‘After months of investigation that identified networks of reviewers and editors manipulating the peer review process, Hindawi plans to retract 511 papers across 16 journals, Retraction Watch has learned.
The retractions, which the publisher and its parent company, Wiley, will announce tomorrow in a blog post, will be issued in the next month, and more may come as its investigation continues. They are not yet making the list available.
Hindawi’s research integrity team found several signs of manipulated peer reviews for the affected papers, including reviews that contained duplicated text, a few individuals who did a lot of reviews, reviewers who turned in their reviews extremely quickly, and misuse of databases that publishers use to vet potential reviewers.
Richard Bennett, vice president of researcher and publishing services for Hindawi, told us that the publisher suspects “coordinated peer review rings” consisting of reviewers and editors working together to advance manuscripts through to publication. Some of the manuscripts appeared to come from paper mills, he said.
We asked what prompted the investigation. Bennett told us:
In April 2022, Hindawi’s Research Integrity team led an initial investigation into a single Special Issue (SI) after a Chief Editor raised concerns about some of the papers published in it. The team decided to investigate the content of the journal further. Through this investigation, the team highlighted a pattern of irregular and concerning reviewer activity and identified potential ‘bad actors’ that were present across many of these publications.
These concerns prompted the Publishing Insights and Research Integrity teams, enabled by recently enhanced analytic capabilities and newly developed dashboards providing views across all reviewer activity, to conduct a wider investigation to determine whether these same bad actors were involved in peer review manipulation elsewhere in the Hindawi portfolio.
Following the discovery that these bad actors were present in other journals, the Hindawi leadership team put in place a cross-functional working team combining the manual and data-driven investigation which resulted in the identification of further published articles.
In early August, Hindawi expanded the investigation under a combined investigation team comprising Research Integrity experts, data and analytics experts, publishing and operational teams, and legal counsel from both Wiley and Hindawi. This team evaluated in depth review activity across all potentially impacted articles and manuscripts. This resulted in a list of ‘compromised’ reviewers and editors in addition to the bad actors already discovered, identification of networks that exist between them, patterns of review activity, and insight into published articles and manuscripts at each stage in the review process that we could initially label as ‘compromised’. On September 6, the combined investigation team began assessing published articles which led to the initial recommendation to retract 511 articles that are compromised based on reviewer activity alone. We expect ongoing investigations to result in further retractions.’
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FDA ordered Johnson & Johnson to throw out 60 million COVID-19 vaccine doses
FDA orders Johnson & Johnson to throw out 60 MILLION Covid vaccine doses made at Baltimore plant that had several violations
- The FDA has ordered 60 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine to be discarded on Friday
- The shots were made at a Baltimore plant run by Emergent BioSolutions, which has come under fire after receiving several heath violations
- Among them include workers who failed to shower or change clothes, mold in the facility and poor disinfection or equipment
- It is unclear if the plant, which closed two months ago after ruining millions of J&J doses in an ingredient mix-up, will be allowed to reopen
- The loss of the doses means the U.S. is even more unlikely to reach President Joe Biden’s goal of 70% of adults partially vaccinated by July 4
For Kids, Benefits of COVID Vaccine ‘Don’t Outweigh Risks,’ Experts Tell FDA
An advisory committee to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) held a virtual meeting Thursday to discuss what data would be needed to vaccinate children under 12 against COVID.
While some advisors said it’s too soon to rush the use of vaccines in the pediatric population because kids are at such low risk from the virus, most argued that it’s important to have authorizations on hand should there be a resurgence of the virus in the fall and winter.
The members of the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) were not asked to provide specific advice or to vote during the meeting.
The role of the FDA is to advise companies on what kind of clinical trials and data the agency wants to see before extending Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) or full approval of drugs, including vaccines, for use in new age groups.
The following issues were discussed during the meeting:
- What’s needed in terms of data — including safety data, database size and duration follow-up — to support EUA and licensure for COVID vaccines for pediatric age groups 6 to 12 years, 2 to 6 years and 6 months to 2 years of age.
- Provided there is sufficient evidence of effectiveness to support the benefit of a COVID preventive vaccine for adolescents 12 to 18 years old, safety data, including database size and duration of follow-up, would be needed to support licensure of the vaccine.
- Studies following licensure and/or issuance of an EUA needed to further evaluate safety and effectiveness of COVID vaccines in different pediatric age groups.
Pfizer’s COVID vaccine is currently authorized for emergency use in people as young as age 12. Moderna is authorized for people 18 and older, although the company has asked the FDA to authorize its use in children as young as 12. Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine is authorized in people 18 and older.
Both VRBPAC members and public health experts and scientists expressed concerns about using COVID vaccines in the pediatric population.
Peter Doshi, Ph,D, associate professor University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and senior editor of The BMJ, said during the open public hearing session, there is no emergency that would warrant using EUA to authorize COVID vaccines for children.
Pointing to Pfizer’s trial of 12- to15-year-olds which supported the recent EUA, Doshi said the harms outweighed the benefits and those who had the placebo were “better off” than those who received the vaccine. . . .
Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 1 | Recorded June 11, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 47 Seconds
Episode 1,015 – The Poison in the Schools … Critical Race Theory Indoctrination. Guests are: Eric Greitens, Boris Epshteyn, John Spiropoulos.
Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 2 | Recorded June 11, 2021 | Video: 47 Minutes 47 Seconds
Episode 1,016 – Going Down Swinging … Heavyweight Champ David Rodriguez. Guests are: Eric Greitens, Alexandra Preate, David Nino Rodriguez, Cindy Chaufin.
Bannon’s War Room | Evening Edition | Recorded June 11, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 58 Seconds
Episode 1,017 – Dr. Navarro Hosts Tomorrow’s News Today … Scofflaw Hunter Biden and Why Trump Won. “He had not paid taxes on about $1 million worth of money that Burisma…paid him over 2 years,” Solomon said. Guests are: Boris Epshteyn, John Solomon.
The Secret Meeting that shaped the Natural Origins Narrative | Truth Over News
After more than a year of cover-ups and denials, corporate media is finally beginning to admit that the lab leak theory of the origin of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus is looking increasingly likely. It’s been known all along that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was constructing novel coronaviruses using sample collection from wild bats. There were also prominent warnings issued specifically about the work and biosafety at the lab as early as 2015. But none of this stopped corporate media from promoting the theory of a natural origin. Worse still, the idea of pushing the natural origin theory may have originated in a secret teleconference that directly involved Dr. Anthony Fauci. Welcome to Truth over News with Jeff Carlson and Hans Mahncke. . . .
[ Truth Over News ]
Judicial Watch Files Two New Federal FOIA Lawsuits for Information on COVID and Wuhan Institute of Virology
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits against the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the State Department for information on the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (No. 1:21-cv-01515)), (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:21-cv-01516)).
The lawsuit against the Office of the Director of National Intelligence was filed after it failed to respond to a March 11, 2021, FOIA request for all reports and records of communication dating back to June 1, 2017, regarding the Wuhan Institute of Virology and/or the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
On April 30, 2020, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a press release stating, “The entire Intelligence Community has been consistently providing critical support to U.S. policymakers and those responding to the COVID-19 virus, which originated in China.”
The lawsuit against the State Department was filed after it failed to respond to a March 10, 2021, FOIA request that asked for:
- All cables/teletypes, emails, or other messages sent or received by any official or employee of the Department of State assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing or any Consulate in China related to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and/or the origins of the SARSCoV-2 virus.
- All records regarding meetings between any official, employee, or representative of the Department of State and any official, employee, or representative of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, including briefing materials, notes, reports, or other records related to any such meeting.
- All records related to former Secretary Pompeo’s appearance on ABC’s “This Week” in May 2020 [during which he discussed concerns about the Chinese government’s handling of the COVID pandemic]
“We don’t trust either the Biden administration or the Deep State to voluntarily come clean on COVID and its possible connections to the Wuhan Institute,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Judicial Watch’s FOIA lawsuits could be the key to unraveling the truth about COVID and the Wuhan Institute.”
Last week, a Judicial Watch lawsuit uncovered HHS records that show that from 2014 to 2019, $826,277 was given to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for bat coronavirus research by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci. The records contain an email from Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, that details the relationship between the Fauci agency and the Wuhan Institute of Virology:
NIAID has been funding coronavirus work in China for the past 5 years … (1R01Al110964: “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence”). That’s now been renewed … Collaborators include Wuhan Institute of Virology (currently working on the nCoV), and Ralph Baric [of the University of North Carolina].
On March 1, Judicial Watch uncovered emails and other records of Fauci and Dr. H. Clifford Lane from HHS showing that NIH officials tailored confidentiality forms to China’s terms and that the World Health Organization (WHO) conducted an unreleased, “strictly confidential” COVID-19 epidemiological analysis in January 2020. Additionally, the emails reveal an independent journalist in China pointing out the inconsistent COVID numbers in China to Lane.
In October 2020, Judicial Watch uncovered HHS records that included emails Fauci’s approval of a press release supportive of China’s response to the 2019 novel coronavirus.
On May 4, 2020, Judicial Watch filed a FOIA lawsuit against HHS seeking communications between Dr. Anthony Fauci, Lane, and WHO officials concerning the novel coronavirus. . . .
FLASHBACK, May 2020, Democrats Announce Intent to Use ISIS Level Propaganda Against Trump on COVID Messaging
As recent media reports provide hindsight into how wrong the narrative was against President Trump; and specifically as details emerge about: (1) Anthony Fauci misleading background statements; (2) Obama’s involvement in the restart of SARS-CoV-2 weaponization via the Wuhan bio-lab; (3) the intentionally hyped risk caused by the COVID-19 virus; and, (4) the intentionally false attacks against mitigating medical treatments proposed by President Trump; it is worth revisiting an announcement in early May 2020 when the Democrats said they intended to use intelligence community methods to promote propaganda against the Trump administration.
On May 1, 2020, the Washington Post -an outlet known for being the manipulative propaganda voice of the Intelligence Community- openly stated a network had formed with the intent to weaponize “Technology once used to combat ISIS propaganda” against President Donald Trump and the White House efforts on COVID.
The problem, as they identified it, was President Trump’s ability to work around media control and share his message on COVID through his social media platforms. The former intelligence operatives and defense department personnel were creating a network of aligned interests to undermine President Trump’s ability to communicate.
MAY 2020 – The Washington Post: “A new Democratic-aligned political action committee advised by retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, is planning to deploy technology originally developed to counter Islamic State propaganda in service of a domestic political goal — to combat online efforts to promote President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. . . .
Rand Paul: Fauci’s ‘One-Size-Fits-All’ Approach on Vaccine Based on ‘Regular People Aren’t Smart Enough’ to Make Decisions
Wednesday, during an interview that aired on Newsmax TV, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) attacked National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci’s approach to promoting universal vaccinations, which he deemed “one-size-fits-all.”
Of Course He Did | ‘Let Us Try To Do This Next Weekend’: Emails Show Fauci Planning To Dine With Friend During Lockdowns
Newly released emails show that Dr. Anthony Fauci made dinner plans during the same period he advised Americans to stay indoors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a May 2020 email, Fauci appeared to have accepted an invitation from a personal friend to come over for dinner.
Stay-at-home orders for everyone! (But he’ll be at Zeke’s.) https://t.co/Cf4eYqIK2i pic.twitter.com/vsrNKAVij3
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) June 9, 2021
“You are a national–international–treasure. And we are depending on your sanity and smarts. We can have you and ***redacted*** over for dinner on the porch and order in from ***redacted*** or something. Anytime you are ready,” wrote Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel in a May 1, 2020 email to Fauci.
“Let us try to do this next weekend,” replied Fauci on May 2. . . .
J&J CEO: People Will Need COVID Vaccine With Annual Flu Shot for Next Several Years + More
J&J CEO Says People Will Likely Need COVID Vaccine With Annual Flu Shot for Next Several Years as Variants Spread
Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky reiterated Wednesday that people will likely need to receive additional doses of the COVID-19 vaccines alongside the annual flu shot for the next “several years.”
People will need to get the COVID booster shots until herd immunity is achieved on a global level and world leaders and scientists are able to limit the spread of highly contagious variants, Gorsky said during The Wall Street Journal’s Tech Health conference.
“We could be looking at this tagging along with the flu shot, likely over the next several years,” he said, referring to the Covid vaccines.
Cleveland Clinic: Already Had COVID? Vaccine Provides No Added Benefit
A new preprint study by the Cleveland Clinic found people previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 were less likely to be reinfected than fully vaccinated individuals who never had the virus — suggesting the vaccine is of no benefit to people who already had COVID.
The Cleveland Clinic recently studied the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination among people with a history of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and those without. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the necessity of COVID vaccination in persons previously infected with SARS-CoV-2.
The study, available on medRxiv, provides insight into how the immune system protects the body once a COVID infection is confirmed, the Cleveland Clinic said. . . .
Sen. John Kennedy tells Fauci to ‘cut the crap’ after doc lashes out at critics
Sen. John Kennedy warned White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci to “cut the crap” Wednesday night after Fauci described criticism of him as “attacks on science.”
“I know Dr. Fauci, I like Dr. Fauci, I respect Dr. Fauci,” Kennedy (R-La.) told Fox News’ “Hannity.” “But Dr. Fauci needs to cut the crap. This isn’t about Dr. Fauci. It’s not about his feelings, and I’m sorry if his feelings were hurt. You know, maybe he ought to buy an emotional support pony.
“But we’re not debating dance moves on TikTok here,” the colorful senator continued. “We’re talking about millions of human lives.”
Fauci has been criticized in recent days on a number of issues related to the coronavirus pandemic following the release of thousands of his emails, including his changed stance on the effectiveness of masks and his early dismissal of the possibility that the virus accidentally leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan. . . .
Fauci: To Attack Me Is to Attack Science
Dr. Anthony Fauci is drawing a lot of attention for his latest defense. He says people who criticize him are attacking science and “the truth.”
June 10, 2021 | Nightly News Rebroadcast | Video: 46 Minutes 50 Seconds
Fauci: To Attack Me Is to Attack Science; Bipartisan Group Working on Police Reform. President Joe Biden meets with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Dr. Anthony Fauci responds to critics by saying attacking him is attacking science and the truth, and a bipartisan group of 10 senators has come together on an infrastructure package proposal.
A Look Back, May 19, 2021 Interview | Dr. Peter McCullough Discusses The Dangers Of The Novel COVID Vaccine And It’s Roll Out | Dr. McCullough: Internist, Cardiologist, Epidemiologist, and Professor of Medicine at Texas A & M College of Medicine, Dallas, TX | Video: 1 Hour 45 Minutes 28 Seconds
FULL INTERVIEW: “There is a global suppression on any early treatment. I want the listeners to understand how global this is. If we were to go north into Canada, doctors are threatened that their licenses will be examined or taken away if they attempt to treat an out-patient with Covid-19. They are told this in Canada. In Northern E.U. the same is true. Dr. Didier Raoult who is trying to innovate with Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin in France in previous times has been under degrees of threat of arrest or partial arrest or house arrest, almost as if we’re back in the dark ages. In Australia, in April, they put on the books in Queensland, Australia a doctor who tries to help a patient with Hydroxychloroquine could be penalized up into the point of going into jail for six months for helping. In South Africa they put some doctors in jail for trying to help patients with Ivermectin. Listen, the powers that are out there that want to suppress early treatment and cause as much fear, suffering, hospitalization and death are not by happenstance. These are powerful forces that have created such fear among doctors. People are fearful they’re going to lose their careers, their livelihood, their medical license, people are afraid of going to jail in just helping their fellow man get through Covid-19. This is extraordinary. Historians should go look through the course of time. You know the very first doctor who tried to help a polio patient survive polio with the iron lung machine, which became really a stable ICU device, was thrown off medical staff. ‘Throw him off staff!'” ~ Dr. Peter McCullough
America’s Energy Gift to Dictators
The U.S. is barreling toward one of the greatest self-inflicted wounds in its history. This came into sharper focus last week when President Biden suspended oil leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), even as Russia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced production increases.
Mr. Biden’s anti-carbon fusillade will have no effect on the climate as global demand for fossil fuels will continue to increase for decades no matter what the U.S. does. Meantime, Russia, China and Iran will take advantage of America’s astonishing fossil-fuel retreat. . . .
Nearly 800 Reports of Heart Inflammation After COVID-19 Vaccination in US
Federal authorities have received over 800 reports of heart inflammation in people who received a COVID-19 vaccine, a health official said Thursday.
The reports of myocarditis or pericarditis were submitted to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, a passive reporting system run jointly by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration, through May 31.
The bulk of the reports described heart inflammation appearing after the second of two doses of either the Pfizer of Moderna vaccines, both of which utilize messenger RNA technology.
Authorities stress that anybody can submit reports through the reporting system but authorities have already verified that 226 of the reports meet the CDC’s working case definition, Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, a deputy director at the agency, said during a presentation of the data. Followup and review are in progress for the rest.
Of the 285 case reports for which the disposition was known at the time of the review, 270 patients had been discharged and 15 were still hospitalized, officials said. Myocarditis typically requires hospital care. No deaths were reported.
Commentary: ‘Pristine’ Biden Ballots That Looked Xeroxed and Why a Judge Has Georgia Vote Fraud on His Mind
Fulton County, Ga., poll manager Suzi Voyles sorted through a large stack of mail-in ballots last November, she noticed an alarmingly odd pattern of uniformity in the markings for Joseph R. Biden. One after another, the absentee votes contained perfectly filled-in ovals for Biden — except that each of the darkened bubbles featured an identical white void inside them in the shape of a tiny crescent, indicating they’d been marked with toner ink instead of a pen or pencil.
Adding to suspicions, she noticed that all of the ballots were printed on different stock paper than the others she handled as part of a statewide hand recount of the razor-thin Nov. 3 presidential election. And none was folded or creased, as she typically observed in mail-in ballots that had been removed from envelopes.
In short, the Biden votes looked like they’d been duplicated by a copying machine. . . .
The post Commentary: ‘Pristine’ Biden Ballots That Looked Xeroxed and Why a Judge Has Georgia Vote Fraud on His Mind appeared first on The Georgia Star News.
Covid-19 origins, the Wuhan lab, US funding, and vaccine connection
Note: this post was first published Sept. 25, 2020.
- The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has given millions of taxpayer dollars to a U.S.-based group that partnered with the Wuhan, China lab to study bat coronaviruses.
- NIH cancelled some funding under pressure in April after the partnership with the Wuhan lab was reported by the media.
- A few weeks ago, NIH awarded more tax money to the U.S. group.
- Scientists have long experimented with and genetically altered coronavirus to use as a vaccine “vector.” . . .
Native American contractors’ letter seeks end to ‘destructive and unlawful protests’ over Line 3 pipeline
Alex Kormann • alex.kormann@startribune.com
DULUTH – Native American contractors working on the controversial Enbridge Line 3 pipeline across Minnesota say the Indigenous-led protests that escalated Monday do not speak for them.
“Protests that disrupt work, damage property and threaten our employees while claiming to be on behalf of our Native people is creating additional tension and consequences within our tribal communities,” six contractors wrote in a letter being sent to Minnesota tribal leaders this week. “They also intentionally create a false narrative that there is no Native American support for this project and the economic impacts and opportunities it brings to our people.” . . .
When the Bison Return, Will Their Habitat Rebound?
An effort to bring wild bison to the Great Plains aims to restore one of the world’s most endangered ecosystems.
On a blustery October afternoon at the Wolfcrow Bison Ranch in southern Alberta, Canada, Dan Fox and his ranch hand, Man Blackplume, tried to wrestle fence panels into place despite a 60 mph wind. The next day was weaning day — and the fence needed to be rock solid so the bison calves could be separated from their mothers.
The two members of the Kainai First Nation, also known as the Blood Tribe, braced their bodies against the 12-foot-high fence panels so they could nail them to the posts, but the panels flapped in the wind like giant wooden flags. Across the pasture, 30 bison stood huddled together in the corner, unfazed by the commotion. They were part of the first bison herd to grace the Blood Reserve in 150 years, Fox says. The Kainai First Nation is one of four tribal groups within the Blackfoot Confederacy, which includes the Blackfeet Tribe in Montana.
Fox, 63, believes the animals may have helped extend his life. He experienced a cancer scare more than 20 years ago, and at the suggestion of a Blackfoot healer and naturopath, he changed his diet, replacing processed food with bison meat and other ancestral foods. His health improved, and today he says he feels better than ever. He is convinced that his family and his community will benefit, as he did, by having the buffalo back on the land and in their lives. (Bison bison is the scientific name for the animal, but buffalo is the word that most Indigenous people use.)
More importantly, he said, the bison began to teach him about his culture and what it means to be a Blackfoot. “The elders from back in the day predicted that the only way the Native people are going to start gaining ground again, their ways of life, is when the bison come back,” said Fox.
Research suggests there were 30 million to 60 million bison in North America in the 1500s. Four hundred years later, roughly 1,000 bison remained, a result of government policies that encouraged killing off the animals, largely to help defeat Indigenous inhabitants and force them onto reservations. . . .
How a Questionable Drug Turned into a Goldmine at Taxpayers’ Expense
On June 7th the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a new drug to treat early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Or perhaps I should say a drug intended to treat early-stage Alzheimer’s was approved for any of the 6 million people with the disease. Presumably, nearly all those with Alzheimer’s – or their families – will demand this new drug whether they are likely to benefit.
The drug, Aduhelm, is a monoclonal antibody. It targets a specific protein in the brain that is thought to form plaques in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, causing brain cells to atrophy and die.
Is this good news for patients suffering with Alzheimer’s disease? Probably not and certainly not for taxpayers. The clinical trial data found little evidence the drug works. One Phase 3 clinical trial showed a slight slowing in cognitive decline, while the second clinical trial failed to show any improvement.
Lon Schneider, M.D. helped conduct one of the clinical trials. He told the New York Times, “There’s so little evidence for effectiveness… I don’t know what caught the F.D.A.’s fancy here.” Dr. Schneider is the director of the California Alzheimer’s Disease Center at the University of Southern California. . . .
Is NYC Going to Get Schooled Under a New Mayor?
When Bill de Blasio first ran for mayor in 2013, betting that a progressive, anti-Bloomberg Democrat could vault into City Hall, his education platform was clear: charter schools would not have it so easy when he won.
“Starting January, Eva Moskowitz cannot continue to have the run of the place,” de Blasio fumed that year, referring to the most powerful charter school executive in the city. “Just because someone is politically connected and has a lot of money behind them, they don’t tell the public school system what to do.”
Eight years later, Eva Moskowitz is still the CEO of Success Academy, the large and highly influential charter school network, and her name is nowhere to be found in the mayoral race. Instead of left-leaning Democrats taking turns promising to block the expansion of charters, the top candidates in this primary are taking a very different tact — deference, or even praise, for the privately-run, publicly-funded schools.
“I want to make New York City public schools great but charters offer us an opportunity,” Kathryn Garcia, who has emerged as a top Democratic contender, told the Voice. “They can be labs for experimentation.”
The changing tune on charters is one of the more remarkable policy turnarounds in a race in which the candidates, otherwise, have proposed many progressive programs that would expand on de Blasio’s vision: free schooling before pre-K, public banking, and more affordable housing. Traditionally, many left-leaning Democrats and union activists have reviled charter schools because they don’t have to recognize teachers’ unions, unlike ordinary public schools, and can easily block the admission of students with disabilities and language difficulties. Since charter schools co-locate with public schools in the same school building, fierce battles have erupted over space and supplies.
Defenders of charter schools argue they offer an alternative education where public schools are struggling and allow poorer, nonwhite students to enjoy the privileges of wealthier peers in private schools. Many charter schools in New York City operate in predominately Black and Latino neighborhoods, where they enjoy support among parents. Students who remain in charters perform well on state exams.
Some liberal, technocratic Democrats have embraced charters — Barack Obama was a supporter — but they remain a favorite cause of Wall Street, with billionaires in New York and nationally funding their growth. Right-wing, charter-backing billionaires, including hedge funders Kenneth Griffin and Daniel Loeb, are lavishly funding super PAC’s for two of the leading mayoral contenders, Eric Adams and Andrew Yang. . . .
Air Force: Disorientation, faulty GPS caused deadly F-16 crash in Michigan
A Wisconsin Air National Guard pilot’s fatal crash last year in Michigan was due to numerous factors, including faulty GPS, according to an Air Force report released Wednesday.
Spatial disorientation, flying at night in bad weather and no working GPS all contributed to the crash in northern Michigan on Dec. 8, 2020, that killed 37-year-old Capt. Durwood “Hawk” Jones, the Air Force investigation determined.
Jones was killed instantly when his F-16 went down in the Hiawatha National Forest in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
On the night of the crash, Jones and his wingman were scheduled to conduct an aerospace control alert training mission, but the Wisconsin Civil Air Patrol aircraft – meant to be the intercept target – canceled because of bad weather near Green Bay, according to the Air Force Accident Investigation Board report.
Instead, the two pilots took off to practice a scramble flight, during which Jones noticed his GPS had lost its satellite tracking data. While trying to resolve the navigation problems, Jones lost sight of his wingman when the two flew into bad weather and radioed that he was “blind.”
Jones then became spatially disoriented and was unaware that his F-16 was quickly losing altitude at a high speed when he crashed into a wooded area, according to the report. He did not attempt to eject and the aircraft was destroyed. . . .
Iranian warships believed to be transporting arms reach Atlantic on route to Venezuela
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says he is ‘concerned’ about Iranian warships ‘transporting arms’ across the Atlantic ‘to Venezuela and vows to take ‘appropriate measures’ to stop them
- Iranian destroyer Sahand and support craft Makran are in the Atlantic
- Ships are reportedly transporting arms to Venezuela, despite US warnings not to
- Left Iran last month and are on their ‘longest and most challenging’ mission yet
- Iran has close ties with Venezuela and delivered oil to the US-sanction hit state
- The US says it has reached out diplomatically to both Venezuela and Cuba, warning them to turn the ships away
Senator Elizabeth Warren (aka Pocahontas) Shares Link to Stolen Data on Taxes Paid by the Super Wealthy to Push Taxing the Rich
Senator Elizabeth Warren who’s known for claimin
Senator Elizabeth Warren who’s known for claiming she is part Indian is pushing for more taxes on the super-rich and is using data that was stolen or leaked from the IRS to support her position.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (aka Pocahontas) was fine sharing stolen information with her followers so she could add her comments about taxing the rich.
It’s one thing to know in the abstract that the ultra-rich play by a different set of rules.
It’s another thing to have the facts shoved in your face.
Let’s start to level the playing field here with a #WealthTax. https://t.co/oDu7PbRW27
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) June 9, 2021
(We include since the data is now readily available on the Internet.)
We know the data was stolen because this is the only way this information could get out. Pjmedia reported:
ProPublica published a database that included the personal tax information of several exceptionally wealthy Americans. It will not be linked here because the disgusting piece posted personal, possibly hacked information. The IRS better hope it was a hack—or else one of its own needs to go to jail. The laws governing the disclosure of tax information are unambiguous and have very few exceptions.
Federal authorities are investigating the release of wealthy Americans’ tax information, Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Charles Rettig said Tuesday,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“ProPublica, a nonprofit news organization, published details about the reported income and tax payments of some of the richest Americans, including Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. CEO Warren Buffett.”
President Obama said he didn’t find out about the Internal Revenue Service targeting the tax-exempt status of conservative political groups until media outlets started reporting it on May 10. He demanded accountability and said he wanted to see an internal IRS investigation.
FDR focused his efforts on derailing a slew of perceived opponents, including Andrew Mellon, who was the secretary of Treasury under President Hoover. In the Roosevelt administration, Mellon was subjected to intense income tax audits, and endured a two-year civil action lawsuit, which was referred to at the time as the “Mellon Tax Trial.”
It looks like the Obama/Biden gang is using this illegal tactic again.
The post Senator Elizabeth Warren (aka Pocahontas) Shares Link to Stolen Data on Taxes Paid by the Super Wealthy to Push Taxing the Rich appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 1 | Recorded June 10, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 29 Seconds
Episode 1,012 – Victims or Victors … Border Invasion and Americans Can’t Stand Kevin McCarthy.Guests are: Richard Baris, Chris Chmielenski.
Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 2 | Recorded June 10, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 05 Seconds
Episode 1,013 – Tax the Aristocrats … Bannon Rants, Chris Wray’s Corrupt FBI.Guest is: Matt DePerno.
Bannon’s War Room | Evening Edition | Recorded June 10, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 59 Seconds
Episode 1,014 – Audits at the O.K. Corral … Vernon Jones Challenges Kemp, Gaetz Grills Chris Wray. “I am deeply concerned that the FBI had actionable intelligence that could have saved American lives,” Gaetz said. “And they ignored that intelligence.” Guest is: Natalie Winters, Matt Gaetz, Vernon Jones, Ken Paxton, Joe Reick, Marylyn Todd.
Media Matters Retracts After Falsely Claiming Republican Politician Went On ‘White Nationalist, Pro-Hitler Outlet’
Left-wing watchdog Media Matters was forced to issue a retraction after publishing a story that falsely claimed Republican Texas State Sen. Bob Hall appeared on a program for a white nationalist and pro-Hitler outlet.
Media Matters claimed in their story that Hall did an interview with The Barnes Review, an outlet that publishes stories like “Why the Holocaust Story Was Invented” and writes about Hitler’s “humanism … kindness and thoughtfulness.” It later turned out that the so-called interview never happened, and pieces of other interviews Hall had given were edited to make it seem like he had done an interview with The Barnes Review.
“Earlier today, Media Matters published a story stating that Texas state Sen. Bob Hall had ‘appeared on the program of a white nationalist, pro-Hitler outlet that denies the Holocaust,’” the correction said.
“After publication, we were made aware that the program in question – The Barnes Review History Hour (TBR History Hour) – had faked the interview, falsely claiming they had interviewed Hall by splicing in previous interviews Hall had given to other outlets and making it seem like he was responding to questions from TBR. We have pulled the story and apologize for the error.” . . . .
Study: No COVID-19 Reinfections in Unvaccinated Group
A new study suggests that if you’ve recovered from the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, you’re likely to be infection-free for months.
The post Study: No COVID-19 Reinfections in Unvaccinated Group appeared first on NTD.
How a lenient NYC judge left a reputed gangbanger free to allegedly kill an innocent dad
A reputed teenage gang member with three gun busts in four months had his bail reduced by a Bronx judge — allowing him to get out of jail and allegedly fire a random shot that killed an innocent father of two, The Post has learned.
Alberto Ramirez, 16, was arrested Monday in the slaying of Eric Velasquez, 34, who was struck by a stray bullet that the teen allegedly shot blindly into a crowd while on a rival gang’s turf, law-enforcement sources said. He has pleaded not guilty.
Ramirez was locked up on $75,000 bail when acting Supreme Court Justice Denis Boyle lowered the amount to $10,000 cash or $25,000 bond over prosecution objections on March 2, the Bronx District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday.
His family bailed him out a few weeks later, a spokeswoman for DA Darcel Clark said — putting him back on the streets. . . .
Court reinstates teacher suspended for speaking out against proposed transgender policy
A Loudoun County, Virginia court has temporarily reinstated an elementary school gym teacher in northern Virginia who spoke out against the School Board’s proposed transgender policy.
The proposed transgender policy would reportedly require teachers to address students by their “preferred pronouns.”
The teacher, Tanner Cross, objected and made concisely-prepared comments during a School Board meeting. He was suspended from his job after the statements. . . .
Study Shows Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin Greatly Improved COVID Survival Rate for Ventilated Patients
How many people would have been saved if the professional medical establishment had not been politically determined to undermine President Trump?
Last year President Trump advocated for Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and Azithromycin (AZM), two readily available drugs, in the treatment of COVID patients who worsened with the respiratory illness to the point of Invasive Medical Ventilation (IVM). The media proclaimed the presidential advice was wrong, and the medical establishment undermined the administration’s advocacy. Now a study shows treatment with those medicines would have led to many saved lives. . . .
Keystone pipeline nixed after Biden stands firm on permit
BILLINGS, Mont. — The sponsor of the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline pulled the plug on the contentious project Wednesday after Canadian officials failed to persuade President Joe Biden to reverse his cancellation of its permit on the day he took office.
Calgary-based TC Energy said it would work with government agencies “to ensure a safe termination of and exit from” the partially built line, which was to transport crude from the oil sand fields of western Canada to Steele City, Nebraska.
Construction on the 1,200-mile (1,930-kilometer) pipeline began last year when former President Donald Trump revived the long-delayed project after it had stalled under the Obama administration. It would have moved up to 830,000 barrels (35 million gallons) of crude daily, connecting in Nebraska to other pipelines that feed oil refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Biden canceled it in January over longstanding concerns that burning oil sands crude would make climate change worse.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had objected to the move, although officials in Alberta, where the line originated, expressed disappointment in recent weeks that Trudeau didn’t push Biden harder to reinstate the pipeline’s permit.
Alberta invested more than $1 billion in the project last year, kick-starting construction that had stalled amid determined opposition to the line from environmentalists and Native American tribes along its route.
Alberta officials said Wednesday they reached an agreement with TC Energy, formerly known as TransCanada, to exit their partnership. The company and province plan to try to recoup the government’s investment, although neither offered any immediate details on how that would happen.
“We remain disappointed and frustrated with the circumstances surrounding the Keystone XL project, including the cancellation of the presidential permit for the pipeline’s border crossing,” Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said in a statement.
The province had hoped the pipeline would spur increased development in the oil sands and bring tens of billions of dollars in royalties over decades.
Climate change activists viewed the expansion of oil sands development as an environmental disaster that could speed up global warming as the fuel is burned. That turned Keystone into a flashpoint in the climate debate, and it became the focus of rallies and protests in Washington, D.C., and other cities.
Environmentalists who had fought the project since it was first announced in 2008 said its cancellation marks a “landmark moment” in the effort to curb the use of fossil fuels.
“Good riddance to Keystone XL,” said Jared Margolis with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of many environmental groups that sued to stop it.
Attorneys general from 21 states had sued to overturn Biden’s cancellation of the pipeline, which would have created thousands of construction jobs. Republicans in Congress have made the cancellation a frequent talking point in their criticism of the administration, and even some moderate Senate Democrats including Montana’s Jon Tester and West Virginia’s Joe Manchin had urged Biden to reconsider.
Tester said in a statement Wednesday that he was disappointed in the project’s demise, but made no mention of Biden.
Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the top Republican on the Senate energy committee, was more direct: “President Biden killed the Keystone XL Pipeline and with it, thousands of good-paying American jobs.”
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on TC Energy’s announcement.
Newsom and California lawmakers approved to receive pay raise amid improving economy
The California Citizens Compensation Commission, which is appointed by the governor, voted 4 to 0 on Tuesday to approve the 4.2% pay hikes for state elected officials.
Ex-Tennessee governor tied to contract hit on Hoffa pal, federal witness
A former Tennessee governor’s administration helped pay a murder contract for a 1979 hit on a federal witness who was buddies with union boss Jimmy Hoffa, authorities said.
The white contract killer wore a wig, fake beard and was in blackface when he gunned down Chattanooga businessman Samuel Pettyjohn, a cooperating witness in a corruption scandal that brought down the now-dead governor, Hamilton County prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Pettyjohn had cash and jewelry worth $100,000 on him when was killed on Feb. 1, 1979 inside a Beverage Mart he owned, authorities said in a news release.
“Essentially, Mr. Pettyjohn cooperated with authorities and knew too much about what was going on locally, as well as the state level, and individuals didn’t like that and so individuals hired someone to murder him,” Hamilton District Attorney Neal Pinkston said. . . .
Social media CEO considers suing political blogger over Jan. 6 Capitol riot story
Following several stories claiming that CloutHub CEO Jeff Brain and his social media platform played a “role in the violent attack on the Capitol,” the CloutHub founder denounced them as “dishonest” and said he is consulting attorneys on possible legal action against the author.
The original article in “The Uprising” by Hunter Walker said that a CloutHub group called “Patriot Caravans for 45” had “violent overtones,” despite Brain writing in a post on the group that users should “Report Anyone posting inappropriate content or discussion of violence & they will be deleted from the group.”
Walker wrote in his article that there were three users who posted in the group that contributed to the violent tonality, named “Jaybirdy,” “MrM1A2,” and “Teeree.” He said that “Jaybirdy” had “indicated they were leading a planning meeting in the D.C. suburb of Arlington, Virginia. ‘Jaybirdy’ described themself by boasting about their skill with guns. ‘Good patriot. Good manners. Good shot,’ Jaybirdy wrote.”
Walker also mentioned that “‘MrM1A2,’ an apparent reference to a battle tank, noted their military experience and equipment as they sought a ride to the Capitol from Florida. ‘COMBAT VETERAN JUST LOST MY RIDE FROM NAPLES FL to DC HAVE EXTRA WALKIE TALKIES AND SUPPLIES,’ MrM1A2 wrote.”
Lastly, according to Walker, “Teeree” had “discussed plans to rent a bus and noted Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser was preparing for potential violence at the protests. ‘NO LUNCH BREAK ON THE BUS!’ Teeree wrote. ‘There’s a rumor the Mayor of DC may shut the city down. Bring sammiches or other snackables for that eventuality.'”
In an interview with Just the News on Wednesday, Brain said that there were “no violent posts in the group.” He explained how Walker “mischaracterized completely” the users that were mentioned.
According to Brain, none of those users posted in the “Patriot Caravans for 45” group or wrote any violent posts, and the group was used for “peaceful purposes only.” He said that “‘Jaybirdy’ never discussed marksmanship. In her profile, it says ‘Good patriot. Good manners. Good shot.'”
User “MrM1A2” had “just said they were a combat veteran,” Brain said. The third user who was discussed, “Teeree,” just “mentioned sharing a bus — no violence,” Brain added, and that the “planning meeting” was “completely made up, never mentioned” because it was only to see who was in the area to get together.
Brain said that the story was “completely contrived” and that “they’re trying to ding CloutHub.” He continued, “From the start, have had a clean and responsible platform — no hate, porn, or violence.” . . .
June 9, 2021 | Nightly News Rebroadcast | Video: 43 Minutes 01 Seconds
Parents Bring Bill of Rights to School Board; Study: No Reinfections in Unvaccinated Group. President Joe Biden lands in the UK and addresses U.S. troops ahead of the G-7 summit and a meeting with Putin, a new report from the Department of Homeland Security shows more than 2,000 migrant children do not have confirmed records of reunification with their families, and Virginia parents bring a bill of rights to Loudoun County Public Schools amid critical race theory controversy.
WATCH: Fauci Claims to “Have No Idea” About His Own, Documented E-Mails with Mark Zuckerberg.
Dr. Anthony Fauci appears to have spun a new web of lies today while appearing on MSNBC, this time claiming he has “no idea” about the concerns expressed by U.S.…
The post WATCH: Fauci Claims to “Have No Idea” About His Own, Documented E-Mails with Mark Zuckerberg. appeared first on The National Pulse.