jonathanturley | YouTube continued the expansion of corporate censorship on the Internet with the encouragement of leading Democratic leaders. The company has banned channels associated with anti-vaccine activists
like Joseph Mercola and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Once again, rather than
rebutting or refuting claims made by others, many sought to silence
those with opposing views. YouTube will not allow people to hear views
that do not comport with an approved range of opinions.
The move
magnifies concerns that we are seeing the emergence of a new type of
state media as private companies conduct censorship operations barred by
the Constitution for the government to conduct directly. This move
comes days after Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) asked Amazon to steer customers to “true” books on subjects like climate change to avoid their exposure to “disinformation.” It also follows YouTube censoring videos
of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny before Russia’s parliamentary
elections. The move helped Putin and his authoritarian government crack
down on pro-Democracy forces.
The Google-owned site is now openly
engaged in viewpoint regulation to force users to view only those
sources that are consistent with the corporate agenda. Facebook banned
misinformation on all vaccines seven months ago and Twitter regularly bans those questioning vaccines.
These companies are being encouraged by many on the left to expand censorship.
Faculty and editors are now actively supporting modern versions of book-burning with blacklists and bans for those with opposing political views. Columbia Journalism School Dean Steve Coll has denounced the “weaponization” of free speech,
which appears to be the use of free speech by those on the right. So
the dean of one of the premier journalism schools now supports
censorship.
Free speech advocates are facing a generational shift that is now
being reflected in our law schools, where free speech principles were
once a touchstone of the rule of law. As millions of students are taught
that free speech is a threat and that “China is right” about censorship, these figures are shaping a new society in their own intolerant images.
youtube | Crafting policy around medical misinformation comes charged with
inherent challenges and tradeoffs. Scientific understanding evolves as
new research emerges, and firsthand, personal experience regularly plays
a powerful role in online discourse. Vaccines in particular have been a
source of fierce debate over the years, despite consistent guidance
from health authorities about their effectiveness. Today, we're
expanding our medical misinformation policies on YouTube with new guidelines
on currently administered vaccines that are approved and confirmed to
be safe and effective by local health authorities and the WHO.
Our Community Guidelines already prohibit certain types of medical
misinformation. We've long removed content that promotes harmful
remedies, such as saying drinking turpentine can cure diseases. At the
onset of COVID-19, we built on these policies when the pandemic hit, and
worked with experts to develop 10 new policies around COVID-19 and medical misinformation. Since last year, we’ve removed over 130,000 videos for violating our COVID-19 vaccine policies.
Throughout
this work, we learned important lessons about how to design and enforce
nuanced medical misinformation policies at scale. Working closely with
health authorities, we looked to balance our commitment to an open
platform with the need to remove egregious harmful content. We’ve
steadily seen false claims about the coronavirus vaccines spill over
into misinformation about vaccines in general, and we're now at a point
where it's more important than ever to expand the work we started with
COVID-19 to other vaccines.
Specifically, content that falsely alleges that approved vaccines are
dangerous and cause chronic health effects, claims that vaccines do not
reduce transmission or contraction of disease, or contains
misinformation on the substances contained in vaccines will be removed.
This would include content that falsely says that approved vaccines
cause autism, cancer or infertility, or that substances in vaccines can
track those who receive them. Our policies not only cover specific
routine immunizations like for measles or Hepatitis B, but also apply to
general statements about vaccines.
As with our COVID
guidelines, we consulted with local and international health
organizations and experts in developing these policies. For example, our
new guidance on vaccine side effects maps to public vaccine resources
provided by health authorities and backed by medical consensus. These
policy changes will go into effect today, and as with any significant
update, it will take time for our systems to fully ramp up enforcement.
ipsos | Americans’ trust in President Joe Biden to provide them with accurate
information on COVID-19 is on the decline, according to the latest
Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index. Fewer than half now say they trust the
president, a 13-percentage point decline from his high water mark right
after his inauguration in January. This week’s poll also shows Americans
generally perceive less risk in going out – on a plane, to restaurants,
or to see friends, in particular – than they did two weeks ago.
Finally, after last week’s announcement that the Pfizer vaccine works
for children aged 5-11, parents of children in this age group are split
on whether they will get their kids vaccinated once eligible.
Detailed findings:
1. Trust in various people and institutions – namely President Biden,
the federal government, and the news media – to provide accurate
information about COVID-19 drops slightly.
Fewer than half (45%) now trust President Biden to provide
accurate information about coronavirus, down significantly from when he
took office in January (58%).
Compared to the January high point, Biden has lost trust relatively
evenly across the board from Democrats (an 11-percentage point decline
to 81% trust a great deal or fair amount) and Republicans (a 10-point
decline to 11%). He has experienced a slightly larger decline among
independents (a 17-point decline to 42%).
The number who trust in the federal government to relay accurate
information has also declined to just under half (49%), compared to 54%
two weeks ago.
2. Compared to the past month, fewer Americans see going out as
presenting a large risk to their health. However, this change in their
risk calculation has not translated to significant behavioral change.
Just over one in ten believe attending in-person gatherings with
friends and family (13%) or dining in at a restaurant (12%) poses a
large risk to their health, a decrease of five percentage points from
two weeks ago when 18% and 17%, respectively, saw these activities as
very risky.
Currently, a quarter (27%) think traveling on an airplane or mass
transit is a large risk to their health, compared to 35% two weeks ago.
With Halloween on the horizon, fewer Americans now think allowing
trick-or-treating in their community poses a large risk to their health
(13% this year, 25% last year).
In terms of actual behaviors over the past few weeks, though
slightly more report going out to eat this week, all other reported
behaviors (seeing friends, social distancing, visiting retail stores,
etc.) remain steady.
3. Just after the announcement of the Pfizer vaccine’s efficacy
for children 5-11, parents of children in that age group are split over
whether to get their kids vaccinated once eligible.
Parents with children aged 5-11 are split on whether they will
vaccinate their kids when eligible. 44% say they are likely to do so,
while 42% are unlikely. This poll was conducted in the immediate days
following the announcement that the vaccine works for children in this
age group.
Overall, about three in five (57%) parents of children under 18 say
they are likely to vaccinate or have vaccinated their children.
Looking at the impact of COVID on schools, compared to last summer,
parents now perceive a smaller risk in sending their kids to school.
Only 19% of parents think sending their kids to school poses a large
risk, down from 32% last August.
Around one in eight Americans (13%) say their local school district
has closed schools in the past week due to a COVID-19 outbreak.
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.
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 ….
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
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.
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.
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.”
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):
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....,
"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.
"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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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,"
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?
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?
Celebrating 113 years of Mama Rosa McCauley Parks
-
*February 4, 1913 -- February 4, 2026*
*Some notes: The life of the courageous activist Mama Rosa McCauley Parks*
Mama Rosa's grandfather Sylvester Ed...
Monsters are people too
-
Comet 3I/Atlas is on its way out on a hyberbolic course to, I don't know
where. I do know that 1I/Oumuamua is heading for the constellation Pegasus,
and ...
Remembering the Spanish Civil War
-
This year marks the 90th anniversary of the launch of the Spanish Civil
War, an epoch-defining event for the international working class, whose
close study...
Return of the Magi
-
Lately, the Holy Spirit is in the air. Emotional energy is swirling out of
the earth.I can feel it bubbling up, effervescing and evaporating around
us, s...
Covid-19 Preys Upon The Elderly And The Obese
-
sciencemag | This spring, after days of flulike symptoms and fever, a man
arrived at the emergency room at the University of Vermont Medical Center.
He ...
-
(Damn, has it been THAT long? I don't even know which prompts to use to
post this)
SeeNew
Can't get on your site because you've gone 'invite only'?
Man, ...
First Member of Chumph Cartel Goes to Jail
-
With the profligate racism of the Chumph Cartel, I don’t imagine any of
them convicted and jailed is going to do too much better than your run of
the mill ...
