worker, populist nationalist party. But at the officeholder and donor level, the battle rages on between the throwback Bush-style globalists and the Trumpian patriotic populists.

Like Vance, two other military veterans, America First candidates – Jake Bequette and Joe Kent — make Ukraine de-escalation an important pillar of their outsider, renegade campaigns.

The Natural State.

In Arkansas, Jake Bequette takes on career politician, incumbent Senator John Boozman.

After more than two decades in Congress, Boozman remains an unremarkable and dependably establishment figure who poorly represents his deeply red, America First home state. The Arkansas state motto is literally “Regnat Populus” or “The People Rule.” 

But Boozman obediently joins D.C.’s escalation chorus, declaring “the United States must continue to provide Ukraine with… military and humanitarian assistance.” He also appears ready to approve the mammoth $40 billion aid package passed by Nancy Pelosi’s House. Only a handful of Republican senators have voiced opposition. Boozman is not one of them.

In substance and style, Bequette provides a stark contrast to backbench Boozman. Jake excelled on the gridiron as a third generation University of Arkansas Razorback football player. After his all-SEC college career, he played in the pros, earning a Super Bowl ring with the New England Patriots. After football, he volunteered for the Army and served America in the 101^st Airborne, qualified as a Ranger, and was deployed to Iraq.

On Ukraine, Bequette insists on the America First approach espoused by President Trump who declared: “it doesn’t make sense that Russia and Ukraine aren’t sitting down and working out some kind of an agreement.” Pushing back against the Washington war machine, Bequette observes: “the people of Arkansas could sure use $40 billion to be better spent here at home.” He has further asserted that Ukraine “is a massive money laundering operation for the DC uniparty.”

The Evergreen State.

Like Vance and Bequette, Joe Kent in the state of Washington takes on the establishment as a bold outsider. Kent challenges incumbent Congressman Jaime Herrera Beutler, who voted to impeach Donald Trump. Herrera Beutler also voted in favor of the giant, taxpayer-funded military escalation package for Ukraine, supporting Pelosi and establishment Republicans against braver members like Jim Jordan, Jim Banks, and Marjorie Taylor Greene.MUST READ:  CORTES: Vance’s Victory Over Ukraine Warmongers is an America First Foreign Policy Win.

Kent stands against inserting America into this regional conflict. As much as any American, Kent understands the gravity of war. He joined the Army out of high school and fought as a Special Forces warrior in 11 total combat deployments. Tragically, his wife Shannon Kent was killed while serving in the US Navy fighting against ISIS in Syria in 2019.

Informed by his family’s sacrifices, Kent insists on prioritizing our various systemic crises here at home, and not costly globalist interventions. He posted on social media:

“40 billion to Ukraine is the same scam we saw over & over again in the last 2 decades of endless wars. The uniparty sends $ to wars to line their pockets w/ $ from defense contractors. This system is so powerful our leaders don’t care if our babies starve, war is their priority.”

The Vance playbook will work in other GOP primaries.

JD, Jake, and Joe represent exactly the kind of bold outsiders with the guts to truly defang the Washington permanent political class. America needs all three of these veteran warriors in the Congress where they will prevent sending other young Americans to unnecessary wars. 

RESEARCHERS FOUND THERE MAY BE “HARMFUL UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES” OF MASK WEARING.

Countries with high levels of mask compliance did not perform better than those with low mask usage,” found a new study, whose data and analysis instead discovered a “moderate positive correlation between mask usage and deaths.”

The peer-reviewed study – “Correlation Between Mask Compliance and COVID-19 Outcomes in Europe” – was authored by Beny Spira, an Associate Professor at the University of São Paulo whose research focuses on the molecular genetics of microorganisms.

Published in the Cureus Journal of Medical Science on April 19th, 2022, the paper describes its purpose as “analyz[ing] the correlation between mask usage against morbidity and mortality rates in the 2020-2021 winter in Europe.

“Data from 35 European countries on morbidity, mortality, and mask usage during a six-month period were analyzed and crossed,” continued the study, which encompassed a total of 602 million people.

“The findings presented in this short communication suggest that countries with high levels of mask compliance did not perform better than those with low mask usage in the six-month period that encompassed the second European wave of COVID-19,” Spira summarized.

“The lack of negative correlations between mask usage and COVID-19 cases and deaths suggest that the widespread use of masks at a time when an effective intervention was most needed, i.e., during the strong 2020-2021 autumn-winter peak, was not able to reduce COVID-19 transmission.”

Beyond finding no benefit to mask mandate compliance in curtailing the spread of COVID-19, the paper found a “moderate positive correlation” between the use of masks and COVID-19 deaths.

“Moreover, the moderate positive correlation between mask usage and deaths in Western Europe also suggests that the universal use of masks may have had harmful unintended consequences,” it asserted based on the following figures:

“The positive correlation between mask usage and cases was not statistically significant (rho = 0.136, p = 0.436), while the correlation between mask usage and deaths was positive and significant (rho = 0.351, p = 0.039). The Spearman’s correlation between masks and deaths was considerably higher in the West than in East European countries: 0.627 (p = 0.007) and 0.164 (p = 0.514), respectively.”

Spira also explains how confounding factors that could have potentially influenced the study – vaccination rates or prior levels of COVID-19 – were irrelevant:

Concerning disparate vaccination rates between countries, he explained “this is unlikely given the fact that at the end of the period analysed in this study (31th March 2021), vaccination rollout was still at its beginning, with only three countries displaying vaccination rates higher than 20%: the UK (48%), Serbia (35%), and Hungary (30%), with all doses counted individually.”

“It could also be claimed that the rise in infection levels prompted mask usage resulting in higher levels of masking in countries with already higher transmission rates. While this assertion is certainly true for some countries, several others with high infection rates, such as France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain had strict mask mandates in place since the first semester of 2020. In addition, during the six-month period covered by this study, all countries underwent a peak in COVID-19 infections (Figures 1, 2), thus all of them endured similar pressures that might have potentially influenced the level of mask usage,” he added.

The study comes amidst the White House pledging to fight to reinstate to the recently overturned federal mask mandate for travelers.

A coalition of five bowling alleys and family entertainment centers is suing Michigan’s Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, for losses incurred due to her mandatory COVID-19 shutdowns in 2020.

Michigan Dept. of Health and Human Services director Robert Gordon is also a defendant in the case.

The plaintiffs allege that the shutdowns imposed by Whitmer and Gordon were a “taking” of their businesses without just compensation in violation of both the state and the U.S. Constitution.

The case has been winding its way through the federal courts since January 2021.

The coalition lost the first round of the legal battle when the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan ruled against it.

Oral arguments were recently held before a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

Plaintiff’s chief counsel David Kallman told The Epoch Times after the appeals court hearing, “The oral arguments from both sides were vigorous. The judges asked a lot of questions. It was the kind of proceeding that makes you proud to be a lawyer.

“Even the defense acknowledges that we are presenting ‘novel’ arguments.

“Michigan is the only state in the nation where a governor’s public health emergency powers were overturned as unconstitutional.

“If we lose in the court of appeals, we will take this case to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Scott Bennett, executive director of the Independent Bowling and Entertainment Centers Association, told The Epoch Times,

“The governor’s actions were devastating to our industry.

“Things went from ‘two weeks to slow the spread’ to indefinite shutdowns.”

Bennett said that the forced closures were not based on solid scientific proof that bowling alleys and family entertainment centers would spread the virus any more than the Walmart stores or the GM plants that were allowed to remain open.

“They were allowed to operate with hundreds and even thousands of people in them but we had to shut down. We feel our industry was unfairly singled-out.

“We cannot stand for a repeat of such arbitrary treatment and don’t want the people of Michigan to forget what was done to them.”

With the recent uptick in COVID cases and the approaching mid-term elections, Bennett said his members that survived the 2020 shutdowns feel like it can happen all over again.

“It’s like operating day-to-day with a hammer held over your head. The uncertainty is altering business plans. The value of our businesses is dropping through the floor,” Bennett said.

Fred Kautz, the proprietor of Kautz’s Shore Lanes in Lexington, Michigan, started working in the family business when he was 13.

The business has 12 bowling lanes, a bar, an arcade, a restaurant, and living quarters upstairs.

“We’ve owned this place for 42 years. For me and my family, it’s more than a place to work. It’s a way of life. And it has become an institution in our community—a real gathering place,” said Kautz.

He said he is still smarting from what happened after Whitmer’s executive actions were ruled unconstitutional by the Michigan Supreme Court in the fall of 2020.

“We got a little reprieve. We thought we were in the clear until she came back with another round of forced closures, this time under the authority of the Michigan Department of Public Health.

“The first 30 days knocked us right on our butts. But we were willing to cooperate, to do our part. We were all scared and we did not want to see harm come to anybody.

“We lost a lot of money at the time. We are coming back slowly, but our overall revenue is still down 20 percent from pre-pandemic days. That’s hard to make up.

“In the spring of 2020, I tried to do what was recommended and go along. Never again!

“If my Dad was still alive, he’d have never closed at all,” said Kautz.

Brian and Mindy Hill, owners of I.C. Strikes, a 16-lane bowling alley, bar, and snack bar in Imlay City said their business was hit hard by the shutdowns.

Brian was the town barber for 25 years, before purchasing the bowling alley where he learned to bowl as a child.

“We took over in December 2018. We’d saved up money to buy this place and make some upgrades. When COVID hit, we were forced to close down. It took all the money we saved for improvements just to survive,” said Brian.

The Hills said they never thought they’d see the day when their own government could do something like that to them.

“They shut us down. They took away our livelihood with no end date in sight. Then they wanted to loan us money. Think about that. They first put us in a situation where we had zero income to pay our previous debt. And then they wanted to loan us more money.

“Lots of small business people lost their businesses but kept their debt. It ruined them,” said Brian.

The Hills did apply for and receive a Small Business Administration loan at 3.25 percent interest for 30 years, and they participated in the Paycheck Protection Program which helped their business survive.

Up the road from the Hill’s bowling alley is Jump City, a large indoor recreation center offering an array of bouncy houses and arcade games for children.

Assistant manager Mary Bacon told The Epoch Times, “We lost a lot of business. We were forced to close for 15 months and had to make our payments with no income.”

Bacon remembers the morning of March 16, 2020, when many area businesses were gearing up for big St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.

“By afternoon everybody had to close. All that food went to waste.

“The shutdown was supposed to be for a couple of weeks. Nobody foresaw it would drag on for a year and three months.

“Oh, they said we could open again, but they so severely restricted the number of customers that we lost all of our big birthday parties. With so few kids allowed in, we couldn’t operate. We were losing too much money.”

Bacon said people are coming back to the center but are still scared, even though the games and bouncy houses are continuously cleaned and sanitized.

Before the pandemic, Danny Brown owned a roller rink in Grand Blanc and Owasso, two south-central Michigan towns.

“The lockdowns forced us to sell the Owasso rink for less than half of what we paid for it. We will be trying to make up our loss for years to come.”

Brown, who is a plaintiff in the lawsuit, told The Epoch Times, “To keep going I had to decide to triple our debt. Since the shutdown, I am three-quarters of a million dollars deeper in debt.

“Small businesses put everything on the line. All of our personal and family money. I am personally responsible for our debt. If I die my children will have to pay it.”

Brown said Michigan’s government acted without a real understanding and regarded the state’s small businesses as “nonessential throwaways.”

“One of the reasons we filed suit is to push the government to think differently,” he said.

According to Brown, family entertainment centers like skating rinks, bowling alleys, arcades, pool halls, miniature golf, and go-cart tracks have been nearly wiped out.

“A few years ago, there were 3,500 roller skating rinks in the United States. Now there are 700. There were five rinks in Genesee County, now there are two.” he said.

Brown attributes the decrease to years of ongoing government mandates and interference that led up to the COVID-19 lockdowns.

“They took, they stole our businesses!” he said.

Donn Slimmen, another plaintiff in the case, owns Spartan West Bowling in the west Michigan resort town of Ludington.

“The lockdown just about killed us. It was 14 to 15 months of agony. Our bank payments and utility bills didn’t stop. We went from being two to three months behind to more months behind.

“We entered into survival mode. We ate a lot of pork and beans and hotdogs. We’re still trying to work ourselves out of the hole. By the end of this summer, we might be solvent again.

“We were lucky to survive. We are still hanging on by threads,” said Slimmen.

Along with 16 bowling lanes, Slimmen operates a full-service restaurant.

“It’s never come back. Pre-pandemic, we’d serve 200 customers at an ordinary Friday fish fry. Now our best night is 100.

“Our restaurant went from a thriving seated-guest business to a take-out operation grossing only two to three percent of the seated sales.

“We were spending $400 to take in proceeds of $100.

“The politicians and bureaucrats don’t understand. They never cleaned a toilet seat or climbed into a bowling machine to fix it,” said Slimmen.

Slimmen blames Gov.Gretchen Whitmer for the plight of his community and the state.

“You didn’t see Republican governors closing businesses. Their states did so much better.

“Drive through downtown Ludington or Muskegon and look at all the boarded-up storefronts. So many places are out of business. Michigan is in terrible shape,” Slimmen said.

The Tomassoni family has been in the bowling business for 84 years in the western Upper Peninsula town of Iron Mountain, Michigan.

“We had to close bowling and our banquet facility a total of 161 days in two different periods of time in 2020. After the second shutdown, we could operate at 25 percent occupancy and only during restricted hours. No wedding receptions, no special events. It was a disaster.

“It ripped my heart out. I am so bitter towards my government,” said owner Pete Tomassoni.

Tomassoni’s business suffered further because of its proximity to Wisconsin which is only minutes away.

“Wisconsin closed for just 30 days. For the most part, they were wide open. That really hurt us.

“Our governor was picking and choosing which of our state’s businesses could operate. To force a business to close with no notice and without proven science is straight out wrong.

“I think that she came down so hard on small business because we, by and large, lean to the right.

“The state dangled the threat of yanking business licenses to keep people in line.

“Some of our businesses tried to defy the state and stayed open illegally. It didn’t work out so good for them,” said Tomassoni.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/businesses-suing-whitmer-for-losses-due-to-covid-shutdown-allege-uncompensated-taking_4469666.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-16-4&utm_medium=email&est=8MfLOVDtQAM1njGMJ70Uod8W4oHp4WOZVoxtiLX%2B6wBBDEzOWbRFotgd4c0yF1jOyQ%3D%3D

A divided Supreme Court ruled 5–4 on May 16 against a longtime illegal alien who falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen on a driver’s license application, upholding a law that prevents federal courts from reviewing factual findings made by the Department of Justice in deportation proceedings.

The new ruling suggests that federal law isn’t sympathetic to individuals who falsely hold themselves out as U.S. citizens.

The majority opinion (pdf) in the case, Patel v. Garland, court file 20-979, was written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Four conservative members of the court—Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh—joined Barrett’s opinion.

Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote a strongly worded dissenting opinion, which was joined by the court’s three liberal justices—Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan.

Pankajkumar Patel is a citizen of India who has lived in the United States since entering the country unlawfully in February 1992. He is married and has three children.

Patel checked a box on a driver’s license application in Georgia identifying himself as a U.S. citizen. He later claimed that he checked the box inadvertently, then tried to obtain lawful permanent resident status under a process authorized by Congress called “adjustment of status” that allows individuals who are physically present in the country to upgrade their immigration status to lawful permanent resident without having to leave the country.

In 2012, deportation proceedings began before an immigration judge. Patel said his application for adjustment of status was a defense to deportation and renewed his request to be processed for a green card. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security countered that the false claim of U.S. citizenship undermined his defense. The immigration judge agreed.

The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) then held that Patel was inadmissible under federal law because he “falsely represented” himself as a U.S. citizen for a benefit under state law.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit declined jurisdiction to review whether Patel was inadmissible for representing himself as a U.S. citizen. The 11th Circuit separately held, contrary to a precedent-setting BIA decision, that the relevant federal law makes noncitizens inadmissible even if their misrepresentation of citizenship is immaterial to the government benefit sought.

Barrett wrote in the decision that Congress “has comprehensively detailed the rules by which noncitizens may enter and live in the United States.”

“When noncitizens violate those rules, Congress has provided procedures for their removal. At the same time, there is room for mercy: Congress has given the Attorney General power to grant relief from removal in certain circumstances,” she wrote.

But federal courts “have a very limited role to play in this process. With an exception for legal and constitutional questions, Congress has barred judicial review of the Attorney General’s decisions denying discretionary relief from removal. We must decide how far this bar extends—specifically, whether it precludes judicial review of factual findings that underlie a denial of relief,” Barrett wrote.

“It does.”

In his dissent, Gorsuch claimed that a bureaucratic error doomed Patel.

“It is no secret that when processing applications, licenses, and permits the government sometimes makes mistakes,” the justice wrote. “Often, they are small ones—a misspelled name, a misplaced application. But sometimes a bureaucratic mistake can have life-changing consequences. Our case is such a case.”

Even though Patel may have made a mistake on the Georgia driver’s license application, this case, contrary to Gorsuch’s statement, isn’t about the government making a mistake.

The 11th Circuit specifically stated that “there was no dispute that Patel made a false representation of citizenship.” The immigration judge in the case “rejected Patel’s arguments” and “determined that Patel was not credible.”

Patel was “evasive when testifying and would not explain to the Court exactly what the mistake was,” the circuit decision reads. “The evidence contradicted Patel’s testimony, which the IJ [immigration judge] already suspected was not candid, so the IJ did not believe Patel’s claim that he made a mistake. The IJ found that Patel willfully and purposefully indicated that he was a U.S. citizen.”

Gorsuch blamed the false citizenship claim on the government and lamented the law’s inflexibility.

“Today, the Court holds that a federal bureaucracy can make an obvious factual error, one that will result in an individual’s removal from this country, and nothing can be done about it,” Gorsuch wrote. “No court may even hear the case. It is a bold claim promising dire consequences for countless lawful immigrants.

“And it is such an unlikely assertion of raw administrative power that not even the agency that allegedly erred, nor any other arm of the Executive Branch, endorses it. Today’s majority acts on its own to shield the government from the embarrassment of having to correct even its most obvious errors.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/supreme-court-rules-against-illegal-alien-who-falsely-claimed-citizenship_4469375.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-16-4&utm_medium=email&est=CyyoZFUifDD3KI%2BpT5F4yGo%2F7qfwykSfcUEmF9lEFmTx5Y%2Fmml21euHw0Ap2EnKInA%3D%3D

The head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says a shuttered Michigan facility that produces baby formula could be up and running again in two weeks, although Abbott Laboratories says it could take up to 10 weeks before formula products reach shelves amid a nationwide shortage.

“We now have a path forward,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, who was named to his position earlier this year, told NBC News on May 16. “Abbott is responsible for the timeline, but I’m very comfortable with what they said about two weeks. … That’s entirely within the realm of possibility and I think quite likely.”

Earlier this year, the FDA stated that it was investigating Abbott’s plant in Sturgis, Michigan, amid reports that infants were sickened with a type of bacteria. The facility, in the meantime, has remained shut down.

Across the country, a significant shortage of baby formula has left parents scrambling for alternatives. Some lawmakers called on the Biden administration to take action, while Republicans noted that formula products were sent to an illegal immigrant holding center in Texas.

Retail product analytics firm Datasemmbly stated in an update last week that 43 percent of baby formula products nationwide are out of stock.

“Datasembly’s real-time hyper-local data analysis shows that baby formula stock was relatively stable for the first half of 2021, with out-of-stock (OOS) fluctuation between 2-8 percent. The OOS detail shows that in April 2022 baby formula shortages hit 30 percent and jumped to 40 percent at the end of month,” according to the firm.

And the company’s CEO, Ben Reich, noted that the shortage “has been compounded by supply chain challenges,” recalls, and inflation.

“The category started to see stocking challenges beginning in July 2021, and the situation has continued to worsen into 2022. With our real-time, highly granular data, Datasembly will continue to provide new insights as they become available,” he said.

Abbott Laboratories stated the company has flown millions of cans of baby formula to the United States to help deal with shortages. Millions of cans of infant formula powder have already been sent from Abbott’s facility in Cootehill, Ireland, to the United States, the firm stated.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives’ Oversight panel has opened an investigation into the shortage.

“It is critical that your company take all possible steps to increase the supply of formula and prevent price gouging,” Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), the chair House committee, and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, wrote in a letter to several manufacturers.

White House COVID-19 adviser Anthony Fauci revealed what he would do if former President Donald Trump wins the presidency in 2024.

Speaking to CNN on Sunday, when asked if he would stay around under a new Trump administration, Fauci said he would not.

“Uh, well, no,” Fauci replied, laughing. When asked by CNN if Fauci would “not serve with Trump again,” Fauci replied: “Right, for sure. Yeah.”

Fauci was also asked about the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic.

“I think just history will speak for itself about that. I don’t need to make any further comments on that … It’s not productive,” he said.

There have been more COVID-19-related deaths under the Biden administration than under the Trump administration. In about 10 months under the final period of the Trump administration, data suggests there were about 425,000 deaths in the United States. Under President Joe Biden’s first year, there were about 455,000 COVID-19 deaths, according to federal data.

“People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots, these people,” Trump said in October 2020 during a campaign conference call, referring to the doom-and-gloom predictions that were being made along with COVID-19-related restrictions. “Every time he goes on TV, there’s a bomb, but there’s a bigger bomb if you fire him,” he said at the time.

In March of last year, Trump told a podcast of Fauci: “I thought rather than firing him, you know, I listened to him, but I didn’t do what he said because, frankly, his record is not a good record.”

“I like him personally,” the former president added. “He’s actually a nice guy. He’s a great promoter. He’s really a promoter more than anything else.”

“And if I would’ve listened to them?” Trump asked. “And then they went to the other extreme, like the entire country should lock up. I didn’t go for that. And you know, it just wasn’t for me. I didn’t go for that.”

In March, Fauci, 81, hinted at retiring from being in charge of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a position he’s held since 1984.

For more than 50 years, Fauci has served as a public health expert in various capacities, although he was appointed as lead White House COVID-19 adviser by Biden last year.

“I can’t stay at this job forever. Unless my staff is going to find me slumped over my desk one day. I’d rather not do that,” Fauci said at the time.

Trump, meanwhile, has not publicly committed to running for president in 2024, although he has strongly hinted that he might.

“They’re going to find out the hard way starting Nov. 8 and even more so starting November 2024,” Trump said during a recent Conservative Political Action Conference in February, referring to the Democratic Party’s chances.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/fauci-reveals-what-he-would-do-if-trump-is-reelected_4469460.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-16-2&utm_medium=email&est=eMj5C326NNnQqYEd1AAkFfiwXsPcRtGpqB25DIiulW8Ej9YwXxnqWyv57MKRSZ3uMA%3D%3D

As the trial of former Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann approaches, The Epoch Times presents a comprehensive timeline of Sussmann’s activities before and after the 2016 election. The cybersecurity lawyer faces one count of lying to the government for allegedly claiming to an FBI official that he was providing information while not representing any clients, when in fact he was representing the Clinton campaign. As a result of the alleged lie, the FBI was put at a disadvantage in grasping “the politically-laden and ethically-fraught nature” of the information, according to special counsel John Durham, who’s been tasked to review the FBI investigation into supposed collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to sway the 2016 election. The FBI investigation, partly concerned with the information provided by Sussmann, discovered no such collusion.

Sussman joined the Department of Justice in the early 1990s and for 12 years fulfilled several roles, mostly related to prosecuting cybercrime. He then became a partner at Perkins Coie—a large law firm whose lawyers often represent the Democratic Party—where he advised tech companies mainly on cyber-related issues such as compliance with government surveillance requests. One of the companies Sussmann advised was Neustar, which used to provide Domain Name System services and had access to non-public and proprietary internet traffic data.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/infographic-durhams-first-trial_4460742.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&utm_campaign=mb-2022-05-16&utm_medium=email&est=3tY9ugz3okSSEC0quQggLLXhbFSmIBRotJuofgVILLiHs2FhVvr1y%2BQEiDyZz1M4cQ%3D%3D

Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein says people should be prepared for an economic recession amid elevated inflation and record-high gas prices.

Blankfein, who led the investment banking firm between 2006 and 2018, said Americans should brace for a dim economic future, he told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” in an interview on May 15. He now holds the title of senior chairman.

“It’s definitely a risk,” he said. “If I were running a big company, I would be very prepared for it. If I was a consumer, I’d be prepared for it, but it’s not baked in the cake.”

Some of the poorest Americans will feel the worst effects of inflation, he said, adding that a recession is “a very, very high risk factor.”

“It’s going to be hard for people to have savings,” Blankfein said. “But [if] they already have savings they’re not going to necessarily increase it quickly because of inflation. But they’re starting in a much better place than we were then.”

According to data provided by automotive service AAA, the average price for a gallon of regular gas nationwide stands at around $4.47, with prices hitting nearly $6 per gallon on average in California. At the same time, parents have expressed concern about baby formula shortages as consumer prices rose by about 8.3 percent in April as compared with a year ago.

“How comfortable are we now to rely on those supply chains that are not within the borders of the United States and we can’t control?” Blankfein said. “Do we feel good about getting all our semiconductors from Taiwan, which is again, an object of China,” he added, apparently referring to the Chinese regime’s threats against the self-governed country in recent months.

“But I think the Fed has very powerful tools. It’s hard to finely tune them, and it’s hard to see the effects of them quickly enough to alter it, but I think they’re responding well. It’s definitely a risk.”

Last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged that increasing interest rates will “include some pain,” but added that a far worse outcome would be for prices to continue spiking.

In March, the Fed approved a quarter-percentage-point rate increase. But some analysts say they are concerned that policymakers have fallen too far behind to curb price increases without the sort of sharp rate hikes that might trigger a recession.

Reuters contributed to this report.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/ex-goldman-sachs-ceo-warns-americans-to-prepare-for-economic-recession_4467984.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&utm_campaign=mb-2022-05-16&utm_medium=email&est=Jio5eu42coPOTnJDRP%2BLQQXOYk2%2FmZOxJGvqmV3rPFD5UcO21H9etmI%2ByVVc6dCrrA%3D%3D

Elizabeth Warren 2.0: Liberal elites love her because she’s one of them

Rep. Katie Porter (D., Calif.) has become a minor celebrity among mainstream journalists and other politics-obsessed white professionals who voted for Elizabeth Warren in the 2020 Democratic primary.

The deputy chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus is a recurring guest on MSNBC after making a name for herself by hectoring business executives and Trump administration officials. She is the star of numerous YouTube clips with titles such as, “Katie Porter goes megaviral with MUST-SEE takedown during hearing,” “Katie Porter ROASTS greedy health insurance providers,” and “Lawmaker reveals trunk full of rice during questioning of oil executives.”

Porter’s niche group of admirers would probably describe her as a powerful advocate for working families, a thorn in the side of evil corporations, and so relatable OMG have you seen her Twitter bio? It says: “Minivan-driving single mom, law professor, consumer advocate [car emoji] [nerd emoji] Usually carrying a whiteboard, always bringing the receipts.” How fun!

Her supporters (the well-to-do, impeccably credentialed white professionals) might be more reluctant to admit that perhaps the main reason they like Porter so much is that she reminds them of themselves (obnoxious know-it-alls) and how much better off the country would be if they were in charge of everything. It’s the same reason why they like Beto O’Rourke, Pete Buttigieg, and Liz Warren (Porter’s former law professor and mentor), whose failed presidential campaigns made clear that while Ivy League grads may run the Democratic Party, they don’t get to choose the nominee in national elections.

Porter grew up in Iowa, the daughter of a “farmer-turned-banker,” which sounds more down-to-earth than “banker.” Her mother founded a media empire for the quilting community. Porter’s résumé is as follows:

Prep school: Phillips Academy (Tuition: $57,800 per year)

College: Yale University (Tuition: $62,250 per year)

Post-graduate: Harvard Law School (Tuition: $70,430)

That works out to $691,500 worth of elite education. No wonder our nation’s journalists are so fond of her. Porter, 48, has an estimated net worth of $1.6 million. She listed no student loan debt on her 2018 financial disclosure, which detailed assets ranging in value from $1.1 million to as much as $3 million. Her liabilities include two mortgages worth between $300,000 and $600,000. The lawmaker’s mother, quilting titan Elizabeth Porter, is listed as the lender for one of the mortgages.

Nevertheless, she persists in playing the part of a working class champion and “minivan-driving single mom.” Never mind that Porter’s congressional salary of $174,000 is nearly four times higher than the median income for single mothers in the United States. The law professor, who was awarded tenure at the University of California-Irvine in 2011, rarely mentions her considerable wealth when railing against the number of millionaires in Congress and how “expensive” it is to run for political office.

Porter recently made headlines by complaining about the rising cost of groceries and chiding her Democratic colleagues for neglecting voter concerns about inflation. Perhaps the economy is so bad under President Joe Biden that even millionaires with multiple Ivy League degrees are struggling to make ends meet. Maybe it’s all part of the act. Porter has a history of bending the truth to pad her “everywoman” credentials. For example, she once falsely claimed to be the “only single, working mother of young kids” in Congress.

Whether or not she is actually struggling as much as ordinary, less-credentialed non-millionaires to put food on the table, Porter’s attempts to empathize with voters frustrated by the soaring cost of food and other necessities suggests she is not as out of touch with reality as her admirers in the media and other left-wing circles. At the very least, she knows how to read the polling data. (Elite education has its benefits.)

Porter’s popularity as the angry lady with the whiteboard in those viral videos has helped her amass an impressive $18 million campaign war chest heading into the 2022 midterms. She is rumored to be eyeing a Senate run in 2024 to replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.), who will turn 89 in June but has yet to announce her retirement despite the party’s increasingly public anxiety about her dementia-addled brain.

First the Democratic “rising star” will have to win reelection in a brand new “lean Democratic” district. Porter is running in an open primary against four Republican candidates. Win or lose, she will continue to be a fixture on MSNBC and the other liberal networks. Her cult following among politics-obsessed elite professionals will continue to grow until she is inevitably persuaded to run for president someday.

(Fact check: Katie Porter will never be president.)

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/katie-porter-truth/

In May, a group called Accountable Tech, which calls itself a “small nonprofit taking on Big Tech companies,” organized a corporate boycott to protest Elon Musk’s bid to buy Twitter. In the midwest, a group called Opportunity Wisconsin, which bills itself as a “coalition of Wisconsin residents,” ran a deluge of TV ads slamming Republican senator Ron Johnson for his tax policies. And in Arizona, an organization of “grassroots racial justice” activists called Just Democracy released a video blasting Democratic senator Kyrsten Sinema for failing to support the Biden administration’s legislative agenda.

None of these groups actually exist. They are all registered trade names for the North Fund, a shape-shifting nonprofit group that uses aliases to push an array of left-wing causes from a shell office in Washington, D.C., according to corporate records.

Political watchdogs say the fund, which isn’t required to disclose the donors behind its $66 million budget, is gearing up to be one of the most consequential dark-money players of the midterm elections. And while “astroturf” groups are nothing new in politics, critics say the North Fund is part of a new breed—moving away from specific policy advocacy and delving into electoral politics.

“North Fund has said screw it,” said Hayden Ludwig, a senior investigator with the Capital Research Center. “They’ve just decided to be as partisan as they can.”

“Their money has been pretty much exclusively focused on Senate races, on ballot initiatives, and a few things kind of related to that,” Ludwig added. “The general theme there is cementing permanent Democratic majorities in Congress.”

The North Fund, which was founded in 2018, is helmed by a handful of Democratic operatives, including former Clinton aide Jim Gerstein. It operates under at least eight trade names, according to D.C. corporate records, including “51 for 51,” a group pushing for statehood for the heavily Democratic District of Columbia, and the “Voting Rights Lab Action,” which advocates for voting policy reforms favorable to Democrats.

Under the guise of “Opportunity Wisconsin,” the group has poured $4 million into negative TV advertising against Johnson, making it one of the top-spending outside groups in the state. Through another alias, the “Democracy Docket Action Fund,” the nonprofit has helped finance state-level redistricting lawsuits that favor Democrats across the country. And the “Accountable Tech” boycott campaign, which seeks to pressure Twitter to restrict speech from conservative outlets and Republican politicians, has received international news coverage.

“From trying to make D.C. a state to funding [Democratic operative] Marc Elias’s politicized lawsuits, North Fund’s presence is often felt but their very existence is virtually unknown,” Caitlin Sutherland, the executive director of the Americans for Public Trust watchdog group, told the Washington Free Beacon. “If untraceable money is flooding the latest policy or legislative fight under the guise of grassroots activism, chances are, North Fund is behind it.”

Critics say organizations like the North Fund can also have an outsized impact on the private sector, because corporations have a hard time discerning its work from bona fide grassroots groups.

“Corporations rarely understand that a vast majority of these boycott campaigns are organized and run by hyper-partisan political hacks instead of thoughtful and experienced policy experts,” one tech industry insider familiar with these boycott campaigns told the Free Beacon. “They disguise themselves in idealistic sounding group names while structuring their organizations in such a way that hides the true motivations and identity of their large donors.”

The North Fund received $66 million in 2020, according to its public tax disclosures, nearly all of it from large contributors. Over 93 percent came from donors giving over $1 million.

While the North Fund doesn’t disclose the names of its contributors, it is required to report the donation amounts. Americans for Public Trust was able to trace some of the funding using grant data from other nonprofits.

Sutherland found that the North Fund received $19.3 million from the Sixteen Thirty Fund and over $11 million from the New Venture Fund, two organizations that share an address in D.C. Similar to the North Fund, the groups operate under at least 50 trade names—including “Fix Our Senate,” “Floridians for a Fair Shake,” and the “Voter Engagement Fund.”

However, the Sixteen Thirty Fund and the New Venture Fund don’t disclose their donors either, leading to a dead end in the money trail.

The North Fund declined to comment on its funding relationships or its use of trade names. The group told the Free Beacon that it “follows all disclosure requirements related to the disclosure of individual donors and grantees.”

“The North Fund is a nonpartisan social impact organization that partners with community leaders and organizers to help make our society a more just, fair, and equitable place to live, work, and raise families,” said the North Fund in an emailed statement. “As a fiscal sponsor, the North Fund provides operational and administrative support to projects, including legal and compliance, HR, accounting and payroll, and grantmaking support.”

Despite its large budget and impact, the North Fund has almost no physical footprint. When the Free Beacon visited its office in downtown D.C.—a co-working rental space managed by the company Carr Workplaces—the front desk manager said the North Fund uses the address but doesn’t maintain a presence there. “I’m not sure where they’re actually located,” he said.

The North Fund is managed by a Democratic consulting firm called Arabella Advisors, which also keeps the copies of the fund’s public financial documents, according to the fund’s tax disclosure records. Nonprofit groups are required to provide physical copies of these records to members of the public who request them in person, a spokesperson for the IRS told the Free Beacon.

But at Arabella’s office building in D.C., the lobby receptionists told the Free Beacon they were under strict orders from the firm to turn away all outside visitors.

When the Free Beacon stopped by the listed D.C. address for the Sixteen Thirty Fund and the New Venture Fund—the North Fund’s primary donors—their cavernous, full-floor office suite was deserted.

The groups had recently moved out, leaving just a couple of office chairs, the logo for Arabella Advisors emblazoned on the floors, and a piece of paper taped to a radiator that read, “Loose Lips Sink Ships.”

Update 10:55 a.m.: This piece has been updated to include comment from the North Fund.

https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/the-shape-shifting-dc-dark-money-group-disguising-liberal-campaigns-across-country/

As the rest of the world reeled from the COVID pandemic in 2020, it looked like China had things under control. Americans and Europeans sheltered in place, while the Chinese enjoyed pool parties and weddings. The World Health Organization concluded in a February 2020 report: “China’s bold approach to contain the rapid spread of this new respiratory pathogen has changed the course of a rapidly escalating and deadly epidemic. This decline in COVID-19 cases across China is real.”

Turns out, China’s “bold approach” wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. For weeks now, the country’s Communist leaders have imposed lockdowns on some of its largest cities to grapple with a spike in hospitalizations. China’s COVID vaccines are far less effective than those developed and produced in America and Europe. Despite state censorship, cell phone videos of average citizens yelling at the authorities have gone viral (so to speak). People don’t have enough to eat. They are imprisoned in their own apartments. Meanwhile, even the bluest cities in America are lifting mask mandates.

None of this should surprise anyone. On the one hand, China invests a great deal in trying to convince the rest of the world that it should be feared, and its leader, Xi Jinping, has accumulated increasing power.

But the regime has also blundered. Xi this year signed a sweeping pact with Vladimir Putin on the eve of Russia’s disastrous invasion of Ukraine. And China is gaining little from picking a fight with India in the Himalayan Mountains.

What Xi and his apparats do not understand is that every time they bully a neighbor or con an international organization, they are making a strong argument to weaker states that it is better to align with America than to accept Chinese hegemony. When the rest of the world sees that Beijing cannot control a virus that likely originated from one of the regime’s biological laboratories, that case gains strength.

None of this is to say that America should not prepare to confront China in the coming years. The Chinese have surpassed us in hypersonic weapons technology. China’s military buildup is real. But just as the world is now learning through Russia’s blunders in Ukraine just how incompetent and corrupt the Russian Army is, we should not assume a military untested in battle will be as menacing as Chinese propaganda would have us believe.

Totalitarian regimes look fearsome right until they crumble. Xi’s is unlikely to be any different.

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-paper-dragon/

…AND THE CHINESE LAB’S “BAT WOMAN” TOLD HIM IT WASN’T THE RIGHT TIME TO TALK.

James LeDuc – a lab director funded by Anthony Fauci – provided an early warning to Wuhan Institute of Virology researchers ahead of a potential U.S. investigation into the lab for its role in the COVID-19 pandemic.

The National Pulse previously unearthed the Texas-based lab’s multi-year collaborative relationship with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, including hosting exchange programs and training researchers at the lab’s Biosafety Level 4 (BSL) facility. Directors from the Wuhan lab and the Galveston National Laboratory, which describes itself as “constructed under grants awarded by [Fauci’s] National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID),” admitted to working with the “world’s most dangerous pathogens” in 2018.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology also had the right to make its American counterpart “destroy and/or return the secret files, materials and equipment without any backups.”

New emails obtained via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by Judicial Watch reveal a deep relationship between the Texas lab’s director James LeDuc and top Wuhan Institute of Virology personnel.

LeDuc, whose earliest grant can be traced to 2006, has received 32 grants from Anthony Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

On April 16th, 2020, former Commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases David Franz emailed LeDuc that he “heard from someone in government this evening that Senator Rubio is starting to push for AN investigation regarding Wuhan lab” regarding the origins of COVID-19.

LeDuc quickly forwarded the email to the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s top bat coronavirus researcher – dubbed the lab’s “bat woman” – to alert her of the possible investigation and additionally requested a phone call with her.

The following day, Shi responded, insisting it wasn’t the “right time to communicate by the call” before defending her lab against accusations COVID-19 escaped from it.

“What I can tell you is that this virus is not a leaky [sic] from our lab or any other labs. It’s a shame to make this scientific question so complicated,” she asserted.

LeDuc responded promptly, referencing his “long history of collaboration” with the Wuhan lab, adding a “draft summary” of a report sent to “the leadership of our University of Texas system and likely to Congressional committees.”

“Please review carefully and make any changes that you would like. I want this to be as accurate as possible and I certainly do not want to misrepresent any of your valuable contributions,” LeDuc offered to Shi.

Separate emails from April 20th, 2020 show Le Duc informing Shi and the Director of the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Dr. Yuan Zhiming that he was “afraid” the Wuhan lab would be highly scrutinized for its potential role in creating COVID-19:

I’m afraid that this discussion will continue for some time regarding where early coronavirus work was being done, the role, if any, of the Wuhan CDC in research on bat-associated coronaviruses, and exactly when scientists at WIV [Wuhan Institute of Virology] first became aware of the new coronavirus and had possession of specimens in the WIV and where was that work done (level of biocontainment).

LeDuc even prepped Wuhan Institute of Virology officials with dozens of questions that could potentially arise in an investigation of the origins of the COVID-19. Questions were categorized under the headings “physical security,” “personnel,” “geography,” and “where is coronavirus research conducted,” including “is anyone on your team conducting gain of function studies, recombination studies or any other studies that may have resulted in the creation of the nCoV?”

The revelation adds to mounting evidence that the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) had a deep relationship with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, despite Fauci’s insistence otherwise.

New DOJ Notes From 2017 Reveal FBI Panic After Trump Tweeted That He Knew He Was Being Spied On | Truth Over News

TRUTH OVER NEWSJEFF CARLSON AND HANS MAHNCKE

Newly released notes taken by high-level Department of Justice officials at a March 6, 2017 meeting with FBI leadership expose some of the lengths the FBI went to, to cover up their corruption and malfeasance in spying on President Donald Trump.

The notes were released earlier this week by lawyers for Hillary Clinton’s campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann as part of an effort to clear Sussmann for having lied to the FBI. In reality, while the notes do little to exonerate Sussmann, they provide quite a bit to incriminate the FBI.

The meeting at which the notes were taken took place just two days after Trump’s infamous March 4, 2017 tweet in which he accused former President Obama of having wiretapped Trump Tower. Trump’s tweet panicked FBI leadership, who were unsure exactly how much Trump knew about their efforts to set him up. In response to Trump’s tweet, they tried to cover their tracks with another layer of lies and deception.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/new-doj-notes-from-2017-reveal-fbi-panic-after-trump-tweeted-that-he-knew-he-was-being-spied-on-truth-over-news_4462943.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-15-4&utm_medium=email&est=K2xL6aqW16WjKDpTo4BBSCSOS9KPbEyJ0ACArIvrsznIwnB3x9CZJFTlcsx3P4KoGA%3D%3D

Former First Lady Melania Trump gave her first interview since leaving the White House, providing a hint that her husband may be seeking another term in office and saying “it’s sad to see” the state of the country under the current administration.

“I think we achieved a lot in four years of the Trump administration,” Melania told Fox News in a Sunday interview, adding that “never say never” when asked about whether she could be again living inside the White House.

“I like Washington, D.C. I know it operates completely different than any other city, but I really like it there. And I enjoyed living in the White House. To be first lady of the United States was my greatest honor. I think we achieved a lot in the four years of Trump administration. I enjoyed taking care of the White House. It was my home for a while. I understood it is people’s house. And it was, it was a privilege to live there,” she continued to say.

When asked by Fox host Pete Hegseth about former first ladies Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton appearing on the cover of Vogue, Melania, a former model, criticized the magazine. Melania appeared on the cover of Vogue in 2005 when she was photographed alongside former President Donald Trump in her wedding dress.

“They’re biased and they have likes and dislikes, and it’s so obvious. And I think American people and everyone sees it. It was their decision, and I have much more important things to do—and I did in the White House—than being on the cover of Vogue,” Melania told the broadcaster.

The former first lady, a native of Slovenia, weighed in on the state of the United States under the Biden administration.

“I think it’s sad to see what’s going on, if you really look deeply into it,” Melania said, adding: “I think a lot of people are struggling and suffering and what is going on around the world as well. So it’s very sad to see and I hope it changes fast,” Melania added.

Donald Trump has not definitively said whether he will run for reelection, although he has suggested in interviews that he might.

Last month, Trump, 75, told the Washington Post that his health could play a role in whether he decides to run or not. In 2024, Trump will turn 78, and should he run—and win—the presidency, he’ll be 82 when he departs. President Joe Biden is slated to turn 80 this November.

“You always have to talk about health. You look like you’re in good health, but tomorrow, you get a letter from a doctor saying come see me again,” he told the outlet in April. ‘That’s not good when they use the word ‘again,’” Trump added, saying he is currently in good health.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/sad-to-see-whats-going-on-melania-trump-gives-first-interview-since-leaving-white-house_4468110.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-15-4&utm_medium=email&est=GTLeLRU4gRxAcdUeKZ%2BdqIq2O0hQAhD266NgIAko1W9GdZpDQmSFzKDDolIUmPA7JQ%3D%3D

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland to ask why an attack on a Madison, Wisconsin, pro-life center wasn’t being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism.

Late on May 8, the Wisconsin Family Action clinic in Madison was attacked with a Molotov cocktail following the leaked release of a draft Supreme Court majority opinion suggesting the high court would overturn the Roe v. Wade case that made abortion constitutionally protected.

“Attacking a pro-life organization in a manner that could have injured or killed the office’s occupants due to differing political ideologies fits these definitions,” Johnson wrote. “I am unfortunately compelled to write to you about this matter because DOJ [Department of Justice] has a track record of not prosecuting left-wing violence as we have seen with the summer of 2020 riots that occurred nationwide.”

The FBI says domestic terrorism, he added, is an “ideologically driven criminal act, including threats or acts of violence made to specific victims, made in furtherance of a domestic ideological goal that has occurred and can be confirmed.”

The senator also made note of protests, including some that were held over the recent weekend, outside the homes of Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices, describing such incidents as intimidation and a violation of federal law.

“The intimidation of sitting Supreme Court justices is a clear violation of federal law, and, once again, DOJ, FBI, and [the Department of Homeland Security] have yet to condemn these activities,” Johnson wrote. “Compare your silence on these events to your robust actions against parents attending public school board meetings to voice their concerns about far-left ideologies being integrated” in public schools.

Officials in Wisconsin told The Epoch Times last week that they were aware of a left-wing group that carried out the attack on the Madison pro-life group’s office. The group claiming responsibility, Jane’s Revenge, sent a statement to Bellingcat that the arson was a “warning.”

“Next time the infrastructure of the enslavers will not survive,” the group said, adding that if pro-life groups and clinics weren’t disbanded within the next month, it would carry out further attacks.

“Wisconsin is the first flashpoint, but we are all over the U.S., and we will issue no further warnings,” the statement said, adding that they would “adopt increasingly extreme tactics to maintain freedom over our own bodies.”

In the letter, Johnson made reference to the group’s apparent threat.

The Department of Justice didn’t respond by press time to a request for comment.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/sen-ron-johnson-to-ag-garland-why-is-wisconsin-pro-life-center-attack-not-domestic-terrorism_4468035.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-15-4&utm_medium=email&est=Zi8cPCNZm0LkmVTD%2Fc6P3BKrG303hnI83NAXc9BBajSoNIsW5JvG4lDreGHvr3MxHw%3D%3D

A former university professor who calls for less social stigma on pedophilia is set to return to academia, landing a new job at a research center dedicated to preventing child sexual abuse.

The Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sex Abuse at Johns Hopkins University, Maryland, announced Thursday that Allyn Walker will join as a postdoctoral fellow, starting on May 25.

“We are excited to share that Allyn Walker, PhD, will be joining the Moore Center as a postdoctoral fellow on May 25,” said the Moore Center, which describes itself as working to “change the way the world thinks about child sexual abuse, from inevitable to preventable.”

Walker, who identifies as nonbinary and uses pronouns they/them, previously worked as an assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice at Old Dominion University, Virginia. He has advocated to lessen the social stigma against pedophilia, and that pedophiles be instead referred to with the euphemistic term “minor attracted persons,” or MAPs.

In June 2021, Walker published a book that “challenges widespread assumptions” about those he called “non-offending MAPs.” He discussed the book months later in an interview, during which he argued that it wasn’t necessarily immoral for adults to be sexually attracted to children.

“I want to be extremely clear that child sexual abuse is never ever okay. But having an attraction to minors as long as it isn’t acted on, doesn’t mean that the person who has those attractions is doing something wrong,” he said in the November 2021 interview with the Prostasia Foundation, a San Francisco-based child protection organization.

“I think we have a tendency to want to categorize people with these attractions as evil or morally corrupt. But when we’re talking about non-offending MAPS, these are people who have an attraction that they didn’t ask for,” he told Prostasia.

The interview triggered a social media outrage, with many calling on Old Dominion to fire Walker. After initially backing Walker in the controversy, the university placed him on leave until he agreed to resign.

In the wake of a backlash similar to that faced by Old Dominion, Moore Center tried to explain the decision to hire Walker.

“Allyn Walker is a leader in the field of perpetration prevention research, which is essential for developing a comprehensive public health approach to addressing child sexual abuse and effective prevention programs,” the center wrote Friday on Twitter. “We are delighted to have Allyn Walker join our team.”

The center wrote in a separate post that Walker will “support multiple, large-scale, ongoing research projects and help identify new projects.”

“Allyn Walker’s expertise and qualitative research methodology will enhance and advance the work of the Moore Center. We are excited to have them join our team,” the center concluded.

The Epoch Times reached out to Johns Hopkins for comments and was directed to the statement released by the Moore Center.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/johns-hopkins-child-sexual-abuse-prevention-center-hires-professor-sympathetic-to-pedophiles_4465470.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-15-2&utm_medium=email&est=WDijvnAiavFf8W29zIduMeDqR3p0bTMiKGuvfONmlQCcDfU2L05iwqKXKQVkGV4oBQ%3D%3D

CHEVY CHASE, Maryland—Around 20 pro-abortion protesters directed their screams at Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s children while walking by the justice’s Maryland residence multiple times on Saturday.

“Kavanaugh girls, tell your dad to stop,” one protester shouted.

“I hope your daughters don’t have to make this choice,” another shouted.

“[Expletive] you, Kavanaugh, you rapist piece of [expletive]” another of the protesters shouted.

The protesters walked past the house in Chevy Chase, then circled back multiple times to scream obscenities again.

About a dozen police officers stood outside the house, but none took action to arrest the protesters, who continued to scream obscenities with every pass.

“No privacy for us, no peace for you,” the protesters chanted.

The protests were a response to a leaked Supreme Court opinion that suggested the court planned to overturn Roe v. Wade.

For the protest’s two organizers, who called themselves “He” and “They,” respectively, everything appeared to be going to plan.

“We’re not stopping in front of his home. We’re walking by and we’re turning back. So there’s no threat got to do with it. We don’t threaten people. The other people threaten us,” said “He” before the protesters started marching.

Before the protesters started toward Kavanaugh’s house, one of them distributed masks to the group.

“If you have a mask to cover your face, it would be even better,” said “He.”

“He” said he wasn’t affiliated with an organized group, but he read from a script on his phone at times when offering comment.

“To intimidate: it means to frighten someone, especially in order to make them do what one wants. So, intimidation isn’t coming together as Americans in a community to voice one’s opinion. Intimidation is when the Capitol was stormed on Jan. 6,” he read.

“He” then recited a litany of violent incidents toward minorities and abortionists that he described as “intimidation.”

The protest targeted the homes of both Kavanaugh and Justice John Roberts, although Kavanaugh received a greater measure of the protest’s anger.

According to one protester, a graduate student named Connor, the purpose wasn’t to make Kavanaugh change his mind.

“At the very least I hope he’s annoyed. I hope he’s very inconvenienced,” said Connor. “If he’s that upset, if he’s that sad about it, quit! You don’t have to be the Supreme Court justice. I’m sure there’d be a lot of people who would be thrilled that he left, including his neighbors, because I’m sure they don’t love this.”

Connor carried a sign saying “Martha Kavanaugh Should Have Gotten an Abortion.”

“The idea that this is infringing upon the justices’ privacy is comical to me,” said high school senior Anna Bellows, another protest member. Bellows said she had flown down from Boston, Massachusetts to attend the pro-abortion protests.

“[Expletive] the Court and the legislature, we are not your incubators,” the protesters shouted as they walked through the residential neighborhood.

On the way, the protest passed near a couple taking wedding pictures. The 20 people gave the couple a cheer.

“Sorry,” one protester said.

One of the justices’ neighbors tried to tell the protesters to stop because their actions were likely to embitter the justices.

“Counterproductive!” he shouted at them. “You’re alienating them.”

But the protesters kept marching. Many of the neighbors of the justices honked car horns in approval of the protesters. One neighbor asked where she could join the next scheduled protest.

“It’s a liberal neighborhood,” one protester said.

As the protesters walked, “He” slowly drove a car that blasted pro-abortion music.

“My choice if I kill my pregnancy,” the song blared.

Before the large pro-abortion march to the Supreme Court in Washington earlier Saturday, activist Rachel Carmona announced a “summer of rage” in support of abortion.

“Let’s stand up for ourselves. Let’s feel our rage,” another speaker said.

Several of the protesters at the march to the Supreme Court announced their willingness to protest outside the homes of Supreme Court justices.

Protester Naomi Coronado Bel Valle said she didn’t plan on showing up outside the homes of the justices but thought there was nothing wrong with it.

“Everyone here has a right to protest, and if they want to stay outside their house, I think that is justified. I mean, I don’t really see a problem with that,” she said.

According to “They,” the protests will continue permanently.

“We’ll be back every Wednesday. Same [expletive,] same time,” she shouted as she walked away from Kavanaugh’s house.

Both Republican and Democratic politicians have criticized the protests outside the homes of justices.

“I think it’s reprehensible. Stay away from homes and families of elected officials and members of the court,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).

“Intimidating Supreme Court justices is a federal crime, yet our justices are being terrorized in their own homes and they and their families subjected to threats of violence,” said Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho).

https://www.theepochtimes.com/protesters-scream-obscenities-outside-justices-houses-following-washington-march_4467486.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-15-2&utm_medium=email&est=FKo%2FR2MYyR4pByXBEPkbi7VR8pJ9X6CCsA%2Fp5HQITxMhJcx%2BkEwZcljfMSohpqwqtg%3D%3D

A Russian lawmaker has issued a fiery warning that Warsaw is next in line for “de-nazification” after Poland’s Prime Minister penned an op-ed calling Russia’s imperialist “Russkiy Mir” ideology a “cancer” consuming Russian society and a “deadly threat” to other countries.

Oleg Morozov, chairman of Russia’s State Duma Committee on Control, wrote in a message on Telegram on Friday that the Polish leader’s comments have essentially made Poland a target.

In his remarks, Morozov resorted to the Kremlin’s rhetoric in its military operation in Ukraine of so-called “de-Nazification,” a label Moscow has used to vilify its geopolitical adversaries and justify the war.

“With its statements about Russia as a ‘cancer’ and about the ‘indemnity’ that we must pay to Ukraine, Poland encourages us to put it in first place in the queue for de-Nazification after Ukraine,” Morozov wrote, according to a translation of his statement.

Morozov’s remarks were prompted by statements made by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Polish President Andrzej Duda, who have both been highly critical of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Duda has said Russia should be forced to pay compensation to Ukraine for war damages while Morawiecki said Russian President Vladimir Putin is “more dangerous” than both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin because he has nuclear weapons and a massive propaganda machine at his disposal.

Morawiecki wrote in a column in the British newspaper The Telegraph that “the cursed phantoms of the 20th century have risen again over Ukraine,” alleging that Russia’s invasion of its neighbor bears the hallmarks of fascism, “has already opened the gates to genocide,” and is driven by a “monstrous new ideology” that he called “Russkiy Mir.”

Morawiecki alleged that in the name of this ideology, Putin and his military entourage have ordered Russian forces into war, “convinced them of their superiority, and encouraged them to commit inhuman war crimes—the murder, rape, and torture of innocent civilians.”

“Putin’s ‘Russkiy Mir’ ideology is the equivalent of 20th-century communism and Nazism,” Morawiecki wrote, calling it a “cancer which is consuming not only the majority of Russian society, but also poses a deadly threat to the whole of Europe.”

It’s not enough to help Ukraine fend off Russia’s attack, Morawiecki argued, “we must root out this monstrous new ideology entirely.”

“Just as Germany was once subject to denazification, today the only chance for Russia and the civilised world is ‘deputinisation.’ If we do not engage in this task immediately, we will not only lose Ukraine, we will lose our soul and our freedom and sovereignty,” the Polish leader wrote.

Morawiecki argued that, unless it is opposed, Russia will not stop at Kyiv but will continue on a “long march towards the West.”

The Kremlin has denied it has any intentions of invading other countries. Putin has claimed that what he describes as a “special military operation” in Ukraine comes in response to attempts by Western powers to establish a bulwark in Ukraine that threatens Moscow’s security.

In particular, Putin has long said that NATO is trying to expand its borders to pressure Russia militarily, claims the defensive alliance has rejected as unfounded.

Another of the Kremlin’s key justifications for its operation in Ukraine has been to allege that the Russian-speaking population in the separatist-controlled Donbass and Luhansk region were being subjected to repression and what Putin has described as “genocide.”

A long list of scholars and academics has denounced Russia’s claims of genocide and “de-Nazification” of Ukraine as a false pretext meant to justify “unprovoked aggression” against its southern neighbor.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/russian-lawmaker-says-poland-next-in-line-for-de-nazification_4466668.html?utm_source=Morningbrief-ai&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2022-05-15-ai&est=%2BW3JIfZLO4wWsiX8Vuck7ZuWgLf7rq7Gciftt6tR8UH%2BTFN4K0zvlOicoTMKEMerqQ%3D%3D

California Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Irvine) is asking for a second hearing by lawmakers regarding the $600 million no bid contract for COVID-19 masks, following the reveal of State Controller Betty Yee’s role two years later.

The issue had been heard by a state assembly committee before in May 2020, but Yee’s association with the matter was only revealed in a civil lawsuit filed in September of last year.

Yee has been in office since 2015 and her job entitles her to overlook state spending and provide financial guidance to local governments.

“From my experiences with the Controller this is very out of character, and it is concerning if the reports are accurate,” Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Irvine) said in a statement to The Epoch Times May 13.

Amid the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, recently filed lawsuits highlight how Yee was in contract contact with a startup medical supplies company, named Blue Flame, started by political consultant John Thomas who had no experience in the health care industry, according to court documents.

The filing also indicates the two had been introduced March 20, 2022, by a fundraiser and partner of Blue Flame’s and Yee’s political fundraiser. Three days later, according to the lawsuit, Thomas filed paperwork forming his company as an LLC.

Thomas had contacted Yee, days after forming his business, the lawsuit alleges, asking her to reach out to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office regarding purchasing 100 million N95 masks.

According to court documents, Yee within days was then put into contact with California’s Department of General Services, which operates as a business manager of sorts for the state.

Shortly after, on March 25, 2020, the state cut an advance check for the masks—payment that was wired to Blue Flame’s bank—Chain Bridge, which is based in Virginia.

However, the wire transfer was flagged as potentially fraudulent and refused.

“The bottom line is the Blue Flame fiasco was a near miss for the state. This incident and others, where the state was scammed out of billions of taxpayer dollars, really drive home the importance of competitive bidding,” Petrie-Norris said.

Yee’s term—her second—in office ends in December. Lanhee Chen, a 2022 candidate for her seat, said elected officials should not interfere in state contracting processes.

“Elected officials need to do everything in his or her power to remove themselves from a contracting process,” Chen told The Epoch Times.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/california-lawmakers-call-for-a-review-of-betty-yees-secret-600-million-mask-deal_4467162.html?utm_source=Morningbrief-ai&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2022-05-15-ai&est=pC6NSipV%2FGRklH1%2BwnXd%2Bsuah1%2FkeIBMLpUL68ZN9Cznoix8lO4XvmRb0Jv1Vi6zDQ%3D%3D

Amazon.com Inc. Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos on Friday criticized President Joe Biden for his recent tweet on inflation and corporate taxation.

On Friday, Biden published a tweet about curtailing inflation by taxing large corporations in the United States.

You want to bring down inflation?

Let’s make sure the wealthiest corporations pay their fair share.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 13, 2022

Biden’s remark came amid protest against the rising inflation under his administration.

During my first year in office, American agriculture exports shattered all previous records—$177 billion last year alone.

We have to keep investing in our farmers to reduce prices for consumers.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 13, 2022

Last week, the Labor Department said the consumer price index rose 8.3 percent in April from a year ago. The gain was barely below the 8.5 percent year-over-year spike recorded in March.

Responding to Biden’s tweet, Bezos said that pointing the finger at corporations was a “misdirection” and the president should be subject to his own Disinformation Board.

The newly created Disinformation Board should review this tweet, or maybe they need to form a new Non Sequitur Board instead. Raising corp taxes is fine to discuss. Taming inflation is critical to discuss. Mushing them together is just misdirection. https://t.co/ye4XiNNc2v

— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) May 14, 2022

Earlier this month, Biden announced the Department of Homeland Security’s new Disinformation Governance Board, which was created to combat disinformation in online social media posts.

In April, inflation in the United States surged 8.3 percent from a year ago, nearing a decades-long record high.

Records show that Amazon did not pay federal income taxes in 2017 and 2018. According to the ProPublica report, Bezos himself was able to avoid paying federal income taxes in 2007 and 2011.

By Bibhu Pattnaik

https://www.theepochtimes.com/bezos-criticizes-biden-over-inflation-tweet-says-disinformation-board-should-fact-check-presidents-tweet_4466997.html?utm_source=Morningbrief-ai&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2022-05-15-ai&est=xggsLWwY53vJ7o9%2FN%2B3j8ZqG985BYubHaDaedGjJ8yxBf%2Fb5qwBKSIfe3SPlD%2BXwVg%3D%3D

Former Pfizer VP Michael Yeadon maintains that since the infection fatality ratio of COVID-19 has not been high, the vaccines should not have been mandated.

Moreover, he heavily blasted the corporate media mantras that designate these as safe, effective, and necessary to end the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic.

Yeadon is a big pharma veteran with 32 years in the industry. He worked as the head of allergy and respiratory research at Pfizer from 1995 to 2011 and is the former founder and CEO of Ziarco, a biotech company acquired by Novartis. Furthermore, he has a doctorate in respiratory pharmacology and holds a Double First Class Honors degree in biochemistry and toxicology.

A shocking 1,223 deaths and 42,086 adverse events were reported to Pfizer from the first day of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine rollout on Dec. 1, 2020, to Feb. 28, 2021.

“The worst flu season over the last decade is worse than [the threat] posed by this new virus,” Yeadon told The Epoch Times via email.

“And what do we do in response to seasonal influenza? Well, nothing really, beyond offering—and not mandating—vaccines which aren’t much use.”

Of important note is that the exact number of fatalities in China, where the virus originated, has been suppressed by the communist regime and could be 366 times the official figure.

Yeadon said that being sure the vaccines would cause no harm in the long run should have been imperative.

“It was never appropriate to attempt to ‘end the pandemic’ with a novel technology vaccine. In a public health mass intervention, safety is the top priority, more so even than effectiveness, because so many people will receive it,” Yeadon states in a document he sent to The Epoch Times.

“It’s simply not possible to obtain data demonstrating adequate longitudinal safety in the time period any pandemic can last. Those who pushed this line of argument and enabled the gene-based agents to be injected needlessly into billions of innocent people are guilty of crimes against humanity.”

Yeadon argues that natural immunity was obviously stronger than any protection from the jabs, and cited an article by Dr. Paul Alexander that has over 150 studies attesting to naturally acquired immunity to COVID-19.

Yeadon feels that the novel vaccines should have not been given emergency use authorization (EUA) and that if he were directing the pandemic response, children, pregnant women, and people who already had contracted the virus would have been given a red light on the jabs.

“I would have outright denied their use in children, in pregnancy, and in the infected/recovered. Point blank. I’d need years of safe use before contemplating an alteration of this stance.”

He further argues that the vaccines were sure to be toxic and it was only a matter of degree of toxicity.

“Having selected spike protein to be expressed, a protein which causes blood clotting to be initiated, a risk of thromboembolic adverse events was burned into the design. Nothing at all limits the amount of spike protein to be made in response to a given dose. Some individuals make a little and only briefly. The other end of a normal range results in synthesis of copious amounts of spike protein for a prolonged period. The locations in which this pathological event occurred, as well as where on the spectrum, in my view played a pivotal role in whether the victim experienced adverse events including death,” Yeadon said.

“There are many other pathologies flowing from the design of these agents, including for the mRNA ‘vaccines’ that lipid nanoparticle formulations leave the injection site and home to liver and ovaries, among other organs, but this evidence is enough to get started.”

Earlier this month, a physician said that he has been seeing an unusual amount of fetal death and miscarriages linked to the COVID-19 vaccines—according to his observations—and noted that mRNA products, contained in nanoparticles, accumulate in the ovaries.

“From data that we have, there appears to be a concentration of the lipid nanoparticles, which are very, very small particles, which are in the vaccine that are injected into the arm,” Dr. James Thorp told The Epoch Times, “and then the vast majority of those are dispersed throughout the entire body.”

A lipid nanoparticle is a fat-soluble membrane that is the cargo of the messenger RNA.

“They appear to concentrate in the ovaries, and they appear to cross all God-made barriers in the human body, the blood-brain barrier, the placental barrier during pregnancy, into the fetal bloodstream, and all the fetal tissues inside the womb, crossing the blood-brain barrier in the fetus, the baby in the womb, which is very concerning,” he noted, since the eggs produced by women are limited in number, and they would be “exposed to a potentially disastrous toxic lipid nanoparticle.”

Another concern that Yeadon had not noticed during his initial study was that “the mRNA products (Pfizer & Moderna) would accumulate in ovaries.”

“An FOI request to the Japanese Medicines Agency revealed that product accumulation in ovaries occurred in experiments in rodents,” Yeadon said. “I searched the literature based on these specific concerns and found a 2012 review, explicitly drawing attention to the evidence that the lipid nanoparticle formulations as a class do, in fact, accumulate in ovaries and may represent an unappreciated reproductive risk to humans. This was ‘a well known problem’ to experts in that field.”

A 2012 study says that after testing with different mouse species and Wistar rats, “a high local accumulation of nanoparticles, nanocapsules, and nanoemulsions in specific locations of the ovaries was found in all animals.”

Referring to the study, Yeadon told The Epoch Times that “the authors tell untruths. They say something like ‘there was no increase in anti-syncytin-1 antibodies.’”

“No, that’s wrong. Their data is clearly 2.5X increased after vaccination and obviously statistically significant (functional significance is looking confirmed by the miscarriage rate),” Yeadon noted.

“What they’ve done is cute. They’ve chosen a completely arbitrary level they scribed on the figure below which they claim nothing matters. No evidence whatsoever for that claim. In fact, in the discussion, they confess we don’t know the relationship between antibodies and the impact on function.”

Yeadon believes that the pharmaceutical industry “definitely knew,” since 2012, that the lipid nanoparticles would accumulate in the ovaries of women that took the vaccines.

“No one in the industry or in leading media could claim ‘they didn’t know about these risks to successful pregnancy.’”

Another recent study found that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine goes into liver cells and is converted to DNA, a process called reverse-transcription.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/people-who-pushed-idea-of-universal-vaccination-are-guilty-of-crimes-against-humanity-former-pfizer-vp_4462787.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-14-4&utm_medium=email&est=WEtRecmTJPQ6Rw3%2ByJvncuxMIU5rb2uiXrIDXoBby71%2BqIxTrJiK1tN6T0%2Blzj3f3g%3D%3D

The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine turned negatively effective after five months, according to a new study.

Researchers with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed test results from sites across the United States and determined that the vaccine was 60 percent effective two to four weeks after 12- to 15-year-olds got the second of the two-dose primary regimen.

But the effectiveness, measured against symptomatic illness, quickly plummeted, hitting 20 percent around month two and zero around month five.

After that, recipients in the age group were more likely to be infected by the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, also known as SARS-CoV-2, the virus causes COVID-19.

Vaccine effectiveness “was no longer significantly different from 0 during month 3 after the second dose,” the researchers wrote in the study, which was published by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Pfizer, its partner BioNTech, and the CDC didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The analyzed tests were performed between Dec. 26, 2021, and Feb. 21, 2022. Some 47,700 tests among 12- to 15-year-olds were included, with about half being unvaccinated. The testing data was on the Increasing Community Access to Testing, a program funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that contracts with pharmacy chains to perform drive-through testing. The testing data was supplemented by information in questionnaires filled out by adults with the adolescents.

Limitations of the study included vaccination being self-reported.

The study was funded by the U.S. government.

The study also found that vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection plunged quickly for those 5 to 11 years old, starting at 60 percent but hitting 23 percent just one month later.

One way to combat the negative effectiveness, researchers said, was to get a booster dose.

Of the 906 12- to 15-year-olds who got a third, or booster, dose, the effectiveness was measured at 71 percent two to six weeks after receipt.

Other studies, though, show that the protection from a booster, like that from the primary regimen, quickly wanes.

“Given the well-established pattern of waning mRNA VE after 2 doses and early evidence of waning of booster dose protection in adults, monitoring the duration of protection from booster doses in adolescents will be important,” researchers said.

Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are built on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. VE refers to vaccine effectiveness.

In another study published by the same journal on May 13, New York researchers reported the gap of infection and hospitalization risk between unvaccinated and vaccinated youth narrowing over time, with vaccinated 5- to 11-year-olds being infected at a rate of 62 per 100,000 and unvaccinated being infected at a rate of 70 per 100,000.

That was an incidence rate ratio of 1.1; the rate ratio for 12- to 17-year-olds was 2.

The protection also waned considerably against hospitalization over time, researchers found.

They said that the findings support “efforts to increase vaccination coverage in children and adolescents.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/young-pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-recipients-more-likely-to-get-infected-after-5-months_4466968.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-14-4&utm_medium=email&est=L9CJl7tUjSCgk0cI86CGYRe1Vi%2F8mIaIuFEUZgrqLIiAwI9eRNrrWSOwg22500%2Buzg%3D%3D

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has weighed in on his thoughts about the 2024 Presidential election, stating that while he firmly believes former President Donald Trump should have his Twitter account reinstated, a “less divisive candidate” would be a better option.

The businessman also took aim at President Joe Biden, writing on Twitter on May 13 that the Democrat’s mistake is that “he thinks he was elected to transform the country,” but that “actually everyone just wanted less drama.”

Musk previously told a Financial Times conference on Tuesday that Twitter’s decision to ban Trump was “morally bad” and said he would reverse the platform’s decision.

“I do think that it was not correct to ban Donald Trump,” Musk told the conference. “I think that was a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice,” he added.

Trump, however, has stated that he has no plans to return to Twitter as he concentrated on building his own Truth Social platform, which is set to launch on a web browser at the end of May, Chief Executive Devin Nunes said earlier this month.

“I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on TRUTH,” Trump told Fox News last month. “I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’ll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on TRUTH.”

Musk told his Twitter followers on May 13 that while he believes a “less divisive candidate would be better in 2024,” however, the businessman still thinks the former president’s account on the platform should be restored.

He also joked that he would also prefer a candidate that is “also younger than 8,000 years old.”

Trump was permanently banned from the social networking site in January 2021, with the tech giant citing his alleged violation of the company’s “Glorification of Violence” policy following the breach of the U.S. Capitol. Facebook and YouTube followed through with similar bans.

It was announced last month that Musk would purchase Twitter for $44 billion, promoting conservatives to call for him to reinstate Trump’s account.

Monica Crowley, former assistant secretary of the Treasury under Trump, said in a tweet, “Now that Elon Musk is Twitter’s largest shareholder, he should demand the end of political censorship, company-wide reform, and the reinstatement of President Trump.”

Errol Webber, a Republican congressional candidate from California, wrote on Twitter that it is “time to get this platform back to its former glory.”

“Step one—bring back President Trump! Step two—give everyone who has been banned a second chance. Step three—end all forms of political and other censorship,” he continued.

It has been reported that Trump is considering another run for the presidency in 2024 after losing his reelection bid in 2020. A recent Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey showed Trump leading both Biden and Vice President Harris in a hypothetical 2024 race.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/elon-musk-says-biden-wrong-to-think-he-was-elected-to-transform-the-country_4464694.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-14-2&utm_medium=email&est=XGpUpzXTWujIXXZb6iq2%2FUrjr8X7F5w7U5ie1KfEBWMEb0gpChfz239W2BsvYsYNBw%3D%3D

The House of Representatives is set to announce it will provide taxpayer-funded monthly Peloton memberships to all of its staff, Fox Business reported on Friday. The contract comes just over one year after the fitness company set up a lobbying shop in Washington.

Memberships to the exercise service, which offers workout classes, will be available to House staff in Washington, D.C., and in district offices, as well as to Capitol police officers, Fox Business reported. The number of people eligible for the fully taxpayer-funded memberships totals roughly 12,300.

Members of Congress already have access to the congressional gym, which reportedly has cardio and weight machines, a steam room, and a swimming pool.

Under the contract with Peloton, which takes effect May 18, the government will pay the company $10,000 up front and $10 per month for each staffer who chooses to enroll, according to Fox Business. With high participation among House staffers, the monthly cost of the contract for taxpayers could exceed $100,000 per month.

The costly expenditure comes as inflation has consistently hovered near 40-year highs for the past several months.

In March 2021, Peloton hired an in-house lobbyist and two lobbying firms to influence Congress on issues including “government programming to support health and wellness of Americans.”

The contract comes when Peloton is in urgent need of revenue. After its profits initially exploded during the pandemic as Americans locked down and exercised from home, the company has fallen back down to earth, announcing this week that it lost $757 million in the first quarter of 2022. Peloton’s stock has plummeted from a high of $163 per share in 2020 to $15.46 per share as of this story.

https://freebeacon.com/politics/taxpayers-pony-up-to-give-all-house-staff-peloton-memberships/

Press Secretary Jen Psaki leaves the Biden White House today after more than a year overseeing a dishonest operation that helped a partisan and malleable press keep the American public in the dark.

Dishonesty was a calling card at Psaki’s briefings. As President Joe Biden hid from the press in an unprecedented fashion, Psaki asserted, “It’s just not accurate to suggest that he isn’t accessible or doesn’t answer questions.” And while pledging to fight “disinformation,” she used her bully pulpit to spoonfeed it to the national media.

She was dishonest as the Biden administration grappled with the pandemic. She pushed for masks in schools amid a growing consensus that it harmed children. She obfuscated the administration’s school reopening strategy, flip-flopping on how much in-person learning would constitute a “reopening.” In March, Psaki claimed “we don’t know” whether COVID is less dangerous to children, even though there has been plenty of evidence it is.

In recent days, Psaki suggested no one could have predicted inflation would soar to record highs, even as liberal economists warned Biden’s policies would create that exact problem. And she claimed the Biden administration had the situation at the southern border under control amid horrific reports of children trapped in facilities at 1600 percent capacity.

But the worst of her deceits came during the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. Psaki served as the stonewaller-in-chief and shared blatantly dishonest assessments. She waved away criticisms from her own party, claiming the administration had the situation under control as American evacuees were trapped in enemy territory due to a lack of intel.

When journalists asked how many Americans the Biden administration left behind Taliban lines, Psaki leaned on her trademark condescension, dismissing as preposterous the idea that the administration could keep tabs on every American overseas.

Psaki treated Fox News’s Peter Doocy, one of the few White House reporters to challenge her, with hostility and contempt. She wrote off his legitimate questions, likened him to Russian and Chinese propagandists, and said he sounded like “a stupid son of a bitch.”

DOOCY: “Does the White House think 16 cents off a bbq has more of an impact on people’s lives than gas being a dollar more?@PressSec: “I would say if you don’t like hot dogs, you might not care about the reduction of cost.” pic.twitter.com/WYmxekL5FS

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 2, 2021

Psaki once argued anyone banned from one social media platform for spreading “misinformation” should be banned from all other platforms. Some would see this as a call for Big Tech censorship. But not the media, who fawned over and adored Psaki. Poynter, the media research group that runs PolitiFact, called her “one of the best press secretaries ever.” Our rating: pants on fire.

In her penultimate briefing, Psaki slammed as a “conspiracy theory” the Washington Free Beacon‘s report that the Biden administration was funding a $30 million harm-reduction program that will fund the distribution of free crack pipes in “safe-smoking kits.” With one quip, Psaki insulted a journalist and dismissed deeply sourced reporting that exposed inconvenient facts.

In that respect, her outburst serves as a perfect capstone to her tenure—one that was condescending and dishonest, hostile to the truth and those seeking it.

At least they finally stopped saying ‘Latinx’

The Democratic Party is desperate to bolster its flagging support among Latino voters heading into the midterm elections. Finally accepting the fact that the word “Latinx” is weird and stupid—something white liberals do to feel better about themselves—is a good first start. Alas, the Democratic National Committee has chosen a rather unfortunate name for its new “signature outreach program” targeting Latino voters.

It’s called “Adelante,” which means forward or onward. As it so happens, slogans such as “¡Adelante!” or “¡La Revolución Seguirá Adelante!” were popular rallying cries under the communist regime of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, or as he is known to some elected Democrats, “el comandante en jefe.” The Cuban newspaper founded in 1959, the year Castro took power, is called Adelante, which boasts that it was “primero con la Revolución.”

The DNC, which announced the program on Wednesday, has already rolled out some fancy graphic designs urging Latino voters to move “adelente con los Demócratas.” They are pictured below alongside some of Castro’s communist propaganda.

Many Democrats were appalled by the party’s relatively poor showing among Latino voters in the 2020 election. Some argued that embracing “woke” terminology such as “Latinx,” a word most Latinos do not use or even understand, made Democrats seem out of touch. Others, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), faulted Democrats for alienating Hispanic voters with “loose talk of socialism,” according to the authors of This Will Not Pass, a recently published book about the 2020 election and its aftermath.

Pelosi wasn’t just spitballing. She had presumably seen survey data suggesting that a huge chunk of Latino voters—about 40 percent, according to the Democratic polling firm Equis Labs—were concerned about Democrats embracing socialism. There are plenty of ways Democrats could address these concerns. One would be to stop openly embracing socialism. Another might be—just throwing this out there—to not name your Latino outreach program after a communist dictator’s propaganda slogan.

Fun fact: Former Obama adviser Ben Rhodes, best known for lying to journalists about the administration’s efforts to appease Iran, attended Fidel Castro’s funeral in 2016 alongside official delegations from China, Russia, and other prominent human-rights abusers.

Congress is investigating the Biden administration for reportedly shipping pallets of baby formula to illegal immigrants, according to a copy of the probe obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) is asking the Department of Homeland Security and the Food and Drug Administration to provide information on the steps it is taking to combat the nationwide shortage of baby formula in light of reports that illegal immigrants detained by federal authorities are receiving “pallets” of formula at detention centers.

“As hard-working American parents struggle to find infant formula, a recent news report indicated that illegal immigrants detained by Border Patrol may not be experiencing these difficulties,” Johnson writes in a letter sent Friday to Biden administration leaders. “A member of Congress reportedly obtained photographs from a Border Patrol agent showing that shelves at a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detention center in McAllen, Texas, are stocked with ‘pallets’ of baby formula.”

While the White House claims it is “working around the clock” to address these shortages, Johnson maintains this rhetoric is empty. He is requesting the total amount of formula the federal government owns and how much was provided to illegal immigrants since August, when supply issues began cropping up.

“The Biden administration is not doing all it can to increase product availability,” Johnson writes. “For instance, the federal government could eliminate tariffs of up to 17.5 percent and tariff rate quotas (TRQs) on imported infant formula.”

DHS and the FDA must now furnish records detailing “the total amount of infant formula the federal government currently owns or is under contract to receive” and “the total amount of infant formula provided to illegal immigrants by [Customs and Border Patrol] since August 1, 2021.”

Rep. Kat Cammack (R., Fla.) earlier this week published photos showing stockpiles of baby formula at a CBP detention facility housing illegal immigrants.

“Biden is sending pallets of baby formula to the border,” Cammack wrote on Facebook. “Meanwhile, store shelves across America are empty and moms are being told they don’t know when more is coming in. Welcome to Biden’s America where American moms and dads are last.”

Cammack said border agents documented the baby formula deliveries to the Texas detention center.

With the formula shortage creating nationwide panic, Johnson says the “Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and United States Trade Representative (USTR) owes the public a detailed explanation about the steps the agencies are taking to ensure parents and their babies have access to infant formula.”

At the end of April, an estimated 40 percent of U.S. baby formula supplies were out of stock, according to figures disclosed by Johnson in his letter.

The White House said it is working to address the issue but has not thoroughly outlined its actions, Johnson adds.

“The assurances made by an untrustworthy administration and the lack of action do little to subdue the frustrations and anxieties of many parents that see a dwindling supply of infant formula for their babies,” Johnson writes. “The American people and parents have a right to be angry.”

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/senator-probes-biden-admin-for-offloading-baby-formula-to-illegal-immigrants/

It’s been a rough couple of weeks for students at Yale Law School, who are responding to news that the Supreme Court may overturn Roe v. Wade with calls to accost their conservative classmates through “unrelenting daily confrontation” and toss the Constitution by the wayside.

Members of the law school’s conservative Federalist Society, first year law student Shyamala Ramakrishna said in an Instagram post, are “conspirators in the Christo-fascist political takeover we all seem to be posting frantically about.” Why, she asked, are they still “coming to our parties” and “laughing in the library” without “unrelenting daily confrontation?”

Instagram post by law student Shyamala Ramakrishna.

Some of her classmates were less moderate.

“It’s not time for ‘reform,’” first-year law student Leah Fessler, a onetime New York Times freelancer, wrote on Instagram. “Democratic Institutions won’t save us.” It is unclear how Fessler will apply that view as a legal intern this summer for federal judge Lewis Liman. Judge Liman did not respond to a request for comment.

Instagram post by law student Leah Fessler, which she said the Free Beacon is “in no way authorized” to use.

Fessler isn’t alone. “Neither the constitution nor the courts—nor the fucking illusion of ‘democracy’—are going to save us,” first-year student Melisa Olgun posted. “How can we possibly expect a document, drafted by wealthy, white, landowning men, to protect those who face marginalization that is the direct result of the very actions of the founders?”

Instagram post by law student Melisa Olgun. Olgun told the Free Beacon, “You are in no way authorized to use it or my name in your story.”

Contacted for comment, the students decried “leaks” of their social media posts and said the Washington Free Beacon was not “authorized” to publish them.

“This was posted PRIVATELY, on a private story, and was clearly leaked to you,” Fessler said in an email, adding that the Free Beacon was “in no way authorized” to use the message.

“The post was on a private account on a private story that was sent to you without my knowledge,” Olgun said. “You are in no way authorized to use it or my name in your story.”

The replies may have been a tacit invocation of copyright laws that ban the dissemination of photos without their owner’s consent. Publishing private Instagram posts, a lawyer might argue, violates intellectual property rights, though Adam Candeub, an intellectual property expert at Michigan State University College of Law, called that argument “bullshit.”

“It’s not clear copyright would even apply,” Candeub said. “I wonder what they’re teaching at Yale Law School.”

Eugene Volokh, a professor of First Amendment law at UCLA School of Law, said the copyright argument was a stretch. Jack Balkin, a First Amendment professor at Yale Law School, did not respond to a request for comment.

The reactions at Yale Law School, long ranked the top school in the country, reflect the radicalism of a younger generation of law students—and, some have speculated, of the leaker himself—who believe that long-standing legal norms perpetuate oppression.

Olgun, for one, lamented that the “‘liberal’ legal discipline will continue to bend over backwards to uphold the decorum, norms, and the sanctity of an institution that serves only those who benefit from originalism.”

Instagram post by Melisa Olgun, which she said the Free Beacon is “in no way authorized to use.”

Such sentiments are widespread at Yale Law School. In March, nearly two-thirds of the student body signed an open letter condemning the Federalist Society for hosting a bipartisan panel on free speech.

The letter—which Fessler, Olgun, and Ramakrishna signed—also condemned the law school for calling “armed police” on “peaceful student protesters,” who caused so much chaos at the panel that the speakers had to be escorted to a squad car outside.

Similar scenes have unfolded outside the homes of Supreme Court justices in the wake of the leak. Though it is illegal to picket a judge’s home “with the intent of influencing” a case, hundreds of protesters did just that to Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, raising concerns about their safety. The Biden Administration does not appear to share those concerns: then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that “we certainly continue to encourage [peaceful protests] outside of judges’ homes.”

Congress has likewise taken a page from the Yale Law playbook. Days after a pro-life advocacy office was firebombed in Madison, Wis., House Democrats tried to kill a bipartisan bill that would beef up security for Supreme Court justices.

Nearly half those justices are graduates of Yale Law School, which churns out hundreds of law clerks each year. The school has an outsized effect on the legal system, producing a shocking volume of judges, academics, and government officials.

Since 1789, more than 4 percent of all federal judges have graduated from Yale Law. Alumni of the top-ranked school account for 17 percent of new law professors and three of the Federal Trade Commission’s five commissioners, including agency chair Lina Khan.

As the law school’s student body has radicalized, some judges are hoping to hem in its prestige. In March, D.C. Circuit judge Laurence Silberman warned his colleagues against hiring Yale students.

“The latest events at Yale Law School,” Silberman wrote, “prompt me to suggest that students who are identified as those willing to disrupt any such panel discussion should be noted. All federal judges—and all federal judges are presumably committed to free speech—should carefully consider whether any student so identified should be disqualified from potential clerkships.”

https://freebeacon.com/campus/unrelenting-daily-confrontation-after-roe-leak-yale-law-students-call-for-ostracizing-conservative-classmates-and-tossing-out-constitution/

Joe Biden’s latest appointment to an economic advisory council appeared to claim there “is nothing better than” China’s authoritarian economic system in terms of managing market chaos, lamenting “we can’t do anything since the United States is such a free country,” The National Pulse can reveal.

Biden tapped Dominic Ng, the chairman of East West Bank, to represent the United States on the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Business Advisory Council (ABAC), comprised of a group of business leaders that advises governments on issues in the region.

While speaking at the Future of Asia Conference in 2018, Ng appeared to praise the Chinese Communist Party’s authoritarian economic system, remarking “there is nothing better than that.” Ng made the admission while answering a question about the future of China’s economy and a potential crash.

He admitted that “China’s banks have [had] problems for many many years. In fact, they’ve never once not had problems,” before pointing to the country’s “controlled economy” and “one-party system” as factors mitigating a potential crash. He then expanded upon China’s supposed advantages, drawing a distinction between how the U.S. and China respond to market chaos.

“Once they spread these bad rumors, market crash,” he explained referring to China. “It happened [in] 2015. You saw that in 2015 suddenly the Shanghai stock exchange dropped like 50 60 percent.”

“The U.S. would be in a position,” he began, claiming “the [Department of Justice] would say that well we may start an investigation which will take three years. Securities and Exchange Commission may take two years, but in China, they start visiting whoever spread the rumors and start knocking on doors.”

“Have a cup of tea with them, say what are you going to do? Cease and desist, right?” he continued, referring to Chinese Communist Party officials. Chinese officials “would go into some of these major fund managers, say, you know what, for the sake of the country, don’t sell. Let’s do what’s right for the good of the country. Don’t sell, and then they tell all of these other publicly traded companies, stop trading for a while, we’re going to do whatever we want.”

“Now it sounds terrible from a U.S. perspective, you say wow this is not free market. This is terrible, but you know what 1.5 years later, everything is fine.”

The Chinese Communist Party, explained Ng, can “control the media to not get out of control” and stop them from “spreading rumors that would hurt the economy” along with telling “the accounting firms” and “banking regulators” to “stop doing this nonsense.”

“We can’t do anything since the United States is such a free country,” he added.

“Is there a likelihood that we have a financial crisis in the future in the United States,” he asked before insisting, “yeah, very possible because we’re a system that guaranteed that would happen, but in China, as long as you have the current regime doing what they’re doing these type of things can always be mitigated.”

“It sounds totally counterintuitive because you would think that, you know what, the system over there, the lack of individual rights and then lack of democracy is just horrible, I totally agree with all of that [sic] kinds of thoughts.”

“From a different kind of perspective, when you talk about controlling, managing, a banking system there is nothing better than that,” he said praising China’s economic system.

Ng’s comments follow his unearthed ties to a bevy of Chinese Communist Party-linked foreign influence groups including the Committee of 100 and the China United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), which function as part of China’s United Front Work Department (UFWD).

The federal government identifies the UFWD as Beijing’s covert operation “to co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of its ruling Chinese Communist Party” and “influence foreign governments to take actions or adopt positions supportive of Beijing.” The State Department compares likens it to the Chinese regime’s “magic weapon” to advance its preferred policies by infiltrating American politics, media, and academia.

Ng has also served on the board of directors for the Asia Society, a U.S.-based group receiving funds from several Chinese state-owned companies and a partner of controversial Confucius Institutes. 

These ties appear to have propelled Ng to advocate – either directly or indirectly – for causes championed by the Chinese Communist Party, including praising China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a loan and infrastructure program exploited by Beijing to expand its economic and military influence across the globe. He insisted the U.S. government’s opposition to the program was a “missed opportunity” and admitted to meeting with groups to encourage American companies’ involvement in the Belt and Road.

He also praised Beijing’s COVID-19 response, insisting party officials took “crucial first steps” to contain the virus while dismissing the theory the virus originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. 

Ng is one of several Biden regime officials with deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party and its network of foreign influence groups.

Kash Patel: Newly Released FBI Notes Expose Their Own Lies and Conspiracy Against Trump | Kash’s CornerKASH’S CORNERKASH PATEL AND JAN JEKIELEK

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“In March of 2017 … [then-FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe] is admitting—in a meeting with the team running the Russiagate investigation—that there is no connection between Alfa Bank and Trump Tower,” according to newly released FBI notes, says Kash Patel.

These handwritten FBI and DOJ notes incriminate top officials and expose a conspiracy against Donald Trump, Kash says.

“As the lead Russiagate investigator, I never saw these notes. We asked for them. And they told us—they, the Department of Justice, the FBI—told us they did not exist.”

In this episode, Kash explains what he’s found in these newly released documents and why the judge’s recent order in the Michael Sussmann case was not a huge blow to special counsel John Durham’s case, unlike what many have claimed.

Kash and Jan also take a look at the firestorm of protests occurring outside the homes of Supreme Court justices since the leak of a draft ruling on Roe v. Wade. Will the justices be influenced?

https://www.theepochtimes.com/kash-patel-newly-released-fbi-notes-expose-their-own-lies-and-conspiracy-against-trump-kashs-corner_4465416.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-13-3&utm_medium=email&est=mOXhewh%2FW0CZEgWE1wnAfIMSi69EQsbvvlzuiLV7feTyv7TYRnhmGdTZ5%2BuKmFoCsQ%3D%3D

U.S. lawmakers on May 13 announced a probe into the baby formula shortage hitting American consumers.

The House Oversight Committee is investigating what four top formula manufacturers are doing to address the shortage, which stems from the Biden administration forcing the closure of an Abbott Labs plant after an inspection found unsanitary conditions.

In letters sent to Abbott, Nestlé USA, Reckitt subsidiary Mead Johnson, and Perrigo, lawmakers noted that people in many states are experiencing shortages and called the dearth of baby formula “a threat to the health and economic security of infants and families in communities throughout the country.”

“It is critical that your company take all possible steps to increase the supply of formula and prevent price gouging,” Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the House panel, and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, wrote.

They asked for briefings on the matter as well as written responses to their questions, which included asking when the companies became aware of the shortages and what steps they’ve taken to increase supply.

The companies together produce about 90 percent of the formula sold in the United States.

A Perrigo spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email that the company’s facilities are running 24 hours a day, seven days a week but are at full capacity.

Perrigo “is doing everything possible to provide as much infant formula to its retail partners during this challenging time,” the spokesperson said.

In the three months ending on March 31, Perrigo shipped 37 percent more formula than the same time period in 2021.

Nestlé is “a small player in the infant formula market,” a company spokesperson told The Epoch Times via email, adding that “we are absolutely committed to doing everything we can to help get parents and caregivers the formula they need so their babies can thrive.”

“We have significantly increased the amount of our infant formula available to consumers by ramping up production and accelerating general product availability to retailers and online, as well as in hospitals for those most vulnerable. We are also working through our Gerber Parent Resource Center, website, social media and industry groups to help make sure essential information is available for those parents and caregivers seeking it,” the spokesperson added.

Abbott did not respond to a request for comment.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) became aware of problems with Abbott’s plant in September 2021 but did not inspect the plant until Jan. 31 and did not force it to shut down until February, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, said in a recent report.

A whistleblower, a former worker at the plant, alerted regulators that records were falsified and formula that wasn’t tested was being released. Abbott has said the worker was fired due to violating food safety policies and that it was reviewing the complaint and investigating the allegations.

FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said this week that the agency is “doing everything in our power to ensure there is adequate product available where and when they need it.” That will include easing restrictions on imports, the White House said Thursday.

Abbott has said that it is ready to resume production at its Michigan plant but the administration has not indicated when it will allow the company to do so.

President Joe Biden spoke with the CEOs of Reckitt and Gerber as well as executives from Walmart and Target around the same time, asking what the administration can do to help boost production and get formula into stores faster.

“Yesterday we had a productive conversation with President Biden on ways we can work together to address the nation’s infant formula shortage. We are running our plants 24/7, which has enabled us to increase supply to parents and infants by more than 30%—feeding 200,000 more babies than was possible at the start of the shortage. Today, Reckitt, the maker of Enfamil, provides over half the infant formula in the United States. This is an urgent health issue for millions of Americans, and we will continue to partner with the Administration to identify additional ways to help ensure parents and infants have a steady supply of safe, high-quality formula,” a Reckitt spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us-house-opens-investigation-into-baby-formula-shortage_4464992.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-13-3&utm_medium=email&est=CZb%2FyhAWmaBhPW4WJGt1pRhGSHwoYBK6sDy2fC7hamHfz%2BgVCWu0Px%2BG08kIvqUpHA%3D%3D

Officials in an Arizona county that was featured in the documentary “2000 Mules” are investigating voter fraud, but a spokesperson said the new announcement wasn’t related to the movie.

In a May 11 statement, the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office said it and the Yuma County Recorder’s Office “are working together to actively examine cases of voting fraud from the 2020 general election and now a recent pattern of fraudulent voter registration forms leading up to the 2022 primary election.”

Sixteen cases involving fraud were open as of March, with evidence being documented by the county recorder and being probed by the sheriff.

Officials said they’re seeing people vote under names that are not their own, registering to vote using fake names, and voting in the same election more than once.

Yuma County was one of the jurisdictions that were featured in the documentary. A woman who was not identified, but was described as a receptionist, said she was instructed to receive ballots from people, with the people being paid for alleged ballot harvesting. The woman said she dropped off some of the ballots into drop boxes.

The ‘mules’ in the film’s title refers to people who investigators tracked with cell phone data to being near multiple drop boxes. They also obtained surveillance footage and used that to match with data from cell phones. The mules were seen dropping off multiple ballots, sometimes dozens.

Drop boxes were legal in most states but in many places, only dropping off a ballot on behalf of oneself or family members were legal.

The movie utilized data uncovered by True the Vote, an election integrity group.

“We are extremely encouraged that the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office and Recorder’s Office are now working together to investigate individuals involved in the subversion of elections,” Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of the group, said in a statement. We’ve spent concentrated time in Yuma County and have provided significant information to both state and federal authorities. What has been happening in Yuma County is happening across the country. The targeting of vulnerable communities and voter abuse must be stopped.”

Tania Pavlak, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, told The Epoch Times that the announcement was not triggered by “2000 Mules.”

“We already had been investigating these cases for the past few months and so the sheriff wanted to make sure we sent out that information with election season now hot and up and running. That way, people were aware of what was happening and also could stay vigilant,” she said.

The cases referred to the sheriff were based on information from the Electronic Registration Information Center, a consortium made up of election officials in various states, that was independently verified by staffers at the county recorder’s office, Tiffany Anderson, the county’s election director, told The Epoch Times in an email when asked about any connection to the new film.

Officials said the pattern of fraudulent voter registration forms was detected by the recorder’s office, with a number of people sending in duplicate forms or documents with false information on them.

“What they’re seeing is that there are registration forms that are being either falsified or people that are double registering with information that doesn’t match their current registration,” Pavlak said. “So for example, they’ll have the same name but a different birthday, but everything else will be the same. So it looks like people are either not filling it out completely when they’re filling it out with soliciting groups, and then they’re just getting filled in by other people.”

The sheriff is focusing on groups that are soliciting registrations. The office declined to name any specific groups.

Officials in Maricopa County, also featured in “2000 Mules,” did not respond to requests for comment, including on whether they’d seen the film.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/arizona-county-featured-in-2000-mules-investigating-voter-fraud-allegations_4465269.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-13-3&utm_medium=email&est=7od%2Bk9q0cQwZ2ZCjVg05BtwORDDW082piqAfxDOMWzMES5KJVq2YeUiG1ir%2BiOAtZw%3D%3D

About 9,000 transgender surgeries are performed a year in the United States as government and private insurance increasingly cover them. Globally, the sex reassignment surgery market is projected to be $1.5 billion by 2026. But how safe are the expensive procedures, like the popular genital or “bottom” surgeries whose costs starts at $25,000?

Male-to-female and female-to-male genital surgeries seek to create an “aesthetic genital organ, as well as to allow for their excretory and related functioning,” wrote researchers in Current Urology last year. For example, in addition to achieving the correct look, most female-to-male surgical patients want to “stand up” when they urinate. Unfortunately, the urological aspects of the surgeries are the most prone to complications for both men and women.

Urethrocutaneous fistulas, unwanted openings that allow urine leakage, and urethal strictures, narrowings that impede urine flow, are the most common complications of genital surgery for both men and women. Researchers in Current Urology write that the fistula and stricture complication rates may be as high as 75 percent in female-to-male surgery. A study last year in the Journal of Urology of male-to-female genital surgery (vaginoplasty) found a quarter of 869 patients in California experienced complications including strictures and fistulas.

While fistulas can cause urine dribbling or leaking, a uretha stricture can lead to kidney damage, says the website All Things Kidney. If the blockage is “left untreated over the years, it can cause urine retention with back-pressure on kidneys as a consequence. This can lead to a condition called ‘Hydronephrosis’” or kidney swelling.

Other Concerns

What do the genital surgeries entail? Penile inversion vaginoplasty includes removal of the testicles, penile disassembly, and creation of a vagina and clitoris from penile tissue. (The prostate is left in place to avoid incontinence and to keep erotic sensations.)

Female-to-male surgery involves hysterectomy, removal of fallopian tubes, the ovaries and vagina but not the clitoris and creation of a “penis” (which requires an implant for erections). Voice and face surgery are also performed in many cases.

Creating a vagina surgically can cause rectal and urethral injury, wrote researchers in Translational Andrology and Urology in 2019. Patients might want to choose a “limited depth” vagina for safety and less future maintenance. “Patients who are not interested in penetrative forms of sex, higher perioperative risk, or are not willing to commit to lifelong douching and dilating should be considered ideal candidates for limited depth vaginoplasty,” they write. “This leaves the patient with an externally feminine genitalia with a very short vaginal canal of just a few centimeters inadequate for penetrative intercourse. However, it mitigates the risk of rectal and urethral injury, obviates the need for supplemental grafts or flaps for additional vaginal length (and thus hair removal needs), and shortens the operative time.”

If male-to-female patients do not want to be consigned to such lifelong “douching and dilating,” tissue from the colon or small bowel can be used to line the vagina instead of penile says the University of California San Francisco website “Transgender Care.” While such a vagina is naturally “self-lubricating,” its secretions could be constant, undesirable, and the vagina is at risk for bowel-related diseases like inflammatory bowel disease, arterio-venous malformations (tangle blood vessels), and neoplasms. A vagina created from penile tissue can also pose disease risks, says the site. “The same skin cancers that occur on the penile and scrotal skin (squamous cell, basal cell, melanoma)” can occur.

Male-to-female patients may also experience vaginal prolapse—the top of the vagina collapses into the vaginal canal—says a 2021 article in Andrology. It is a rare complication but may increase over time, write the authors.

Regrets and Reversals

While a 2018 study in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery  says most surgery patients report satisfaction with their surgery, seven male-to-female patients  “sought detransition” because of vaginal stenosis (stricture), fistulas, and chronic genital pain.

Two female-to-male patients sought detransition because of a fistula and stricture. Forty-five patients in the study were said to regret their genital surgery and 38 detransition procedures were performed, though the study doesn’t say that they were all genital surgeries. According to the Journal of Sexual Medicine, “Reversal surgery in regretful male-to-female transsexuals after SRS [sex reassignment surgery] represents a complex, multistage procedure with satisfactory outcomes.”

The voice of regretful patients is downplayed, says Walt Heyer in an oped in USA Today in 2019. Heyer, who underwent genital reconfiguration at age 42, writes, “You will hear the media say, ‘Regret is rare.’ But they are not reading my inbox, which is full of messages from transgender individuals who want the life and body back that was taken from them by cross-sex hormones, surgery, and living under a new identity.”

Of course all surgery poses risks and more than half of plastic surgery patients have regrets, according to some reports. Still the considerable risks of male-to-female and female-to-male genital surgery are not often detailed by the press, perhaps to avoid appearing “transphobic.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/when-gender-surgery-goes-wrong_4452260.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-13-3&utm_medium=email&est=VRSma4qzl354TRY135%2FR2tgy1ySbmOnhDte16wzUjrhVyVe8%2BF9IGp1pIoTPbx8k6A%3D%3D

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Thursday delayed the Senate’s vote to pass a nearly $40 billion aid package for Ukraine that would provide the nation with further military and economic assistance amid its ongoing conflict with Russia.

While leaders were unanimous in their agreement to proceed with passing the package this week, Paul refused to do so until changes are made to the legislation that will ensure an inspector general can monitor exactly how the billions of dollars are being spent.

The legislation has been approved by the House and has strong bipartisan support in the Senate, and is still likely to pass.

However, Paul’s objection signified a departure from the overwhelmingly supportive stance that Congress and the Biden administration have so far shown for Ukraine as Russian President Vladimir Putin continues with his “special military operation.”

The GOP senator, a libertarian who often opposes U.S. intervention abroad, argued that the extra spending outweighed that which the United States currently spends on multiple domestic programs, and raised concerns over how it could potentially further exacerbate federal deficits and inflation in the country, which currently stands at a 40-year-high.

“My oath of office is to the U.S. Constitution, not to any foreign nation, and no matter how sympathetic the cause, my oath of office is to the national security of the United States of America,” Paul said on the floor on Thursday.

“We cannot save Ukraine by dooming the U.S. economy … gasoline alone is up 48 percent, and energy prices are up 32 percent over the last year. Food prices have increased by nearly 9 percent. Used vehicle prices are up 35 percent for the year, and new vehicle prices have increased 12 percent or more,” he continued.

Paul noted that inflation “doesn’t just come out of nowhere” while pointing to deficit spending, noting that the United States spent almost $5 trillion on “COVID-19 bailouts” which have led to sky-high levels of inflation.

“Americans are feeling the pain, and Congress seems intent only on adding to that pain by shoveling more money out the door as fast as they can,” the Republican said.

The approximately $39.8 billion package for Ukraine includes $6 billion for security assistance to its military and national security forces and $8.7 billion to replenish stocks of U.S. equipment sent to the country.

It also contains $3.9 billion for European Command operations and would also authorize an additional $11 billion in Presidential Drawdown Authority, which would allow Biden to authorize the transfer of articles and services from U.S. stocks without congressional approval in response to an emergency. Biden had asked for $5 billion.

Another $4 billion would go to Foreign Military Financing, providing Ukraine and other countries with additional support to build and update their capabilities.

If approved, it would bring U.S. support for Ukraine since Russia invaded to nearly $54 billion, on top of the $13.6 billion in support that Congress passed in March.

Paul noted that the United States has provided more than $6 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since 2014, and said that if the latest amount is passed, it would see total aid equaling the entire military budget of Russia.

“And it is not as if we have that money lying around. We will have to borrow that money from China to send it to Ukraine,” he said. “The cost of this package we are voting on today is more than the U.S. spent during the first year of the U.S. conflict in Afghanistan.”

The senator also noted that the billions of dollars in funding towers in comparison to what the United States spends on cancer research annually—$6 billion—and is more than the government collects in gas taxes each year to build roads and bridges. It nearly equals the entire State Department budget, he said, and exceeds the budget for the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Energy.

Specifically, Paul asked that a special inspector general be created to oversee how the military aid to Ukraine is spent.

But Democrats objected to Paul’s plan because it would expand the powers of an existing inspector general whose current purview is limited to Afghanistan.

“Congress should evaluate the cost of going down this path,” the senator said, adding that, “the biggest threat to the United States today is debt and inflation and the destruction of the dollar” and that “we cannot save Ukraine by killing our economic strength.

“So I act to modify the bill to allow for a special inspector general. This would be the inspector general that’s been overseeing the waste in Afghanistan and has done a great job.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and other Democrats opposed Paul’s push to change the language and instead offered to have a vote on it, but that offer was rejected.

That means lawmakers will now vote on the passage of the measure again next week in hopes of advancing it.

“It’s clear from the junior senator from Kentucky’s remarks, he doesn’t want to aid Ukraine,” said Schumer on Thursday. “All he will accomplish with his actions here today is to delay that aid, not to stop it.”

The Epoch Times has contacted Paul’s office for comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/sen-paul-delays-vote-on-40-billion-ukraine-package-calls-for-spending-oversight_4464576.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-13-1&utm_medium=email2&est=wlfAjwjkq9dvV8WVC6%2FOUfv4%2BkODZEfq1tP7r%2BS984tvZIsEyP84hAuX6YQNCH%2FqYw%3D%3D

Voice of America (VOA), the taxpayer-funded government media network, is obstructing a congressional investigation into “waste, fraud, and abuse,” including partisan advocacy in favor of President Joe Biden and misuse of a visa program to “onboard foreign nationals,” according to a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees VOA and other government media outlets, has obstructed several congressional investigations into its misallocation of taxpayer funds and slanted coverage, including suppressing stories about the Iranian regime’s mass human rights abuses. A government watchdog has also cited USAGM for failing to properly vet 40 percent of its workforce, which includes those with security clearances and many foreign nationals, including Iranians.

Rep. Scott Perry (R., Pa.), a Foreign Affairs Committee member, in March called on VOA and USAGM to turn over reams of information that he said would shed a light on the broadcasting giant’s abuse of taxpayer funds. The agency has failed to do so, fueling accusations it is trying to hide this information.

Perry is pressing the Foreign Affairs Committee’s chairman and ranking member to haul USAGM’s leaders before Congress for a hearing on the agency’s malfeasance. The lawmaker, who says USAGM “has become a microcosm of what is wrong with the federal government,” wants the hearing to take place no later than July 14.

“The last time the House Foreign Affairs Committee held an oversight hearing on USAGM was September, 24, 2020, to satiate the petty vendettas of self-aggrandizing agency officials who considered themselves above such ‘antiquated and irrelevant’ concepts as Congressional oversight,” Perry wrote this week to his colleagues, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. “Instead of using the hearing opportunity to meaningfully address the egregious security lapses at the Agency, this Committee effectively allowed Taxpayer resources to be expended on a glorified group therapy session for ineffective and/or corrupt government personnel.”

USAGM, and VOA in particular, have been dogged by accusations that they favor Democrats in their coverage and use government resources to advance this agenda, in violation of their charter. While the Trump administration attempted to root out corruption at USAGM, especially VOA Persia, these efforts stopped when the Biden administration took office. In addition to reporting censorship of stories critical of the Iranian regime, whistleblowers have described being harassed and targeted for attempting to expose corruption at the agency.

USAGM’s Persian News Network is at the heart of Perry’s congressional probe due to its 2015 efforts to solicit negative comments about then-candidate Donald Trump. In 2020, VOA’s Urdu Service published “what was effectively a campaign video on behalf of then-candidate Joe Biden,” according to Perry, who maintains these partisan efforts constitute a violation of the organization’s government charter.

VOA Persia also has been under a microscope from Republican lawmakers, agency whistleblowers, and activists in the Iranian-American community for its pro-Iran coverage and documented efforts to suppress efforts by agency reformers. Perry is one of several Republican lawmakers leading a charge to force USAGM into publicly accounting for these accusations, which has plagued it for years.

Setareh Derakhshesh Sieg, VOA Persia’s leader, was rehired by the Biden administration after former president Trump fired her for misappropriating nearly $1 million in funds and misrepresenting her academic credentials. Republicans say Sieg is also responsible for turning VOA Persia into a propaganda outlet for the Iranian regime. For example, she has been accused of banning Iranian regime critics from the network and creating an in-house “black list” of voices who should be censored.  Under Sieg’s tenure, VOA Persia has also suppressed stories on the Iranian regime’s human rights abuses, according to Iranian dissidents who track the agency, and published pieces that amplify regime propaganda, particularly about the 2015 nuclear accord.

“There are numerous documented examples of this rogue agency’s formal cooperation in waste, fraud, and abuse, and it’s long past time its leaders answer for it,” Perry told the Free Beacon.

At least 40 percent of USAGM’s workforce was “not properly vetted before being hired,” according to an assessment from the Office of Personnel Management and disclosed by Perry in his letter to committee leaders. This finding is particularly troubling to congressional oversight officials because VOA employs scores of foreign nationals through a U.S. visa program that is under scrutiny. Additionally, USAGM has issued top-secret security clearances to “dozens of individuals,” raising questions about whether those who received clearances were fit to hold them.

USAGM also refuses to provide Congress with a 2021 internal assessment on the agency’s operations. That report, which was completed just before Biden took office, outlined operational failures, according to Perry, who disclosed portions of it after USAGM rebuffed his oversight efforts.

Bryan Leib, executive director of Iranian Americans for Liberty, an anti-regime advocacy group that has been critical of VOA’s coverage, said the global media outlet “has operated for years without being accountable to the very body that is responsible for their oversight.”

A public hearing, Leib said, “is long overdue and shouldn’t be a partisan issue.”

https://freebeacon.com/media/voa-misallocates-funds-and-suppresses-negative-stories-about-iran-this-lawmaker-wants-to-investigate/

“People need to be in charge of how many mouths they’re going to have to feed.”

Rep. Katie Porter (D., Calif.) on Wednesday said the record inflation under the Biden administration proves that women need abortion rights, because people “need to be in charge of how many mouths they’re going to have to feed.”

When asked by MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell to compare how inflation and abortion shape the midterm elections, Porter said, “I don’t think they compare, I think they actually reinforce each other.”

“The fact that things like inflation can happen, and it becomes more expensive to feed your kids and to fuel your car is exactly why people need to be in charge of how many mouths they’re going to have to feed,” Porter said. “The fact that we’re seeing this jump in expenses, that we’re seeing people having to pay more in the grocery store, pay more at the pump, pay more for housing, is a reason that people are saying, ‘I need to be able to make my own decisions about when and if to start a family.'”

A Wednesday Politico report revealed many Democratic lawmakers have sought to emphasize the abortion issue ahead of the midterm elections while they have struggled to address inflation, a vulnerability for the Biden administration and Democrats.

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/women-need-abortions-to-fight-inflation-dem-rep-says/

During event with teachers’ union leaders, Jahana Hayes heaps praise on House speaker

Swing-district Democrat Jahana Hayes pledged to oppose Nancy Pelosi for House speaker in 2018. Now, the Connecticut congresswoman is one of Pelosi’s biggest supporters.

During a May 5 virtual event with top teachers’ union leaders, Hayes heaped praise on Pelosi, saying she feels “incredibly blessed” and “incredibly privileged” to serve under the California Democrat. “I’m just so humbled to be able to say that I served in the Congress with Nancy Pelosi,” Hayes added.

Hayes’s gushing admiration for Pelosi is a significant shift from the Democrat’s rhetoric during her first congressional run in 2018. Hayes explicitly promised she wouldn’t back Pelosi for House speaker, arguing that Democrats needed a “generational shift in leadership.” But Hayes quickly reneged on that pledge and falsely said a vote against Pelosi would be “a vote for the Republicans.”

The virtual event also saw Hayes express her support for President Joe Biden, who she said “listens” and “wants to be helpful.” Hayes’s decision to tether herself to Biden may backfire as she navigates a difficult reelection bid in Connecticut’s Fifth Congressional District. Biden’s political standing in the state has rapidly declined since he won it by a whopping 20 points in 2020. According to a May Civiqs poll, just 38 percent of registered Connecticut voters approve of the president, while 50 percent disapprove.

In addition to Pelosi, Hayes appeared at the virtual event alongside American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten and National Education Association president Becky Pringle. That connection could also provoke political backlash—Connecticut teachers’ union leaders, including the state’s AFT president, in January vocally opposed a return to in-person learning, instead arguing in favor of a remote option due to safety concerns. Some unionized teachers responded by wearing black to school as a form of protest.

Hayes joined Congress in 2019, replacing outgoing Democratic incumbent Elizabeth Esty. While Hayes’s district is the least liberal in Connecticut, she has deep ties to far-left “Squad” members Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) and Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.). In February 2019, the trio appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone, which also featured Pelosi.

Hayes’s campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/this-connecticut-dem-pledged-to-stand-up-to-pelosi-now-shes-her-biggest-supporter/

Inflation is crushing residents of Phoenix and Atlanta, and they may have their Democratic senators to thank for it.

Prices rose 11 percent in Phoenix and 10.8 percent in Atlanta last month—the highest of all major American cities—according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Democrats have blamed inflation on a variety of factors, including corporate price gouging, supply chain issues, and Vladimir Putin. But a growing number of economists say the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan was a major contributor to the nationwide price surge.

The plan’s link to inflation could spell trouble for Sen. Mark Kelly (D., Ariz.) and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D., Ga.) come November. Both voted in favor of the American Rescue Plan, with Warnock boasting that he cast a “decisive” vote. Even before inflation gripped their states’ biggest cities, the freshmen senators were considered the most vulnerable Democrats up for reelection. Republicans are campaigning aggressively to capture both seats in hopes of taking control of the Senate.

Though they have decried rising prices, Kelly and Warnock have spared criticism of the American Rescue Plan. Warnock accused “greedy companies” of “pushing up costs for Georgia consumers” through price gouging. Kelly said he was working to address “our labor shortages and take on corporate price gouging” in order to lower costs for Arizonans.

Kelly and Warnock have touted their votes for the plan amid the inflationary spiral. Kelly touted his vote in March, saying it “did a lot of good for Arizonans.” Warnock said in April that “it’s great to see that the American Rescue Plan, more than a year after it was signed, is still providing much-needed relief to Georgians.”

Economists see the plan as a major contributor to the economic crisis. The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco said it may have added 3 percentage points to the inflation rate by the end of 2021.

Liberal analysts, too, have acknowledged the spending bill added to inflation. Vox, the leftwing explanatory website, said in an article Thursday that the plan “worsened” inflation. The report quoted an economist who said the American Rescue Plan “put gasoline on the fire.”

The plan’s critics—including many Republicans—predicted even before the measure passed that it would push prices higher. They said it was not needed to stimulate the economy, especially on the heels of $3 trillion in relief passed in 2020. They also said the Democrat-backed bill would give money to people who didn’t need it, a prediction borne out when billionaires received $1,400 relief checks after the plan passed.

Kelly and Warnock did not respond to requests for comment.

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/these-two-cities-can-thank-their-dem-senators-for-the-nations-highest-inflation-rates/

The firm that conducted opposition research on then-candidate Donald Trump for his rival Hillary Clinton must give nearly two dozen emails they claimed were protected by privilege to special counsel John Durham’s team, a judge ruled on May 12.

Prosecutors, though, cannot use the messages at the upcoming trial of former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann.

The firm, Fusion GPS, withheld some 1,500 documents from Durham after the special counsel in 2021 issued a subpoena as he was building a case against people involved with triggering the government’s investigation into claims Trump and his campaign colluded with Russia.

Prosecutors in April contested the withholding of 38 emails, arguing they were improperly being withheld. Clinton’s campaign, which hired Fusion through a law firm, asserted attorney-client and work product privilege over the missives.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, the Obama appointee overseeing the case, said Durham’s team was correct with regards to 22 of the emails.

Based on evidence in the case, including the judge’s closed-door review of the 38 emails, Fusion employees took part in work that does not fall under the asserted privileges, Cooper said.

“Based on non-privileged emails that Fusion did produce to the grand jury, and on the withheld emails the court has reviewed in camera, it is clear that Fusion employees also interacted with the press as part of an affirmative media relations effort by the Clinton campaign. That effort included pitching certain stories, providing information on background, and answering reporters’ questions,” he said.

“Some of the emails at issue—including internal Fusion GPS discussions about the underlying data and emails circulating draft versions of one of the background white papers that was ultimately provided to the press and the FBI—relate directly to that undertaking. And because these emails appear not to have been written in anticipation of litigation but rather as part of ordinary media-relations work, they are not entitled to attorney work-product protection.”

The emails, which appear to relate solely to spreading the opposition research Fusion compiled, also cannot be shielded by attorney-client privilege, the judge added.

He ordered Fusion to supply Durham with the documents by May 16.

Fusion did not respond to a request for comment.

Fusion does not have to produce the remaining 16 emails—eight internal Fusion communications that may be privileged, and eight emails between technology executive Rodney Joffe and Sussmann, including Fusion employee Laura Seago—because the court can’t say whether they are related to helping the Clinton campaign’s law firm or Sussmann with legal matters.

Joffe hired Sussmann ahead of the 2016 election. Sussmann brought information on behalf of Joffe to the FBI regarding allegations concerning Trump’s business and a Russian bank that were later deemed false by the CIA. Sussmann was charged with lying to the FBI when he said he was not bringing the information on behalf of a client. Sussmann is set to go on trial on May 16.

Because Durham’s team waited so long to try to compel the production of Fusion’s emails—they were withheld in August 2021, and discussions on their possible production ended in January, three months before the motion to compel was filed—prosecutors cannot use the missives they will receive from Fusion in Sussmann’s trial, Cooper ruled.

“The court generally agrees with the defense that the government waited too long to compel production of the withheld emails,” he said. “Under these circumstances, allowing the special counsel to use these documents at trial would prejudice Mr. Sussmann’s defense.”

“Although these documents are relatively few in number and do not strike the court as being particularly revelatory, the court is not in the best position to predict how new evidence might affect each side’s trial strategy and preparation,” he added.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/research-firm-that-helped-clinton-campaign-must-give-emails-to-john-durham-judge_4464753.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-13-1&utm_medium=email2&est=UMYyETCyACK%2FVzsCqCNP0OcP1CZi8RMiR08TdHjGADb7w0ZozhXkxFO0HQdh0Fy7vQ%3D%3D

The baby formula shortage is intensifying in the United States, according to new Datasembly numbers.

The retail information provider reported that out-of-stock (OOS) rates continue to climb nationwide, rising to 43 percent in the week ending May 8. This is up from the 30 to 40 percent readings in April.

“Unfortunately, baby formula out-of-stock levels have continued to soar since the beginning of April, and we see no indication of a slowdown,” Ben Reich, CEO of Datasembly, told The Epoch Times. “Baby formula out-of-stock levels have reached 43 percent nationwide and continue demonstrating higher out-of-stock levels than other categories.”

Data as of May 1 show that nine states have OOS rates above 50 percent, including Tennessee (54.7 percent), Delaware (54.5 percent), Texas (52 percent), Montana (51 percent), and Nevada (51 percent). Jurisdictions with the lowest OOS rates were Colorado (26.3 percent), New Mexico (29 percent), and Indiana (29.7 percent).

Across the United States, multiple retailers including CVS, Kroger, Target, and Walgreens, have applied limits on purchases of infant formula.

Last month, CVS limited in-store and online purchases of baby formula to three per order. Kroger installed a limit of four products per customer. Target and Walgreens have maintained restrictions for several weeks.

Media reports suggest that some parents are responding to the shortages by producing their own, watering down current supplies, and rationing formula.

The FDA has discouraged parents from making formula at home due to “very serious health concerns” for babies.

“The potential problems associated with errors in selecting and combining the ingredients for the formula are very serious and range from severe nutritional imbalances to unsafe products that can harm infants,” the agency noted.

Health experts warn that too much water for infants under six months could trigger seizures and brain swelling and dilute the calories.

As of 2018, four companies control close to 90 percent of the market: Abbott, Reckitt Benckiser, Nestlé, and Perrigo.

How Did This Formula Crisis Begin?

Earlier this year, Abbott Laboratories, a leading baby formula maker, recalled products sold under the Alimentum, EleCare, and Similac brands that were produced at a Michigan facility. Four children had become sick with bacterial infections, resulting in two deaths. This prompted public health authorities to encourage shoppers to avoid buying formulas tied to the plant, although Abbott doesn’t believe there is a link between these illnesses and its formulas.

In addition to Abbott’s recall, the baby formula shortage has been exacerbated by global supply chain snafus, the shifts in pandemic-related consumer patterns, and soaring price inflation worldwide.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 public health crisis, many parents hoarded containers of baby formula much in the same way consumers accumulated large amounts of toilet paper and paper towels.

In 2021, manufacturers noticed that demand had been sliding. They responded by curbing production. Today, infant formula demand is surging once again as shortage fears grow and breastfeeding rates fall.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), only one-quarter of babies born in 2018 were breastfed exclusively in their first six months.

In recent years, the prevalence of breastmilk substitutes has been a source of controversy among public health experts.

“The promotion of commercial milk formulas should have been terminated decades ago,” said Dr. Francesco Branca, director of the WHO Nutrition and Food Safety Department, in a statement last month. “The fact that formula milk companies are now employing even more powerful and insidious marketing techniques to drive up their sales is inexcusable and must be stopped.”

The global formula milk industry is now worth $55 billion.

Meanwhile, Abbott announced that it will work closely with the FDA to restart operations within two weeks. The company projects that it could take six to eight weeks to get its products back on store shelves.

‘Life and Death’

The U.S. government has been scrambling to resolve the issue.

President Joe Biden met with infant formula manufacturers and retailers on May 12 to gather updates on intensifying shortages across the country.

Following the meeting, the president announced additional steps to address the issue to get more infant formula on store shelves faster, including reducing red tape and boosting supply through increased imports. In addition, he urged the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to tighten down on any infant formula price gouging.

Earlier, more than 100 House Republicans urged the administration and the FDA in a letter to release data on the nationwide shortages and provide specific details on how they plan to address the issue.

“This issue is a matter of life and death, and it is time this administration treats it with the appropriate urgency it deserves,” the 106 Republican lawmakers wrote.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) says this is an example of Biden’s “failed leadership,” adding that the FDA didn’t have a plan to figure out how to address the supply chain crisis aspect of baby formula manufacturing.

“But it even goes back earlier than that, as a result of just the labor shortage in this country, the lack of accessing basic materials that are part of the manufacturing process,” she told the host of NTD’s “Capitol Report,” Steve Lance. “But what’s really struck me is the sheer incompetence of Joe Biden and House Democrats and frankly, failure to address any aspect of this.”

FDA Commissioner Robert Califf assured the public that “we are doing everything in our power to ensure there is adequate product available where and when they need it.”

Emel Akan contributed to this report.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us-baby-formula-shortage-intensifies-as-parents-washington-scramble-for-solution_4463041.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-12-4&utm_medium=email&est=4oJhoiChyeJLYKuJJGQJ0pXkTGQZGCg46F2Rv0DvIuTn%2FqJpTdTM1rBpcbl81fyx%2Fw%3D%3D

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

• The typical unprecedented vaccine takes 12 years to develop, and of all the unprecedented vaccines in development, only 2% are projected to ever make it through all Phase 2 and 3 clinical phases of testing
• The COVID-19 vaccine was developed with Operation Warp Speed in less than one year, which makes it virtually impossible to assess safety and efficacy, as the vaccine has not been adequately tested
• In the next 10 to 15 years, we are likely to see spikes in prion diseases, autoimmune diseases, neurodegenerative diseases at younger ages, and blood disorders such as blood clots, hemorrhaging, stroke and heart failure

In this interview, return guest Stephanie Seneff, Ph.D., a senior research scientist at MIT for over five decades, discusses the COVID-19 vaccines. Since 2008, her primary focus has been glyphosate and sulfur, but in the last year, she took a deep-dive into the science of these novel injections and recently published an excellent paper [1] on this topic.

“To have developed this incredibly new technology so quickly, and to skip so many steps in the process of evaluating [its safety], it’s an insanely reckless thing that they’ve done,” she says. “My instinct was that this is bad, and I needed to know [the truth].

So, I really dug into the research literature by the people who’ve developed these vaccines, and then more extensive research literature around those topics. And I don’t see how these vaccines can possibly be doing anything good. When you weigh the good against the bad, I can’t see how they could possibly be winning, from what I’ve seen.”

Significant Death Toll Will Rise in Months and Years to Come

Months into the vaccination campaign, statistics tell a frightening story. Seneff cites research [2] showing deaths are 14.6 times more frequent during the first 14 days after the first COVID injection among people over the age of 60, compared to those who aren’t vaccinated. That is extraordinary. You can read the full paper here.

Other data, [3],[4] reviewed in the video above, show that after COVID-19 vaccines were implemented, overall death rates have increased, with the exception of a few areas. Interestingly, Seneff believes she may have discovered why. It appears countries in which COVID-19 vaccines have not raised mortality rates are also not using glyphosate.

“I immediately suspected glyphosate when I started to see COVID-19,” Seneff says. “I’ve written a book on glyphosate called ‘Toxic Legacy,’ and I have an entire chapter in that book on the immune system. Glyphosate, I believe, is a train wreck for the innate immune system, and when your immune system is weak, your body has to overreact to the virus. It can’t kill the virus.

So, it ends up [causing] collateral damage and wrecking your tissues. You get into this cytokine storm kind of situation where you destroy your lungs and you can’t cope. It’s not really the virus. It’s the immune reaction to the virus that’s killing you, and that’s because your immune system is too weak. If you have a strong innate immune system, I believe you wouldn’t even get symptoms from COVID-19.

When you look at the statistics on which countries are hit hard and just can’t get ahead of this virus, they’re clearly the countries that use a lot of glyphosate and developing biofuels based on glyphosate-exposed plants. So, I think that’s a critical piece of the puzzle as well. Glyphosate is in the atmosphere … [and] people are breathing it. So now you’re getting a direct attack on the lungs immune system, which makes you very susceptible to COVID.”

Ultimately, Seneff believes, as I do, that the COVID-19 “vaccines” will end up killing far more people than the disease itself, and will in fact make the disease worse. Seneff cites a disturbing case history of a cancer patient in the U.K. who was treated for severe COVID-19 for 101 days.

The antibody cocktails they gave him didn’t work, and after his death, they concluded that the predominant SARS-CoV-2 variant in his body had a dozen different mutations in the spike protein. Somehow, his body figured out how to evade the antibodies, which is a critical piece of the puzzle.

“I think the vaccines are doing the same thing,” Seneff says, adding that, among the immune compromised, only 17% of vaccinated individuals actually produce antibodies.[5] Surprisingly, these people may actually have drawn the short end of the stick. The antibodies may not work because their immune function is low, thereby allowing the virus to build resistance and mutate.

“I think you have a lot of immune compromised people in a country where glyphosate is destroying people’s immune system, and that gives tremendous opportunity for the virus to mutate. The vaccine is going to accelerate that process because we’re vaccinating immune compromised people left and right.”

COVID-19 Vaccines Are a Public Health Disaster

The typical unprecedented vaccine takes 12 years to develop, and of all the unprecedented vaccines in development, only 2% are projected to ever make it through phases 2 and 3 of clinical testing.

The COVID-19 vaccine was developed with Operation Warp Speed in less than one year, which makes it virtually impossible for this vaccine to be adequately tested for safety and efficacy.

Hundreds of millions of people are now being vaccinated around the world, based on nothing more than preliminary efficacy data. Disturbingly, while sudden death is one apparent side effect, the vast majority of side effects won’t be known until a decade or more from now.

Seneff predicts that in the next 10 to 15 years, we’ll see a sudden spike in prion diseases, autoimmune diseases, neurodegenerative diseases at younger ages, and blood disorders such as blood clots, hemorrhaging, stroke and heart failure.

“It’s a nightmare,” she says. “And I can see how it can happen. Basically, the vaccine is so unbelievably unnatural, and it has a single-minded goal, which is to get your body to produce antibodies to the spike protein. The RNA has been manipulated. It’s not natural RNA because it has methyl-pseudouridine on it … And the goal is to keep it alive.

Normally, if you get injected with RNA, you have enzymes in your system, in your tissues, that will immediately break it down. Your body knows it must get rid of the RNA. What you do with the vaccine is you make sure [your body] can’t get at it …

Then there’s the lipid [that the RNA is encased in]. The lipids are very abnormal, very weird … They’re not natural but they have some cholesterol in there, probably to help it look like a natural LDL particle so that your cells will take it up. It’s not being taken up by the ACE2 receptor.

It’s not being taken up the same way that the virus is being taken up. It’s a totally different mechanism that brings it into all the cells. You’ve gone past all the mucosal membranes. Usually, a virus is going to come into the lungs or any kind of cavity where there’s a mucosal system that’s going to hit the virus first.

The virus [will trigger] your natural mucosal system to respond to it and clear it if you’re a healthy person, and that’s the end of it. [With the vaccine], we never get a chance to do that. You’re just getting it shot right into your muscle, past all the barriers and the muscle goes crazy … sending out all kinds of alarms.”

Understanding Your Immune System

As your cells start producing the viral spike proteins, your immune cells rally to mop up the proteins and dump them into your lymphatic system. This is why many report swollen lymph nodes under the arms. This is also a sign of breast cancer. The antibody response is part of your humoral immunity. You also have cellular immunity, which is part of your innate immune system.

Your innate immune system is very powerful. And, if you’re healthy, it can clear viruses without ever producing a single antibody. Antibodies are actually a second-tier effect when your innate immune system fails. The problem is your innate immune system is definitely going to fail if you get a COVID-19 shot, because it’s bypassing all of the areas where your innate immune system would be brought to bear.

Your body will essentially believe that the innate immune system has failed, which means it must bring in the backup cavalry. In essence, your body is now over-reacting to something that isn’t true. You’re not actually infected with a virus and your innate immune system has not failed, but your body is forced to respond as if both are true.

How COVID-19 Vaccine Circumvents Healthy Immune Responses

But there’s more. As explained by Seneff, the synthetic RNA in the mRNA vaccines contains a nucleotide called methyl-pseudouridine, which your body cannot break down, and the RNA is programmed to trigger maximum protein production. So, we’re looking at completely untested manipulation of RNA.

It is very important to recognize that this is a genetically engineered mRNA for the spike protein. It is in no way shape or form the same that SARS-CoV-2 produces. It’s been significantly altered to avoid being metabolized by your body. Additionally, the spike protein your body produces in response to the COVID-19 vaccine mRNA locks into your ACE2 receptor.

This is because the genetically engineered NEW spike protein has additional prolines inserted that prevent the receptors from properly closing, which then cause you to downregulate ACE2. That’s partially how you end up with problems such as pulmonary hypertension, ventricular heart failure and stroke.[6],[7]

As noted in a 2020 paper,[8] there’s a “pivotal link” between ACE2 deficiency and SARS-CoV-2 infection. People with ACE2 deficiency tend to be more prone to severe COVID-19. The spike protein suppresses ACE2,[9] making the deficiency even worse. As it turns out, the vaccines essentially do the same thing.

How Long Might Effects Last?

As mentioned, RNA is highly perishable, so to get it past the enzymes that would normally break down free mRNA, it’s encased in a lipid nanoparticle combined with polyethylene glycol or PEG. The PEG helps protect the RNA from breaking down. The RNA can easily enter the cell via natural endocytosis pathways, taking advantage of the nanoparticle design made to look like an LDL particle.

They strategically chose a cationic lipid, meaning it’s positively charged. “Usually you have phospholipids in your membranes that are negatively charged,” Seneff explains. The problem with cationic lipids is they disturb the plasma membrane and cause an immune response.

However, that may also be a key reason for why they were used. Typically, conventional vaccines contain an aluminum adjuvant to initiate an immune response. Aluminum was not appropriate for the COVID-19 vaccines, but the cationic lipids serve a similar function spectacularly well.

Being extremely toxic to the cell membranes, the positively charged lipids trigger immune cells to rush in to aid the cells and mop up the spike protein now being produced, while also being the vehicle that allows the RNA to slip into the cells. Once inside the cell, the mRNA delivers the instructions to produce enormous amounts of spike proteins.The really worrisome thing is there’s potential for it to become part of the DNA and then it will last forever. — Stephanie Seneff, ph.d.

Importantly, there’s no telling how long these instructions will persist. Manufacturers are guessing the synthetic RNA may survive in the human body for about six months, but we really don’t know if that’s true or not.

Again, the alterations they’ve done to the synthetic RNA are meant to prevent it from breaking down. It could be years or even decades that these spike proteins are being produced, and you will find out shortly why this is a really bad scenario.

“The really worrisome thing, which I talk about in the paper, is there’s potential for it to become integrated into your DNA,” Seneff says. “If that happens, it will last your entire lifetime, and you may pass this new genetic code on to your offspring.”

Tracing Spike Protein From Cells to Lymph to Spleen

As explained by Seneff, your immune cells mop up mRNA and spike protein and dump them into your lymphatic system. From there, they make their way into your spleen, where they can remain for quite a long time.

“There are all these different immune cells that have different roles, but it’s the dendritic cells and the macrophages that are initially going into the muscle, picking up the mRNA, taking it over to the lymph system, traveling through the lymph system to the spleen and piling it up there. The spleen was the highest concentration of all the organs they looked at in animal studies. The liver was second.

It wasn’t the COVID-19 vaccine, but it was a messenger RNA vaccine. So, it was the same concept. The other vaccines, the ones that are based on a DNA vector, they also go to the spleen. I think they like it when they see that it’s going to the spleen because you have these germinal centers in the spleen that are focus groups for making antibodies.

So these dendritic cells are in these germinal centers in the spleen, and then they bring in the B-cells and T-cells, and those are the ones that make and perfect the antibodies, because you need to go through a whole training mode to get the antibiotics to be exactly matched to that particular spike protein. That happens predominantly in the spleen.”

Potential Vaccine Shedding Mechanism Revealed

Seneff also sheds light on the mysterious reports of unvaccinated individuals experiencing unusual bleeding symptoms after spending time in proximity to a newly vaccinated person. She believes this may be due to exosomes being released from the lungs.

“If you are a person who’s producing these exosomes from your spleen and shipping them out, there’s no reason why you can’t ship them out to the lungs. In fact, they’ve shown experimentally that those exosomes do get released from the lungs,” Seneff says.

So, to be clear, what’s being “shed” or spread by vaccinated individuals is the spike protein — which is itself toxic — not the SARS-CoV-2. So, it’s not an infection but rather the shedding of a toxic protein.

“If you’re breathing it in, you could be getting an increased risk, it seems to me. I mean, it sounds really farfetched, but it looks like it could happen, just from the logic of what goes on in biology. It could happen that you would breathe in these exosomes containing these misfolded prion proteins, which are not good for you, and exactly what happens when they go into the lungs, I don’t know. I have no idea.”

Can mRNA Vaccines Change Your DNA? That Is the Question

Getting back to the potential issue of gene editing, I’ve been accused of being scientifically ignorant for stating that COVID-19 vaccines are not vaccines but rather a form of gene therapy. But when you delve into the genetics and molecular biology of this vaccine you discover that they are in fact a form of a stealth gene editing tool that can change your DNA and integrate instructions to make even more spike proteins.

It’s counterintuitive because, typically, mRNA cannot be integrated directly into your genes because you need reverse transcriptase. Reverse transcriptase converts RNA back into DNA (reverse transcription). Seneff, however, discovered there’s a wide variety of reverse transcriptase systems already embedded in our DNA, which makes this possible. She explains:

“There was this long period of time in which we had the mantra that transcription is DNA to RNA to protein. That’s basic biology — DNA, RNA, protein. But then, in 1970, David Baltimore at MIT… discovered reverse transcriptase in retroviruses (RNA tumor viruses), which he won the Nobel Prize for.

It turns out, and I didn’t know this until I started digging into these vaccines, that we actually have plenty of reverse transcriptase in our own cells. We have plenty of it. And it’s these long interspersed nuclear elements (LINEs) and short interspersed nuclear elements (SINEs) that are able to take our RNA back to DNA and to put that DNA back into the genome.”

LINEs and SINEs are sequences of nucleotides, pieces of DNA, and they make up a huge percentage of the genome. For example, LINE1 is 10% of your genome. Most of the time they’re inactive and scientists were puzzled about what they actually do. They’re rather strange, as they fold DNA backward and stick it back in different areas. For example, in people with Alzheimer’s, the amyloid beta protein gets duplicated all over the place in their genome.

“They get like a big fat genome with extra copies with different variations in those copies. And they do that through RNA,” Seneff says. “So, you have a mechanism for evolution. The primary mechanism, I would guess, is through taking the DNA, turning it into RNA, mutating the RNA because RNA mutates much more easily than DNA does, and then turning it back into DNA and sticking it back into the genome.”

In a nutshell, LINEs and SINEs appear to be activated when an alternative solution for a problem is needed. One such problem could be glyphosate exposure. When the body is too sick to function normally, it finds a way around the problem by mutating proteins. “It’s a process that we use to deal with environmental toxic chemicals that we’re confronted with generally,” Seneff says.

So, in summary, mRNA can be reverse transcribed and converted back to DNA by LINEs and SINEs in your body. This cloned DNA can then be integrated into your genome. In this way, it truly is genetic editing.

Are We Creating a Generation of Super-Spreaders?

What comes next is truly chilling. Seneff cites research [10] showing that sperm has this ability to take exogenous mRNA, either from a virus or an mRNA vaccine, and reverse transcribe it into DNA and then produce plasmids that contain this cloned DNA. The sperm then releases these plasmids around the egg, which takes them up.

The egg hangs on to those plasmids and puts the new code into the cells of the growing fetus. Hypothetically, a man having been vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine could produce a child born with the genetic code to make the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

This is not a good thing, because this means the child will not have antibodies against the spike protein. Since it’s part of their genetic code, it registers as one of their own proteins and their body won’t produce antibodies against it. If that child is exposed to SARS-CoV-2, their immune system won’t react at all. What happens next is anyone’s guess, but it’s bound to be severely problematic in one way or another.

“Exactly how sick they’ll get or whether they’ll get sick at all, I don’t know,” Seneff says, “but their immune system won’t react and they’ll be able to carry that virus for their entire life and then pass [that genomic trait] on down to their children …

Now, if I don’t react to [the virus] and I let it grow, what happens? Do I get sick? To what extent is the illness [COVID-19] the consequence of the immune response, rather than the virus itself? We don’t know that, really, but many say the real problem is the overactive immune response.

People are dying of the immune response to COVID, they’re not dying from the virus. The virus is not killing them. It’s the immune response to the virus that’s killing them. So, if you don’t have an immune response, what happens? Nobody knows.”

Even if such a child were to be unaffected by the virus, we could be looking at a serious problem, as they could turn into lifelong super-spreaders and a chronic hazard to everyone around them. At least that’s what happened in cows.

Seneff recounts a story of herds plagued by a viral diarrhea. They finally realized that “killer calves” were the problem. Calves were being born that had viral protein integrated into their genome. When exposed to the virus, these calves, unable to clear the virus naturally, then spread it to the adult cows, which got sick.

“I don’t see why the same thing couldn’t happen with COVID — that a baby could be born who has this humanized version of that protein, catches the [wild] virus and then it spreads it to the adult population,” Seneff says.

Such children would be true super-spreaders, and the indoctrination we’re currently seeing, where children are told their mere presence could pose a mortal risk to the people they love, would then turn into grim reality. The calves in question were euthanized to safeguard the rest of the herds. How would we address human equivalents?

Hopefully, this nightmare scenario will not occur, but it appears biologically possible, and that is the problem. The fact that the available science allows for this kind of speculation is reason enough to put the brakes on this vaccination campaign. We have no clue what the long-term consequences are. We don’t even know what the short-term consequences are, other than more vaccinated people are dying, collectively, compared to unvaccinated ones.

Spike Protein Appears Highly Problematic

A particularly fascinating part of Seneff’s paper addresses the toxicity of the spike protein. A key problem with all of these gene-based COVID-19 vaccines is that the spike protein itself appears toxic, and your body is now a spike protein-producing factory.

“Right. They have done studies where they only expose the [animal] to the spike protein, showing it was toxic in the brain and the blood vessels. So, it’s causing immune reactions all by itself that is damaging to the tissues.

It’s basically a toxic molecule, and I think it’s toxic possibly because of it being a prion protein …

I’m going to do more research on it. I don’t know enough yet, but it looks horrendous to me. I think it may be the most worrisome thing. There are two big things that are going to happen in the future.

They’re going to take time [to develop], so we’re not going to see it immediately. And, of course, we’re not going to blame the vaccine because rates will start going up for these horrible diseases and no one will link them to it.”

Why Spike Protein May Cause Serious Neurodegenerative Disease

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CKD), the human version of mad cow disease, is a prion disease. Other human forms of prion disease include Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS). “You have all these horrible neurodegenerative diseases and each one is tied to specific prion proteins,” Seneff says. The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein also appears to be a prion protein, although this has yet to be thoroughly verified.

Disturbingly, the spike protein produced by COVID-19 vaccines, due to the modifications made, may make it more of a prion than the spike protein in the actual virus, and a more effective one.

“Papers are showing that those germinal centers in the spleen … are a primary source of the prion proteins that eventually get taken up the vagus nerve and delivered to the brainstem nuclei. That’s how you can get Parkinson’s disease, for example …

There’s so much we need to learn, but it looks to me like it’s a setup here. They’re really inviting this kind of thing to happen with these vaccines, where they’re focusing on those germinal centers [because] those are the very same place where these prion proteins often get started.”

Why Long-Term Neurological Damage Is To Be Expected

In her paper, Seneff describes key characteristics of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that suggests it’s a prion:[11]

“Neurological symptoms associated with COVID-19, such as headache, nausea and dizziness, encephalitis and fatal brain blood clots are all indicators of damaging viral effects on the brain. Buzhdygan et al. (2020) proposed that primary human brain microvascular endothelial cells could cause these symptoms …

In an in vitro study of the blood-brain barrier, the S1 component of the spike protein promoted loss of barrier integrity, suggesting that the spike protein acting alone triggers a pro-inflammatory response in brain endothelial cells, which could explain the neurological consequences of the disease.

The implications of this observation are disturbing because the mRNA vaccines induce synthesis of the spike protein, which could theoretically act in a similar way to harm the brain. The spike protein generated endogenously by the vaccine could also negatively impact the male testes, as the ACE2 receptor is highly expressed in Leydig cells in the testes …

Prion diseases are a collection of neurodegenerative diseases that are induced through the misfolding of important bodily proteins, which form toxic oligomers that eventually precipitate out as fibrils causing widespread damage to neurons …

Furthermore, researchers have identified a signature motif linked to susceptibility to misfolding into toxic oligomers, called the glycine zipper motif … Prion proteins become toxic when the α-helices misfold as β-sheets, and the protein is then impaired in its ability to enter the membrane.

Glycines within the glycine zipper transmembrane motifs in the amyloid-β precursor protein (APP) play a central role in the misfolding of amyloid-β linked to Alzheimer’s disease. APP contains a total of four GxxxG motifs. When considering that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is a transmembrane protein, and that it contains five GxxxG motifs in its sequence,[12] it becomes extremely plausible that it could behave as a prion.

One of the GxxxG sequences is present within its membrane fusion domain. Recall that the mRNA vaccines are designed with an altered sequence that replaces two adjacent amino acids in the fusion domain with a pair of prolines.

This is done intentionally in order to force the protein to remain in its open state and make it harder for it to fuse with the membrane. This seems to us like a dangerous step towards misfolding potentially leading to prion disease …

A paper published by J. Bart Classen (2021) proposed that the spike protein in the mRNA vaccines could cause prion-like diseases, in part through its ability to bind to many known proteins and induce their misfolding into potential prions.

Idrees and Kumar (2021) have proposed that the spike protein’s S1 component is prone to act as a functional amyloid and form toxic aggregates … and can ultimately lead to neurodegeneration.”

So, in summary, the take-home here is that COVID-19 vaccines, offered to hundreds of millions of people, are instruction sets for your body to make a toxic protein that will eventually wind up concentrated in your spleen, from where prion-like protein instructions will be sent out, leading to neurodegenerative diseases.

Vaccine Remedy May Be Worse Than the Disease

In her paper, Seneff goes into far more detail in her description of the spike protein as a metabolic poison. While I recommend reading Seneff’s paper in its entirety, I’ve extracted key sections below, starting with how the spike protein can trigger pathological damage leading to lung damage and heart and brain diseases:[13]

“The picture is now emerging that SARS-CoV-2 has serious effects on the vasculature in multiple organs, including the brain vasculature … In a series of papers, Yuichiro Suzuki in collaboration with other authors presented a strong argument that the spike protein by itself can cause a signaling response in the vasculature with potentially widespread consequences.

These authors observed that, in severe cases of COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 causes significant morphological changes to the pulmonary vasculature … Furthermore, they showed that exposure of cultured human pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein S1 subunit was sufficient to promote cell signaling without the rest of the virus components.

 Follow-on papers showed that the spike protein S1 subunit suppresses ACE2, causing a condition resembling pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a severe lung disease with very high mortality … The ‘in vivo studies’ they referred to … had shown that SARS coronavirus-induced lung injury was primarily due to inhibition of ACE2 by the SARS-CoV spike protein, causing a large increase in angiotensin-II.

Suzuki et al. (2021) went on to demonstrate experimentally that the S1 component of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, at a low concentration … activated the MEK/ERK/MAPK signaling pathway to promote cell growth. They speculated that these effects would not be restricted to the lung vasculature.

The signaling cascade triggered in the heart vasculature would cause coronary artery disease, and activation in the brain could lead to stroke. Systemic hypertension would also be predicted. They hypothesized that this ability of the spike protein to promote pulmonary arterial hypertension could predispose patients who recover from SARS-CoV-2 to later develop right ventricular heart failure.

Furthermore, they suggested that a similar effect could happen in response to the mRNA vaccines, and they warned of potential long-term consequences to both children and adults who received COVID-19 vaccines based on the spike protein.

An interesting study by Lei et. al. (2021) found that pseudovirus — spheres decorated with the SARS-CoV-2 S1 protein but lacking any viral DNA in their core — caused inflammation and damage in both the arteries and lungs of mice exposed intratracheally.

They then exposed healthy human endothelial cells to the same pseudovirus particles. Binding of these particles to endothelial ACE2 receptors led to mitochondrial damage and fragmentation in those endothelial cells, leading to the characteristic pathological changes in the associated tissue.

This study makes it clear that spike protein alone, unassociated with the rest of the viral genome, is sufficient to cause the endothelial damage associated with COVID-19. The implications for vaccines intended to cause cells to manufacture the spike protein are clear and are an obvious cause for concern.

Commercial Vaccines Are Not as ‘Clean’ as Trial Vaccines

Seneff’s paper also highlights the unknown hazard of injecting fragmented RNA, found in greater quantity in the commercially manufactured Pfizer vaccine compared to the vaccine used in the initial trials:[14]

“The EMA Public Assessment Report … describes in detail a review of the [Pfizer] manufacturing process … One concerning revelation is the presence of ‘fragmented species’ of RNA in the injection solution. These are RNA fragments resulting from early termination of the process of transcription from the DNA template.

These fragments, if translated by the cell following injection, would generate incomplete spike proteins, again resulting in altered and unpredictable three-dimensional structure and a physiological impact that is at best neutral and at worst detrimental to cellular functioning.

There were considerably more of these fragmented forms of RNA found in the commercially manufactured products than in the products used in clinical trials. The latter were produced via a much more tightly controlled manufacturing process …

While we are not asserting that non-spike proteins generated from fragmented RNA would be misfolded or otherwise pathological, we believe they would at least contribute to the cellular stress that promotes prion-associated conformational changes in the spike protein that is present.”

More Information

Seneff and I cover a great deal more than I’ve covered in this article, including how the vaccines may trigger autoimmune problems by way of molecular mimicry. This includes things like celiac disease, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and lupus. So, if you have ANY interest in learning more about this vaccine I strongly suggest you watch the entire video.

We also discuss how the shots are causing idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), a rare blood disorder in which you end up with blood clots, a drop in platelet count and hemorrhages, all at the same time.

Also, be sure to read through Seneff’s paper, “Worse Than The Disease: Reviewing Some Possible Unintended Consequences of mRNA Vaccines Against COVID-19,” published in the International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice and Research.[15]

How Can You Protect Yourself From the Vaccine or Exposure to Those That Were Vaccinated?

Indeed, that is the question of the day. We talked about shedding from the vaccine. Obviously, the vaccine does not classically shed virus particles but it can easily cause people to shed spike proteins, and it is these spike proteins that may cause just as much damage as the virus.

While Seneff’s paper didn’t delve deeply into solutions, it provides a major clue, which is that your body has the capacity to address many of these problems through a process called autophagy. This is the process of removal of damaged proteins in your body.

One effective strategy that will upregulate autophagy is periodic fasting or time-restricted eating. Most people eat more than 12 hours a day. Gradually lowering that to a six- to eight-hour window will radically improve your metabolic flexibility and decrease insulin resistance.

Another beneficial practice is sauna therapy, which upregulates heat shock proteins. I have discussed this extensively in previous articles. Heat shock proteins work by refolding proteins that are misfolded. They also tag damaged proteins and target them for removal.

Another vital strategy is to eliminate all processed vegetable oils (seed oils), which means eliminating virtually all processed foods as they are loaded with them. Seed oils will radically impair mitochondrial energy production, increase oxidative stress and damage your immune system.

Seed oils also are likely to contain glyphosate, as it is heavily used on the crops that produce them. Obviously, it is important to avoid glyphosate contamination in all your food, which you can minimize by buying only certified organic foods.

Finally, you want to optimize your innate immune system and one of the best ways to do that is to get enough sun exposure, wearing in your bathing suit, to have your vitamin level reach 60 to 80 ng/ml (100 to 150 nmol/l).

Originally published May 23, 2021, on Mercola.com

https://www.theepochtimes.com/covid-vaccines-may-bring-avalanche-of-neurological-disease_4454602.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-12-3&utm_medium=email&est=Y8QTg%2Fy3u15d7HNoJSE6oXL6pSmocNIRwcRDAC6gs6Olxmb1rauGWMHfXpjAGla%2FdQ%3D%3D

Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) is among the busiest people in the nation’s capital, being both a member of the House of Representatives and a Senate candidate, but during a recent congressional hearing she thought she had found a way to be in two places simultaneously.

Demings attended an April 5 hearing of the House Judiciary Committee virtually, as allowed under rules adopted at the outset of the CCP Virus Pandemic in 2020. Those rules made it acceptable for a House member suffering from the virus or having been recently exposed to it from participating in hearings virtually.

The purpose of the hearing was a markup session on the proposed Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act.

The judiciary panel adopted some amendments to the text, then forwarded the proposal for consideration by the House Committees on Armed Services and Homeland Security. The proposal remains pending a floor vote by the full House.

During the same April hearing, however, Demings was also attending another event via the internet, one in which she was addressing supporters of her campaign to be the Democratic nominee to oppose Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on the November ballot.

The campaign event was a caucus of Duval County Black Democratic Caucus. At one point, Demings pauses, apologizes to those attending the caucus and votes in the hearing.

Her remarks to the caucus were picked up on the hearing audio, with a result that she was asked by the committee chairman to inform her that she was not muting her caucus remarks.

That’s a no-no under multiple House rules, according to the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), a non-profit government watchdog group, which filed a complaint with the House Office of Congressional Ethics earlier this week.

“The ability to virtually attend committee proceedings was put in place so the House could continue conducting necessary business during the public health emergency and for no other reason,” said FACT executive director Kendra Arnold in a statement announcing the complaint.

“However, Rep. Demings’ dual attendance at the events suggests that she chose to virtually attend the committee hearing, not for reasons related to COVID-19, but rather to speak at a campaign event,” Arnold said.

“Her campaigning during an official House proceeding also apparently violates the separation between official government business and political activity required under the ethics rules.

“We encourage the Office of Congressional Ethics to immediately investigate Representative Demings and impose the proper penalties if found guilty,” she said.

A spokesman for Demings in her Capitol Hill office did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.

The complaint filed by FACT notes that, “House ethics rules require members to ‘conduct themselves at all times in a manner that reflects creditably on the House.’ This is a broad and ‘comprehensive provision’ that is applied to any conduct taken in a member’s official capacity.

“For example, members have been investigated and disciplined under this rule related to ‘making statements that impugned the reputation of the House’ and ‘making false statements to the [ethics] committee.’

“In addition, members are required to adhere both to the spirit and the letter of the House ethics rules, and thus they must read all the rules and ethical requirements broadly.

“This includes the House rules adopted ‘to ensure Congress can continue legislation during COVID-19,’ under which members are only permitted to vote by proxy and attend committee proceedings virtually when needed because ‘a public health emergency due to a novel coronavirus is in effect.’

“Finally, the House ethics rules require strict separation between campaign and official acts. This rule is applicable to every type of official activity, for instance a member cannot campaign from government buildings, use official resources for campaign purposes, or have any political information on official social media pages or websites.”

Demings was first elected to the House in 2016 after a long career with the Orlando Police Department, including tenure as Chief of Police. She represents the 10th congressional district, which includes nearly equal portions of white, black and Hispanic voters.

Rubio was first elected to the Senate in the 2010 Tea Party flood that put Republicans in the majority in the House and almost did so in the Senate as well. Rubio was re-elected in 2016 after an unsuccessful run for the Republican presidential nomination.

The FACT website describes the group as “a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting accountability, ethics, and transparency in government and civic arenas by hanging a lantern over public officials who put their own interests over the interests of the public good.”

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Alaskans dispute Biden admin claim that industry was not interested

As gas prices continue to break records, the Biden administration’s cancellation of two lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and one lease sale in Alaska’s Cook Inlet has drawn clashing responses, including an accusation that the administration is “blatantly lying.”

One political figure who weighed in was Donald Trump Jr., who recently campaigned with successful Republican Senate primary candidate J.D. Vance in Ohio.

“Looks like Joe is doing a great job of making inflation his top priority,” he wrote in a tweet.

The Cook Inlet oil and gas lease would have covered 1.09 million acres in the Cook Inlet, a body of water connecting Anchorage with the Gulf of Alaska.

A spokesperson for the Department of the Interior told The Epoch Times the Cook Inlet sale was canceled due to a “lack of industry interest in the area.”

“I’m not sure that’s completely accurate,” Kara Moriarty, president and CEO of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association (AOGA), told The Epoch Times.

“A lot of times, companies don’t want to tip their hand about participating in lease sales. The only time you really know if there’s interest or not is when you have the lease sale.”

“As the former Natural Resources Commissioner for Alaska, I know there is no way they could have confirmed ‘no interest’ until they held the lease sale,” said Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), who said the Biden administration was “blatantly lying to the American people.”

Both he and Moriarty referenced correspondence on the Cook Inlet sale from AOGA, which represents more than a dozen oil and gas producers in Alaska, as evidence of industry interest.

“The nature by which this announcement came to news—from the White House’s ultra-left climate czar Gina McCarthy, just down the hall from the president, [and] not the Department of Interior—raises further questions over who is crafting these disastrous energy policies,” Sullivan said, referencing the accidental email to a CBS reporter from a Biden administration official that first revealed the Cook Inlet lease’s cancellation.

Moriarty told The Epoch Times that “baffling is the nicest word I can come up with” for the cancellation.

Some local environmentalists, by contrast, expressed strong support for the decision.

“I’m very excited that we aren’t going to see an oil and gas lease sale that would really hurt our local economy,” Liz Mering told The Epoch Times.

Mering is advocacy director and inletkeeper of Cook InletKeeper, an Alaskan group opposed to oil and gas leasing in the region. Its website states that it seeks to “accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to an equitable, renewable energy future.”

The Interior spokesperson told The Epoch Times that the two Gulf of Mexico leases were canceled because of “delays due to factors including conflicting court rulings that impacted work on these proposed lease sales.”

In June 2021, Louisiana federal Judge James Cain, a Trump appointee, struck down the Biden administration’s pause on oil and gas leases. That pause had commenced with Executive Order 14008.

Yet in January, District of Columbia federal Judge Rudolph Contreras, an Obama appointee, ruled that the November 2021 federal offshore oil and gas sale, the largest in history, was invalid. He argued it violated the National Environmental Policy Act because it didn’t take greenhouse gas emissions into account. The Biden administration didn’t appeal the ruling.

The administration announced its plans to resume lease sales in March after an appeals court ruled it could incorporate a raised “social cost of carbon” factor when assessing permits.

When he was a presidential candidate, Biden’s promises included “banning new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters.”

The latest lease cancellations come as inflation and high gas prices wrack the nation.

AAA reported that regular gas on May 12 averaged $4.418 a gallon, the highest average price it has ever recorded.

Diesel is also at the highest price point ever recorded by AAA, averaging $5.557 a gallon.

“Prices for gasoline, diesel, and other products are high and climbing. Further, those high prices are raising the cost of other goods and services, and here we are with extraordinarily high rates of inflation at both the consumer and producer levels. The actions of this administration suggest little relief anytime soon,” energy economist Karr Ingham told The Epoch Times.

He said Biden hasn’t yet provided the next legally mandated five-year offshore leasing plan. The current plan ends in June.

“At this late hour, were they to set this new plan in motion today, it would be a year or so before it is in place. That means a significant gap in the time period during which companies may be able to reasonably make plans and allocate capital to drill new projects in these areas. So, in many respects, these canceled leases were the ‘last hurrah’ before that plan expires.”

Lawmakers in Impacted States React

Senators and representatives from Louisiana and Alaska, two states affected by the cancellations, have voiced anger and disgust.

“Pres. Biden has killed more energy lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico. He’s killing jobs, has killed America’s energy independence, and is fueling inflation that is killing Louisiana families. And he’s doing it on purpose,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) wrote in a May 12 tweet.

Kennedy’s senior colleague, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), voiced his concerns in similar language.

“President Biden’s administration is actively making high gas prices worse,” Cassidy said. “When we need to unleash American energy production, the Biden administration kills opportunities at every turn.”

“Rather than using American energy sources to help solve the problem and lower prices, the Biden administration continues to carry out policies that only benefit Russia, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and other apparent allies of this White House. It is past time for the administration to put Americans first,” said Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), who serves on the House Natural Resources committee.

Sullivan said: “The timing and nature of this decision display a disturbing disregard for the pain American families continue to feel at the pump, for the hard-working Americans whose livelihoods and communities depend on the American energy industry, and for the grave consequences, these policies have on America’s energy and national security. As Gina McCarthy celebrates this decision from the White House, rest assured Vladimir Putin is popping corks in the Kremlin.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) hasn’t yet commented on the decision.

The Epoch Times has also reached out to the only Democrat representing Louisiana, Rep. Troy Carter (D-La.).

Different Views From Environmental Activists and Industry

Some environmentalists in and around the Cook Inlet celebrated the cancellation.

“There’s a lot of tourism industry that would be really harmed by this lease sale,” Mering said.

She said locals have fought oil and gas activity in the area since the 1970s when Cook Inlet’s Kachemak Bay was protected from drilling enabled by state leases. Commercial fishermen helped lead that pushback.

“There has to be more and more pushback as climate change hits Alaska.”

Moriarty noted that the Cook Inlet has been producing oil and gas for six decades. It generated 293,000 barrels of oil in March. All the oil produced in Cook Inlet is refined at the nearby Nikiski refinery.

“There’s no evidence that production from Cook Inlet has hampered our ability to coexist with commercial and sport fishing interests,” Moriarty said, arguing that oil and gas had helped diversify the Kenai Peninsula’s economy beyond the norm in Alaska.

Referencing the fight over oil in the 1970s, she said that “trying to pick out one incident negates the longstanding tradition we have of coexisting in Cook Inlet.”

Yet environmental activists present a contrasting narrative.

“This news means that the waters of lower Cook Inlet, which nourish the Gulf of Alaska as well as a watershed the size of Virginia, will continue the essential ecological function they’ve served since the last ice age. The people of this region who fought this lease sale will also continue their role in the ecology of placemaking, honoring our collective dependence on clean water,” said environmental activist Marissa Wilson of the Alaska Marine Conservation Council.

Josh Wisniewski, a fisherman in the Lower Cook Inlet, also praised the decision.

“Our fisheries, our quality of life, and regional economy depend on the health of this wild landscape we are privileged to live in. We now have the chance to build on this moment and seek a permanent withdrawal of this region from all future oil and gas lease sales to protect our home waters for future generations.”

In an interview with The Epoch Times, Wisniewski conceded that oil and gas are currently valuable to the larger state but argued that it “doesn’t make sense in this particular context.”

“We’ve got existing oil and gas infrastructure in different places.”

Yet AOGA’s Moriarty argued that Cook Inlet’s production is particularly critical for use within Alaska, including for jet fuel at Ted Stevens International Airport.

“We should be thinking about, ‘How do we get our next barrels of oil from the United States?’” Moriarty said, arguing that greater energy independence was vital to national security.

“The U.S. supplies the cleanest barrels of any major producer on the globe. U.S. greenhouse gas emissions have been declining steadily for more than two decades now and continue to do so,” said energy economist Ingham.

“Constricting U.S. production in no way means those barrels will not be consumed—it just means those barrels will come from somewhere else, and that somewhere else will not produce that oil nearly as cleanly as the United States.”

He speculated about the motives of Earthjustice, which praised the cancellations as “good for the climate” in CBS coverage.

“Is Earthjustice in favor of acquiring America’s energy needs from countries and regions who produce dirtier barrels than the United States? Or are they simply anti-U.S. oil and gas, and ultimately, anti U.S.-consumer?”

The Epoch Times has also reached out to the Environmental Defense Fund, often seen as a left-wing environmental group, and to the Property and Environmental Research Center, a free-market environmental group.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/biden-oil-and-gas-lease-sale-cancellations-draw-strong-reaction_4463768.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-13-2&utm_medium=email&est=eQCPOhyZQtYitmSHlZvE2C2tFw6OVYRtSuzfZs7eeZUgbmst8ULZANyfKj24eCbVMw%3D%3D

A House Republican lawmaker alleged that baby formula is being shipped to illegal immigrant holding centers near the Mexico border amid a nationwide shortage of the products.

According to videos and photos posted by Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.), the White House has allowed shipments of formula to the holding facilities.

“They are sending pallets, pallets of baby formula to the border,” Cammack wrote in two online postings Wednesday. “Meanwhile, in our own district at home, we cannot find baby formula,” she added, holding a photo of empty shelves where the formula would be.

Cammack said in two videos that a Border Patrol agent sent her photographs of baby formula deliveries at the holding centers.

“We literally are struggling to find baby formula around the country. Moms are struggling, going from store to store to store and then the stores are actually capping the amount of baby formula that they will sell them, but, and this got sent to me by a Border Patrol agent this morning [who] said, ‘This is disgusting. You will not believe this. They’re receiving pallets, and more pallets of baby formula at the border,’” Cammack said.

“Meanwhile, in our own district … we cannot find baby formula,” Cammack added in the clip.  She posted photos on social media of store shelves that were empty in Florida next to a photo that allegedly shows pallets of formula being sent to the border.

The first photo is from this morning at the Ursula Processing Center at the U.S. border. Shelves and pallets packed with baby formula.

The second is from a shelf right here at home. Formula is scarce.

This is what America last looks like. pic.twitter.com/OO0V99njoy

— Kat Cammack (@Kat_Cammack) May 11, 2022

The second photo, she claimed, was taken on May 11 at the “Ursula processing facility” in Hidalgo, Texas, where thousands of people are being held. The individual who sent her the photo “has been a border patrol agent for 30 years and he has never seen anything quite like this. He is a grandfather and he is saying that his own children can’t get baby formula,” the Texas lawmaker said.

The Epoch Times has contacted the U.S. Customs and Border Protection for comment. The Epoch Times also could not immediately verify Cammack’s claims.

The White House has expressed concern about the shortage, while a leading manufacturer of formula, Abbott Laboratories, said that it is working to restart its manufacturing plant in Sturgis, Michigan, after it was shut down amid a Food and Drug Administration investigation.

“Ensuring that infant formula is safe and available for families across the country is a top priority to the White House,” White House spokeswoman Karinne Jean-Pierre told reporters Wednesday in response to the crisis.

On Wednesday, Abbott said in a statement that it could take two weeks for its plant in Sturgis to come back online, but it stressed that it may take around eight weeks for formula products to reach shelves.

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A Colorado mother was cut off at her local school board meeting after trying to read out a sexually explicit passage from a book she said was available to children in the school district.

The mother, identifying herself as D. Barnes, spoke at a March 16 school board meeting for Adams 12 Five Star Schools, which serves Denver’s northeastern outskirts. She told board members that she was “very concerned” about the material that children have access to through their schooling.

“I do not favor book banning,” she said to the audience, many of whom had spoken before her either in support or opposition to the district’s policy regarding “gender non-conforming” and transgender students. “But I do want to tell you that pornography does not belong in our schools.”

Barnes specifically took issue with two books: “Gender Queer,” a graphic novel by Maia Kobabe, and “Lawn Boy,” a young adult novel by Jonathan Evison. She said that young children have access to these titles “via online resources that Adams 12 made possible.”

“Alison Bechdel writes ‘Fun Home’ about discovering masturbation soon after her first period,” Barnes began reading from “Gender Queer.”

“I discovered around the same age followed by the further realization that my ability to become aroused was governed by a strict law of diminishing returns, an elaborate fantasy based on Plato’s Symposium. The more I had to interact with my genitals, the less likely I was to reach a point of satisfaction. The best fantasy was one that did not require any physical touch at all.”

She then continued to read a section detailing the use of a new sex toy and various associated quotes.

It was at this point that the board decided Barnes was “out of order” and demanded she stop reading. “This is your first warning,” a board member said.

“This is a book that is accessible in Adams 12,” the mother protested as that board member asked her to refrain from reading further. “This is what you allow in our schools. This is what you allow for our kids to have access to. This is pornography and this is grooming for pedophilia.”

Another board member suggested restoring Barnes’s time so long as she agreed to keep the content “appropriate for K-12.” The apparent irony prompted several attendees in the audience to speak out in frustration.

“But it’s in the library. You made it appropriate,” a man yelled.

Barnes moved on to describe her feelings when she discovered “Lawn Boy” was available to high school students in the district.

“I was livid, I was angry, I was hurt that this was accessible to our children,” she said, arguing that the book should be treated the same way as “Playboy” or “Penthouse,” which don’t deserve a place in schools in the first place, she added.

The video of the four-hour meeting has been on the Adams 12’s YouTube since March, but has recently gone viral on social media after a two-minute clip of the exchange was shared by popular Twitter account LibsofTikTok.

In a statement regarding Barnes’s comments, Adams 12 said the district has just one copy of “Lawn Boy.”

“Members of the community have the opportunity to challenge school library materials currently held in district-managed schools,” the district stated. “At the current time, one copy of ‘Lawn Boy’ is held at one of our high school libraries and ‘Gender Queer’ is not held in any of the school libraries of district-managed schools.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/colorado-school-board-cuts-off-mom-for-reading-out-sex-scene-from-book-available-to-students_4460490.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-05-12-2&utm_medium=email&est=4r8viniLinZnbmwWtn1w7Nx%2FcU5oz6JC5MaUyKTKZId7pp1aeh64uHExIh8JAZL3Pw%3D%3D

A nonprofit is suing the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to obtain records that it argues “will inform the public of high-profile ethics revelations at OSTP and media coverage thereof,” including correspondence related to an OSTP event on “climate disinformation.”

In a lawsuit filed on May 5 in the D.C. District Court, Energy Policy Advocates (EPA) stated that it asked OSTP to provide correspondence and other documents it requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Those records include materials that the nonprofit says were produced for Politico’s Alex Thompson and discussed in Thompson’s article on billionaire Eric Schmidt’s influence over the Biden administration’s OSTP.

According to EPA, OSTP’s only response was a request for a minor formatting change.

“OSTP’s failure to simply turn over what it has already processed and produced to another party is inexplicable, at least outside of the White House. There literally is no excuse,” Matthew Hardin, a member of the EPA’s board, told The Epoch Times in an email.

Politico declined to comment on the complaint.

EPA is also seeking emails connected with OSTP’s February event on climate “denialism and delay,” which featured such speakers as Michael Mann.

Hardin characterized that roundtable as “more of a strange than sinister misuse of taxpayer resources, in seeking a social-science answer for why people continue to stand in their way.”

Specifically, EPA requested correspondence related to the event between former OSTP Director Eric Lander and Jane Lubchenco, who’s serving as OSTP’s first deputy director of climate and environment.

Lander, a mathematician and geneticist who leads the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, resigned from OSTP in February after admitting that he bullied his subordinates within the agency.

Lubchenco, a marine biologist at Oregon State University who also belongs to the OSTP’s new Scientific Integrity Task Force, has come under fire for a scientific ethics violation—she edited a paper written by some of her former coauthors, including her brother-in-law, University of California–Santa Barbara marine scientist Steven Gaines.

According to EPA, OSTP partially denied their FOIA request, redacting some information based on either personal privacy or the claim that it reflected “deliberative process.”

Hardin told The Epoch Times that he believes OSTP’s deliberative process objection was made “on what appear to be specious grounds.”

EPA’s lawsuit comes soon after the Department of Homeland Security announced the formation of a Disinformation Governance Board (DGB), to be led by Nina Jankowicz.

The push by Democrats and Big Tech against “disinformation,” “misinformation,” and “malinformation” has grown to encompass claims about climate change.

On Oct. 5, 2021, former Facebook Civic Integrity team member Frances Haugen testified to Congress that the social media company had “profited off spreading disinformation and misinformation and sowing hate.”

Just two days later, Google announced that it would ban ads and monetization for “content that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change.”

“This includes content referring to climate change as a hoax or a scam, claims denying that long-term trends show the global climate is warming, and claims denying that greenhouse gas emissions or human activity contribute to climate change,” the announcement reads.

On April 23, Twitter announced that “misleading advertisements on Twitter that contradict the scientific consensus on climate change are prohibited.”

Some activists have gone beyond pushing for steps such as demonetization by suggesting that “climate denial” could be defined as a crime.

In a 2019 article for the UNESCO Courier, University of Exeter professor Catriona McKinnon argued that “climate deniers” such as energy executive and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson could be brought before the International Criminal Court for “postericide.”

The term “postericide” was invented by McKinnon, who defined it as “intentional or reckless conduct fit to bring about the extinction of humanity.”

“The damage that climate deniers do is heinous, and they have no excuses. The time has come to prosecute them for postericide,” McKinnon wrote in the U.N. publication.

Hardin said, “On the heels of the news about a ‘Disinformation [Governance] Board,’ it’s certainly a reasonable conclusion that this administration and its allies, including on Capitol Hill, seek to use the weight of the federal government to silence political speech in opposition to its ‘whole-of-government’ climate agenda. Whether that means attempts at criminalization or not, we shall see.”

In 2018, EPA received $45,910 from Government Accountability & Oversight PC, another nonprofit, to “help support their mission to seek to bring transparency to the realm of energy and environmental policy.”

Hardin also serves on the board of Government Accountability & Oversight PC.

Government Accountability & Oversight PC’s board members have included Chris Horner, an attorney and climate change skeptic who has received funding from the coal company Alpha Natural Resources.

“Like all nonprofits, Energy Policy Advocates is grateful for and respects the privacy of donors who support its work,” Hardin told The Epoch Times when asked about the organization’s financial supporters.

OSTP officials didn’t respond by press time to a request for comment.

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An executive with COVID-19 vaccine maker Moderna resigned from the company about one day after taking the job, according to a statement Wednesday.

In the statement and in a securities filing, Moderna said that its new chief financial officer, Jorge Gomez, resigned on Tuesday, “effective immediately.” Retired Chief Financial Officer David Meline will continue his role starting May 11, said the firm.

“The announcement follows the May 10 public disclosure by Mr. Gomez’s former employer, Dentsply Sirona Inc., of an ongoing internal investigation into certain matters, including financial reporting,” Moderna’s statement said.

Gomez’s appointment was announced by the company in April and came into effect on Monday.

After leaving the company, Gomez will receive 12 months’ salary, totaling about $700,000, and he will forfeit his signing bonus and bonus eligibility, Moderna said in the securities filing.

The Dentsply Sirona Inc. investigation, which may cause a delay in the dental products maker’s quarterly filing with U.S. securities regulators, was focused on the use of incentives to sell products to distributors and whether those were properly accounted for. Dentsply last month fired its then-CEO Don Casey without disclosing a reason.

“The (board’s) audit committee has retained an independent outside counsel, which has engaged a forensic accounting firm, to assist in the investigation,” Dentsply said in a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “The company has voluntarily contacted the SEC to advise it that an internal investigation is underway.”

The investigation “is focused on the company’s use of incentives to sell products to third-party distributors in the third and fourth quarters of 2021.” The board wanted to determine “whether those incentives were appropriately accounted for, and the impact of those sales was adequately disclosed … (to) the Securities and Exchange Commission.”

The firing is “tough optics for Moderna. They spent a lot of time and effort hiring the new CFO. However, it seems the problem was at the previous company, and should have no impact on Moderna,” said Oppenheimer & Co analyst Hartaj Singh, according to Reuters.

About a week ago, Moderna said it is forecasting higher sales of its COVID-19 mRNA vaccine in the second half of 2022 as the firm is developing a potential next-generation booster targeted at both the Omicron variant as well as the original strain of COVID-19.

Moderna forecast $21 billion in sales in 2022, but it said that it might be lower if the COVAX international vaccine-sharing program cannot come up with a demand for vaccines in lower- and middle-income nations.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Free Beacon Investigates: Five cities, five free crack pipes

Crack pipes are distributed in safe-smoking kits up and down the East Coast, raising questions about the Biden administration’s assertion that its multimillion-dollar harm reduction grant program wouldn’t funnel taxpayer dollars to drug paraphernalia.

The findings are the result of Washington Free Beacon visits to five harm-reduction organizations and calls to over two dozen more. In fact, every organization we visited—facilities in Boston, New York City, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Richmond, Va.—included crack pipes in the kits.

The kits became the subject of national attention in the wake of a Free Beacon report in February indicating that a $30 million harm-reduction program was set to fund the distribution of free crack pipes in “safe-smoking kits.” Pressed on the matter in a Feb. 9 press briefing, White House press secretary Jen Psaki issued a full-throated denial.

“They were never a part of the kit, it was inaccurate reporting,” Psaki said of the pipes. “A safe smoking kit may contain alcohol swabs, lip balm, other materials to promote hygiene and reduce the transmission of diseases.”

While the contents of safe-smoking kits vary from one organization to another—and while those from some organizations may not contain crack pipes—all of the organizations we visited made crack pipes as well as paraphernalia for the use of heroin, cocaine, and crystal methamphetamine readily available without requiring or offering rehabilitation services, suggesting that pipes are included in many if not most of the kits distributed across the country. All of the centers we visited are run by health-focused nonprofits and government agencies—the types of groups eligible to receive funding, starting this month, from the Biden administration’s $30 million grant program.

None of the organizations responded to inquiries about whether they applied for government grants. It is not clear which organizations will receive those grants, nor has the administration said how it will ensure the kits will not contain crack pipes. The Department of Health and Human Services, which will oversee the Biden grant program, declined to provide a list of groups that have applied for funding, citing “confidentiality.” The Biden administration is set to announce grant recipients on May 15.

The Free Beacon‘s findings contradict claims from a raft of fact-checkers who, based on the White House’s ex-post-facto denial, deemed the Free Beacon‘s reporting false.

A USA Today headline asking, “What’s inside a safe smoking kit?” answered: “No, it’s not a crack pipe.” The outlet based its fact-check solely on the administration’s denial and does not appear to have done any additional research on safe smoking kits. The author, Michelle Shen, did not respond to a request for comment.

A survey of more than two dozen harm reduction organizations found that not all harm reduction organizations distribute safe smoking kits, but those that do almost always provide crack pipes. The few that don’t include crack pipes in their kits say they are willing to, but unable to.

At Washington, D.C.’s Family and Medical Counseling Service, Inc., for example, a member of the group’s needle exchange team told the Free Beacon that the organization would love to offer crack pipes as part of its safe smoking kit but hasn’t been able to purchase them.

“I would if I knew how,” said Tyrone Pinkney, who distributes clean needles from a recreational vehicle and said he did not know where to buy crack pipes to include in the kits.

Pinkney, however, appears to be an exception. Here is what the Free Beacon found in each city.

Baltimore

At Charm City Care Connection, a nonprofit that provides harm reduction services to combat “oppression,” an employee said that identification is not required to receive a smoking kit, but did ask for initials, a date of birth, and zip code before handing over two smoking kits containing glass crack pipes as well as Chore Boy copper mesh, a cleaning product used to hold the crack rock at the end of the pipe.

The bag included directions for how to use the pipe, heat-resistant mouthpieces, wooden sticks for packing the mesh into the pipe, and alcohol wipes. Most importantly, the organization provides all drug paraphernalia recipients an “Authorized Harm Reduction Program Participant Card” that serves as a get-out-of-jail-free card to show to law enforcement, because the paraphernalia is otherwise illegal in the state of Maryland.

Charm City Care Connection receives funding from both the Baltimore city and Maryland state governments, as well as at least $200,000 from left-wing billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundations as part of the organization’s “Addiction and Health Equity Program.” According to the group’s disclosures, it received $200,000 in government grants in 2019. It has a partnership with Johns Hopkins University and half of its board of directors work for the university.

Women in Baltimore can have crack pipes delivered to their door. Katie Evans, the outreach director of the SPARC Women’s Center, says the organization will deliver smoking kits with crack pipes to anyone with “non-men identities.” The center, which is run through Johns Hopkins University, will also deliver syringes, snorting kits, and “sex supplies,” Evans said.

Evans would not say whether SPARC Women’s Center applied for a Health and Human Services grant. Charm City Care Connection also did not respond to a request for comment about whether it had applied for a Health and Human Services grant.

Boston

In Boston’s South End neighborhood, a man was seen injecting a needle into his calf about 30 feet away from a police car outside the Access, Harm Reduction, Overdose Prevention and Education facility, which is run by the Boston Public Health Commission.

Inside the facility, an employee recorded our initials, date of birth, housing situation, and HIV status before offering an array of drug equipment. The bin of crack pipes was visible just above a bin of syringes labeled “biggie smalls” and “ultra fine,” different options for injecting drugs into different parts of the body.

“One pipe per person, once a day,” a worker, who emerged with a crack pipe, meth pipe, and additional drug accessories such as Chore Boy copper, told the Free Beacon.

An employee said the facility no longer offers get-out-of-jail-free cards because the police don’t arrest people for drug possession any longer.

“We’re way past that,” the employee said, though possession of drug paraphernalia is still a crime in the city. The Boston Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.

The Boston Public Health Commission did not respond to a request for comment about whether it had applied for a Health and Human Services grant.

New York City

At the Alliance’s Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center, a young staffer offers up a long menu of drug paraphernalia available free of charge. Included on the menu was a “booty bump” kit for rectal ingestion of narcotics, which is recommended by many harm reduction centers as a safer way to use meth.

After providing initials, date of birth, and zip code, the Free Beacon was given two drug pipes, one for crack and one for meth, as well as an authorized program card similar to what was given out in Baltimore. The smoking kits include literature with “safer smoking tips,” including a warning that “crack and meth use can lead to unprotected sex by increasing your sex drive or making you more sexually passive.” Other tips advise addicts obtain crack from a “source you trust,” and to “smoke only a little bit first if unsure about its purity.”

In addition to the Chore Boy copper mesh, the center gave out pipe screens, which work as an alternative to hold crack rocks in the pipe. The center advertises that its pipes are made of Pyrex, a stronger tempered glass designed for high heat.

The Alliance for Positive Change, also known as AIDS Service Center NYC, has received $20 million from Health and Human Services since 2004—mostly for AIDS and HIV-related programs—with the majority of grants distributed during the Obama administration. The organization has received $74 million in government grants since 2009.

The Alliance for Positive Change did not respond to a request for comment about whether it had applied for a Health and Human Services grant.

Washington, D.C.

Just about a mile from the U.S. Capitol and within blocks of two elementary schools, a harm reduction center in Washington, D.C., had readily available pipes for crack and meth, as well as Chore Boy mesh, copper screens, and the same mouthpieces offered in Baltimore.

“Which kind do you want?” a volunteer asked after this reporter inquired about smoking kits. No information was recorded, and the center declined to look at identification that was offered. Program cards are no longer distributed by the center because possession of drug paraphernalia is decriminalized in the nation’s capital.

The harm reduction center goes by HIPS, which formerly stood for Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive but has been altered to stand for Honoring Individual Power and Strength.

HIPS since 2018 has received $3.1 million from Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which oversees the Biden administration’s harm reduction program. The funds are provided through two separate programs: one for LGBTQ housing and another for medication-assisted treatment.

HIPS did not respond to a request for comment about whether it had applied for a Health and Human Services grant.

Richmond

Employees of the River City Harm Redux organization were found at a table set up outside a hotel on the outskirts of Richmond, Va. This reporter asked for two crack smoking kits, but was told only one remained in the day’s offerings. To make up for the shortcoming, the employees added a meth pipe along with two “snorting kits,” which include straws, a plastic razor blade to break up drugs, short plastic straws, a small spoon, and a bedazzled playing card to snort drugs off of.

The organization is not an authorized harm reduction site recognized by the Virginia Department of Health. Possession of drug paraphernalia in Virginia is a Class 1 misdemeanor. A conviction for possession of drug paraphernalia can result in up to 12 months in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.

“If they are not authorized they are not protected by the law that allows sites to furnish paraphernalia,” Bruce Taylor, the drug use coordinator for the department, told the Free Beacon. Taylor said Virginia does not allow harm reduction facilities to include crack pipes in their smoking kits, and that his department is not aware of River City Harm Redux.

River City Harm Redux did not respond to a request for comment about whether it had applied for a Health and Human Services grant.

Joe Simonson contributed to this report.

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/yes-safe-smoking-kits-include-free-crack-pipes-we-know-because-we-got-them/

If you were attuned even slightly to the use of the English language, the moment they changed the phrase “global warming” to “climate change,” you knew they were lying.

http://isthereglobalcooling.com/

Otherwise, why make that change? “Global warming” warned of something specific, provable or not. “Climate change” was factually meaningless, almost to the extent of idiocy. The climate, along with the weather, has been changing since the beginning of the planet and has never stopped.

You were being propagandized. Some people realized it, but too many didn’t. These were words of mass formation psychosis before the phrase was coined.

The old term that most of us lived by and actually encouraged the improvement of the natural world—“conservation”—had vanished from the lexicon, first replaced by “global warming” and then literally disappeared by “climate change.”

This allowed for many things to go on that made no sense, unless you thought exclusively of control and the money and power that flowed through it.

Among the most flagrant and despicable examples was the moment our economy died and what’s now runaway inflation, 8.3 percent in April, really began—day one of the Biden administration, when, in the name “climate change,” the new president killed the Keystone XL pipeline.

That was the day, in a certain sense, that the Earth stood still, and a new, destructive policy was born, whether by ignorance or design. (I suspect the latter.)

Our president was, in essence, an empty vessel wide open for manipulation by forces lusting for power. What do the globalists care about some minor supply chain problems? They don’t have any.

The rest is history, including a shortage of baby formula across our country, of all things. What could be more horrifying?

This giant change in energy policy—which resulted in the United States’ fall from being a net exporter of energy to now being reliant on imports—wasn’t the sole cause of the supply chain and inflation woes we now suffer from, but it’s most likely the predominant one.

It was all based on the complete fantasy that it would hasten some kind of climate nirvana. It’s hard to think of anything more stupid.

Of course, if President Joe Biden was interested, plenty of information on so-called climate change was and is readily available on the website WattsUpWithThat.com, which has been invaluable on the issue for some time.

A small amount of research would have told him that those famous sources of renewable energy, solar and wind, are far from ready to take important places in our economy and likely never will be. If and when renewables come, they’ll probably be something completely different, something that hasn’t even been imagined yet. The science just isn’t ready.

As that website tells us:

“The risk of electricity shortages is rising throughout the U.S. as traditional power plants are being retired more quickly than they can be replaced by renewable energy and battery storage. Power grids are feeling the strain as the U.S. makes a historic transition from conventional power plants fueled by coal and natural gas to cleaner forms of energy such as wind and solar power, and aging nuclear plants are slated for retirement in many parts of the country.

“The challenge is that wind and solar farms—which are among the cheapest forms of power generation—don’t produce electricity at all times and need large batteries to store their output for later use. While a large amount of battery storage is under development, regional grid operators have lately warned that the pace may not be fast enough to offset the closures of traditional power plants that can work around the clock.”

Meanwhile, inflation rages on and shortages, such as those of baby formula, are everywhere.

We could turn to nuclear energy, as has France, which gets 70 percent of its power from nuclear, but we’ve been similarly propagandized against it.

Mass formation psychosis, sadly, is real. Fight it, in part, by rejecting their language. The term “climate change” is intellectual garbage.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/big-lie-of-climate-change-caused-todays-runaway-inflation_4460190.html?utm_source=Morningbrief-ai&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2022-05-12-ai&est=C%2FhKVsTJDIGdk1lUp7s%2Feb5mDbJs4Ne%2BFeetDR7gbPMAZSqA7qY2skD7vxM7QEyYZg%3D%3D

During the COVID-19 pandemic, parents across the nation voiced their frustrations over widespread school closures and harsh mask policies imposed on their children. With classrooms reopened and masking mandates phased out, however, many parents remain frustrated by the schools’ misplaced focus.

Tiffany Justice, who co-founded parental rights advocacy group Moms for Liberty, told The Epoch Times that schools are failing to offer a quality education for which parents send their children to schools in the first place.

“We’d like children to learn to read in school, we’d like for schools focus on academic achievement,” said Justice, a Florida-based mother of four and former school board member. “Our children are behind in school, and we see absolutely no effort by school districts, teachers unions to address any of these deficits.”

“In fact, what we see is increased money going to efforts like DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion), SEL (Social-Emotional Learning), or CRT (Critical Race Theory), instead of actually looking to improve academic achievement,” Justice said.

Rooted in Marxism, critical race theory interprets established legal, social, and cultural systems through a lens of a power struggle between supposed oppressors and the oppressed, replacing the class categories with racial identities. Many opponents of CRT argue that DEI and SEL curricula are vehicles to indoctrinate children with a race-centric worldview.

Facing popular outrage over CRT indoctrination in public education, school officials and teachers’ unions have sent contradicting messages. For example, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten claimed last summer at her organization’s biennial conference that CRT “is not taught in elementary schools or high schools,” but at the very same forum vowed to defend teachers who use the CRT framework to teach history in violation of their states’ anti-CRT laws.

“Teachers’ unions have a lot of control over education in America, but they do not put children first. They put adults first,” Justice said, adding that union leaders like Weingarten are “very upset” about the parental rights movement, which unites concerned parents and pushes for changes from classrooms to school boards, essentially disrupting the balance of power.

“The teachers unions are mad because they have been in control of many things, including school board elections. They have worked for a long time to stack school boards with people who are sympathetic to the teachers unions,” she continued. “No more will we allow that to happen. We will no longer allow teachers unions to keep our schools closed or to deny the rights of parents to direct the upbringing of their children.”

This growing backlash has prompted governors and legislators in at least a dozen states to put forth efforts to give parents more say over their children’s upbringing. Under Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, school districts are banned from withholding records on students from parents, encouraging students to keep personal information from parents, or refusing to tell parents about changes in their children with regard to their mental or physical health.

More recently, in Georgia, a new law makes it a legal requirement for public schools to respond within seven days to complaints filed by parents about obscene books or teaching materials. Another Georgia law passed last month, known as “Parents’ Bill of Rights,” acknowledges that parents have a host of fundamental rights, including the right to direct the moral and religious upbringing of their children and the right to review all instructional material to be provided to their children.

All of these legislative efforts are backed by Republicans, who have continued to rally around the issue of public education since Virginia Republican Glenn Youngkin, campaigning on a pro-parental rights, anti-CRT platform, won the 2021 gubernatorial election. Justice said that while parental rights isn’t a partisan issue, nor will her organization be partisan, parents are tired of supporting candidates who ignore their concerns.

“Our schools are failing our children, and parents are tired of funding failure,” she said, noting that political donations of teachers’ unions overwhelmingly go to Democrats. “Every parent wants for their child the same thing, which is to unfold their full potential in life. We fund schools with a lot of money in this country, and there’s no reason that they’re not able to teach our children how to read.”

When it comes to the upcoming midterm elections, Justice said every candidate should keep in mind that “2022 is the Year of the Parent.”

“We want to see our children be successful in school—every child, every race, every religion, every age,” she said. “We want to see your child being given the tools and skills that they need to be successful in life.”

While many parents pull their children out of public schools in favor of alternatives including homeschooling, it’s not an option for all families. For those who have to stick with public schools, Justice encouraged them to engage in their children’s education and make sure their voices are heard.

“Parents are the No. 1 driver of student success,” she said. “If your child is in public school, you must firmly insert yourself between the school and your child, and ensure that your child is getting what they need in school because they deserve it.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/moms-for-liberty-co-founder-parents-are-tired-of-funding-failure_4457610.html?utm_source=Morningbrief-ai&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2022-05-12-ai&est=qAcNy%2BA%2B1wzCGjS8CsEeQirteuNSvCT5yge2n7aOaGW3Ub8qWGvDsm%2FR2%2FFqBn2UbQ%3D%3D

Undisclosed royalty payments estimated at $350 million from pharmaceutical and other firms to Dr. Anthony Fauci and hundreds of National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists do present “an appearance of a conflict of interest,” according to the agency’s acting director.

Dr. Lawrence Tabak, who took over as NIH director following the December 2021 resignation of the agency’s long-time leader, Dr. Francis Collins, told a House Appropriations Committee subcommittee that federal law allows the royalty payments, but he conceded that they don’t look ethical.

“Right now, I think the NIH has a credibility problem and this only feeds into this, and I’m only just learning about this,” Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) told Tabak. “People in my district say, ‘Well, so-and-so has a financial interest,’ or they don’t like ivermectin because they aren’t benefitting from that royalty.

“You may have very sound scientific reasons for recommending a medicine or not, but the idea that people get a financial benefit from certain research that’s been done and grants that were awarded, that is, to me, the height of the appearance of a conflict of interest.”

In response, Tabak said NIH doesn’t endorse particular medicines.

“We support the science that validates whether an invention is or is not efficacious, we don’t say this is good or this is bad. … I certainly can understand that it might seem as a conflict of interest,” he said.

Moolenaar seemed taken aback by Tabak’s response and, while pointing to Fauci, who was also testifying, said that “truthfully, I would say you’ve had leaders of NIH saying certain medicines are not good.”

Tabak said such statements by NIH are based on clinical trials that are supported by the agency.

Moolenaar then asked Tabak, “But if the agency is awarding who is the beneficiary of the grant, who is doing the trial, and there is somehow finances involved, that there is a financial benefit that could be accrued if someone’s patent or invention is considered validated, do you not see that as a conflict or at least the appearance of a conflict of interest?”

After conceding that there’s an appearance of a conflict of interest, Tabak suggested to Moolenaar that “maybe this is the sort of thing that we can work together on so that we can explain to you the firewalls that we do have because they are substantial and significant.”

Moolenaar’s reference to Fauci was in regard to him telling The Associated Press in a 2005 article that first brought the NIH royalties issues into the headlines that he had donated his royalties to charity.

But the issue faded from the headlines after 2005, and it’s only now getting renewed attention as a result of revelations first reported on May 9 by The Epoch Times that documents obtained in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by a nonprofit government watchdog show an estimated $350 million in undisclosed royalty payments from pharmaceutical and other private firms to top NIH executives, as well as to hundreds of the agency’s health scientists and researchers.

The $350 million in royalty payments were made between 2010 and 2020, according to Open the Books, the nonprofit that took the NIH to court when it refused to acknowledge the group’s FOIA request for documents.

Collins received 14 payments, Fauci received 23 payments, and his deputy, Clifford Lane, received eight payments, according to Open the Books.

Adam Andrzejewski, founder and president of Open the Books, told The Epoch Times on May 11 that NIH continues to withhold important information about the royalty payments, including the names of particular payers and the specific amounts paid to individuals at NIH.

“With tens of billions of dollars in grant-making at NIH and tens of millions of royalty dollars from third-party payers flowing back into the agency each year, NIH needs to come clean with the American people and open the books. We need to be able to follow the money,” Andrzejewski said.

“We believe transparency will revolutionize U.S. public policy. There is no better example of this than the third-party (think pharmaceutical companies) payments to NIH scientists. Every single outside payment to a government scientist could be a conflict of interest.”

The Moolenaar–Tabak exchange took place during a hearing on the Biden administration’s 2023 budget request.

Rep. Neal Dunn (R-Fla.), who’s also a surgeon, told The Epoch Times that “it’s no secret that the agency needs reform. Their many issues were exacerbated and highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Providing the public with transparent access to how the NIH is spending taxpayer dollars and reaching their decisions is a basic responsibility, and they must be held accountable. Now more than ever, we must commit to reforming our federal health agencies and restoring America’s trust in public health.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/acting-nih-director-admits-appearance-of-conflict-of-interest-in-secret-royalty-payments-to-fauci-scientists_4460259.html?utm_source=Morningbrief-ai&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2022-05-12-ai&est=WsJ7Aec9%2BhQ0oJMNIjW%2B2%2FX95M6LoYcwb50Mzm04%2BDle1eJBTmYaJMZ5wGd3bkgLsg%3D%3D

A panel in Missouri on May 10 recommended St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner be found guilty of violating ethics rules while investigating former Gov. Eric Greitens.

The Missouri Disciplinary Counsel said Gardner’s misconduct included failing to intervene when former FBI agent William Don Tisaby, who Gardner tapped to help investigate Greitens, falsely claimed that a document filed with the courts was the product of his work when it actually contained findings from Gardner.

Tisaby also gave false statements during a deposition but Gardner did not correct him even though she was in the room.

“Each of those statements was false, and respondent knew the statements were false,” the panel said.

Gardner has said she was not sure at the time what to do in response to Tisaby lying but now acknowledges she should have addressed the matter by telling Tisaby to tell the truth.

Tisaby pleaded guilty in March to a tampering with evidence charge.

Giving the proper evidence to defendants is “one of the most basic responsibilities of a prosecutor,” the panel said.

On the other hand, the charges against Greitens, for allegedly taking a seminude picture of a woman who did not give permission, were eventually dropped, so a wrongful conviction did not happen, panelists noted. They also said that Gardner does not have a criminal history and that the dispute over the disclosure and production of documents “was more an issue of negligence than intentional non-disclosure,” which means that conduct did not rise to the level of “a potential breach of public trust.”

The panel is recommending Gardner be publicly reprimanded, but no further punishment be given.

The Missouri Supreme Court will review the panel’s recommendation and decide whether to issue a reprimand.

Gardner’s office and re-election campaign, and Greitens, did not respond to requests for comment.

Gardner is a Democrat who received major backing from billionaire George Soros while Greitens is a Republican who resigned from office and is now running for a U.S. Senate seat.

The panel findings stemmed from an April hearing in which Gardner admitted she violated rules but described the violations as “mistakes.” She reached a preliminary agreement then with the panel to avoid criminal charges.

Grand jurors in Tisaby’s case recently said in a letter that Gardner’s conduct “was not inadvertent nor inconsequential but was calculated deceit and/or outright incompetence; neither of which is acceptable behavior for a person holding this public office.” They said they were disappointed with the agreement.

Greitens told The Epoch Times in an email after the hearing that the agreement “reaffirms what we have known all along—Soros funded prosecutor Kim Gardner conducted a political witch hunt.”

“From hiring former FBI agent William Tisaby, who just plead[ed] guilty to evidence tampering, to lying and engaging in a coverup to conceal her misconduct, Gardner is the worst type of public official, corrupt and crooked,” he added.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/soros-backed-prosecutor-violated-ethics-rules-in-pursuit-of-former-governor-panel_4459807.html?utm_source=Morningbrief-ai&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2022-05-12-ai&est=k%2BNqJusjJHI10QdmLK1qernZwKdcvrHLcRX5qBfhQsi5%2BYPF6Qs8OWP31KgKhXibRA%3D%3D

A source within the Federal Bureau of Investigation has come forward to expose the FBI’s targeting of members of the “news media” including information about what the FBI calls a Special Investigative Matter (“SIM”) regarding their investigation into Project Veritas over Ashley Biden’s abandoned diary.

Here are some of the highlights from today’s video:

• Document reveals the FBI labeled Project Veritas as “news media,” and categorized the probe as a “Sensitive Investigative Matter” due to Veritas being journalists. This is a direct contradiction of the U.S. government’s in-court position that Project Veritas are not journalists.
• The whistleblower, who has several years of experience as an FBI Special Agent and is still on payroll with the Bureau, came to Project Veritas with the document after seeing what he calls “a number of troubling things that are happening in the FBI.”
• The document also shows the federal investigation was launched into Project Veritas the same day Ashley Biden’s Attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said, “This is insane. We should send to SDNY” in response to a request for comment on the contents of Ashley Biden’s abandoned diary.
• Additionally, the FBI categorized the investigation into an abandoned diary under Threat Band I, which is usually reserved for “threat issues that are likely to cause the greatest damage to national interests or public safety in the coming year.”
• The Whistleblower also revealed how the document shows surveillance of Project Veritas included use of CAST tools, an analysis which includes cellular geolocation tracking of phone devices.

• FBI Whistleblower: “Tyranny happens incrementally, and it happens by a bunch of people agreeing to small injustices over and over simply to keep their paycheck and their pension…to maintain your paycheck and pension that gives you the Holocaust”

[NEW YORK – May 11, 2022] A source within the Federal Bureau of Investigation has come forward to expose the FBI’s targeting of members of the “news media” including information about what the FBI calls a Special Investigative Matter (“SIM”) regarding their investigation into Project Veritas over Ashley Biden’s abandoned diary.

According to a document obtained and published by Project Veritas, the FBI opened an investigation into Project Veritas knowing full well they were journalists as the document is labeled under a “news media” classification. This classification is a direct contradiction to the government’s court filing where they argued that actions taken by the government to surveil, raid and seize materials from Project Veritas journalists were appropriate. The government’s filing stated, “Project Veritas is not engaged in journalism within any traditional or accepted definition of that word,” because its reporting is “non-consensual.”

The whistleblower, who has several years of experience as an FBI Special Agent, came to Project Veritas because, “The direction that the agency has headed troubles a vast majority of the agents.”

Something else the whistleblower called “alerting” was the fact that the FBI categorized the investigation into Ashley Biden’s diary under Threat Band I, which is usually reserved for “threat issues that are likely to cause the greatest damage to national interests or public safety in the coming year.”

The document, which lacks certain information due to the restricted classification of the file, also shows the investigation was launched the same day Ashley Biden’s Attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said, “This is insane. We should send to SDNY,” in response to a request for comment on the contents of Ashley Biden’s diary.

The FBI also used its Cellular Analysis Survey Team (CAST) tools, which includes cellular geolocation tracking of phone devices, to secretly surveil Project Veritas journalists, according to the whistleblower and as revealed on the leaked document.

The whistleblower, who is still on the Bureau’s payroll, sat down for an interview with Project Veritas CEO and Founder, James O’Keefe.  “Tyranny happens incrementally, and it happens by a bunch of people agreeing to small injustices over and over simply to keep their paycheck and their pension,” said the whistleblower, adding, “To maintain your paycheck and pension that gives you the Holocaust.”.

At the time of this writing, the FBI has not yet responded to a request for comment.

READ THE LEAKED SPLASH PAGE HERE.

About Project Veritas

James O’Keefe established Project Veritas in 2010 as a non-profit journalism enterprise to continue his undercover reporting work. Today, Project Veritas investigates and exposes corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud, and other misconduct in both public and private institutions to achieve a more ethical and transparent society and to engage in litigation to: protect, defend and expand human and civil rights secured by law, specifically First Amendment rights including promoting the free exchange of ideas in a digital world; combat and defeat censorship of any ideology; promote truthful reporting; and defend freedom of speech and association issues including the right to anonymity. O’Keefe serves as the CEO and Chairman of the Board so that he can continue to lead and teach his fellow journalists, as well as protect and nurture the Project Veritas culture.  

https://www.projectveritas.com/news/breaking-fbi-whistleblower-leaks-document-showing-bureau-targeting-news/

PADDY MCGUIRE’S WORK MISLED THE PUBLIC ABOUT ELECTION INTEGRITY, WHILE HIS COUNTY TOOK CASH FROM THE NOTORIOUS CENTER FOR TECH AND CIVIC LIFE.

An election official from a county which received funds from the Mark Zuckerberg’s Center for Tech and Civic Life used a local newspaper column to dismiss evidence of election fraud, praising mail-in ballots in the process, and helping dismiss notions of foul play despite his obvious conflict of interest.

Paddy McGuire, who penned his article for the Shelton-Mason County Journal in 2020, also falsely claimed mail-in voting ensures unparalleled “safety and security,” while also defending the county’s decision to ban in-person election observers.

McGuire, the Auditor for Washington’s Mason County, authored over one dozen articles for the County Journal during the lead-up to the 2020 election, but never disclosed that his county received a cash grant from the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL).

CTCL in turn praised McGuire’s column – “Election Matters” – in a feature: “Mason County, Washington Builds Trust Through Local Newspaper Column.”

Launched in January 2020, the bi-weekly column was highlighted by CTCL for its efficacy in “help[ing] to present his office as a source of trusted information” and “preemptively quell[ing] misinformation.”

CTCL used hundreds of millions of dollars from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s organization — the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative — to overrule local election officials and increase turnout in almost exclusively Democratic districts through mail-in voting in 2020. Proving the partisan conflict of interest, leaders from the CTCL overpowered and overruled election authorities and, through coercion, allegedly accessed mail-in ballots ahead of the election.

Financial records from CTCL reveal that the Mason County Treasurer received a grant worth $32,904 intended to “support the safe administration of public elections during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

CTCL’s grant to McGuire’s county – which was never discussed in any of his columns – appears to present a conflict of interest with the opinions expressed in McGuire’s column, which he used to defend the security of mail-in voting, despite the method being rife with fraud and errors, and the integrity of the 2020 election.

In an op-ed “We Prepare and We Plan,“ McGuire outlined how his office wasn’t allowing in-person election observers, allegedly due to COVID-19.

“Those requirements include allowing observers to watch us and being open to the public so people can register to vote in person during the last two and a half weeks before the election. My office is in a building closed to the public by the Board of Mason County Commissioners, so even if I wanted to be open, I can’t,” he reasoned.

Commenting on the article to CTCL, McGuire noted that “being so proactive about outreach helped blunt the criticism that we didn’t allow observers.” Citizens could instead watch live streams of ballot counting, according to officials.

In a November 26th, 2020 article “All Our Systems Just Worked During The Election“ he claimed, “there is no credible evidence that anyone interfered with the outcome of the election anywhere.”

In the same article, he also praised Facebook for taking a “much more aggressive stance against misinformation and disinformation in 2020 than they did in 2016.”

McGuire also repeatedly amplified left-wing talking points about how delayed election results were normal, insisting “getting final results takes time” beyond election night. Similarly, he advocated in favor of mail-in ballots, writing on June 18th, 2020:

“I am a huge fan of vote-by-mail. I hope the safety, security and voter convenience that we enjoy here will one day be available across the country.”

McGuire’s column is yet another piece of evidence showing how the CTCL and its Zuckerberg-funded backer aimed to change the election landscape in the U.S. in favor of mail-in voting.

NEWLY RELEASED EVIDENCE IMPLICATES PARTISAN OPERATORS AGAINST JOURNALISTS.

Ashley Biden’s attorney — who privately pushed for the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to subpoena journalists — has long-standing ties to former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and one of his top aides, who also happens to be the daughter-in-law of the U.S. attorney behind a number of politically motivated subpoenas.

The newly unearthed connections between individuals attempting to suppress stories about President Joe Biden’s daughter’s diary reveal a wildly immoral weaponization of America’s legal institutions against journalists.

The news follows the FBI raid of guerilla journalists at Project Veritas and its founder James O’Keefe at his home.

New reporting from the group sheds light on the players – including their ties to Democratic politics – involved in the approval of 19 secret subpoenas levelled at the activist group.

Veritas had been emailing in October of 2020 with the Biden campaign and its family lawyers seeking to interview then-candidate Joe Biden about the diary, which Ashley Biden’s lawyers likened to an “extortionate effort.” As a result, one of Ashley Biden’s representatives, progressive lawyer Roberta Kaplan, asserted: “This is insane; we should send to SDNY.”

Roughly three weeks later, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) approved the first of 19 subpoenas against Project Veritas.

Kaplan, 56, appears to have connections to the U.S. District Court for the SDNY, as she was a lawyer for former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, advising the disgraced politician on how to discredit one of his alleged victims.

“She has continuing legal ties to a former Cuomo aide accused of leading that effort,” explained The New York Times, in reference to Melissa DeRosa.

DeRosa also happens to be married to the son of former Acting U.S. Attorney for the SDNY Audrey Strauss, who was responsible for authorizing subpoenas against Project Veritas.

The news raises fresh concerns about conflicts of interest involved in the persecution of Project Veritas.

“There’s clearly a disparate treatment at the Department of Justice,” remarked O’Keefe while testifying in front of Members of Congress about the warrants and subpoenas issued for Project Veritas.

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