A global coalition of more than three dozen groups on Monday launched a campaign to ban surveillance advertising, which the leaders of the effort described as “the extractive profit model underlying so many of Big Tech’s worst behaviors.”
“Surveillance advertising — the core profit-driver for gatekeepers like Facebook and Google, as well as adtech middlemen — is the practice of extensively tracking and profiling individuals and groups, and then microtargeting ads at them based on their behavioral history, relationships, and identity” the coalition — co-organized by Accountable Tech and the American Economic Liberties Project — said in a joint statement.
“These dominant firms curate the content each person sees on their platforms using those dossiers — not just the ads, but newsfeeds, recommendations, trends and so forth — to keep each user hooked, so they can be served more ads and mined for more data,” added the coalition — which also includes Demand Progress, People’s Action and Public Citizen.
“Big Tech is making billions off surveillance advertising,” the groups noted on their campaign website. “Society is paying the price.”
The coalition of nearly 40 organizations — whose advocacy ranges from antitrust, corporate accountability and consumer protection to privacy, civil rights and counter-disinformation — argued that by “funding the misinformation machine,” “aiding and abetting violent extremists,” and more “Big Tech’s toxic business model is undermining democracy.”
In their joint statement released ahead of the March 25 House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on “Social Media’s Role in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation,” the groups said that “Big Tech platforms amplify hate, illegal activities and conspiracism — and feed users increasingly extreme content — because that’s what generates the most engagement and profit.”
“Their own algorithmic tools have boosted everything from white supremacist groups and Holocaust denialism to COVID-19 hoaxes, counterfeit opioids and fake cancer cures,” the coalition added. “Echo chambers, radicalization and viral lies are features of these platforms, not bugs — central to the business model.”
The coalition criticized social media giants for “eroding our consensus reality and threatening public safety in service of a toxic, extractive business model.”
Big Tech ‘Making Billions’ Off Surveillance Advertising | Children’s Health Defense
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Coronavirus Crackdown: Judge Orders Canadian Church Locked to Prevent Sunday Worship Services
A judge in Woolwich Township in Ontario, Canada, has ordered Trinity Bible Chapel be locked to prevent Sunday worship services.
Boeing fires dozens of employees for ‘racist’ behavior
Boeing fired 65 employees and disciplined 53 others for “racist, discriminatory or otherwise hateful conduct,” according to a report.
British public now trust Amazon more than the Royal Mail
Britons now trust Amazon more than Royal Mail when it comes to deliveries (but we still have faith in its postmen!).
- Royal Mail CCO Nick Landon sent an internal message to his 140,000 staff
- He said ‘all of our pride should be dented by Amazon Logistics taking top spot’
- The Royal Mail was privatised in 2013 and is still the biggest courier in the UK
Sen. Manchin says he was ready to ‘stay and fight’ during Capitol riot
Sen. Joe Manchin said he was prepared to hold his ground and fight when a crowd of Trump supporters converged on the US Capitol on Jan. 6 as Congress voted to certify the 2020 election.
”My intention was to stay and fight: ‘Let ‘em in. Let’s go at it.’ But I didn’t know what was going on,” Manchin (D-W.Va.) told USA Today in an interview published Monday.
“You had a lot of people chanting. I didn’t think anything of that. But within 10 or 15 minutes, a SWAT team comes in with all of their gear and says ‘You guys are out of here. Just go now. Don’t even stop,’” the 6-foot-3 former football standout said.
Manchin, a moderate Democrat from the state former President Donald Trump won by nearly 40 points in the 2020 election, has found himself at a position of influence in the 50-50 divided Senate, armed with a vote that could advance or doom Democratic initiatives.
Two of those issues are statehood for Washington, DC, and getting rid of the filibuster that would allow Democrats to pass legislation with 51 votes instead of 60 — both measures he opposes.
EXC: A Top U.S. Teacher Training Org is Partnered With A Chinese Communist Group Promoting ‘Socialist’ Nursery Rhymes.
The Erikson Institute – one of America’s premier graduate schools training teachers and influencing classroom curricula – is engaged in a “long-term cooperative relationship” with a Chinese Communist Party group overseeing the regime’s Communist Youth League and publishing books including “nursery rhymes embodying the core values of socialism” and magazines praising Xi Jinping and Karl Marx, The National Pulse can reveal.
Study Found Toxin from Genetically Modified Crops is Showing up in Human Blood
A new study is causing fresh doubts about the safety of genetically modified crops. The research found Bt toxin, which is present in many GM crops, in human blood.
Bt toxin makes crops toxic to pests, but it has been claimed that the toxin poses no danger to the environment and human health; the argument was that the protein breaks down in the human gut. But the presence of the toxin in human blood shows that this does not happen.
India Today reports:
“Scientists … have detected the insecticidal protein … circulating in the blood of pregnant as well as non-pregnant women. They have also detected the toxin in fetal blood, implying it could pass on to the next generation.”
May Day 1971: Daniel Ellsberg on Joining Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn at Historic Antiwar Direct Action
This week marks the 50th anniversary of the 1971 May Day protests, when tens of thousands of protesters demonstrated against the Vietnam War in Washington, D.C., and brought much of the capital to a standstill through acts of civil disobedience. The mass demonstrations terrified the Nixon administration, and police would arrest over 12,000 people — the largest mass arrest in U.S. history. Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who attended the May Day protests, says it was part of a wave of popular discontent about the war that mobilized millions. “There was a movement of young people who felt that what was happening in the world … was wrong, had to change, and they were ready to risk their careers and their lives to try to change it. And we need that right now,” Ellsberg says. He recently spoke with Amy Goodman at an event marking the 50th anniversary of the release of the Pentagon Papers. We play excerpts from that conversation, which also included National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The False and Exaggerated Claims Still Being Spread About the Capitol Riot
What took place at the Capitol on January 6 was undoubtedly a politically motivated riot. As such, it should not be controversial to regard it as a dangerous episode. Any time force or violence is introduced into what ought to be the peaceful resolution of political conflicts, it should be lamented and condemned.
But none of that justifies lying about what happened that day, especially by the news media. Condemning that riot does not allow, let alone require, echoing false claims in order to render the event more menacing and serious than it actually was. There is no circumstance or motive that justifies the dissemination of false claims by journalists. The more consequential the event, the less justified, and more harmful, serial journalistic falsehoods are.
Yet this is exactly what has happened, and continues to happen, since that riot almost seven weeks ago. And anyone who tries to correct these falsehoods is instantly attacked with the cynical accusation that if you want only truthful reporting about what happened, then you’re trying to “minimize” what happened and are likely an apologist for if not a full-fledged supporter of the protesters themselves.
One of the most significant of these falsehoods was the tale — endorsed over and over without any caveats by the media for more than a month — that Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick was murdered by the pro-Trump mob when they beat him to death with a fire extinguisher. That claim was first published by The New York Times on January 8 in an article headlined “Capitol Police Officer Dies From Injuries in Pro-Trump Rampage.” It cited “two [anonymous] law enforcement officials” to claim that Sicknick died “with the mob rampaging through the halls of Congress” and after he “was struck with a fire extinguisher.”
Is There a Case for Legalizing Heroin?
In 2013, the Columbia psychologist and drug-addiction researcher Carl Hart published a book that was a specific kind of success: it made him into a public character. The book, “High Price,” is in part a memoir of Hart’s adolescence in a poor Miami neighborhood, documenting the arrival of cocaine there in the eighties. Two cousins, whom as a child he’d looked up to, are exiled from their mother’s house for using cocaine, move into a shed in her back yard, and steal her washer and dryer to pay for drugs. The narrative of Hart’s ascent, to the Air Force, graduate school in neuroscience, and, eventually, Ivy League tenure, is interspersed with evidence from his career as an addiction researcher, in which he spent years paying volunteers to use drugs in a controlled hospital setting and observing the results. Hart argues that the violence and despair that defined the crack epidemic had more to do with the social conditions of Black America than they did with the physical pull of drugs. The book begins with his father beating his mother with a hammer after drinking. Hart’s view is that the attack was not about alcohol. “As we now know from experience with alcohol, drinking itself isn’t a problem for most people who do it,” Hart wrote. “The same is true of illegal drugs, even those we have learned to fear, like heroin and crack cocaine.”
CENSORED: Toensing, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General and diGenova, former U.S. Attorney & Special Counsel | Video: 9 Minutes 38 Seconds
Toensing’s resume includes Chief Counsel of the Senate intelligence committee, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, and lawyer for whistleblowers on government misconduct.
Joe diGenova served as Special Counsel to the House of Representatives, Chief Counsel to the Senate Rules Committee, and former United States attorney for the District of Columbia. He also was Independent Counsel investigating the improper search of then-candidate Bill Clinton’s passport file by the George H. W. Bush administration. And in 1997, he was Special Counsel investigating the Teamsters Union.
“Over the years, the ABA puts out all sorts of statements about do not condemn lawyers because they’re representing people at Guantanamo Base who are terrorists. This is in the great tradition of American lawyers representing the most despised defendants, because under our Constitution, even the worst person is entitled to a quality defense. But that doesn’t apply to lawyers who represent Donald Trump or support Donald Trump or come out and speak on his behalf.” ~ Joe diGenova speaking to Sharyl Attkisson, the embodiment of Girl Power in journalism.
Are fully vaccinated liberals afraid to remove their masks because they’ll look like Republicans?
There might finally be an answer to what many believe is inexplicably weird and contradictory mask-wearing guidance from the CDC: Liberals are afraid to remove their masks in case it might make them look like Republicans.
The report from the DCist “overheard of the week” column alleges that two masked women were walking in downtown Washington D.C discussing the recent update to the CDC guidance when one apparently said, “I guess I’m vaccinated so I don’t have to wear a mask outside but… I really don’t want people to think I’m a Republican.”
Earlier this week, the CDC announced updates to their face veiling guidelines, which are alleged to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. The new guidelines say vaccinated individuals can forgo the face mask when they are outside unless they are in crowds of people.
Stone Says He Took ‘Not a Dime’ From Anyone Seeking Trump Pardon
The Daily Beast reported Thursday that Stone offered to help Joel Greenberg, a former Florida tax collector who’s expected to plead guilty this month, get a pardon from President Donald Trump before he left office. The pardon was never granted.
The report was based on alleged text messages between Stone and Greenberg, as well as an alleged written confession by Greenberg saying that he and Gaetz, a Florida Republican and Trump ally, paid for sex with women as well as with a 17-year-old girl.
Stone, who was himself pardoned by Trump after being being convicted of lying to Congress and tampering with witnesses in an effort to protect the president during the Russia probe, said in a text message late Friday that his communications with Greenberg were “clipped out of context.”
“I told Greenberg he would need a lawyer (I am not a lawyer) and that he should be prepared to wire a $250,000 retainer to the right lawyer if he could find one,” Stone said. “I made no effort whatsoever to secure a pardon for Mr. Greenberg and I took not a dime from him or anyone else seeking a pardon.”
To be tracked or not? Apple Is now giving us the choice
By Brian X. Chen, The New York Times Company
If we had a choice, would any of us want to be tracked online for the sake of seeing more relevant digital ads?
We are about to find out.
On Monday, Apple released iOS 14.5, one of its most anticipated software updates for iPhones and iPads in years. It includes App Tracking Transparency, a new privacy tool that could give us more control over how our data is shared.
Here’s how it works: When an app wants to follow our activities to share information with third parties such as advertisers, a window will appear on our Apple device to ask for our permission to do so. If we say no, the app must stop monitoring and sharing our data.
A pop-up window may sound like a minor design tweak, but it has thrown the online advertising industry into upheaval. Most notably, Facebook has gone on the warpath. Last year, the social network created a website and took out full-page ads in newspapers denouncing Apple’s privacy feature as harmful to small businesses.
A big motivator, of course, was that the privacy setting could hurt Facebook’s own business. If we choose not to let Facebook track us, it will be harder for the company to see what we are shopping for or doing inside other apps, which will make it more difficult for brands to target us with ads. (Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has disputed that his company’s business will be hurt by Apple’s policy.)
“This is a huge step in the right direction, if only because it’s making Facebook sweat,” said Gennie Gebhart, a director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital-rights nonprofit.
But, she added, “One big question is: Will it work?”
Gebhart and other privacy experts said Apple’s new feature might not be enough to put an end to shady tracking on iPhones. It could simply push developers and ad-technology firms to find loopholes so they can continue tracking people in different ways, she and others said.
Doctors prescribe more opioids to COVID-19 ‘long haulers,’ raising addiction fears
COVID-19 survivors are at risk from a possible second pandemic of opioid addiction, given the high rate of painkillers being prescribed to these patients, health experts say.
A new study in Nature found alarmingly high rates of opioid use among COVID-19 survivors with lingering symptoms at Veterans Health Administration facilities. About 10% of COVID-19 survivors develop a mysterious condition known as long COVID, struggling with often disabling health problems even six months or longer after a diagnosis.
For every 1,000 long COVID patients who were treated at a Veterans Affairs facility, doctors wrote nine more prescriptions for opioids than they otherwise would have. They also wrote 22 additional prescriptions for benzodiazepines, which include Xanax and other addictive pills used to treat anxiety.
Although previous studies have found many COVID-19 survivors — also known as long haulers — experience persistent health problems, the new study is the first to show they’re using more addictive medications, said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, the lead author.
(READ) FBI releases Seth Rich-related documents | “The records appear to suggest that someone could have paid for his death.”
Courtesy: Democratic National Committee
The FBI has released documents pertaining to the 2016 unsolved murder of Seth Rich, a Democrat National Committee (DNC) worker.
The records appear to suggest that someone could have paid for his death.
There was much speculation after Rich’s murder that he — rather than “Russia” — was the person who had leaked sensitive, internal DNC emails to WikiLeaks.
Among other things, the documents included emails exposing numerous scandals related to Hillary Clinton. They also showed that the DNC was taking steps that favored Clinton over her challenger, Bernie Sanders.
Antifa Assaults Small Child, Seattle Police During May Day Riot, Say Cops
Police in Seattle declared an Antifa May Day protest to be a riot after marchers reportedly assaulted cops and a small child. The rioters continued, marching into the streets committing crimes.
BREAKING: Mitt Romney Booed At Utah GOP Convention, Tells Crowd ‘You Can Boo All You Want’
Sen. Mitt Romney, the lone Republican Senator to vote to impeach President Donald Trump in both of the 45th President’s Senate impeachment trials, was just loudly booed at the Utah Republican Party convention at the Maverick Center in West Valley, Utah.
Romney was greeted by boos immediately after entering the stage. Apparently mistaking the boos for applause, Romney began by smiling and thanking the booing crowd profusely. He offered thanks and thumbs up to the crowd for over two minutes as the crowd continued to boo his presence.
“So what do you think about President Biden’s first 100 days,” Romney said, beginning his speech even as the crowd made it almost impossible to hear him through their boos. Romney eventually stopped speaking for several seconds before asking the crowd, “Aren’t you embarrassed?” At one point a Republican Party operative approached the podium and instructed the crowd to “show respect.”
“So yeah, I understand I have a few folks who don’t like me terribly much, and I’m sorry about that.” Soon after, the crowd began booing again. “You can boo all you want, I’ve been a Republican all my life.” The crowd later broke into thunderous applause when Romney left the stage.
Ben Winslow, a Utah based reporter, confirmed the booing with another video captured from a different angle. “Senator Romney is getting boo’d loudly at the Utah GOP convention,” wrote Winslow.
.@SenatorRomney is getting boo’d loudly at the @UtahGOP convention. @fox13 #utpol #utgop pic.twitter.com/4vMwVnh6YI
— Ben Winslow (@BenWinslow) May 1, 2021
Romney has repeatedly suffered public humiliation at the hands of Trump supporters due to his repeated verbal criticisms of the 45th President. After voting to confirm electoral votes from states with credible reports of widespread voter fraud, Romney was heckled on a crowded flight back to Utah.
Hacker Erases UNC Conservative Student Publication’s Website
A hacker breached the website of a conservative student publication at the University of North Carolina, erasing hundreds of articles and leaving a threatening message for the paper’s staff.
The Carolina Review’s website was left largely blank Wednesday night around 10:00 PM, save for a note the hacker left on the masthead that called editor in chief Bryson Piscitelli a “nazi scum fuck off.” The hack came just hours after one of the Review’s campus distribution boxes—installed last Sunday—was vandalized with the word “racist” in black Sharpie.
Piscitelli, a sophomore, told the Washington Free Beacon that the school’s liberal political culture has made his publication a target, leading him to believe a student is responsible for the hack.
“The sad truth is, this sort of thing is really not surprising to us,” Piscitelli said. “We all in the back of our minds have always expected this—it’s been a fear certainly, but a thing we’ve had to stoically embrace as people who are not willing to keep in ideological step with the leftwing orthodoxy of the university’s student body.”
Expressing conservative views on college campuses can in many cases leave students vulnerable to physical attacks and intimidation from their liberal peers. A conservative at Berkeley was punched in 2019 while recruiting students to join the Leadership Institute, a conservative activist group, and student government leaders have been pressured to resign for holding Christian beliefs and defending Israel.
Conservatives at UNC have also faced harassment for their beliefs. One UNC student assaulted a pro-life advocate at the university in 2019. Liberal students lambasted Fox News host Tucker Carlson when he spoke at UNC in 2018, calling him a neo-Nazi and white supremacist.
Founded in 1993, the Carolina Review is an independent student publication that expresses the university’s “conservative and libertarian voice.” Carolina Review managing editor Elliot Gualano said he often fears for the safety of his staff writers.
“I am less concerned for myself but more concerned about the people that work for us, our staff writers that make up the most of the publication. They have been attacked and ostracized by their peers for joining the journal,” Gualano told the Free Beacon. “I fear for their personal safety sometimes, for the horrible backlash these individuals get just for being a staff writer.”
BLM-Antifa Rioters Target Upscale Restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky – Heroic Patrons Refuse to Bow Down, Tell Mob ‘Bring It On, Let’s Go!’
BLM and/or Antifa goons targeted an upscale restaurant in Louisville restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky this evening.
The patrons were having none of it as they faced the mob and taunted them like, ‘Come on, Let’s go!”
Some tweets are coming out of Kentucky tonight indicating BLM and Antifa are in full force again. It’s spring so the rioters are gonna riot. Noticeably none were wearing Trump hats.
What was amazing was the patrons of the restaurant were having none of it with at least one saying to the goons something like, ‘Come On, Let’s Go’.
The group is walking on the sidewalk, past police. pic.twitter.com/26wLPQbAKl
— Hayes Gardner (@HayesGardner) May 2, 2021
Fortunately for the BLM/Antifa goons, they backed away and then walked right by the police. We are unaware of any arrests being made.
Assault On The Ballot Box – Lessons Learned In Pennsylvania
Democracy, done well, depends on fair, open, and honest elections. From roughly the time of the first election, people have sought ways to gain an advantage over their opponents, some within the rules and some not so much.
This nation has seen its share of election dishonesty but the 2020 General Election witnessed industrial-scale election fraud. Please spare me the nonsense that there was no fraud. There was and I will prove it.
In this article, I will demonstrate the fact that fraud occurred in Pennsylvania, here in Washington County, in fact, and how election officials at all levels violated the law in certifying election results. I will do this using their own numbers and their own source documents, documents anyone can obtain, examine and come to the same conclusions. I will then suggest some actions that must be taken to first mitigate this type of fraud and then eliminate a good part of it.
In Pennsylvania, a person must be a registered voter to vote. Whether a person votes by mail-in ballot or at a polling place, there are processes in place that are supposed to check that the person is registered and then record in a voter registry a notation against that person’s name the person voted and on what day.
How 202,391 votes in Pennsylvania cannot be attributed to a registered voter…
Using the same December 14 data for the entire state, 6,962,621 ballots were cast and the SURE system showed 6,760,230 registered voters had voted. This is a total of 202,391 votes that cannot be attributed to a registered voter. Where did these votes come from? Not from registered voters according to the state’s own data and documents.
Dave Ball (quoted from below)
It would seem a reasonable and straightforward assertion that, if an election is honestly conducted, only registered voters vote and when votes are tallied up, for every vote cast there should be an equal number of registered voters on the voter roll who voted. The law, in fact, requires this.
Iodine is Important but a New Study Shows Too Much Causes Problems
By Dr. Mercola
Iodine is a vitally important nutrient that is detected in every organ and tissue. Along with being essential for healthy thyroid function and efficient metabolism, there is increasing evidence that low iodine is related to numerous diseases, including cancer.
Worldwide, it’s thought that up to 40 percent of the population is at risk of iodine deficiency.
In the United States, health agencies tend to say most people are iodine “sufficient,” meaning they get enough of the nutrient from their diet, however this is controversial.
According to other sources, such as Dr. David Brownstein, who has been working with iodine for the last two decades, over 95 percent of the patients in his clinic are iodine deficient.
There are serious risks to taking too much iodine, however, which is why you need to be very cautious and get informed before opting for an iodine supplement.
Even Texas Has Communists
It’s May 1st, or May Day as it’s known.
May Day is commie day. A bunch of them gathered in a downtown park in the rain in Austin, Texas.
Not a lot of them, but more than there should be. They got very wet. Some of them tried to take over a public street and got arrested.
Here Is What Republican Voters Really Believe in. It’s a Shame the GOP Has No Idea
At least 74 million Americans voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 election. Everyone I know believes the number was actually much higher, but 74 million is the number the biased, “fake news” media counts as fact.
This is the base of the Republican Party. I know what these 74 million (and probably a few more million) voters believe in. How? Because I tested my beliefs at three major GOP events in the past month where I was the keynote speaker. And I got wild, enthusiastic standing ovations at all three.
What’s amazing is that the GOP leadership in Washington, D.C., and the Republican National Committee have no clue what their most loyal, passionate voters believe in.
I’m here to spread the gospel. I’m here to report that “the truth will set you free.” The people are desperate to hear the raw truth. Preach it. Let it rip. This is how you get standing ovations from tens of millions of Republicans, conservatives, patriots and capitalists. This is how you win elections.
When the media hear this, they will get sick to their stomachs. So will the D.C. swamp. And the deep state. All your work was for nothing. No one believes your lies and “fake news” anymore.
I began my speeches by saying: “Here is what I know. Here is what I believe. Here is raw truth. Let me know if you agree by your applause. Only applaud if you agree.”
I said, “No matter what the lying, ‘fake news’ media says, no matter what they try to stuff down our throats, I know President Donald J. Trump won the 2020 election.”
Dershowitz: FBI’s Raid of Giuliani ‘Unconstitutional’
The FBI’s recent raid on an apartment owned by Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for former President Donald Trump, violated the Constitution, according to constitutional expert Alan Dershowitz.
“This was just a misuse of the search and seizure power. Initially, it was turned down; now it was approved, both by a judge and by the attorney general of the United States, so it wasn’t lawless action, but I believe that they acted inconsistently with both the spirit and the letter of the Constitution and that there should be remedies for it,” Dershowitz said on Newsmax on Saturday.
“It should be done through subpoena, and that is the constitutional route to getting evidence,” he added.
A search warrant being executed points to officials believing the subject would destroy evidence if the search was not carried out. But the lawyer knew that he was being investigated for months, so there’s no basis for a search unless a subpoena was obtained, Dershowitz argued.
“The 4th Amendment demands a subpoena in these situations, not a search warrant. What they did in this case was unconstitutional,” he said.
Bannon’s War Room | Saturday Edition Hour 1 | Recorded May 1, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 18 Seconds
Episode 915 – Who Are the Rubes? … NY Times Steps Up Vaccine Information Warfare Against Christians.
“The mere fact that Biden wears a mask constantly would lead people to think maybe these vaccines don’t work,” Kennedy said. “This isn’t political theater at this point, it’s self preservation.” Guests are: Cpt. Maureen Bannon, Brian Kennedy, Dustin Cournoyer.
Bannon’s War Room | Saturday Edition Hour 2 | Recorded May 1, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 35 Seconds
Episode 916 – Stinking to High Heaven … CCP Inside the CIA and Biden Abolishes ICE.
“Biden was in the photo finish for last place in the primaries up here,” Cournoyer said. “He left before lunchtime. He did not, I believe, get 50,000 votes above Trump.” Guests are: Cpt. Maureen Bannon, Dustin Cournoyer, Sam Faddis, Victor Avila.
Michael Collins, Apollo 11 Astronaut, Remembered By NASA | Video: 1 Minute 44 Seconds
Michael Collins was part of an extraordinary team of astronauts when most Americans were still looking forward filled with hope and optimism instead of looking back filled with hate and loathing. Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first men to land on the moon, a monumental achievement in human history. He was born October 31, 1930 and passed away on April 28, 2021.
The Things We Don’t Know | “Buzz Aldrin Took Holy Communion on the Moon. NASA Kept it Quiet”
When Apollo 11‘s Eagle lunar module landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had to do something hard: Wait. They were scheduled to open the door of their lunar lander and step onto the unknown surface of a completely different world. But for now, their mission ordered them to take a pause before the big event.
And so Aldrin spent his time doing something unexpected, something no man had ever attempted before. Alone and overwhelmed by anticipation, he took part in the first Christian sacrament ever performed on the moon—a rite of Christian communion.
Aldrin’s lunar communion has since become shrouded in mystery and confusion, but the rite itself was relatively simple.The astronaut was also an elder at Webster Presbyterian Church, and before he headed into space in 1969, he got special permission to take bread and wine with him to space and give himself communion.
Men had already prayed in space, but Aldrin was about to go one step further—literally and figuratively. Part of his mission was not just to land on the moon, but to walk on it. To prepare, he took communion after the Eagle lunar module landed on the moon’s Sea of Tranquility during an hours-long downtime period designed to let the astronauts recover from their space flight and prepare for their moon walk.
The communion bag and chalice used by Buzz Aldrin during his lunar communion. (Credit: David Frohman, President of Peachstate Historical Consulting, Inc.)
How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously
On May 9, 2001, Steven M. Greer took the lectern at the National Press Club, in Washington, D.C., in pursuit of the truth about unidentified flying objects. Greer, an emergency-room physician in Virginia and an outspoken ufologist, believed that the government had long withheld from the American people its familiarity with alien visitations. He had founded the Disclosure Project in 1993 in an attempt to penetrate the sanctums of conspiracy. Greer’s reckoning that day featured some twenty speakers. He provided, in support of his claims, a four-hundred-and-ninety-two-page dossier called the “Disclosure Project Briefing Document.” For public officials too busy to absorb such a vast tract of suppressed knowledge, Greer had prepared a ninety-five-page “Executive Summary of the Disclosure Project Briefing Document.” After some throat-clearing, the “Executive Summary” began with “A Brief Summary,” which included a series of bullet points outlining what amounted to the greatest secret in human history.
Over several decades, according to Greer, untold numbers of alien craft had been observed in our planet’s airspace; they were able to reach extreme velocities with no visible means of lift or propulsion, and to perform stunning maneuvers at g-forces that would turn a human pilot to soup. Some of these extraterrestrial spaceships had been “downed, retrieved and studied since at least the 1940s and possibly as early as the 1930s.” Efforts to reverse engineer such extraordinary machines had led to “significant technological breakthroughs in energy generation.” These operations had mostly been classified as “cosmic top secret,” a tier of clearance “thirty-eight levels” above that typically granted to the Commander-in-Chief. Why, Greer asked, had such transformative technologies been hidden for so long? This was obvious. The “social, economic and geo-political order of the world” was at stake.
Why Is the Left Allowed to Be ‘Transphobic’ and Racist?
Source: Joshua Roberts/Pool via AP
Last week, I asked why there was no uproar from LGBTQ activists when Bruce “Caitlyn” Jenner was “misgendered” and mocked by the left after announcing that he would run for governor of California. (In reality, some of the mocking came from LGBTQ activists, who painted Jenner as a fame-hungry reality TV star.) And where was the uproar when Bill Maher questioned the “born that way” dogma, stating, “Wasn’t always sure about the man-woman thing, but low capital gains taxes — born that way.”
To be sure, there were some scattered voices of protest, but not a fraction of what would have happened had the mockery been pointed towards someone like Richard “Rachel” Levine, President Biden’s appointee as assistant secretary for Health and Human Services.
But all that pales in comparison to some of the attacks on Sen. Tim Scott after he responded forcefully to Biden’s address to Congress on Wednesday night.
As Mollie Hemingway tweeted in response to the Twitter-supported “Uncle Tim” tweet, “Twitter is choosing to trend a racist attack from the left on Sen. Tim Scott, the black Republican senator from South Carolina.”
Could Your Body Render Future COVID Vaccines Useless?
Get vaccinated. It’s the latest COVID-19 propaganda message appearing everywhere from TV commercials to social media feeds, and it’s being pushed by celebrities and government officials alike. Yet, a sizeable population of Americans aren’t ready to roll up their sleeve just yet.
A January 2021 poll found 31% were taking a “wait and see” approach to see how the vaccine — or more aptly, gene therapy — is working while 7% said they would get the COVID-19 vaccine only if it became required for work, school or other activities, and 13% said they would “definitely not get it.”1
A cautionary approach is warranted, as none of the COVID-19 vaccines currently on the market are actually licensed. They only have emergency use authorization — which, incidentally, also forbids them from being mandated, although this is being widely and conveniently ignored — as trials are still ongoing.
The fact is, there’s a lot that’s unknown about these products, including their ultimate effects on your immune response. Increasingly, scientists are asking whether a phenomenon known as original antigenic sin (OAS), or imprinting, may render next-generation COVID vaccines useless.2
What Is Original Antigenic Sin, or Imprinting?
The term “original antigenic sin” was first used by Thomas Francis in 1960, who determined that hemagglutination inhibition assay titers — which are used to determine the antibody response to a viral infection — were highest against strains of seasonal influenza to which different age cohorts had first been exposed.3
In other words, the first influenza virus that you’re exposed to affects the way your lifelong immunity to that virus plays out.4 Later infections with virus strains similar to the first one will boost your antibody response against the original strain, and it’s not only influenza that this applies to. Imprinting is also known to occur in children with multiple dengue virus infections, for instance.5
In some cases, imprinting can be beneficial, but it can also be problematic. One study found that birth-year cohorts that had a first influenza exposure to seasonal H3 subtype viruses were less susceptible to avian influenza H7N9 virus later in life, while those exposed to H1 or H2 subtype viruses in childhood were less susceptible to avian H5N1-bearing viruses when they were older.6
“Using data from all known human cases of these viruses, we show that an individual’s first IAV [influenza A virus] infection confers lifelong protection against severe disease from novel hemagglutinin (HA) subtypes in the same phylogenetic group,” the researchers explained.7 Imprinting has been suggested as one reason why flu vaccines are often ineffective.
Scott Hensley, an associate professor of microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania, explained to STAT News, “We’ve all been trained on different influenza viruses. If you vaccinate 100 people, guess what? They’re all going to respond differently. We think a large part of that is that we all have a different immunological imprint.”8 He referred to a flu vaccine from 2017, when experts suggested a new H1N1 strain should be added. STAT News reported:9
“The one they had been using seemed to work fine for most people. But it wasn’t working well for a slice of the population — adults between the ages of about 30 and late middle age.
Hensley and his lab discovered that the vaccine target was making people who had their first flu exposures between 1977 and 1985 create antibodies to a version of H1N1 that was circulating back then — their imprinting virus. The decades-old H1N1 strains were too different from the 2009 version for the vaccine to work well in these people.”
The same thing could be happening with COVID-19.
Imprinting Could Mean Next COVID-19 Vaccines Won’t Work
While imprinting can enhance your protection against future infections if you’re exposed to antigenically related strains, if you’re exposed to a distantly related strain, it may increase susceptibility to infection. According to researchers in The Journal of Immunology:10
“OAS-like responses were also problematic during the 2013–2014 influenza season, when H1N1 viruses acquired a mutation in an HA [hemagglutinin] epitope that was the primary target of the Ab [antibody] response mounted by middle-aged individuals.
The cohort generated a focused Ab response against this epitope during early life exposure to seasonal H1N1 viruses that circulated in the 1970s. As reported by the Hensley laboratory, this epitope was conserved in the original 2009 H1N1 pandemic strain.
However, the drifted H1N1 strain that emerged in 2013-2014 contained a mutation in this region of HA that resulted in poor Ab binding and subsequently unusually high mortality for middle-aged individuals.”
In the case of COVID-19, it’s possible that the immune system reaction triggered by the vaccine will act as the original imprint, leaving subsequent COVID-19 vaccines — updated to target emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2 — ineffective.11
Michael Worobey, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona, who conducted research on imprinting with influenza,12 told STAT News, “I do think it’s something that we need to be thinking about. We might actually see lower efficacy five years from now, if people are still locked into recalling the response to the first [SARS-2] antigen that they saw.”13
The Time Has Come for Cannabis Equity
As cannabis legalization enters its newest phase with social equity dominating the conversation, Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law hosted an advocate and regulator-packed panel to map out a path to Social Equity 2.0.
The Tri-State was well represented on the panel. Incoming New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission chair Dianna Houenou spoke to how the issue had been embedded from the start in her new state agency. Minority Cannabis Business Association President Jason Ortiz spoke about the current effort in Connecticut to put equity front and center in the conversation.
The pair were joined by Illinois governor J. B. Pritzker’s senior advisor for cannabis control, Toi Hutchinson, and former Massachusetts Cannabis Commission member Shaleen Title. Both have championed the issue in their respective states over the years. Politico’s Natalie Fertig led the conversation.
Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine returns next week and more Maryland doctors will offer vaccines
Maryland vaccination sites will again offer the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine after a pause so experts could reaffirm that it is safe to use, and the state will also make vaccines more generally available in doctors’ offices.
The Maryland Department of Health said Friday that it will resume allocation of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to various sites next week, the first week since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration determined that a blood-clotting condition was extremely rare in women.
“The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is one of our most important tools in the ongoing fight to prevent hospitalizations and deaths associated with COVID-19,” Dr. Jinlene Chan, the state deputy secretary for public health services, said in a statement. “By resuming allocations of this safe and effective vaccine in Maryland, we continue to bolster our ability to stay ahead of new cases and emerging variants.”
The vaccine has been less widely used than others but is considered crucial to local and national vaccination efforts because it requires only one dose and doesn’t need to be stored in deep freezers. The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines require two doses and must be kept ultra cold until used.
100 Days from America First to America Last: GM Joins Ford and Moves Automotive Plant to Mexico to Escape Biden Taxes
Joe Biden tells off workers at an automotive plant in Michigan in 2020.
In March, just two months after President Trump left office Ford announced plans to move a major manufacturing plant to Mexico.
America Last: Ford Announces Plans to Move Plant to Mexico 2 Months After Biden Enters Office
On Thursday, the day after Biden promised electric vehicles would be made in America, GM moved its $1 billion electric vehicle plant to Mexico.
Breitbart.com reported:
Less than one day after President Biden proclaimed American workers would build the electric vehicles necessary to bring us into the zero admissions future, General Motors said it plans to invest more than $1 billion in Mexico to produce electric vehicles.
The automaker said Thursday it would make a $1 billion investment in its Ramos Arizpe production facility. The plant will begin producing at least one electric vehicle beginning in 2023, the company said.
The company did not disclose which vehicles would be produced at the plant or where they would be sold. But the plant currently produces parts and vehicles, including the Chevrolet Equinox and Chevrolet Blazer, that are sold in the U.S. and globally.
It’s Been 6 Months Since CNN Gave Zoom Masturbator Jeffrey Toobin ‘Time Off’ To Deal With a ‘Personal Issue’
You’ve gotta hand it to Jeffrey Toobin. The CNN legal analyst was promptly fired by the New Yorker after masturbating on a Zoom call in October 2020 and traumatizing his colleagues for the rest of their lives. Toobin, however, managed to persuade CNN not to fire him over his public display of self-affection. The left-wing news network merely granted his request for “some time off while he deals with a personal issue.”
That was more than six months ago, which is a long time to be dealing with a personal issue, even one you’ve simply made up after getting caught masturbating on a Zoom call, or “tweaking the lede,” as they say in the news business. Reports suggest Toobin will “probably” return to CNN at some point, but the network’s top legal analyst was conspicuously absent during the coverage of Derek Chauvin’s murder trial.
CNN did not respond to a request for comment about Toobin’s situation. It remains unclear why the news network did not handle the situation the same way as the New Yorker, which launched an investigation and took appropriate action in an effort to foster “an environment where everyone feels respected and upholds our standards of conduct.”
A New York Times profile published in January confirmed that Toobin was still employed as CNN’s chief legal analyst and hinted at a possible return. CNN president Jeff Zucker is reportedly a big fan of Toobin but is leaving the network at the end of the year.
In the meantime, Toobin continues to lurk on Twitter, posting occasionally to mourn the death of someone he knew. Several weeks after the masturbation scandal, he claimed that his account had been “hacked,” which is what the disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner (D., N.Y.) claimed after accidentally tweeting a photo of his crotch. Thankfully, no such photos of Toobin have surfaced.
Toobin popped out again in January and perhaps inadvertently telegraphed his impending return to the airwaves. “Many thanks. I’ll be back,” he wrote in a tweet that was promptly deleted.
DNC Panelist Calls For The Destruction Of Capitalism
In the DNC Caucus and Council Meeting Youth Council, a panelist called for the destruction of capitalism.
Let’s Call BLM What It Is – Marxist
The Department of Defense (DOD) is devoting significant time and resources to briefing its employees on the dangers of “extremism” and teaching them how to ‘inform on’ coworkers they regard as threats. The briefing slides, for the sessions that are underway, give multiple examples of groups that qualify as “extremist” and include symbols used by many of the groups. Prominent for its absence is any reference of any kind to Black Lives Matter (BLM). That organization apparently – in the eyes of the federal government – poses no threat whatsoever and neither membership in it or even the display of symbols associated with the organization are of any concern.
How is that possible?
After a year of digital hearings, Minnesota federal courts moving back to in-person operation
After a year of mostly virtual operation, Minnesota’s federal courts are moving back into the real world.
Criminal and civil trials will resume in the state’s U.S. District courtrooms beginning Monday, a sign that the COVID-19 pandemic’s grip on the justice system is loosening.
On March 13, 2020, Chief Judge John Tunheim issued an order suspending in-person trials, grand jury proceedings and attorney swearing-in ceremonies, an unprecedented move in Minnesota’s federal courts system, in response to early reports of infections in the state.
Tunheim has followed with several orders in the months since, at one point easing restrictions to allow for trials to return but keeping most court appearances to video apps like Zoom.
Ashli Babbitt; Chip Crunch; Inside 60 Minutes at CBS
Four months after the Capitol riots, one verdict is in… there was only one homicide that day: that of an unarmed protester Ashli Babbitt. But that police shooting has been shrouded in secrecy. Some say the officer’s use of deadly force was justified. Others say it was not. Prosecutors have announced they aren’t going to charge the U.S. Capitol Police lieutenant involved. But an attorney for Babbitt’s husband is planning to file a civil lawsuit. […]