Critics of Silicon Valley censorship for years heard the same refrain: tech platforms like Facebook, Google and Twitter are private corporations and can host or ban whoever they want. If you don’t like what they are doing, the solution is not to complain or to regulate them. Instead, go create your own social media platform that operates the way you think it should.
The founders of Parler heard that suggestion and tried. In August, 2018, they created a social media platform similar to Twitter but which promised far greater privacy protections, including a refusal to aggregate user data in order to monetize them to advertisers or algorithmically evaluate their interests in order to promote content or products to them. They also promised far greater free speech rights, rejecting the increasingly repressive content policing of Silicon Valley giants.
Over the last year, Parler encountered immense success. Millions of people who objected to increasing repression of speech on the largest platforms or who had themselves been banned signed up for the new social media company.
As Silicon Valley censorship radically escalated over the past several months — banning pre-election reporting by The New York Post about the Biden family, denouncing and deleting multiple posts from the U.S. President and then terminating his access altogether, mass-removal of right-wing accounts — so many people migrated to Parler that it was catapulted to the number one spot on the list of most-downloaded apps on the Apple Play Store, the sole and exclusive means which iPhone users have to download apps. “Overall, the app was the 10th most downloaded social media app in 2020 with 8.1 million new installs,” reported TechCrunch.
It looked as if Parler had proven critics of Silicon Valley monopolistic power wrong. Their success showed that it was possible after all to create a new social media platform to compete with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. And they did so by doing exactly what Silicon Valley defenders long insisted should be done: if you don’t like the rules imposed by tech giants, go create your own platform with different rules.
But today, if you want to download, sign up for, or use Parler, you will be unable to do so. That is because three Silicon Valley monopolies — Amazon, Google and Apple — abruptly united to remove Parler from the internet, exactly at the moment when it became the most-downloaded app in the country.
If one were looking for evidence to demonstrate that these tech behemoths are, in fact, monopolies that engage in anti-competitive behavior in violation of antitrust laws, and will obliterate any attempt to compete with them in the marketplace, it would be difficult to imagine anything more compelling than how they just used their unconstrained power to utterly destroy a rising competitor.
The united Silicon Valley attack began on January 8, when Apple emailed Parler and gave them 24 hours to prove they had changed their moderation practices or else face removal from their App Store. The letter claimed: “We have received numerous complaints regarding objectionable content in your Parler service, accusations that the Parler app was used to plan, coordinate, and facilitate the illegal activities in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021 that led (among other things) to loss of life, numerous injuries, and the destruction of property.” It ended with this warning:
To ensure there is no interruption of the availability of your app on the App Store, please submit an update and the requested moderation improvement plan within 24 hours of the date of this message. If we do not receive an update compliant with the App Store Review Guidelines and the requested moderation improvement plan in writing within 24 hours, your app will be removed from the App Store.
The 24-hour letter was an obvious pretext and purely performative. Removal was a fait accompli no matter what Parler did. To begin with, the letter was immediately leaked to Buzzfeed, which published it in full. A Parler executive detailed the company’s unsuccessful attempts to communicate with Apple. “They basically ghosted us,” he told me. The next day, Apple notified Parler of its removal from App Store. “We won’t distribute apps that present dangerous and harmful content,” said the world’s richest company, and thus: “We have now rejected your app for the App Store.”
It is hard to overstate the harm to a platform from being removed from the App Store. Users of iPhones are barred from downloading apps onto their devices from the internet. If an app is not on the App Store, it cannot be used on the iPhone. Even iPhone users who have already downloaded Parler will lose the ability to receive updates, which will shortly render the platform both unmanageable and unsafe.
In October, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law issued a 425-page report concluding that Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google all possess monopoly power and are using that power anti-competitively. For Apple, they emphasized the company’s control over iPhones through its control of access to the App Store. As Ars Technica put it when highlighting the report’s key findings:
Apple controls about 45 percent of the US smartphone market and 20 percent of the global smartphone market, the committee found, and is projected to sell its 2 billionth iPhone in 2021. It is correct that, in the smartphone handset market, Apple is not a monopoly. Instead, iOS and Android hold an effective duopoly in mobile operating systems.
However, the report concludes, Apple does have a monopolistic hold over what you can do with an iPhone. You can only put apps on your phone through the Apple App Store, and Apple has total gatekeeper control over that App Store—that’s what Epic is suing the company over. . . .
The committee found internal documents showing that company leadership, including former CEO Steve Jobs, “acknowledged that IAP requirement would stifle competition and limit the apps available to Apple’s customers.” The report concludes that Apple has also unfairly used its control over APIs, search rankings, and default apps to limit competitors’ access to iPhone users.
Shortly thereafter, Parler learned that Google, without warning, had also “suspended” it from its Play Store, severely limiting the ability of users to download Parler onto Android phones. Google’s actions also meant that those using Parler on their Android phones would no longer receive necessary functionality and security updates.
It was precisely Google’s abuse of its power to control its app device that was at issue “when the European Commission deemed Google LLC as the dominant undertaking in the app stores for the Android mobile operating system (i.e. Google Play Store) and hit the online search and advertisement giant with €4.34 billion for its anti-competitive practices to strengthen its position in various of other markets through its dominance in the app store market.”
The day after a united Apple and Google acted against Parler, Amazon delivered the fatal blow. The company founded and run by the world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos, used virtually identical language as Apple to inform Parler that its web hosting service (AWS) was terminating Parler’s ability to have AWS host its site: “Because Parler cannot comply with our terms of service and poses a very real risk to public safety, we plan to suspend Parler’s account effective Sunday, January 10th, at 11:59PM PST.” Because Amazon is such a dominant force in web hosting, Parler has thus far not found a hosting service for its platform, which is why it has disappeared not only from app stores and phones but also from the internet.
On Thursday, Parler was the most popular app in the United States. By Monday, three of the four Silicon Valley monopolies united to destroy it.
With virtual unanimity, leading U.S. liberals celebrated this use of Silicon Valley monopoly power to shut down Parler, just as they overwhelmingly cheered the prior two extraordinary assertions of tech power to control U.S. political discourse: censorship of The New York Post’s reporting on the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop, and the banning of the U.S. President from major platforms. Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to find a single national liberal-left politician even expressing concerns about any of this, let alone opposing it.
Not only did leading left-wing politicians not object but some of them were the ones who pleaded with Silicon Valley to use their power this way. After the internet-policing site Sleeping Giants flagged several Parler posts that called for violence, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asked: “What are @Apple and @GooglePlay doing about this?” Once Apple responded by removing Parler from its App Store — a move that House Democrats just three months earlier warned was dangerous anti-trust behavior — she praised Apple and then demanded to know: “Good to see this development from @Apple. @GooglePlay what are you going to do about apps being used to organize violence on your platform?”
The liberal New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg pronounced herself “disturbed by just how awesome [tech giants’] power is” and added that “it’s dangerous to have a handful of callow young tech titans in charge of who has a megaphone and who does not.” She nonetheless praised these “young tech titans” for using their “dangerous” power to ban Trump and destroy Parler. In other words, liberals like Goldberg are concerned only that Silicon Valley censorship powers might one day be used against people like them, but are perfectly happy as long as it is their adversaries being deplatformed and silenced (Facebook and other platforms have for years banned marginalized people like Palestinians at Israel’s behest, but that is of no concern to U.S. liberals).
That is because the dominant strain of American liberalism is not economic socialism but political authoritarianism. Liberals now want to use the force of corporate power to silence those with different ideologies. They are eager for tech monopolies not just to ban accounts they dislike but to remove entire platforms from the internet. They want to imprison people they believe helped their party lose elections, such as Julian Assange, even if it means creating precedents to criminalize journalism.
World leaders have vocally condemned the power Silicon Valley has amassed to police political discourse, and were particularly indignant over the banning of the U.S. President. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, various French ministers, and especially Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador all denounced the banning of Trump and other acts of censorship by tech monopolies on the ground that they were anointing themselves “a world media power.” The warnings from López Obrador were particularly eloquent:
Even the ACLU — which has rapidly transformed from a civil liberties organization into a liberal activist group since Trump’s election — found the assertion of Silicon Valley’s power to destroy Parler deeply alarming. One of that organization’s most stalwart defenders of civil liberties, lawyer Ben Wizner, told The New York Times that the destruction of Parler was more “troubling” than the deletion of posts or whole accounts: “I think we should recognize the importance of neutrality when we’re talking about the infrastructure of the internet.”
Yet American liberals swoon for this authoritarianism. And they are now calling for the use of the most repressive War on Terror measures against their domestic opponents. On Tuesday, House Homeland Security Chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) urged that GOP Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley “be put on the no-fly list,” while The Wall Street Journal reported that “Biden has said he plans to make a priority of passing a law against domestic terrorism, and he has been urged to create a White House post overseeing the fight against ideologically inspired violent extremists and increasing funding to combat them.”
So much of this liberal support for the attempted destruction of Parler is based in utter ignorance about that platform, and about basic principles of free speech. I’d be very surprised if more than a tiny fraction of liberals cheering Parler’s removal from the internet have ever used the platform or know anything about it other than the snippets they have been shown by those seeking to justify its destruction and to depict it as some neo-Nazi stronghold.
Parler was not founded, nor is it run, by pro-Trump, MAGA supporters. The platform was created based in libertarian values of privacy, anti-surveillance, anti-data collection, and free speech. Most of the key executives are more associated with the politics of Ron Paul and the CATO Institute than Steve Bannon or the Trump family. One is a Never Trump Republican, while another is the former campaign manager of Ron Paul and Rand Paul. Among the few MAGA-affiliated figures is Dan Bongino, an investor. One of the key original investors was Rebekah Mercer.
The platform’s design is intended to foster privacy and free speech, not a particular ideology. They minimize the amount of data they collect on users to prevent advertiser monetization or algorithmic targeting. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, they do not assess a user’s preferences in order to decide what they should see. And they were principally borne out of a reaction to increasingly restrictive rules on the major Silicon Valley platforms regarding what could and could not be said.
Of course large numbers of Trump supporters ended up on Parler. That’s not because Parler is a pro-Trump outlet, but because those are among the people who were censored by the tech monopolies or who were angered enough by that censorship to seek refuge elsewhere.
It is true that one can find postings on Parler that explicitly advocate violence or are otherwise grotesque. But that is even more true of Facebook, Google-owned YouTube, and Twitter. And contrary to what many have been led to believe, Parler’s Terms of Service includes a ban on explicit advocacy of violence, and they employ a team of paid, trained moderators who delete such postings. Those deletions do not happen perfectly or instantaneously — which is why one can find postings that violate those rules — but the same is true of every major Silicon Valley platform.
Indeed, a Parler executive told me that of the thirteen people arrested as of Monday for the breach at the Capitol, none appear to be active users of Parler. The Capitol breach was planned far more on Facebook and YouTube. As Recode reported, while some protesters participated in both Parler and Gab, many of the calls to attend the Capitol were from YouTube videos, while many of the key planners “have continued to use mainstream platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.” The article quoted Fadi Quran, campaign director at the human rights group Avaaz, as saying: “In DC, we saw QAnon conspiracists and other militias that would never have grown to this size without being turbo-charged by Facebook and Twitter.”
And that’s to say nothing of the endless number of hypocrisies with Silicon Valley giants feigning opposition to violent rhetoric or political extremism. Amazon, for instance, is one of the CIA’s most profitable partners, with a $600 million contract to provide services to the agency, and it is constantly bidding for more. On Facebook and Twitter, one finds official accounts from the most repressive and violent regimes on earth, including Saudi Arabia, and pages devoted to propaganda on behalf of the Egyptian regime. Does anyone think these tech giants have a genuine concern about violence and extremism?
So why did Democratic politicians and journalists focus on Parler rather than Facebook and YouTube? Why did Amazon, Google and Apple make a flamboyant showing of removing Parler from the internet while leaving much larger platforms with far more extremism and advocacy of violence flowing on a daily basis?
In part it is because these Silicon Valley giants — Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple — donate enormous sums of money to the Democratic Party and their leaders, so of course Democrats will cheer them rather than call for punishment or their removal from the internet. Part of it is because Parler is an upstart, a much easier target to try to destroy than Facebook or Google. And in part it is because the Democrats are about to control the Executive Branch and both houses of Congress, leaving Silicon Valley giants eager to please them by silencing their adversaries. This corrupt motive was made expressly clear by long-time Clinton operative Jennifer Palmieri:
It has not escaped my attention that the day social media companies decided there actually IS more they could do to police Trump’s destructive behavior was the same day they learned Democrats would chair all the congressional committees that oversee them.
The nature of monopolistic power is that anti-competitive entities engage in anti-trust illegalities to destroy rising competitors. Parler is associated with the wrong political ideology. It is a small and new enough platform such that it can be made an example of. Its head can be placed on a pike to make clear that no attempt to compete with existing Silicon Valley monopolies is possible. And its destruction preserves the unchallengeable power of a tiny handful of tech oligarchs over the political discourse not just of the United States but democracies worldwide (which is why Germany, France and Mexico are raising their voices in protest).
No authoritarians believe they are authoritarians. No matter how repressive are the measures they support — censorship, monopoly power, no-fly lists for American citizens without due process — they tell themselves that those they are silencing and attacking are so evil, are terrorists, that anything done against them is noble and benevolent, not despotic and repressive. That is how American liberals currently think, as they fortify the control of Silicon Valley monopolies over our political lives, exemplified by the overnight destruction of a new and popular competitor.
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Bannon’s War Room | Evening Edition | Recorded March 15, 2021 | Chaos Under Heaven … China’s Rise is Threat to World (w/ Josh Rogin) | Video: 48 Minutes 59 Seconds
Obama administration’s “soothing” meeting promising a cozy relationship with top Chinese leaders a week before the election in 2016. Then Trump won. Our guest is: Josh Rogin.
“Put down your pen, put down your notebook and listen,” Yasmin said. | If Only We Heeded This Advice Regardless Of Any Side Of An Issue We Take
Journalists, public health officials and tech companies have tried to push back against the falsehoods, but much of the job of correcting misinformation has fallen to the world’s front-line medical workers.
Los Angeles emergency room nurse Sandra Younan spent the last year juggling long hours as she watched many patients struggle with the coronavirus and some die.
Then there were the patients who claimed the virus was fake or coughed in her face, ignoring mask rules. One man stormed out of the hospital after a positive COVID-19 test, refusing to believe it was accurate.
“You have patients that are literally dying, and then you have patients that are denying the disease,” she said. “You try to educate and you try to educate, but then you just hit a wall.”
Bogus claims about the virus, masks and vaccines have exploded since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic a year ago. Journalists, public health officials and tech companies have tried to push back against the falsehoods, but much of the job of correcting misinformation has fallen to the world’s front-line medical workers.
In Germany, a video clip showing a nurse using an empty syringe while practicing vaccinations traveled widely online as purported evidence that COVID-19 is fake. Doctors in Afghanistan reported patients telling them COVID-19 was created by the U.S. and China to reduce the world population. In Bolivia, medical workers had to care for five people who ingested a toxic bleaching agent falsely touted as a COVID-19 cure.
Younan, 27, says her friends used to describe her as the “chillest person ever,” but now she deals with crushing anxiety.
“My life is being a nurse, so I don’t care if you’re really sick, you throw up on me, whatever,” Younan said. “But when you know what you’re doing is wrong, and I’m asking you repeatedly to please wear your mask to protect me, and you’re still not doing it, it’s like you have no regard for anybody but yourself. And that’s why this virus is spreading. It just makes you lose hope.”
Emily Scott, 36, who is based at a Seattle hospital, has worked around the world on medical missions and helped care for the first U.S. COVID-19 patient last year. She was selected because of her experience working in Sierra Leone during the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak.
While many Americans were terrified of Ebola — a disease that isn’t nearly as contagious as the coronavirus and poses little threat in the U.S. — they aren’t nearly afraid enough of COVID-19, she said.
Scott blames a few factors: Ebola’s frightening symptoms, racism against Africans and the politicization of COVID-19 by American elected officials.
“I felt so much safer in Sierra Leone during Ebola than I did at the beginning of this outbreak in the U.S.,” Scott said, because of how many people failed to heed social distancing and mask directives. “Things that are facts, and science, have become politicized.”
ER nurse L’Erin Ogle has heard a litany of false claims about the virus while working at a hospital in the suburbs of Kansas City, Missouri. They include: The virus isn’t any worse than the flu. It’s caused by 5G wireless towers. Masks won’t help and may hurt. Or, the most painful to her: The virus isn’t real, and doctors and nurses are engaged in a vast global conspiracy to hide the truth.
“It just feels so defeating, and it makes you question: Why am I doing this?” said Ogle, 40.
Nurses are often the health care providers with the most patient contact, and patients frequently view nurses as more approachable, according to professor Maria Brann, an expert on health communication at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. That means nurses are more likely to encounter patients spreading misinformation, which gives them a special opportunity to intervene.
“Nurses have always been patient advocates, but this pandemic has thrown so much more at them,” Brann said. “It can definitely take a toll. This isn’t necessarily what they signed up for.”
In some cases, it’s nurses and other health care workers themselves spreading misinformation. And many nurses say they encounter falsehoods about the coronavirus vaccine in their own families.
For Brenda Olmos, 31, a nurse practitioner in Austin, Texas, who focuses on a geriatric and Hispanic patient population, it was a no-brainer to get the vaccine. But first she had to debate her parents, who had heard unsubstantiated claims that the shot would cause infertility and Bell’s palsy on Spanish-language TV shows.
Olmos eventually convinced her parents to get the vaccine, too, but she worries about vaccine hesitancy in her community.
When she recently encountered an elderly patient with cancerous tumors, Olmos knew the growths had taken years to develop. But the man’s adult children who had recently gotten him the vaccine insisted that the two were connected.
“To them, it just seemed too coincidental,” Olmos said. “I just wanted them to not have that guilt.”
Olmos said the real problem with misinformation is not just bad actors spreading lies — it’s people believing false claims because they aren’t as comfortable navigating often complex medical findings.
“Low health literacy is the real pandemic,” she said. “As health care providers, we have a duty to serve the information in a way that’s palatable, and that’s easy to understand, so that people don’t consume misinformation because they can’t digest the real data.”
When Texas Gov. Greg Abbott lifted the state’s mask mandate this month against the guidance of many scientists, nurse practitioner Guillermo Carnegie called the decision a “spit in the face.”
“I was disgusted,” said Carnegie, 34, of Temple, Texas. “This governor, and different people, they act like, ‘Oh, we’re proud of our front-line workers, we support them.’ But then they do something like that, and it taxes the medical field tremendously.”
Brian Southwell, who started a program at Duke University School of Medicine to train medical professionals how to talk to misinformed patients, said providers should view the patient confiding in them as an opportunity.
“That patient trusts you enough to raise that information with you,” Southwell said. “And so that’s a good thing, even if you disagree with it.”
He said medical workers should resist going into “academic argumentation mode” and instead find out why patients hold certain beliefs — and whether they might be open to other ideas.
That act of listening is imperative to building trust, according to Dr. Seema Yasmin, a physician, journalist and Stanford University professor who studies medical misinformation.
“Put down your pen, put down your notebook and listen,” Yasmin said.
Meghan Markle’s claims during Oprah interview debunked by 2014 blog post
Meghan Markle — who claimed to Oprah Winfrey last week that she never thought what it would be like to marry a prince — blogged about dreaming of becoming a princess seven years ago, a new report says. “Little girls dream of being princesses. I, for one, was all about She-Ra, Princess of Power,’’ wrote…
Ireland Suspends AstraZeneca Vaccine Amid Blood Clot Reports
LONDON—Irish health officials on Sunday recommended the temporary suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine after reports of serious blood clotting after inoculations in Norway. Dr. Ronan Glynn, Ireland’s deputy chief medical officer, said the recommendation was made after Norway’s medicines agency reported four cases of blood clotting in adults after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine. He said that while there was no conclusive link between the vaccine and the cases, Irish health officials are recommending the suspension of the vaccine’s rollout as a precaution. Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic authorities have taken similar precautionary steps. The World Health Organization and the European Union’s medicines regulator said earlier in the week that there was no link between the jab and an increased risk of developing a clot. The U.K.’s medicines regulator, the MHRA, said Thursday that “reports of blood clots received so far are not greater than the number that would have occurred naturally …
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The Fascistic Drive for Equality
Commentary We live in an age of social engineering, in which unprecedentedly large numbers of people know, or think that they know, what is best for society. They mistrust spontaneity, believing it necessarily to result in injustice, and have a profound faith in their own wise guidance, under which humanity will at last be led to the sunny uplands of freedom, justice and equality. It does not generally occur to them that their desiderata may conflict with one another. The most important tenet, perhaps, in the drive for totalitarian social engineering of the proto-Stalinist variety is that all differences in desirable—or at least desired—outcomes between identifiable groups, even in the most open society, can only arise from injustice or the exercise of illicit influence by the already powerful. This idea is now so deeply entrenched in a large part of the intelligentsia that it has become almost an unassailable orthodoxy. …
Tulsi Gabbard Draws Comparison Between Cancel Culture and ISIS, Al Qaeda
We tend to have fun with cancel culture because of the abject silliness of it. It’s outrage. It’s laughing at the permaoffended woke chuckleheads whose entire life revolves around looking for things Americans like and trying to ruin them. It must suck to wake up every day knowing you’re so easily offended by Dr. Seuss, the Muppets, Pepe Le Pew, Mr. Bean, and Star Wars. I’d be embarrassed to show my face in public. It’s probably why so many of these douchelords hide behind Twitter accounts.
But there is a broader issue over the EASE of how things get “canceled.” Tulsi Gabbard is concerned about the freedom of expression aspect, as well as where she thinks we’re headed. Tulsi comes in at 4:17 if you want to skip ahead. I’m starting the video from the beginning just because I miss Trey Gowdy.
Tulsi Gabbard blasts cancel culture ‘We see the final expression of it in Islamic terrorist groups’
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“Okay, well, where does this cancel culture lead us?” You see the final expression of cancel culture in Islamist terrorist groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda who basically go and behead those who they deem to be infidels or heretics in order to silence them, in order to protect others from being misled by those heretical ideas and in the eyes of an ISIS or Al Qaeda.
OBVIOUSLY, she’s not making an apples-to-apples comparison. No one thinks the outrage brigade is literally going to the violent extremism route. But it’s not like there AREN’T any comparisons when it comes to fanaticism and cult-like devotion. Which I find ironic. The same devoutly religious woke leftist tw*t crowd are the first to claim Christians are rigid ideologues. Even comparing us the terrorists. Yet I can have a drink with someone who views a social issue or two differently from me and not look to have their life destroyed. You can’t even sit at the same table with leftists if you think Ricky Gervais or J.K. Rowling are less than evil.
The end result is total control of information. What’s allowed to be said, shared, and distributed. Decided by a small group of people with a rigid ideology of what’s allowed. It’s not all about children’s books and cartoon characters. Like the boss says:
People always say “aren’t there more important things than Speedy Gonzales or Dr. Seuss or *insert latest cancel victim here*?!”
No. Banning books is fascism. Prohibiting creative expression is fascism. That’s pretty important.
It’s the most important. It’s why the First Amendment is first.
TOP 14 Andrew Cuomo PICKUP LINES! | Louder With Crowder
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A judge in Texas refused to grant the state’s attorney general a restraining order that would force two counties to discontinue enforcing mask mandates.
The post Texas Judge Says Austin Can Continue to Enforce Mask Mandate for at Least Another 2 Weeks appeared first on NTD.
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Pfizer’s vaccine is 94 percent effective in preventing asymptomatic transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19, according to data from Israel. The COVID-19 vaccine, co-produced with BioNTech, was also at least 97 percent effective in preventing symptomatic disease, severe-critical disease, and death, the companies and the Israel Ministry of Health said. The figures stem from […]
The post Pfizer Vaccine 94 Percent Effective Against Asymptomatic Transmission of CCP Virus: Israeli Data appeared first on NTD.
Virus Tolls Similar Despite Governors’ Contrasting Actions
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Kate Garraway describes husband Derek Draper’s coronavirus battle as ‘horror story’
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Ex-White House COVID adviser Deborah Birx has new private-sector job
Former White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx is now working in the private sector. Birx, who was a familiar face at White House coronavirus briefings under former President Donald Trump, is now working as chief medical and scientific adviser for ActivePure Technology in Texas, an air filtration company, Reuters reported. She has also joined…
Quarantine Hotel Worker in NSW Tests Positive for COVID-19
A person who works in two NSW COVID-19 quarantine hotels with overseas travellers and has already had their first-dose of the Pfizer vaccine, has come down with the virus. The positive result was recorded after 8 p.m. on Saturday, meaning the state’s virus-free run will end at 56 days. NSW Health said in a statement the source of the Sydney worker’s infection remains unclear and testing of their close contacts is underway. There were no locally-acquired COVID-19 cases in the 24 hours to 8 p.m. on Saturday and three cases in travellers in hotel quarantine. Health Minister Brad Hazzard will address the media later on Sunday. Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday told reporters the hotel quarantine worker had received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. “There are no risk-free responses when you deal with COVID-19, it is unrealistic and naive to think so … there are always vulnerabilities,” …
12 shot, two fatally, at overnight party at Park Manor business
The other wounded people were all listed in serious or critical condition.
Twelve people were shot, at least two fatally, after gunfire broke out at a Park Manor business where a party was being held early Sunday, according to the Chicago Fire Department.
A fight broke out between several people attending the party about 4:40 a.m. in the 6700 block of South South Chicago Avenue when gunfire erupted, Chicago police said.
Twelve people were struck, ranging in age from 20 to 44 years old, according to police.
Two people were pronounced dead, fire department spokesman Larry Merritt said. The other wounded people were all listed in serious or critical condition at hospitals.
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Sophie Sherry/Sun-TimesA photo of the scene shared by the fire department showed balloons and a shoe strewn outside the South Side Think Tank, at 6798 S. South Chicago Ave.
Officers placed at least 10 evidence markers outside the building, but most investigators appeared to examining the inside of the business. There appeared to be a pool of blood on the sidewalk near the door of the building.
A Chicago police spokesman was unable to immediately provide details about the shooting.
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Sophie Sherry/Sun-TimesThe shooting was one of the most violent, in terms of number of people hurt, in recent Chicago memory. Last July, 15 people were shot outside a Gresham funeral home, but none of the victims died.
In 2013, a mass shooting wounded 13 people, including a 3-year-old boy, in Cornell Park near 51st and Wood in Back of the Yards.
Last December, six people were hurt after gunfire broke out at an overnight party in a South Side salon in the Burnside neighborhood.
So far this year, officers have responded to 393 shooting incidents across the city through March 7, according to police statistics. That’s a 31% increase over the same period last year, which saw 301 shooting incidents.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Riots, Violence Erupt in West Coast Cities on Breonna Taylor Anniversary
Major cities on the West Coast were among those seeing riots and protests Saturday night as demonstrators marked the one-year anniversary of Breonna Taylor’s death in a police raid in Louisville, Kentucky. Several U.S. cities were beset by riots and protests on Saturday night as demonstrators marked the one-year anniversary of the death of Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky. Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle saw protests and clashes between crowds of people and police. Rioters threw rocks at police officers in Hollywood and smashed store windows, according to reports and footage published from the scene. Videos showed riot police at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street. A video uploaded to Twitter showed a demonstrator appearing to jump on a police car as it drove away. Officials told KNBC in Los Angeles that at least one officer was injured during the skirmishes between protesters and police. “Ppl asking why the …
They’re Back . . . “There was nothing peaceful about the protest. It looked like Black Lives Matter,” one employee told The Post.
A rowdy protester smashed the plexiglass window of an outdoor dining setup in Midtown on Saturday, March 13, 2021, causing a customer to suffer a cut to his face, according to police and witnesses. The customer, a 48-year-old man, was dining at Dalton’s Bar & Grill on Ninth Avenue near West 43rd Street when a group of demonstrators…
Cuomo Should ‘Stick to His Guns’: Alan Dershowitz
Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz said on Saturday that since “accusations don’t constitute guilt” in the United States, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo should not prematurely resign in response to the sexual harassment allegations against him. “Accusations don’t constitute guilt,” Dershowitz told Newsmax host Carl Higbie. “I wrote a book about it called ‘Guilt by Accusation,’ so I think that Gov. Cuomo should stick to his guns. Let there be a full investigation.” “And if nothing more comes out, these sexual allegations are not enough to deprive him and deprive the millions of voters who voted for him of his governorship,” Dershowitz added. “I take the same position whether a person is a Democrat or Republican, whether I voted for him or against him. The law has to be the same. The shoe on the other foot has to fit.” Dershowitz said of the media reports, “Those are not …
With Biden In Office, ISIS Is Back In Full Swing
ISIS terrorists were behind Thursday’s brutal killings north of Baghdad where they shot dead eight people in three separate attacks, including six family members, according to an Iraqi military statement released Friday. The attack took place in Albu-Dour’s predominantly Sunni village in Salah al-Din province, about 84 miles north of the Iraqi capital. The area […]
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Video: Remembering the ‘Boat People’ of Vietnam, Who Escaped Communism for America
After the Vietnam war, many people escaped communism by boat and made their way to the United States. They would later be known as the “boat people.” To learn more about this history, we interviewed Binh Tran, a pharmacist and one of the boat people of Vietnam. These stories and more in this episode of Crossroads. Crossroads is an Epoch Times show available on Facebook and YouTube.
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Dr. Fauci Advises Stephen Colbert Not To “Hit The Clubs” Even After Getting Vaccinated
America’s most political doctor in history doesn’t recommend large gatherings until COVID-19 is under control.
These Covid Vaccines Are Now in the U.S. Others May Be Coming.
Two vaccines are in wide use, a third is getting there, and there may soon be more alternatives. Here is a rundown.
Rudy Giuliani to Keep Honorary Degree After New York College Votes Against Rescinding It
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is keeping an honorary degree he received from a college in New York. St. John Fisher College bestowed a doctorate on Giuliani in 2015 in recognition of the role he played in the recovery of New York City after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Some people called on the school to rescind the degree after Giuliani spoke at a “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington on Jan. 6 that immediately preceded the breach of the U.S. Capitol, in addition to allegations that the 2020 election was rife with fraud. The St. John Fisher College Board of Trustees said in a statement Friday that it was made aware of the calls and decided to hold a vote on the matter. “The College prides itself on respecting the opinions expressed by all inside and outside of the Fisher community. The matter of rescinding an honorary …
Schumer: Andrew Cuomo should resign amid ‘awful crisis’ in New York
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said an “awful crisis” is engulfing New York as he again called for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to step down over accusations of sexual harassment from seven women. “This is an awful crisis in New York and elsewhere, and we need sure and steady leadership,” Schumer said in an interview Sunday…
Amazon says it won’t list books it claims classify transgenderism as a mental illness
Retail giant removed moral philosopher’s book on gender dysphoria the month before.
Netflix rolls out feature to crack down on ‘password-sharing’
Users will be required to verify accounts.
Why many of those struck by Long Covid may really be suffering from glandular fever
A year after the start of the coronavirus pandemic, experts have made an intriguing discovery: blood tests on some sufferers of long Covid are coming back positive for ‘reactivated’ Epstein-Barr.
Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Middleweight Champion of the 1980s, Dies at 66
One of the most formidable boxers of his era, Hagler defended his title 12 times before losing to Sugar Ray Leonard in a 1987 split decision.
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H.R. 1 Election Reforms Make Problems of 2020 Worse: Fmr FEC Commissioner
Hans VonSpakovsky, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a former Federal Election Commissioner, warns that the House Bill H.R. 1 would cement into law many of the voting practices that caused chaos during the 2020 election—and then make them worse.
The post H.R. 1 Election Reforms Make Problems of 2020 Worse: Fmr FEC Commissioner appeared first on NTD.
Illegal immigrant students in Virginia to be eligible for student financial aid
Democratic governor signed bill on Friday
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Cynthia Nixon supporters remind voters ‘what could have been’ amid Cuomo’s scandals
Cynthia Nixon, who ran against Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2018, isn’t exactly telling New Yorkers “I told you so,” but her supporters are — and the actress-turned-politician is coming pretty close herself. Nixon’s political allies began posting taunting photos taken during her campaign on Friday, mere hours after a seventh woman came forward and accused…
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Alabama GOP to Present Framed Resolution to Trump as ‘One of the Greatest and Most Effective’ Presidents
The Alabama GOP will give former President Donald Trump a framed copy of a resolution the party passed unanimously, declaring him to be “one of the greatest and most effective presidents” in the history of the United States. The framed resolution will be presented to Trump in Mar-a-Lago on Saturday evening. “Whereas, President Donald J. Trump was one of the greatest and most effective presidents in the 245-year history of this Republic,” the resolution honoring Trump reads at the start. “President Trump put the American people and the American worker first in all his decisions and policies,” it continues. It then goes on to mention other achievements by the 45th president, such as “Operation Warpspeed,” the largest tax cuts in American history, and withdrawal from the TPP and NAFTA, replacing them with the USMCA. “The resolution, basically, it just talks about the greatness of Donald J. Trump, how he made …
The Nation Speaks (March 13) | White House Gender Policy Council Called Sexist, Racist, Anti-Unity
The White House has just created a Gender Policy Council. Warren Farrell, author of “The Boy Crisis,” calls the council sexist, racist, and anti-unity.
Gov. Newsom admits making mistakes in handling of COVID-19 pandemic
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom acknowledged mistakes in his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, but insists the recall effort against him has more to do with politics than the public health crisis. Newsom made his most direct comments yet about the push to unseat him during an interview Friday with KQED, saying his opponents…
12 Prominent Scientists and Doctors to EU Regulators: Address ‘Urgent’ Safety Concerns or Halt COVID Vaccines
A group of prominent scientists and doctors want the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to answer “urgent” safety questions about the three COVID-19 vaccines authorised for use in the EU, or withdraw the vaccines’ authorisation.
In an open letter published this week, the group questioned “whether cardinal issues regarding the safety of the vaccines were adequately addressed prior to their approval” by the EMA.
The EMA, which is the EU equivalent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, approved three vaccines for emergency use in the EU: the Pfizer-BioNtech, Moderna and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines.
In their letter, 12 scientists and doctors noted a “wide range of side effects” is reported following vaccination of previously healthy younger individuals with the gene-based COVID-19 vaccines.
They wrote:
“Moreover, there have been numerous media reports from around the world of care homes being struck by COVID-19 within days of vaccination of residents. While we recognise that these occurrences might, every one of them, have been unfortunate coincidences, we are concerned that there has been and there continues to be inadequate scrutiny of the possible causes of illness or death under these circumstances, and especially so in the absence of post-mortems examinations.”
In their original letter, sent Feb. 28 via email to the EMA, the group asked the EMA to provide responses to seven safety-related issues within ”seven days and address all our concerns substantively. Should you choose not to comply with this reasonable request, we will make this letter public.”
The authors, led by Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi, professor emeritus of medical microbiology and immunology, and former chair, Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, have not yet received a response from the EMA.
In a written statement Wednesday, the group said:
“Therefore, as a starting point, we believe it is important to enumerate and evaluate all deaths which have occurred within 28 days of vaccination, and to compare the clinical pictures with those who have not been vaccinated.
“More broadly, with respect to the development of COVID-19 vaccines, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has stated in their Resolution 2361, on 27th January 2021, that member states must ensure all COVID-19 vaccines are supported by high quality trials that are sound and conducted in an ethical manner. EMA officials, and other regulatory bodies in EU countries, are bound by these criteria. They should be made aware that they may be violating Resolution 2361 by applying medical products still in phase 3 studies.
“Under Resolution 2361, member states must also inform citizens that vaccination is NOT mandatory and ensure that no one is politically, socially, or otherwise pressured to become vaccinated. States are further required to ensure that no one is discriminated against for not receiving the vaccine.”
Bhakdi also issued this video statement, in which he says, “The time for governments to act, the time for everyone to act, is now:”
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Cuomo’s staffers have stopped going to work and believe he should resign
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Albany offices remain empty of staff, according to reports, as employees look for ways to avoid going to the Capitol amid the sexual harassment allegations.
Bannon’s War Room | Saturday Edition Hour 1| Recorded March 13, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 50 Seconds
Gathering of the China Super Hawks … Part 1 on CCP’s War Against America. “China is working on civilization killers,” he said. “This could leave China as the only viable society.” Our guest are: Frank Gaffney, Rudy Giuliani, Gordon Chang, Kevin Freeman.
Bannon’s War Room | Saturday Edition Hour 2 | Recorded March 13, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 47 Seconds
“China is working on civilization killers,” he said. “This could leave China as the only viable society.” Our guest are: Frank Gaffney, Trevor Loudon, Steve Mosher.
Abuse and Power | Andrew Cuomo’s governorship has been defined by cruelty that disguised chronic mismanagement. Why was that celebrated for so long?
Joel Wertheimer took a job in Andrew Cuomo’s administration in February 2017, straight from his position in Barack Obama’s White House. He came on alongside almost 30 other new hires, many of whom had also worked for the outgoing president or on Hillary Clinton’s campaign and were seeking a progressive professional path through the Trump years. Some saw New York State government as a bulwark against what they feared Trumpism would bring. Others hoped it could be a laboratory for ideas that might become a model for federal policy. . .
. . . One year after he began his star turn as “America’s Governor,” steering his state through COVID via daily, reassuringly matter-of-fact press briefings, Andrew Cuomo’s third term as governor of New York is suddenly deeply imperiled. In January, State Attorney General Letitia James released a report showing that his administration had underreported COVID deaths in nursing homes by as much as 50 percent. In February, liberal State Assembly member Ron Kim, who had criticized the governor in the wake of that report, spoke publicly about how Cuomo called him at home and threatened his career. Then the floodgates opened: His adversary Mayor Bill de Blasio called the bullying “classic Andrew Cuomo”; state legislators Alessandra Biaggi and Yuh-Line Niou began openly suggesting that the governor’s hard-knuckled approach to politics is simply abusive. And since last month, when Cuomo’s former aide and candidate for Manhattan borough president, Lindsey Boylan, published an article on Medium accusing him of sexually harassing and kissing her against her will, five more women have come forward with tales of harassment, objectification, and inappropriate touching. As of publication, dozens of Democratic members of the State Assembly and Senate, and 11 Democratic members of Congress, have called for his resignation.
Schumer, Gillibrand Say Cuomo Should Resign
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) in a statement late Friday called on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign amid mounting allegations of sexual misconduct. “Confronting and overcoming the Covid crisis requires sure and steady leadership. We commend the brave actions of the individuals who have come forward with […]
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