Using "Medicine" As A Means Of Political Punishment

brownstone |   How this began: The virus was here (the US) already for months from 2019 and life went on normally. 

Once the consciousness seeped in and the politicians panicked, we moved quickly from travel restrictions to lockdowns to mask mandates to domestic capacity restrictions to vaccine mandates. Somewhere along the way, we learned to classify people by profession, stigmatize the sick, then finally to demonize the noncompliant. It’s been 20 months of intensified controls, driven by political leaders from both parties, with precious little dissent from media organs.

The pace has been furiously fast but somehow just slow enough that people and media personalities adjust to the new, the cycle proceeds, last week’s shock becomes this week’s normal, and then politicians scramble to create the next big intervention, covering previous failures with new nostrums, all while ignoring or censoring opposing views. 

Even hard-won scientific knowledge of 100 years – for example natural immunity – has been memory holed. We reference Orwell often because there is a dystopian feel to it all, describable best by reference to stories we only imagined through the help of books and movies. Hunger Games, Matrix, V for Vendetta, Equilibrium – they all come to mind. 

The policies have been bad enough but the political polarization has been the real poison. In history, we’ve seen where this leads. New and random mandates from political leaders become loyalty tests. Compliant people are viewed as enlightened and obedient. The noncompliant are regarded as stupid and probably politically threatening. They are purgeable. 

In this particular case, the mainstream media has argued for months that noncompliance correlates very closely with Trump support, which everyone knows is a civic sin of the highest order even though he won the presidency 5 years ago. This realization was an invitation to the Biden administration to ramp up its mandates, finding any and every means to get the federal bureaucracies to penetrate the policy walls to the states that exist under the Constitution. 

They easily found the agency Occupational Safety and Health Administration, twisted a few words, and like magic discovered a basis on which to override state-based limits on vaccine mandates. It’s using medicine as a means of political punishment. 

One tip-off of the political agenda here is that the data associations of the unvaxed by Trump support only work with 50 data points, meaning state boundaries, as Justin Hart has pointed out. Expand that out by county-level data with 3,000-plus data points and the correlation almost entirely disappears. Further, if you look at vaccination by race and income, you find very low compliance among voters usually associated with Democratic support. So the war on the “red states” being waged by the federal government today is really just about consolidating political support, state by state. 

Regardless, the effects of the mandates are real and devastating for millions of people. People are losing their jobs because they are unwilling to go along. And all of this occurs in the midst of a chronic labor shortage: bosses are being told by the government to dismiss people from their jobs just when their companies are struggling for resources. 

There are many reasons to refuse these mandates. The people with previous infections know that they have better immunities than they could get with a vaccine, and they want that to count even as the CDC refuses. This is particularly true of health care workers.

Liberal COVID Discourse Is Utterly Devoid Of Science

greenwald |  It is virtually a religious belief in the dominant liberal culture that people who do not want the COVID vaccine are stupid, ignorant, immoral and dangerous. As large sectors of the population continue to question or disobey their COVID decrees, they have begun to make more explicit this condescending view.

Liberals feel free to disparage them as "stupid” notwithstanding long-standing (though diminishing) racial disparities among this group. A CNN headline from last month told part of the story: “Black New Yorkers may have the lowest vaccination rates, but community groups refuse to give up.” Citing data from the city's health agency, the network reported that “citywide, just 28% of Black New Yorkers between the ages of 18 and 44 are fully vaccinated. The Hispanic community is the second-least fully vaccinated population in that age group, with 49% being fully vaccinated.”

Two weeks ago, Bloomberg reported that while some of the unvaccinated are unable to get the vaccine (due to work pressures or health conditions), most of them are vaccine-hesitant by choice and continue to reflect racial disparities. Under the headline “U.S. Racial Vaccine Gaps Are Bigger Than We Thought: Covid-19 Tracker,” the news outlet reported: “the White vaccination rate is not as bad as it had seemed and Hispanic communities are lagging more than previously thought.”

Yet liberal elites continue to call anyone who is unvaccinated "stupid,” ignorant and immoral. On Sunday, New York's Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul, when announcing her intent to use National Guard soldiers to replace health care workers fired for refusing the vaccine, told her audience: “yes, I know you're vaccinated, you're the smart ones.” She then said those who refuse to get the vaccine are not just stupid but have turned their back on God: “there's people out there who aren't listening to God and what God wants.” Gov. Hochul added that the vaccine “is from God to us and we must say, thank you, God,” and said to her "smart” vaccinated supporters: “I need you to be my apostles.”

On September 16, CNN host Don Lemon maligned those who have chosen not to be vaccinated as "stupid,” "selfish,” filled with “ignorance,” and “not acting on logic, reason and science." He then issued this decree: “it’s time to start shaming them or leave them behind.” When controversy erupted over the lavish indoor gala former President Obama threw for himself, at which his guests were unmasked while the servants were masked, New York Times reporter Annie Karni explained on CNN that while some of Obama's neighbors on Martha's Vineyard objected, many believed that a maskless party was fine because “this is a sophisticated, vaccinated crowd." Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel suggested the unvaccinated should be deprioritized for health care in hospitals, while Howard Stern recently lambasted the unvaccinated as “imbeciles” and “nut jobs” and argued they should be denied health care and be left to die.

That the unvaccinated are inherently primitive and stupid troglodytes was always a claim as baseless and offensive as it is counter-productive. Although I personally took the vaccine the first day it was available to me — as I repeatedly said I would in every forum where I speak, including Fox News — it was always clear that there were cogent reasons while those with different circumstances and risk factors (age, health, prior COVID status) might assess their own risks differently and reach a different conclusion. And what made me most comfortable about my choice to get vaccinated, or to decide whether my kids should, was precisely that it was my choice, after informing myself: the idea of forcing someone to do it against their will, or condition people's rights and privileges on vaccine compliance — as both President Biden and the ACLU astonishingly advocated — always struck me as inconceivable.

The attempt to equate being unvaccinated with stupidity and ignorance suffered a massive blow on Wednesday night when NBA star Jonathan Isaac was asked why he was hesitant to take the vaccine. Like many unions, the NBA's player union has refused a vaccine mandate, and Isaac, the 23-year-old player with the Orlando Magic who previously had and recovered from COVID, gave a stunningly compelling, informed, well-reasoned and thoughtful exposition on his rationale for not wanting the vaccine. Isaac also defended the right of individuals to make their own choice. One need not agree with his ultimate conclusion on the vaccine to see how groundless (and obnoxious) it is to claim that anyone who chooses not to take the vaccine — like him — is stupid, ignorant and primitive. I really encourage everyone to watch his two-minute master class in demonstrating why such a choice can, depending on one's circumstances, be perfectly rational:

Is there anyone who can argue with a straight face that Isaac sounds stupid, ignorant or evil? One can cogently dispute the wisdom of his conclusion: while it is true that most people who recover from COVID (as he did) enjoy "natural immunity” in the form of antibodies — indeed, one major study found that “the natural immune protection that develops after a SARS-CoV-2 infection offers considerably more of a shield against the Delta variant of the pandemic coronavirus than two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine — some studies conclude that immunity is stronger still with the vaccine.”

Nonetheless, Issac is indisputably right that the risk of dying or becoming seriously ill of COVID is extremely low for someone like him: early 20s, healthy and with natural immunity. In fact, during the entire course of the pandemic, the total number of people aged 15-24 (Isaac's age group) who have died of COVID — in a country of 330 million people — is 1,372: fewer than the number in that age group who have died of non-COVID pneumonia. Add onto that Isaac's physical fitness and the fact that he already had COVID once, his risk from contracting the virus is vanishingly small.

It is true that the long-term effects of COVID are unknown, but that is also true of the long-term risks from these new vaccines. Isaac is also right ….

 

Dr. Joseph Ladapo Got Some Gatekeeping Negroe Heads Spinning....,

 

 

Fist tap Dale

A Lifetime Of Booster Shots (Immunity As A Service)

juliusruechel  |  If a plumber with a lifetime of experience were to tell you that water runs uphill, you would know he is lying and that the lie is not accidental. It is a lie with a purpose. If you can also demonstrate that the plumber knows in advance that the product he is promoting with that lie is snake oil, you have evidence for a deliberate con. And once you understand what's really inside that bottle of snake oil, you will begin to understand the purpose of the con.

One of the most common reasons given for mass COVID vaccinations is the idea that if we reach herd immunity through vaccination, we can starve the virus out of existence and get our lives back. It's the COVID-Zero strtegy or some variant of it.

By now it is abundantly clear from the epidemiological data that the vaccinated are able to both catch and spread the disease. Clearly vaccination isn't going to make this virus disappear. Only a mind that has lost its grasp on reality can fail to see how ridiculous all this has become. 

But a tour through pre-COVID science demonstrates that, from day one, long before you and I had even heard of this virus, it was 100% inevitable and 100% predictable that these vaccines would never be capable of eradicating this coronavirus and would never lead to any kind of lasting herd immunity. Even worse, lockdowns and mass vaccination have created a dangerous set of circumstances that interferes with our immune system's ability to protect us against other respiratory viruses. They also risk driving the evolution of this virus towards mutations that are more dangerous to both the vaccinated and the unvaccinated alike. Lockdowns, mass vaccinations, and mass booster shots were never capable of delivering on any of the promises that were made to the public. 

And yet, vaccination has been successfully used to control measles and even to eradicate smallpox. So, why not COVID? Immunity is immunity, and a virus is a virus is a virus, right? Wrong! Reality is far more complicated... and more interesting.

This Deep Dive exposes why, from day one, the promise of COVID-Zero can only ever have been a deliberately dishonest shell game designed to prey on a lack of public understanding of how our immune systems work and on how most respiratory viruses differ from other viruses that we routinely vaccinate against. We have been sold a fantasy designed to rope us into a pharmaceutical dependency as a deceitful trade-off for access to our lives. Variant by variant. For as long as the public is willing to go along for the ride. 

Exposing this story does not require incriminating emails or whistleblower testimony. The story tells itself by diving into the long-established science that every single virologist, immunologist, evolutionary biologist, vaccine developer, and public health official had access to long before COVID began. As is so often the case, the devil is hidden in the details. As this story unfolds it will become clear that the one-two punch of lockdowns and the promise of vaccines as an exit strategy began as a cynical marketing ploy to coerce us into a never-ending regimen of annual booster shots intentionally designed to replace the natural "antivirus security updates" against respiratory viruses that come from hugs and handshakes and from children laughing together at school. We are being played for fools. 

This is not to say that there aren't plenty of other opportunists taking advantage of this crisis to pursue other agendas and to tip society into a full-blown police state. One thing quickly morphs into another. But this essay demonstrates that never-ending boosters were the initial motive for this global social-engineering shell game ― the subscription-based business model, adapted for the pharmaceutical industry. "Immunity as a service". 

So, let's dive into the fascinating world of immune systems, viruses, and vaccines, layer by layer, to dispel the myths and false expectations that have been created by deceitful public health officials, pharmaceutical lobbyists, and media manipulators. What emerges as the lies are peeled apart is both surprising and more than a little alarming.

“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” - Sherlock Homes” ― Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Children Don’t Need The ‘F*cking’ COVID Vaccine Because There Are ‘Unknown Repercussions Down the Road’

projectveritas |  Project Veritas released the third video of its COVID vaccine investigative series today exposing two Johnson & Johnson [J&J] officials, who argue children do not need to take the COVID vaccine in part because of the potential long-term side effects.

One of the exposed J&J employees, a scientist by the name of Justin Durrant, laughs about inconveniencing unvaccinated adults if they refuse to comply with mandates being imposed upon them:

Justin Durrant, Johnson & Johnson Scientist: “Inconvenience [the unvaccinated] to the point where it’s like, ‘I might as well just f*cking do it [and take the COVID vaccine],’ you know what I’m saying? Like ‘I can’t go out of state,’ I can’t – ‘my grandma’s in Canada and I can’t visit her,’ you know what I’m saying? You can’t go to France unless you’re vaccinated -- you know you’ve just got to keep doing things like that where you’re almost like a second-grade citizen if you’re not vaccinated, but I know that’s awful.”

Veritas Journalist: “You’re almost what?”

Durrant: “Like a second-grade citizen, like you can’t do anything that a normal citizen can do.”

Veritas Journalist: “A second graded citizen?”

Durrant: “Yeah like top grade, like the ones that get it, and the ones that just like -- then you can’t do sh*t.”

…

Veritas Journalist: “So then how do we punish [the unvaccinated]?” 

Durrant: “I mean if you can’t work, I feel like that’s punishment enough.”

Veritas Journalist: “People what?”

Durrant: “Only way people really act and comply is if it affects their pockets, like if you’re working for a big company and you’re going to lose your job, best believe you’ll be the first one in line [to take the COVID vaccine].”

Veritas Journalist: “Right, so if you’re working for a big company and you’re about to lose your job, you’ll be the first one in line?”

Durrant: “Yeah.”

Veritas Journalist: “That’s so true. That’s smart, that’s what we need to do.”

Durrant: “That’s what we’re doing.”

Durrant said he does not recommend taking his own company’s vaccine. He asked the Veritas journalist to keep that information private.

“Don’t get the Johnson & Johnson [COVID vaccine], I didn’t tell you though,” he said.

Both Durrant and Brandon Schadt, J&J’s Regional Business Lead, said that applying the COVID vaccine on children would not move the needle in the battle against the pandemic.

“It wouldn’t make that much of a difference” if children are unvaccinated for COVID, Durrant said.

“It’s a kid, you just don’t do that, you know? Not something that’s so unknown in terms of repercussions down the road, you know?” Schadt said.

“It’s a kid, it’s a f*cking kid, you know? They shouldn’t have to get a f*cking [COVID] vaccine, you know?”

Schadt compared J&J’s COVID vaccine efficacy to the other pharmaceutical companies.

“J&J is like stepping in the best smelling pile of sh*t you could step in,” he said.

 

First 2/3rds Of The Spartacus Letter Straight FYRE, BCI And Speculative Last 1/3rd A Dumpster Fire....,

TAE  |  We have been forced to watch America and the Free World spin into inexorable decline due to a biowarfare attack. We, along with countless others, have been victimized and gaslit by propaganda and psychological warfare operations being conducted by an unelected, unaccountable Elite against the American people and our allies.

Our mental and physical health have suffered immensely over the course of the past year and a half. We have felt the sting of isolation, lockdown, masking, quarantines, and other completely nonsensical acts of healthcare theater that have done absolutely nothing to protect the health or wellbeing of the public from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, we are watching the medical establishment inject literal poison into millions of our fellow Americans without so much as a fight.

We have been told that we will be fired and denied our livelihoods if we refuse to vaccinate. This was the last straw.

We have spent thousands of hours analyzing leaked footage from Wuhan, scientific papers from primary sources, as well as the paper trails left by the medical establishment.

What we have discovered would shock anyone to their core.

First, we will summarize our findings, and then, we will explain them in detail. References will be placed at the end.

 Summary:

 • COVID-19 is a blood and blood vessel disease. SARS-CoV-2 infects the lining of human blood vessels, causing them to leak into the lungs.

• Current treatment protocols (e.g. invasive ventilation) are actively harmful to patients, accelerating oxidative stress and causing severe VILI (ventilator-induced lung injuries). The continued use of ventilators in the absence of any proven medical benefit constitutes mass murder.
• Existing countermeasures are inadequate to slow the spread of what is an aerosolized and potentially wastewater-borne virus, and constitute a form of medical theater.
• Various non-vaccine interventions have been suppressed by both the media and the medical establishment in favor of vaccines and expensive patented drugs.
• The authorities have denied the usefulness of natural immunity against COVID-19, despite the fact that natural immunity confers protection against all of the virus’s proteins, and not just one.
• Vaccines will do more harm than good. The antigen that these vaccines are based on, SARS-CoV- 2 Spike, is a toxic protein. SARS-CoV-2 may have ADE, or antibody-dependent enhancement; current antibodies may not neutralize future strains, but instead help them infect immune cells. Also, vaccinating during a pandemic with a leaky vaccine removes the evolutionary pressure for a virus to become less lethal.
• There is a vast and appalling criminal conspiracy that directly links both Anthony Fauci and Moderna to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
• COVID-19 vaccine researchers are directly linked to scientists involved in brain-computer interface (“neural lace”) tech, one of whom was indicted for taking grant money from China.
• Independent researchers have discovered mysterious nanoparticles inside the vaccines that are not supposed to be present.
• The entire pandemic is being used as an excuse for a vast political and economic transformation of Western society that will enrich the already rich and turn the rest of us into serfs and untouchables.

NBA Mandingo Rebellion As Star Players Refuse To Submit To The Evil Mr. NA

rollingstone |  Monday, September 27th: Irving was not present for Nets Media Day at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where city law requires athletes to have at least one dose of Covid vaccination to participate in team activities.

Appearing from his home for a brief press conference with reporters, Irving declined to answer directly four separate questions regarding his vaccination and playing status. “Living in this public sphere, there’s a lot of questions about what’s going on in the world of Kyrie,” he said, “and I would love to just keep that private and handle that the right way with my team and go forward with a plan.”

The Nets dodged questions about what such a plan might be. San Francisco city officials removed religious and medical exemptions from their policy on Friday, making the NBA’s decision on Wiggins easier. A league source said any comment on further applications for exemptions in New York would make too clear who had applied; the New York Knicks have said their team is 100-percent vaccinated.

One by one, the basketball players — non-vaccinated star here, fully-inoculated veteran on mute down there, a full-on anti-vaxxer front-and-center — logged into the video conference. The annual summer meeting of the powerful NBA union had gone virtual again on August 7, and high on the agenda for the season ahead was a proposed mandate from the league office that 100 percent of players get vaccinated against Covid-19.

One response echoed from squares across the screen, according to players and an executive on the call: Non-starter. Non-starter.”

The NBA had relied on science above all to lead the sports world through the Covid nightmare, from the league’s outbreak-driven shutdown to a pandemic-proof playoff bubble in Disney World to game after game with fans back in the stands. But after two plagued seasons of non-stop nasal swabbing, quarantining and distrust, unvaccinated players were pushing back. They made their case to the union summit: There should be testing this year, of course, just not during off-days. They’d mask up on the court and on the road, if they must. But no way would they agree to a mandatory jab. The vaccine deniers had set the agenda; the players agreed to take their demands for personal freedom to the NBA’s negotiating table.

This month, league officials caught a break: Two of America’s most progressive cities, New York and San Francisco, would require pro athletes to show proof of one Covid-19 vaccination dose to play indoors, except with an approved medical or religious exemption. Which meant that one of the NBA’s biggest stars — one known for being receptive to conspiratorial beliefs — would be under heavy pressure to get a shot. And if Brooklyn Nets superstar Kyrie Irving could be convinced to take the vaccine, then maybe, just maybe, the whole league could create a new kind of bubble together.

When asked directly about Irving’s vaccination status — or his plans to change it — multiple people familiar with his thinking declined to answer directly. But one confidant and family member floated to Rolling Stone the idea of anti-vaxx players skipping home games to dodge the New York City ordinance… or at least threatening to protest them, until the NBA changes its ways.

“There are so many other players outside of him who are opting out, I would like to think they would make a way,” says Kyrie’s aunt, Tyki Irving, who runs the seven-time All-Star’s family foundation and is one of the few people in his regular circle of advisors. “It could be like every third game. So it still gives you a full season of being interactive and being on the court, but with the limitations that they’re, of course, oppressing upon you. There can be some sort of formula where the NBA and the players can come to some sort of agreement.”

 

30 Covid Facts In One Convenient Location

off-guardian |   We get a lot of e-mails and private messages along these lines “do you have a source for X?” or “can you point me to mask studies?” or “I know I saw a graph for mortality, but I can’t find it anymore”. And we understand, it’s been a long 18 months, and there are so many statistics and numbers to try and keep straight in your head.

So, to deal with all these requests, we decided to make a bullet-pointed and sourced list for all the key points. A one-stop-shop.

Here are key facts and sources about the alleged “pandemic”, that will help you get a grasp on what has happened to the world since January 2020, and help you enlighten any of your friends who might be still trapped in the New Normal fog (click links to skip):

“Covid deaths” – Lockdowns – PCR Tests – “asymptomatic infection” – Ventilators – Masks – Vaccines – Deception & Foreknowledge

Mr.NA Neo-Vaccinoid Mandates Put Democrats On A Collision Course With Black Americans

Phugg a Tuskeegee and ancient history. Black people have powerful common sense and clearly understand the absurdity of "protecting the protected from the unprotected by forcing the unprotected to use the protection that didn't protect the protected".  Too bad too many other folks LACK the common sense that God gave to his people. How many vaccinated are just resentful and Karenized because once you get cream-pied with that unnatural and inanimate goo, there's no getting unvaccinated....,

newsweek |  President Joe Biden's announcement of vaccine mandates, after previously vowing to not take the step, has fueled further mistrust, according to Newsome.

"I'm not an anti-vaxxer. I'm no Fox News-watching conservative. Many Black people are not, they just do not trust this vaccine," Newsome, who is unvaccinated, added.

The president "made a lot of promises to us around all the Black Lives Matter movement, but he hasn't taken any substantial steps on that front," Newsome said, and pointed to the mistreatment of Haitian migrants at the border.

"Black people are realizing that Democrats are almost as bad as the Republicans when it comes to their treatment of Black people," he said. "It's a very sobering feeling."

But he added: "We're fully aware that Republicans only care about Black issues when it impacts them. They were pro-police when there was BLM protests, anti-police when they stormed the Capitol on January 6."

And while he disavowed any comparison between vaccine mandates and Nazi Germany or slavery, he believes they would be used "to make Black people second-class citizens."

Forcing Black Americans to make a decision to take the vaccine or lose their job is "completely unfair... because as a Black person, I do not trust the government," he said. "The largest numbers of unvaccinated people are Black. We will truly feel the penalty of not complying."

Newsome said he would not get the COVID-19 vaccine until he can trust it is safe. "I think each individual has their own threshold," he said. "I'll know mine when I reach it."

Enyia added: "When we talk about issues of vaccine hesitancy, and we hear 'trust the science' and those sort of phrases, you just can't overlook the role that historical factors play into the scepticism and perhaps the mistrust.

"Frankly, it's condescending and a bit trite to toss it aside... because the time for trust building is throughout time, it's throughout that history. It's harder in the middle of a pandemic, to need to hurry up and convince people to trust an institution when the history has not shown that that trust has been earned. That's a very real challenge."

 

 

PoPo Resist NeoVaccinoid Mandates And Resist Curbs On Their Exemption From The Rule Of Law

theconversation |  Bipartisan talks over police reform ended with no agreement on Sept. 22, 2021, with House Democrats and Republicans blaming each other for the lack of progress.

It isn’t the first time that reform at a federal level has been attempted – nor the first time it has stalled.

The sticking points this time appear to be centered around proposed changes to use-of-force procedures and plans to strip officers of qualified immunity, which shields them from being sued.

As scholars of criminal justice – one a former police officer of 10 years – we were not surprised by the collapse of bipartisan talks. Policing in the U.S. is politicized, making it harder to reach consensus in an age of polarization, even though most Americans believe that major changes are needed. 

In determining the magnitude of this failure, it is important to keep in mind that policing in the U.S. is inherently local. The nearly 18,000 police departments in the country face a variety of different issues, ranging from problems recruiting enough officers – and of a sufficient caliber – to a breakdown of trust with the community.

Even without legislation from Congress, there is a national blueprint for police reform. President Barack Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing set out six pillars to guide departments toward better practices. Those included strategies to build trust with the community, provide oversight, implement better training and procedures, and improve officer safety and well-being.

The federal government can play a clear role in regard to financing reform and addressing nonpolicing issues that contribute to crime, such as underlying poverty and the lack of green spaces.

In the years after the 9/11 attacks, the federal government made funding available for local departments to buy military-grade weapons and vehicles through the Defense Logistics Agency’s 1033 Program and the Homeland Security Grant Program. The federal government might now be better placed playing a similar role as a funder for local law enforcement reforms.

 

 

NYC Public Schools Teachers Get An Injunction Against DeBlasio's Indefensible Neo-Vaccinoid Mandate

thehill |  A federal appeals court blocked New York City’s coronavirus vaccine mandate late Friday evening, dealing a blow to the city days before the mandate goes into effect. 

The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals granted an expedited injunction on Friday blocking the city from mandating that all public school employees submit proof of their first coronavirus vaccine dose by Monday.

The court referred the case to a three-judge panel on an expedited basis.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said in late August that all of the city’s public school teachers and staff would need to have their first dose by Sept. 27. There was no alternative option for regular testing.

A group of New York City public school employees sued earlier this month to block the mandate, arguing that their rights to due process and equal protection were violated. The complaint specifically alleged that the order violated their right to pursue their profession. 

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan upheld the mandate, prompting the plaintiffs to quickly appeal the decision. 

About 82 percent of the city’s roughly 149,000 public school employees are vaccinated, the agency told The Hill, including 88 percent of roughly 78,000 teachers and 95 percent of roughly 1,600 principals.

Danielle Filson, press secretary for the New York City Department of Education [DOE], said in a statement to The Hill that the agency is “confident our vaccine mandate will continue to be upheld once all the facts have been presented, because that is the level of protection our students and staff deserve.”

“Over 82 percent of DOE employees have been vaccinated and we continue to urge all employees to get their shot by September 27,” Filson said.

McGloverful Can't Win, But We Support Her Resistance Gesture

gofundme |   I make videos because we're losing our voice, and our hope and I can’t allow that. My Mother, whose 9-year death anniversary (September 2021), taught me to Speak Up and don’t allow others to shame you when you’re standing for what is right. My grandmother taught her the same.

It’s simply in my blood to STAND and never bow or break for immorality and injustice. My fans have supported me on all my media platforms and now it's time to take it a step further.  

I got your back and I ain’t shuting up! 

Don’t tell me I don’t understand. In 2012 my Mother was murdered while speaking to me on the phone. ZERO RESULTS! After I was on multiple news channels, radio stations, the newspaper and I personally put up thousands of flyers within a 15 mile radius, sent letters to Obama and Kamala Harris, still NO ANSWER! 

So listen, I understand Pain and misrepresentation. I do know what it feels like to be ignored, and your rights rejected by these people who think you’re too stupid to articulate your issues.  They didn’t see me coming... and now TikTok has cancelled me. 

I don't want to just be the person who Cyber Fights...  I'd like to be the voice of reason across this great country. 

Though I've been shut down on TikTok, the mission continues. These funds will be used to gather my team of consultants, accountants and a video production company to help with my upcoming marketing campaign (for my book) and TV show coming later on this year!  (funds will be withdrawn into the McGloverable LLC).

The OSHA "Constitutional Work Around" Is Going To Be Strenuously Challenged In Court

katv  |  OSHA has been working quietly behind the scenes on an emergency temporary standard that can stand up to legal challenges. Their strongest position will be establishing the need for a mandate to protect employees against the "grave danger" of COVID-19.

"OSHA is very aware this is something that's being looked at with tremendous scrutiny," said Helen Rella, an employment attorney with Wilk Auslander. The more clearly the agency is able to articulate the dangers of COVID and provide detailed steps to mitigate it, the stronger its position against constitutional challenges.

"They are going to anticipate ... challenges and they want to head that off at the pass," Rella said, predicting the final emergency temporary standard will be very detailed. 

Already, 24 Republican-led states have announced plans to sue the Biden administration over the vaccine and testing mandate. The Republican attorneys general expressed skepticism that OSHA could "meet the high burden" of proving most employees are in "grave danger." They argued that younger workers have a lower risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19. Over 77% of COVID deaths have been in people 65 or older.

Last week, the Job Creators Network, a conservative small business advocacy group, also announced plans to file a lawsuit to block the implementation of the OSHA guidance when it's released.

"It's one thing if a private company of any size wants to require employees to be vaccinated. It's a whole different ballgame when the federal government is compelling these businesses to police their employees," said Elaine Parker, president of the Job Creators Network Foundation. The group is filing suit with some of its small business members and their employees.

The Job Creators Network along with other business groups have also sounded the alarm over the risk that some employees would quit rather than be forced to get a shot or weekly COVID test.

"The biggest issue these people are facing is the labor shortage," Parker said.

In a letter to the White House Safer Workforce Taskforce, the Association of General Contractors, which represents over 27,000 construction firms, warned that the vaccine mandate could "exacerbate the industry's labor shortage" while increasing the cost and completion times for federal projects, including infrastructure.

The group was specifically concerned about the vaccine mandate for federal contractors, which will take effect in a matter of days under an executive order. The industry is already experiencing high levels of vaccine skepticism and a worker shortage, the trade group noted. Firms fear many of their workers would quit for a job with another contractor that doesn't have a mandate rather than get the shot.

The OSHA rule is expected to affect roughly 170,000 businesses that have 100 or fewer employees, or less than 1% of all businesses, according to government data. Additionally, many of the country's largest employers have already enacted vaccine requirements for some or all of their workers.

Employers that mandated shots have reported high rates of uptake. Tyson Foods, which employs 120,000 workers, saw its vaccination rate increase from 45% to over 72% after issuing a mandate in August. United Airlines reported Wednesday that 97% of its 67,000-person workforce was vaccinated. United CEO Scott Kirby told CNN last week that only "a handful" of employees quit rather than getting the shot.

The courts have had a strong record of upholding vaccine mandates by private entities during the pandemic. Recent rulings favored shot requirements by Houston Methodist Hospital and Indiana University. New lawsuits continue to pile up with recent challenges to a Kentucky hospital, the University of Maryland and the University of California.

It's less clear how courts could rule on a nationwide Labor Department mandate. Emergency temporary standards do not go through as rigorous an approval process as other federal rules and are subject to greater legal scrutiny.

OSHA has only issued 10 emergency temporary standards since 1971, six of them were challenged in court and only one was upheld. If the rule is not carefully tailored to address the risk to workplace safety from COVID-19, it could be overturned.

 

 

Bureau Of Prisons And Federal Law Enforcement Only Federal Employee Unions Resisting NeoVaccinoid Mandate

govexec  |  The National Federation of Federal Employees “understands and respects the differing perspectives of its individual members on matters regarding vaccines, mask mandates and social distancing,” said the union in a statement on September 14. “We have considered the likelihood of success on a legal challenge to the mandates contained within the EO. More than 100 years of legal precedent exists confirming the authority of employer-required mandates and vaccines, and the courts at all levels have consistently rejected challenges to this type of mandate. Therefore, NFFE has determined it will not legally challenge the executive order requiring federal employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.” 

The union––which represents about 110,000 federal employees––added it is talking with the Biden administration about the “progressive discipline” for those who do not get vaccinated as “NFFE believes no employee should be fired in connection with this mandate.”

National Treasury Employees Union “members, like American society at large, will have differing reactions to the new policy,” said NTEU National President Tony Reardon in a statement on September 3. “Either way, the law is clear that employers, including the federal government, may implement a vaccination requirement for employees.” The union has 150,000 federal employee members.

“We have thoroughly evaluated the text of the executive order and any potential legal arguments for and against it. No potential arguments or avenues were ignored,” said the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents about 700,000 federal and D.C. government workers, to members in an email on September 16, obtained by Government Executive. “However, based on the order’s express provision for exceptions required by law, along with a long line of Supreme Court and other federal cases upholding vaccinations in the interest of public health, as well as other cases foreclosing primary court jurisdiction over a federal union’s challenge to an employment-related executive order, a direct legal challenge or lawsuit over the order is unavailable.”

Additionally, “While the scope of bargaining is likely to be limited, our union will make sure that workers have a voice in all those areas that are negotiable.” 

However, the division of AFGE that represents Federal Bureau of Prisons employees has a different take. 

"Our position has not changed, as Mr. [Shane] Fausey indicated in his email dated September 10, ‘We are actively pursuing the legal landscape and any and all options that have the potential to protect our members,’ ” said an email from Council of Prison Locals C-33 leadership to members on September 17, obtained by Government Executive. “Furthermore, ‘We will exhaust all legal options to protect our members.’ With that in mind, as with all other executive orders that have been thrusted upon us, everything takes time. We are working every avenue we can." 

When asked about the difference of opinions, AFGE directed Government Executive to a “frequently asked questions” page on its website that explains its legal stance, among other things. The BOP union declined to comment further on the difference. 

Attorneys for the National Border Patrol Council spent several days looking into possible legal challenges to the mandate and they “determined the EO was legal and that there was no viable avenue of challenge,” said a statement on September 18. “We, the NBPC executive committee, felt it would be better to seek other opinions from law firms specializing in suing the government prior to drawing a final conclusion. To date, we have not found a reputable firm, nor any other firm, or legal opinion that provides us a legitimate path forward. Notwithstanding the legal opinions to date, and unlike other entities such as the National Treasury Employees Union, we continue searching for an avenue of reprieve.”

The union added: “Until we are 100% convinced that no legal remedy is available, we will continue working on the issue.” 

In regard to the mandate overall, the American Postal Workers Union is in a “wait and see mode to learn what the [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] requirements will be” as it is a “rare government union” that is subject to private sector regulations, said a union spokesperson. 

Postal Service employees are not covered by the mandate, but they will be subject to the upcoming emergency temporary standard from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that will require vaccines for companies with 100 or more employees or require weekly negative COVID-19 tests.

The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers was broadly supportive of the mandate, while the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (not a union, but a professional association) was against it.

An Intelligent Anti-Mandate Lawsuit In Gainesville (Hope The Federal Lawsuits Take Note)

mycbs4  |  Circuit Judge Monica Brasington rules the city of Gainesville must not enforce its vaccine mandate and cannot discipline, or terminate, employees for failing to get vaccinated.

"The city failed to put on any evidence that the Vaccine Mandate serves a compelling state interest or that the Vaccine Mandate was the least restrictive means to accomplish that interest," wrote Judge Brasington, in an order signed at 1:45 Wednesday.

"Given the court’s ruling, we will continue our efforts to improve vaccination rates among our workforce through education and incentives. We recognize the reality of vaccine hesitancy and vaccine disinformation but agree with public health experts that vaccination is key in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic," said Gainesville Public Information Officer Rossana Passaniti.

City Commissioners voted to require city employees be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by October 30th. If an employee did not get vaccinated by then, that employee could face discipline up to termination.

In a hearing on Monday, the Judge says the city failed to make its case.

"The city did not put on any evidence, at all, at the injunction hearing. Without any evidence, the Court is unable to consider whether the Vaccine Mandate serves a compelling interest through the least restrictive means," the Judge wrote.

This ruling is a temporary injunction, which means the city cannot enforce its mandate while the case is being litigated. "This injunction will continue in force until further order of the Court,"

Wait..., WHAT?!?!?!

Aussies Gave Up Their Guns 25 Years Ago - Bet They Regret That Now....,

caitlinjohnstone |  Use of force by Victorian police is officially required to be "reasonable, necessary and proportionate to the threat posed by an incident." When you see a video clip of Melbourne protesters just standing around the Remembrance Shrine begin fleeing to escape harm and being fired upon with less-lethal weapons as they retreat, for example, does that seem "reasonable, necessary and proportionate to the threat posed by an incident" to you?

"But Caitlin!" you may object. "Those people they're firing on are Bad People! They're right-wingers and anti-vaxxers! And they're protesting without permission!"

Okay, if you don't want to oppose police brutality on principle without making it about the supposed ideological positions of its victims then that's your right. But surely you don't think the normalization of this kind of violence is something that's only going to affect people you disagree with politically going forward, do you? Surely you're not naive and narcissistic enough to believe the many dramatic deviations from normal policing protocol we've been experiencing during these protests will be rolled back when you personally no longer deem them necessary?

What type of Police is this?@Voice4Victoria pic.twitter.com/BtrECrUYMe

— #FightTheFear (@Mitchyball) September 22, 2021

Because that would be a very silly thing to believe. The way police are dealing with protesters today is the way they're going to deal with them from now on, unless we do something. And in order for that something to be done we're going to first have to collectively ask ourselves, is this the kind of country we want to live in from now on?

Do we want to live in a country where protesters are fired upon by dangerous projectile weapons if the police decide it's time for them to leave? Where protests are violently quashed if the government (the only so-called democracy in the world without any kind of statute or bill of rights, mind you) decides they don't have permission to protest? Where armored stormtroopers patrol the streets? Where people are apprehended simply for filming police? Where police show up at your doorstep to interrogate you on whether you're planning to attend any protests or know of anyone who is?

I understand that lockdowns and vaccine passports are still fairly popular ideas here, but at what point do we say no? At what point do we say enough is enough? If those policies have literal soldiers patrolling Australian streets and enforcing state borders, if they have sectors of the populace so upset that heavily armed riot police are exercising abuses that will certainly be used on racial and environmental justice demonstrators in the future the moment their demonstrations are deemed unauthorised, is it really worth holding that hard line? How much of our soul is Australia willing to trade in order to enforce strict Covid regulations?

 

When The State Decides You Are The Enemy They Can Do Whatever They Want To You

ianwelsh |   Everyone remember the Panama papers? A leak of bank records showing that the ultra-rich are hiding massive wealth, tax-free and often breaking the law to do so?

A rather weak set of laws designed to allow tax avoidance by rich people, at that.

Found out the other day that the reporter who broke the Panama Papers story was killed by a car bomb.

Coincidence, no doubt.

You may recall the Ferguson protests, started after another black man was killed by a cop. They were a big deal.

Since then six of the Ferguson protest leaders have died: two inside burnt cars, three by suicide, one an overdose.

Coincidence, no doubt.

Then there was a high ranked pimp, who flew important men like Bill Clinton and Bill Gates and Prince Andrew in his private jet and provided under-age women for sex. The first time he was indicted he was let off because the prosecutor was told to back off, as he belonged to intelligence. The second time, influence not having worked, he “committed suicide” in prison.

I used to work in life insurance. There’s an adage, backed up by lots of studies, that people who are worth more dead than alive tend to die a lot more than the actuarial tables would suggest for someone of their age and health.

Coincidence, no doubt.

The simplest fact of modern life is elites kill and impoverish other people in order to make money and secure their power. You are seeing it in the pandemic, where Billionaire wealth has spiked 60% and vaccine companies refuse to share their “intellectual property” while planning to sell Covid booster shots in perpetuity. Actually wiping out Covid would close pharma money, but if it stays around, it’s golden.

Meanwhile, all the small and medium businesses closing has lead to a vast buying opportunity for those with lots of money, and private equity is moving big into buying up distressed homes.

It’s just business, baby. Your death, or homelessness, well, it’s someone else’s profit opportunity.

Once The Shine Of Trust Is Off Authoriteh - Its Mob Tactics Become Plain For All To See

 LATimes |  On paper, the deputies are scattered around the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in various assignments. One is supposed to be working patrol in Lancaster, another in West Hollywood. A third is assigned to a gang crime unit.

In reality, though, the group of nine men and women make up a little-known team of investigators formed by Sheriff Alex Villanueva and other top sheriff’s officials.

Much of what they do, by design, is a mystery to the public and even to most within the department. But as some of the investigations handled by the team have come to light, a common thread has emerged: Their targets are outspoken critics of Villanueva or the department.

The unit, named the Civil Rights and Public Integrity Detail, has pursued a long-running investigation into one of Villanueva’s most vocal critics, L.A. County Inspector General Max Huntsman, and others despite sheriff’s officials being told by the FBI and state law enforcement officials that it appeared no crimes had been committed, a senior sheriff’s official said.

The team also has an open criminal inquiry into a nonprofit that is run by a member of a county board that oversees the sheriff and is associated with county Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, both of whom have clashed fiercely with Villanueva and called for his resignation.

Concern over the team has caused consternation both inside and outside the department. Even the union representing rank-and-file deputies put out a warning that a member of the detail was using “unconventional tactics” to question deputies. 

George Gascón, the county’s district attorney, decided he wanted nothing to do with the unit after sheriff’s officials proposed the two agencies create a task force to collaborate on public corruption investigations.

“He’s only targeting political enemies,” Gascón told The Times about Villanueva. “It was obvious that was not the kind of work I wanted to engage in, so we declined.”

Shortly after Gascón refused to partner with the Sheriff’s Department, Villanueva came out as a strong supporter of a recall campaign to kick the district attorney out of office.

The unit has spurred a bitter confrontation between Villanueva and the Civilian Oversight Commission, which oversees the sheriff and his agency. Commission members say they fear the sheriff is using it to intimidate people who challenge him and to score points in personal vendettas, not conduct legitimate inquiries into possible crimes.

The Biden Presidency Makes Sense If You Think Of Him As An Elderly Crime Boss

americanconsequences |  In fact, in his September 9 speech outlining the new plan to get the virus under control, President Biden made clear his intent to steamroll any states’ rights opposition… 

If they will not help, if those governors won’t help us beat the pandemic, I’ll use my power as president to get them out of the way. The Department of Education has already begun to take legal action against states undermining protection that local school officials have ordered. Any teacher or school official whose pay is withheld for doing the right thing will have that pay restored by the federal government, 100 percent. I promise you, I will have your back.

Get them out of the way, Biden said, in a line that seemed to tell the American people more than he intended about the lack of limits on his power. During the early months of the pandemic in 2020, the same voices who are backing Biden’s authoritarian maneuvers now were claiming that – with stronger legal backing – state governors have extensive plenary powers to deal with health emergencies, including some mandatory quarantine practices.

Now that some states – most notably Florida, though Texas has begun to mirror the pro-freedom approach of Governor Ron DeSantis – refuse to do the Biden administration’s bidding on COVID policy, the federal bureaucracy steps in as an unconstitutional super-legislature. On the school masks mandate issue, in particular, the Democrat-Fauciite position has become: We will find a way to have it our way.

Biden’s September 9 declaration of COVID total war had no shortage of ire directed toward those who have thus far made the choice not to get the vaccine, one they had been previously told they were legally and ethically entitled to make. That has suddenly changed. Biden made it clear that the unvaxxed are public health enemy No. 1…

We still have nearly 80 million Americans who have failed to get the shot. And to make matters worse, there are elected officials actively working to undermine the fight against COVID-19. Instead of encouraging people to get vaccinated and mask up, they are ordering mobile morgues for the unvaccinated dying from COVID in our communities. This is totally unacceptable.

As many commentators have pointed out, Biden seemed to be much more agitated with Americans who have chosen not to get a COVID vaccine than he ever was toward the Taliban during his chaotic, incompetent withdrawal plan. This parading of partisan animus is unsettling, to say the least, as it is meant to convey a message to American people (or at least the Biden voters among them) that anyone who is unvaccinated is a reckless, selfish menace to public health.

But there’s cognitive dissonance at the heart of this thinking from Biden and his supporters. First of all, when one breaks down the demographic data, the highest proportion of eligible but unvaccinated individuals in America is young Black and Latino males, who have received at least one shot at 43% and 48%, respectively. While there’s certainly a group within those categories of Republicans and Trump voters, the data tells us that most young minority males are not MAGA-hat-wearing, anti-vax Right-wingers… But the Democrat narrative ignores this reality.