In an Epoch Health podcast, our very own Dr. Ann Corson spoke with Dr. Andrew Wakefield on the transformational trajectory of his professional career from a distinguished surgeon and scientific researcher in the gastrointestinal field to a critically acclaimed filmmaker.

Dr. Wakefield spoke about his relocation to the United States after being defamed in his own country as a result of a clinical case study he and 12 other authors published in The Lancet in 1998. The paper suggested a possible link between the MMR vaccine and autism that needed further research.

In this podcast, Dr. Wakefield tells us the stories behind his films ‘Who Killed Alex Spourdalakis?‘, ‘Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe’, and ‘1986, The Act.‘

Wakefield graduated in 1981 from the prestigious St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School in London and in 1985 became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons as a gastrointestinal surgeon with a specialty in inflammatory bowel disease. He was later accepted into the Royal College of Pathologists and led a research team of 19 people investigating inflammatory bowel disease.

He later relocated to Austin, Texas, where he co-founded and worked at the Thoughtful House Center for Children, now called the Johnson Center for Child Health and Development, an organization dedicated to the advancement of the understanding of childhood development through clinical care, research, and education.

Dr. Wakefield has given numerous presentations and speeches across the globe and is an activist for autism research and vaccine safety awareness. His first feature length film was released in 2014.

Dr. Corson has four decades of clinical practice. Her patient population includes people who are immunocompromised due conditions like Lyme disease and mold-induced illness. She treats with an integrative approach and is known internationally for her success.

Dr. Corson grew up in southeastern Pennsylvania and obtained the Doctor of Medicine degree in 1982 from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia, PA. She was board certified in Family Medicine in 1993 and in Integrative Holistic Medicine in 2011.

Today, she has a solo practice in Philadelphia and cares deeply about medical ethics and humanity. In 2008, she joined the non-profit organization Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH) and currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of DAFOH’s e-newsletter.

Before the 1998 Lancet Paper

Dr. Andrew Wakefield is perhaps one of the most misrepresented scientists of the late 20th century. From a long line of doctors, he was the 6th generation of his family to attend the prestigious St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School of the Imperial College London, famous as the place Dr. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, among other things.

Wakefield, after being certified as a surgical gastroenterologist, developed a research interest in inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

Wakefield “put together a research team… about 19 strong, working at the Royal Free Hospital in North London, part of the University of London, and [they] published [works on the origins of the aforementioned conditions].”

Wakefield began researching the link between measles and Crohn’s disease, publishing a paper in the Lancet on the topic in 1994. Subsequently, he was approached by parents who believed that MMR vaccines had triggered gastrointestinal and developmental problems in their children.

Wakefield remembered that “in 1995, because of the work [he] was doing, I started getting a series of calls, starting with a very articulate, intelligent, [and] professional mother who said that [her] child was developing perfectly normally… [until] he had his MMR vaccine.” The MMR vaccine is a vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella, combined into one injection.

The child “was ultimately diagnosed with autism,” and Wakefield said he “knew nothing about autism at all. It was so rare when I was at medical school that we weren’t even taught about it. The estimate was probably one in 10,000 children [had it at that time].”

Wakefield said the child had developed severe gastrointestinal issues with recurring diarrhea about 10-12 times a day and other symptoms that indicated severe bowel inflammation. What fascinated him was “when [his team] treated [children with] this bowel disease as inflammation with… standard inflammatory bowel disease medications, not only was there an improvement in the children’s gastrointestinal problems, but there was an improvement in their autism as well. We didn’t cure autism. But the children started using words they hadn’t used for five years. It was… extraordinary.”

This mother was not the only one who reached out to Wakefield for help, so he put together a team of brilliant researchers to investigate the connection between the MMR vaccine and potential side effects. At the same time, Wakefield’s team helped various children suffering with similar problems to see if the improvements seen with treatment were repeatable. He told Dr. Corson that “[they] did it again… by the time I left [the UK in the early 2000s], the team had done it 180 times [with] different children. And it worked virtually every time.”

“And my colleagues, even my colleagues in this investigation team, said to me, [they, as pediatricians] cannot… question the safety of [the] MMR vaccine. But that meant nothing to me. That wasn’t a medical point of view and it wasn’t a scientific point of view… What about the children who are suffering? What about the children sitting across the desk from you, to whom you have a primary responsibility, not to your reputation [or] how your colleagues might perceive [me], so… there was [a falling out] on this issue… and I decided that I had absolutely no choice, according to my professional training and my humanitarian view of the world, [but] to do this job. I did, and that was really the beginning of the end of my medical career.”

In 1998, Wakefield, Professor John Walker-Smith, and 11 additional scientists, published an observational study in the Lancet detailing their findings from the first 12 children who experienced similar gastrointestinal symptoms. Wakefield claims “[the study] could draw no conclusions other than further work needs to be done.”

“But of course, the media has portrayed this paper as claiming that the [MMR] vaccine causes autism. No, it did not. But I took the view and this is why they went after me. I had to investigate this [further], which I did. And that threatened the vaccine industry, threatened their bottom line and threatened government policy. It threatened international vaccine policy. And clearly, it was perceived as a huge threat. So they came after me.”

“James Murdoch was appointed to the board of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Europe’s biggest MMR manufacturer, as a non-executive director and his job was to protect that company’s name and reputation in the media… to come after me, which he did rather effectively.” GSK hired a journalist by the name of Brian Deer to go after Wakefield by publishing a series of defaming papers, articles, and even a book, all in an attempt to completely destroy him professionally and personally. As a result, the Lancet paper was retracted and Wakefield was stripped of his credentials and medical license. False claims against him still appear today. Legal action was taken by Wakefield against Deer in 2020.

Wakefield’s Pivotal Career Change

Wakefield’s career, however, underwent a pivotal transformation that resulted in him testifying before the United States Congress in 2000. Wakefield recalled giving “a series of talks at autism meetings in the United States,” describing them as “a fascinating experience” as the vast majority of autism conference attendees were parents of vaccine injured children. “I presented the information to them, and as a consequence… the Chairman of the Congressional Oversight Committee at that time, [Congressman] Dan Burton, was himself the grandfather of a vaccine injured child with severe autism. And so there was… a series of hearings on autism under the direction of that Congressman at that time… but unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that much came out of those.”

Subsequently, Wakefield set up an autism center in Austin, Texas that is still in operation today. “To continue the work, I had to lose my country, my career… my license, and all those things. But… that was part of the deal, I guess, for getting the work done or continuing the work.”

“Eventually, they managed to stop me from working in the United States of America, yet… what happened over the years is that people that come to me from the pharmaceutical industry, vaccine manufacturers and from federal agencies, like the CDC, with extraordinary tales… of committing fraud. They would come to me and say, we can trust you. We’ve done a terrible thing and here’s the evidence. So I had these extraordinary stories, insider stories, whistleblower stories, and I decided that it was time to turn these into film.”

Wakefield started a show in collaboration with the Autism File Magazine which turned into a reality TV series until one particular case turned him into a full feature documentary filmmaker.

In his TV series, Wakefield was following various children who were “profoundly autistic, who had severe gastrointestinal problems and the point was to get them diagnosed and treated. Through healing the child, you could also see how they healed the family as well. One day we were called in to see one child in Chicago… at the time… he was in four point lock restraints, chained to the bed, and… [being] given up to 28 psychotropic medications. It was an absolute disaster… [we] went to help get him out of there… [driving] him through the night to New York, where he was investigated, his underlying bowel disease diagnosed and [he was placed] on the right treatment. Things were going well. But his mother was estranged from her husband and had nowhere… permanent to live with her son and his godmother in Chicago.”

Wakefield said that every time the child heard sirens, he would have a traumatic flashback which ended in a complete, physical meltdown. He would damage the motel room, they would be thrown out, and need to find another motel. The child ended up in the same psychiatric hospital, was placed on multiple drugs and chained to the bed, which still didn’t control his anger. There was another rescue attempt, yet his insurance expired halfway through the process. The hospital then “took off his restraints, took out his IV, and they put him on the street.

A week later, his mother stabbed him to death, and the mother and godmother tried to take their own lives. This was portrayed in the media as a crazy mother who hated her child and wanted him dead. Nothing could have been further from the truth. This was a mother who had gone above and beyond for this boy and was now in a state of utter despair.”

This boy was Alex Spourdalakis. “At that time, he was 17, probably 260 pounds, strong and aggressive,” Wakefield said, and the burden of the child was too much for the mother and godmother to handle. “We had all this footage, we shot the whole thing, and we realized that we had the ability to tell the truth. What really happened here, who was really responsible?”

Four years after the mother was placed in prison for murder, the Chicago prosecutor reached out to Wakefield and asked for a copy of the film. The mother was then released from prison; the first time in U.S. legal history that a film resulted in an overturned conviction. Wakefield said, “this was an extraordinary story… it [also made me realize] the power of film, how film, [when] handled properly, told truthfully, can change things dramatically. And so that’s when I shifted from this bit of reality show… into full length feature films.” Alex’s story became Wakefield’s first film, ‘Who Killed Alex Spourdilakis?’

Wakefield then decided to cover the CDC’s 2004 cover-up of the connection between the MMR vaccine and autism. A senior CDC scientist by the name of William Thompson “cracked under the strain of having perpetrated this fraud and [told Dr. Brian Hooker] ‘we’ve done a terrible thing. Here’s the evidence [that] my colleagues destroyed their documents to cover this up. I realized that was against the law and so I kept mine and here they are.’ So [my team and I] put together this extraordinary story of the CDC, deliberately, wantonly, and recklessly putting American children and by proxy, children around the world in harm’s way in the way of a permanent serious neurological disease in order to protect themselves and to protect the vaccine program.” This is how the film ‘Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe’, came to be.

The film was submitted to The Tribeca Film Festival in New York. It was accepted, yet pulled a few weeks before the festival started because of threats from funders. “This was the first time [that a feature] had been pulled from an independent film festival in this way… [For] about three days… I thought my film career was over… Then on the third day, Robert De Niro (one of The Tribeca Film Festival founders) went on… Good Morning America and said, ‘We should not have done that. We made a mistake, everybody should see this film. We did a bad thing.’  Suddenly it exploded worldwide…  if it had played at Tribeca, [maybe] 100 people would have seen it and big deal. This way, millions of people saw it.”

Wakefield also talked about his film, ‘1986: The Act’ which is about how an act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1986 “effectively gave liability protection to the pharmaceutical [industry], the vaccine manufacturers [from] death and injury caused by their vaccines that were on the CDC recommended schedule.”

Wakefield explained that “the act was meant to do three things: it was meant to make vaccines safer by furthering research; it was meant to compensate children who had been injured; and it was [meant] to offer manufacturers a degree of liability protection… The reason for that is… [they came] to the government and said something like, ‘Look, we’re getting sued. You want kids to have these vaccines, it’s not a big profit center for us. Unless you assume liability, take it away from us, we will stop making these vaccines, children will die and it’ll be down to you. How do you feel [about that]?’… so the government panicked… they were open to this kind of blackmail from the pharmaceutical industry.”

‘1986: The Act’ is special to Wakefield in that it took an incredibly complex piece of legislation and explained it in a manner most people could easily understand. The documentary features a husband and wife discussing the pros and cons of vaccinating their unborn child and the ramifications of the 1986 act.

Wakefield also briefly introduced his recent documentary film ‘Infertility: A Diabolical Agenda‘ that exposes how Kenyan women were given a ‘tetanus shot’ that was actually an anti-fertility vaccine.

Another movie is underway, which will keep him quite busy in the weeks to come. Before the podcast with Dr. Corson, Wakefield had just finished a pre-production meeting with Terry Rossio, screenwriter for Shrek, Aladdin, the Pirates of the Caribbean series, discussing their upcoming film.

Conclusion

Wakefield remarked that “My training… was to listen. The art [of medicine]… which is largely lost now to the quasi science of medicine… the ability of the doctor to listen, without bias, and to glean from the patient’s story the origin of their disorder… that is the art of medicine…Why is that so important? Because almost invariably, that will lead you to the cause of the problem. If you listen to a mother about what is wrong with her child, no one knows that child like the mother… if she tells you something in all sincerity, she wasn’t anti-vaccine, [she] took her child to be vaccinated on time, she is merely reporting this is what happened, that is where your starting point is in clinical medicine.”

This was Dr. Wakefield’s starting point in 1994 and is still his starting point for every issue he tackles, with great mastery, to this day.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs suggested that the United States may be responsible for destroying part of the Nord Stream pipelines last week, triggering a Bloomberg TV host to interject.

Sachs floated the idea that the Russian natural gas-carrying line was hit by the United States or one of its allies and not Russia. He argued that the United States would benefit from the destruction of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines because it would force Europe to not cave and return to using Russian natural gas amid the ongoing Ukraine war.

The Nord Stream 1 pipeline delivered billions of cubic feet of gas from Russia to Germany over the years. The Nord Stream 2, meanwhile, was not yet operational but had methane inside.

No nation-state or group has claimed ownership for the alleged sabotage attack. Both the United States and Russia have denied claims they were involved, and the source for the explosions last week is still not clear.

“A lot of the world is watching these events in horror,” Sachs told Bloomberg. “They view this as a horrible clash between Russia and the U.S. They don’t see this, as we do in the media, as an unprovoked attack by Russia on Ukraine.”

He added that “most of the world doesn‘t see it the way we describe it. Most of the world is just terrified right now, frankly.”

Going a step further, Sachs—the head of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University—asserted: “I would bet (the explosion) was a U.S. action, perhaps U.S. and Poland.” The Bloomberg host, Tom Keene, then quickly interjected and asked Sachs to provide details.

More Details

For his claims, Sachs did not provide any direct evidence. He pointed out that the United States government could benefit from the Nord Stream sabotage, questioned publicly available statements made by Biden and top administration officials, and suggested that radar data showed U.S. military presence in the area of the damaged section of the pipeline.

“Well, first, there is direct radar evidence that U.S. military helicopters that are normally based in Gdansk were circling over this area,” Sachs said. “We also had the threat from [President Joe Biden] earlier this year that ‘one way or another we are going to end Nord Stream.’”

“We also had a remarkable statement from Secretary of State Blinken last Friday in a press conference where he said ‘this is also a tremendous opportunity,’” Sachs added, referring to a comment Blinken made in Washington, D.C., that the pipeline outage is a “tremendous opportunity” for Europe to “remove dependence” on Russian natural gas.

Sachs, who was an economic adviser to Russia immediately after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, noted, “That’s a strange way to talk if you’re worried about piracy on international infrastructure of vital significance.”

The economist stated that his comments go “counter to our narrative” and “you‘re not allowed to say these things in the West.” However, he stressed that “all over the world when I talk to people, they think the U.S. did it.”

“Even reporters on our papers that are involved tell me ‘of course’ (the U.S. did it), but it doesn’t show up in our media,” Sachs said. He didn’t elaborate.

Pentagon Statement

A Pentagon official last week that “the jury is still out” on what actually happened to the pipelines that carry Russian natural gas to Germany.

When asked whether any U.S. involvement could be ruled out, the official said that “we were absolutely not involved.”

Officials in Germany and the European Union have suspected that the damage to two pipelines was an act of sabotage. The incident was reported Monday evening as the lines were seen spewing natural gas into the Baltic Sea.

An international investigation into the pipeline damage is now underway.

The Epoch Times has contacted the DOD for comment.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

WASHINGTON—An FBI agent testifying in the Oath Keepers trial said he witnessed U.S. senators crying on Jan. 6, 2021, after the U.S. Capitol was breached.

“I did,” special agent Michael Palian testified on the stand in federal court in Washington on Oct. 3 when questioned on the point by prosecutors.

Palian said he was working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic but was directed to respond to the Capitol at approximately 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 6 due to the breach.

After arriving at the Capitol, Palian was assigned to help protect a group of 80-plus senators, or at least 80 percent of the upper chamber.

Palian and other personnel stayed with the group until 7:30 p.m., when they escorted the group to the House chamber, where the electoral votes were being certified.

“It looked like a bomb had gone off,” Palian said, describing seeing broken windows and other damage while walking the group through the Capitol.

Due to the pepper spray that had been sprayed, if one removed their mask they would start coughing, according to Palian.

He was testifying during the trial of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and four others linked to the group. It is the first Jan. 6 trial dealing with seditious conspiracy charges. The stakes are high for the Justice Department, which last secured such a conviction at trial nearly 30 years ago, and intends to try two more groups on the charge later this year.

Opening Arguments

Rhodes and his group were prepared to go to war to stop Joe Biden from becoming president, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler told jurors in opening arguments. The group celebrated the Capital breach as a victory in that fight and continued their plot even after Biden’s electoral victory was certified, Nestler alleged.

“Their goal was to stop, by whatever means necessary, the lawful transfer of presidential power, including by taking up arms against the United States government,” the prosecutor said during his opening statement. “They concocted a plan for armed rebellion to shatter a bedrock of American democracy.”

Nestler did not mention how Rhodes and others were not armed when they were at or near the Capitol. Some of them never went inside the building.

Defense attorneys accused prosecutors of cherry-picking comments from messages and videos and said the government has no evidence there ever was any plan to attack the Capitol. Rhodes’ attorney said his client will take the stand and show that the Oath Keepers had merely been preparing for orders they expected from former President Donald Trump but never came.

“Stewart Rhodes meant no harm to the Capitol that day. Stewart Rhodes did not have any violent intent that day,” Rhodes’ attorney, Phillip Linder, said. “The story the government is trying to tell you today is completely wrong.”

On trial with Rhodes, of Granbury, Texas, are Kelly Meggs, leader of the Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers; Kenneth Harrelson, another Florida Oath Keeper; Thomas Caldwell, a retired U.S. Navy intelligence officer from Virginia, and Jessica Watkins, who led an Ohio militia group.

Seditious conspiracy carries a jail term of up to 20 years. The defendants face other charges as well.

Messages

As prosecutors questioned Palian, they showed messages recovered by investigators. In some, Oath Keepers vowed violence if Biden were to become president. In one, Rhodes said Trump must not concede the election.

“They just named Uncle Joe the 46th President,” one Oath Keepers member wrote after the election but before Jan. 6.

“Trump must not concede,” Rhodes replied.

Defense lawyers noted that no others agreed with the statement and others like it, which they said would be required to prove a conspiracy.

A prosecutor disagreed, saying, “when two people discuss plans, that means conspiracy.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Rapper Kanye West attended his Yeezy Season 9 collection presentation in Paris, France, on Monday wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “White Lives Matter.”

The artist, also known as “Ye,” was joined by conservative commentator and author Candace Owens at the event, who also wore a matching T-shirt as West unveiled his latest clothing collection. Other models at the event were also wearing different variations of the same design, according to a report by Complex.

pic.twitter.com/e8nlOFBg06

— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) October 3, 2022

Owens later took to Twitter to share images of the T-shirt, which featured the late Pope John Paul II on the front along with the words “White Lives Matter” in large writing on the back.

West’s T-shirts prompted a quick reaction on social media, including from rapper Jaden Smith, the son of actor Will Smith, who was in attendance at the event.

The younger Smith took to Twitter to explain that he had left the event after seeing the T-shirts, writing, “I Don’t Care Who’s It Is If I Don’t Feel The Message I’m Out,” before adding that “Black Lives Matter.”

Temple University professor and BET host Marc Lamont Hill called West’s decision to wear the T-shirt “disgusting, dangerous, and irresponsible,” before stating that those who rush to defend West should “ask yourselves why.”

‘We Don’t Need a Reminder of the Worth of White Lives’

Elsewhere, producer and media personality Van Lathan wrote on Instagram: “We don’t need a reminder of the worth of white lives. America is a shrine to the worth of white people. This message is reactionary to a message affirming the worth of Black lives, which have never been worth anything in America.”

“In its intent, it’s a white supremacist notion, because it posits that we can’t have a conversation about the worth of Black people without having a conversation about the worth of white people, which is [expletive] insane,” Lathan wrote. “The notion that it ALWAYS has to be about white people in America is incredibly frustrating, emotionally draining, and the whole problem. But here’s Kanye, apparently centering that notion.”

The phrase “white lives matter” originated in 2015 as a response to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, which protested the deaths of black men at the hands of police. In 2020, BLM protests often turned violent with mobs vandalizing property and police vehicles.

The Anti-Defamation League states that it is a “white supremacist phrase” that has been used by groups including the Ku Klux Klan.

West is no stranger to attracting criticism, having previously prompted a backlash among the black community in 2018 when he stated that “slavery was a choice,” although he later apologized for the comment.

In 2020, West donated $2 million to the families of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, with part of the money going toward the education of Floyd’s daughter.

West has also been a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump and told WSJ Magazine in a 2020 interview that he had been heavily criticized for publicizing his support for him.

“I’m a black guy with a red [MAGA] hat, can you imagine? … It reminded me of how I felt as a black guy before I was famous when I would walk in a restaurant and people would look at you like you were going to steal something,” he said. “‘This is your place, Ye, don’t talk about apparel. This is your place, Ye, you’re black, so you’re a Democrat.’”

West himself ran a failed White House bid himself in 2020. The artist, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2016, hinted on Sept. 21 in an interview with “Good Morning America” that he may try to run again in the future.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

The Supreme Court turned down an appeal by conservative commentator Candace Owens over Facebook’s so-called fact checks that described her posts about COVID-19 as “false” and a “hoax.”

The court provided no reasons for its Oct. 3 decision denying the petition in Owens v. Lead Stories LLC (court file 21-1474). Gannett Satellite Information Network, which does business as USA Today, was also a respondent in the case. Facebook, owned by Meta Platforms, wasn’t a party in the case.

The Supreme Court of Delaware ruled against Owens in February after a state judge dismissed her lawsuit in July 2021.

Superior Court Judge Craig Karsnitz, an appointee of Democrat Gov. John Carney, wrote in a 55-page ruling that he discovered no facts in Owens’s complaint that supported her claim that the media outlets that published articles on several of her social media posts defamed her, as The Epoch Times reported.

Owens, an author who is former communications director for Turning Point USA, now hosts a talk show promoted by The Daily Wire and is credited with helping to found the Blexit movement, which encourages black Americans to embrace conservatism and self-reliance and to leave the Democratic Party.

Her company generates content used on social media, primarily on Facebook.

Lead Stories, a fact-checking organization, and USA Today are her business competitors. But they have an unfair advantage because they can remove a competitor from the marketplace, she argued in her petition filed with the Supreme Court on May 20.

As part of their fact-checking activities, Lead Stories and USA Today “can direct Facebook to obscure, ‘de-monetize,’ or cancel entirely the pages of their competitors.”

Their contracts with Facebook oblige the social media platform to remove or obscure posts they deem factually inaccurate and “to super-impose over the posts prominent links that redirect visitors to the web sites” of Lead Stories or USA Today.

The respondents even have the power to “direct Facebook to suspend competing accounts or cancel them altogether.”

“These contractual arrangements remove the Respondents from the protected sphere of political commentary and makes them into highly empowered business competitors. Their political commentary is protected; their acts of competitive predation are not,” the petition continued.

Starting in March 2020, Owens wrote Facebook posts addressing how governmental authorities counted deaths from COVID-19. Citing medical authorities and peer-reviewed publications, Owens argued that the government was overestimating COVID-19 deaths.

But instead of criticism, her posts drew suppression when Lead Stories and USA Today published fact checks on Owens’s claims knowing doing so would limit the reach of her posts. Lead Stories imposed a “Hoax Alert” on her posts and both organizations labeled them “false.”

This led to the termination of Owens’s advertising contract with Facebook and hurt her income, the petition states.

Alan Duke, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Lead Stories, was pleased the Supreme Court refused the case.

“Disinformation during a global pandemic can be deadly. Lead Stories stands by our fact-checking work, believing that we helped save lives by helping social media users sort the factual from the false about COVID-19.

“This lawsuit did not deter us from that mission. We were confident that we had the facts and law on our side, and the relevant courts agreed,” Duke told The Epoch Times by email.

Lead Stories received an award from the Society of Professional Journalists in 2020 for COVID-19 fact-checking, he added.

The Epoch Times also reached out to Owens’s attorney, Todd McMurtry of Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, but he declined to comment.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this article.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Tony Bobulinski, the former Hunter Biden associate who came forward in 2020 about messages on the younger Biden’s laptop, said the FBI never followed up with him despite promising to.

During an interview with Fox News’s Tucker Carlson on Monday, Bobulinski asserted that former FBI agent Timothy Thibault—who was accused by GOP senators of having an animus against Trump and slow-walking the Hunter Biden investigation—never got back to him when Bobulinski came forward with the information ahead of the 2020 election.

“Tim Thibault, in his last discussion with my legal counsel, said, ‘Listen, we know Tony’s cooperating. We appreciate all the information he’s provided. We will follow up with you. We are definitely going to have him come in for a follow-up interview, or spend some more time on this,’” Bobulinski told Carlson. “And I haven’t heard from him since. Nor have my lawyers.”

Bobulinski in the interview again asserted that President Joe Biden was highly involved in his son’s overseas business operations. The president has denied that he had knowledge of Hunter Biden’s finances or deals.

“There are hundreds of data points that Joe Biden was acting in—in a capitalistic term, I would say the chairman,” Bobulinski told Carlson.

In October 2020, Bobulinski came forward to the media and revealed Joe Biden’s involvement in his son’s business, including with a Chinese energy company CEFC.

In one email sourced from the infamous laptop, the elder Biden was named as the “big guy” by Hunter Biden because of the 10 percent cut he allegedly received from CEFC. Bobulinski corroborated the authenticity of those emails and messages.

Bobulinski accused the Biden family of being “compromised” by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials due to their business deals with individuals and companies connected to the CCP, adding that it’s impossible Joe Biden “can’t be influenced in some manner based on the history that they have with CEFC.”

In an ABC News interview in 2019, Hunter Biden acknowledged that some of his overseas deals were “poor judgment on my part.” But he stressed that he “did nothing wrong at all.”

“I gave a hook to some very unethical people to act in illegal ways to try to do some harm to my father. That’s where I made the mistake,” Hunter Biden said.

“So I take full responsibility for that. Did I do anything improper? No, not in any way. Not in any way whatsoever.”

‘Chairman’

“The chairman of JPMorgan doesn’t take eight meetings down with the people, you know, analyzing companies. The chairman serves a purpose, right? He’s a figurehead,” Bobulinski told Carlson. “He shows up in meetings, shakes hands, advises, you know, has faith in his team. Effectively, that was Joe Biden’s role in the Biden family business ventures and around the world. And not just my venture.”

Bobulinski noted that President Biden “was adamant to the American people that he had no knowledge of his family’s business deals” but asked: “How, if he had zero knowledge of that, could he be telling his son that he’s in the clear” regarding an article from the New York Times on Hunter Biden’s work with a Chinese company.

He was referring to a voicemail that Biden left his son regarding the NY Times report in 2018, telling him: “I think you’re clear.” That story delved into Hunter Biden’s deals with a Chinese oil tycoon, Ye Jianming.

Retirement

In August, Thibault left the FBI following several letters sent to FBI leaders by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). The lawmakers have publicly accused Thibault of meddling in the Hunter Biden investigation and said that whistleblowers came forward with those claims.

“In October 2020, an avenue of additional derogatory Hunter Biden reporting was ordered closed at the direction of … Thibault,” Grassley wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland in July.

In a statement to The Epoch Times in late August, Thibault’s lawyers denied that he was involved in blocking the investigation into Hunter Biden and said he retired from the FBI on his own terms.

Thibault turned in his security badge and “walked with two long-time special agent friends through the field office to finish processing his paperwork,” Thibault’s lawyers said. “He walked out of the building by himself. Claims to the contrary are false.”

Thibault did not supervise the investigation into Hunter Biden, the former official’s lawyers say, and Thibault “was not involved in any decisions related to any laptop that may be at issue in that investigation, and he did not seek to close the investigation.” Thibault was also not involved in the search warrant that agents executed at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort this month, according to the lawyers.

The Epoch Times has contacted a Thibault spokesperson and the FBI for comment.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

‘Abortion isn’t as easy as just taking a pill,’ says the mom

A UK woman who wasn’t sure about continuing her pregnancy got abortion pills mailed to her home after just one quick telephone consultation. And after taking the first of two pills, she felt instant regret. However, she was lucky enough to be able to reverse the abortion drug’s effect and save her baby’s life.

Amrita Kaur, 27, from the town of Leamington Spa in Warwickshire, England, told The Epoch Times that a moment of extreme panic pushed her to try aborting her baby daughter, but seconds later, she was “overwhelmed with regret” and began searching for ways to undo the harm. This led Kaur to the abortion pill reversal treatment that saved her baby in real-time.

Though Kaur lost a lot of her friends when she decided to keep her baby, the mom is thankful to have her precious “little cheerleader” in her life.

“I believe it is so important for women to have access to this [treatment],” Kaur said. “This has definitely lit a fire in me to share awareness of pregnancy, the [abortion] reversal pill … and how abortion isn’t as easy as just taking a pill.”

Starting the Abortion

When a test in 2020 confirmed Kaur was pregnant, she felt like her world was falling apart.

“All my life plans and goals started going through my mind,” she said. “My eyes instantly filled up, and I cried for 20 minutes going through the things that I would never be able to do again if we kept the baby.”

Kaur and the baby’s father talked over all their possible options, seeking the advice of trusted family, who encouraged them to make their own decision. “The weight of this decision was so, so heavy for us,” Kaur said. “We both cared about each other and didn’t want to feel like each other was forced to do anything, but we also didn’t want to tiptoe around our beliefs.”

The couple called the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) and booked a consultation to talk through their moral concerns, waiting a week to speak to someone. But the call with their counselor was unexpectedly brief.

“We had a list of questions ready, and the lady on the phone did not answer one,” Kaur recalled. “As soon as she heard the dad’s voice, she asked him to leave and simply said that it’s either I want the tablets or not. Out of fear of it becoming too late to get an abortion, I said yes. Within a couple of days, the abortion pills were at my door.”

Terrified, Kaur held onto the pills for days. She read articles about other women’s experiences of infertility after taking abortion pills, and their experiences of loneliness and long-term regret. Kaur’s friends suggested she take the pills, because the baby would stop them “having fun.” Coupled with her fear of financial instability and not having a job, Kaur panicked and took the first of two pills to abort her baby.

“Within seconds, I was overwhelmed with regret,” she said.

The Abortion Reversal

Kaur immediately began researching reversal options and discovered a progesterone treatment available in America; she thought there was “no chance” of getting it in the UK. She called BPAS in a panic. But all they told her was that her feelings were normal, and that if she didn’t have any bleeding, she “should be fine” and need not take the second pill.

“I didn’t feel they took my urgent situation seriously,” Kaur said.

That’s when she found Dr. Dermot Kearney, a consultant cardiologist and past president of the UK’s Catholic Medical Association. Kearney is a pro-life doctor who advocates an abortion pill reversal treatment to counteract mifepristone—the first of two drugs typically taken to terminate a pregnancy that is less than 10 weeks along. The progesterone treatment works only if the mother takes it before the second abortion pill, misoprostol, and can improve the survival rate of unborn babies.

According to Abortion Pill Rescue Network, though the key is to start the treatment within the first 24 hours of taking mifepristone, there have been “many successful reversals” within 72 hours of taking the first abortion pill. The website states that some initial studies have shown the treatment has the success rate of 64 to 68 percent. The treatment is not yet FDA approved.

Kaur called and spoke to Kearney’s assistant. Within an hour, Kearney had returned her call and sent progesterone pills to her closest pharmacy. He also referred the expectant mom to a support service for the remainder of her pregnancy.

“Dr. Dermot was very caring and understood my worry and pain,” she said. “The following morning, I started to lightly bleed and took the pill.”

Being a Mom

Kaur battled shame for taking the abortion pill, and feared that she had harmed her baby. But after taking progesterone for a week, she felt “more pregnant,” and her 8-week checkup confirmed that her baby was developing well.

“It was an amazing feeling, carrying a child, and providing for this little being inside me,” she said.

Baby Ahri-Storm Kaur Garrett was born at Warwickshire Hospital on Nov. 2, 2021. Kaur’s mothering instinct, and awe for all women who bear children, kicked in immediately.

“I am incredibly grateful that I was lucky enough to find Dr. Dermot and reverse my decision, as I could not imagine my life without my little girl now,” Kaur said. “My view on pro-life is that fetuses are living, no matter how far along someone is … I think there needs to be a lot more information out there about pregnancy, the side-effects of the abortion pill, and the reality of having a child; not just the negative view.

“Having a baby does not change your life for the negative.”

Advocating for Others

Months after Kearney helped Kaur save her baby, and 31 other babies, the doctor was suspended for promoting the abortion reversal pill. In March, the General Medical Council lifted his suspension and decided to conclude the case “with no further action,” determining that complaints against him were “hearsay” from an abortion provider, and that none had originated from the women he treated, according to Life News.

Kaur met Kearney in person for the first time when her daughter was 2 months old. She has since helped his mission by writing a statement about her positive experience with abortion reversal and joining him for interviews to spread awareness.

“My advice is to not hold onto guilt … once you have a baby, it will always work out, as you have this protective fire to provide for your child,” she said. “The reality is that you are still your own woman, not just a mom, and have the ability to do anything you want to do. You just have a little cheerleader with you at all times!”

Kaur is in the process of returning to university to finish her degree. She holds that the power her daughter gives her to strive for a good life is “so much stronger than any doubts.”

Arshdeep Sarao contributed to this report.

Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Inspired newsletter at TheEpochTimes.com/newsletter

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Bill Gates has said that it is impractical to insist on reducing meat consumption in order to combat climate change.

“Anyone who says that we will tell people to stop eating meat, or stop wanting to have a nice house, and we’ll just basically change human desires, I think that that’s too difficult,” Gates said in an interview with Bloomberg. The billionaire went on to point out that such things do not necessarily have to play a key role in fighting climate change.

Rich nations only make up a third of global emissions, with the remaining two-thirds coming from “pretty basic” things like shelter, calories, transport, and the use of goods, Gates said.

Even if the “excesses” of rich nations are curbed out of existence, it still won’t be a solution to the climate change issue, he insisted.

“I’m looking at what the world has to do to get to zero, not using climate as a moral crusade,” he said.

Though Gates took a stance against climate activists’ push to stop people from eating meat, he said he supports societies switching to synthetic meat.

In an interview with MIT Technology Review last February, Gates said that he believes all rich countries should move to 100 percent synthetic beef. Though there might be a difference in taste between real and synthetic meat, Gates claimed that companies will make it taste better over time.

“Eventually, that green premium is modest enough that you can sort of change the [behavior of] people or use regulation to totally shift the demand,” he said.

However, Gates added that the poorest 80 nations will likely not be eating synthetic meat. For Africa and other poor nations, the billionaire expects animal genetics to “dramatically” increase the amount of beef per emissions.

Meat Benefits

Eating meat is beneficial to the human body. One study conducted by researchers from the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI), Australia, found that selenium, a mineral found in meat and some other foods, has the potential to reverse the decline in brain function from old age or poor health.

Another study conducted by researchers from the University of Adelaide looked into the health effects of total meat consumption in more than 170 nations. They found that consumption of energy from meat does result in greater life expectancy.

Some studies have linked meat-free diets with improved health. However, nutritionist Yanfei Ge thinks that such research might be biased, according to a Feb. 22 press release.

“Studies looking into the diets of wealthy, highly educated communities, are looking at people who have the purchasing power and the knowledge to select plant-based diets that access the full nutrients normally contained in meat,” Ge said. “Essentially, they have replaced meat with all the same nutrition meat provides.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Hundreds of thousands of Americans sought medical care after getting a COVID-19 vaccine, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data released on Oct. 3.

Roughly 782,900 people reported seeking medical attention, emergency room care, and/or hospitalization following COVID-19 vaccination. Another 2.5 million people reported needing to miss school, work, or other normal activities as a result of a health event after getting a COVID-19 vaccine.

The reports were made to the CDC’s V-safe program, a new vaccine safety monitoring system to which users can report issues through smartphones.

The CDC released the data to the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) after being sued over not producing the data when it was requested by the nonprofit. ICAN posted a dashboard summarizing the data.

“It took numerous legal demands, appeals, and two lawsuits, and over a year, but the CDC finally capitulated and agreed to a court order requiring them to do what they should have done from day one, release the V-safe data to the public,” Aaron Siri, a lawyer representing ICAN in the case, told The Epoch Times in an email.

About 10 million people utilized V-safe during the period of time the data covers: Dec. 14, 2020, to July 31, 2022. About 231 million Americans received at least one vaccine dose during that time.

The V-safe users reported about 71 million symptoms.

The most commonly reported symptoms were chills (3.5 million), swelling (3.6 million), joint pain (4 million), muscle or body aches (7.8 million), headache (9.7 million), fatigue (12.7 million), and general pain (19.5 million).

About 4.2 million of the symptoms were of severe severity.

Users of V-safe filled in data for about 13,000 children younger than 2 years old, reporting more than 33,000 symptoms, including pain, loss of appetite, and irritability.

The data produced so far by the CDC don’t include free-text responses, according to ICAN. The data covered fields where users checked boxes.

ICAN, founded by film producer Del Bigtree, stated that the newly released data “reveals shocking information that should have caused the CDC to immediately shut down its COVID-19 vaccine program,” citing the percentage of people who reported needing to get care or missing school, work, or other normal activities, as well as the reported adverse events.

Read More

Cardiologist: Spike Proteins Generated by COVID-19 Vaccines Are ‘Toxic’ to Heart

CDC officials didn’t respond by press time to a request for comment.

CDC researchers had presented summaries of the V-safe data during meetings with the agency’s vaccine advisory panel but hadn’t released the data for outside researchers to analyze. CDC researchers have said that V-safe raised no new safety concerns.

ICAN is going to keep pressing to obtain more of the V-safe data.

U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman, an Obama appointee overseeing the litigation, ordered the parties to meet and confer regarding what other data the group will seek following the CDC production of the data.

Pitman said the parties will then file a joint status report “that proposes any additional deadlines that the parties determine are necessary for the resolution of this matter.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Newly obtained emails show the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) made a false statement on COVID-19 vaccine safety monitoring in 2021, months before agency officials gave false statements on the matter to The Epoch Times.

The emails also show top officials in the agency discussing performing safety monitoring on a key database for myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation that has been linked to the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.

The CDC promised in 2021 in a set of operating procedures to perform a type of analysis called Proportional Reporting Ratio (PRR) on reports of adverse reactions following COVID-19 vaccination. The reports are submitted to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), which officials have described as “the nation’s early warning system” for post-vaccination adverse events. The CDC also said in an updated set of operating procedures in 2022 that it would perform the analysis.

But the CDC has made false statements three times this year on PRRs, initially saying such analysis was outside the agency’s purview, then saying the analysis was performed starting in 2021, then saying the analysis did not begin until 2022. The newly obtained emails show that an official falsely said the CDC does not perform PRR analysis to an editor in 2021.

John Gregory, a health editor at NewsGuard, wrote to the CDC on Oct. 19, 2021, asking for a comment regarding a claim that the CDC’s PRR analysis cannot accurately identify when a vaccine causes adverse events, one of the emails shows. Martha Sharan, a CDC spokeswoman, sent the query to Dr. John Su, who leads the CDC’s VAERS team, and Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, who also works on vaccine safety.

Their responses were redacted apart from a comment on NewsGuard. Sharan then wrote that she’d spoken to Gregory.

“I spoke to the reporter and explained that CDC does not do PPR analysis. The reporter is not going to pursue this any further!” she wrote, adding later that she meant PRR.

That contradicts the operating procedures, which state that the CDC “will perform Proportional Reporting Ratio (PRR) analysis” on VAERS reports.

“We let our published content speak for itself,” Gregory told The Epoch Times in an email when notified that the CDC does actually perform PRRs.

‘That’s a New One to Me’

In June 2022, the CDC falsely told Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit, that PRR analysis is “outside of th[e] agency’s purview.” An Associated Press reporter, Angelo Fichera, flagged a Children’s Health Defense article on the statement to the CDC, asking whether the CDC had ever performed the analysis, according to the newly obtained emails.

Kristen Nordlund, another CDC spokeswoman, forwarded the query to Sharan. “Martha—thoughts on this one?” she asked.

“That’s a new one on me—proportional reporting ratios’—I need to send this one to John,” Sharan responded.

Sharan later sent a statement about PRRs to The Associated Press and the Washington Examiner.

The Associated Press and NewsGuard never published stories on the topic. After The Epoch Times reported on contradictory statements from the CDC, the Examiner published an article about the developments.

Fichera, Sharan, and Su did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

The emails were obtained by The Epoch Times and an independent researcher through FOIA requests.

“The CDC claims to be vigilantly and transparently monitoring the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, but when it comes to Proportional Reporting Ratio (PRR) analysis, the CDC’s broken promises, inconsistent statements, stonewalling, and double standards tell a different story,” Mary Holland, president and general counsel of Children’s Health Defense, told The Epoch Times via email.

“When asked about PRR analysis in connection with COVID vaccines—through FOIA, media, and congressional requests—CDC has made conflicting statements, some of them false. When confronted about the statements, the CDC claimed, essentially, that PRR analysis is not worth doing.  And for the few months of PRR the CDC now says it has completed, the CDC has failed to make the results public, despite requests from multiple sources.”

“Children’s Health Defense calls on the CDC to do the right thing: do the analysis, and make the results available,” she added.

Timeline of CDC emails and statements. Some are being reported for the first time in this story, which continues below.

• “I spoke to the reporter and explained that CDC does not do PPR analysis. The reporter is not going to pursue this any further!” – Martha Sharan to CDC colleagues, Oct. 19, 2021. (source: FOIA response to independent researcher)
• “Correction – that should say PRR.” – Martha Sharan to CDC colleagues, Oct. 19, 2021. (FOIA response to independent researcher)
• “[P]rogram staff within the Immunization and Safety Office inform me that no PRRs were conducted by CDC. Furthermore, data mining is outside of th[e] agency’s purview.” – Roger Andoh, June 16, 2022. (letter to Children’s Health Defense)
• “That’s a new one on me – proportional reporting ratios’ – I need to send this one to John.” – Martha Sharan to CDC colleagues, June 22, 2022 (FOIA response to The Epoch Times)
• “[P]rogram staff within the Immunization and Safety Office inform me that no PRRs were conducted by CDC. Furthermore, data mining is outside of the agency’s purview.” – Bruno Viana to Roger Andoh, June 30, 2022 (FOIA response to The Epoch Times)
• “CDC has been performing PRRs since Feb 2021, and continues to do so to date.” – Dr. John Su, July 18, 2022 (statement to The Epoch Times)
• “CDC has revisited several FOIA requests and as a result of its review CDC is issuing corrections. … In reference to Proportional Reporting Ratios (PRRs) – CDC performed PRRs from March 25, 2022 through July 31, 2022.” – Martha Sharan, Aug. 8, 2022. (statement to The Epoch Times)
• “CDC performed PRR analysis between March 25, 2022, through July 31, 2022. CDC also recently addressed a previous statement made to the Epoch Times to clarify PRR were not run between February 26, 2021, to September 30, 2021.” – Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Sept. 12, 2022 (letter to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.))

Other Emails

Several other messages add to the timeline of the CDC’s internal and external statements regarding PRR.

Two weeks after Andoh falsely told Children’s Health Defense that data mining is outside of the CDC’s purview, Bruno Viana, a CDC records employee, sent emails to Andoh about the response.

Viana quoted word-for-word portions of the letter that Andoh sent to the group.

The context of the emails is unclear.

An email to Viana requesting more information returned an away message. The CDC records office declined to comment, saying a new FOIA request would be necessary to obtain the information.

Another set of internal emails showed Su and Shimabukuro involved in responding to The Associated Press and the Washington Examiner.

“With the above background, I might suggest the following response,” Su said in one heavily redacted email.

“John’s edits look fine to me. Thanks,” Shimabukuro later wrote.

And other emails featured Su and Sharan talking to and about The Epoch Times’ queries, including a followup query noting that an initial response did not make clear whether the CDC had, in fact, performed PRRs.

Su was attributed with the false statement that the CDC had started PRRs in February 2021. One of the missives indicates the statement did come from him. That portion of the email is redacted, but the length of the text aligns with the actual response.

Analysis on Myocarditis

Clinical trials for the vaccines turned up no evidence of myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation, or a related condition called pericarditis. But real-world evidence of the conditions began emerging in early 2021.

After the Department of Defense in the spring of 2021 said it identified myocarditis as a possible side effect of the vaccines, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC’s director, claimed that the CDC saw no signal for myocarditis after looking at its vaccine safety data.

“After hearing about these reports, we, again, looked back in our vaccine safety data, and we have not seen any reports of those. Those have since been reported to us, and so those investigations are ongoing,” she said during a press briefing, adding later, “We have not seen a signal, and we’ve actually looked intentionally for the signal in the over 200 million doses we’ve given.”

The CDC has declined to make public the results of that review. It’s not clear what systems the CDC reviewed.

“At the time of the director’s press conference, CDC did not have sufficient evidence to conclude there was a safety signal for myocarditis following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination. Continued surveillance subsequently detected a safety signal, and further assessment verified that signal,” Sharan told The Epoch Times in a recent email. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are both built on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.

An exchange just two weeks later included in the newly released emails showed that CDC officials discussed myocarditis monitoring.

Shimabukuro wrote on May 13, 2021, to Su and Paige Marquez, another CDC official, with the subject line “PRR for myocarditis.” That email was entirely redacted.

“Are you saying…” Marquez responded. The rest of her email was redacted.

Shimabukuro’s next email was completely redacted, as was an email from Su apart from his signature.

“No Janssen,” Shimabukuro wrote next.

“Okay, thanks for clarifying!” Su wrote.

The exchange ended there.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) researchers are preparing to publish a study on a set of data that identified four potential issues in elderly persons after COVID-19 vaccination.

The FDA announced in July 2021 that near real-time surveillance detected four potential adverse events of interest (AEI) following receipt of Pfizer’s vaccine.

The agency has given zero updates on the matter since then, until Sept. 30, when a spokesperson said that a study on the surveillance is expected to be published soon.

“The medical record review and statistical analyses have recently been completed, and the overall study results are currently under internal review at FDA,” the spokesperson told The Epoch Times via email. “Release of the study findings is expected later this fall.”

The spokesperson did not respond to a request for more details.

Pfizer did not respond to a request for comment.

In 2021, the FDA said the four potential adverse events of interest were detected by analyzing the health care claims database for Medicare, the government insurance plan that covers people aged 65 and older.

The events were blood clotting in the lungs, insufficient oxygen to the heart, low blood platelet levels, and disseminated intravascular coagulation.

“These four events may not be true safety concerns, and the screening method cannot establish that the vaccine caused these AEI. FDA is sharing the initial findings of this safety study in the spirit of transparency but does not believe there is a cause for concern. There are alternative explanations for the findings, including the fact that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was given to many high-risk individuals who were older and had significant co-morbidities,” the FDA said at the time.

“FDA continues to closely monitor the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines and will further investigate these findings by conducting more rigorous epidemiological studies. FDA will share further updates and information with the public as they become available,” it also said.

The adverse events were not identified for recipients of the other two vaccines available at the time, nor were they identified in two other surveillance systems.

FDA Has Warned of Adverse Events

Adverse events are negative health issues that aren’t necessarily linked to a vaccine. The vaccinated groups in the clinical trials for the vaccines had higher numbers of certain adverse events, including Bell’s palsy in Pfizer’s trial, but the FDA said the trials did not reveal safety concerns, citing the background rate of Bell’s palsy in the general population and other factors. Researchers have since identified a higher rate of serious adverse events in the vaccinated arms than the unvaccinated arms.

The FDA did say that post-trial administration of the vaccines in large numbers of people “may reveal additional, potentially less frequent and/or more serious adverse events not detected in the” trials, and in the months following authorization, the FDA added warnings for adverse events to all of the available vaccines.

People set to receive the Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and Novavax vaccines are told in FDA fact sheets that they could experience a severe allergic reaction. Myocarditis and pericarditis, two forms of heart inflammation, are possible after receipt of the Pfizer, Moderna, and Novavax. Evidence accumulated after the trials shows a causal link between heart inflammation and the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, U.S. health officials have said.

Other side effects that have been reported after receipt of one or more of the vaccines include swollen lymph nodes, skin tingling, blood clots, and diarrhea.

The FDA and other health agencies maintain that the benefits of the vaccines outweigh the risks, a position challenged by some health experts.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

The Supreme Court reversed a federal appeals court decision on Oct. 3 that upheld one of Massachusetts’ tough gun laws, months after the high court expanded Second Amendment rights.

The Massachusetts law in question, the constitutionality of which is now in doubt, imposed a lifetime ban on purchasing handguns—but not possessing them—on anyone convicted of a nonviolent misdemeanor that involved the possession or use of guns.

The high court remanded the case, Morin v. Lyver (court file 21-1160), to the U.S Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit “for further consideration in light of” the Supreme Court’s landmark June 23 decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen.

Massachusetts was previously added to Morin v. Lyver as an intervenor to defend the constitutionality of the state law.

The order was unsigned and no justices indicated they were dissenting from it. The justices didn’t explain why they granted the order.

In Bruen, a 6–3 ruling, the high court recognized a constitutional right to bear firearms in public for self-defense and struck down New York’s law that required an applicant to demonstrate “proper cause” to obtain a license to carry a concealed handgun in public.

The court also found that gun restrictions must be deeply rooted in American history if they are to survive constitutional scrutiny.

Massachusetts requires individuals to obtain licenses in order to possess or purchase handguns, and it disqualifies people with certain criminal convictions from obtaining licenses.

State law also provides that an individual convicted of a nonviolent misdemeanor that concerned the possession or use of a gun can obtain a license that allows him to possess a handgun at home, but only after five years have passed.

The same person can never obtain authorization to purchase a handgun—meaning that the only way he can obtain one is if someone leaves it to him at death, according to court documents.

Petitioner Alfred Morin’s legal troubles began in October 2004 when he traveled from his home state of Massachusetts to Washington with a handgun.

At the time, he possessed a valid Massachusetts License to Carry Firearms but was unaware that District of Columbia laws prohibited him from carrying his gun, despite having the Massachusetts license.

At the American Museum of Modern History, he saw a sign prohibiting firearms and approached a guard to inquire about checking his gun.

Police arrested Morin and charged him with carrying a pistol without a license, possession of an unregistered firearm, and unlawful possession of ammunition.

On Nov. 8, 2004, Morin pleaded guilty to attempting to carry a pistol without a license and possession of an unregistered firearm, both misdemeanors.

The Superior Court of the District of Columbia sentenced Morin to 60 days imprisonment on each count, three months of supervised probation, and 20 hours of community service. The court suspended the imprisonment portion of the sentence.

Morin later applied to police in his home state for a Firearms Identification Card and a permit to buy a firearm in February 2018. Respondent William Lyver, chief of the Northborough, Massachusetts, police department, denied Morin’s application for a permit to purchase on April 4, 2018.

The Supreme Court summarily disposed of the pending case, simultaneously granting the petitioner’s request seeking review while skipping over the oral argument phase at which the merits of the case would have been considered. Some lawyers call this process GVR, which stands for grant, vacate, and remand.

The order came after the Supreme Court issued a series of rulings on June 30 reversing federal appeals court decisions that upheld gun restrictions in California, Hawaii, Maryland, and New Jersey, as The Epoch Times reported.

The Epoch Times reached out for comment to Morin’s attorney, David Jensen, of Beacon, New York, but didn’t receive a reply as of press time.

Chloe Gotsis from the office of Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey told The Epoch Times by email, “We are declining to comment on the record as this is ongoing litigation.”

Healey, a Democrat, is running for governor in her state.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Millions of federal dollars have continued flowing into EcoHealth Alliance, the New York-based nonprofit under heavy scrutiny for its role in funneling public money to a key laboratory in China for bat coronavirus research that many believe may have caused the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Sept. 21, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued three grants to EcoHealth to fund its Asia-based research into viruses that have the potential to infect humans and spark an outbreak, government records show. At a total of $2.76 million, the funding marks an increase of nearly $700,000 from the amount awarded in 2021, and is the largest sum the organization has received from the NIH in a single year.

The grants—two of which have received NIH funding for three consecutive years—came amid mounting congressional scrutiny over EcoHealth’s years-long partnership with the Wuhan lab that has been at the center of a lab-leak theory on the origins of COVID-19.

Two of the grant projects are headed by the organization’s president, Peter Daszak, who has repeatedly dismissed the lab-leak hypothesis, labeling it a conspiracy theory.

That EcoHealth has funded risky research by the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) means that U.S. authorities should cease funding the organization altogether, some critics argue.

“Giving taxpayer money to EcoHealth to study pandemic prevention is like paying a suspected arsonist to conduct fire safety inspections. You would think we would have learned a lesson the first time, but here we are again with the same plot but a bigger budget!” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) told The Epoch Times in an email.

Controversial Grant to Wuhan Lab

The NIH in July 2020 suspended a multi-year grant worth $3.7 million to EcoHealth to study bat coronaviruses in China in collaboration with WIV, over concerns the grantees weren’t complying with the grant terms. Experts previously told The Epoch Times that the experiments conducted in the grant met the definition of gain-of-function—research that increases the transmissibility or pathogenicity of a virus.

The NIH has denied that characterization.

During a review of the concerns, the NIH found that EcoHealth had failed to report a WIV experiment that made the bat coronavirus more dangerous. The agency in November 2021 and again in January asked EcoHealth for copies of laboratory notebook entries and original electronic files from the research conducted at the Wuhan facility, but without success, causing the NIH to eventually terminate the WIV sub-award on Aug. 19, the NIH told the Committee on Oversight and Reform in a letter of the same date (pdf).

Despite the termination, the NIH allowed EcoHealth to retain the grant by proposing, within 30 days, an alternative plan to accomplish the goals of the original project without the WIV’s involvement, the agency said in another letter (pdf) on Aug. 19.

The revised grant, according to the first letter, will be screened to ensure it’s in line with a 2017 framework (pdf) governing the review of proposed gain-of-function research. If the revised grant were approved, it would also be subject to additional oversight by the NIH, including onsite inspections of sub-recipient labs every six months to review their compliance.

Benefits of New Grant Questioned

The NIH didn’t return repeated queries from The Epoch Times to clarify the terms of the September grants, but the new grant, with the project number 1R01AI163118-01A1, appears to be the revised grant that excludes the participation of WIV.

Titled “Analyzing the Potential for Future Bat Coronavirus Emergence in Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam,” the five-year project led by Daszak will focus on three southeastern Asian countries neighboring China, with a goal to “analyze the behavioral and environmental risk factors for spillover of novel CoVs [coronaviruses], identify wildlife-to-human spillover events, assess the risk and drivers of community transmission and spread, and test potential public health interventions to disrupt spillover and spread,” according to a project summary published on the NIH website.

The 2022 funding of $653,392 from NIH is also comparable to the terminated grant, which received roughly $3.75 million in total from 2014 to 2019.

Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University who’s raised concerns about the government’s approach to sponsoring risky research, reviewed the project summary and concluded that the research didn’t involve gain-of-function experiments. But he noted that a risk-benefit analysis of the project that seeks to discover new bat viruses looks “highly unfavorable.”

“With respect to benefits, the research has no—zero—civilian applications,” Ebright told The Epoch Times in an email, adding that the “only practical applications of the research are biodefense applications (i.e., discovery and threat assessment of new bioweapons agents).”

On the other hand, “by collecting novel potential pandemic pathogens in remote locations and transporting them to laboratories in human population centers, the research poses high risks of triggering new pandemics,” he said.

“In conjunction with EcoHealth’s documented track record of inadequate biosafety precautions and reckless procedures during field collection and laboratory research, the risks should be deemed not only as high but as extremely high,” he said.

Related Coverage

Footage of Bats Kept in Wuhan Lab Fuels Scrutiny Over Its Research

Footage from the Wuhan facility shows a history of disregard for safety standards. Its 2017 promotional video features images of a researcher feeding live bats while wearing only surgical gloves, and some WIV staff collecting bat samples in the field while wearing only regular surgical masks. A researcher from the lab also told Chinese media that he had been bitten by bats while out in the field collecting samples.

Outcry

According to Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), the NIH’s decision to continue funding EcoHealth is inexcusable.

“It is beyond belief that NIH is choosing to be willfully ignorant of EcoHealth Alliance’s failure to follow federal laws and NIH’s grant policy requirements,” the senator, who last month sought to cut multimillion-dollar grants from another U.S. agency to EcoHealth, told The Epoch Times in an email.

“EcoHealth and NIH are operating in tandem to proliferate risky research with deadly pathogens out of the reach of U.S. oversight. It is inexcusable that NIH chooses to extend unprecedented power and funding to Peter Daszak’s noncompliant organization and ignore their own policy of holding the principal investigator accountable for the misconduct of its sub-awardee, the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Marshall said.

“Continuing to invest public funds in a company as shady as EcoHealth is dangerous and irresponsible.”

EcoHealth is the recipient of dozens of federal grants since 2002. Among these, 13 are still active, the U.S. grant database indicates. The largest single grant came from the U.S. Agency for International Development at $4.7 million, a five-year award given in 2021. Besides NIH, other grantors were the Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the National Science Foundation.

Republicans on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce who have been probing EcoHealth’s activities also expressed outrage at the continuing funding.

“EcoHealth Alliance and Peter Daszak should not be getting a dime of taxpayer funds until they are completely transparent to the Energy and Commerce Committee and the American people. Period,” Jack Heretik, spokesman for Energy and Commerce Republicans, told The Epoch Times in an email.

Such spending of taxpayer money is counterintuitive, said Justin Goodman, senior vice president of advocacy and public policy at White Coat Waste Project, which has been probing EcoHealth and WIV’s research.

“EcoHealth Alliance’s animal experiments should be de-funded, not re-funded,” he told The Epoch Times in an email.

“This shady group funneled US tax dollars to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for dangerous animal experiments that likely caused the pandemic, skirted a federal ban on gain-of-function research, repeatedly violated transparency law, and obstructed investigations into COVID’s origins. Taxpayers should not be forced to fund this reckless rogue lab contractor any longer.”

EcoHealth and NIH didn’t respond to inquiries from The Epoch Times regarding criticism directed at the new grants.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Malik Obama, the half-brother of former President Barack Obama, has endorsed the Republican candidate for governor in Pennsylvania, Doug Mastriano.

Taking to Twitter on Sunday, Malik Obama responded to a post from American conservative author and podcast host Jack Posobiec in which he suggested that the older Obama may like Mastriano and should “check him out.”

“​​If he’s with President Trump then I’m with @dougmastriano Pennsylvania Senator PA District 33,” Obama responded to the post.

Former President Donald Trump endorsed Mastriano in the primary race for governor earlier this year, saying in a statement that there is “no one in Pennsylvania who has done more, or fought harder, for election integrity than state Senator Doug Mastriano.”

The 45th president added that Mastriano is a pro-Trump, America First candidate who will fight crime, address election problems, promote pro-life policies, protect the Second Amendment, and support the U.S. military and veterans.

Mastriano, an Afghanistan and Iraq veteran, is facing Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro in the Pennsylvania gubernatorial race.

Shapiro’s campaign has promised to be pro-abortion and expand access to reproductive care, and “veto any efforts to restrict mail-in voting, expand early voting, and set up automatic voter registration.”

Recent polls suggest Shapiro is leading.

In a separate post on Sunday, Malik Obama also weighed in on Brazil’s presidential election race between left-wing candidate and former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Conservative incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro.

Sunday saw neither candidate receive more than 50 percent of the ballot in the race, meaning the two now head to a second-round run-off later this month.

‘Make America Great Again Is a Great Slogan’

The older Obama brother took aim at Lula on Twitter, stating that “Lula of Brazil is a jail bird,” in an apparent reference to the time Lula spent in prison after he was convicted on charges of money laundering and corruption at the state-owned oil and petrol company, Petrobras.

Lula spent 580 days behind bars before his conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court, which decided he should be tried in his state of residence instead of the state in which he was accused, paving the way for a 2022 presidential run. He is yet to be retried in court.

This isn’t the first time that Malik Obama has expressed his support for Trump. Back in 2016, the businessman told reporters that he planned to travel from Kenya to the United States in November to vote for the Republican presidential candidate. He previously worked in Maryland, where he was a registered Democrat.

“I like Donald Trump because he speaks from the heart,” Malik Obama told the New York Post from his home in the village of Kogelo. “Make America Great Again is a great slogan. I would like to meet him,” he said.

He also touted Trump as being a “down-to-earth kind of person” who “approaches issues directly and does not mince his words,” according to the newspaper.

During that same interview, Obama also said he was disappointed that the FBI had decided not to prosecute Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton over the controversial use of a private email server for public communications while she was secretary of state.

In response to his comments at the time, Trump wrote on Facebook: “Wow, President Obama’s brother, Malik, just announced that he is voting for me,” adding that he “was probably treated badly by [the] president—like everybody else!”

Malik Obama revealed last month that he has not spoken with former President Barack Obama since 2015 amid differing political views.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

A recent study by the Crime Prevention Research Center underscored how easily public opinion polling can be used to distort, rather than illuminate, peoples’ true feelings on gun control. Policy-makers should take note.

Sound policy requires a thoughtful and sophisticated understanding of facts and evidence, not just the shifting whims of public perception.  Emotionalism, on the other hand, is the way anti-gun extremists would like to run our government.  Gun ban advocates constantly point to survey results they help manufacture – usually in the wake of some highly-charged incident, before all the facts are known – as justification for imposing draconian restrictions on our Second Amendment rights.

There are numerous reasons why over-reliance on opinion polling is a deeply flawed approach to good governance.

First, and foremost, the United States was not founded as a direct democracy, where the electorate votes on virtually every public policy issue.  We are, thankfully, a Constitutional Republic.  At the federal level, we elect people to represent us, and they deliberate policy issues and vote to implement them or reject them.  Should they consider public opinion polls when determining how they vote?  Of course they should consider them; but that should never be the beginning and the end of the analysis.

The problem with relying on public opinion polls is that, with complex or controversial issues, how the poll is conducted has a tremendous bearing on both how accurate it is in determining how people feel, and what the results of the poll actually mean.

Recent research out of the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), founded by Dr. John R. Lott, Jr., highlights the problem of relying on simplistic public opinion polls when considering complex policy proposals.

Lott, well known for his detailed, groundbreaking research on firearms and gun control laws, took a look at public opinion on one of the anti-gun movement’s favorite legislative proposals of the moment: “red flag” laws.  His results illustrate how dramatically opinions can shift when the same issue is presented in different ways.

Using the polling company McLaughlin & Associates, the CPRC surveyed 1,000 general election voters, asking whether they supported “red flag” laws if, the question explained, “their primary purpose is to allow judges to take away a person’s gun based on a single complaint when there is concern about that individual committing suicide.”  The responses indicated 58% support, and 30% opposition.

That “explanation” of how “red flag” laws work is, of course, a vast oversimplification, as the laws are far more complex.  Anti-gun organizations and the lawmakers who support their goals count on opinion polls avoiding details when it comes to questions about “gun control,” and would have preferred the survey stopped with just that oversimplification.

But Lott understands all this, and his survey followed up the initial question with the kind of detail the gun-ban movement hates.

The survey went on to ask, “Would you be more likely or less likely to support ‘Red Flag Laws’ if you knew there are no hearings before an individual’s guns are taken away and there are no mental health care experts involved in the process?”  After learning how most “red flag” laws work, support fell to 30%, and opposition rose to 47%.

In the more detailed breakdown of the results, Lott found that the greatest movement in the views of respondents came in the “Strongly Support” and “Strongly Oppose” categories.  “Strongly Support” fell by more than half when more specifics about “red flag” laws were included; plummeting from 34% with the first question, to 14% with the more detailed second question.  “Strongly Oppose,” meanwhile, climbed from 18% to 29%.

Of course, these kinds of results are not too surprising, and simply add credence to the old saying, “The devil is in the details.”

This survey also bolsters what Lott found to be true in an earlier poll:  When the public doesn’t have all the facts, it can lead to support for bad public policy.  Even worse than just not having all the facts, many, including the current president, affirmatively promote misinformation that can lead to people believing things that are demonstrably untrue.

In his constant war on the Second Amendment, Joe Biden has been trying to paint a picture about violent crime in America that blames everything on guns and their availability to law-abiding citizens.  And, to some extent, that has worked to confuse many Americans.

With Biden constantly disparaging the right to arms as part of his messaging on “combating crime,” and with most in the legacy media supporting and amplifying his messaging, what Americans think about violent crime is not actually true.

Lott found that the “average American likely voter” thinks “that over 46% of violent crime involve guns.”  Actual crime statistics show it is less than 8%.

Even with this wildly inaccurate view of the frequency with which firearms are involved in violent crime, Lott’s research indicates Americans are not exactly clamoring for more gun laws, in spite of what anti-gun extremists would have you believe.  His survey shows that only 21% of the respondents feel that more gun laws will “do more to help fight crime and keep people safe.”  The majority, at 52%, felt that the best solution would be to “focus on arrests,” while another 22% felt the best approach was to “enforce current laws.”

In other words, even without an accurate understanding of violent crime in America, the vast majority of Americans DO NOT support gun control as a response.  That is encouraging.

Another factor to consider, which is not addressed in the CPRC research mentioned here, is that, when asked if “more gun laws” would help, most Americans don’t even know what gun laws already exist.  Again, most Americans do not believe we need more gun laws, but of those that do, how much do they really know about current laws?  How can you justify asking for “more” when you don’t even know what is already there?

Polling, like other analytical and messaging tools, is neither good nor bad in itself.  When done with care and without bias, and with the necessary detail for more complex issues, polls can accurately gauge how Americans feel about any number of things.  Those results, in turn, can be used by policy makers to help guide their decisions; but the critical qualifiers in that statement are “with care and without bias” and “help.”  Opinion polls can never capture all the complexity of human understanding and sentiment and should never be used as the only input for determining what laws will govern us.

That said, the most critical poll for the future of the Second Amendment is fast approaching:  The 2022 Midterm Elections.  Some states have already begun Early Voting, and November 8, Election Day, will be here before you know it.  NRA has a number of online resources available to better ensure the pro-Second Amendment community is ready to work to elect a pro-gun majority in Congress that will derail the Biden Administration’s anti-gun agenda, and strip power from anti-gun extremists like Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

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SOURCE: NRA ILA

Angel Harrelson wanted to make sure her husband knew how much she loves him.

She stood at the edge of the Congressional Cemetery in Washington on the evening of Oct. 1, holding a handmade sign. The message was simple and heartfelt: “Happy Anniversary to the Love of My Life, My King. 13 Years.”

In a concrete-block building just across from the cemetery, retired U.S. Army Sgt. Ken Harrelson peered out through a slit that serves as his window to the world. There stood his wife, holding her sign, flanked by the couple’s two dogs, Thor and Kyra.

It was an emotional moment. Angel smiled, placed her right hand over her heart, and blew a kiss.

She wore a T-shirt with a photo from their 2009 wedding and the message: “You fought for us. Now I fight for you.”

“We love each other,” Angel told The Epoch Times on Oct. 2. “That’s all I wanted to show him is how much I love him.”

The gesture did a world of good to buoy the spirits of her husband of 13 years, who’s one of the five men on trial in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy case in U.S. District Court.

“It was great,” Ken told The Epoch Times in a phone interview from the D.C. Correctional Treatment Facility. “I got a little emotional from it. First time I’d seen the puppy dogs. The way they did it caught me off guard.”

Angel worked with the aunt of another Jan. 6 pretrial detainee to set up a ruse to get her husband out of his cell and away from the window as she got into position.

“They had set everything up. It took me away for a moment, and I turned around and Tim was standing there behind me, kind of wringing his hands,” Ken said, referring to a fellow Jan. 6 detainee.

“I was like, ‘What are you doing, man?’ [He said,] ‘I was told to watch your reaction and report back.’”

The anniversary surprise was a bright light on a difficult journey, as Ken prepares to face a criminal trial that could stretch into November. He said he knows opening arguments in the case are going to be difficult as prosecutors try to paint him as someone that he says he isn’t.

“It’ll add to the memories,” he said of the anniversary gift. “The one thing I won’t try to forget out of this whole thing.”

On Oct. 1, the Harrelsons both had a chance to collect their thoughts and steel themselves for the onslaught of accusations from federal prosecutors ahead of the Oct. 3 start of the trial.

“Brad told me to be prepared,” Angel said, referring to defense attorney Brad Geyer. “‘Hurtful things are going to be said. They’re going to lie a lot.’ He said, ‘Brace yourself.’”

It was the second time in a week that Angel went out of her way to make sure her husband knew of her love and support at a critical time.

During a break in jury selection, she tore a half sheet from a spiral notebook and dashed off a message. She gave the note to Geyer, who handed it to Ken.

“Hey my love! You look so good and that shirt ‘n pants fits you good! I love you my love of my life & my king,” the note reads, using the couple’s practice of referring to each other with royal titles. “Love, your Queen (AKA wife).”

The note was a bright spot on a difficult day. Angel had purchased new clothes for her husband to wear at trial.

“It meant the world to me,” Ken said. “I haven’t had any contact with her in well over a year, so that was the first first day I think, wasn’t it?”

Angel replied, “The first time we’ve seen each other since you got arrested.”

That was on March 10, 2021.

Ken said he folded the note and set it on the defense table in front of him. Ten minutes or more had gone by when a U.S. Marshal saw the note and had a “total freak-out.”

“‘You can’t do this. You’re not allowed to communicate with your wife,’” Ken cited the marshal as saying. “‘Your attorney should know better than this. You’re not supposed to do this. I’m going to have to bring this up to the judge. This is bad. This is a high-profile case, and you can’t do this stuff.’”

After attorneys questioned a couple more potential jurors, the marshal alerted the court clerk about the note, and Judge Amit Mehta was notified. During a break, Mehta summoned Geyer and prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler to the bench.

Geyer took responsibility for passing the note to his client, worried that Mehta might bar Angel from the courtroom for the trial. Mehta reacted as most would, however, seeing the humanity in Angel’s gesture to her husband.

Geyer returned to the defense table, leaned over to Angel, and said, “I saved it for you,” according to journalist Steve Baker, who first reported about the note.

Angel said she was out of the courtroom when the judge held a sidebar on her love note.

“I wasn’t in there, so I didn’t get to hear it,” she said. “But everybody looked pretty embarrassed.”

Angel made the trip with her sister to the Washington area from Florida in a rented camper. She said it’s more affordable for a two-month stay than a hotel or Airbnb rental, and also allowed her to bring her two dogs for emotional support.

Travel, food, and accommodations for the trial are just the latest expenses faced by the Harrelson family. In June, the U.S. Veterans Administration told the couple that it was cutting off Ken’s Veterans Affairs benefits because of his indictment for alleged seditious conspiracy. That put Angel and her children behind a financial 8-ball.

Aside from the Oath Keepers’ criminal trial, the District of Columbia has sued Ken and other Oath Keepers to recoup what attorneys claim are expenses related to the Capitol unrest.

Angel said her family’s defense costs for the Oath Keepers trial could easily reach $500,000 or more.

“It’s horrible,” she said. “By the time this is all done, I’m just worried we’re not gonna have anything left, no matter how much money we get in donations.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

SUN CITY, Ariz.—U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters said Congress should impeach President Joe Biden for his role in the illegal migrant crisis resulting in a flood of fentanyl across the southern border into the United States.

At the same time, Trump-endorsed Masters, a Republican, said his incumbent opponent, Democrat Mark Kelly, has done little to stem the national security crisis since he took office and should be held accountable.

“Where’s Mark Kelly on this? I think Mark Kelly should have to attend some of the funerals of the [fentanyl victims] on this,” said Masters during a Republican gathering in Sun City, Arizona, on Oct. 1.

“Do you ever get the feeling they’re doing this on purpose?” Masters said.

A crowd of over 400 people attended the event sponsored by the Sun City West Republican Club, during which former Arizona U.S. Senate 2022 primary candidate Jim Lamon voiced support for Masters’ run for Congress.

“This is a huge election for this country,” Lamon said. “We all have to stand united—just like the Marxists, right? They all stand united.”

“One thing I bet we agree on, our country needs us.”

Masters began by asking the cheering crowd, “Who’s waiting for a red wave in a couple of weeks?”

“We have to stay in the fight. We have to act as if our country depends on it.”

Swing State

Masters said Arizona remains pivotal in the election, after having to bear the “brunt” of the illegal immigration and fentanyl crises. He blamed the Democrats’ failed policies in handling the emergencies.

“They have failed in so many respects. Many people talk about the border crisis as some abstraction, as if it’s some act of God. Biden caused it. His policies, right? Thanks to President Trump, we had operational control over our border,” Masters said.

“I knew it was going to be bad, you knew it was going to be bad but, man, I didn’t know it would be this bad … Democrats have exceeded our expectations.”

On Sept. 19, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the number of illegal alien encounters nationwide in August was 157,921—a 2.2 percent increase from July.

The total number of illegal alien encounters during the past fiscal year ending in September was nearly 2.5 million.

Masters said Biden’s executive order ending border wall construction in 2021 not only “incentivized” illegal immigration but also continued the immigration policy of former President Barack Obama.

The only sanctuary community where illegals are not welcome is Martha’s Vineyard, Masters said to laughter.

In September, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gained national attention when he sent two planes carrying illegal aliens and potential asylum seekers from Venezuela to affluent liberal Martha’s Vineyard, to the dismay of locals. The illegals were taken away voluntarily to a military base to receive food and shelter.

Good Policy, Bad Policy

Since Biden became president, Masters said the U.S. Department of Justice, Internal Revenue Service, and FBI have become weapons of the Democratic Party.

“Why does every federal agency need a mini-military police force? It’s really dangerous,” he said.

Inflation is rampant with the economy in tatters, and thousands of people die yearly from fentanyl overdoses, he said.

Masters said the Biden administration is pushing for federalized elections to remove state control. He described his U.S. Senate race as a “propaganda war” waged by Democrats, costing his campaign $400,000 weekly in advertising in Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous.

“In a weird way, Mark Kelly’s [negative] ads are helping me. They are what they call us. It’s projection,” Masters said.

Saying Kelly votes more in lock-step with Biden, “now we can see the whites of their eyes,” with the Nov. 8 election now 37 days away.

“Mark knows he’s vulnerable,” Masters said. “Look at everything that’s crumbling around you because of Democrat policies. Why believe Democrat attack ads?”

Masters said Democrats fear an America First platform, having “put America last” themselves.

Attorney General Race

Saturday’s gathering also featured Trump-endorsed Abe Hamadeh, Republican candidate for Arizona attorney general in the general election. His Democratic opponent is Kristin Mayes.

“My opponent wants to fight the weather; I want to fight criminals,” Hamadeh said, lampooning Mayes’ stance on climate change. “My opponent wants to hunt down businesses.”

Hamadeh called on a united Republican front in a critical election, perhaps the most important in recent history.

“We all understand that we can’t do this alone,” he told supporters.

Hamadeh said on “day one,” he would declare Mexican drug cartels “terrorist organizations.”

Both candidates said they view the 2022 election as a struggle for national survival.

“We have to win. The stakes are too high. If not, [America] is gone—it is gone,” Masters said.

Source: The Epoch Times

[Tulsa, Okla. – Oct. 3, 2022] Project Veritas released a new video from its #SecretCurriculum series today exposing an Eighth Grade English Teacher who admits to indoctrinating children against the parents’ will with the end goal of overthrowing the American system of government.

Project Veritas released a new video from its #SecretCurriculum series today exposing an Eighth Grade English Teacher who admits to indoctrinating children against the parents’ will with the end goal of overthrowing the American system of government.

Tyler Wrynn, who is employed by Will Rogers Middle School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, told a Veritas journalist that he fears losing his job as an educator because it could get in the way of his ideological plans for the country.

Here are some of the highlights from today’s video:

• Tyler Wrynn, Will Rogers Middle School English Teacher: “I am an anarchist.”
• Wrynn: “So, I have a rather large TikTok following. I’m an authority figure. So, I [publish] a Christmas message of, ‘Hey, if your parents don’t love and support you for who you are this Christmas, f**k them. I’m your parents now. I love you. Drink some water. I’m proud of you.’”
• Wrynn: “The only thing that’s a problem here [in Oklahoma] is that House Bill 1775 or something. I can get my license revoked for it, for being too woke…Trust me, I want to burn down the entire system.”
• Wrynn: “Eventually, you want to remove Christianity — or religion [as a whole] — from progressive thought, because religion is inherently hierarchical.”
• Wrynn: “If I speak about religion in the classroom I can get it [teaching license] revoked, yes. But I don’t.”

Tyler Wrynn, who is employed by Will Rogers Middle School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, told a Veritas journalist that he fears losing his job as an educator because it could get in the way of his ideological plans for the country.

“The only thing that’s a problem here [in Oklahoma] is that House Bill 1775 or something. I can get my license revoked for it, for being too woke…Trust me, I want to burn down the entire system,” Wrynn said.

HB 1775 Emergency Rules states that its purpose is to “be the policy of the Oklahoma State Board of Education to prohibit discrimination on the basis of race or sex in the form of bias, stereotyping, scapegoating, classification, or the categorical assignment of traits, morals, values, or characteristics based solely on race or sex. Public schools in this state shall be prohibited from engaging in race or sex-based discriminatory acts by utilizing these methods, which result in treating individuals differently on the basis of race or sex or the creation of a hostile environment.”

In one section of HB 1775 labelled “Parents Rights,” the bill reads:

Parents and legal guardians of students enrolled in Public Schools in this state shall have the right to inspect curriculum, instructional materials, classroom assignments, and lesson plans to ensure compliance with 70 O.S. §24-157(B). Consistent with 20 O.S. § 2001-2002, no public school shall interfere with or infringe upon the fundamental rights of parents to determine their child’s education.

Wrynn, who describes himself as an “anarchist,” appears to take issue with parents who get involved in the education of their own children.

“So, I have a rather large TikTok following. I’m an authority figure. So, I [publish] a Christmas message of, ‘Hey, if your parents don’t love and support you for who you are this Christmas, f**k them. I’m your parent now. I love you. Drink some water. I’m proud of you,’” he said.

The English Teacher also discussed the issues he has with religion.

“Eventually, you want to remove Christianity — or religion [as a whole] — from progressive thought, because religion is inherently hierarchical.”

This educator had been previously exposed by LibsofTikTok, who reposted and called attention to a video where Wrynn insulted his students’ parents that refuse to conform to transgender ideology.

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.  

Project Veritas is a registered 501(c)3 organization. Project Veritas does not advocate specific resolutions to the issues raised through its investigations.

SOURCE: Project Veritas

After realizing his COVID-19 booster shot may have sent his cancer into overdrive, Michel Goldman, M.D., Ph.D., professor of immunology and pharmacotherapy at the Université libre de Bruxelles in Belgium, said going public with the information was the “right thing to do.”

This article was originally published by The Defender – Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website

Michel Goldman, M.D., Ph.D., professor of immunology and pharmacotherapy at the Université libre de Bruxelles in Belgium, suspects his third dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine may have sent his cancer into overdrive.

Goldman, 67, is one of Europe’s best-known champions of medical research and a lifelong promoter of vaccines.

But he told The Atlantic he wants discussion of the COVID-19 vaccine to be transparent — so he went public about his suspicion that the Pfizer booster shot he received on Sept. 22, 2021, may have induced rapid progression of his angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL), a type of lymphoma he’d been diagnosed with before he got the booster shot.

After his diagnosis, Goldman said he rushed to get the booster shot, believing he would need it more than most people because once he started chemotherapy, his immune system would be compromised.

But after receiving the shot, Goldman’s follow-up CT scan showed something unexpected: Within only a few days, his cancer had grown so fast that cancerous points were lighting up all over his scan.

“It looked like someone had set off fireworks inside Michel’s body,” The Atlantic reported.

Goldman and his brother, Serge Goldman, a fellow scientist and head of nuclear medicine at the teaching hospital of the Université libre de Bruxelles, suspected Goldman’s COVID-19 booster shot may have triggered the rapid proliferation of cancerous growth in his body.

The initial CT scan had been “a bit disturbing,” Serge Goldman told The Atlantic, because it showed an asymmetrical cluster of cancerous nodes around Goldman’s left armpit, where Michel’s first two doses of vaccine had been delivered.

The CT scan done after Michel’s third dose showed the cancer’s asymmetry had flipped and was clustered by his right armpit, where he received the third shot.

The brothers knew it could be a mere coincidence, but they thought it was important to investigate the possibility that the vaccine might be behind the clustering — because it could mean other people with certain forms of cancer might be at risk of a COVID-19 vaccine causing their cancer to progress more rapidly.

So on Nov. 25, 2021, the brothers — who had written prior papers together — and other colleagues published a case report in which they described Michel Goldman’s experience and urged the scientific community to study the phenomenon to see if it occurred in patients diagnosed with AITL.

“Since nucleoside-modified mRNA vaccines strongly activate T follicular helper cells, it is important to explore the possible impact of approved SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines on neoplasms affecting this cell type,” the authors wrote.

The brothers said the case study “suggests that vaccination with the [Pfizer-BioNTech] BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine might induce rapid progression of AITL.”

They noted, however, that it would be “premature” to extrapolate the findings from Michel Goldman’s case to other patients with the same kind of cancer and that “dedicated studies are needed.”

Going Public Was ‘The Right Thing to Do’

Michel Goldman’s case study added to the scientific literature that aims to understand the relationships between mRNA vaccines and the functioning of helper T-cells.

For instance, previous researchers have noted mRNA vaccines rev up helper T-cells, which may explain why Michel Goldman’s AILT went into overdrive following his third booster shot.

“Perhaps the shots gave such a jolt to his helper T cells that they went berserk,” The Atlantic reported. “If they were prone to forming tumors, or if they were already cancerous, then overstimulation could have made the problem even worse.”

Research involving body scans of some people who get mRNA vaccines — including cancer patients — shows heightened activity in the lymph nodes near the armpit on the side where the shot was received.

In February 2018, a team of researchers at Columbia University’s Institute for Cancer Genetics published a study using mice with a pair of gene mutations — the same two mutations found in Michel Goldman’s tumor — showing that the mutations predispose T-cells to go rogue.

The study also showed that when the mice were injected with red blood cells from sheep — as an experimental stand-in for invading microbes — the mice developed the same subtype of lymphoma Michel Goldman had.

Michel Goldman previously headed a $2 billion European endeavor to accelerate the research of new medicines and in December 2020, he publicly spoke out in support of the safety of mRNA vaccines — the technology used in both the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.

At that time, he said the highest risk — especially for vulnerable people — is not to be vaccinated and that his main concern about mRNA vaccination was that people might use the possible side effects as an argument against getting the vaccine.

He currently leads the Institute for Interdisciplinary Innovation in Healthcare, or I3h, a university hub aimed at assisting in drug-design projects.

Michel Goldman doesn’t regret going public with his case, even though it presented challenging evidence regarding the safety of mRNA vaccines for individuals such as himself.

“I’m still convinced it was the right thing to do,” he told The Atlantic.

He remains adamant that COVID-19 vaccines are useful for the vast majority of people, but he is unsure whether he himself will get another booster dose.

“I don’t know what I will do,” he said.

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC
BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Epoch Health welcomes professional discussion and friendly debate. To submit an opinion piece, please follow these guidelines and submit through our form here.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

The Chinese regime has likely established more unofficial overseas police stations in Canada than the three in Toronto identified in a report by a human rights NGO, a co-author of the report says.

Spain-based Safeguard Defenders published a report in September warning of the regime’s “long-arm policing” around the world through what’s been dubbed the “110 overseas police stations”—an operation named after the police emergency phone number, 110, in China.

Titled “110 Overseas: Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild,” the report identified 54 Chinese overseas police stations in 30 countries, including 3 in Toronto. The stations are all under the jurisdiction of two local-level police services in China—the Fuzhou Public Security Bureau in Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, and the Qingtian County police in Zhejiang Province, the report said.

Peter Dahlin, founder and director of Safeguard Defenders and co-author of the report, says that following the release of his organization’s findings, security police or related government agencies from North America and Europe have approached his organization asking “to sit down and have a briefing discussion” on the Chinese operations overseas.

“So they are certainly aware of it, at least in some countries,” Dahlin told The Epoch Times.

More Locations

While the Chinese authorities say these police stations are created to better serve its overseas nationals, the report notes the stations have been used to “persuade” up to 230,000 Chinese nationals to “voluntarily” return to China to face criminal proceedings between April 2021 and July 2022.

“Persuasion to return” is a key method of the Chinese regime’s “involuntary returns” operations, which include its “Operation Fox Hunt” and the broader “Sky Net” campaign, according to Safeguard Defenders. Many of the targets for persuasion to return were overseas Chinese allegedly involved in telecommunication fraud, though the report said a number of non-suspects and their family members in China have also been targeted for police harassment and intimidation.

Dahlin said that in addition to the three stations in Toronto—two in Markham and one in Scarborough, whose locations were published in a Chinese state media outlet—there are likely other unofficial Chinese police stations either existing or being established in Canada, though they have yet to be discovered.

“We’ve also seen a [Chinese] government notice that said that 10 different provinces should launch these types of operations on a pilot basis,” he said, pointing to the report’s citation of a July 5, 2018, news release issued by Beijing.

“So, we have two of these operations uncovered [in Fujian Province and Zhejiang Province]. There might be eight more provinces doing this that could have their own stations, and we have not been able to track down that information yet. That’s why we keep saying that … we believe and we have good reason to think that there are more [overseas Chinese police stations].”

The news release is in relation to the Chinese State Council’s 2018 “Work Plan for the Supervision of the National Special Struggle Against Gang Crimes.” A Chinese state media outlet reported in January 2019 that Beijing had conducted a first-round one-month supervision training from July to September 2018 in the 10 provinces of Hebei, Shanxi, Liaoning, Fujian, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Guangdong, Chongqing, and Sichuan.

Another report that year, in April 2019, said the regime had completed a second-round training for another 11 provinces, including Zhejiang Province where the Qingtian police service is located.

Given the large Chinese diaspora population in Vancouver, Dahlin said he would find it “very strange” if the city didn’t have at least one 110 police station.

‘Transnational Repression’

Safeguard Defenders says its September report is part of its ongoing monitoring of China’s growing global transnational repression. Dahlin said it came on the heels of another report by his organization, titled “Involuntary Returns—report exposes long-arm policing overseas.”

That earlier report, published in January 2022, looked at the Chinese regime’s claim in December 2021 that its Sky Net operations, along with Operation Fox Hunt, have successfully brought some 10,000 “fugitives” back to China from around the globe since 2014, when Fox Hunt was launched as part of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign.

Those operations target what Dahlin described as “high-value targets.” Officially, Sky Net says it only targets economic criminals and officials accused of crimes like corruption or bribery, according to the Safeguard Defenders report, but Dahlin said Sky Net has been found to also target human rights defenders. Operations against high-value targets are run by the Chinese central police, whereas those involved in lower-level crimes like fraud—who are considered low-value targets—are tracked by the local Chinese police, he said.

“The most common method to do this is to persuade them to return ‘voluntarily.’ We’ve also had a number of cases where [Beijing] sent agents—Chinese police officers, undercover—to the target countries; we have a number of people in the U.S. being indicted for this,” he said.

A third way, Dahlin said, is to use kidnappings. He noted that his organization has identified 22 cases of kidnapping.

Although his organization hasn’t found any cases of direct kidnapping in Canada, Dahlin said that in Canada and the United States, the Chinese regime does “a lot more [of] sending secret agents to intimidate people and that type of operations.”

When asked about the severity of the Chinese overseas operations, he said the impact in Canada is “certainly worse than Europe.”

“Canada has such a significant Chinese diaspora community—much bigger than pretty much all of Europe together—so certainly, there’s a lot more people at risk in Canada,” he said, adding that Canada, the United States, and Australia are “the big three” destinations when it comes to Chinese asylum-seekers and relocation.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

A former employee of the National Security Agency (NSA) has been charged with espionage for allegedly trying to sell classified national defense information to an undercover agent he believed to be working for a foreign government, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said.

Jareh Sebastian Dalke, a 30-year-old Army veteran of Colorado Springs, Colorado, worked at the NSA as an information systems security designer from June 6 to July 1, 2022. According to the DOJ, Dalke used an encrypted email account to transmit excerpts of three classified documents he had obtained during his employment to an undercover FBI agent disguised as a representative of a foreign government.

Dalke was arrested on Sept. 28, after he arrived at a public location in Denver, expecting to meet the undercover agent and transfer one additional classified document. He allegedly told the agent that he had a debt of $237,000, and asked for a “specific type of cryptocurrency” in exchange for the “highly sensitive information” he possessed. The FBI ended up sending him about $4,600 worth of cryptocurrency as a “good faith payment” to help with his financial problems.

The information, according to an affidavit (pdf) supporting the criminal complaint, involves topics such as the threat assessment of the foreign country’s military offensive capabilities, a cryptographic program used by the U.S. government, and the threat assessment of U.S. defense capabilities, a portion of which relates to that foreign country.

While the foreign government isn’t identified, the affidavit states that Dalke claimed to have reached out to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, or SVR, to ensure that he was actually communicating with a foreign government entity “rather than Americans trying to stifle a patriot.”

According to the affidavit, Dalke had expressed dissatisfaction with what the United States had become. “This country is not as great as it thinks it once was,” he allegedly said. “It is all about the businesses and their money, not anything about the people or those that serve it to include the military.”

Dalke is charged with three violations of the Espionage Act, which makes it a crime to transmit or attempt to transmit national defense information to a foreign nation knowing the information could be used against the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation. If convicted, he could face the death penalty or any number of years up to life in prison.

The announcement comes as Edward Snowden, a former U.S. intelligence contractor who famously exposed the NSA’s massive domestic surveillance program in 2013 and has remained in exile in Russia ever since, was granted Russian citizenship.

“After years of separation from our parents, my wife and I have no desire to be separated from our son. That’s why, in this era of pandemics and closed borders, we’re applying for dual US–Russian citizenship,” Snowden wrote on Twitter in November.

On Sept. 26, he wrote: “After two years of waiting and nearly ten years of exile, a little stability will make a difference for my family. I pray for privacy for them—and for us all.”

Snowden fled to Russia after the Justice Department charged him with violating the Espionage Act. He initially lived there under political asylum and was granted permanent residency in 2020.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Texas school boards are being pressured to adopt policies giving transgender students the right to use preferred pronouns, school bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers, according to conservatives who feel schools are stepping on parental rights.

The Texas American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) presented a “best practices” program on transgender student legal issues based on an interpretation by President Joe Biden’s Department of Education during a Sept. 24 convention in San Antonio.

The Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) and Texas Association of School Boards’ (TASB) 2022 convention included speakers and training for Texas school officials. The ACLU, a liberal civil rights group, titled the program, “Transgender Students in Texas Schools: What You Need to Know.”

ACLU attorneys gave a presentation at the convention that included transgender students speaking directly to officials on “challenges” in schools over restrooms, sports, dress codes, pronouns, and bullying.

David Hamilton, a member of the Fort Bend Independent School Board who attended the ACLU presentation, posted on Twitter that the union was “trying to force Texas public schools to allow boys in girls’ locker rooms, showers, restrooms, and athletics.”

“They had a biological girl who IDs as a boy speak because that appeals better,” he wrote.

When contacted by The Epoch Times, Hamilton said he viewed the ACLU presentation as a warning that schools must accommodate transgender student rights or face lawsuits from it or other liberal groups.

The ACLU didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Texas state Rep. Steve Toth (R-Woodlands) agreed there is a concerted effort to push schools to accept the Biden administration’s interpretation of Title IX as law. But part of the problem lies with the trustees who don’t question what they’re told, he said.

“There’s no way this isn’t coordinated,” he said. “We’re hearing this in all 50 states.”

“If they put this into place, they’re violating the law,” said Toth, who intends to introduce legislation in 2023 to protect students from sexualization at school.

Title IX, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, now permits students to use restrooms, locker rooms, and compete on sports teams based on their gender identity instead of their biological sex.

Biden issued an executive order after a June 2020 landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that expanded the legal definition of sex discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity in employment situations.

The Department of Education and U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued “guidance” in June 2021 prohibiting such discrimination and promising enforcement action against violators, including the loss of federal funding for schools.

However, the Biden administration’s push to enforce the executive order designed to protect the LGBT community from discrimination in schools and the workplace was blocked by a Tennessee federal judge in July, while a legal challenge initiated by 22 attorneys general, including Texas, is making its way through the court system.

On May 5, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Services issued guidance to Texas and other states announcing that discrimination on the basis of sex in Title IX and the Food and Nutrition Act includes discrimination on the bases of sexual orientation and gender identity.

That put Texas’s Title IX and SNAP school lunch funding at risk.

Also, the Biden administration’s policy directly opposes a Texas law approved last year that requires student-athletes to play on sports teams that correspond with their sex as listed on their birth certificate.

Julie Pickren, a former school board trustee for the Alvin Independent School District and a candidate for State Board of Education District 7, told The Epoch Times that trustees need a choice regarding training that’s objectionable to the values of conservatives.

“We have a responsibility to protect our kids as parents, educators, and public servants,” she wrote in a text.

Hamilton said that ACLU lawyers presented information at the convention indicating suicide attempts by transgender students decreased if schools affirmed their choices on things such as pronouns and bathroom preferences. He said the presentation would give school districts who wanted to adopt liberal policies on transgender students an excuse to do so.

Meg Bakich, a parent activist in the Highland Park school district, said parents need to understand what’s happening in their schools.

“Why are school boards paying tax dollars to an association indoctrinating our trustees?” she asked. “Our legislature has done nothing to stop it.”

Several years ago, her son walked into the boy’s bathroom in high school to find a girl he had known since grade school, Bakich said.

Her son asked his classmate why she was in the boy’s restroom, and the girl announced she was a male. Her son disagreed, telling the classmate he’d known much of his life that she was a girl and needed to leave.

The girl, who was slight of stature, didn’t appreciate the observation and “bowed up” to her son, who stood over 6 feet tall, wanting to fight him, Bakich said.

Bakich said the school’s principal at the time said there was nothing he could do.

TASB has developed a policy model prohibiting discrimination based on sex, gender, or any other basis prohibited by law, which suggests transgender students should be included.

Transgender identity isn’t explicitly mentioned, but the TASB document contends the U.S. Supreme Court and DOE found that discrimination based on gender identity is a form of “sex discrimination.”

TASB’s document went on to say that students generally have a right to be recognized as transgender in school and that school districts are subject to the interpretation of Title IX by the Department of Education.

In an email, TASB spokeswoman Theresa Gage-Dieringer told The Epoch Times that the nonprofit didn’t endorse speakers at the convention. School trustees, district administrators, and association staff voted on applications submitted to present at the conference, she wrote.

“The goal of the process is to select wide-ranging K-12 topics,” she wrote. “As noted in the convention program, ‘the views expressed in presentations and materials are the views of the presenters.’

“On issues of transgender students, TASB and TASA always comply with federal and state laws and work to help our members also comply with those laws.

“It’s our understanding that the materials presented in this session provided guidance on current law for school districts.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

A number of girls playing for a high school volleyball team in Vermont have been barred from using their own locker room after filing a complaint to school officials about a transgender teammate, according to a report.

Blake Allen, who, along with some of her fellow teammates, now has to get changed in a single-stall bathroom, told WCAX-TV that the dispute started after the transgender player at Randolph Union High School made an “inappropriate comment” to some of the girls while they were changing in the locker room.

The report doesn’t detail the comment. The transgender athlete also hasn’t been publicly identified.

Allen noted that she’s not the only girl who has raised these concerns. Some parents have also approached school officials to inform them how uncomfortable it makes them feel that a biological male is changing with their daughter.

“There are biological boys that go into the girl’s bathroom, but never a locker room,” Allen said.

The girls and parents who’ve raised the issue want the school to relocate the transgender athlete, but officials have instead advised the group of girls to find another room to change.

“They want all the girls who feel uncomfortable—so pretty much 10 girls—to get changed in a single-stall bathroom, which would take over 30 minutes. Where if one person got changed separately, it would take a minute, like no extra time,” Allen argued.

In an emailed statement responding to the families of affected players, school officials stated that there’s “plenty of space where students who feel uncomfortable with the laws may change in privacy,” WCAX-TV reported.

According to Vermont’s state law, students can play sports and use the locker room that correspond to the gender with which they identify.

Meanwhile, the school reportedly sent out a second email to inform parents that they’ve launched an investigation over allegations that the girls harassed the transgender student.

Allen said during the interview with WCAX-TV that the incident is “a huge thing” many students are talking about.

“Everyone’s asking, ‘So, why aren’t you allowed in the locker room?’” said Allen, adding that her mother advised her to do an interview with the network in an attempt to change the situation.

“I feel like for stating my opinion—that I don’t want a biological man changing with me—that I should not have harassment charges or bullying charges. They should all be dropped,” she said.

Lisa Floyd, Randolph High School co-president, told the network in an email that when policies are violated, disciplinary action consistent with the school’s rules will be applied, adding that students’ safety is the “district’s top priority.”

The state’s education agency policy states that the “use of restrooms and locker rooms by transgender students requires schools to consider numerous factors,” while also noting that a “transgender student should not be required to use a locker room or restroom that conflicts with the student’s gender identity.”

Keeping a campaign promise President Joe Biden made to the LGBT community, his administration has issued new laws that have pressured some schools into adopting policies that give transgender students the right to use preferred pronouns, school bathrooms, and locker rooms, among other things.

The new rules have been welcomed by activists for transgenderism, but critics argue it erodes protections for women and girls, who are mostly affected negatively by this hot-button issue.

Swimmer Lia Thomas, a biological male who identifies as a woman, sparked outcry over unfairness after becoming the first transgender NCAA champion in women’s Division I history by winning the women’s 500-yard freestyle earlier this year. The win drew significant backlash from female swimmers, activists, and other athletes, including Thomas’s teammates.

From NTD News

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Former President Donald Trump rallied his Michigan supporters on Oct. 1, telling them that the border crisis would worsen if Democrats continue to control both chambers of Congress after the midterm elections.

“The choice in this election is simple. If you want the decline and fall of America, then vote for the radical left Democrats,” Trump said in a speech. “If you want to stop the destruction of our country and save the American dream, you must vote Republican.”

“If the radical Democrats keep their grip on the House and the Senate, the situation will only get worse. They’ll flood the country with tens of millions more illegal aliens,” Trump added. “They want to ram through mass amnesty and give illegal aliens welfare, free health care, and the right to vote.”

Trump made the remarks during a rally in Warren, Michigan, on Oct. 1, stumping for the state’s GOP candidates, including gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon, secretary of state nominee Kristina Karamo, and attorney general nominee Matthew DePerno.

In August, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) reported that nearly 4.9 million illegal immigrants, including some 900,000 “gotaways,” have crossed the U.S. borders since President Joe Biden took office.

On Sept. 30, the FAIR released a statement, calling for the quick passage of four Republican bills that it believes can “attack different aspects” of the border crisis. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) introduced one of the bills, the Ending Catch and Release Act (H.R.8951), and Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) introduced a bill (H.R.8952) that would give the Homeland Security Secretary the authority to shut down the U.S. border.

“FAIR urges swift passage of each of the commonsense measures above as part of an all-encompassing approach to securing the border, fortifying our interior enforcement, and making American communities safe to live, work, and play,” according to the statement.

Trump said the first job of a Republican Congress would be to “stop the invasion of our southern border.”

“We will shut down Biden’s border disaster and reinstitute our strong ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy,” he said.

Michigan

Trump told supporters that they should vote for Dixon, whom he described as a patriot and a “very, very good” woman, and to fire incumbent Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who is seeking her second term in office.

As for DePerno, Trump described him as “one of the toughest lawyers” he has known.

“He is tough and smart and he is going to bring your state back,” Trump told supporters, referring to DePerno.

Trump praised Karamo as a “fantastic talent and a fantastic person.”

Dixon, Karamo, and DePerno trailed their Democrat opponents, the Trafalgar Group found in a poll (pdf) conducted from September 24 to 28.

According to the poll, Dixon trailed Whitmer by 5.8 percentage points, Karamo trailed Democrat candidate Jocelyn Benson by 4.8 percentage points, and DePerno trailed Democrat candidate Dana Nessel by 2.8 percentage points.

The three GOP candidates trailed by a larger margin, according to an EPIC/MRA poll, which was conducted between Sept. 15 and 19. Incumbent Gov. Whitmer had 55 percent of the support, leading Dixon by 16 percentage points. Benson and Nessel had a 12-point and 13-point lead, respectively, over their GOP opponents.

“So on November 8, Michigan patriots have to shatter every record,” Trump said. “You have to defy every prediction and you have to swamp Gretchen Whitmer, the radical Democrats, with a colossal, red, Republican wave.”

Florida

On Oct.1, Trump began his speech at the rally by offering his sympathy to those affected by Hurricane Ian.

“I want to send our profound sympathy and our immense support to everyone back in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas who are struck by this brutal wrath of the hurricane,” Trump said.

At least 54 people have been confirmed dead because of Ian, the Associated Press reported, after the storm made landfall in Southwest Florida on Sept. 28 as a Category 4 hurricane. Forty-seven of the dead are found in Florida, four in North Carolina, and three in Cuba.

As of Sunday morning, over 857,900 consumers still did not have electricity, according to Poweroutage.us. More than 33,000 remained without power in North Carolina, and more than 10,000 without electricity in Virginia.

“Please know our hearts are with you and our prayers are with you,” Trump added. 

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

One of the world’s largest open-access journal publishers is retracting more than 500 papers, based on the discovery of unethical actions.

London-based Hindawi, which publishes more than 200 peer-reviewed journals across multiple disciplines, stated that its research team identified in June “irregularities” in the peer review process in some of the journals.

“All Hindawi journals employ a series of substantial integrity checks before articles are accepted for publication. Following thorough investigation, we identified that these irregularities in the peer review process were the result of suspicious and unethical activities. Since identifying this unethical activity and breach of our processes, we began proactively adding further checks and improving our processes and continue to do so,” Liz Ferguson, a senior vice president for John Wiley & Sons, Hindawi’s U.S.-based parent company, said in a Sept. 28 statement.

As a result of the investigation, 511 papers will be retracted.

The papers have all been published since August 2020.

Sixteen journals published the papers that are being retracted.

Some of the authors and editors who contributed to the articles may have been “unwitting participants” in the unethical scheme, according to Ferguson. She said the scheme involved “manipulation of the peer review process and the infrastructure that supports it.”

Richard Bennett, vice president of researcher and publishing services for Hindawi, told the Retraction Watch blog that the review uncovered “coordinated peer review rings,” which featured reviewers and editors coordinating to get papers through peer review.

Neither Ferguson nor Bennett identified any of the suspects.

Bennett said the investigation started after an editor flagged some suspicious papers. He also said the individuals identified by the review as “compromised” will be banned from Hindawi journals. Other people were described as “potentially compromised.”

“These efforts, and the individuals who participate in them, impede scientific discovery and impact the validity of scholarly research and will not be tolerated,” Ferguson said.

She also said the company has been in touch with other publishers and industry bodies.

Further retractions are expected as the investigation proceeds.

Hindawi journals include Advances in Agriculture, the Canadian Journal of Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology, and the Journal of Nanotechnology.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

An Arizona judge on Friday rejected a bid by abortion advocates to freeze her earlier order that allowed enforcement of a Civil-War-era law that made it a crime to provide an abortion unless the mother’s life is in danger.

Pima County Superior Court Judge Kellie Johnson on Sept. 30 declined to put on hold her Sept. 22 ruling that lifted a 1973 injunction and, by allowing the pre-statehood law to take effect, imposed a near-total abortion ban.

Johnson said in her ruling (pdf) that pro-abortion groups led by Planned Parenthood and its Arizona affiliate—who had urged the judge to reverse her decision—were unlikely to succeed on appeal. The judge also said that Planned Parenthood was unable to prove that denying the organization’s request would cause irreparable harm.

Her ruling means Arizona’s abortion providers won’t be able to resume performing the procedures except if the mother’s life is in danger.

Abortion Advocates ‘Outraged’

“Social justice” advocacy group the National Council of Jewish Women Arizona decried the judge’s decision in a post on Twitter.

“Quite simply, policymakers here are completely out of touch with average Arizonans who want abortion to remain legal and oppose forced birthing by the legislature and courts,” the group said.

Arizona’s Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who’s running for governor, took to social media to call Johnson’s ruling “a bleak new reality” that she vowed to “fight tirelessly.”

Brittany Fonteno, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Arizona, told The Associated Press she was “outraged” by the ruling.

In a statement to local media outlet 3TV/CBS 5, Fonteno said that the “fight to restore abortion access to Arizonans is far from over as we will continue to appeal the court’s ruling.”

Failed ‘Balance of Hardship’ Test

Planned Parenthood Arizona (PPAZ) filed a motion on Sept. 26 seeking to put Johnson’s Sept. 22 ruling on hold, arguing that there was confusion between the pre-statehood anti-abortion law and a 15-week ban that was passed this year.

In her ruling denying Planned Parenthood’s motion, the judge said that the procedural flaws in the abortion advocate’s request mean that the court did not address whether there’s a conflict between the old law and the newer one.

But the judge made clear that even if there are “serious questions” about confusion between the two laws, Planned Parenthood failed to show that it would suffer harm, as is required for the group to succeed in getting a stay that would open the door to abortion.

“Having considered all potential hardships raised in the briefs, the Court finds the balance of hardships does not tip sharply in PPAZ’s favor,” Johnson wrote.

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who after the Supreme Court’s Roe v Wade ruling in June vowed to ask the court to restore the abortion ban, hailed Johnson’s Sept. 22 decision.

“We applaud the court for upholding the will of the legislature and providing clarity and uniformity on this important issue. I have and will continue to protect the most vulnerable Arizonans,” he wrote on Twitter.

In her Sept. 22 ruling (pdf) in the case of Planned Parenthood v. Brnovich, Johnson sided with Brnovich, finding that the 1973 injunction should be entirely vacated because it was based solely on Roe v Wade, which has since been overturned.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Between the induced labor and the COVID-19 treatment protocols that ultimately ended in her death on Dec. 1, 2021, 33-year-old Christy Cresto was only allowed by hospital staff to hold her baby for 10 minutes before he was taken to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

When she was admitted into a hospital in Pennsylvania on Oct. 9, 2021, she was 36 weeks pregnant and due Nov. 16; however, staff performed an ultrasound and decided she was at 38 weeks, with the baby at 9 pounds and 8 ounces.

“This would become the first of many lies from the hospital staff,” Matthew Cresto told The Epoch Times. “It became apparent to me that they purposely overestimated because he was born 6 pounds 5 ounces.”

Lie number two, Cresto said, was the assurance that they wouldn’t take the baby away from Christy since she contracted COVID while pregnant.

According to a January 2021 study in the Journal of American Medical Association, a baby in the womb of a mother who contracts COVID acquires natural immunity from the mother.

The study states in its abstract, “Maternally derived antibodies are a key element in neonatal immunity.”

With the assurance of the hospital that the baby wouldn’t be separated from them, they agreed to induce labor so that Christy could proceed with COVID treatment, Cresto said.

After he was born, they laid the baby in a bassinet, where Cresto said he stayed for two hours before a pediatrician entered to give him a newborn exam.

Lie number three, Cresto said, was hospital staff saying Christy could breastfeed if she wore a mask. But the baby never returned for feedings; instead, nurses brought Christy a breast pump, and she was given one dose of remdesivir, with discussion around putting her on a ventilator already having begun.

According to medical records, Cresto said, subsequent doses of remdesivir were marked “not appropriate at this time.”

Cresto continuously asked about the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance treatment protocols that included ivermectin, he said, to which staff responded by stating that they don’t work.

He asked about monoclonal antibody treatment, to which staff responded by telling him they didn’t have it.

What he later found, he said, was that—similar to others’ stories—the hospital did have monoclonal antibody treatment, but it wasn’t offered to the unvaccinated.

In many of these testimonies, some report that they were prohibited from visiting their loved ones, and others report they were permitted visits.

Cresto’s case was an exception, because after he protested he was allowed to stay.

Despite being told that he couldn’t see his son for 14 days, staff told him two days later that he was ready to be discharged from the NICU and that Cresto could take him home, he said.

“This, even though two days prior they said I couldn’t see him because I was exposed to my wife,” Cresto said. “There was absolutely no consistency in policies.”

Before Christy’s mother picked him up, Cresto was able to hold his son, he said.

“It’s important to point out here that I was able to go and hold him after leaving Christy’s ICU room,” Cresto said, where Christy had at that point been taken off high-flow oxygen and put on a BiPAP machine, which he called the “last step before the ventilator.”

At one point, Cresto received a photo from Christy he said she took of the call button in her room that was out of reach.

As described in a September lawsuit filed against three California hospitals for their use of remdesivir on patients allegedly without informed consent, call buttons are typically placed beyond the reach of patients who are going through these protocols.

Follow The Money

The TN Liberty Network (TLN), an independent think tank started by AJ DePriest and comprised of 28 Tennessee researchers, charted the financial incentives TLN said are driving the protocols.

In its Follow the Money Series, “Blood Money in U.S. Healthcare Financial Incentives: The Use of ‘Covered Countermeasures,’” TLN examines how the trillions that came from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act flowed into multiple three-letter agencies such as the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and—along with the perpetuation of the federal public health emergency—has created medical tyranny.

“Hospitals are incentivized to vaccinate, test, diagnose, and admit Covid patients and report COVID-related deaths using add-on bonuses to push treatments such as remdesivir, dialysis, ventilators, and new ‘covered countermeasures approved for Covid,” the report (pdf) states.

In addition to the incentives, a patient’s bill of rights is waived under the CMS COVID-19 Emergency Declaration Blanket Waivers for Health Care Providers.

This waiver allows healthcare workers to ignore a patient’s rights, such as the right to respect, the right to informed consent, and the right to refuse treatment, according to DePriest.

There is also a waiver that allows patients to be left alone for up to 48 hours without any care, DePriest reported.

The waivers state that because COVID is a drain on resources, the requirements to check on patients within the usual regulated standards are waived, DePriest explained.

NIH, the CDC, and CMS didn’t immediately respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.

‘My Heart Sank’

On Oct. 26, Cresto said he awoke to three missed calls from the hospital.

Christy had been put on the ventilator, he said.

“My heart sank,” he said. “They said she had an anxiety attack, started hyperventilating, and went into hypoxia.”

Staff told him she went on it willingly under the agreement that she be fully sedated, Cresto said, though Christy had told him earlier that she would refuse if offered.

The night before, Cresto said, Christy appeared healthy, responsive, and even talkative in a video chat, which was one of the last few times he spoke with her.

In 2018, President Donald Trump signed the Right to Try Act into law, which allowed patients with life-threatening diseases who have exhausted all other options to try certain unapproved treatments.

He cited this act when in another discussion with his doctor on trying high-dose vitamin and ivermectin therapeutics.

He said the doctor told him, “That was written for a different era.”

According to TLN’s report, hospitals have the option of using alternative treatments; however, the use of drugs like ivermectin isn’t federally reimbursed.

The vice president of medical affairs denied Cresto’s attempt to get another doctor or to have her transferred to another hospital within that hospital’s system, he said.

A Brief Communication

On Nov. 19, Cresto was able to communicate with Christy, who responded to him with eyebrow movement.

“I asked her if she could hear me, and if she could move her toes,” Cresto said. “No response. I asked her if she could move her eyebrows, and she did. I was blown away.”

He went on to ask a few more yes or no questions, and she moved her eyebrows again, he said.

“A wave of joy and happiness rushed over my entire being and I started crying and telling her how much I loved her, assuring her I’ve been here the whole time and that I miss her so much,” he said.

He retrieved a nurse who asked her to move her eyebrows, “like you did for your husband,” and Cresto said they moved again.

“It was a beautiful moment while it lasted,” Cresto said.

Christy’s condition improved, Cresto said, and on Nov. 25, she got to hold her baby one last time, though Cresto said she was still heavily sedated and mostly paralyzed.

“He was fussy until I laid him in her arms, then he calmed right down and fell asleep laying on her,” he said.

On Nov. 26, Christy’s health began to decline, Cresto said, and on Nov. 29, Cresto said he found out that her oxygen had dropped so low that her heart stopped for 15 minutes, though he hadn’t been notified.

Her condition only got worse, he said, and on Dec. 1, Christy died surrounded by family.

The official cause of death, according to Cresto, was COVID-19, with multiple organ failure.

Cresto maintains the belief that his wife was murdered by the hospital protocols.

“Looking back, there are so many things they did wrong,” he said.

According to Cresto, staff are required to reposition a patient on a ventilator every two hours. “The only thing they did was reposition her head,” Cresto said.

“You’re supposed to flip them between being on their back and their stomach at most every 16 hours,” he said. “They left my wife on her stomach for nine days straight, resulting in large sores on her feet, hands, and especially her chest, where the skin was missing from her chest because they left her in one position so long it created a pressure ulcer where it just rotted away.”

Cresto describes in more detail multiple incidents of neglect that he said left Christy despondent on the FormerFedsGroup Freedom Foundation’s (FFFF) COVID-19 Humanity Betrayal Memory Project, for which Cresto became the director of information technology.

The FFFF has published over 240 of these stories with over 100 more waiting to be interviewed.

‘It Was Like She Was a Medical Prisoner’

When Josh Hardison brought his wife Nicole Charlotte Hardison, who was 31 weeks pregnant, to a hospital in North Carolina to be admitted for COVID treatment on Dec. 5, 2021, hospital staff didn’t even want him to get out of the car.

“They came to get her, and from there, it was like she was a medical prisoner,” he told The Epoch Times.

As Hardison waited in the car, Nicole reported to him through text that staff were asking her why she didn’t get vaccinated, and that she needed to reach out to her friends on social media to encourage them to get jabbed, he said.

The plan was to get her on monoclonal antibodies, but what Hardison said he later found was that she was put on remdesivir.

Both Hardison and Nicole were aware of its emergency use authorization and risks, so they refused, telling staff they didn’t want it used on her, to which Hardison said staff resisted.

“It was psychological warfare the whole way,” he said.

During visitation, the obstetrician came into Nicole’s room and said, “We could have avoided all of this if she had just taken the shot five months ago when I offered it.”

In 2021, the medical community, along with media outlets, acted in a coordinated effort to push the vaccine that they said was “safe and effective,” despite the fact that it had only been released that year.

A September 2022 study found a significant increase in 14 serious side effects, including fetal malformation, fetal cardiac arrest, and stillbirth for women who took the COVID-19 vaccine compared to the influenza vaccination.

The study called for a moratorium on the use of COVID-19 vaccines in pregnancy.

Before they were done debating the safety, efficacy, and basic logic of taking a vaccine that had only been out for a few months, Hardison said the obstetrician pointed to his wife and told him, “My job here is to keep the incubator oxygenated until the baby comes.”

“I was blown away,” Hardison said.

They ‘Did it Anyway’

At 31 weeks, it was eventually decided that it would be best to perform a C-section to help with Nicole’s breathing, Hardison said, to which he agreed.

Nicole’s breathing and overall health improved after the C-section, Hardison said.

However, on Dec. 13, she was put on a ventilator, he said.

Nicole was also put on the drug Precedex for anxiety, as well as the opioid morphine.

Petitions for ivermectin and other alternative treatments were met with contempt, he said.

“They told me it was junk science,” he said.

She was taken back off the ventilator on Dec. 18, and was breathing on her own, Hardison said.

She was given an albuterol nebulizer to decrease her respiratory rate, along with a drug called Diamox, Hardison said.

“She had been prescribed that over a year ago for increased spinal pressure and never could take it because it didn’t agree with her body,” he said. “It also has contraindications with a lot of other drugs she was on.”

After her albuterol treatment, her breathing rate went up and her heart rate went down, which he said was the opposite of what the drug is supposed to do.

Nicole was later reintubated, he said, and she later contracted a condition called edema, which is a swelling in the body because of a buildup of fluid in the tissue.

One physician admitted that Diamox was a bad idea, he said, and apologized.

Hardison continued to engage physicians and nurses in debates over the treatment, but to no avail, he said.

“It was almost like they knew what the protocols were doing, but they did it anyway,” he said. “I actually had someone there tell me, ‘Everybody has a mortgage to pay.”

A Goodbye Prayer

Among multiple problems, Nicole was put on dialysis due to her failing kidneys, Hardison said.

Eventually, a doctor told Hardison there was nothing else they could do for her.

When asked if he wanted them to give her “comforting drugs,” Josh responded in anger, saying, “You’re asking me if I want you to euthanize her like a dog,” before telling them to get out and let him be with his wife in those final hours.

Hardison held Nicole and prayed until she passed on Dec. 22.

‘Nuremberg 2.0’

A baby’s cry interrupts Hardison’s story he recounts over the phone, and Hardison stops to tell her, “It’s OK,” and the baby quiets.

According to Nicole’s medical records, she died of sepsis, acute respiratory distress, and COVID pneumonia.

It wasn’t the first time Hardison had told this story, he said.

Hardison felt the response to his and stories like his has been slow, given the nature of what he describes as “murder for money.”

When asked what he believes should be done about what he alleged happened to his wife and to others, Hardison answered, “Nuremberg 2.0.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

‘We have a pandemic of misinformed doctors and a misinformed and unwittingly harmed public’

In a recent study, Dr. Aseem Malhotra, a leading British cardiologist and previously a proponent for the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, declared the global pandemic a pandemic of misinformation and called for a global stop of COVID-19 vaccinations.

“What has become clear with regard to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines is that we have a pandemic of misinformed doctors and a misinformed and unwittingly harmed public,” he wrote in a study published on Sept. 26.

In September, Malhotra published two articles discussing the the failed COVID-19 vaccination policies and the global misinformation that facilitated these “unethical, coercive, and misinformed policies.”

His work has been shared by many doctors who have questioned the vaccine narrative early on in the pandemic including, Dr. Peter McCullough, Dr. Pierre Kory, and many others.

Malhotra’s first article addressed the misleading clinical data on vaccine efficacy, as well as current findings on the harms of the mRNA jabs.

In the second study, Malhotra discussed why the public health authorities across leading developed countries have made failed policies regarding COVID-19 vaccinations, how governments missed opportunities to reduce COVID-19 severities by encouraging lifestyle changes, and a future forecast.

A ‘Pandemic of Misinformation’

“A senior doctor in regular contact with the United Kingdom’s (UKs) Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty recently expressed concerns to me that he felt most of his colleagues in leadership positions influencing health policy may not be critically appraising the evidence and instead are relying on media stories on COVID-19 and the vaccine,” Malhotra wrote.

This behavior is also reflected in health leaders in the United States.

The director of the U.S. Centers of Disease Control (CDC) and Preventions, Rochelle Walensky, conceded in March 2022 that her optimism over the COVID-19 vaccines came from the CNN reports on Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine efficacy, which was “an almost verbatim reproduction of Pfizer’s own press release.”

Whitty in February 2022 also publicly shared a letter outlining the importance of healthcare staff to become vaccinated against COVID-19, which was not comprehensive nor consistent with the evidence.

What’s even more ironic was that the CEO of Pfizer, Alberta Bourla, said a month earlier in an interview on Omicron that they “know that the two doses of a vaccine offers very limited protection, if any.”

“The three doses, with the booster, they offer reasonable protection against hospitalization and deaths. Against deaths, I think very good, and less protection against infection,” he said.

However, as addressed in Malhotra’s first article, Pfizer’s clinical trials showed no significant difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated on either hospitalization or deaths.

“Could it be that Prof. Whitty is also a victim of the medical misinformation mess?” Malhotra asked.

Malhotra answered that there are four drivers and seven sins at the root of the medical misinformation mess.

The drivers are that, first, most medical research is not reliable or of uncertain reliability, and therefore offer little benefit and usefulness. Second, most doctors are not aware of this problem, and, third, even if they are, they cannot evaluate data, therefore, finally, patients frequently lack relevant and accurate evidence and guidance when making their medical decisions.

The sins are that there are biases in research, in medical journal reporting, in the media, and in patient pamphlets. Furthermore, doctors and policy makers have commercial conflicts of interests, and doctors default to working in a manner to most reduce litigation risk, and cannot understand, nor are able to communicate health statistics.

Malhotra cited an example of biased data reporting:

“In September 2021, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) made a controversial recommendation that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is marginally beneficial for 12- to 15-year-old children.”

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA, the UK’s equivalent of the FDA) had previously stated in June 2021 that:

“They have carefully reviewed clinical trial data for the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine in over 2,000 children aged 12–15 years of age and have concluded that the benefits of this vaccine outweigh any risk and that it is effective and acceptably safe in this age group … No new side effects were identified and the safety data in children was comparable to that seen in young adults. As in the young adult age group, the majority of adverse events were mild to moderate, relating to reactogenicity (e.g. sore arm and tiredness).”

Despite consistent reports of safety, an award winning investigative science journalist Dr. Maryanne Demasi a few months later published a disturbing story on Maddie De Garay, a 12-year-old participant in one of the trials.

After experiencing severe abdominal pain followed by seizures she was admitted to hospital and is now left permanently disabled, wheelchair-bound, and fed through a nasogastric tube. In Pfizer’s trial they reported her adverse effect as mild: stomach upset.

Is this in keeping with the totality of the evidence?

Malhotra wrote that while the risk of death from COVID-19 is close to zero at 1 in 76,000, “there is no high-quality data in children that the vaccine will prevent infection, transmission, serious illness or death but may come with serious side effects of myocarditis–particularly in young males where it occurs in up to 1 in 2,700–and serious disability.”

Biased and Misleading Medical Research

“It is instructive to note that the greater the financial interests in a given field, the less likely the research findings are to be true,” Malhotra warned.

Given that Bill Gates has disclosed that vaccines give a 20 to 1 profit return—a highly significant profit margin—the one-sided medical findings on vaccine benefits that persist to today are therefore hardly surprising.

“The drug companies have a fiduciary obligation to deliver profits to their shareholders, not any legal responsibility to provide you with the best treatment.”

Over the many decades of lawsuits and studies that found the pharmaceutical industry hide, ignore, or misrepresent evidence about new drugs, with medical literature distorted and misrepresented for profits, public and professional trust of medical research have been in “a growing crisis,” Malhotra noted.

It is hardly surprising that a report by the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2017 showed that 82 percent of GPs and 63 percent of the public did not believe the results of pharmaceutical industry-sponsored research to be unbiased (pdf).

Between 2003 to 2016, the top 11 pharmaceutical companies paid $28.8 billion in fines just within the United States, according to a JAMA report. Most of the criminal activity included illegal marketing of drugs, manipulation of results and hiding data on harms. No systemic changes have been made to mitigate these harms since then, reported the BMJ.

The bigger problem with healthcare is that the very policymakers, doctors, academic institutions, and medical journals responsible for patients and scientific integrity often collude with the pharmaceutical industry for financial gain, Dr. Peter Wilmshurst presented on a talk at the Center of Evidence Based Medicine in Oxford in 2014.

A 2009 study analyzing international surveys from 1987 to 2005 by respondents from higher education institutions found that 14 percent admitted to knowing a colleague who fabricated, falsified, and modified data, and 34 percent of the researchers admitted questionable research practices (pdf).

This included selective reporting of clinical outcomes in published research and concealing conflicts of interest.

“One researcher at a prestigious UK institution contacted me to inform me that in his cardiology department, a group of academics were deliberately suppressing research that revealed that the mRNA vaccine was shown to significantly increase coronary risk as determined by cardiac imaging as compared to the unvaccinated,” Malhotra wrote.

“The chair of the group expressed concerns that publishing the data may result in loss of funding from the pharmaceutical industry. After I had alluded to this on GB News, the whistle-blower informed me that non-disclosure agreement letters were sent to all members of the team involved in this particular area of research.”

Institutional Corruption in Drug Regulators

Health authorities want the public to “trust the science,” but vaccine manufacturers have negotiated deals with several major governments globally keeping them safe from any financial liability in the event of vaccine-related harm.

This has undoubtedly harmed the public’s trust in healthcare.

India was one of the few democratic countries that refused to grant Pfizer indemnity from harms for its vaccine. An Indian government source told Reuters that:

“The whole problem with Pfizer is the indemnity bond. Why should we sign it? If something happens, a patient dies, we will not be able to question them [Pfizer]. If somebody challenges [it] in a court of law, the central government will be responsible for everything, not the company.”

Rather than taking a local safety and immunogenicity study, Pfizer withdrew its emergency use authorization for the COVID-19 vaccine in India.

India, a densely populated developing country, focused on early treatment rather than vaccination. The country managed to keep the number of deaths to 528,629 out of a 1.38 billion population. The death rate in India from COVID-19 is less than four deaths per 10,000 people.

Contrast that to the United States, a developed country where 68 percent of the population had been fully vaccinated, which had over a million deaths (1,084,282) out of 329.5 million people. This is equivalent to 32 deaths per 10,000 people, more than eight times the death rates of India.

Despite the contradictory data on COVID-19 vaccines’ abilities to control morbidities and transmissions, neither the world’s leading drug regulators nor the vaccine manufacturers have made the raw data for the pivotal trials public for independent scrutiny.

Malhotra highlighted the importance of the raw data not being publicized for independent scrutiny.

“Because historically when independent researchers have on occasion gained access to this data, then it can completely overturn the conclusion of the published trials.”

An example Malhotra cited is Tamiflu: the clinical case reports for Tamiflu ultimately showed that the drug was no more effective than paracetamol for influenza and also came with small but significant harms including nausea, vomiting, and headaches.

Yet, why was the drug approved?

Most of the drug regulators in the Western countries receive over half of their funding from the pharmaceutical industry—the industry they are supposed to be regulating.

The FDA receives 65 percent of its funding from the pharmaceutical industry, MHRA (UK) receives 86 percent and the TGA (Australia) receives 96 percent of its funding from the pharmaceutical industry.

Drug regulators are dependent on the pharmaceutical industry; the FDA for example, mainly receives its funding from drug manufacturers through user fees.

Malhotra cited Pfizer’s payments as an example: as part of the approval process for its COVID-19 vaccine, Pfizer made a wire transfer to the FDA of $2,875,842 in May 2021 under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act of 1992 (pdf).

Three months later, in August, the FDA fully approved Pfizer as the first COVID-19 vaccine.

Both Malhotra and the award-winning investigative journalist Dr. Maryanne Demasi argued that drug regulators’ dependence on the drug industry was “institutional corruption,” of their own.

Demasi’s report published in June found that Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), which is practically exclusively funded by the drug industry alone, approved 94 percent of all applications from 2020 to 2021. The MHRA approved 98.5 percent. The FDA approves 69 percent or 29 percent, depending on the center being evaluated.

Both the TGA and the FDA are mostly untransparent in their drug approval process. Demasi filed for FOIA reports to get disclosures on the TGA committee members who had conflicts of interest in their approval of the mRNA vaccines, but the TGA redacted the identity of these members, highlighting that it was personal information.

The FDA was sued in September 2021 by over 80 doctors and researchers to make the Pfizer injection data public. The FDA instead wanted the U.S. federal court judge to allow the agency 55 years to release this data.

“Why would the FDA—’which is responsible for the oversight of more than $2.7 trillion in consumption of food, medical products and tobacco’—do this? Secrecy should never surround any public health intervention,” Malhotra wrote.

As former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine Dr. Marcia Angell previously pointed out the real battle in healthcare is one of “truth versus money.”

Biased Media Reporting and Censorship

COVID-19 policies were probably the most illustrative example of corporate power.

“Corporations are able to shape preferences and frame the dominant narratives on the determinants of health, through unchecked invisible power. One pathway is through the ownership of mass media,” wrote Malhotra.

The global media market is highly monopolized, dominated by seven corporations and chains that own 80 percent of newspapers in the United States.

To give an example, The Vanguard Group, which holds the most shares in the New York Times of 9.54 percent also holds the most shares in Pfizer (8.29 percent).

The Washington Post is owned by Nash Holdings LLC, a company controlled by Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon. Amazon has been in partnerships with AstraZeneca and Pfizer since the pandemic.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, for example, has donated millions to the BBC, the Guardian, CNN, and many others.

“Control over advertising in print and broadcast media also has an influence over editorial decisions. Most health journalists (including a number I have spoken to) are generally unaware that the information they obtain for stories has been deliberately shaped by the private interests of manufacturers and ‘research’ universities,” wrote Malhotra.

Social media platforms continue to spread misinformation, deplatforming users and removing posts that critique the mainstream COVID-19 messaging.

Facebook even labeled the BMJ’s investigation into potential fraud in Pfizer’s pivotal trial as misinformation and stopped users from sharing the report on the platform.

“Rather than investing a proportion of Meta’s substantial profits to help ensure the accuracy of medical information shared through social media, you apparently delegated responsibility to people incompetent in carrying out this crucial task,” the BMJ’s current and former editors in chief wrote to Mark Zuckerberg.

Similarly, doctors who post studies on Twitter have routinely had their posts flagged for spreading “misinformation.”

Dr. Tracey Høeg, a physical medicine, rehabilitation physician, and with a PhD in epidemiology, said she was routinely censored by Facebook and Twitter. She has since stopped posting on Facebook, but in June 2021 Høeg posted a tweet of CDC’s own presentation slides. She commented that the slide’s data showed that the adverse effect reporting rates of myocarditis on VAERS was already higher than previous years.

Within seconds, Twitter flagged her tweet as “misleading,” to which Høeg wrote “I’m quoting the CDC’s own slides.”

Post-vax myocarditis was clearly above baseline at the end of May. As previously discussed, we are standing on shaky ground if we say the risk to otherwise healthy kids from Covid-19 is higher than it is from the vaccine. pic.twitter.com/fSDrlLm61f

— Tracy Høeg, MD, PhD (@TracyBethHoeg) June 11, 2021

The censorship is not on social media alone, but has also extended to medical publishing.

Many researchers, including Dr. Stephanie Seneff from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Dr. Jean-Claude Perez, have disclosed the difficulty of publishing their studies that may critique the risks of COVID-19 vaccines.

Leading pulmonary and critical care specialist Dr. Pierre Kory on Sept. 10 at a “Reclaiming Medicine” conference said that many peer-reviewed studies that show statistical benefits of alternative COVID-19 treatments including ivermectin were retracted without explanation.

One study (pdf) reviewing the benefits of ivermectin, authored by the 2015 Nobel laureate Dr. Satoshi Ohmura, was also taken down. Ohmura was awarded one quarter of the 2015 Nobel prize for finding ivermectin’s uses in treating river blindness and elephantiasis.

This in recent years has exacerbated public distrust from coercion to get vaccinated, vaccine passports, and little mainstream coverage of “an unprecedented scale of reported vaccine harms in the population,” wrote Malhotra.

The public has felt the effects.

In the United States, adult influenza vaccination uptake has fallen in states that saw lower COVID-19 injection rates, “in the UK MMR vaccination rates have hit their lowest for 10 years.”

Missed Opportunities to Improve Metabolic Health

Malhotra wrote that COVID-19 was a failure of public messaging and policies to help individuals prevent COVID-19 harms by improving their health.

After age, the biggest risk factor for worse COVID-19 outcomes has been obesity and metabolic conditions related to excess body fat.

“More than 90 percent of the deaths from COVID-19 occurred in countries where more than 50 percent of the population is overweight or obese,” Malhotra wrote.

However, this prominent opportunity to educate people on simple lifestyle changes was not addressed, and deaths from COVID-19 between the immune compromised and those who were healthy were all blanketed as COVID-19 deaths, driving public fear in a disease that was largely exaggerated. It’s a costly omission, especially since reversing metabolic conditions is not difficult.

While a non-smoking man in his mid-50s with a normal body mass index and doing adequate levels of physical exercise has a 1 in 1,521 chance of hospitalization after contracting COVID-19, in obese, smoking, and sedentary people, this risk rose to 1 in 327.

“[Health authorities] could have made the public aware that reversal of metabolic syndrome has been shown to occur in up to 50 percent of patients–independent of weight loss–within four weeks of dietary changes alone,” Malhotra wrote.

“Even a single high blood glucose reading in non-diabetics admitted to hospital has been shown to be associated with worse outcomes,” Malhotra wrote.

Steps to Change

“There was never any evidence justifying any COVID-19 vaccine mandates, passports, or any of the other coercive measures adopted by various governments worldwide,” Malhotra wrote.

He wrote that doctors should have informed patients that their absolute risk reductions for COVID-19 infections was only around 0.84 percent, or 1 in 119, and this calculation was based on untransparent data, and that this level of protection would only last for a few months, as part of ethical practice.

“The unprecedented roll-out of an emergency use authorization vaccine without access to the raw data, with increasing evidence of significant harms, compounded by mandates that appear to serve no purpose other than to bolster profits of the drug industry, have highlighted modern medicine’s worst failings on an epic scale, with additional catastrophic harms to trust in public health,” Malhotra concluded.

He argued that the failure of the public health response in COVID-19 must be used “as an opportunity to transform the system to produce better doctors, better decision making, healthier patients and restore trust in medicine and public health.”

“Until all the raw data on the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines have been independently analyzed, any claims purporting that they confer a net benefit to humankind cannot be considered to be evidence-based.”

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Epoch Health welcomes professional discussion and friendly debate. To submit an opinion piece, please follow these guidelines and submit through our form here.

Pennsylvania counties can help voters “cure” mail-in ballots to fix defects, a judge in the state has ruled, rejecting an attempt to block counties from doing so in the upcoming midterm election.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) and other parties, which filed a petition over the matter on Sept. 1, “have not proven that there is a clear violation of the Election Code or the law interpreting the Election Code,” Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Judge Ellen Ceisler ruled on Sept. 29.

The petition pointed to a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling in 2020 that found that the state election code enables voters to vote by mail but “does not provide for the ‘notice and opportunity to cure’ procedure” that was sought by Democrats.

The task of setting rules on fixing ballots “is one best suited for the Legislature,” according to Ceisler.

“The Legislature has addressed the issue of when Boards may provide notice and an opportunity to cure a noncompliant mail-in or absentee ballot,” Republicans stated in the petition. “The Election Code currently provides a cure procedure in only a limited circumstance: ‘for those absentee ballots or mail-in ballots for which proof of identification has not been received or could not be verified.’ And even in that circumstance, the voter may cure only the lack of proof of identification and not any other defect.”

That means that the county boards that have been issuing procedures to cure ballots are in violation of the ruling, the Republicans stated.

But Ceisler, a Democrat, said the Republicans haven’t proven that they’re likely to succeed or that the counties are violating the election code or the law interpreting the code.

“A review of relevant and recent case law indicates that notice and opportunity to cure procedures implemented by County Boards have generally been accepted in order to fulfill the longstanding and overriding policy in this Commonwealth to protect the elective franchise. The courts have held that any doubt about whether the Election Code authorizes County Boards to implement notice and cure procedures must be resolved in favor of preventing the inadvertent forfeiture of electors’ right to vote,” Ceisler wrote.

She also said Section 302 of the code lets county boards implement curing procedures at their discretion “to ensure that the electoral franchise is protected.”

Blocking the procedures already in place “would clearly cause greater injury than refusing the injunction,” the judge wrote, since voting in the midterm election is underway.

Republicans have appealed the decision to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

“Voters in Pittsburgh should have the same election rules as voters in Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania’s Constitution is clear that voting laws should be set by the legislature, not unelected bureaucrats,” Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel said in a statement to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Allowing some counties to operate differently than others undermines the rule of law. Republicans will continue fighting to ensure that Pennsylvania’s voters are treated equally regardless of where they live.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

An attempt by Igor Danchenko to get charges of lying to the FBI dismissed failed Sept. 29, meaning he will likely go on trial in October.

U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga, a George W. Bush appointee, declined to throw out any of the five charges filed against Danchenko after hearing arguments from special counsel John Durham’s team and lawyers representing Danchenko, a key source for the anti-Donald Trump dossier compiled by ex-British spy Christopher Steele on behalf of Democrats.

Danchenko’s position was based on arguments that the supposed false statements he told FBI agents during interviews were “literally true.”

Danchenko told agents that he did not talk with Charles Dolan, a longtime Clinton family associate, about any allegations contained in the dossier, both parties agree. Durham’s team says that was false because Danchenko sources at least one of the allegations he conveyed to Steele from Danchenko. But Danchenko says that the Russian national accurately spoke, because talking does not include emails.

“It was a bad question,” Danchenko’s lawyer, Stuart Sears, told Trenga, referring to how the FBI never followed up to specifically ask about other forms of communication. “That’s the special counsel’s problem. Not Mr. Danchenko’s. … He is not required to guess what the question actually means.”

Durham, appointed in 2019 by then-Attorney General William Barr to look for government misconduct in the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation into Trump, said that Danchenko’s statements, if examined in context rather than in isolation, will show that he knowingly lied. He said Danchenko himself used the word “speaking” to refer written words posted on social media accounts.

Trenga said that the defense’s theory “can be a very persuasive, strong argument to a jury,” but that ultimately the government met its burden to overcome a motion to dismiss.

It will be up to a jury to determine whether the government can meet its burden of proving a crime beyond a reasonable doubt, a much higher standard. Trenga said he will revisit the issue during trial after the government presents its case.

The trial is due to start on Oct. 11 in the federal court in Alexandria, Virginia.

Danchenko faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

Trenga declined to rule for now on Durham’s request to have the ability to bring up uncharged statements and acts that the government thinks establish a pattern, including how Danchenko allegedly emailed an associate in the past advising how to fabricate sources. Danchenko’s lawyers oppose the request.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Kellyanne Conway, who managed former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, told CBS News on Friday that Trump has his sights set on the White House in 2024 and that, within weeks, he might officially throw his hat in the ring.

Conway was asked whether Trump plans to announce he’s running for president before Thanksgiving.

“Well, he would like to,” Conway replied, according to CBS News.

Conway, who also served as Trump’s adviser after he defeated failed presidential contender Hillary Clinton, said that the former president is “as active as anybody” in the midterm elections.

Trump has resumed his signature rallies, seeking to build support for a Republican red wave and denouncing Democrat policies that he says are driving America to ruin.

“Our country is going to hell,” Trump said at a Sept. 3 rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. “Above all, this election is a referendum on the corruption and extremism of Joe Biden and the radical Democratic Party.”

It’s a message he’s expressed repeatedly, telling rallygoers at a more recent event in Wilmington, North Carolina, that “if you want the decline and fall of America, then you should vote for the crazy, radical left Democrats,” adding that putting Republicans back in charge would “save the American dream.”

Conway said in the CBS interview that, once the midterms are done, Trump will “assess the timing of his announcement.”

“I will tell you why he wants to run for president—Donald Trump wants his old job back,” Conway said.

Pressed on the specific timing of a possible Trump announcement, Conway said, “I think before the end of this year.”

‘I’ve Already Made That Decision’

Trump, for his part, said back in mid-July that he had made up his mind about whether to run in 2024, with the only remaining “big decision” being the timing.

“I’ve already made that decision, so nothing factors in anymore,” Trump said in an interview with New York Magazine, published on July 14.

“My big decision will be whether I go before or after,” Trump added, indicating that he is undecided on whether to announce before or after the 2022 midterm elections.

In her interview on CBS, Conway was asked whether the FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home had changed his calculus in any way about getting into the presidential race.

“It’s changed the level of support that he has seen from people who may have been sitting on the fence or reluctant about another Trump run,” Conway replied. She added that the raid has led such people to rally around the former president.

Conway was also asked whether she believes former Vice President Mike Pence has a “viable path to the White House.” She replied by saying that only if Trump decides not to run would Pence have a chance.

“If President Trump decides not to run … then it’s a free-for-all, then you’ve got dozens of men and women running. Our bench is very full,” Conway said.

‘It Has to Be Him’

At the “Save America” event in Pennsylvania at the beginning of September, The Epoch Times asked rallygoers who they would like to see running for president on the Republican ticket. Many said it has to be Trump.

Edward Borek of Pennsylvania, a veteran in his eighties, said he has been open to this question and has spent a lot of time learning about those on the growing list of potential Republican 2024 hopefuls.

“I think it has to be him,” he said, referring to Trump.

“I can’t see any other candidates right now who can come on up, push him aside, and lead the movement,” said Borek. “You’re not gonna get somebody else.”

“Absolutely Trump,” said rallygoer Mike Mangrell.

“I want him back to finish what he started, to drain the swamp, fix the crime, and build the wall.”

Bill Pan contributed to this report.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Just declare them to have special needs, and send them to “special” schools. There is already a system set up and we don’t have to have 99 percent effort for the less-than-one percenters. [US Patriot]

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va.—Most of the students in recent student walkouts across Virginia were just there to skip class and didn’t care about the cause of protesting the new transgender student policy in the state, according to an activist debrief recording obtained by The Epoch Times.

On Sept. 16, the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) released the new transgender student guidelines, whose 30-day public comment period began on Monday. According to the new guidelines (pdf), public schools cannot affirm a student’s gender without parents’ written requests. In addition, bathroom and locker room use is to be based on students’ sex, defined as the biological sex at birth. Student sports participation should be sex-based as well unless federal laws require otherwise.

The debrief was held on Sept. 28, a day after the walkouts. The demonstrations’ organizer, Pride Liberation Project (PLP), a youth LGBTQ advocacy group based in Fairfax County, reported participation from nearly 100 schools, mainly concentrated in Fairfax County and other counties in northern Virginia: Loudoun, Prince William, and Arlington.

‘People Weren’t Actually Interested in the Cause’

“Yesterday, at the school walkout we had, we had about 200 students participating. And most of the students were just there to skip class,” said one student organizer at the debrief. “And when I was handing out flyers yesterday, most of the flyers I handed out got handed right back to me because people weren’t actually interested in the cause for the walkout. They just wanted to skip class.”

Another responded, “I definitely had a lot of those people at my school as well.

“Honestly, they don’t realize it, but they are definitely helping our cause. They are bolstering our numbers; we can count them as our people who walked out for the Pride Liberation Project for these walkouts across the state.”

A third coordinator chimed in, “When helicopters are recording your school, they’re not seeing which one’s caring and which ones don’t. They’re just seeing the numbers.”

“So at the end of the day, do know that if you had 200 students, the news saw 200 students regardless of how they actually felt in that moment, and that made a really big impact collectively,” she added.

The Epoch Times has reached out to the PLP for comment.

‘Terrifying’ and ‘Predatory’

The mother who recorded the meeting learned about the walkouts from her daughter, a sophomore at a high school in the Virginia Beach City Public Schools district, on the day of the demonstrations. On their way home from school at the end of the school day, the daughter mentioned the walkouts; she wasn’t sure what was happening and didn’t join the activity. She said it had something to do with preferred pronouns.

Driving, the mother told her daughter to search online, and the girl pulled up news articles and the PLP name. Later, the mother looked up the website and thought it was too professional for a self-described “student-run” group. She then found out about the debriefing meeting and joined it. As she suspected, most in the walkouts didn’t know what the new policy was about. However, she found out information that she considered even worse than that.

“I’m pretty pessimistic at this point. For it to shock me, it’s pretty bad,” the mother told The Epoch Times. A “resource for outed students” private Discord channel offered to provide a gender-fluid student with housing, transportation, money, and cover/alibi if the student didn’t have support from the parents.

“It’s like kidnapping. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s terrifying,” the mother added. “It’s exploiting children for political gain and also encouraging them to leave their homes. The parents would have no idea where they are.”

Therefore, she was worried that although schools would be required to get parents’ consent on changing pronouns or gender identity under the new guidelines, the schools might not even know if organizations such as PLP would provide such “student resources.”

“Unless you’re monitoring your kids’ devices nonstop, you would have no way of knowing. And in these groups, no one has their real names or anything. And so they’re, ultimately, a bunch of strangers,” she said.

“I’m sorry; it’s very predatory,” she added.

School Divisions’ Compliance Expected

The new policies completely reverse the previous guidelines, which define transgender as a student’s “self-identifying term.” Those rules, which took effect in March 2021 under former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, ask schools to consider not disclosing a student’s gender identity to the parents “if a student is not ready or able to safely share” it with their family.

Responding to a reporter’s question about the new policies taking away schools as transgender students’ “only safe place,” Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said at an event in Leesburg, Virginia, on Sept. 20, “Parents had known these children from before they were born. And they understand them, and they love them.”

“And I think the previous administration’s policies, which specifically encouraged hiding from parents these kinds of discussions, were wrong,” he added. “I just can’t conceive of a moment where there’s an important thing going on in a child’s life, where a teacher, a counselor, an administrator wants to exclude parents.”

He also encouraged people to read the new policy. He said the policy was about respecting children’s dignity, privacy, and safety. “The word ‘bullying’ shows up in these draft guidelines 36 times.”

He said school boards should issue policies consistent with the VDOE model policies; the adoption is in Virginia law. “Just like everything else, protecting parents’ fundamental rights to make decisions for their children is in the Virginia code,” he added. “I fully expect that each one of the school divisions should comply.”

The deadline for adopting the new VDOE guidelines is Jan. 1, 2023.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

‘They take the kids back there one by one’

The transgender ideology was first pushed on children through schools, frequently without the knowledge or consent of parents. Now, a church in Texas has opened a Transparent Closet, where children are encouraged to embrace the transgender lifestyle—also without the knowledge or consent of their parents.

The Growing Transgender Movement

Schools, once considered by parents to be a safe place for their children, have become indoctrination centers where children are encouraged, brainwashed, and even forced into adopting the transgender ideology, frequently without the knowledge or consent of the parents. Parents warned others that their children may be in danger of being indoctrinated into the transgender ideology. In Florida, one mother was horrified when her 13-year-old daughter inadvertently revealed that school officials wanted to know which bathroom she preferred to use “as a result of her requested name change.” More shocking was her discovery of a plan devised during a private meeting between her daughter and school officials—without her knowledge or consent—that their daughter would be comfortable rooming with boys on overnight school trips.

According to the Leon County School District’s transgender gender nonconforming student support plan—filled out during a private meeting and obtained exclusively by The Epoch Times—a Part A “checklist” was used to record the child’s new non-binary status, “preferred name,” and “preferred pronouns.” The child also indicated that, while her parents were aware of her choice to identify as “non-binary,” they were not supportive and would not use her preferred name or pronouns at home.

After months of similar secret meetings with a school counselor at Paterson Elementary School in Fleming Island, Florida, a 12-year-old girl attempted suicide on school property—twice.

There is an explosion in the number of children who identify as transgender in the United States. In an effort to fight back, some parents have even filed lawsuits. Experts in both the United States and the United Kingdom have warned that the surge in the number of children seeking to change their gender is directly related to peer pressure on social media. According to one report, parents have been warned that “transgender influencers” from the LGBT community are patrolling social media and actively recruiting young, vulnerable children to join their movement, promising a place to belong. These influencers “prey on the vulnerability of children” while actively trying to “replace the loving influence of parents in children’s lives and hearts with their own ‘welcoming and accepting’ rainbow community.”

A study by a Brown University professor in August of 2018 showed how a new “social contagion” called “rapid-onset gender dysphoria” among teens and young adults may be linked to increased internet contact with peers who identify as LGBT in an identity politics peer culture—was quickly yanked from Brown’s news releases following objections from transgender activists.

Another ‘Family Friendly’ Event

It was Tayler Hansen who exposed the new church trans event. Hansen—the same independent, undercover reporter who exposed the “Drag Your Kids to Pride” event in Dallas, Texas, billed as a “family friendly” performance where kids were encouraged to give money to half-naked drag performers and to participate in the show—again dawned a disguise to infiltrate a Drag Bingo event at a church in Katy, Texas.

During what was billed as another “Family Friendly” event, an establishment calling itself the First Christian Church, hosted a Drag Bingo event on Sept. 24. The event does not appear on the church calendar, nor was it promoted on their Facebook page. But according to an Instagram post, the Transparent Closet debuted on July 15, at an event described as a “Fashion and Drag Show”–billed as “a coming out party”–featuring drag queens.

According to their website, The Transparent Closet “is a FREE clothing boutique designed for trans and exploring teens, youth and young adults to have a safe place for clothing needs and beyond.”

“When you come to the closet you will be welcomed into a space just for you,” the description reads further. “Here you will find all kinds of clothes, undergarments, shoes, hair accessories, style accessories, make-up and more.” The Transparent Closet is open Thursday through Saturday, or otherwise by appointment.

“It was similar to other events,” Hansen told The Epoch Times, describing how he showed up in disguise in order to explore the venue undetected. However, he also noted how “they’re starting to catch on to people going undercover to expose what goes on at these drag events so there was significantly more security.”

AK47s, Handguns, and AR-15s

“They had a security checkpoint where between 50 to 60 ANTIFA members were stationed for security,” Hansen recalled, noting that many of them were “armed with AK47s, handguns, and AR-15s.” One even had a pistol caliber carbine.

While Hansen said an email had been sent to those who purchased one of the $20 tickets for admission to the event proclaiming that no protesters from either side would be allowed at the event, he quickly discovered it was “obviously a lie.”

One video captured by Hansen shows hundreds of protesters from opposite camps shouting at each other from opposite sides of the street. At one point, Hansen said he saw ANTIFA members pepper spraying members of the Proud Boys, “and that was pretty much all of the violence for the entire night.”

Another video captured by Hansen shows a female supporter of the Drag Bingo/Transparent Closet event yelling at a member of the local sheriff’s department about the “anti-drag protesters outside of the event.” While repeatedly pointing her finger in the face of the officer with one hand, she holds a firearm in the other. It’s the type of firearm described by leftists as an “assault weapon,” the very sort of weapon they repeatedly try to have banned.

Hansen also saw three black female Katy, Texas, police officers, in uniform, checking parking passes and handing out parking passes.

“I’ve never seen police officers working private security while in uniform at such a politicized event,” Hansen noted.

According to GA-0435, a “reserve peace officer employed by a municipal police department may not wear his official uniform and display the insignia of an official law enforcement agency while working as a private security officer licensed by the Texas Private Security Board.”

Several inquiries to First Christian Church by The Epoch Times—to verify whether or not the three police officers were “licensed by the Texas Private Security Board,” and whether or not they were hired for private security during their off-duty hours or assigned by the department to check parking passes during the event—went unanswered.

Once past that checkpoint, Hansen said there were two “muscled gays,” dressed in drag and wearing makeup, who “appeared to be acting as bouncers.”

The Transparent Closet

Once he was on the church property, Hansen saw a metal trailer, which was where the church was hosting the Drag Bingo event. The trailer, he said, is attached to “the actual church building.” It’s also where the Transparent Closet is located. As he entered the trailer, Hansen said there were two girls sitting at a table with a bucket of pens, raffle tickets, and drinking wrist bands “because they were selling alcohol inside of the church.”

“I thought that was a little peculiar,” Hansen said, adding that because he has exposed what goes on at enough of these events he knew it would be unwise “to accept a drink from anyone at any of these events.”

Another oddity was the pins that were handed out to those who attended the event. They were round, with a black background, printed with bold, rainbow, all capital lettering that said: “NOT ALL CHRISTIANS SUCK.”

During the 30 minutes Hansen sat waiting for his turn to tour the closet, he saw approximately eight unaccompanied children who appeared to be under the age of 10, and around five whom he estimated to be around 13 to 14 years old—being taken into the closet—alone.

“In my video, there were two guys referred to as Church Worker #1 and Church Worker “2,” Hansen explained. “They’re basically walking around pulling children away from their parents, if they even had parents there. If the kids are unaccompanied, they’re just walking up to them offering a tour of the Transparent Closet. Then they take the kids back there one by one.”

When it was Hansen’s turn for a tour, Church Worker #2—who Hansen said is seen “struggling to open his doughnut bag the entire time”—started saying how he could provide him with “nipple tassels or nipple covers.”

The video shows Church Worker #1 and Church Worker #2, describing the various items made available to the children. Particular attention is given to the chest of drawers, where chest binders, underwear and bras can be found.”

“We’re trying to get more binders and things like that,” Church Worker #1 explains, adding that the “can’t get those” or underwear used “’cause it’s gross.”

Off camera, Hansen said the workers described chest binders as “a confidence booster.”

“That’s how they see it in their eyes,” Hansen said. “It’s a way to express your gender ideology.”

“There’s purses, there’s hats,” Church Worker #2 exclaims, seeming to make a reminder to himself aloud that they “need more hats.”

“Do you want jewelry, darlin’?” Church Worker #2 chimes in, pointing to their collection of “necklaces, bracelets, rings, and earrings.”

Church Worker #1 tells Hansen that they try to make the Transparent Closet “look like a store as much as possible.” He then explains how the bags they give the kids to take home the items they select from the Transparent Closet make it easier for them to hide it all from their parents.

‘I Went Shopping. I Went to Home Goods’

In the video, Church Worker #1 openly admits to Hansen that children are provided bags from Home Goods for a very specific reason.

“The bags are the bags they are” because “anyone can go home with those bags and it’s like ‘I went shopping. I went to Home Goods,’” he explains, “because we get a lot of teens, families aren’t supporting.”

Home Goods is a national retail chain that specializes in “home décor from around the world.”

“They have it designed so that when you go home and your parents aren’t accepting or they don’t want you engaging in all the gender ideology, they’ll just see a Home Goods bag and won’t worry about it,” Hansen explained.

The Epoch Times reached out to Home Goods to find out if they were aware that shopping bags, bearing their company name, were being used by First Christian Church in an intentional effort to help children hide the transgender clothing they are obtaining from the church from their parents.

“Thanks for reaching out,” Jessica Stevens, Home Goods public relations manager responded by email, “but we wouldn’t have anything to add to your story.”

According to Hansen, there are two female pastors at the church. One is named Amanda. He is not familiar with the other one. Aside from Senior Pastor Rev. Heather Patriacca Tolleson, a second female pastor is not mentioned on their website.

According to Hansen, Amanda gave him a smug look when she noticed he was recording. She then began recording him. When Hansen went to go sit back down he was “swarmed” by around six other attendees who stood around him. Amanda then told him to follow her because he had to leave.

Once outside, he was confronted by one of the armed police officers, who told him he was going to “get trespassed” if her didn’t leave. She demanded that he hand over his parking pass so he could not get back inside.

According to Hansen, he wasn’t the only one there investigating the event. An associate of his, a man identified only as Paul, informed Hansen that drag queens were also dancing at the event. However, with the awareness that their events were being infiltrated by investigative journalists who would expose them if they got the chance, guests “were told to turn off their cell phones and that no photography or videos were allowed,” and that “anyone caught taking photos or videos would be removed immediately.”

For a church-sponsored Drag Bingo event benefitting something they called a Transparent Closet, Hansen said “there was little transparency” involved.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Social media giant TikTok and its nebulous connections to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) present a threat to U.S. national security, according to one expert.

Geoffrey Cain, an independent investigative journalist and author of a book on the CCP’s efforts to build a totalitarian surveillance state, believes that TikTok’s troubled emergence, shadowy corporate structure, and connection to China’s data laws make it a unique threat to the United States.

“The problem of TikTok is that it is a national security threat to the United States and to countries outside of China,” Cain said during a Sep. 29 interview with NTD’s “American Thought Leaders.”

“It is a disaster waiting to happen, because TikTok, though the company denies it, is fundamentally obligated to follow the laws of China, the laws that were created by the Chinese Communist Party.”

TikTok’s Move to US Shrouded in Secrecy

Cain highlighted that TikTok is not only owned by Chinese corporation ByteDance, but was also created by one of the company’s leaders in artificial intelligence (AI) using funding from U.S.-based Sequoia Capital.

Related Coverage

The TikTok Trojan Horse and China’s Long Arm of Artificial Intelligence: Geoffrey Cain ｜ American Thought Leaders

Moreover, Cain said that TikTok’s move into the world market occurred under dubious circumstances, as the company only reached a global audience after it was paired with the Santa Monica office of Music.ly, another Chinese-owned social media company.

TikTok did not inform U.S. officials about the merger despite both companies’ ties to China, Cain said.

“There are many red flags, but the biggest red flag about this acquisition is that TikTok did not notify the U.S. government about the acquisition,” Cain said.

“That should sound alarm bells. Why did TikTok decide not to do that review? It’s as if they kind of snuck into the market and placed their software in the hands of the next generation.”

Following that revelation, the Trump administration attempted to get TikTok banned or otherwise sold to an American parent company, and the case has been under review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) ever since.

Cain recently testified before the U.S. Senate about the issue. In his testimony (pdf) he discussed documented ties between ByteDance, TikTok, and the CCP, including internal meetings at the companies in which employees allegedly praised the CCP.

Now, Cain said he believes the CCP is using TikTok to spread its surveillance and censorship around the globe.

“TikTok executives have admitted in the past that the algorithm that TikTok [uses] has been used to suppress bad news coming out of China,” Cain said.

Cain referred to the sworn testimony of one TikTok executive who testified before the British Parliament in 2020 that TikTok censored or otherwise suppressed information about the genocide of the Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang province at the request of CCP authorities.

Cain also pointed to a moderation guideline leaked back in back in 2019 that showed that TikTok and ByteDance instructed the global moderators, including in America, to suppress any videos showing poverty, slums, or ugly people in China, and to censor critical comments about China’s actions in Tibet and Tiananmen Square.

TikTok has said that these policies are no longer in effect.

The CCP Can Access Everything

At the heart of Cain’s concern about the risk of TikTok was the intersection of CCP data laws and the relationship between the company and its China-based owners.

The CCP’s National Intelligence Law and National Security Law, for example, require all companies operating within mainland China or with a majority Chinese stake to hand over all data to the CCP upon request.

This means that any executive at TikTok or ByteDance, if based in China, could be legally compelled by the CCP to hand over the company’s data, including information on users’ facial recognition, browsing activity, and key-logged passwords.

As such, some security experts have said that TikTok is a “weaponized” application that benefits the CCP’s military and espionage campaigns.

“This is where the TikTok and the ByteDance connection becomes extremely problematic,” Cain said.

“There’s not going to be a separate line between [TikTok and ByteDance], the Chinese Communist Party will see TikTok as fundamentally a Chinese company and one that needs to report to the Chinese Communist Party.”

TikTok previously said that all American user data was stored within the United States.

TikTok has since admitted that this is not true, however, and in a September congressional hearing, TikTok executives refused to commit to stopping the flow of American data to China.

Cain feared that such data could all too easily be leveraged by the CCP to hunt down and silence its political enemies.

“These could be Hong Kong dissidents, these could be American military commanders, [these] could be anybody who might be of an interesting nature to the Chinese Communist Party,” Cain said.

“Those executives are required by Chinese law to hand over the data.”

A Threat to the Free and Open Flow of Information

With that in mind, Cain said that allowing TikTok to continue to operate in the United States while it was still owned by ByteDance was a direct threat to U.S. national security.

Moreover, he said, it was incompatible with the freedom of expression valued by democratic nations.

“What is it that separates TikTok and ByteDance operating around the world from what’s happening in Xinjiang?” Cain asked.

“[TikTok] might not be literally running the concentration camps, but they have been involved in suppressing and censoring news about these atrocities. They’re using fundamentally the same technologies as what the Chinese government has been using to monitor and surveil its people.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

‘They know your name. They have your social security number’

The United States has paid little heed to the growing Chinese intelligence threat, according to economist, China expert, and author Clyde Prestowitz.

“One of the things that bothers me in the U.S.–China relationship is the ignorance of the U.S. side on the … limits to which the Chinese will go to obtain intelligence,” Prestowitz told EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” program on Sept. 20.

He further pointed to the recent report on a Chinese entity’s purchase of farmland near a U.S. Air Force base in North Dakota.

“The Chinese have been buying up land near American bases. That land is not being bought in order to grow wheat. They’re watching the bases,” he noted.

Meanwhile, the Chinese regime puts enormous resources into intelligence efforts, according to Prestowitz, who served as counselor to the secretary of commerce during the Reagan administration and currently heads the Economic Strategy Institute.

“There was a figure, a number thrown out last week, that China spends more money on domestic security than it does on its army, navy, and military security. Well, all of that effort that’s being made on domestic security is gathering intelligence,” he said.

“China has gathered up millions, maybe billions of categories of classified information. So they know your name. They have your social security number.”

US Companies Subservient to Beijing

In his book, titled “The World Turned Upside Down: America, China, and the Struggle for Global Leadership,” Prestowitz pointed out another challenge China poses: making U.S. companies subservient to Beijing. He singled out Apple Corporation as an example.

In the late 1990s, Apple moved its production facilities from California to China to take advantage of cheap labor, Prestowitz said. This was not surprising, considering that the Chinese regime “was offering free land, no taxes for 25 years, utilities at half cost.”

The result, he said, is that “China can compel Apple to do whatever it damn well pleases. And so Apple has, in a way, been captured politically by China.”

This limits the U.S. government’s power over Apple. “When Apple testifies before the Congress or lobbies U.S. government entities, it presents itself as an American company, but officials have to keep in mind that it is, in a way, more subservient to Beijing than it is to [Washington].”

He further pointed out that not only Apple, but other companies—including General Electric, General Motors, Boeing, and other major manufacturing companies—are highly reliant on China, and “all of them are subject to coercion by the Chinese Communist Party.”

“The [Lockheed Martin] F-35 has a component that’s made in China. That tells you the extent, the penetration of products made in China,” Prestowitz said.

“California and many other states are heavily pushing the development of solar panels. Where are all the solar panels made? They’re made in China,” he added.

Boost US Production, Curb Dependence on China

To counter the threat from the Chinese regime, Prestowitz suggested an industrial policy that strives to boost production in the United States, while curbing dependence on China.

He said the recently passed CHIPS and Science Act, which will allocate $280 billion in subsidies, tax breaks, and research grants to prop up the domestic semiconductor industry, could play this role. The bill, he said is “going to very quickly result in at least a doubling—probably more than a doubling—of semiconductor production in the U.S.”

A similar approach should be applied to other technologies such as telecommunications, Prestowitz said.

“U.S. venture capital has been very active in China. If the Chinese are trying to propagate particular industries of technology, they will welcome [and] attempt to entice U.S. venture capital to invest in those technologies in China.”

“That’s not good for the U.S.,” he stressed. “We want that invested in U.S. technology.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

A federal judge on Friday threw out a lawsuit filed by Stacey Abrams challenging Georgia’s election system after she lost the 2018 gubernatorial race to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.

The lawsuit, which sought to change how the state administers elections, was filed around four years ago by Fair Fight Georgia, a political action committee established by Abrams after her election defeat. Earlier this year, the judge pared down the lawsuit by dismissing many of its original complaints.

Abrams alleged “misconduct, fraud or irregularities” in the voting process. She took legal action to stop counties from throwing out some rejected provisional and absentee ballots when updated vote totals affirmed Kemp was the likely winner.

When she eventually conceded on Nov. 16, 2018, Abrams vowed to take legal action to continue fighting the outcome.

“Although Georgia’s election system is not perfect, the challenged practices violate neither the constitution nor the [Voting Rights Amendment],” U.S. District Judge Steven Jones said in his ruling.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who was the lead defendant in the case, hailed the ruling.

“This ruling allows local officials to focus on the task at hand this year—running a safe, secure, and accessible election,” he said on Twitter. “Stolen election and voter suppression claims by Stacey Abrams were nothing but poll-tested rhetoric not supported by facts and evidence.”

Response

In a statement on Friday, Abrams said despite the loss, the case “had measurable results,” including “the reinstatement of over 22,000 ballots, substantive changes to voting laws, and a platform for voters of color to demand greater equity in our state.”

“During this suit, more than 3,000 voters shared their stories, creating an unprecedented and lasting record of voter testimony, which highlighted the suppressive effects of the Secretary of State’s actions on vulnerable voters,” she said on Twitter.

Abrams vowed to “expand the right to vote” for minorities if she wins the gubernatorial election.

After losing in 2018, lawyers for Abrams’s campaign and the Democrat Party of Georgia asked the court to order that provisional ballots that were rejected due to missing or incorrect information be restored. Her lawsuit also demanded that counties that had already certified vote returns correct their totals and re-certify the results.

The complaint specifically demanded to restore the votes of 1,095 Gwinnett County voters whose absentee ballots were rejected.

Abrams’s campaign contacted voters in Georgia asking if they experienced issues casting a vote.

Kemp’s campaign accused Abrams of trying to steal the election by filing legal challenges and “desperately trying to create more votes for Stacey Abrams.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Democrat who held unarmed black jogger at gunpoint promotes TikTok video glorifying violence against black men

John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, is embroiled in yet another racism scandal after his campaign released a controversial video on TikTok, the Chinese spyware app.

What happened: Fetterman’s campaign posted a TikTok video glorifying violence against black men. The crudely animated clip shows Fetterman repeatedly kicking an unarmed black man “in the balls.” The candidate promoted the video on Twitter along with the caption, “DC could use a kick in the balls.”

By the numbers: More than 45 percent of the Washington, D.C., population is black.

Why it matters: This is not the first time Fetterman has come under fire for being a racist. In 2013, the Democrat chased down an innocent black jogger and held the terrified man at gunpoint after hearing fireworks near his home.

• Malcolm Kenyatta, a black lawmaker who challenged Fetterman in the Democratic primary, correctly observed that Fetterman was the only Democrat in the race who “used a shotgun to chase down an unarmed black jogger.”

• Despite winning the primary, Fetterman finished no better than a distant third in the most heavily black areas of Philadelphia.

What they’re saying: “I would like white Dems to ask themselves how they would feel knocking on doors in Philly & saying, ‘You gotta get out to vote for this guy even though he held a black man at gunpoint. Sorry!'” wrote liberal journalist Magdi Semrau after Fetterman secured the party’s nomination.

The big picture: Fetterman has also been criticized for exposing his children to “despicable” animated content that glorifies human trafficking and child slavery. Earlier this month, the candidate appeared to give a Nazi salute at a pro-abortion rally.

The bigger picture: Planned Parenthood, the nation’s leading pro-abortion group, was founded by a prominent supporter of eugenics, a racist philosophy that was also embraced by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

Two Guatemalan men who illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and led across other migrants pleaded guilty on Thursday in federal court to a conspiracy that resulted in the death of one migrant, the Department of Justice announced.

In August 2021, police arrested Armando Gael-Galicia, 26, and Jose Diego Tercero-Gonzalez, 22, after the body of a young Guatemalan woman was discovered near Odessa, Texas. The victim died in Gael-Galicia and Tercero-Gonzalez’s trailer, which also housed additional illegal immigrants. The defendants admitted on Thursday that they “operated a prolific alien smuggling organization and were responsible for the transportation of the migrant who died.”

The case comes as the U.S.-Mexico border under President Joe Biden faces an unprecedented crisis. Two million migrants illegally crossed into the United States in this fiscal year, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Biden tasked with handling the crisis, has been to the border only once, with Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar saying that “it doesn’t look like she’s very interested in” the issue.

The case is connected to the indictments of other human smugglers who “facilitate the travel of large numbers of migrants from Guatemala through Mexico, and ultimately, to the United States, charging the migrants and their families approximately $10,000 to $12,000 for the perilous journey,” the Justice Department said. Guatemalan authorities have arrested the other smugglers and are preparing to send them for trial in the United States.

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

Events come amid global surge in energy prices as Democrats vilify fossil fuels

Sen. Raphael Warnock (D., Ga.) raked in cash from wealthy green energy moguls at a series of San Francisco fundraisers last weekend, a month after voting to pass legislation that steered billions to climate initiatives and the green energy industry.

During his West Coast fundraising swing, the senator partied with billionaire investor Tom Steyer, biofuels CEO Wade Randlett, and “Defund the Police” advocate Meena Harris, the niece of Vice President Kamala Harris, according to photos. Steyer cohosted an event for Warnock in San Francisco on Saturday, along with NextGen America board member Andrea Evans, according to an invitation for the fundraiser. Randlett cohosted an event for Warnock on Friday.

The parties came weeks after Warnock voted for the Biden administration’s budget reconciliation bill—officially dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act—and highlight the cozy relationship between Democratic political leaders and the lucrative green tech industry. The legislation poured billions into green energy initiatives and is expected to benefit industries in which Steyer is an investor, according to analysts. The fundraisers also come amid a global surge in energy prices, with many Americans struggling to pay utility bills, and as Democratic lawmakers continue to vilify the fossil fuel industry.

Steyer, a Democratic donor who ran a short-lived campaign for president in 2020, launched a “climate investment fund” called Galvanize in 2021 with a goal of investing “billions” into decarbonization companies. The fund’s reported investments include Regrow Ag, a startup that “aims to help accelerate the shift to climate-friendly farming” and Arable, which seeks to “create a more sustainable food supply.”

Both Regrow Ag and Arable were named as companies that are likely to benefit from a $20 billion earmark in the federal spending bill, according to an analysis published by the clean energy investment firm G2 Venture Partners on Aug. 17, the day after the bill was signed by President Joe Biden.

The bill “has earmarked $20B to (1) target methane and nitrous oxide emission reduction (e.g. Arable, Trace Genomics), (2) improve soil carbon and nitrogen content (e.g. Pivot Bio), and (3) avoiding / sequestering GHG emission (e.g. ProducePay, Regrow, Cloud Agronomics),” wrote G2 Venture Partners.

Steyer praised the passage of the bill as the “culmination of a decade of advocacy and persistence.” Earlier this month, he attended a party at the White House celebrating the legislation.

The Friday fundraiser was cosponsored by Randlett, a biofuels mogul and CEO of the transportation fuels division at General Biofuels. The spending bill extended the biodiesel tax credit and was praised by leaders in the biofuels industry.

“This bill represents the most significant federal commitment to low-carbon biofuels since the Renewable Fuel Standard was expanded by Congress in 2007,” said Renewable Fuels Association president Geoff Cooper in a statement applauding the bill.

Andrea Evans, a board member at Steyer’s nonprofit group NextGen, also cohosted the Saturday Warnock fundraising event.

The Inflation Reduction Act has faced some criticism, with Republicans arguing that it will raise taxes while steering federal funds to Democratic constituencies. Warnock praised the bill, saying it will “help lower costs for families in every corner of our state—all without raising taxes for hardworking Georgia families. That’s a win-win.”

Photos from Warnock’s California fundraising trip also show him posing with his arm around Meena Harris, an Instagram lifestyle influencer and the niece of Kamala Harris. Meena Harris is a vocal advocate for the “defund the police” movement.

“Defund the police and reallocate funds to mental health and social services. This shouldn’t be controversial,” wrote Harris in one Twitter post.

She later expanded on this by adding: “To everyone in my mentions policing my language, let me clarify: Defund the police. Defund the police. Defund the police. Defund the police. Defund the police. Defund the police. Defund the police. Defund the police. Defund the police. Defund the police. Defund the police.”

The senator is the party’s top fundraiser for the midterm cycle, pulling in a whopping $17 million last quarter in his competitive faceoff against Republican challenger Herschel Walker.

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

Violence and crime rampant outside clinic that provides free syringes, crack pipes

BOSTON—The sidewalk surrounding the city government’s so-called harm reduction facility in South Boston, which exists to make drug use safe, has devolved into a lawless safe haven for addicts who are free to inject dangerous drugs in plain sight of the city’s police force.

The city’s drug users congregate outside Access, Harm Reduction, Overdose Prevention, and Education (AHOPE), the Boston Public Health Commission’s harm reduction facility, to pick up free drug paraphernalia such as syringes and crack pipes. The Washington Free Beacon saw several users inject in front of the building, where an officer sat inside a parked police car. Remnants of pipes, syringes, and drug capsules filled the cracks in the sidewalk. Security guards at a next-door homeless shelter said police monitor the area to counter violence—which erupts daily between addicts—but otherwise overlook public drug use.

“All the time—violence,” one security guard told the Free Beacon.

So far this year, Boston police have made 29 arrests for aggravated assault on the one-mile street outside the AHOPE facility, which neighbors the Boston University Medical Campus and Boston Medical Center, according to police data. Police have also made arrests for 12 robberies, 5 auto thefts, 23 warrant arrests, and 32 “sick assists”—8 of which for “drug-related illness.” While Boston police also made 44 arrests for “drug possession/sale manufacturing/use,” it is unclear which specific charge was the cause for each arrest. Police officers declined to speak with a Free Beacon reporter on site, and the Boston Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.

The disorder outside AHOPE provides a case study in how the Biden administration’s controversial harm reduction approach to drug policy—which aims to make drug use safer for addicts rather than prevent it—can facilitate crime and dangerous drug abuse. The Department of Health and Human Services launched the nation’s first federal harm reduction program in May, doling out $30 million in grants to organizations to distribute drug paraphernalia such as syringes and “smoking kits,” which often include crack pipes. The White House claimed these funds would not go toward pipes, but several grant recipients distribute the drug supplies, according to a Free Beacon investigation.

Aside from clean pipes and syringes, harm reduction groups such as AHOPE also distribute fentanyl test strips, Narcan, and disease testing, which are intended to mitigate the health risks of drug abuse. Outside the Boston harm reduction facility, however, roughly a dozen drug users each day are rushed to the Massachusetts General Hospital for treatment after they show signs of an overdose, the security guards said.

While the area outside the facility is a de facto harbor for illicit drug use—one drug user said addicts naturally migrate there because of the free drug paraphernalia—formalized injection sites are illegal under federal law. The Biden administration is preparing to declare such injection sites legal, the New York Times reported in July, which would allow people to use drugs with oversight from medical professionals to help prevent overdose deaths. The Trump administration struck down an attempt to open an injection site in Philadelphia, but that decision is set to be overturned by the Justice Department. Injection sites currently operate in New York City.

Two trash cans mark the area in front of the homeless shelter where drug use is prohibited. A woman is passed out next to the further trash can.

During one visit to the harm reduction facility, police officers cleared all drug users off the street after declining to speak to a Free Beacon reporter. One of the security guards said that he had only seen police remove everyone from the area “a couple times” since he began working there this year.

“[Police] allow them to shoot up,” he said. “But not in front of buildings.”

Police returned to remove drug users in front of the city-run harm reduction building.

“The good thing is we give them sleep and hope,” the security guard added. “The bad thing is you keep the addiction prolonged.”

The Boston Public Health Commission and Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, which treats addicts after they overdose on public streets, did not respond to requests for comment.

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a decree that will annex four Ukrainian territories into the Russian Federation in a move that was condemned by Western powers.

The order will impact the disputed regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia. Starting about a week ago, residents of those areas signed referendums, although U.S. and European Union officials claimed it was a sham.

“You know that referendums have taken place,” Putin said Friday at a ceremony in the Kremlin, according to state-run media. “The results have been calculated. The results are known. People have made their choice, an unequivocal choice.”

Describing the votes as “the will of millions of people,” Putin said that people “living in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson region and Zaporizhzhia region are becoming our compatriots forever.”

In February, the Kremlin recognized the disputed Donbass areas of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states and accused Ukraine’s government of failing to implement earlier agreements that would give those regions special status following widespread protests in Kyiv in 2014. Days later, Putin on Feb. 24 announced the invasion of Ukraine, describing it as a “special military operation.”

“We will always remember the heroes of the Russian Spring,” Putin said in reference to incidents in 2014, including protests against Ukraine’s government in the Donbass and Crimea—which Russia ultimately annexed.

And Putin said he would remember “those who died for the right in their native tongue, to preserve their culture, traditions, their faith. For their right to live,” state-run media reported.

He urged Ukraine to cease military action and return to the negotiating table. Kyiv has vowed to recapture all the lands seized by Russia and said that Russia’s decision to annex the territories has destroyed any prospect of talks.

It comes as Russian forces have faced setbacks on the battlefield. Pro-Russian officials acknowledged that Russian troops were on the verge of encirclement in Lyman, their main garrison in the north of Donetsk province.

A defeat there could open the way for Ukraine to recapture swathes of the territory that Putin has now declared to be part of Russia.

Criticism

The referendum votes were sharply criticized in the West, accusing Russia of perpetuating a sham.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on Twitter Thursday that he had assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Germany will never recognize the “so-called results.”

“This is an attempt to steal the territory of another state,” Zelenskyy said during a remote address to the U.N. Security Council Tuesday. “This is a very cynical attempt to force the male population in the occupied territory of Ukraine to mobilize into the Russian army in order to send them to fight against their own homelands.”

“The U.N. Charter is clear,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters Thursday. “Any annexation of a state’s territory by another state resulting from the threat or use of force is a violation of the principles of the U.N. Charter and international law.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the United States will now likely hit Russia with additional sanctions. The United States has already placed penalties on top Kremlin leaders and their family members while banning all Russian oil imports.

“In response, we will work with our allies and partners to impose additional economic costs on Russia and individuals and entities inside and outside of Russia that provide support to this action,” she told reporters on Thursday.

Reuters contributed to this report.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Attorney General Merrick Garland has received a flurry of stern letters, including notice of an investigation, from Republican members of Congress in the days since the FBI’s Sept. 23 raid on the Pennsylvania home of pro-life activist Mark Houck.

“Not only did your office turn a local dispute into a national case, but the FBI reportedly executed the search warrant in as extreme a manner as one can imagine,” a Sept. 26 letter, sent individually by Sen. Josh Hawley said. “The FBI admitted in a statement that as many as 20 agents were present with their guns drawn.”

Houck was handcuffed in front of his wife and seven children during the 7 a.m. arrest and search of his home.

A Sept. 27 letter from 22 Republican House and Senate members asked why the FBI was deployed for state-level assault charges were dismissed by local authorities in Philadelphia.

“At the moment, it appears to be an extraordinary overreach for political ends,” the joint letter said. “We request an explanation for the excessive level of force used by the FBI in this case, and why the power of federal law enforcement was once again used against an American citizen in what should be a state and local matter.”

Next, a Sept. 28, a letter to Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray from 12 Republican senators, offers more insight into the incident and askes Garland to provide answers to five specific questions by Oct. 12, so Congress can perform an independent review of the matter.

This letter was led by Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and signed by Sens. Toomey (R-Pa.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).

More Details About Raid

The FBI arrest warrant is based on an event that happened on Oct. 13, 2021.

According to the letter, the incident involved an abortion clinic worker who allegedly shouted obscenities at Houck’s then-11-year-old son and invaded his personal space, refusing to leave him alone. Houck allegedly pushed the individual away from his son.

Houck’s attorney for that incident, John Williamson, told the committee the Philadelphia Police declined to arrest or prosecute Houck. Despite that, the clinic worker filed a criminal complaint against Houck which was dismissed after the clinic worker failed to appear in court at least twice.

During that case, the district attorney suggested settling the matter as a civil case instead of a criminal one, but the abortion clinic worker disagreed, the Senate letter said.

After the complaint against Houck was dismissed on April 22, 2022, he received an April 27, 2022 letter from the Justice Department, advising that he was under investigation for potential violations of the FACE Act. The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act prohibits threatening or obstructing people entering or exiting an abortion clinic.

Houck was likely familiar with the act as he regularly volunteered as a sidewalk counselor.

After receiving a letter from the DOJ, Houck hired attorney Matt Heffron, a former federal prosecutor. Heffron told the committee that he left two voicemails and sent an email to Assistant U.S. Attorney Anita Eve but did not hear back.

In the communications, Heffron told the DOJ that if it intended to indict Houck, he would receive the summons on Houck’s behalf and that he would appear voluntarily.

“Given their cooperation with federal law enforcement, the family did not expect to be awakened at 7 a.m. with reportedly over 20 FBI agents surrounding their home wearing armor plated tactical vests, ballistic helmets and holding ballistic shields and long guns,” the Senate letter said.

Once he was handcuffed, the letter says Houck asked his wife for his Catholic rosary and a sweatshirt. Then he was taken to jail.

The committee notes that on May 20, 2022, Garland sent a memo to Justice Department employees about its use of force policy. The memo, titled “De-escalation,” said officers must be trained in de-escalation tactics designed to gain voluntary compliance from a subject before using force, and such tactics should be used if feasible and if they would not increase the danger to the officer or others.

The actions taken by the FBI call into question whether they complied with DOJ’s use of force policy, the committee letter said.

“The FBI must explain their justification for their actions on September 23, 2022,” the letter said.

Five Questions

The letter signers ask the following questions about why Houck was not allowed to self-report for his arrest and arraignment after his attorney said he was willing to do so, and whether political considerations were made to approve and execute the warrant.

1. Why did the Justice Department wait 11 months after the October 2021 incident to indict Houck?

2. Please provide a list of Justice Department and FBI officials who approved the decision to open a grand jury investigation into Houck after the state criminal complaint had already been dismissed.

3. Please provide a list of Justice Department and FBI officials who approved the execution of the arrest warrant for Houck.

4. How many law enforcement personnel did the FBI use in executing the arrest warrant?

5. In light of Mr. Houck’s alleged cooperation with federal authorities, what factors led to the Justice Department and FBI executing an arrest warrant against him instead of using less aggressive tactics, including a summons to appear? Please explain how the execution of the search warrant complied with Attorney General Garland’s use of force memorandum.

The Epoch Times reached out to the DOJ for comment.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Navy Petty Officer Second Class Kristin Fregeau is being discharged from the Navy for attempted desertion, but her attorney contends that this is a cover for separating the officer because she had a religious objection to the vaccine mandate.

“The Navy couldn’t separate [Fregeau] for vaccine refusal, so they drummed up a story about attempted desertion,” Sean Timmons, Freugeau’s attorney, told The Epoch Times.

The attempted desertion charge arose from Fregeau leaving her base for 20 days in December 2021 without prior approval.

But Timmons said the petty officer moved to Tennessee during that period to remove her child from moldy living conditions at the base that was harmful to their health.

“She moved her family under duress, and out of necessity, away from mold-infested government quarters to move her children to reasonable living accommodations,” the attorney said.

Fregeau’s Story

In March 2020, Fregeau was temporarily assigned to shore duty at Navy Air Logistics Office (NALO) in New Orleans where she could receive help for dealing with postpartum depression. By November 2020, she had checked herself into a hospital program for mental health issues and began to address her struggles with some success.

After returning to her previous work assignment at NALO, she began to experience mold issues at her residence. After many encounters and arguments with the housing administration, Fregeau said the ducts were cleaned and the leaking air conditioning unit was replaced.

In the months prior to the mold issue being addressed, Fregeau’s first child began having asthma-like symptoms. They subsided following the work on the home’s duct and air conditioner. But four months later, the mold—although not visible at this time—returned in the wake of Hurricane Ida in September 2021, Fregeau said.

“Our daughter became physically ill again and was not getting better,” the petty officer said. “She was coughing uncontrollably, was in a constant state of congestion and unable to sleep.”

Out of concern for her daughter’s health, Fregeau took the child to a pediatrician who advised “it was an environmental mold issue and recommended we get out of the house,” she said. Rather than going through the ordeal again dealing with housing and waiting for the mold issue to be addressed, she and her husband decided to move out.

The Fregeau family struggled to find immediate housing in the area due to Hurricane Ida. And that’s when another issue cropped up to add to Fregeau’s difficulties. In November 2021, she was denied religious accommodation for the COVID-19 vaccine mandate and the process to separate her from the Navy would begin.

‘Absent Under Duress’: Lawyer

According to Timmons, a “confluence of tough events” led Fregeau to act “out of necessity and under duress” in moving her family off the base.

“She moved her children to Tennessee to be with family while she sorted things out,” he said. This is what ultimately led to an alleged 20-day unauthorized absence, beginning Dec. 2, 2021.

Timmons acknowledged Fregeau should have gotten “express approval” ahead of time. Because she didn’t, he admitted, “she is culpable and at fault.” However, the attorney went on to say that service members are rarely discharged for being absent without leave (AWOL) for a couple of weeks.

“She was absent under duress, only concerned about the care, safety, and welfare of her children,” he said.

“She didn’t miss any movement, mobilization, or deployment; she missed some office work,” he added. “But now that the Navy cannot separate her for vaccine refusal, they’re putting forth this bogus pretext that she’s being separated for attempted desertion.”

Timmons argues that the elements for an unauthorized absence have not been met. Article 86 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice allows a service member to withdraw if it’s under necessity and under duress, he said, adding that “desertion requires being gone more than 30 days.”

Fregeau said, “Once I pulled myself together, I didn’t feel comfortable going back to work without any legal representation, but I wanted to make things right and return to work.” With the help of a previous attorney, she checked back into command on Dec. 20, and “it was business as usual.”

At this time, Fregeau said, “I was never sat down, and an investigation never took place to talk about any type of non-judicial punishment or anything of that sort.” However, she said, the Navy would continue the process of separating her for refusing to take the vaccine.

But since then, the Navy did go ahead with pressing for non-judicial punishment (NJP).

“I did finally receive NJP paperwork and the punishment they were trying to impose was bad-conduct discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for six months,” Fregeau said.

Following Timmons’ advice, the petty officer refused NJP. And despite a recommendation for medical retirement that would have taken effect on July 30, Fregeau is now being separated from the Navy under a general discharge with no consideration of her wellbeing, or her daughter’s health, the attorney alleged.

“It’s shedding light on what is happening to a lot of people, as they are being excessively harsh to those awaiting status for vaccine accommodation and currently protected by the injunction,” said Timmons.

Fregeau said that her views do not reflect those of the Department of Defense or the Department of the Navy. The Navy did not return an inquiry from The Epoch Times about Fregeau’s case.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

China’s communist regime is the leading threat to the United States and is operating with the intent of displacing the United States as a global superpower, according to a senior Pentagon official.

“The reason I came back into government, more than any other by far, is my concern about China’s military modernization program,” said Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall during a Sept. 29 talk at the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank.

“When people ask me what my priorities are I tend to say ‘China, China, China.’”

Kendall said that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is systematically investing in capabilities intended to counter and destroy the United States’ ability to project power globally.

These include efforts to develop weapons that could counter or destroy American satellites, aircraft carriers, airfields, and communications and logistics nodes, Kendall said.

“The only nation-state that has the capacity, the resources, and the strategic intent to really threaten the United States as a leader in the world … is China,” he said.

Kendall added that, by countering the United States’ capacity for power projection, the CCP is laying the groundwork for further aggression against Taiwan, and in the South and East China Seas more broadly.

Perhaps nowhere more so is China challenging U.S. dominance than with the rapid expansion and modernization of its nuclear arsenal, Kendall said.

“One of the most significant changes has been the nuclear breakout of China,” Kendall said. “We’re now going to be in a world where China has a nuclear arsenal comparable to both Russia and the United States.”

The Pentagon expects the CCP to reach a minimum of 1,000 nuclear weapons by 2030. Kendall said that this new “tripolar world” of nuclear powers will challenge U.S. resolve and strategy.

Patty-Jane Geller, a senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, previously told The Epoch Times that this nuclear multipolarity is an immense issue for U.S. national security, as the current U.S. nuclear arsenal and posture was only designed to contend with Russia, not China, much less both simultaneously.

“U.S. nuclear posture is currently sized to face only one peer nuclear threat (Russia), as it was designed about a decade ago based on assumptions of a more benign threat environment than we are facing today,” Geller said.

“With the emergence of China as a second nuclear peer, the United States needs a new strategy that can deter both countries at once, which it will not be able to do sufficiently in the future with the current strategy and force posture.”

Ultimately, Kendall said, the current situation resulted from a sustained failure, or naivete, on America’s part regarding the future of nuclear proliferation following the end of the Cold War.

“We thought things would change permanently at the end of the Cold War,” Kendall said.

“They have not.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that a possible norovirus outbreak sickened at least 222 people who visited Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.

“At least 222 rafters and backpackers became infected, probably with norovirus,” said the agency in a recent update. “Strong partnerships with river outfitters and National Park staff members enabled implementation of prevention and control measures.”

Between April 1 and June 17, tourists reported being sick during or after their trips to the Grand Canyon, the CDC said. Of that figure, 178 people reported being sick during their visits, and at least 94 rafters reported vomiting while another 79 reported diarrhea, according to the agency.

“Specimens from portable toilets used by nine river rafting trip groups were tested … and test results were positive for norovirus,” the CDC said.

In response, an executive with the Grand Canyon River Outfitters Association said that a norovirus outbreak of that scale is highly unusual.

“For us to experience the several trips that did have norovirus, that was just unprecedented. We’ve never experienced anything to that level ever,” John Dillon, the executive director of the Grand Canyon River Outfitters Association, told local media outlet AZFamily.

And a spokesperson for the Grand Canyon park, Jan Balsom, told the Daily Beast that they “haven’t seen something like this kind of outbreak in about 10 years.”

In June, park officials said in a release that “comprehensive control measures” have been implemented in response to the outbreak. Since then, they’ve seen a “marked decrease in reports of illness,” the release said.

CDC authorities did not elaborate on a possible cause of the outbreak.

The norovirus is a contagious stomach illness that causes vomiting, diarrhea, and other gastrointestinal problems. People can contract the norovirus after eating contaminated food or drinking contaminated water, having contact with someone who has it, or placing their hands in their mouth after touching a surface that was contaminated with the virus.

“Lots of nausea, vomiting, explosive diarrhea usually within 12-24 hours,” emergency medicine doctor Frank LoVecchio told AZFamily of the symptoms.

CDC officials say that norovirus outbreaks are common, mostly occurring between the months of November and April. Generally, the virus spreads most quickly when large groups of people congregate in close quarters, such as during cruise trips.

Diarrhea, stomach pain, and vomiting generally start from 12 to 48 hours after exposure to the virus, according to the Mayo Clinic, which added that symptoms generally last one to three days. Most people recover without treatment, although young children, elderly people, and those with compromised immune systems can require medical treatment.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Organizers of a scheduled talk at the University of Virginia (UVA) by Kellyanne Conway, former campaign manager and special counselor to former President Donald Trump, have met with repeated harassment and vandalism in recent days from unknown persons who do not want the event to proceed as scheduled or to draw significant attendance, the student group told The Epoch Times.

The talk, scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. on Sept. 29, is hosted by Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), who have put up posters around the UVA campus only to see them defaced, torn down, and covered with anonymous signs alluding to the events of Jan. 6.

The tactics put to use here are the latest instance of a widespread effort to thwart conservative speakers at schools across the country, and are of a piece with earlier strategies used to try to disrupt and “de-platform” past speakers who have come to UVA to share their views with the student and alumni communities.

Nickolaus Cabrera, director of the UVA chapter of YAF, who organized and hosted a well-attended talk by former Vice President Mike Pence in April that some activists unsuccessfully tried to cancel, described how he and fellow members put up posters around campus in accordance with university regulations, only to find them removed and defaced.

“One day, all of our posters were taken down. We walked through campus and they were all replaced with pieces of paper with the text ‘Jan 6, 2021,’” Cabrera told The Epoch Times.

Nonetheless, Cabrera said he hopes that those who dislike Conway and her beliefs will try to engage civilly with their ideological opponent rather than resort to such tactics.

“We would obviously encourage those individuals who put those pieces of paper in front of our posters to attend the event and ask questions,” he said.

Despite the underhandedness of such tactics, Cabrera said he has not gone to the administration to ask for an investigation and potential disciplinary actions against those responsible, because such harassment is chronic and he knows well from experience that university officials are unlikely to do much.

“We haven’t tried to pursue an investigation into this. These things are common, they happen all the time, and whenever we try to pursue them, we don’t get anywhere,” he said.

In the face of anticipated dangers from student activists, the Conway talk has required extensive coordination with university police.

“The university police department has been working with us very cautiously to make sure this event goes as planned, and to put metal detectors in place as you walk into the building and secure the perimeter,” Cabrera said.

A Familiar Pattern

Cabrera said this is far from the first time that activists opposed to speakers he has brought to campus have resorted to coercion or disruption to achieve their goal of “de-platforming” individuals with whom they disagree.

On March 17, a few weeks before the Pence talk, UVA’s student newspaper, The Cavalier Daily, ran a staff editorial entitled “Dangerous rhetoric is not entitled to a platform,” which argued that Pence’s connections to Trump and his stances on such issues as same-sex marriage and Black Lives Matter constitute a form of violence against marginalized groups in the country, and that Pence, therefore, should not have the right to express his views at the university.

In the end, Pence’s talk went ahead as scheduled, but not without a sustained campaign of anonymous harassment, intimidation, and sabotage against the event and its organizers. As in the case of Kellyanne Conway’s talk, unknown persons vandalized posters put up around campus to promote the event, drawing devil’s horns over Pence’s image.

In October 2021, Cabrera and fellow members of YAF organized an event entitled “In Defense of Mr. Jefferson,” in which two UVA alumni, Rich Lowry and Rep. Chip Roy, would visit the campus to discuss the continuing importance of Thomas Jefferson—who founded the university in 1819—in the face of efforts to discredit the third U.S. president as a racist slave owner. Lowry is an author and the editor of the opinion magazine National Review, and Roy is a Republican Congressman representing Texas’s 21^st district.

In the days leading up to that event, vandals conducted a campaign of harassment and intimidation, tearing down some of the posters and scrawling anonymous messages on others, in one instance crossing out the event’s title and writing “Racists Defending Rapists” directly below it. Activists also organized a letter-writing campaign intended to bombard the UVA administration with letters demanding the cancellation of the event.

The activists put up posters of their own with a QR code which, when scanned, generated a template of a letter addressed to the university’s dean of students, reading, in part, “I am writing to you as a student concerned about the upcoming event hosted by the Young Americans for Freedom student organization. . . . Congressman Chip Roy, one of the speakers at the event, has a history of making racist remarks publicly. He has also worked to introduce legislation preventing American schools from teaching about the history of racism on which our country was built.”

The letter goes on to call for the event’s cancellation, stating, “The ‘In Defense of Mr. Jefferson’ Event has already received significant backlash on social media from angered students. We believe that the event indirectly defends values of racism and slavery, offending many UVA students. I ask that you act in our best interest as a student body in efforts to protect our community at large.”

In this instance, the efforts of the vandals and harassers failed, Cabrera noted.

“The event itself went great, we had a packed house, every seat was taken and some people had to stand along the walls. [Lowry and Roy] spoke in defense of Jefferson, why we defend Jefferson and why we should honor his legacy,” Cabrera said.

A Double Standard?

Cabrera and fellow members of YAF have had to approach off-campus donor networks to obtain funding for the events they have sought to host. At the same time, the university has not hesitated to spend lavishly to lure speakers with left-wing viewpoints, he said.

On April 21, 2021, under the auspices of its “Racial Equity Speaker Series,” the university hosted, via Zoom, a virtual talk by Ibram X. Kendi, an author and agitator who has promoted a view of the United States as fundamentally racist and oppressive and has advocated, in books such as “How to be an Antiracist,” strategies that Kendi believes white people should use to overcome deeply ingrained habits of thought. Kendi has also advanced the theory that policies that fail to challenge racism and inequality directly and consciously contribute to those social problems.

UVA paid Kendi $32,500 for a one-hour talk that did not even require his presence on campus, Cabrera said.

“The university will pay $32,500 to host a critical race theorist, but when it comes to hosting a speaker we solicited donors to pay for, people are calling for cancellation of the event,” he continued.

“I’m all for diverse perspectives, the university should host whomever they want, but to speak on a Zoom call to students, it’s quite appalling to me that this happened. The university would never pay this amount of money to a conservative, they would never pay Ben Shapiro $32,500 to come and speak,” Cabrera added.

The Epoch Times has reached out to UVA for comment.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, told the House of Representatives committee investigating the U.S. Capitol breach that she has not influenced her husband’s judicial decisions.

Near the end of her opening statement to the panel on Sept. 29, Thomas said that “it is laughable for anyone who knows my husband to think I could influence his jurisprudence—the man is independent and stubborn, with strong character traits of independence and integrity.”

The Epoch Times obtained the statement on Thursday evening.  Ginni Thomas testified in the morning until early afternoon and answered all the questions asked of her by members of the committee, according to sources in the room. The January 6 House committee members are all Democrats, except Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), both of whom participated by Zoom, according to a source familiar with the proceedings.

Political activists have been urging lawmakers to impeach Justice Thomas, a George H.W. Bush appointee and the oldest member on the court, because of the actions of his wife following the 2020 presidential election. A moveon.org petition created to “Impeach Clarence Thomas” has 1.2 million signatures, with the author saying that Ginni Thomas “was actively urging the White House to overturn election results,” which leaves the justice with “conflicts of interest.”

Text messages made public by news outlets and not disputed by Ginni Thomas show that after the 2020 election, she discussed claims of election fraud, including the claim that watermarked ballots were used in over a dozen states by Trump and the military as a “white hat sting operation,” or an operation designed to ensnare fraudsters. “Do not concede,” she said in a message on Nov. 6, 2021.

The texts were sent to Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff at the time.

However, Thomas said in her opening statement that her “post-election” activities were “minimal.” She testified that she did not speak with her husband “about any of the legal challenges to the 2020 election, as I was not involved with those challenges in any way.”

Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), a member of the panel, told reporters in Washington that members wanted to ask Ginni Thomas about her discussions with Meadows as well as with lawyer John Eastman, one of the scholars who believed then-Vice President Mike Pence could reject electoral votes from certain states. Pence disagreed.

Ginni Thomas told members of the panel that her husband was “completely unaware” of the texts she sent to Meadows until they were published by news outlets while Justice Thomas was in the hospital. She said the committee was the source of the texts.

A spokesman for the panel declined to comment.

Ginni Thomas told members that her husband’s work is not “within the scope of this committee’s jurisdiction.” She said that her husband has never spoken with her about cases pending before the court, calling that “an ironclad rule in our home.” She also said that he is “uninterested in politics.”

“I generally do not discuss with him my day-to-day work in politics, the topics I am working on, who I am calling, emailing, texting, or meeting,” she added.

Full Statement of Ginni Thomas to the J6 Committee:

First, I want to thank the Committee for your patience as I recovered from hip replacement surgery.

Second, I am here voluntarily to answer questions about my activities regarding the 2020 election, which, I think you will find, were minimal and mainstream.

However, as my counsel has expressed, I am concerned that there may be more than a few questions about my husband’s work, which I do not believe is within the scope of this committee’s jurisdiction.

Since I was the Nebraska College Republican Chair in my twenties, long before I met my husband in 1986, I have been active in political/public policy work.

Moreover, while I have a law degree, I am not licensed to practice law, nor have I ever practiced law, nor have I ever worked on any litigation at the Supreme Court or any court for that matter. I work only in the political lane.

As Justice Breyer said this last week, it is 2022 and women can have professional and separate careers from their judicial spouses.

Since he became a judge in 1990, my husband has only worked in the legal arena, not politics.

I can guarantee that my husband has never spoken with me about pending cases at the Court. It’s an iron clad rule in our home.

Additionally, he is uninterested in politics. And I generally do not discuss with him my day-to-day work in politics, the topics I am working on, who I am calling, emailing, texting, or meeting.

Regarding the 2020 election, I did not speak with him at all about the details of my volunteer campaign activities. And I did not speak with him at all about the details of my post-election activities, which were minimal, in any event.  I am certain I never spoke with him about any of the legal challenges to the 2020 election, as I was not involved with those challenges in any way

And I know he was completely unaware of my texts with Mark Meadows until this Committee leaked them to the press while he was in a hospital bed fighting an infection.

Let me also add, it is laughable for anyone who knows my husband to think I could influence his jurisprudence—the man is independent and stubborn, with strong character traits of independence and integrity.

I am now happy to answer questions.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Special investigators with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office in Utah arrested a Provo man on charges of alleged ritualistic child sex abuse stemming from a year-long investigation that is likely to produce more suspects and arrests.

David Lee Hamblin, 68, was arrested in Provo on Sept. 28 by members of the sheriff’s special victims unit and charged with first-degree felony rape of a child, sodomy of a child, aggravated abuse of a child, and lewdness involving a child, a misdemeanor.

A Utah County judge ordered Hamblin held without bail at the county jail pending his arraignment. Juab County Attorney Ryan Peters will serve as special prosecutor in the case in that jurisdiction.

“We feel like we have [made] progress and anticipate there will be more arrests in the future,” Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Cannon told The Epoch Times.

Hamblin’s arrest marks the first break in the investigation that began in early 2021, producing more than 130 witnesses and alleged victims.

One victim, a woman in her forties, told investigators she was 6 or 7 when Hamblin allegedly began sexually molesting her in the mid-1980s.

“The victim’s family resided in the same neighborhood as David,” according to Hamblin’s booking statement. “The victim stated she would regularly play with David’s children and had been babysat on a number of occasions by David.”

The document describes in lurid detail how Hamblin allegedly continued sexually assaulting the child, at one point forcing multiple children to take turns performing a sex act on him.

“The female victim recounted several other assaults inflicted upon her by David Hamblin,” the statement added. “This occurred at the Hamblin home in Spring City, Utah” before the victim’s 13th birthday.

The alleged incidents occurred at residences in Provo and Spring City over many years until around 1990.

Suspect Was Licensed Therapist

According to investigators, Hamblin worked as a licensed therapist in Provo, where he faced charges that he sexually abused a male patient in 2012.

While the Utah County Attorney’s Office eventually dropped those charges, Hamblin had his therapy license revoked in Utah.

“Through this investigation, it has been reported that David continues to perform ‘therapy’ under the guise of ‘healing circles’ and upon information and belief, the abuse may be ongoing,” according to a probable cause statement.

“David Hamblin is a threat to the children and citizens of Utah County.”

On May 31, Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith announced an investigation had been underway since April 2021 that involved “ritualistic child sex abuse and child sex trafficking” in Utah County and Juab and Sanpete counties.

A day after authorities announced the case, Utah County Attorney David Leavitt identified himself and his wife, an attorney, as potential suspects while vigorously refuting the claims at a press conference. Leavitt based his remarks on what he said was a leaked 151-page official document obtained online.

“Until we get to a point where we can make an arrest or until we need help from the public in identifying or locating a certain suspect, we don’t discuss names of suspects or witnesses in these cases,” Cannon said.

Cannon dispelled earlier reports that the case was about “Satanic ritual abuse.” However, there appear to be elements of “ritualistic sexual abuse,” he said.

Obey, Or Else

Cannon said ritual child sexual abuse could include authority figures who repeatedly use their influence to get victims to obey, or there will be consequences.

Some victims in the case reported sexual abuse but felt other law enforcement didn’t take them seriously.

“Some never reported it because they feared retaliation by the suspect or people connected to the suspect. A couple of people I spoke to were scared. They wouldn’t tell me their name. We just had an address and a phone number,” Cannon said.

Investigators said the case is challenging given the time passed and some victims’ potential failure of memory.

“These kinds of things can be very challenging because they become so complex,” Cannon said. “We have to try to get corroborating evidence to support whatever given victim can tell, and we have been able to do that in this case.”

He said many victims reported feeling a “great sense of relief” now that law enforcement is taking them seriously.

“We want them to understand we will take them seriously,” Cannon said, adding that most reports he’s received from victims sounded highly credible.

Cannon said there is no statute of limitations for sexual abuse in Utah.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

House Judiciary Republicans are asking a senior FBI official to testify in a transcribed interview, alleging the official has signed off on many “adverse personnel actions” against conservative agents, saying they were being targeted in a “purge.”

Their allegations concern Jennifer Leigh Moore, the executive assistant director of the FBI’s human resources branch, according to a Sept. 29 letter from Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), and Mike Johnson (R-La.). Jordan is the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee.

“This is beyond outrageous,” the House Judiciary GOP wrote on Twitter.

The lawmakers said they found out how conservative agents were being targeted while investigating “serious allegations of abuse and misconduct within the senior leadership of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

“During the course of this investigation, we have received protected whistleblower disclosures that the FBI is engaging in a ‘purge’ of employees with conservative views by revoking their security clearances and indefinitely suspending these employees,” the lawmakers wrote.

They added, “Many of the formal notices for these adverse personnel actions have been signed by you,” referring to Moore.

What’s more, the three lawmakers allege that Moore has “retaliated against at least one whistleblower who has made protected disclosures to Congress.”

That whistleblower shared information with the House Judiciary Committee about the Justice Department’s decision last year to create a threat tag label, to track cases of parents who protested at school board meetings, Jordan said in an interview with Fox News.

“Once a whistleblower makes a protected disclosure, an agency is prohibited from retaliating against the employee for that disclosure by taking or failing to take a personnel action,” the lawmakers wrote. “Your efforts to interfere with FBI employees who seek to expose the Bureau’s misconduct by communicating directly with Congress cannot be condoned.”

They added, “As we informed [FBI] Director Christopher Wray, we take whistleblower retaliation seriously and we therefore require that you appear for a transcribed interview as soon as possible.”

Moore is asked to schedule her transcribed interview by Oct. 4, according to the letter.

The FBI has denied wrongdoing in a statement to media outlets.

“The FBI does not target or take adverse action against employees for exercising their First Amendment rights or for their political views; to allege otherwise is false and misleading,” an FBI spokesperson said. “The FBI is required to follow established policies and procedures, to include a thorough investigation, when suspending or revoking a security clearance.”

“The FBI takes very seriously its responsibility to FBI employees who may make protected disclosures under the whistleblower regulations,” the spokesperson added. “FBI employees who report evidence of wrongdoing through a protected disclosure are protected from retaliation.”

On Monday, FBI agent Steve Friend revealed in his whistleblower complaint how the FBI was violating policies over its handling of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol breach investigation.

“I believed the investigations were inconsistent with FBI procedure and resulted in the violation of citizens’ Sixth and Eighth Amendment rights,” he wrote in his complaint. He added that one of his concerns was how the FBI was using SWAT teams to arrest Jan. 6 suspects facing misdemeanor charges.

He also wrote that he was told that child sexual abuse material investigations were “no longer an FBI priority” and should be referred to local law enforcement officials.

Friend, who has refused to participate in future operations relating to the Jan. 6 probe, has had his security clearance suspended, and has been stripped of his credentials, firearms, and badge. 

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

The Biden administration quietly issued an update to its student loan forgiveness plan on Thursday, drastically scaling back eligibility on the same day that six Republican-led states filed a lawsuit against President Joe Biden, claiming his student loan forgiveness plan is illegal.

As of Thursday, borrowers who have federal student loans that are owned by private entities and not by the U.S. Department of Education will no longer qualify for the relief program.

Previously, the administration had said those borrowers with student loans owned by private entities, many of which were made under the former Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program and Federal Perkins Loan program, would qualify for relief of up to $10,000 or $20,000 in loan forgiveness, as long as the borrower consolidated his or her debt into the federal Direct Loan program.

The guidance now states: “As of Sept. 29, 2022, borrowers with federal student loans not held by ED cannot obtain one-time debt relief by consolidating those loans into Direct Loans.”

More than 4 million student loan borrowers have privately held loans through the FFEL Program, according to NPR.

“Our goal is to provide relief to as many eligible borrowers as quickly and easily as possible, and this will allow us to achieve that goal while we continue to explore additional legally-available options to provide relief to borrowers with privately owned FFEL loans and Perkins loans, including whether FFEL borrowers could receive one-time debt relief without needing to consolidate,” the Department of Education said in an emailed statement to CNN.

‘Highly Uncertain Assumptions’

“Borrowers with privately held federal student loans who applied to consolidate their loans into Direct Loans before September 29, 2022 will obtain one-time debt relief. The FFEL program is now defunct and only a small percentage of borrowers have FFEL loans. This is a completely different program than Direct Loans,” the statement said.

Biden announced in August that he plans to cancel up to $20,000 in federally held student debt for individuals making less than $125,000 per year or married couples who earn less than $250,000 per year in 2020 or 2021.

The Department of Education estimates the program will cost $379 billion, or about $30 billion a year over the next 10 years, although those estimates are based on “highly uncertain assumptions about future economic conditions and participation rates.”

Separately, the Congressional Budget Office, a federal agency, estimated the cost to be over $400 billion over the next 30 years.

Approximately 43 million people are eligible for the relief, administration officials had previously said.

The drastic update came as a group of six GOP attorneys general filed a lawsuit against Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on Sept. 29 to block the loan forgiveness program.

The states of Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Carolina, in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Missouri, claimed that the move is illegal.

White House officials have argued that Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan is legal under the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003 (HEROES Act), which grants the Department of Education the authority to cancel so much debt for so many people because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Debt Relief Program ‘Economically Unwise’

Specifically, the law enables the education secretary to “waive or modify any statutory or regulatory provision applicable to the student financial assistance programs … in connection with a war or other military operation or national emergency.”

Yet as well as being “economically unwise and downright unfair” the attorneys general stated in their lawsuit that the Education Department had previously concluded that the HEROES Act is “not a hidden source of authority to cancel student debt.”

The Biden administration itself concluded in a legal opinion (pdf) that any cancellation must be “structured to put loan recipients back into the financial position they would be in were it not for the national emergency” and limited only to the harm that has a relation to the borrower’s federal loans, “no matter how much [total] financial harm a borrower may have suffered because of a national emergency,” the suit states.

“The Biden Administration’s Mass Debt Cancellation does not even attempt to meet these requirements. It instead justifies relief for all borrowers whose debt the Administration holds based on talismanic reference to the COVID-19 pandemic. It makes no difference to the Administration’s cancellation whether the pandemic rendered a borrower better or worse off or how much financial harm the borrower suffered in relation to her loans,” the suit reads.

“Thus, the Mass Debt Cancellation is not remotely tailored to address the effects of the pandemic on federal student loan borrowers, as required by the HEROES Act.”

Source: The Epoch Times

To the media, the race for Pennsylvania senator was a shoo-in. They all but assumed Democrat John Fetterman would fill that seat.

But, then, Fetterman’s dirty laundry came out. And his opponent, Oz Mehmet, just got a major endorsement.

From YouTube:

The Fraternal Order of Police Union Chief John McNesby said that “we need to have Dr. Oz” to “support our law enforcement,” during a segment on WCAU (NBC) (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) on 9/27/2022.

They even blasted Fetterman as a friend to one of their enemies.

And now, it looks like Fetterman could be in trouble.

From Breitbart:

Surveying 1,008 registered Pennsylvania voters between September 22-26 with a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points, the new poll puts Fetterman at 45 percent while Oz stands at 41 percent, a full four points within the sampling error and a tremendous surge for Oz, who trailed Fetterman by 11 points in late July.

This will be a very close race. The Democrat, a far-left progressive who wants to legalize heroin, does not have majority support.
An independent candidate, Everrett Stern, is also stealing support with 3 points.
Approximately 11 percent of voters are still undecided. So, this very close poll gives Oz more than a chance at clinching the race.

He is currently within the margin of error in a recent Fox News poll. That is a massive improvement from July when he was behind by 11 points.

That is very bad news for Fetterman. You don’t want your advantage to shrink at all as you get close to the election.

And especially not by double digits. If Oz can hold onto this number and pick up most of those undecideds, he will win the race.

An endorsement by the police union is a major win. Democrats have been struggling to erase their pro-defund stance from recent years.

But it doesn’t appear as if voters and police believe what they say today. Democrats in local races continue to push radical policies that lead to more crime.

Oz can use this endorsement to convince voters he is a law-and-order candidate. Which could secure the victory.

Key Takeaways:

• The Fraternal Order of Police Union endorsed Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz.
• His Democratic rival, John Fetterman, has lost 11 points according to a Fox News poll.
• Fetterman’s campaign has been struggling ever since his dirty laundry came out.

Source: YouTube, YouTube, Breitbart

SOURCE: The Patriot Journal

It’s getting harder and harder for the White House to pretend that everything is okay with Biden.

This week, he had another gaffe. This one was particularly embarrassing.

From The Western Journal:

President Joe Biden attempted to speak to a congresswoman who has been dead for months during a Wednesday event, speaking about Rep. Jackie Walorski as if she were alive and in the room…

“Representative… Jackie, you here? Where’s Jackie?” Biden said at the event, creating the impression he believed Walorski was present in the audience.

Yikes. Biden should have remembered that Rep. Walorski tragically died in a car crash last August.

This triggered a response even from the mainstream media. In the past, White House press secretary Jean-Pierre has been able to brush off questions about Biden’s mental health.

But not this time.

The White House briefing room erupted into chaos Wednesday as press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a reporter she was being “incredibly rude” when asking about the president’s mental state…

“And, again, he’s going to see her family in just two days, and she was on top of mind. I mean, that is, that is not an unusual scenario there.”

“Karine, I have John Lennon top of mind just about everyday but I’m not looking around for him anywhere,” Newsmax’s James Rosen followed up.

.@PressSec told a reporter she was being “incredibly rude” when shouting follow-up questions about Biden’s mental state after calling for a deceased GOP lawmaker at an event earlier today.

Biden had her “top of mind,” which is why he called for her, the WH says. pic.twitter.com/6GKY1kW9Gs

— National Review (@NRO) September 28, 2022

Jean-Pierre brushed off the comment, but questions about Joe Biden’s health came from all corners.

When she insulted a reporter by saying he was being “incredibly rude,” that’s when all hell broke loose.

It appears KJP had a hard time trying to explain why Biden didn’t remember that Rep. Walorski had died over the Summer.

Her attempts at excusing his gaffe only underscored concerns for his mental health. The man is apparently going to visit Walorski’s family in a few days.

So, why on earth would he talk about her as if she was still alive? Maybe it’s because the 79-year-old man is losing his memory, along with everything else?

Jean-Pierre’s response was far from acceptable. For years, Americans have been demanding answers about Biden’s mental health.

Yet his administration is refusing to even acknowledge concerns. We’re supposed just to shut up and pretend like nothing’s wrong?

Even the MSM is asking questions. Biden might not be able to hide this problem for much longer.

Key Takeaways:

• Biden makes the worst gaffe yet, forgetting congresswoman tragically died.
• The White House press secretary struggled to give an excuse.
• The press room erupted into chaos as she called one reporter “incredibly rude.”

Source: The Western Journal, Daily Caller

SOURCE: The Patriot Journal

Pennsylvania Democrat candidate for Senate, John Fetterman is clearly getting nervous as November’s midterm elections draw closer and closer.

Help “The League” Fight the Left’s Anti-Gun Agenda!

Fetterman, who has attempted to paint himself as a moderate Democrat to voters, removed all mentions of his affiliation with the controversial Black Lives Matter activist group from his campaign page.

pic.twitter.com/9k0FNbvhMZSeptember 29, 2022

The phrase does not appear in text anywhere on his website anymore, and it only gets a passing mention in the video on his “Taking on Crime” page. In that video, he attempts to justify his decision to chase down an unarmed black jogger in his pickup truck while armed with a 20-gauge shotgun.

The Pennsylvania Democrat’s radical approach to crime has been a particular sticking point for voters, especially because of his attempts to downplay his radical ideas in order to get votes.

Fetterman has tried to walk back his position that everyone convicted of second-degree murder serving life without parole in Pennsylvania should be released.

In a taped interview Fetterman said that he wanted a conversation that “would free close to 1,200 people.” At the time, there were 1,166 people in Pennsylvania serving life sentences without parole for second-degree murder, according to The Washington Examiner.

Fetterman’s opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz (R) has recently called attention to Fetterman’s bleak criminal justice record and voters are taking notice. (RELATED: Fetterman Picks Infamous Cop Hater for Pennsylvania Board of Pardons)

In 2019, the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons (which Fetterman chairs) unanimously approved the release of Charles Goldblum. Goldblum and an accomplice, Charles Miller, had lured George Wilhelm into a parking garage in 1976, where Miller stabbed him 26 times. Goldblum later admitted that he and Miller burned down his restaurant and that Wilhelm knew about their involvement. While Goldblum was out on bond in 1976 awaiting trial, he also attempted to have Miller killed so he could not testify against him.

Fetterman also voted to free Wayne Covington, a man who shot and killed 18-year-old George Rudnycky while attempting to rob him for drug money. Covington pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. Fetterman couches his soft-on-crime stance with talk of how no one should stay in prison for life if they “did not take a life,” but it turns out he also means it for those who did take a life.

It’s clear Fetterman’s campaign is in freefall and attempting to clean up his image in any way possible to give him a fighting chance against Oz. The Republican has been rapidly cutting into Fetterman’s once-double-digit polling lead over the last two months.

Pollsters that have done multiple surveys in PA recently:

FOX: Fetterman +11 –> Fetterman +4
F&M: Fetterman +13 –> Fetterman +4
Trafalgar: Fetterman +4 –> Fetterman +2

Fetterman still with a polling lead but clear where the momentum is— Logan Dobson (@LoganDobson) September 29, 2022

READ NEXT: Army Officer Indicted for Trying to Give Soldiers’ Medical Info to Russia >>

I get that ’80s nostalgia is at an all-time high, but this is ridiculous.

When “The Simpsons” premiered in 1989, the animated sitcom brought to life some of the most iconic characters in television history, not the least of which was nuclear power mogul Montgomery Burns.

Mr. Burns, as he’s known to the show’s protagonist, Homer Simpson, became a mainstay as the cantankerous age-addled executive who uses old-timey phrases, forgets the names of his employees, and has a distinctive shuffling gait that also involves his empty hands poised as if ready to perform a piano concerto.

Perhaps Joe Biden’s spot-on emulation is just another one of the show’s predictions come true.

Following a very serious briefing Thursday at the Washington headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Biden did his best Mr. Burns impression after a member of the press asked a question he didn’t like.

Biden and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell provided updates on the response to Hurricane Ian, which earlier had pounded Florida’s Gulf Coast, leaving flooding, power outages and possible deaths in its wake, Reuters reported.

As the briefing came to a close, Biden jumped in to answer a question from the news media, but resumed his typical tight-lipped approach after a reporter asked whether he would “hold Russia responsible” for the suspicious rupture of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines.

“There’s a lot of important international issues, but we’re here to talk about America. OK, thank you,” Biden said before turning and leaving.

Criswell attempted to corral him back to the lectern with a sweep of her arm and an appeal of “Mr. President,” but it was too late — Biden had picked up his hands into little tyrannosaurus rex claws and doddered away.

Now, this incident on its own isn’t particularly damning — but this comes after a long line of such mishaps, and only a day after Biden called out for a dead congresswoman.

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Twitter was quick to pick up on this latest gaffe as just another symptom of a man in steep cognitive decline.

whats with the “mr burns arms”

is that something old people do? https://t.co/HAkDYDhthf

— Tim Pool (@Timcast) September 29, 2022

Kamala Harris Announces Hurricane Relief Must Be ‘Based on Equity’; Then DeSantis Administration Posts the Facts

What is this weird thing he does with his hands all the time? https://t.co/tEHo4Aukhv

— Upstate Federalist (@upstatefederlst) September 29, 2022

His hands 😬 https://t.co/efI7al1utv

— Bobby (@RealBlackIrish) September 29, 2022

If Trump behaved like this, the Democrats would already be organizing a 25th Amendment hearing to remove him. https://t.co/OBTudi8pGH

— Ultra MAGA Shemp 🇺🇸🇮🇹🇺🇸 (@Anti__Globalism) September 29, 2022

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His deterioration is accelerating.
Anyone who’s had the experience of watching a friend or family member with some form of dementia knows this. It’s text book. https://t.co/0wAoqH2R9E

— Andy Espresso (@RelocationBoss) September 29, 2022

So within 48 hours, President Biden has called out for deceased Congresswoman Jackie Walorski

VP Harris mixed up our alliance with South Korea for North Korea

and now this? Are you kidding me? https://t.co/YzGiLBoyAD

— Doug Collins (@RepDougCollins) September 29, 2022

My husband had early onset Alzheimer’s and Joe’s movements are very familiar to me. The shuffle, the gestures, the roaming. It’s very sad his wife isn’t advocating for him, but continuing the charade.

— Karen Ann (@hocomombo) September 29, 2022

These kinds of mistakes and bouts of confusion are becoming more frequent for Biden. Normally, pointing out each and every momentary lapse from a 79-year-old man would be indulging in schadenfreude — but this is the leader of the free world we’re watching here.

Maybe he should take a cue from his cartoon doppelganger and employ a loyal and trustworthy assistant to make sure he’s always on his mark and on topic.

Sure, he has first lady Jill Biden to come to his rescue occasionally, but unfortunately for the president, she’s no Waylon Smithers.

To paraphrase former President Barack Obama, the 1980s are calling — and they want their sinister out-of-touch old man back.

Nevada’s former top cops now facing off for crucial Senate seat

Yet another example of how the democrats support crime and criminals and the republicans support the order of law and the police. [US Patriot]

With Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto as Nevada’s attorney general, thousands of rape kits sat untested. When Adam Laxalt took over the role, the Republican Senate hopeful secured millions of dollars to clear the backlog, leading to more than a dozen arrests.

In October 2014—the tail end of Cortez Masto’s eight-year term as Nevada’s top cop— a national nonprofit found that just 16 percent of the 5,231 rape kits collected in Las Vegas from 2004 to 2013 were examined, leaving nearly 4,400 untested. Statewide, the number of untested kits reached 7,500, prompting Laxalt to pledge during his 2018 campaign to “clear up the backlog.” Within months of taking the attorney general’s office in 2015, Laxalt secured $3.7 million to do just that, and by November 2018, nearly 7,400 untested kits had been sent to labs for testing.

In some cases, the testing of those kits led to high-profile arrests. In November 2020, for example, police arrested a 49-year-old Las Vegas man for a sexual assault that a woman reported in 2012, Cortez Masto’s fifth year as attorney general. The kit stemming from the assault, however, went untested until 2018, when Laxalt held the office. The kit’s eventual examination revealed a DNA match with the alleged assailant, who had prior arrests for battery and domestic violence. Another backlogged rape kit tested in 2016 linked a suspect to a 1997 rape and murder.

Now, Laxalt and Cortez Masto are squaring off for a coveted Senate seat that could determine control of the upper chamber come 2023. Cortez Masto has leaned on her tenure as attorney general in that race—her campaign site says the Democrat “kept our communities safe” and “made it her mission to stand up for vulnerable women and girls.” Cortez Masto’s inaction on Nevada’s substantial rape kit backlog, however, could give Laxalt an opening as the political opponents directly compare their records at the helm of the same office.

“By doing nothing about the thousands of untested sexual assault kits, Masto neglected victims and allowed violent criminals and killers to prey on more people,” Laxalt told the Washington Free Beacon. “Fixing this egregious failure was one of my top priorities as AG, and we moved heaven and earth to process those kits quickly and get justice for the victims. I cleaned up her mess before, and I’m ready to do it again in the U.S. Senate.”

Cortez Masto, whose campaign did not return a request for comment, faced criticism over the kit backlog during her first Senate run in 2016. At the time, a Senate Leadership Fund ad noted that during Cortez Masto’s time as attorney general, “thousands of rape kits were never sent for DNA analysis.” Even Cortez Masto’s media allies confirmed the charge—a 2016 PolitiFact article said it’s “hard to find any evidence that [Cortez Masto] took on the specific problem of the state’s rape kit backlog while in office from 2006 to 2014,” whereas Laxalt “was able to secure roughly $3.7 million in grants and redirected settlement funds to pay for funding the backlog about a year after taking office.”

Beyond her passiveness on Nevada’s rape kit backlog, Cortez Masto accepted an array of lavish gifts as attorney general, including a $750 luxury handbag and complimentary tickets to award shows and sporting events. Laxalt, meanwhile, declined to take political gifts as Nevada’s top law enforcement officer, saying, “If I want to go to a boxing event, I’ll either pay for it myself or not go.” Cortez Masto’s net worth has also skyrocketed since she was sworn in as senator in 2017—while USA Today called Cortez Masto’s finances “relatively modest” during her 2016 campaign, she is now worth as much as $7.5 million, according to her most recent federal financial disclosure. Still, Cortez Masto says she ran for office to “serve and give back.”

Cortez Masto and Laxalt are set to square off in November after both candidates advanced from their June primaries. Cortez Masto, who is often identified as the “most vulnerable U.S. senator in America” in her joint fundraising pleas, trails Laxalt by 1 point, according to a Thursday poll from liberal think tank Data for Progress.

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

The Army’s first openly transgender officer was indicted Thursday on charges of trying to provide American soldiers’ medical information to the Russian government.

A federal grand jury in Baltimore indicted Jamie Lee Henry and his wife, Anna Gabrielian, on charges of conspiracy and wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable health information. According to prosecutors, the couple met last month with an undercover FBI agent posing as a Russian diplomat and offered medical information from Fort Bragg, the home of the military’s elite Delta Force.

Gabrielian, an anesthesiologist at Johns Hopkins University, told the undercover agent during an Aug. 17 meeting that “she was motivated by patriotism toward Russia to provide any assistance she could to Russia, even if it meant being fired or going to jail,” according to the indictment. Gabrielian gave the undercover agent medical information on a spouse of someone who works in the Office of Naval Intelligence, and “highlighted” a medical issue that “Russia could exploit.”

Henry, a doctor at Fort Bragg, gave the undercover agent information on five patients at the military facility, according to the indictment, first reported by the Baltimore Banner.

Henry has been praised as a pioneer of the transgender movement after coming out as transgender in an interview with BuzzFeed News in 2015. Henry claimed to be the first known active-duty Army officer to come out as transgender, and the first to legally change their name while in service.

Henry told BuzzFeed his experience transitioning helped him in the medical field.

“I find my trans experience has allowed me to relate to people, because all of us suffer, and I could relate to people’s suffering. I’m able to comfort people that feel isolated and lost and alone and broken,” Henry said.

Henry lamented in another interview that year about the lack of privacy afforded transgender people receiving medical care.

“I felt very vulnerable while being treated as a patient in the same hospital I worked as a physician. What made it worse was that, as a soldier, my medical records were not private, and when the question of mental illness came up, I felt stark naked,” Henry told Bright Young Things in 2015.

According to prosecutors, Henry told the undercover agent he offered to join the Russian military after the invasion of Ukraine, but was rejected due to lack of combat experience. Henry allegedly told the agent that he believed “the United States is using Ukrainians as a proxy for their own hatred toward Russia.”

Gabrielian and Henry, who were married in 2015, also discussed a plan for their children should they be arrested. Gabrielian told the agent she wanted their children to “have a nice flight to Turkey to go on vacation because I don’t want to end in jail here with my kids being hostages over my head.”

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

The union for the Pennsylvania state police, which provides security for Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, on Tuesday endorsed his Republican Senate challenger Mehmet Oz.

The Pennsylvania State Troopers Association said Oz would be “a strong champion for law enforcement officers … at a time when the law enforcement community is facing its greatest challenges.” The union, which represents 4,400 current and former state troopers, endorsed Democratic attorney general Josh Shapiro over Republican Doug Mastriano in the state’s gubernatorial race.

In addition to regular law enforcement duties, the Pennsylvania State Police provides security for the state’s governor and lieutenant governor. Troopers often accompany Fetterman on non-governmental business, including the Fetterman family’s annual vacation to the Jersey Shore, according to records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. The police incurred more than $104,000 in expenses for Fetterman from Aug. 2021 to Aug. 2022. Troopers in March also traveled with Fetterman to a campaign fundraiser to Beverly Hills, according to expense reports. State police incurred $3,076 in flight, hotel, and rental car expenses on the fundraiser, the records show.

The Fetterman campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

The endorsement comes amid an effective wave of Republican attacks on Fetterman’s positions on criminal justice reform and lingering questions about his health following a near-fatal stroke earlier this year. Republican ads have criticized Fetterman as “dangerously liberal on crime,” highlighting his votes as head of the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons to free killers serving life sentences for first-degree murder, including one man who killed an 18-year-old for money to buy heroin.

Fetterman has said he wants to use the board as a “bully pulpit” to push progressive reforms to the criminal justice system and boasted that during his tenure the board has freed more prisoners than all of his predecessors combined. Fetterman’s lead over Oz has narrowed from 11 points in a Fox News poll in July to just 4 points in a poll this month.

The endorsement is the second this week from a police union for Oz. The Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police on Monday threw its support behind Oz, saying Fetterman “has a long history of anti-police rhetoric and advocacy for policies that make communities less safe.” The head of the union, John McNesby, criticized Fetterman for his support of Philadelphia district attorney Larry Krasner (D.), whose left-wing policies have been widely blamed for Philadelphia’s surging crime rate. Thirteen Pennsylvania sheriffs in July endorsed Oz over Fetterman, saying Fetterman’s crime policies would “add to already rising crime rates in Pennsylvania.”

Both as lieutenant governor and on the campaign trail, Fetterman has worked closely with activists who support the movement to defund police, though he has not endorsed the cause himself. Fetterman’s appointee for secretary of the Board of Pardons has called to “disarm the police” and referred to cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal as her “friend” and “buddy,” the Free Beacon reported. Fetterman campaigned on the anniversary of 9/11 with a pro-abortion activist who supports the defund movement.

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

Cruz and Blackburn slam ESG ratings in letter to Commerce Department

The Biden administration is under pressure from Congress to more actively police companies that participate in boycotts of Israel, according to a letter sent Wednesday to the Commerce Department and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Sens. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.) say the administration “is not taking sufficient action to ensure that American companies are aware of the criminal, financial, and reputational risks of engaging in unsanctioned boycotts” of Israel and other friendly countries.

The letter comes amid a growing controversy surrounding a financial ratings product known as the Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) framework. ESG ratings, which are meant to guide investors, examine a company based on its social values and tend to unfairly target Israel as a result of the country’s conflict with the Palestinians. Cruz and Blackburn maintain that financial firms providing ESG ratings that negatively impact Israel are in violation of federal and state anti-boycott laws, which were put in place to isolate the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, an anti-Semitic effort to wage economic warfare on the Jewish state.

The senators want Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to “more robustly engage such companies to make them aware of the risks, which range federal statutes and state prohibitions,” according to the letter, which cites financial giant Morningstar as an example of a company that could be running afoul of federal law. Morningstar, one of the largest U.S.-based financial services firms, has been battling accusations it supports the BDS movement through its ESG research arm, Sustainalytics. While Morningstar has denied the accusations, experts say Sustainalytics builds its ratings using materials authored by anti-Israel groups that support the BDS movement.

“Sustainalytics has echoed and amplified attacks by boycott advocacy groups against companies that do business with Israel,” Cruz and Blackburn state in their letter. “Advocates of economic warfare against Israel have increasingly sought to use ESG criteria as pretexts for boycott advocacy.”

The Commerce Department must become more involved in warning companies like Morningstar that they could be in direct violation of federal anti-BDS laws.  “We are concerned that confidence is misplaced, and that the Commerce Department is not sufficiently engaging Morningstar and similar companies,” Cruz and Blackburn write. “The ratings and implicit advocacy from Sustainalytics come remarkably close to black-letter violations” of federal law.

The Commerce Department, they note, “is charged with ensuring American companies are aware of these risks and working with them to mitigate and end any exposure.”

The entire ESG ratings industry, Cruz and Blackburn say, is infected with anti-Israel bias that is fueled by the BDS movement as part of its efforts to turn Israel into a pariah state and deter investors.

“Companies that rely on ESG ratings in their business decisions have minimal transparency into the details, let alone motivations, behind how the ratings were set,” the lawmakers write. “The practice introduces exposure to American anti-boycott laws along the entire chain, and most acutely for the firms opaquely designing and setting the ESG criteria.”

Morningstar, which purchased Sustainalytics in 2020, hired an outside law firm to investigate allegations of anti-Israel bias in its products. The report, performed by the law firm White and Case, found instances of bias in some of Sustainalytics’s products. This includes the company’s reliance “on groups committed to boycotting Israel, including Who Profits, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International,” according to Cruz and Blackburn.

Sustainalytics was also found to rely on information produced by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, a body known for its anti-Israel advocacy. “The United States government has regularly and across administrations condemned that [Office of the High Commissioner’s] list as an anti-Semitic effort to single out and delegitimize our Israeli allies,” the lawmakers write.

Other materials used by Sustainalytics in its ratings products included “anti-Semitic advocacy platforms, including Electronic Intifada website, BDSMovement.net, Iran Daily, and the Venezuelan regime-sponsored television network Telesur.”

Morningstar says that Sustainalytics no longer relies on these materials and that it has implemented a series of reforms to eliminate outstanding anti-Israel bias.

Cruz and Blackburn, however, say the White and Case report did not adequately address the systemic anti-Israel bias built into ESG products like those provided by Sustainalytics.

“The law firm did not take the next, obvious step of noting that comparing Israel to, for instance, the Chinese Communist Party, which is conducting an ongoing genocide against Muslim and other religious minorities, is grotesque and is itself evidence of systemic bias,” the senators write. “The report also did not make the equally obvious point that incorporating the advocacy and targets of pro-boycott organizations guarantees the production of pro-boycott bias.”

Morningstar through a spokesman has told the Free Beacon that it in no way endorses the BDS movement and is undertaking efforts to ensure none of its financial products unfairly target Israel.

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

An American citizen was killed on Wednesday during a series of Iran-orchestrated missile strikes in Iraq, the State Department confirmed on Thursday.

“We can confirm that a U.S. citizen was killed as a result of a rocket attack in the Iraqi Kurdistan region yesterday, but due to privacy considerations I don’t have any further comments to provide,” State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters during Thursday’s press briefing.

Reports emerged late Wednesday that an American citizen was killed after Iran-backed militants sponsored by the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) launched a spate of missile attacks in Iraq’s Kurdistan region. The State Department criticized the attacks, but would not say if it is taking any punitive measures, such as sanctions, as a result. The IRGC is one of the region’s top terror sponsors and has killed hundreds of Americans over the years.

Iran International, a regional media outlet, posted on Twitter what it said is a picture of the dead American citizen’s passport, which identified the individual as Omer Mahmoudzadeh.

The State Department would not confirm any of these details.

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—Six Republican-led states on Thursday filed a challenge to the Biden administration’s student loan cancellation program in federal court in Missouri.

In the lawsuit, Nebraska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and South Carolina asked the court for an immediate temporary restraining order pausing the program.

Prompt relief is being sought because the Biden administration has indicated it will start canceling loan balances as early as next week, Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson said in a statement.

The lawsuit comes two days after conservative group Pacific Legal Foundation filed a federal lawsuit with the intent of stopping President Joe Biden’s student loan cancellation plan.

On Monday, the Congressional Budget Office said Biden’s plan to cancel some student loan debt will cost $400 billion.

Biden said in August that the U.S. government will forgive $10,000 in student loans for millions of debt-saddled former college students, keeping a pledge he made in the 2020 campaign for the White House.

Critics of the plan raised concerns over its inflationary impact, while the White House said it was fiscally justified because the federal deficit was on track to drop by $1.7 trillion reduction in the current fiscal year compared with the prior year. The smaller deficit is largely due to the end of many COVID-19 aid programs and unexpectedly higher revenues.

As of June 30, 43 million borrowers held $1.6 trillion in federal student loans. About $430 billion of that debt will be canceled, the CBO estimated. The CBO previously projected that some of the funds canceled by Biden’s action would eventually have been forgiven anyway.

(Reporting by Paul Grant; Editing by Tim Ahmann)

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

Ron Klain’s wife, a supporter of the Green New Deal, gets a plum new gig

The wife of Joe Biden’s top aide has a fancy new gig at the U.S. State Department.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday announced that Monica Medina, wife of White House chief of staff Ron Klain, will serve as U.S. Special Envoy for Biodiversity and Water Resources.

According to the Washington Post, which initially declined to note that Medina is married to Klain, the decision to promote her to the newly established role of “diplomat for plants and animals” is one that “underscores the Biden’s administration’s desire” to fight climate change.

“There’s a direct connection between biodiversity loss and instability in a lot of parts of the world,” Klain’s wife told the Post. “It’s not just about nature for nature’s sake. I think it is about people.”

Medina currently serves in the State Department as assistant secretary for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs. She is an outspoken proponent of the Green New Deal, a controversial legislative proposal sponsored by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) that would cost roughly $9 trillion to implement but would have a negligible effect on global temperatures.

“The Green New Deal is a unifying political message that gets back to the basics of creating an economy that works for all people and protects the planet as a result,” Medina wrote in January 2019. A national poll conducted the following month found that just 29 percent of Americans supported the Green New Deal, while 51 percent of respondents said they would rather the government spend trillions of dollars to build a wall on the U.S. southern border.

Medina is also a prominent advocate for fully integrating women into military combat units, which resulted in the lowering of rigorous physical standards to accommodate female trainees.

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

Rep. Tim Ryan (D., Ohio) left his home state on Thursday to solicit donations from a group of Hollywood millionaires, including an attorney who worked to minimize financial damages available for young victims of sexual abuse.

Among the hosts of Ryan’s Senate fundraiser is Mitchell Kamin, a high-powered Los Angeles-based litigator. His clients include the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, which in 2020 attempted to avoid paying damages to the victims of former U.S. women’s national gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, who was convicted in 2017 of systematically sexually abusing women and girls.

Holding fundraisers with wealthy attorneys who represent controversial clients has caused headaches for Democratic candidates in the past. Following outrage from left-wing activists, then-presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg canceled a 2019 fundraiser with a former Chicago city attorney who once argued that authorities did not have to release video depicting police killing an underage black man.

Nassar’s victims sued the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee for knowing about Nassar’s conduct but failing to notify authorities. Senior U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee officials were aware of sexual abuse allegations against Nassar for a year before his victims spoke out publicly, court documents show, but declined to remove him from the organization.

In court arguments made by Kamin, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee had no legal responsibility to disclose this fact to authorities. That would mean the organization doesn’t have to pay a single cent to Nassar’s victims, who include girls as young as 15 years old. Despite the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s knowledge of Nassar’s abuse, Nassar continued treating young athletes at Michigan State for a year.

“The reason why these cases exist in the first place is because these institutions—including the [U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee]—operated under a veil of secrecy and lack transparency that allowed sexual assault to fester,” the victims’ attorneys said in a statement during litigation. “It seems that the [U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee] has learned nothing, hopes to change nothing, and seeks a free pass from the court in return for multiple press releases containing platitudes yet no substantive change.”

A spokeswoman for Ryan did not respond to a request for comment.

For Ryan, who faces an uphill battle in his Senate bid against Republican J.D. Vance, the decision to attend a fundraiser in Los Angeles is a peculiar one. Over the course of several months, Ryan has repeatedly labeled Vance a carpetbagger from California. Ryan’s campaign in August started an online video series called HillBilly On The Street, in which a young staffer roams the streets of Middletown, Ohio, asking about Vance’s whereabouts. Another video features a Ryan staffer carrying around a surfboard at the Ohio State Fair, a jab at Vance’s earlier career in San Francisco.

Other hosts of Ryan’s Los Angeles fundraiser include Game of Thrones co-creator D.B. Weiss and anti-Israel activist Lisa Greer.

Earlier this month, Ryan was caught with egg on his face after mocking Vance for attending a rally with former president Donald Trump instead of watching a football game between Ohio State University and the University of Toledo. The Daily Mail revealed that Ryan wasn’t watching the game either and attended a wedding instead.

Ryan will face off against Vance in November for the Senate seat occupied by retiring Republican Rob Portman. A RealClearPolitics average of recent polls finds Vance leading by over 1 point. The site rates the race as “Leans GOP.”

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

Jamie McLeod-Skinner and Kim Schrier have long supported progressive policies.

Democrats in tight House races in the Pacific Northwest are pledging to push back against the Biden administration, casting themselves as moderates willing to buck the president’s agenda. But their records may undermine their efforts.

Oregon Democratic candidate Jamie McLeod-Skinner promised in a campaign ad to “lower costs” and “stand up to her own party,” which she says is “not getting the job done in Congress.” Until recently, the congressional hopeful called herself a “proud progressive” and supported progressive legislation like the Green New Deal.

Incumbent Rep. Kim Schrier (D., Wash.) said in a campaign ad earlier this year that she was “taking on the Biden administration” over its proposed gas tax suspension. But Schrier has voted with Biden 100 percent of the time, passing trillions of dollars’ worth in federal stimulus that economists say has fueled inflation.

The ads come as vulnerable Democrats rush to court voters who are dissatisfied with Biden’s handling of the economy. Nearly three-quarters of Americans list inflation as their top concern in the midterm elections, an ABC News/Washington Post poll found this week.

In Schrier’s case, the pivot to pocketbook issues clashes with her legislative record. In February, Schrier introduced a bill to suspend the federal gas tax until 2023, months before the administration’s request for a mere three-month gas tax holiday. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D., Ore.) at the time said the gas tax suspension was “not going to give consumers significant relief” and would instead drain funding to infrastructure and related jobs.

Schrier admitted in a June 2021 telephone town hall that Democrats’ spending led to inflation.

“We knew that there was a possibility that this could lead to inflation,” Schrier said. “We all feel it a little bit, that everything feels a little more expensive. On top of that, gas is more expensive.”

A spokeswoman for Schrier did not respond to a request for comment.

In April, McLeod-Skinner affirmed her support for the Green New Deal, which she called a “really good concept” that has been unfairly “demonized.” The measure, pushed by self-described Democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), could cost taxpayers $94 trillion, a 2019 study found. McLeod-Skinner also backs Medicare for All, which Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) has said would cost taxpayers up to $40 trillion over 10 years.

Though she dodged the label during a recent debate, McLeod-Skinner has repeatedly referred to herself as progressive. The Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC and Progressive Democrats of America endorsed her campaign. When asked during a debate on Tuesday night whether she was a progressive, McLeod-Skinner answered twice that she was “an Oregonian.”

The McLeod-Skinner campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Other Democratic incumbents have promised to push back on Biden’s agenda, with mixed results. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D.) told New Hampshire voters in September she would “stand up to the Biden administration” for failing to secure the southern border. But voters in the state who spoke with the Washington Free Beacon said they didn’t “buy” Hassan’s “bipartisan talk.”

McLeod-Skinner was trailing her Republican opponent by 10 points in August but in the most recent poll is up by 3 points, according to FiveThirtyEight. Schrier is leading her opponent by 4 points, an August poll by RMG Research found.

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

Democrat Janet Mills is ‘fueling Maine’s crime epidemic,’ says former governor Paul LePage

A Republican candidate in one of the country’s most competitive gubernatorial elections is slamming his Democratic opponent for supporting the distribution of free crack pipes to addicts, arguing that the state’s so-called harm reduction facilities are fueling crime.

The broadside came during former governor Paul LePage’s campaign speech Wednesday, in which the the former Republican governor criticized his successor, Janet Mills (D.), whom he is challenging at the ballot box in November, for promoting Maine Access Points, a taxpayer-funded harm reduction group that in July provided a dozen free crack pipes to a Washington Free Beacon reporter. Mills’s drug policies, LePage said, have contributed to a violent crime spike that has seen shootings in Portland more than double since last year.

“Think about it: When you hand out free crack pipes, there is something that goes into it,” said LePage, who cited a Free Beacon report that documented a network of harm reduction facilities that distribute free crack pipes and needles across the state. “That something is illegal, dangerous, and it fuels—let me repeat—it fuels out-of-control crime. Janet Mills is literally fueling Maine’s crime epidemic.”

Former Maine governor Paul LePage

During her tenure as governor, Mills has touted support for harm reduction initiatives and launched a program in 2020, Overdose Prevention Through Intensive Outreach, Naloxone, and Safety, that directs drug users to Maine Access Points to “get the supplies you need to use safely.” LePage noted that Maine Access Points only received $14,915 in government grants in 2018—the last year of his two-term run as governor—but jumped to $716,073 in 2019 after Mills took office. It is unclear what portion of this increase in funds came from the state government or local cities. Mills’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Mills’s support for harm reduction initiatives has come amid a surge in crime in the Pine Tree State. Police in Portland, the state’s largest city, said they responded to 42 shootings this year as of Sept. 9, which is more than double last year’s total. Portland had five shootings in one week just this month. Heath Gorham, the interim police chief of Portland, blamed the crime spike in part on high levels of substance abuse, especially among homeless Mainers.

“I’ve asked the state to step in, provide corrections officers and staff police department,” Gorham said. “Officers on the street are dealing with a sense of lawlessness … people willing to do and say things to them we’ve never seen before.”

Support for a harm reduction approach to drug policy—which aims to make drug abuse safer for addicts rather than eliminate it—could pose a campaign liability for Democrats who have embraced the Biden administration’s controversial drug agenda. Two of the Maine harm reduction groups that provided crack pipes to the Free Beacon, including Maine Access Points, are set to receive more than a million dollars from the Biden administration as part of the first federal harm reduction program.

The Biden administration, facing backlash, denied previous Free Beacon reports on how it was set to fund the distribution of crack pipes through the $30 million program. In response to the Maine story, however, the Department of Health and Human Services told the Free Beacon it would meet with each group that receives federal dollars to ensure funds do not go toward crack pipes.

One of the harm reduction groups set to receive federal funds, the Church of Safe Injection, was certified as a part of Maine’s syringe service program last year after years of distributing drug paraphernalia illegally.

LePage delivered the speech in front of a pond that Portland city officials drained this month to search for a murder weapon. Portland city workers reportedly cleared out a nearby homeless camp and discarded used syringes hours before the former governor’s speech. A video taken by the Portland Press Herald shows employees tossing homeless people’s belongings onto a bulldozer.

Homeless encampment at Deering Oaks park in Portland, Maine.

The city claimed it was a routine cleanup, but a homeless person told the Sun Journal that Wednesday was the first time he was told to leave the park after a month of staying there. Several other homeless people in the park said the cleanup was unusual.

LePage, who will face off against Mills in November, served two consecutive terms as governor between 2011 and 2019 and was prevented by state law from running for a third consecutive term.

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

The midterm elections are weeks away and Democrats are terrified of losing their majority in Congress. As you all might have noticed, the party fundraising emails clogging your inbox have become increasingly hysterical and unhinged. Here are some of the most egregious examples from the last few days alone:

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SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

Column: Republicans recover after summer stumbles

Not long ago, President Biden and congressional Democrats were riding high. They benefited from falling gas prices, a rash of legislation, a foolish but popular student debt bailout, several weak GOP candidates, and voter backlash to the reversal of Roe v. Wade. Now it’s autumn, and there is a chill in the air and a change in the political temperature. Republicans, the polls suggest, have a path to a Senate majority. They are on track to take the House. The GOP has recovered from its summer swoon.

The revival began two weeks ago. Encouraging words came from an unlikely source. On September 12, Nate Cohn of the New York Times wrote that polls may be underestimating the GOP yet again in states like Wisconsin, Ohio, North Carolina, and Florida. When a potential polling error is considered, Cohn went on, Republicans appear much more likely to take over Capitol Hill.

Cohn is neither a partisan nor an ideologue. He plays it straight. But his analysis launched the sort of conversation about polling error that Republicans love. Cohn reinforced the right’s longstanding suspicion that GOP voters do not talk to pollsters. So long as the final polls are within the margin of error, this thinking goes, Republicans have a chance of a victory.

Then, on September 15, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida upended the electoral cycle. His one simple trick: sending a plane of Venezuelan asylum-seekers to Martha’s Vineyard. Suddenly, Democratic-friendly topics vanished from the headlines. Abortion, student loans, and Mar-a-Lago disappeared from cable news chyrons. They were replaced by controversy over an issue—border security—that favors the GOP.

The stunt was a public relations coup. It reset the national debate. It sent the left into a frenzy. And it boosted DeSantis’s star power at just the right moment.

The timing was important. DeSantis’s move coincided with an increase in GOP Senate advertising. Between September 5 and September 26, according to AdImpact data reported by NBC News, Republicans outspent Democrats on the air in eight of nine competitive Senate races. Arizona was the exception.

Mitch McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) led the charge. It was responsible for most of the spending in North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Nevada. SLF was less of a factor in Wisconsin, but that’s because incumbent Senator Ron Johnson had the resources to launch a fusillade of negative ads at his opponent, Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes.

The GOP barrage hits Democrats as soft on crime. And it’s working. Johnson has pulled ahead of Barnes in Wisconsin. Mehmet Oz has narrowed the gap between him and John Fetterman in Pennsylvania. Herschel Walker has done the same in Georgia. Meanwhile, both Ted Budd in North Carolina and J.D. Vance in Ohio hold slim leads over their Democratic opponents.

Since Arizona and New Hampshire look out of reach, the GOP has to hold Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Ohio, and pick up either Georgia or Nevada. That outcome—all else being equal—would give Republicans 51 seats and restore McConnell as majority leader. Winning both Georgia and Nevada would bring the GOP to 52 seats, of course. Any additional pickups, such as talented newcomer Joe O’Dea upsetting Michael Bennett in Colorado, would be icing on the cake.

A 52-seat majority would put Senate Republicans back where they started after the 2016 election. It would be the same number of seats that they won in the 1994 “Republican Revolution.” A two-seat margin of control might not be the gift that Republicans hoped for at the beginning of the year. But they will happily accept it.

This 52-seat scenario is full of caveats. It depends, most importantly, on whether Johnson, Budd, Vance, and Oz can fend off their opponents. The weakest link in this fence may be Oz. He’s a first-time campaigner in a swing state who has yet to consolidate Republican voters, much less independents. If Oz succumbs, the map becomes more difficult for Republicans. And something that has never happened before—back-to-back 50-50 Senates—would be a possibility.

Oz should not be dismissed. The polls show him moving in the right direction. His opponent’s personal health and stances on drugs and criminal justice are big vulnerabilities. Also, Republican voters are likely to come home by Election Day. And independents, as Henry Olsen has pointed out, tend to break late against the president’s party.

Biden’s job approval remains in the low 40s. Republicans have cut down the Democratic advantage in the congressional generic ballot to 1 point. Republicans are winning on the economy, inflation, and crime. And all these subjects are at the top of voters’ minds. “The Republicans’ 14-point advantage in trust to handle crime matches its largest since 1991,” according to the Langer Research poll released this week by the Washington Post and ABC News. “Among independents it’s a whopping 34-point GOP lead.”

The problem facing Democrats is that they are tied to an unpopular president in an environment that favors the GOP. Progressive policies—massive spending, crippling oil and gas production, decarceration, cuts to local police, normalizing and subsidizing homelessness and addiction, encouraging illegal border crossings—have created an economic and social crisis that is impossible to ignore. That is why McConnell says Republicans have an even shot of taking the Senate. It is why Kevin McCarthy is almost certain to become the next speaker of the House.

Four successive presidents have lost control of Congress. In each of the past four elections, at least one branch of government or one chamber of Congress has switched hands. You think Joe Biden is going to buck this trend? I wouldn’t bet on it.

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

An FBI whistleblower has come forward to say the bureau is violating policies in its investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach.

The whistleblower raising concerns about how the bureau is handling the Jan. 6 investigation has identified himself as special agent Steve Friend.

Friend, based out of Florida since June 2021, said in a declaration made public on Sept. 26 that he was told that child sexual abuse material investigations were “no longer an FBI priority” and should be referred to local officials. He says he was also told that he would be focusing on domestic terrorism investigations.

Friend says he observed that FBI policies on case assignments were being violated because the Washington Field Office was enabling field offices around the country to lead investigations on crimes that allegedly took place in Washington on or around Jan. 6, but officials in Washington are actually directing the probes.

The situation resulted in active criminal investigations in which Friend is listed as the case agent, but has done no investigative work, according to the declaration.

Friend brought concerns to supervisors, including telling special agent Greg Federico that it was inappropriate to use FBI SWAT teams to arrest suspects who were only facing misdemeanor charges. Federico allegedly said the search warrants being served by the teams were lawful and advised Friend to speak to the FBI employee assistance program to deal with stress.

Federico forwarded the issue to supervisors, with whom Friend reiterated concerns about policy violations. He brought up the kidnapping case involving Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, which ended with several defendants being acquitted because of the heavy involvement of FBI agents and confidential sources. One of the supervisors falsely said that police officers were killed on Jan. 6, and said that Friend was being “a bad teammate,” according to the declaration.

Friend refused to participate in future operations relating to the Jan. 6 investigation. His security clearance was suspended pending an investigation, and he was stripped of his credentials, firearm, and badge.

Friend is still employed by the FBI but remains suspended without pay, Daniel Meyer, one of his lawyers, told The Epoch Times via email.

Senators: Explain What Happened

Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who released the declaration, told FBI Director Christopher Wray that it appeared the bureau retaliated against Friend.

“Ultimately, rather than reassigning Special Agent Friend other tasks as he requested, FBI leadership apparently made the choice to retaliate against and make an example of him,” the senators said in a Sept. 26 missive to Wray, a Trump appointee, and Wray’s superior, Attorney General Merrick Garland, a Biden appointee.

“The alleged actions by FBI senior leadership are unacceptable and send exactly the wrong message,” the senators said.

They urged officials to immediately stop disciplining Friend for what was described as protected whistleblower activity, which is protected by federal law.

“These unwarranted actions only serve to chill other employees from reporting wrongdoing, and demonstrate a complete and utter failure by agency leaders to obey the letter and intent of federal whistleblower protection laws,” the lawmakers said.

They asked for answers on what happened to Friend by Oct. 10.

Grassley is the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee and Johnson is the top Republican on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

The FBI told The Epoch Times via email it received the letter.

“While we cannot comment on the specifics of personnel matters, all FBI employees understand they are held to the highest standards because their work is critical to fulfilling our mission of protecting the American people and upholding the Constitution of the United States. Employees who don’t carry out their responsibilities are held accountable through an objective administrative process,” a spokesperson said.

“FBI employees who report evidence of wrongdoing through a protected disclosure are protected from retaliation. Such reporting supports the FBI’s mission and is fully consistent with our core values.”

‘A Patriot’

Meyer, a managing partner at Tully Rinckey, said that the case is about “good governance,” adding: “investigative misconduct undermines prosecution and invades the Constitutional rights of innocent Federal employees, including Special Agents like Stephen. Too many Beltway investigations have been rushed in the past decade; the practice is undermining our institutions of government.”

Jason Foster, founder and president of Empower Oversight, said that Friend “is a patriot who did the right thing and is being punished for it.”

“It is outrageous to abuse the legitimate process of a security clearance investigation as an illegitimate pretext to retaliate against someone for protected whistleblowing. Blowing the whistle is not a valid reason to label someone a security risk,” added Foster, who is helping represent Friend.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

The Biden administration has awarded $41.3 million in federal contracts to an advocacy group aligned with the progressive left’s Vera Institute of Justice, which helps illegal immigrants fight deportation from the United States.

The Acacia Center for Justice—a Washington-based nonprofit created through a collaboration between the Vera Institute of Justice and the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition—was awarded six contracts from the Department of Justice to provide “legal services” starting on Sept. 1, according to government records.

The Vera Institute of Justice has received millions in funding from George Soros’s Open Society Foundation.

On its website, the Acacia Center for Justice says its mission is to “expand on Vera’s work over the past twenty years in providing legal support and representation to immigrants facing deportation through the development, coordination and management of national networks of legal services providers serving immigrants across the country.”

Additionally, Acacia says its goals are “to support immigrant legal services and defense networks to provide exceptional legal services to immigrants and to advocate for the expansion of these programs and the infrastructure critical to guaranteeing immigrants access to justice, fairness, and freedom.”

Acacia recently obtained its federal tax-exempt status. On July 29, the IRS sent a 501(c)(3) determination letter to the group, declaring that its effective date of tax exemption was Dec. 29, 2021.

Fox News first reported on the nonprofit’s federal contracts.

In June, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5–4 that the Biden administration has the authority to end the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy, Vera issued a statement applauding the court’s decision.

“The Supreme Court’s decision marks a key step in restoring asylum, a crucial component to a more just and equitable immigration system in the United States,” Vera stated.

At the time, many Republican lawmakers voiced their opposition to the Supreme Court’s ruling, including Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.), the ranking GOP member on the House Homeland Security subcommittee on border security.

“Ending Remain in Mexico will further weaken our already deteriorated border security,” Higgins said, according to a statement. “Congress should codify the security mechanisms of Remain in Mexico and Title 42. Law enforcement needs those tools to reestablish operational control and stop the massive disintegration of our sovereignty at the border.”

The Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) Coalition runs a detained adult program and a detained unaccompanied minors program, according to its website. The adult program “helps detained immigrants learn to understand the Immigration Court and deportation process” and connect migrants with pro bono attorneys.

On Jan. 20, 2021, CAIR released a statement saying it was relieved to see the Trump administration go.

“There is true relief knowing that the Trump-Pence administration is over,” CAIR wrote. “Now, we are ready to seize this moment and advocate for true, substantive changes.”

In August, Venezuela overtook Guatemala and Honduras to become the second-largest source of migrants crossing the U.S. southern border illegally. According to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. officials stopped 60,530 Mexicans in August, followed by Venezuelans with 25,349 encounters. 

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

YET ANOTHER MIRACULOUS SALARY GAIN FOR A SO-CALLED PUBLIC SERVANT.

Newly obtained financial documents reveal the controversial and oft-disproved Anthony Fauci’s net worth has exceeded $12.5 million, surging over $5.1 million amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Obtained by the government watchdog group Open The Books, the records detail how America’s most powerful public health official amassed his net worth through investments, gifts, and his taxpayer-funded salary. Fauci’s wife, Christine Grady, is also a National Institutes of Health (NIH) employee, curiously serving as the Chief at the NIH Clinical Center’s Department of Bioethics.

The Fauci household disclosed that their total net worth increased from roughly $7.6 million on January 1st, 2019 to over $12.6 million by December 31, 2021. The numbers represent a nearly 70 percent increase.

Documents also reveal that Fauci continues to be the top-paid federal employee, earning a salary of $456,000 in 2021 and $480,000 in 2022.

During 2021, an ongoing pandemic year, the Fauci’s household net worth gains totaled $2,832,876 through federal income and benefits worth $903,497; perks and benefits totaling $919,205; and $910,174 in investment gains. The Fauci family’s household investment portfolio previously gained $794,369 in 2020.

Fauci’s investment account is now valued at $10,271,626, and his wife’s investments totaled an additional $2,405,887, as of December 31st, 2021. The funds are held in a mix of trust, retirement, and college education accounts.

Fauci has an IRA worth $706,219; a defined benefit brokerage account totaling $2,551,210; and a revocable trust worth $7,014,197. His wife’s revocable trust totals $2,269,225 and has an IRA totaling $136,662.

The documents do not include the names of any individual stocks held by the family, though they do show some investments in broadly targeted mutual funds.

MUST READ: Fauci, Klain, Yellen, Kendi Headline Pfizer-Funded, Far-Left Conference in D.C. This Week.

In 2021, Fauci supplemented his government income with nearly $1 million in prizes from non-profit organizations such as the Dan David Foundation, which awarded $901,400 for “speaking truth to power” and “defending science” during the Trump administration.

Fauci kept $901,400 of the prize money, allocating roughly 10 percent to handpicked scholarship winners.

Fauci also collected awards of $12,500 from the Eliot Richardson Prize in Public Service on July 31, 2021 and the Abelson Prize from the American Association for the Advancement of Science on February 8, 2021.

Fauci’s 2021 disclosures also note that he continues to hold a stake in a San Francisco restaurant, Jackson Fillmore, worth between $1,000 and $15,000.

The release of Fauci’s financial disclosures follows his decision to retire from his role as National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director, which will leave him with an annual retirement package exceeding $350,000.

The staggering figure comes amidst Fauci sending U.S. taxpayer dollars to fund risky bat coronavirus research at a Chinese Communist Party-controlled lab in Wuhan