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?
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.
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.
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 tocollaborate 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.
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.
greenwald |A severe escalation of the war on a free internet
and free discourse has taken place over the last twelve months. Numerous
examples of brute and dangerous censorship have emerged: the destruction by Big Tech monopolies of Parler at the behest of Democratic politicians at the time that it was the most-downloaded app in the country; the banning of the sitting president from social media; and the increasingly explicit threats from elected officials
in the majority party of legal and regulatory reprisals in the event
that tech platforms do not censor more in accordance with their demands.
But the most severe episode of all was the joint campaign
— in the weeks before the 2020 election — by the CIA, Big Tech, the
liberal wing of the corporate media and the Democratic Party to censor and suppress a series of major reports about then-presidential frontrunner Joe Biden. On October 14 and then October 15, 2020, The New York Post,
the nation's oldest newspaper, published two news reports on Joe
Biden's activities in Ukraine and China that raised serious questions
about his integrity and ethics: specifically whether he and his family
were trading on his name and influence to generate profit for
themselves. The Post said that the documents were obtained from a laptop left by Joe Biden's son Hunter at a repair shop.
From the start, the evidence of authenticity was overwhelming. The Post published obviously genuine photos of Hunter that were taken from the laptop. Investigations from media outlets found people who had received the emails in real-time and they compared the emails in their possession to the ones in the Post's
archive, and they matched word-for-word. One of Hunter's own business
associates involved in many of these deals, Tony Bobulinski, confirmed publicly and in interviews
that the key emails were genuine and that they referenced Joe Biden's
profit participation in one deal being pursued in China. A forensics
analyst issued a report
concluding the archive had all the earmarks of authenticity. Not even
the Bidens denied that the emails were real: something they of course
would have done if they had been forged or altered. In sum, as someone
who has reported on numerous large archives similar to this one and was
faced with the heavy burden of ensuring the documents were genuine
before risking one's career and reputation by reporting them, it was
clear early on that all the key metrics demonstrated that these
documents were real.
Despite all that, former intelligence
officials such as Obama's CIA Director John Brennan and his Director of
National Intelligence James Clapper led a group of dozens of former
spooks in issuing a public statement that disseminated an outright lie: namely, that the laptop was "Russian disinformation.”
Note that this phrase contains two separate assertions: 1) the
documents came from Russia and 2) they are fake ("disinformation"). The
intelligence officials admitted in this letter that — in their words — “we do not know if the emails are genuine or not,” and also admitted that “we do not have evidence of Russian involvement.” Yet it repeatedly insinuated that everyone should nonetheless believe this:
Letter from 60 former intelligence officials about the New York Post reporting, Oct. 19, 2020
But
the complete lack of evidence for these claims — that even these career
CIA liars acknowledged plagued their assertions — did not stop the
corporate media or Big Tech from repeating this lie over and over, and,
far worse, using this lie to censor this reporting from the internet. One of the first to spread this lie was the co-queen of Russiagate frauds, Natasha Bertrand, then of Politico and now promoted, because of lies like this, to CNN. “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say,” blared her headline in Politico on October 19, just five days after the Post began its reporting. From there, virtually every media outlet — CNN, NBC News, PBS, Huffington Post, The Intercept, and too many others to count
— began completely ignoring the substance of the reporting and instead
spread the lie over and over that these documents were the by-product of
Russian disinformation.
projectveritas | Project Veritas released the second video of its COVID vaccine
investigative series today exposing U.S. Food and Drug Administration
[FDA] economist, Taylor Lee, who was recorded calling for forced COVID
vaccinations and a registry for all unvaccinated Americans.
Lee said that U.S. Government policy could emulate Nazi Germany when it comes to the COVID vaccine.
“Census
goes door-to-door if you don’t respond. So, we have the infrastructure
to do it [forced COVID vaccinations]. I mean, it’ll cost a ton of money.
But I think, at that point, I think there needs to be a registry of
people who aren’t vaccinated. Although that’s sounding very [much like
Nazi] Germany,” Lee said.
“Nazi Germany…I mean, think about it like the Jewish Star [for unvaccinated Americans],” he said.
“So,
if you put every anti-vaxxer, like sheep, into like Texas and you
closed off Texas from the rest of the world, and you go, ‘Okay, you be
you in Texas until we deal with this [pandemic].’”
Lee said that
due to a large portion of the African American community being hesitant
to take the COVID vaccine, the solution would be to “blow dart” on them:
Taylor Lee, FDA Economist: “I
think that a lot of the time -- so there's also this issue of -- I
remember reading about how with COVID [vaccine] trials, they were having
an issue recruiting African American people. It was because of a
different medication the government tried to do that was specifically
designed to kill African Americans.”
Veritas Journalist: “Oh, so like a mistrust thing.”
Lee: “Yeah.”
Veritas Journalist: “But this thing [COVID vaccine] is safe, though.”
Lee: “We know that now, but like again, I think there is still this big mistrust and like it's deep-rooted.”
Veritas Journalist: “Yeah. Can’t blame them [African Americans].”
Lee: “I can’t. But at the same time, like, blow dart. That’s where we’re going.”
Lee
affirmed that “wealthy white people” are more likely to get the COVID
vaccine because they are “educated,” and added that he would be willing
to force COVID vaccines upon Americans himself if needed.
“I’m gonna go door-to-door and stab everyone [with the COVID vaccine], ‘Oh, it’s just your booster shot! There you go!’”
Lee also said that FDA officials can often be political appointees rather than actual scientific experts.
“There
are political appointees [at the FDA] that are generally scientific
advisors or are appointed by the president or the commission…They're
being paid based on if the other people are staying in power,” he said.
yahoo |President Biden’s net approval rating among unvaccinated black
voters has dropped a stunning 17 points since he announced plans to
implement a federal vaccine mandate for companies with more than 100 people, according to a new Morning Consult poll.
Biden’s
favor among black voters dropped substantially between an initial poll
conducted between September 6 and 8 — just before Biden’s mandate
announcement on September 9 — and a second poll taken between September
18 to 20 of more than 1,000 black voters.
The second
poll revealed that 71 percent of black voters approve of Biden’s
performance, down 5 points since the mandate. The share who disapprove
rose 7 points to 24 percent. Thirty-seven percent said they strongly
approve of his performance, while 14 percent said they strongly
disapprove.
The
president’s net approval rating — a measure of the share who approve
his job performance minus the share who disapprove — has dropped 12
percent among black voters.
Biden announced earlier this month
that his administration would develop rules to compel large companies to
mandate coronavirus vaccines for employees and to require weekly
negative test results for any unvaccinated workers. He said the rules
would be developed by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and
Health Administration, and apply to companies with 100 or more workers.
The plan was part of a larger initiative
by the Biden administration that includes requiring vaccinations for
all federal employees and workers for federal contractors, as well as
for health care workers in most institutions that receive Medicare or
Medicaid. The administration also called on all states to mandate
vaccinations for teachers and other school employees.
Thirty-eight
percent of black voters who say they have not received a COVID-19
vaccine disapprove of the president’s job performance — an 11 point
increase since he announced the mandate.
Black Americans are the
least likely of all racial and ethnic demographics to have received a
COVID-19 vaccine. According to Morning Consult, 53 percent of black
adults have received the shots — a lower share than that of any other
race or ethnicity.
dailymail | Police have fired rubber bullets, stinger grenades and pepper balls at anti-vaxx protesters stationed at Melbourne's war memorial on a third day of violent demonstrations.
Around 400 people, who have been rallying to demand an end to mandatory vaccinations for construction workers, swarmed Victoria's Shrine of Remembrance which was built to honour the state's men and women who served in the First World War.
Throughout Wednesday the mob chanted 'lest we forget' as they stood in front of the monument, some decked out in body armour and helmets in anticipation of a police attack while others urged officers not to arrest them out of 'respect for the Anzacs'.
After an hours-long standoff where police offered to let protesters leave, officers opened fire to clear demonstrators who had started pelting them with bottles.
Victoria Police arrested 215 protesters throughout the day while two officers suffered head injuries, and one was taken to hospital with chest pains. Tap handles, golf balls, batteries and bottles were thrown at them from the shrine.
Deputy Commissioner Ross Guenther said: 'It was completely disrespectful that the crowd ended up at the shrine, which is such hallowed ground in this great city.'
The ugly scenes came after police ordered news channels to stop broadcasting aerial images of the protests, claiming organisers were using the live feed to evade police.
CTH | An inflection point has been reached in Australia with the government
COVID-19 lockdowns, forced vaccinations and now, vaccine passports.
What is happening today in the state of Victoria, specifically the
Melbourne metropolitan area, is an outcome of more than a year of
heavy-handed government rules and regulations deaf to the voices of the
average man, woman or family. There is a middle class & blue-collar
backlash taking place, and Americans would be wise to pay attention.
Things recently came to a head when the Premier of Victoria, Daniel
Andrews, began outlining the rules and regulations for opening society
back up after almost a year of total lockdown. The always futile attempt
to block the COVID-19 virus through a policy known as “COVID-ZERO” was
abandoned. The new approach is to open up society and the economy by
forcing everyone to take the vaccine, and then allowing only the vaccinated
to participate in the economy as varying percentages of the population
are double-vaxxed, and admittedly, later, booster-vaxxed.
Vaccination passports will be required to work, shop, attend events and essentially live in the New World Order
Premier Andrews has created for the citizens of Victoria. The day after
Andrews outlined the new rules – the working class, who have been
locked down and compliant to this point, finally had enough.
Do not be naive to the fact that U.S. and Canadian government
officials; those in direct ideological alignment with the leftist
perspectives of government in Australia; are not paying close attention
to what is happening there in preparation for when both the U.S. and
Canada move to block the unvaccinated from participating in society.
The vaccination passport methods, processes and procedures being
tested right now in Australia are soon to arrive in the United States.
Electronic check-ins and QR codes deployed to track the movements of
vaxxed and unvaxxed are being tested right now in almost all states in
Australia. We The People in America are only a few weeks or
months away from having to make the same decisions that middle-class
Victorian workers are faced with right now. This is why you should pay
attention to what is happening there.
The population of Australia (26 million) is small by comparison to the U.S. (350+ million), and as a result, the dynamic will be exponentially more explosive when it arrives here.
Socially, Americans are more geographically spread out than
Australia, as most of their major population centers circle the
coastline. Factually, the population of Florida or Texas is essentially
equivalent to the entire population of Australia. The economy of the
U.S. is also substantially larger and more diverse than down-under.
However, those points only emphasize how significantly more explosive
the same scenarios may become when the Biden regime attempts to follow
the oppressive process now being witnessed in the Melbourne region.
Do not anticipate any support from CONservative Republican
politicians. As we have witnessed in the past two decades, there is
only one overarching ideology in the Washington DC UniParty. They too
are more than comfortable with a class society where the elites are
disconnected from the laws, rules and regulations they force upon the
underclass.
The rust-belt of America was created by both Democrat and Republican
administrations. The globalist worldview favorable to the multinational
corporations and Wall Street run through both political parties in the
United States.
noqreport | I recently had a conversation with a reasonably well informed writer
who simply missed the real reasons why most practicing physicians go
along with the Fauci Fraud. As a public service, I will attempt to fill
in a few gaps. But first, I must define the Fraud.
There are two basic legs to the Fraud. First is the idea that the
Centers for Disease Control is in any way concerned with a mission
related to its name. The failure of the CDC to in any way endorse any treatment that did not emanate from its exalted halls should give us our first glint of clarity.
There are literally millions of physicians around the world, and the
great bulk of them truly wish to treat their patients well. Among those
are thousands of researchers, a number far in excess of those at the
CDC, NIAID, NIH and other alphabet soup government agencies. The very
idea that outside researchers are incapable of discovering anything
useful without the help of the bureaucrats in DC is hubris of the
highest order. And it prevents the CDC, FDA, or any other such agency
from considering the idea that maybe, just possibly, there might be
intelligent life down here. Mount Olympus cannot be threatened.
The Second Leg of the Fraud is less visible to the naked eye, but
much more powerful. If I wrote this before I retired, I would be called
before the Board of my group and told in no uncertain terms to “Shut T…
F…. Up!” I might even be assessed a financial penalty with several
zeroes after the “1.” That’s a serious impairment of my pursuit of
happiness.
The reason for my group’s dislike is more than the fact that I might
be an irritant. They may actually agree with what I have to say. But
they simply cannot afford for me to say it. That’s right, as a
practicing physician in a group, my freedom of speech can become very
expensive… to the group.
My group cared for patients of all descriptions, with roughly half of
them on Medicare and another batch on Medicaid. Both programs are
ultimately managed by the Feds, one of the most humorless groups on the
planet. They write a whole bunch of rules on how you have to document
everything you do. If you didn’t document it correctly, it didn’t
happen, and you won’t get paid. But that’s not the half of it.
Suppose you have one of those patients brought in by the ambulance
from under the bridge. Their only clothes are the ones they are wearing,
and they don’t have two nickels to rub together. It’s more than obvious
that this surgery for bowel obstruction will be a charity case. Before
Medicare, you’d simply write it off as your good neighbor duty. Now you
don’t get a choice.
CMMS (the actual administrative agency) requires you to send a bill.
Twice. Or maybe three times. Whatever it takes to turn the bill into bad
debt. Then you have to send it to a collection agency. Your only
alternative is for your group to bring it up in its Board meeting and
declare it a write-off that gets noted in the minutes.
All this rigmarole serves no purpose, and you knew that before you
got to this sentence. But CMMS has a sinister side. If you do the case
for free (which you did before you spent that useless money on billing
and collection), CMMS will define that as your “usual and customary”
bill for an exploratory laparotomy. Since your U&C is now zero, you
can’t ever bill more than that for an ex lap in the future. But what
does that have to do with Ivermectin? I’m glad you asked.
U&C bills are just one of hundreds of rules that CMMS enforces.
Another is “Pay for Performance.” Basically, P-f-P requires you to check
a host of boxes when taking care of patients. If you didn’t get that IV
antibiotic in 20 minutes before the incision, you failed P-f-P and may
not get paid. The hospital won’t get paid to take care of the patient if
there’s a complication. So let us suppose that you use Ivermectin to
treat a COVID patient as they arrive in the hospital?
Ivermectin isn’t on the Medicare/Medicaid approved list of
medications for COVID. Your hospital pharmacy will call you up and give
you grief. After wasting a lot of time getting them to finally let you
have it, you’ve had to cancel half of your office day.
The next day, you’ll get a visit from a coder who will tell you that
you didn’t use the approved treatment protocol and put the hospital in
jeopardy because you flunked P-f-P. By the way, that “coder” is the
person who “helps” you use the proper ICD (billing) code for whatever
the patient has in order for the hospital to make the most money. But
that’s not the worst of it.
NYTimes | Who
should get vaccine booster shots and when? Can vaccinated people with a
breakthrough infection transmit the virus as easily as unvaccinated
people? How many people with breakthrough infections die or get
seriously ill, broken down by age and underlying health conditions?
Confused?
It’s not you. It’s the fog of pandemic, in which inadequate data
hinders a clear understanding of how to fight a stealthy enemy.
To
overcome the fog of war, the Prussian general and military theorist
Carl von Clausewitz called for “a sensitive and discriminating judgment”
as well as “skilled intelligence to scent out the truth.” He knew that
since decisions will have to be made with whatever information is
available in the face of an immediate threat, it’s crucial to acquire as
much systematic evidence as possible, as soon as possible.
In the current crisis, that has often been difficult.
Why
this stumbling in the fog? It may seem like we’re drowning in data:
Dashboards and charts are everywhere. However, not all data is equal in
its power to illuminate, and worse, sometimes it can even be misleading.
Few
things have been as lacking in clarity as the risks for children.
Testing in schools is haphazard, follow-up reporting is poor and data on
hospitalization of children appears to be unreliable, even if those
cases are rare. The Food and Drug Administration has asked that vaccine trials for children aged 5 to 11 be expanded, which is wise, but why weren’t they bigger to begin with?
While
the pandemic has produced many fine examples of research and meticulous
data collection, we are still lacking in detailed and systematic data
on cases, contact tracing, breakthrough infections and vaccine efficacy
over time, as well as randomized trials of interventions like boosters.
This has left us playing catch-up with emerging threats like the Delta
variant and has left policymakers struggling to make timely decisions in
a manner that inspires confidence.
To
see the dangers of insufficient data and the powers of appropriate
data, consider the case of dexamethasone, an inexpensive generic
corticosteroid drug.
In the early days of the pandemic, doctors were warnedagainst using it to treat Covid patients.
The limited literature from SARS and MERS — illnesses related to Covid —
suggested that steroids, which suppress the immune system, would harm rather than help Covid patients.
That assessment changed on June 16, 2020, when the results of a large-scale randomized clinical trial from Britain, one of all too few such efforts
during the pandemic, demonstrated that dexamethasone was able to reduce
deaths by one-fifth among patients needing supplemental oxygen and an
astonishing one-third among those on ventilators.
The
study also explained the earlier findings: Given too early, before
patients needed supplemental oxygen, steroids could harm patients. But
comprehensive data from the randomized trial showed that when given
later, as the disease progressed in severity, dexamethasone was
immensely helpful.
Dexamethasone has since become a workhorse of Covid treatment, saving perhaps millions of lives
at little cost or fanfare. Without that trial, though, it might never
have been noticed because of a problem called confounding: when causal
effects of different elements can’t be considered separately. If doctors
give multiple drugs to patients at the same time, who knows which drug
works and which one does not? Or, if they choose which drug to give to
whom, those more ill may be getting effective drugs, but the severity of
their illness could end up masking the positive effect of the drug.
Trials allow us to sort through all of this.
Randomized
trials are not the only source of useful data. For example, it would
have been difficult to quickly determine how transmissible the Delta
variant is — a crucial question — without the data collected from close
and systematic observation.
If a
variant is spreading quickly somewhere, it might be more transmissible,
or it could have simply arrived in that area early and gotten a head
start. Or it might have just hit a few superspreader events. We’ve had
variants appear, generating alarming headlines, that were later shown to
be no more threatening than previous ones.
nature | These jokers created some super-covid from the worst strains of
existing covid variants. (Gain of Function Research) It’s
virological and immunological <s>dual use bioweapons</s> research. Hope none gets out of the NYC lab where they created it over a year ago.
They then tested antibodies created from a natural Covid-19
infection - and - antibodies created by someone with an mRNA vaccine against
this “gain of function” super strain of Covid-19. The super Covid was
resistant to both types of antibodies. However, antibodies
from someone who both was infected and recovered from a Covid-19
infection AND received an mRNA vaccination defeated the super strain of
Covid-19.
The number and variability of the neutralizing epitopes targeted by
polyclonal antibodies in SARS-CoV-2 convalescent and vaccinated
individuals are key determinants of neutralization breadth and the
genetic barrier to viral escape1–4. Using HIV-1 pseudotypes and plasma-selection experiments with vesicular stomatitis virus/SARS-CoV-2 chimeras5,
we show that multiple neutralizing epitopes, within and outside the
receptor binding domain (RBD), are variably targeted by human polyclonal
antibodies. Antibody targets coincide with spike sequences that are
enriched for diversity in natural SARS-CoV-2 populations. By combining
plasma-selected spike substitutions, we generated synthetic ‘polymutant’
spike protein pseudotypes that resisted polyclonal antibody
neutralization to a similar degree as circulating variants of concern
(VOC). By aggregating VOC-associated and antibody-selected spike
substitutions into a single polymutant spike protein, we show that 20
naturally occurring mutations in SARS-CoV-2 spike are sufficient to
generate pseudotypes with near-complete resistance to the polyclonal
neutralizing antibodies generated by convalescents or mRNA vaccine
recipients. Strikingly, however, plasma from individuals who had been
infected and subsequently received mRNA vaccination, neutralized
pseudotypes bearing this highly resistant SARS-CoV-2 polymutant spike,
or diverse sarbecovirus spike proteins. Thus, optimally elicited human
polyclonal antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 should be resilient to
substantial future SARS-CoV-2 variation and may confer protection
against potential future sarbecovirus pandemics.
FT | Paul Dabrowa does not know if it is illegal to genetically modify beer at home in a way that makes it glow. The process involves taking DNA information from jellyfish and applying it to yeast cells, then using traditional fermenting methods to turn it into alcohol. But he is worried that it could be against the law given that it involves manipulating genetic material.
“This stuff can be dangerous in the wrong hands, so I did that in an accredited lab,” he says, adding that he himself has only got as far as making yeast cells glow in a Petri dish.
For the most part Dabrowa, a 41-year old Melbourne-based Australian who styles himself as a bit of an expert on most things, prefers to conduct his biohacking experiments in his kitchen. He does this mostly to find cures for his own health issues. Other times just for fun.
In recent years the community of hobbyists and amateurs Dabrowa considers his kin has been energised by the falling cost and growing accessibility to gene-editing tools such as Crispr. This has led to an explosion of unchecked experimentation in self-constructed labs or community facilities focused on biological self-improvement.
Despite a lack of formal microbiological training, Dabrowa has successfully used faecal transplants and machine learning to genetically modify his own gut bacteria to lose weight without having to change his daily regime. The positive results he’s seen on himself have encouraged him to try to commercialise the process with the help of an angel investor. He hopes one day to collect as many as 3,000 faecal samples from donors and share the findings publicly.
Much of his knowledge — including the complex bits related to gene-editing — was gleaned straight from the internet or through sheer strength of will by directly lobbying those who have the answers he seeks. “Whenever I was bored, I went on YouTube and watched physics and biology lectures from MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology],” he explains. “I tried the experiments at home, then realised I needed help and reached out to professors at MIT and Harvard. They were more than happy to do so.”
At the more radical end of the community are experimentalists such as Josiah Zayner, a former Nasa bioscientist, who became infamous online after performing gene therapy on himself in front of a live audience. Zayner’s start-up, The Odin — to which Crispr pioneer and professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School George Church is an adviser — has stubbornly resisted attempts to regulate its capacity to sell gene-editing kits online in the idealistic belief that everyone should be able to manage their own DNA.
These garage scientists might seem like a quirky new subculture but their rogue mindset is starting to generate consternation among those who specialise in managing biological threats in governments and international bodies.
In 2018 the states that are signatories to the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) identified gene editing, gene synthesis, gene drives and metabolic pathway engineering as research that qualifies as “dual use”, meaning it is as easy to deploy for harmful purposes as it is for good.
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sciencemag | This spring, after days of flulike symptoms and fever, a man
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