Utah public health officials were warned that allocating COVID drugs based on race violated federal law, but did so anyway with the backing of the Biden administration, emails and documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show.
Utah’s points-based system for prioritizing COVID patients, which allocated more points for being non-white than for having congestive heart failure, troubled two law professors specializing in bioethics. They informed the doctors who designed the system in September 2021 that it was probably illegal.
“The use of non-white race really set off alarm bells,” Teneille Brown, a professor at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law, said in an email.
The “consensus among legal academics,” Brown’s colleague Leslie Francis added, is that a system like Utah’s would “violate federal law.”
This piece is based on materials obtained via a third-party public records request and shared with the Free Beacon.
The doctors Brown and Francis emailed were part of the state’s Crisis Standards of Care workgroup, assembled by the Utah Hospital Association at the behest of the health department. When COVID surged in November 2020, the health department asked the group to develop a system for allocating scarce therapies. The group conceded its approach hadn’t been “reviewed legally.” But, they assured the law professors, it did have the blessing of the Biden administration.
The Department of Health and Human Services “has lauded our approach,” said Mark Shah, the director of Utah’s Disaster Medical Assistance Team and a member of the group. In February 2021, Shah’s colleague Brandon Webb presented the race-based allocation system to HHS, according to power point slides reviewed by the Free Beacon. HHS subsequently listed the system as a “promising practice” for other states to consider.
Such race-conscious policies proliferated throughout the pandemic, sparking both moral outrage and legal scrutiny. Like Utah, Minnesota and New York prioritized non-white residents for moncolonal antibodies. Vermont did the same for vaccines. Some states, including Utah and Minnesota, scrapped their policies in the wake of political backlash—and amid threats of legal action from conservative nonprofits.
The emails suggest Utah was ground zero for many of these schemes. The state initially defended its system by invoking guidance from the Food and Drug Administration, which lists race as a risk factor that can qualify patients for monoclonal antibodies. But according to the emails, it was Utah that inspired that guidance in the first place.
“The FDA reviewed our Utah Risk Score and used it as precedent for including ‘race and other risk factors’ as qualifiers,” Shah told the group in June 2021. Minnesota in turn used that precedent to justify its own allocation system.
The emails reflect the race-conscious consensus that has taken hold of medical bureaucracies across the country. As that consensus has consolidated at every level of government, it has emboldened public health officials to flout anti-discrimination law, which they assume won’t be enforced.
The gap between law and policy widened with the pandemic, which provided an emergency pretext for suspending civil rights. Nondiscrimination, the emails suggest, was seen as an obstacle to crisis management.
“I’d prefer just using the ‘we’re too busy trying to save lives during the surge’ excuse,” Webb, an infectious diseases specialist at Intermountain Healthcare, emailed his colleagues after some back and forth with the law professors.
That utilitarian mindset extended to Utah’s Republican governor Spencer Cox, who in January 2022 told health officials to modify the allocation system, a spokesperson for the governor said—but only after it became clear that the drugs weren’t reaching minorities. The problem wasn’t that the system discriminated by race; it was that the discrimination didn’t work.
“Despite the inclusion of race and ethnicity,” the spokesperson told the Free Beacon, “communities of color did not receive monoclonal antibodies proportionate to their share of COVID-test positives.”
“I’m frankly surprised that this has not yet been subject to a legal challenge,” Webb wrote the law professors. He added that in 2020, the group asked “the Office of Civil Rights” for guidance on the use of race but didn’t receive a response.
It is unclear to which office Webb was referring. A draft copy of the group’s inquiry includes no date or letterhead, and Roger Severino, HHS’s director of civil rights at the time, said it never came across his desk.
“Had this been brought to my attention,” Severino told the Free Beacon, “I would have told them they risked violating Title VI and would have merited my office investigating them had they gone through with such explicit race based rationing.”
Reached for comment, Webb said Shah was the one who sent the inquiry. Shah did not respond to a request for comment.
The group, which developed the system in November 2020, took for granted that all racial minorities should receive special treatment. It borrowed heavily from an allocation system used by the Cleveland Clinic, which prioritized African Americans for monoclonal antibodies. The “only knock” against that system, Webb wrote the group, is that “it only gives disparity weighting to black race rather than recognizing elevated risk associated with other race/ethnicities.”
Utah’s system was based on an analysis of 20,000 COVID patients between March and October 2020. Though some minorities are at higher risk than others, according to the state’s own data, the analysis lumped all of them together, comparing hospitalization rates between “white” and “non-white” Utahns.
The result was a “risk score calculator” that gave “non-white race or Hispanic/Latinx ethnicity” two points—more than it gave hypertension, chronic kidney disease, or shortness of breath. Utahns needed to score a certain number of points to be eligible for monoclonal antibodies.
The calculator was first used by the Intermountain hospital system, which employed many members of the group, including Webb and Shah. By September 2021, it was causing controversy among COVID-stricken patients.
“We have been forced into a defense of the scoring system as now constituents are reaching out to elected leaders asking why they are not eligible,” lamented Kevin McCulley, the Preparedness and Response director for the health department.
As pushback mounted, the department’s main concern was semantic rather than substantive. Officials spent days wordsmithing an online “self-screening tool” based on the calculator, in part to ensure it didn’t run afoul of progressive sensibilities.
“Latinex should have the ‘e’ removed (Latinx),” Matthew Plendl, a member of the health department, said of an early draft.
Some exchanges read like parodies of progressive racecraft, with officials attempting to sort out who would count as “non-white.”
The calculator lets “someone select more than one race category,” noted Jenny Johnson, a member of the health department’s communications team. “Would this mean anyone who marks ONLY White would not meet the criteria? And those who mark at least one race category that is not White does meet the criteria?”
Particularly vexing was the status of Hispanics.
“Someone with a high level of cultural competence should help us wordsmith this,” McCulley wrote his colleagues. “Is your race Non-white or Hispanic/Latinex Ethnicity? I don’t think Hispanic is a race.”
The post Utah Was Warned Racial Rationing of COVID Drugs Was Illegal. It Did It Anyway. appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.
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COVID’s US toll projected to drop sharply by the end of July
But experts also warn that a “substantial increase” in hospitalizations and deaths is possible if unvaccinated people do not follow basic precautions such as wearing a mask and keeping their distance from others.
NEW YORK — Teams of experts are projecting COVID-19’s toll on the U.S. will fall sharply by the end of July, according to research released by the government Wednesday.
But they also warn that a “substantial increase” in hospitalizations and deaths is possible if unvaccinated people do not follow basic precautions such as wearing a mask and keeping their distance from others.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention paper included projections from six research groups. Their assignment was to predict the course of the U.S. epidemic between now and September under different scenarios, depending on how the vaccination drive proceeds and how people behave.
Mainly, it’s good news. Even under scenarios involving disappointing vaccination rates, COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths are expected to drop dramatically by the end of July and continue to fall afterward.
The CDC is now reporting an average of about 350,000 new cases each week, 35,000 hospitalizations and over 4,000 deaths.
Under the most optimistic scenarios considered, by the end of July new weekly national cases could drop below 50,000, hospitalizations to fewer than 1,000, and deaths to between 200 and 300.
Canada authorizes Pfizer vaccine for age 12 and older
Canada is the first country to authorize Pfizer for that age group. The U.S. and the European Union are also reviewing it.
TORONTO — Canadian health officials said Wednesday they have become the first to approve Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for ages as young as 12.
Dr. Supriya Sharma, chief medical adviser at Health Canada, confirmed the decision for ages 12 to 15 and said it will help children return to a normal life. Canada is the first country to authorize Pfizer for that age group. The U.S. and the European Union are also reviewing it.
The vaccine was previously authorized for anyone 16 or older.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is also expected to authorize Pfizer’s vaccine for young people by next week, setting up shots for many before the beginning of the next school year. The announcement comes barely a month after the company found that its shot, which is already authorized for those age 16 and older, also provided protection for the younger group.
Pfizer in late March released preliminary results from a vaccine study of 2,260 U.S. volunteers ages 12 to 15 showing there were no cases of COVID-19 among fully vaccinated adolescents compared with 18 among those given dummy shots.
Sharma said the evidence is there that the vaccine is safe and effective in that age group. It is the first vaccine approved for children in Canada.
Honeywell Fined $13 Million For Exporting Sensitive Information to Countries Including China
Honeywell was fined $13 million for allegedly exporting sensitive data to several countries including China, without obtaining proper authorization, the Department of State announced on Monday. The State Department‘s spokesperson said in a statement that it concluded a settlement with Honeywell International to resolve alleged violations of export rules when the company exported and retransferred technical information without authorization to Canada, China, Ireland, Mexico, and Taiwan. The exported data “contained engineering prints showing dimensions, geometries, and layouts for manufacturing castings and finished parts for multiple aircraft, gas turbine engines, and military electronics,” a department spokesperson said. The violations Honeywell has been charged with occurred within a four-year period and included sending, without permission to foreign companies, technical details of military aircraft such as the Lockheed Martin F-35 and F-22, helicopters, tanks, and Raytheon’s Tomahawk cruise missiles, according to a proposed charging letter sent by the State Department to the company. In 2015, …
Peloton treadmills recalled after a child dies; CEO apologizes for ‘mistake’ in initial response
The recall comes after the safety commission warned last month that people with children or pets to immediately stop using Peloton treadmills and posted a video on YouTube of a child being pulled under the treadmill.
NEW YORK — Peloton is recalling its treadmills after one child died and 29 other children suffered from cuts, broken bones and other injuries from being pulled under the rear of the treadmill.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said Wednesday that Peloton received 72 reports of adults, kids, pets or other items, such as exercise balls, being pulled under the treadmill.
The recall comes after the safety commission warned last month that people with children or pets to immediately stop using Peloton treadmills and posted a video on YouTube of a child being pulled under the treadmill.
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CPSC/Peloton
“The decision to recall both products was the right thing to do for Peloton’s Members and their families. I want to be clear, Peloton made a mistake in our initial response to the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s request that we recall the Tread+. We should have engaged more productively with them from the outset. For that, I apologize,” Peloton CEO John Foley said in a statement.
Peloton is best known for its stationary bikes, but it introduced the treadmill about three years ago and now calls it the Tread+. It costs more than $4,200.
According to a report by USA TODAY, the company and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) on Wednesday jointly announced voluntary recalls of Peloton Tread+ and Tread treadmills, covering about 125,000 and 1,050 units, respectively, in the U.S. “Consumers who have purchased either treadmill should immediately stop using it and contact Peloton for a full refund,” the company and agency said in their joint statement.
Those who own the treadmill can get a full refund from Peloton by Nov. 6, 2022.
British woman murdered in Pakistan after refusing marriage proposals: report
A 24-year-old British law school graduate was reportedly shot dead in Pakistan by four men — two of whom had tried to pressure her into marriage.
The bullet-riddled body of Mayra Zulfiqar, a London resident of Pakistani origin, was found in a pool of blood in her rented apartment in the city of Lahore on Monday, Sky News reported.
She had been shot in the neck and arm, according to an initial post-mortem report cited by the English-language Dawn.
Zulfiqar had traveled to Pakistan to attend a wedding a couple of months ago and decided to remain in the country, according to the outlet.
The young legal eagle’s uncle, Mohammad Nazeer, found her body after receiving a call from her father, who lives in West London, to say she had been killed, the BBC reported.
Left-Wing Media Watchdog Defends Jennifer Granholm’s Wealth After Helping Her Become a Millionaire
Media Matters for America, a left-wing media watchdog, rushed to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm’s defense after the Washington Free Beacon used journalism to expose her financial interest in an electric vehicle company touted by President Joe Biden.
Granholm came under fire earlier this year for raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars from left-wing interest groups before joining the Biden administration. For example, she earned more than $200,000 as an adviser to Media Matters and was paid six-figure sums by the progressive foundation American Bridge and the left-wing media company CNN, where she was a political contributor.
Granholm earned another $170,000 on the public speaking circuit and an additional $114,000 from the University of California Berkeley, where she served as an adjunct professor. On top of that, she reported $1 million in “business income” from Granholm Mulhern Associates, the consulting firm she co-owned with her husband, Dan Mulhern.
Granholm’s controversial financial assets, which include between $1 and 5 million of stock in Proterra, the electric vehicle company Biden promoted in April as part of his push for a $2 trillion infrastructure package, have been the subject of multiple stories in the Free Beacon in recent weeks.
Media Matters defended its former adviser’s wealth in a piece accusing “right-wing media” of inventing a “fake scandal” about Granholm’s ties to Proterra—without specifically refuting any of the points raised in the Free Beacon‘s coverage of the scandal.
In its attempt to defend Granholm, Media Matters conceded that she has yet to offload her seven figures of stock in Proterra. “The [White House] official also said that Granholm was ‘in the process of selling off all stock in the company,’ which would be completed ‘within the 180-day window permitted by the ethics agreement,'” Eric Kleefeld wrote in the liberal outlet.
Buried at the bottom of the Media Matters piece is a kernel of information: “Granholm advised Media Matters prior to entering the administration.” While the piece linked to Granholm’s financial disclosures in its discussions about Proterra, the dark money group failed to mention how much it paid for Granholm’s services—a total of $200,624 in monthly retainers—and its role in helping her become a millionaire.
The post Left-Wing Media Watchdog Defends Jennifer Granholm’s Wealth After Helping Her Become a Millionaire appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.
In Virtual Town Hall, U.S. Army Sought to Convert — and Coerce — Vaccine Skeptics
Earlier this month, the U.S. Army hosted a Facebook live town hall on the topic of concerns about COVID-19 vaccines.
The virtual town hall followed this format:
- Affirm soldiers who took the experimental vaccine or question soldiers who have not yet taken the vaccine.
- Legitimize an Army doctor as a drug expert to counter risks or concerns without citing any references for the information provided.
- Leverage the influence of the Sergeant Major of the Army, the highest ranking non-commissioned officer, to persuade soldiers to risk taking the experimental drug without providing factual informed consent.
This format was designed to not only promote maximum conversion of soldiers to take the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) drug, but also to convince them to persuade their friends and family to do the same.
The overall tone of the town hall was respectful and caring, but the false efficacy claims and risk omissions are indicators of dysfunctional groupthink at best, or cult mentality at worst.
The U.S. Army leadership is persuading soldiers to put blind faith in an EUA drug using miraculous claims even the manufacturers do not make about their products.
The six-person town hall panel consisted of Sergeant Major of the Army (SMA) Michael Grinston; Dr. Steven Cersovsky, science advisor to the U.S. Army Medical Command; three U.S. Army service members; and a moderator.
The one-hour session addressed three main concerns about the COVID vaccine among military members: infertility, variants of the virus and the speed with which the vaccines were developed.
Cersovsky began the town hall with an evangelistic sales pitch for the vaccine beginning with this statement: “The good news is the vaccine is available, there is light at the end of the tunnel and taking the vaccine protects you, protects the community and protects our nation.”
Cersovsky went on to acknowledge concerns about the speed with which the vaccines were developed and the risks that may pose to public safety, but then said, the “only risk to public safety is not getting vaccinated.”
According to Cersovsky, viral salvation can be achieved only by getting the vaccine. He vaguely referred to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and “data” without actually providing any data from the clinical trials or surveillance systems.
The medical ethics of informed consent requires doctors to tell patients the risk of the disease, the known benefits of the medical intervention, the known risks of the intervention and alternatives to the intervention. Cersovsky mentioned none of these.
In the case of the COVID vaccine, informed consent requires doctors inform soldiers of the following:
- Risk of disease: Most people have a 99.9% survival rate for SARS-CoV2, with increased risk of severe disease in elderly populations with co-morbid health conditions. Per the CDC, the most frequent underlying medical conditions were obesity (35.1%), diabetes (8.4%) and pulmonary disease (7.8%).
- Efficacy of Intervention: EUA COVID vaccines did not demonstrate prevention of infection or transmission of the virus in the clinical trials. Symptom prevention is the primary endpoint for the clinical trials. Consent to a COVID vaccine is equivalent to voluntary participation in an ongoing phase 3 clinical trial ending in 2022 or 2023.
- Risks of Intervention: The manufacturers reported a comprehensive list of known adverse reactions in the Moderna COVID-19 EUA Fact Sheet and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 EUA Fact Sheet including severe reactions of anaphylaxis, appendicitis, Bell’s Palsy and death. On April 13, U.S. health officials temporarily suspended the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine over concerns of potential fatal blood clotting disorders. In the event of an adverse reaction, participants are not eligible for compensation because COVID vaccines are shielded from liability under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act of March 2020 as a “countermeasure.”
- Alternatives: There is a research-based meta-analysis of more than 562 studies of effective preventative alternatives including long-term established therapeutics of Ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine and vitamin D.
Coca-Cola Chief Lawyer Who Demanded Race Quotas for Attorneys Resigns, Gets Rehired for $666,666 per Month
Coca-Cola’s chief attorney, responsible for orchestrating a plan to demand race quotas in outside counsel, resigned and was rehired by the CEO on a $666,666 per month salary.
Bradley Gayton resigned last month as general counsel of Coca-Cola. Gayton, in his previous position as chief lawyer for Coca-Cola, was responsible for creating a plan that would place penalties on outside legal counsel if they failed to meet racial diversity quotas when working for the company. Announced in January, Gayton said that all law firms must commit at least 30% of billed time from “diverse attorneys” and at least half of that time from black attorneys.
However, following his resignation, the plan has been put on a temporary pause, with a spokesman for Coca-Cola saying that his replacement, Monica Howard Douglas, will be reviewing the plan. “When there is a leadership change, it takes time for the new leader to review the current status of the team, organization and initiatives,” said Scott Leith. “Monica is fully committed to the notions of equity and diversity in the legal profession, and we fully expect she will take the time necessary to thoughtfully review any plans going forward.”
The “pause” was initially hailed as a victory in the culture war battle over Coca-Cola, with some on the right seemingly under the impression that the much-criticized diversity training program from Coca-Cola, unearthed by Karlyn Borysenko in February, had been cancelled. Action against the diversity quotas regarding outside lawyers seems to have been sparked from an open letter published by the Project on Fair Representation, declaring that Coca-Cola’s “racial quota requirements” were “unlawful,” not any conservative backlash.
Following the pause, much of Gayton’s diversity plan would likely “be salvaged” by Douglas, although the quotas themselves would not likely return. At the time of writing, it is unclear as to what is the current state of Coca-Cola’s diversity training, and general commitment to anti-white policies, but it is unlikely that what appears to be an evasion of potential legal action in one small area is indicative of a wider shift in company policy.
In fact, Gayton remains employed by the company. Despite resigning from his position as chief counsel, he is currently contracted as a legal consultant to Coca-Cola’s CEO, James Quincey. Dayton was hired with a hefty sign-on fee of $4 million, and a monthly consulting fee of $666,666, according to a securities filing from April 21. Coca-Cola also seems likely to continue their anti-conservative attacks on American values across the board. Last month, they joined with a number of other corporations in attacking a piece of election integrity legislation from their home state of Georgia, which critics claimed was designed to stop black voters from accessing the polls.
This Is Only One Of Many Reasons Americans Distrust Doctor Fauci & The CDC | Vaccine Side Effects Americans Tell One Another | Video: 2 Minutes 26 Seconds
After thousands of deaths were reported on the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) by health care professionals, the CDC released a statement claiming there was no evidence of vaccine related deaths. This may be shocking to family members, but what’s more interesting is that Americans are bypassing the CDC and informing each other and their local doctors directly about vaccine issues, such as swollen lymph nodes. “I’m sure it’s, you know, hundreds of thousands of women across the country will be affected by this, for sure.” ~ Dr. Laura Esserman, University of California, San Francisco. Oncologists and breast imaging experts are advising women who have scheduled mammograms to get them before the vaccine or 4 to 8 weeks after they are fully vaccinated to get a clear picture and avoid confusion. Of course, the CDC will probably chalk it up to women and their fits of ‘anxiety‘.
Nashville Police Officer Shot After ‘Setup’ 911 Call Lured Responders Into Ambush
A Nashville police officer was shot Tuesday in what officials described as a “setup” to lure law enforcement to the scene. The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) said in a series of statements that officer Brian Sherman suffered gunshot wounds to his left arm while answering a fake 911 call claiming a woman had been shot at an area home. “That call was a setup to get police to respond,” the MNPD said in a statement. Sherman was taken to the hospital and treated for his wounds, with the MNPD announcing later that he was about to be discharged. The man who shot Sherman was identified as 22-year-old Salman Mohamed. He fatally shot himself in the head with a rifle in the driveway of the home as officers tried to negotiate with him. “No officers fired,” MNPD said in a statement. MNPD spokesman Don Aaron provided more details at a …
Trump/Owens 2024: Candace Owens wants on the ticket, asks Trump ‘Can I be your vice president?’
Conservative firebrand Candace Owens conducted an interview with former President Trump on Tuesday where he teased running for the presidency in 2024 and then she asked him if she could be his vice president.
Trump told Owens in the wide-ranging interview to “stay tuned” when she asked him if he was running in 2024. “As you know, it’s very early,” the former president remarked concerning his potential White House bid during the phone interview with “The Candace Owens Show” for The Daily Wire.
“But I think people are going to be very, very happy when I make a certain announcement,” Trump declared.
He claimed that campaign finance rules are keeping him from making an announcement one way or the other, but he noted: “I look forward to doing an announcement at the right time.”
G-7 Signals Deep Concern Over Alleged China Human-Rights Abuses
Top diplomats from the Group of Seven nations singled out China in a number of ways that will irritate the government in Beijing, from alleged human-rights abuses to its actions on Taiwan and incursions in cyber space.
In a final statement first obtained by Bloomberg, the language used to reproach the Asian nation echoed past communiques but it was the laundry list of concerns that will get under China’s skin, along with the chiding.
“We encourage China, as a major power and economy with advanced technological capability, to participate constructively in the rules-based international system,” the statement said as it singled out in detail the treatment of Uyghur Muslims and pointedly supported Taiwan’s “meaningful participation in World Health Organisation forums.”
Exposed: Government-Sponsored Experiments on Aborted Human Fetuses at the University of Pittsburgh – FETUS TRAFFICKING
Publicly available information demonstrates that Pitt hosts some of the most barbaric experiments carried out on aborted human infants, including scalping 5-month-old aborted fetuses to stitch onto lab rats, exporting fetal kidneys across the country, and killing infants delivered alive for liver harvesting–funded by U.S. taxpayers via the National Institutes of Health, and in particular Dr. Anthony Fauci’s NIAID office.
Local Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania abortion providers supply the aborted fetuses, while Pitt sponsors the local Planned Parenthood’s operations, in what looks like an illegal Quid Pro Quo for fetal body parts, forbidden by 42 U.S. Code 289g-2 and 18 Pennsylvania Statutes 3216. Pennsylvania law also makes it a felony to experiment on a living fetus or to fail to provide immediate medical care to an infant born alive.
Listen to David Daleiden’s interview with Rose Unplugged on WJAS 1320 AM:
.@daviddaleiden SHOCKING: Government-sponsored experiments on aborted human fetuses (grafting skin on to mice) at the University of Pittsburgh – FETUS TRAFFICKING! Here’s what you can do about it; 1. Sign Petition pittexposed dot com
https://t.co/LNU1zcglH5 via @YouTube— roseunplugged (@roseunplugged2) May 5, 2021
Check out Rose Unplugged on WJAS 1320 AM – The Talk of Pittsburgh 1320 AM
An Alarming Number of Young Men and Boys in Myanmar Have Been ‘Disappeared’ by the Military
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Myanmar’s security forces moved in and the street lamps went black. In house after house, people shut off their lights. Darkness swallowed the block. . .
Across the country, Myanmar’s security forces are arresting and forcibly disappearing thousands of people, especially boys and young men, in a sweeping bid to break the back of a three-month uprising against a military takeover. In most cases, the families of those taken do not know where they are, according to an Associated Press analysis of more than 3,500 arrests since February.
May 5, 2021 | Nightly News Rebroadcast | Video: 54 Minutes 35 Seconds
Judge Tosses Eviction Moratorium; Biden Blocks Rule on Gig Workers; Expert on Bill Gates’ Divorce. Former President Donald Trump won’t be posting on Facebook any time soon and now has his own platform, Trump allies start a new group to protect election integrity, and Arizona parents form their own school board.
‘From the Desk of’: Trump unveils online platform, upstages impending ruling on Facebook access
s a review board ponders Donald Trump’s future access to Facebook, the former president launched “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump,” a new platform via which he can reach his followers directly, bypassing the social media sites that heavily restricted and, ultimately, excluded his voice from their networks.
How does the most famous tweeter in the world feel about his current relationship with social media? According to some of his closest advisers, he’s thrilled with the reach of his daily media releases and looking forward to increased communication with his supporters, regardless of Wednesday’s expected decision by a Facebook oversight board about whether to restore his access to the platform.
“His press releases have been getting an extraordinary amount of news coverage and attention,” said Stephen Miller, former senior adviser to Trump.
Since leaving office, Trump has taken to sending out brief email releases through his Save America PAC. One to two, sometimes three or four, emails a day are standard, each offering a quick glimpse into what the 45th president is thinking about. This week, commentary has revolved primarily around the intraparty split between his own grassroots MAGA wing of the GOP, and a Washington wing represented by Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney.
“From the Desk of Donald J. Trump” is accessible through the former president’s website and appears to be, for now, a consolidated distribution hub for the former president to post his daily releases. The page allows his followers to share Trump posts to their own Twitter and Facebook pages and, according to Fox News, appears to be supported by Campaign Nucleus, the digital software firm created by former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale.
Republicans: Break Up Big Tech After Facebook Board Upholds Trump Ban
Congressional Republicans on Wednesday, upset with the decision by Facebook’s Oversight Board to uphold the company’s ban of former President Donald Trump, said they’d work to curb the technology giant’s power.
“Break them up,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said in reaction to the decision.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said the decision was “a real life example of the tyranny of Big Tech” before echoing Jordan.
Republicans have increasingly turned critical of technology giants like Facebook, as more and more evidence emerges showing bias against conservatives.
“Facebook is more interested in acting like a Democrat Super PAC than a platform for free speech and open debate. If they can ban President Trump, all conservative voices could be next. A House Republican majority will rein in big tech power over our speech,” House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said on Wednesday.
Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) called for “aggressive antitrust reform” to end what he described as Facebook’s monopoly.
Trump Endorses Elise Stefanik to Replace Liz Cheney in House GOP Leadership
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) speaks before President Donald Trump signs the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act at Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield at Fort Drum, N.Y., on Aug. 13, 2018. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) should assume the position in the House Republican leadership that Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) currently holds, former President Donald Trump said on Wednesday.
Trump in a statement called Cheney “a warmongering fool who has no business in Republican Party Leadership.”
“We want leaders who believe in the Make America Great Again movement, and prioritize the values of America First. Elise Stefanik is a far superior choice, and she has my COMPLETE and TOTAL endorsement for GOP Conference Chair. Elise is a tough and smart communicator!” he added.
Stefanik responded on Twitter.
“Thank you President Trump for your 100% support for House GOP Conference Chair. We are unified and focused on FIRING PELOSI & WINNING in 2022!” she wrote, referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 1 | Recorded May 5, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 38 Seconds
Episode 923 – Big Tech’s Peon Cyborgs … (w/ Jeff Brain, Joe Allen). “People are already in some sense becoming cyborgs in you’re having this digital device make its decisions for you,” he said. Guests are: Jeff Brain, Joe Allen.
UNEARTHED: 1619 Project Founder Praised Cuba’s ‘Socialist’ Accomplishments, Counts Education As ‘Cornerstone Of Revolution.’
1619 Project founder Nikole Hannah-Jones insisted that “education is the cornerstone of the revolution” in an unearthed article offering praise for Cuba’s Communist revolution resulting in the “end of codified racism.”
The New York Times writer visited Cuba in 2008 on a reporting fellowship, penning a piece entitled “The Cuba We Don’t Know” upon her return. Published in The Oregonian, the article sets out to dismantle the narrative about the Communist country that “come from the U.S. government”: “Cuba is poor. Cuba is communist. Cuba violates human rights and represses dissent.”
The objective is similar to that of the ahistorical 1619 Project metastasizing through U.S. classrooms: challenging the narrative that the U.S. was founded in 1776 and insisting the country’s motives for revolution evolved solely out of a desire to protect slavery.
“Education is the cornerstone of the revolution,” Jones asserts before offering praise for the communist country’s education and health care system, alleging many see the latter as a “world model.”
“It manifests in what Cuba has accomplished, through socialism and despite poverty, that the United States hasn’t,” she writes before quoting a professor who insists “The U.S. cannot forgive us for having this revolution. All 50 years of the revolution have not been for nothing.”
Mexican agencies won’t help US topple drug cartels, senior DEA official says
U.S. operations targeting drug cartel activity in Mexico have fallen flat since the country’s law enforcement and military agencies have been reluctant to collaborate, NPR reported Monday.
A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) official said the situation is a threat to national health and security because the cartels operate without fear of Mexican law enforcement, according to NPR. Cartels are using illegal labs in Mexico to make methamphetamines and fentanyl, then smuggling the narcotics into the U.S.
Fauci Admits CDC Guidelines For Kids To Wear Masks Outdoors In 90-Degree Weather May Not Be ‘Sensible’
Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted Wednesday that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines for children’s summer camps are not “sensible.”
Fauci agreed with Good Morning America co-host Savannah Guthrie, who said, “The science doesn’t suggest those CDC guidelines are too sensible. For little kids outside in 90-degree heat, running around with masks?”
“Yeah, Savannah. You’ve asked me that question a couple of times before,” Fauci responded.
Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 2 | Recorded May 5, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 40 Seconds
Episode 924 – Trust Busting the Aristocracy … (w/ Josh Hawley, Rudy Giuliani, Matthew S. DePerno). Josh Hawley reacts to Facebook’s “oversight” board keeping its ban on President Trump. Sen. Hawley says the only solution is a time-honored one: trust busting. Guests are: Josh Hawley, Rudy Giuliani, Matthew S. DePerno.
Facebook Declares Donald Trump will Stay Banned from the Platform … But Only for Six Months?
As you read this and other articles about Facebook’s Oversight Board upholding Trump’s permanent ban, I want you to keep reminding yourself of one thing. Republicans could have done something about Facebook and its fellow Big Tech cronies when Trump was president AND Republicans led the Senate. Remember that.
Yes, news broke today that the Facebook Oversight Board ruled Donald Trump will STAY permanently banned on Facebook. However, with a “but.” You see, the Facebook Oversight Board ruled that Facebook didn’t follow Facebook’s rules when banning Donald Trump. The Facebook Oversight Board is giving Facebook six months to review Facebook’s response.
It was not appropriate for Facebook to impose the indeterminate and standardless penalty of indefinite suspension. Facebook’s normal penalties include removing the violating content, imposing a time-bound period of suspension, or permanently disabling the page and account.
The Board insists that Facebook review this matter to determine and justify a proportionate response that is consistent with the rules that are applied to other users of its platform. Facebook must complete its review of this matter within six months of the date of this decision.
Seriously. Grow a set of testicles and just say Donald Trump is permanently banned. Because this “ruling” is insulting to Trump’s intelligence, our intelligence, and the intelligence of anyone marginally intelligent.
Facebook Oversight Board Upholds Suspension of Donald Trump’s Account
Facebook’s decision to ban former President Donald Trump was upheld by Facebook’s oversight board on Wednesday.
“Trump’s posts during the Capitol riot severely violated Facebook’s rules and encouraged and legitimized violence,” the board said in a statement.
The two posts in question included Trump, who was president at the time, saying on Jan. 6 that his supporters were “very special.”
The posts “violated Facebook’s rules prohibiting praise or support of people engaged in violence,” the board said in its decision.
Trump spokesman Jason Miller said in a tweet that Trump would be issuing a statement shortly.
The board also found that Facebook inappropriately termed the suspension “indefinite.”
“It is not permissible for Facebook to keep a user off the platform for an undefined period, with no criteria for when or whether the account will be restored,” the board said, adding that Facebook did not follow clear, published procedures that outline either suspending an account for a certain period of time or permanently.
“In applying a vague, standardless penalty and then referring this case to the Board to resolve, Facebook seeks to avoid its responsibilities. The Board declines Facebook’s request and insists that Facebook apply and justify a defined penalty,” the board said.
Trump Allies Launch Nonprofit Focused on Election Fraud
Allies of former President Donald Trump have launched a new initiative focused on election fraud, according to a news release. Called the Election Integrity Alliance, the nonprofit will be focused on “ending election fraud and strengthening election safeguards by providing information, resources, endorsements of allies’ efforts, and solutions to secure free and fair elections,” the news release said. Trump counsel Jenna Ellis, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, former Trump adviser Peter Navarro, former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik, former White House adviser Sebastian Gorka, constitutional law professor Michael Donnelly, and former Trump lawyer Mirna Tarraf will be part of the group. “The Election Integrity Alliance’s National Board is comprised of individuals who have fought for election integrity at great personal risk and who are champions for free and fair elections,” the organization said in a statement. The American Greatness Fund was founded by former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale, and it is part of …
Bannon’s War Room | Evening Edition | Recorded May 5, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 59 Seconds
Episode 925 – Collusion Hoax in the Heartland … Scandals Plague Soros Prosecutors in Arizona. Plus, Solomon reveals the damning evidence against George Soros-funded prosecutor Kimberly Gardner in Missouri and her witch hunt against Eric Greitens. Guests are: Anna Paulina Luna, John Solomon, Cindy Chafian.
Pfizer anticipates seeking emergency use authorization in September for kids 2 to 11 to take vaccine
fizer anticipates applying in September for an emergency use authorization allowing youth ages 2 through 11 to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
The company expects this month to seek full approval for giving the vaccine to people ages 16 and up, according to CEO Albert Bourla’s prepared remarks for an earnings conference call.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to soon approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for kids ages 12 to 15.
CA Officials Request Big Tech Censorship
Many continue to argue that Big Tech corporations, as private companies, have a right to censor content on their platforms, but what if that decision were made by the government? As a bombshell Judicial Watch investigation reveals, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook were directly pressured by California state officials to remove election-related content posted by private individuals, including Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
Content including a Judicial Watch video which discussed the watchdog’s successful L.A. County voter roll clean-up case was removed by YouTube at “the behest of government officials,” Fitton noted Friday. “They [California state officials] targeted me because they didn’t want any criticism … so we have a government official working with Big Tech to take down a critic of the government.”
The documents show that CA state officials also made false claims to support the removal of Judicial Watch. “I know what I can and can’t say,” Fitton continued. “I know when I have to be accurate, which is all the time when I’m making public statements.”
Fitton has described these activities as being a “violation of your Constitutional rights under the First Amendment … they knew what they were doing was a problem.”
If you’re concerned about the violation of your First Amendment rights online and elsewhere, support Judicial Watch today.
Antifa Goon Jumps on Elderly Man’s Car, Quickly Discovers How Gravity and Horsepower Work
America’s Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed an anti-riot bill into law. DeSantis saw the Summer of Riots last year and said, “Nope, not in Florida.” The most “controversial” provision — controversial only if you’re a progressive assclown — was that if a rioter blocks traffic and you as a motorist feel your life is in danger, you’re free to say “all gas, no brakes” and gun it. Sure, the legislative text uses bigger words, but that’s the gist. It’s in response to all the leftist chuckleheads who picked fights with cars, forcing the cars (and one horse trailer) to fight back.
American Medical Association CEO Calls Laws Banning Kids Trans Surgeries ‘Dangerous Governmental Intrusion’
The American Medical Association urged governors Monday to take a stand against laws banning transgender surgeries and procedures for minors.
American Medical Association (AMA) CEO James Madara sent an open letter to the National Governors Association Monday calling laws banning transgender surgeries for minors “a dangerous governmental intrusion into the practice of medicine,” noting that transgender and nonbinary gender identities “are normal variations of human identity and expression,” according to NBC News.
“As with all medical interventions, physicians are guided by their ethical duty to act in the best interest of their patients and must tailor recommendations about specific interventions and the timing of those interventions to each patient’s unique circumstances,” Madara wrote, the publication reported.
“Such decisions must be sensitive to the child’s clinical situation, nurture the child’s short and long-term development, and balance the need to preserve the child’s opportunity to make important life choices autonomously in the future,” he continued.
At least 16 states have taken action to ban doctors from performing transgender surgeries and procedures on minors, the Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported. Arkansas became the first state to ban the surgeries when the state’s legislature voted to override Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s veto of the “Save Adolescents From Experimentation Act.”
Americans Are Finding It Increasingly Difficult To Take The Media Seriously | AP Uses Poll To Accuse Americans Of Their Own Failures
In the a recent AP article, “What do Americans want from journalism?” Lauren Easton states, “A new study by the Media Insight Project . . . survey of 2,700 people finds that most Americans do not share key journalism values of transparency, holding the powerful to account, giving voice to the voiceless, and spotlighting problems.”
Lest we forget, it was the “paper of record’, the New York Times, that knowingly hired a self-described hack for Hilary Clinton and the powerful.
Politico’s Glenn Thrush, who was exposed in WikiLeaks emails sending stories to Hillary Clinton staffers before publication, will be joining the New York Times to cover the White House, The Huffington Post reported Monday.
“We’re thrilled that Glenn Thrush is joining The Times,” Elisabeth Bumiller, The New York Times’ Washington bureau chief, told The Huffington Post. “He’s a premier political journalist, a master of breaking news and long-form story telling and a stellar addition to our White House team.”
While Bumiller described Thrush as a “premier political journalist,” in one email to Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta, Thrush chose to describe himself as a “hack.”
“No worries Because I have become a hack I will send u the whole section that pertains to u,” Thrush wrote to Podesta in an April 2015 email. “Please don’t share or tell anyone I did this Tell me if I fucked up anything.”
Record-low U.S. birth rate fell another 4% in 2020, CDC says
2020 was a grueling year, but at least the number of Americans born into it was lower than it had been in more than four decades.
A total of 3,604,201 babies were born last year in the United States, Puerto Rico and the Northern Marianas, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s 4% lower than in 2019 and the sixth year in a row that the number of births declined.
In fact, the figure is so low that you have to go all the way back to 1979 to beat it. Back then, the U.S. population was 224,567,241, according to the Census Bureau. On Dec. 31, 2020, it was 330,034,257.
To consider the number of births relative to the size the population, demographers use a statistic called the general fertility rate. It compares the number of live births with the number of females between the ages of 15 and 44, who are considered to be of childbearing age.
Vaccine info site: CENSORED
The following is a news analysis.
The highly-regarded National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) says it has been de-platformed by Facebook and Instagram, as those working in the interest of the pharmaceutical industry further clamp down on open online access to important medical information.
Rational thinking and freedom of speech about vaccination and public health laws is no longer tolerated online.
Barbara Loe Fisher, National Vaccine Information Center
Though NVIC is neither “pro-” nor “anti-” vaccine, the group is a target because it provides reputable scientific information to parents and medical professionals about vaccine safety concerns, from individual “lots” of vaccines that are recalled by the manufacturer or prove problematic; to peer-reviewed, published studies related to vaccine safety issues.
Exclusive— Andrew Wilkow: ‘Woke Left’ Makes ‘Pearl-Clutching Conservatives from the 80s Look Like Cardi B’
Today’s “woke left” has replaced “pearl-clutching conservatives from the 80s” as the new champions of censorship, Andrew Wilkow, host of SiriusXM’s the Wilkow Majority and BlazeTV’s Wilkow, said on Tuesday.
20 years ago ‘Freddy Got Fingered’ Disgusted the Nation — Has Its Time Arrived?
Do you remember Freddy Got Fingered? Think 2001, a TV trailer with sausages on strings and Tom Green mashing a keyboard, liltingly singing, “Daddy would you like some sausage?” Rotten Tomatoes: 11%. Winner of 5 Golden Raspberry Awards. Zero out of four stars from Roger Ebert. . .
In Freddy, Green plays Gord Brodie, an aspiring cartoonist with a decent sense of visual design and an awful personality. Leaving his hometown of Portland, Oregon, to pursue an animation career in L.A., he lands a menial job at a cheese-sandwich factory, but he soon melts down and abruptly ends up back at home with Mom and Dad. Gord’s father, Jim (an animalistic Rip Torn), crashes Gord through walls and destroys home and property in a series of slapstick sketches, as Gord hones his artistic skills and enters a bizarre and uncomfortable romantic relationship with Betty, a wheelchair-bound amateur rocket scientist (Marisa Coughlan) who enjoys having her paralyzed legs whacked with a bamboo stick as foreplay. In a moment of petty spite during a family counseling session, Gord falsely accuses his father of molesting his brother, the unfortunate Freddy, ruining his father’s name and condemning his 25-year-old sibling to confinement in the Institute for Sexually Molested Children. Enraged with his eldest son’s malevolence and frivolity, Jim smashes down the door to Gord’s room and tears up his drawings.
Broken, Gord abandons his aspirations and gets a job at a sandwich shop, his earlier factory experience a resume booster. While working, he sees Betty on a TV news segment: she has invented a rocket-powered wheelchair. Inspired, Gord doubles down on his animation efforts, selling a cartoon based on his family’s baroque dysfunction to an animation studio. Enthralled with the neanderthal brutality of the Jim character, the studio cuts Gord a $1 million check and commissions a show. The third act rockets off the rails, with Gord squandering his new fortune on jewels, helicopter rides, and airlifting a portion of his parents’ house, complete with tranquilized father, to Pakistan. This impresses Jim with its scope and expense, leading to an understanding between father and son after several more vulgar sketches and misadventures in the Pakistani underworld.
VV Archive
The Worst of Both Worlds — Genetically Engineered Goats to Produce New Vaccine
By Dr. Mercola
Goats are being genetically engineered to become “pharm animals” that carry vaccines in their milk.
Current experiments being conducted by researchers from Texas A&M are geared toward producing an “edible” malaria vaccine, with the ultimate goal being that children drinking the milk will become vaccinated in the process.
While claiming that bioengineered animals could be “life-savers” for people in third-world countries, the researchers ignore the glaring issue that such biotechnology often produces unknown, and unintended, health consequences that prove tragic for individuals and the environment.
House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy Says Liz Cheney Leadership Ouster Likely Before the End of The Month – Perhaps Tucker Carlson Attacks on McCarthy Are Connected
If you are into the political weeds, specifically the Machiavellian aspects to the deepest political weeds, there’s an interesting article in The Hill today with quotes from people very close to GOP House Leader Kevin McCarthy.
Essentially, the nub of it is that GOP Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney is about to get removed from her leadership position due to her continued antagonism of the MAGA supporters and President Trump.
After Cheney’s latest round of attacks against Trump and his supporters McCarthy is no longer going to defend Cheney from a frustrated republican caucus ready to get rid of her.
Cheney is likely to be voted out of leadership by the end of the month, depending on the timing of the next GOP conference assembly.
WASHINGTON – Top allies of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) are vowing to oust Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), one of the harshest critics of former President Trump in either party, from her leadership post by the end of the month.
Bill Gates hires Warren Buffett’s right-hand man as his lawyer in split from wife Melinda
Bill hires Warren Buffett’s 97-year-old lawyer pal in $130billion split from Melinda: Gates enlists help of ‘the broadest thinker he’s ever encountered’ as it’s revealed there’s no prenup and 27-year marriage is ‘irretrievably broken’.
- Bill Gates, 65, announced on Twitter on Monday that he and his 56-year-old wife Melinda are divorcing
- He has hired Charles T. Munger, a 97-year-old L.A.-based business lawyer and philanthropist
- Both of them worked at Berkshire Hathaway; Gates served on the board until May 2020, Munger is a VP there
- Munger is not a family lawyer – his expertise is in business, real estate and investing
- In the 1950s, he lost all his money to his first wife, Nancy; he recovered to become a billionaire
- Melinda described her marriage as ‘irretrievably broken’ in a divorce petition viewed by DailyMail.com
- The petition revealed the couple did not sign a prenuptial agreement when they wed in 1994
- Gates was already a billionaire; he founded Microsoft in 1975 and made his first billion in 1987
- Since then they amassed a combined net worth of $130billion and raised three children together
- Their eldest daughter Jennifer, 25, responded to the news on Instagram and revealed the family has been going through a ‘challenging stretch of time’