Dirksen Federal Courthouse, 219 S. Dearborn St. | Rich Hein/Sun-Times
Federal prosecutors have made the rare move of seeking dismissal of a three-year-old drug indictment following testimony from a former Drug Enforcement Administration supervisor who said drugs in Chicago are “typically trafficked by Latino people.”
The comments seemed to stun defense attorneys and catch the attention of U.S. District Judge John Blakey, who on Friday agreed to toss charges pending since 2019 against Leonel Hernandez-Rodriguez, Feliberto Flores-Ramos, Charlie Dotson and Francisco Carranza-Rosales.
The unusual move came more than a month after Keith Billiot, who is now retired but worked as a supervisory special agent for the DEA, testified about his role in the case during a March evidentiary hearing. He later walked back his comment following intense cross-examination, telling the judge race was “irrelevant” to the DEA’s work.
Billiot explained during the hearing what had led him to believe Flores-Ramos and Dotson had been involved in a drug deal Jan. 31, 2019. After naming other factors, including the behavior of the suspects, Billiot went further, according to a court transcript.
“In the city of Chicago for the five-and-a-half years that I worked here, typically — not always, but typically it is people of Latino descent are the ones that are supplying people of African American descent or Caucasians, or whatever,” Billiot said, according to the transcript. “But it’s the — the fact of the matter is that the drugs come up from Mexico or come in from Colombia but they come through Latino countries into the cities throughout the U.S. and therefore they’re typically trafficked by Latino people. So all of that, when you put all of that together, it indicated a narcotics transaction to me.”
Defense attorneys in the case — Thomas Anthony Durkin, Gal Pissetzky, Michael Leonard and Robert Rascia — all moved to strike Billiot’s testimony. Blakey said he’d strike the comment about race and added, “I’m going to permit vigorous cross examination on the issue, so fire away.”
Billiot could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Joseph Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney John Lausch, said that, “after reviewing the matter internally, we decided that moving to dismiss the indictment was the best course of action in this case.”
A criminal complaint in the case said law enforcement saw Flores-Ramos leave a home in the 6500 block of South Kenneth the afternoon of Jan. 31, 2019, holding his hand against the left side of his jacket in a way that suggested he was hiding something.
It said Flores-Ramos then got in a Dodge Caliber and traveled to 63rd and Kilbourn while investigators followed. The Dodge parked behind a white Buick sedan, Flores-Ramos got out and climbed into the Buick’s passenger seat with his hand still pressed against his jacket, according to the complaint.
Dotson was allegedly in the Buick’s driver’s seat.
Investigators soon drove toward the Buick and parked next to it, records show. After ordering Dotson and Flores-Ramos out of the car, authorities said they spotted an open bag filled with what turned out to be $34,000 cash on the front passenger floorboard. The feds also said a closed backpack in the back seat later turned out to contain a kilogram of cocaine.
The other defendants were found at the home on South Kenneth, where the feds say they also found eight kilograms of cocaine and $600,000 cash in a dishwasher.
Flores-Ramos admitted after his arrest that he’d gone to sell cocaine to Dotson, according to the complaint.
Still, during the March hearing, Billiot found himself defending his comments about the ethnicity of typical drug suppliers in Chicago. He noted he’d also pointed out other key factors in the investigation.
“So it was not the mere fact — and to be quite honest with you, I’m offended by the whole racism thing,” Billiot told Durkin. “It was not the fact that a Latino person met with a Black person. Absolutely not. Is that clear enough, sir, please? Can we get beyond that please?”
“I started with the probable cause that we developed upon your client and went all the way through the chain of events, sir,” Billiot continued. “That’s including the car, the car is running, the lights are off. Why would that be, sir? So I painted the picture of the entire probable cause that we saw, all the — the things that we saw. We didn’t generate those things. The client — the defendants here did but I simply testified as to what we saw. There is no racism involved in this.”
Blakey also questioned him about the comment, asking whether the ethnicity of the defendants played any role in his decision-making.
“It’s irrelevant,” Billiot eventually told the judge. “Someone’s ethnicity — the clearest way for me to say this is someone’s ethnicity is irrelevant to us in all respects.”
But Billiot pushed back once more against Durkin, telling the defense attorney, “this inference of racism is so phony.”
“You know nothing about me,” Billiot said. “Nothing. For you to infer that I’m a racist, I’m the godfather of an African-American child. She is — she is the daughter of a police officer and soldier who is one of my closest friends.
“There is nothing racist about what we do or how we do it. Nothing.”
Skip The Scoop | Seek Understanding
Close to half of Americans can’t afford a one-bedroom rental: report
Home is where the rent’s affordable which, for many Americans, is an increasingly thin portion of the housing market.
New data from the National Low Income Housing Coalition has revealed the depressing reality that close to half of the American workforce does not make enough money to rent a one-bedroom apartment.
The situation has been made significantly worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, during which US rents rose while many Americans fell behind on rent payments.
The problem is a huge threat to national happiness and well-being, researchers believe.
“The kind of tight budgets that especially low-income renters face when they’re cost-burdened can lead to serious harms,” National Low Income Housing Coalition research analyst Daniel Threet told the Guardian.
In order to afford a one-bedroom rental, the new data reported, workers must earn approximately $20.40 an hour, where the median US wage is only $21 an hour — and the federal minimum wage is only $7.25 an hour. . . .
Social Media’s Threat to Religious Freedom
Carl Trueman is a distinguished scholar, bestselling author and ordained Presbyterian minister. On Aug. 7 he gave a series of talks to the Sacramento Gospel Conference, live-streamed on the YouTube channel of Immanuel Baptist Church. Twice during the event, the live broadcast was booted off the air. Viewers were informed that the first interruption was due to a copyright violation, possibly the result of Christian music that the conference organizers played during a break. But in the second, more mysterious instance, Mr. Trueman’s presentation went dark because of a “content violation.”
Was this an intervention by a human being or an algorithm on automatic pilot? Neither Mr. Trueman nor Immanuel Baptist has been told. Equally unclear is the specific nature of the alleged content violation. Nothing in Mr. Trueman’s talks encouraged hatred, vulgarity or violence. On the contrary, he offered a thoughtful analysis of American cultural attitudes toward sex through the lens of classic Christian thought, citing sources from Freud to the philosophers Rousseau and Charles Taylor.
Mr. Trueman is understandably worried that religious speech is being censored online. So are many other religious believers. And for good reason: We sense that the First Amendment guarantee of religious liberty is being dismantled, and with it the profound contributions that religion makes to American unity and self-government.
Today’s sexual politics function as a new kind of fundamentalism, one that presents a deep problem to a diverse and democratic society. Instead of encouraging the dialogue of democratic process, the fundamentalists seek to impose their own rigid certitude unilaterally. On matters ranging from foster care and education to gender ideology and the family, this new fundamentalism is displacing the moral convictions that once grounded U.S. culture. The result isn’t a more compassionate and liberal society; it’s a more punitive one.
Social Media enables the new fundamentalism, enforced by the mysterious rules of Big Tech’s quasimonopoly. On public sidewalks, the First Amendment still theoretically protects free speech. In the new public square of the internet, power displaces liberty and conscience.
Lies, Lies and More Lies To Create Covid-19 Fear For Power and Money | The Texas Tribune ‘Corrects’ It’s Claim That 5,800 Children Hospitalized In 7 Days
Correction, Aug. 12, 2021: An earlier version of this story overstated the number of children who have been hospitalized in Texas recently with COVID-19. The story said over 5,800 children had been hospitalized during a seven-day period in August, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number correctly referred to children hospitalized with COVID-19 since the pandemic began. In actuality, 783 children were admitted to Texas hospitals with COVID-19 between July 1 and Aug. 9 of this year. Texas children and children’s hospitals are under siege from two viruses: RSV and COVID-19
Minneapolis GOP campaign manager, PAC founder allegedly sex trafficked minors
Federal authorities on Thursday arrested a Minneapolis-based GOP strategist and PAC founder on allegations of sex trafficking minors, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported.
The FBI arrested Anton “Tony” Lazzaro on Thursday on numerous charges, including conspiring with others to recruit minors to engage in sexual acts.
According to the indictment, Authorities seized Lazzaro’s possessions including his 2010 Ferrari, property at a downtown hotel, $371,240 in cash, and multiple electronic devices, according to the Star-Tribune.
Federal authorities said they could not estimate the ages or genders of the victims in the case, sharing that more victims could be identified as the investigation continues. . . .
Chicago Cardinal Pushes for Mandatory Coronavirus Vaccines
Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich has been applying “tremendous pressure” on the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) to withdraw its support for conscientious objection to receiving a coronavirus vaccine, the Catholic News Agency (CNA) reported Wednesday.
On condition of anonymity, one NCBC board member said Cupich has been “leaning hard” on board members, both bishops and laypersons, to throw their support behind a vaccine mandate.
In early July, the NCBC declared it “does not endorse mandated COVID-19 [Chinese coronavirus] immunization,” referencing a 2020 instruction from the Vatican’s doctrinal office (CDF) that “vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and that, therefore, it must be voluntary.”
“The National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) does not endorse mandated COVID-19 immunization with any of the three vaccines that have received Emergency Use Authorization as of July 1, 2021,” the statement read.
“The most authoritative guidance from the Catholic Church issued on this topic comes from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) and emphasizes that individuals must discern whether to be vaccinated or not in conscience and without coercion,” it added.
“The short answer is we don’t have a moral obligation” to get the vaccine, Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Naumann told Catholic News Service (CNS) in an interview last February, but it is “permissible to use these vaccines.”
In order for a particular vaccine to be morally mandatory, a number of conditions must exist, including the irrefutable lethality of the disease, proven effectiveness of the vaccine as well as its guaranteed safety for recipients, and an absence of moral objections to the vaccine itself and its provenance.
None of these conditions have been definitively met in the case of the coronavirus and the various vaccines created to defend against it.
Hassan Mahmood on how the mindsets of successful people differ from others
A follow-up to the conclusion of a certain laid down action is called winning. So many people lie in the category of always postponing and putting things on hold. Once you are a victim of procrastinating, it is hard to get yourself to see it fully done. You lose a lot of trust in people and end up becoming unreliable. Hassan Mahmood has shared his insights on the mindset of a winner in this article. No other person can give you the conviction that you need from yourself. This means you have to maintain positive thoughts and ideas in your mind. Once you have created this for yourself, it is easy to regard yourself highly. Secondly, you need to put down your ideas either in your diary, plan book or as a reminder. This majorly helps you keep track of what is required to be done.
Now that you have created a positive environment in your mind, keeping track of things that need to be done, you need to work on your discipline. Be focused enough to meet the deadlines of the said plans and targets. If you have to do it overnight, do it. Once you see your plans getting to be done and you are following up to see that you have done them in the right way, you get some ray of hope and trust yourself more. This creates patterns for yourself, people around you, investors, family, colleagues start relying on you. A winner is a reliable game-changer that is disciplined enough and gets things done. The simple change in you winning in a month, creating this pattern to work for you throughout the whole year, changes your life forever.
A winner is a person that has a pattern of meeting up to fulfill his dreams. This is what Hassan Mahmood believes is how the mind of a winner operates. . . .
Fintech CEO Sentenced to 6 Years in Prison for COVID-19 Relief Loan Fraud, Investment Fraud
Audrey Strauss, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced on Wednesday in a statement, that Sheng-Wen Cheng, a CEO of a financial technology company has been sentenced to 6 years in prison for fraudulently obtaining $7 million in government loans intended to provide relief during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as for securities fraud.
Cheng, a/k/a “Justin Cheng” or “Justin Jung” applied in 2020 to the Small Business Administration (SBA) and other financial institutions under other people’s names for a total of over $7 million of government-guaranteed loans designed for small business owners impacted by lockdowns and restrictions due to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party virus pandemic.
To mitigate the financial difficulties suffered by businesses, Congress passed a $2.2 trillion rescue package also known as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), which provided loans for business owners to use for paying their workers and keeping them employed during lockdowns, among other benefits.
These loans had attractive features such as forgiveness of up to eight weeks of payroll based on employee retention and salary levels, no SBA fees, and their repayment could be deferred for a period of six months to a year. However, the amount of granted loans was determined by the number of workers employed by the business and their payroll cost.
In order to receive this type of loan, Cheng, 24 of New York City, who controlled several Fintech companies provided falsified information claiming that other individuals were the sole owners of his companies, the statement said. He also stated in loan applications that his companies employed together over 200 workers to whom he paid in total about $1.5 million in wages per month. To prove that, Cheng submitted falsified tax records that had not been filed with the IRS and payroll records with forged signatures.
All of Cheng’s companies employed a total of no more than 14 employees, the statement said. His false payroll records included names of celebrities, athletes, artists, and public figures, such as a co-anchor of a TV show, a former football player, or a deceased coach.
With the funds obtained through defrauding his lenders, Cheng purchased luxury goods or services for his personal use such as renting and furnishing a luxury condominium instead of directing them to cover payroll costs, mortgage interest, rent, or utilities of his companies as required by the CARES Act, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
In addition to misusing COVID-19 relief loans, Cheng committed investment fraud between 2017 and 2019, the statement said. . . .
Horatio Sanz groomed, sexually assaulted underage fan at ‘SNL’ party: lawsuit
Comedian Horatio Sanz allegedly groomed and sexually assaulted an underage superfan at a “Saturday Night Live” party — as cast members looked the other way, the woman claims in a lawsuit filed Thursday.
The unnamed Pennsylvania woman, who was 17 at the time, was running an “SNL” fan site in May 2002 when Sanz allegedly took her on a limo ride, then “digitally penetrated her genitals” at a post-show bash, according to the lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.
The girl first met Sanz at age 15 — when he was 31 years old — in 2000 after he invited her to a taping of the sketch comedy show, according to the lawsuit, which names the actor and SNL Studios as defendants.
The next year, he summoned her to several after-show parties, where he allowed her to drink, touched her inappropriately and told her “to sit on his lap,” according to the lawsuit. . . .
How the woke takeover of child services endangers abused kids
Just to be clear: There were adults who cared about Julissia Batties. Yet their care couldn’t overcome the illogic of a child-welfare machine that returned her to an abusive family environment that this week ended her life: Julissia’s half-brother allegedly beat the 7-year-old to death for taking snacks from the kitchen, an attack subsequently covered up by her own mother.
Her grandmother for years had cared for Julissia. There were city Administration for Children’s Services caseworkers who tried to keep her away from her abusive mother and siblings, even going to the highest courts in the state to keep her safe. There were even concerned neighbors who repeatedly called authorities when they saw what was happening.
The story of Julissia Batties isn’t a story of hidden child abuse, of what goes on behind closed doors. It is the story of a system that favors placing children with their biological parents no matter what the danger, then delays action until it is too late.
Julissia had been taken from her mother at birth. Little wonder, since the mother had lost custody of her four older children in 2013 over safety concerns. A family-court judge initially granted her mother custody — God only knows why — but ACS lawyers appealed the decision and won. . . .
Ex-Chicago police officer gets year in prison for taking bribes in exchange for crash report details
Kevin Tate pleaded guilty to a bribery conspiracy in September 2019, admitting he took “not less than $10,000” from Richard Burton, who ran National Attorney Referral Service.
An ex-Chicago police officer who admitted taking thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for early access to the names of people involved in traffic accidents was sentenced Thursday to a year in federal prison.
Kevin Tate pleaded guilty to a bribery conspiracy in September 2019, admitting he took “not less than $10,000” from Richard Burton, who ran National Attorney Referral Service, while giving Burton details from 25 to 100 crash reports per month from 2015 until 2017.
U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle handed down Tate’s sentence.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrianna Kastanek in a court memo last spring sought a sentence of as many as three years for Tate. She wrote that Tate’s crime was serious not because of the crash reports, “but in the significance of a police officer accepting a bribe in exchange for providing a member of the public with access to information intended, at that time, only for police use.”
“In this context, it was traffic reports,” Kastanek wrote. “In another context, it could have been other sensitive information whose disclosure could risk public or private safety. In exchange for private financial gain (and a relatively small amount of gain) [Tate] compromised his integrity, and public trust in police officers.”
Todd Pugh, one of Tate’s defense attorneys, wrote in a separate memo that punishment has already been leveled toward Tate through the loss of his job, the “unrepairable damage to his professional reputation, and the shame of ignoring the oath he took as a Chicago Police officer to uphold the law.”
Pugh wrote that Tate was fired following his guilty plea.
Tate began his career as a Chicago police officer in 2005 and was repeatedly recognized by the department, Pugh wrote, including when he received a Life Saving Award for rescuing two children from a burning apartment building.
Burton, who pleaded guilty in June 2019 to a bribery conspiracy, has yet to be sentenced, records show. A second officer caught up in the scheme but charged separately, Milot Cadichon, was sentenced in November 2019 to 18 months in prison.
Federal prison records show Cadichon was released from custody in June.
VIDEO: New Yorkers Celebrate Cuomo Resignation, Tell DeBlasio ‘We Coming For You Next, We On Yo Ass Boy’
Video footage from the New York City video street show Sidetalk shows attendees at a “Bye Bye Cuomo” event celebrating the departure of beleaguered ex-governor Andrew Cuomo, trashing him for his unpopular lockdown and mask mandates and proclaiming “You’re next DeBlasio, you’re f***ing next.”
“That Cuomo n***a said we couldn’t be outside like s**t,” one blue-haired woman yelled into the camera. “Where we at? Outside!” The crowd then burst into raucous applause. A man wearing a “Gays For Trump” shirt yelled “Rot in hell, you son of a bitch” into the camera when asked what message he would send to Cuomo.
Bye Bye Cuomo pic.twitter.com/kkzgk9vuGB
— Sidetalk (@sidetalknyc) August 11, 2021
Other highlights include one man screaming “Cuomo you put pineapple on yo pizza and you get no p***y,” and another exclaiming, “You’re next DeBlasio, you’re f***ing next, we on yo ass boy, we on yo ass boy.” Another man screamed even louder, “Cuomo, you thought you’d get away with this s**t, when I see you, I’m gonna grab you by yo f****in’ neck.”
The crowd also cheered on a man wearing a Donald Trump costume with a black wave cap, and chanted in unison, “Cuomo get no p***y, Cuomo get no p***y,” an accusation which seemed strange given that the embattled former governor faced accusations of using his position of power to touch women sexually.
As National File previously reported last week, Democrat President Joe Biden got into a heated exchange with a CNN reporter when questioned over his effusive praise for Cuomo:
“Can I quickly follow up on your comment on Governor Cuomo?” Collins demanded during a presser on Tuesday. “Can you really say he has done ‘a hell of a job’ if he’s accused of sexually harassing women on the job?”
“Look, you’re asking two different questions,” Biden shot back. “Now, I asked the substantive – should he remain as governor is one question. And women should be believed when they make accusations that are on the face of them if they make sense, and investigate them, and if they’re investigated and the judgement was made that what they said was correct. That’s one thing. The question is, did he do a good job on infrastructure? That was the question. He did.”
“The question was how he did as a governor,” Collins snapped. “He was accused of sexually harassing.” She then asked Biden to if he could separate Cuomo’s policies from his personal conduct, to which Biden replied, “No, I’m not, I’m trying to answer a specific question. I was asked a specific question. What do you want to ask me specifically?”
Andrew Cuomo’s brother Chris was confronted about the family scandal on Wednesday while leaving his yacht.
WHO Scientist Says Chinese Pressured Investigation Team to Drop Lab-Leak Theory
“Follow the science,” right? Probably not the best advice when the science is tainted because of pressure from a Communist government to manipulate the conclusion.
The WHO sent a team of “blue-ribbon experts” to China in order to investigate the origins of COVID-19. The investigation is vital to discovering how the coronavirus responsible for the disease made the leap from infecting animals to infecting humans. Knowing which animal was responsible could lead to better treatments for COVID, more effective vaccines, and perhaps clues to how we can stop the next pandemic from starting.
The WHO team went to China because that’s where the first cases of COVID-19 appeared. But from the beginning of the team’s investigation, the Chinese Communist government put roadblocks in the way of the WHO’s efforts to uncover as much information about the virus as possible.
The Chinese delayed visas so that the team was several months late in assembling in China. The team was not given access to early patients or their histories. Reports about the research were lost or the team was denied access.
After solemnly telling the world they would cooperate fully, the Chinese stonewalled the effort.
Now a new Danish documentary on the man who headed up the team, Peter Ben Embarek, and the WHO team’s efforts has revealed the not-very-startling information that the Chinese government directly interfered in the writing of the final report. . . .
COVID-19, The Color Revolution, The Intelligence Branch and Over a Decade of Test Nudges
It has been almost ten years since CTH first outlined the 1984 interview between Yuri Bezmenov and G. Edward Griffin titled “Deception was My Job”. [2013 CTH Article Here] However, it is worth revisiting the interview as we find ourselves increasingly influenced by a deliberate effort to control U.S. society.
Mr. Yuri Bezmenov was a Soviet informant and KGB operative who defected to the United States in the early 70s. Within the interview [full video here], Bezmenov lays out the four stages of “ideological subversion” created by radical Marxists to indoctrinate and weaken nations from within.
It is my contention the Chicago Marxists aligned with Barack Obama (revolutionary communists) were/are following this ‘four stage’ roadmap. The U.S. State Department is filled with like-minded travelers who align with this approach.
Some researchers have identified the objective as connected to the Fabian Socialist goal, others have called it “The Color Revolution”, but the names do not matter much; what matters is the map they follow, the four stages:
♦Stage One: Demoralization – Elimination of American Exceptionalism, fundamental change of national identity, structural deconstruction of foundational principles, elimination of religion. Embedding a new societal design upon the psyche of generations through ideological academia. Peer pressure by elites upon academics and society to convince that prior values were inherently flawed, racist, prejudiced etc. National identity is diluted with aspersions toward historical references. National history is re-written, re-defined, and molded to fit the new intended behavioral model and create the new values.
♦Stage Two: Crisis – Creation of economic, financial, and national security crisis. Also includes social crisis and breakdown of previous self-evident restrictions on moral behavior. Cloward Piven approach to overloading the system, ie more takers than producers. The crisis produces benevolent leaders who will promise to deliver “things” (Hope and Change) to meet people’s needs through Social and Economic Justice. False illusions that the situation is under control if certain strategic directions are followed (Bailouts, Stimulus, Jobs Bills, Regulations of industry, Unconstitutional Power Grabs, Dismissal of Historical Laws, Changes in legislative processes, Changes in checks and balances of power etc).
♦Stage Three: Normalization – The uncomfortable feelings of change including losses of freedom are absorbed and accepted. Lost national identity becomes accepted as the norm within the new societal model. A period of national rebranding transition where people are so overwhelmed by the change they become numb and begin to accept a ‘new normal’. This period of normalization lasts indefinitely as the progression is continually advanced and acceptance takes place in small controlled doses. (New limits on behavior, Regulations, TSA Patdowns, Intrusions into privacy, Controls into daily life) These things begin to be accepted as “just the way it is now”..
♦Stage Four: Destabilization – Unlike the period of “Crisis” the people who helped orchestrate the change are now no longer needed. The new overarching centralized governmental model begins to take control. Leftist usurpers who initially thought they were going to be part of the new power structure begin to realize they were used and manipulated and they themselves become the new enemy. Because they have first hand knowledge of the agenda they are the primary target for elimination. They may simply be disregarded, obfuscated, thrown out, or they may be collected, imprisoned, or worse killed. There is no longer room for dissention. Dissent is only possible within the free system that has now been deconstructed. Therefore the leftist purpose is served once the destabilization is complete. Totalitarian Government takes control.
ICE Freezes Enforcement for Crime Victims
Meng Wanzhou Part of a ‘Coordinated Plan’ to Mislead HSBC: Lawyer
Huawei senior executive Meng Wanzhou’s actions were part of a “coordinated plan” that exposed international bank HSBC to risks of economic prejudice, penalties, and losses, said a lawyer for Canada’s attorney general.
Robert Frater told the British Columbia Supreme Court that HSBC was entitled to make decisions about providing financial services based on “honest and forthright information,” but that opportunity was denied by Meng, whose “artful” presentation to the bank in 2013 omitted critical information about Huawei’s control over Skycom, a company that sold computer equipment in Iran.
Frater said the omission put the bank at risk of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, and therefore amounted to fraud.
“The fact that other Huawei employees made similar representations to other banks shows in our submission a coordinated plan of reassurance of lenders, with Ms. Meng as an integral part of that plan of reassurance,” Frater said.
Meng and Huawei have denied all allegations of misleading HSBC. . . .
The number of white people in America has declined for the first time since 1790
The number of white people in the United States has dropped for the first time since 1790, according to new data from the 2020 Census.
Data from the 2020 count of people living in America shows that the country has become substantially more ethnically diverse, particularly in the under-18 category. Additionally, the country’s population grew 7.4% in the last ten years, a slower rate than any decade since the 1930s.
The numbers indicate that growth in the American population for the last decade has been driven by minority populations. While whites still make up a little less than 58% of the American population, that figure dropped below 60% for the first time since the census-taking began.
The share of the white population was 63.7% in 2010, and is now 57.8%, the lowest on record. The actual number of non-Hispanic whites fell as well, shrinking from 196 million in 2010 to 191 million in 2020.
The director of race, ethnicity and outreach – Nicholas Jones – at the Population Division of the Census Bureau said, “The U.S. population is much more multiracial and much more racially and ethnically diverse than we measured in the past.”
In more than half of American counties, more people died than were born during the last decade. Small counties – with populations of fewer than 50,000 – on average, lost population. Counties with populations greater than 100,000 mostly added to their numbers. . . .
Head’s Up: This US House Bill Would Require You be Vaccinated to Fly
Here’s the setup. Last night a friend of mine, who currently lives in the fascist state of Washington but is visiting her family in Texas, and I went out for barbecue. Duh. We dined in a packed local joint I will totally go to again. Not a single mask in sight. We discussed how lovely it was to live life normally. Like human beings. I commented I didn’t miss the insanity of Washington State. She is trying to find property in Texas so she might also escape the insanity of Washington State. During this discussion over brisket and fried pickles (a beautiful combination), she alerted me to a bill recently introduced to the House which would mandate people flying in the United States be vaccinated. Before you say “but that’ll never happen” go read some news. Any news will do.
House Resolution 4980 introduced by New York Democrat Ritchie Torres:
H.R.4980 – To direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to ensure that any individual traveling on a flight that departs from or arrives to an airport inside the United States or a territory of the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and for other purposes.
What in the actual hell does “and for other purposes” mean?
This roughly translates to anyone flying within the United States (intra-nationally), and anyone coming into or departing the United States (internationally). Basically anyone in America who flies. That happens to include a crap ton of people, myself included. A lot of folks like to take the tact “well it doesn’t affect me, so I’ll continue sitting on my ass clicking the dislike button and doing nothing more.” Including, sadly, many people in the conservative audience. AKA some of you. I know that’s the case, because I read comments. Things like “that would never happen here” when we bring you news about COVID bullshit in far away lands. I get it, what’s happening in France and Australia are “over there” problems. And you, an American, think you have freedom.
You only have freedom if you do something to protect it. Which doesn’t include being apathetic and thinking it won’t happen here because “but the Constitution” and/or “but my guns.” Democrats employ the Constitution as a dry wipe for their crap holes. So if you think our founding documents will protect you from Democrats, wake up and stop being an idiot. Also, a lot of so-called conservatives would likely surrender their guns if the government asked them to. Pardon me if I don’t have a lot of faith in strangers on the internet who are brave with the typing.
Now, this bill has only been introduced. It’s not been voted on, nor has text for it been submitted. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take this threat seriously when we have the likes of Tony Fauci MD dropping deuces all over your freedom, and a president who’s been more than happy to do the same. There are plenty of people, both on the left and the right, who seem eager to surrender their freedoms in order to feel a little safer. Including mandating any form of a vaccine passport.
Don’t let this happen. Don’t let this bill see the light of day. Don’t let others like it see the light of day. Don’t you dare say shit like “well I just won’t fly.” What makes you think if they get this passed, there won’t be a requirement to provide proof of vaccination to renew your driver’s license? Or to enter a grocery store?
https://t.co/9yJf2feVv4
— Gina Carano 🕯 (@ginacarano)
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NY Supreme Court Sides With Project Veritas, Allows Group To Depose The New York Times
The New York Supreme Court sided with Project Veritas in a ruling Thursday, meaning the organization will be allowed to depose the New York Times.
The New York Times was sued last November over their coverage of a Veritas video that alleged people connected to Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar were involved in illegal ballot harvesting. The lawsuit pertained to two stories in the Times, one by Maggie Astor and another by Tiffany Hsu, that characterized Veritas’ video as “deceptive” and said it was likely part of a “coordinated disinformation campaign,” The Hill reported.
The court dismissed the Times’ initial motion to dismiss the case, a decision that the paper appealed. The Times asked the court to issue a stay to prevent Project Veritas from deposing the Times until the appeal was resolved, which could take years. (RELATED: Project Veritas Sues Oregon To Allow Undercover Reporting)
“Here, having failed to convince the Court that [Project Veritas’] case should be dismissed, [The New York Times] also failed to demonstrate the extraordinary justification required for the imposition of the drastic remedy of a stay pending appeal,” the court said in their opinion, which was posted on Project Veritas’ Instagram account.
Facebook to build $800M data center in metro Phoenix
Facebook announced Thursday that it will invest $800 million to build a data center in Mesa, Ariz., the company’s first in the state.
The facility, which will operate largely by solar power, is set to be completed in about two years and will house routers, switches, servers, storage systems and other equipment, according to the Arizona Republic.
In addition, Facebook said the new building will use 60 percent less water than the average data center, according to The Associated Press.
A spokesperson for the tech giant, Melanie Roe said that construction is starting now and will last a couple of years, according to the Republic. The facility, when fully functioning, will employ culinary staff, engineers, security and technicians among other workers.
Rachel Petersen, Facebook’s vice president of infrastructure, said the social media platform selected Mesa to house the new data center based on available talent, infrastructure, renewable energy development and support from state and local authorities. In a study by Business Facilities, Phoenix ranked third among U.S. cities for data centers, behind Northern Virginia and Chicago.
Mesa is just outside of Phoenix. . . .
University Vaccine Mandate Stays as Justice Barrett Rebuffs Plea
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett turned away a challenge to Indiana University’s requirement that all students be vaccinated against Covid-19 for the fall semester unless they have a religious or medical exemption.
Giving no explanation, Barrett on Thursday summarily denied a request to block the vaccine mandate from eight students who said their constitutional rights were being violated.
The case marked the first time the nation’s highest court has acted on a vaccine mandate. It comes as universities and employers across the country are moving to require Covid inoculations in an effort to stem the rapid spread of the Delta variant.
Barrett, the justice who takes the first look at emergency matters from Indiana, acted alone and chose not to refer the request to the full nine-member court. She denied the request without asking the university to file a response.
The Vaccinated Are Making The World Sick, According To The CDC | “Outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 Infections, Including COVID-19 Vaccine Breakthrough Infections, Associated with Large Public Gatherings — Barnstable County, Massachusetts, July 2021”
In July 2021, following multiple large public events in a Barnstable County, Massachusetts, town, 469 COVID-19 cases were identified among Massachusetts residents who had traveled to the town during July 3–17; 346 (74%) occurred in fully vaccinated persons. . . .
[ CDC ]
To The Dismay Of Main Stream Media, They Now Admit Covid Vaccination Does Not Prevent The Spread Of Covid | “Vaccinated People With Breakthrough Infections Can Spread The Delta Variant, CDC Says” | NPR
When revising its mask guidance this week to urge even vaccinated people to wear masks indoors in much of the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was criticized for not citing data in making that move.
Now it has — and the data is sobering.
The study details a COVID-19 outbreak that started July 3 in Provincetown, Mass., involving 469 cases. It found that three-quarters of cases occurred in fully vaccinated people. Massachusetts has a high rate of vaccination: about 69% among eligible adults in the state at the time of the study. . . .
Rand Paul on NIH chief’s mask-at-home remark: How can smart people ‘say such stupid things?’
Sen. Rand Paul ripped National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins after he suggested Tuesday that parents should mask up while at home to protect their unvaccinated children from contracting the new Delta variant of COVID-19.
“How can people who are so smart say such stupid things? There is no science to defend putting your kids in masks or parents wearing masks—no science whatsoever. If there were, we would be wearing masks for years and years because for kids, the death rate is about the same as the seasonal flu,” Paul told Fox News.
“It may be less than the seasonal flu. So, is Francis Collins proposing that because the flu is with us forever that parents should be wearing masks around their kids that have the flu? It is absolutely and utterly without scientific evidence!” Paul, a Kentucky Republican and an opthalmologist, continued. . .
Boston Mayor Indicates Opposition to Vaccine Passports, Comparing Them to Slave Papers
Boston’s acting mayor appeared on Aug. 3 to voice her opposition to requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination, suggesting that so-called vaccine passports would disproportionately affect minorities.
“We want to make sure that we are giving every opportunity for folks to get vaccinated. When it comes to what businesses may choose to do, we know that those types of things are difficult to enforce when it comes to vaccine,” Acting Mayor Kim Janey, a Democrat, told reporters in a gaggle.
“There’s a long history in this country of people needing to show their papers. During slavery, post-slavery, as recent as—you know what immigrant population has to go through here. We heard [former President Donald] Trump with the birth certificate nonsense. Here we want to make sure that we are not doing anything that would further create a barrier for residents of Boston or disproportionally impact BIPOC communities.”
BIPOC stands for black, indigenous, and people of color.
Janey said the government wants to work closely with community organizations to make sure of broad access to the vaccines and that she backs employers who want to encourage their workers to get vaccinated.
The comments drew some pushback from rivals who are competing in the mayoral race.
Anthony Fauci Suggests Delta Variant Cases May Double, ‘Even If We Vaccinated Everyone Today’
Anthony Fauci suggested Wednesday the delta variant of Coronavirus cases “may double in the coming weeks to 200,000 cases a day,” according to an interview with McClachy. “Remember, just a couple of months ago, we were having about 10,000 cases a day,” he said. “I think you’re likely going to wind up somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 cases … We’re now dealing with, really, a different virus … Even if we vaccinated everyone today, we’re not going to see an effect until the middle to end of September.”
Coronavirus Spreading Among the Vaccinated in Highly Vaccinated Countries
A recent study published by King’s College in London, which operates the ZOE COVID Study app to monitor COVID infection and vaccination rates, found that, as of July 15, 2021, there was an average of 15,537 new daily symptomatic cases COVID-19 among partly or fully vaccinated people in the United Kingdom—an increase of 40 percent from the previous week’s total of 11,084 new cases.1,2
Infections in Vaccinated People in U.K. Are Outpacing Infections in the Unvaccinated
The Zoe COVID Study, led by epidemiologist Tim Spector, MD, of Kings College in London, estimated that there were 17,581 new daily symptomatic cases of COVID-19 in unvaccinated people, or 22 percent less than the previous week’s total of 22,638 new cases.
According to a press release issued by the study’s authors, “With cases in the vaccinated group continuing to rise, the number of new cases in the vaccinated population is set to overtake the unvaccinated in the coming days.”3,4
On July 17, the U.K.’s Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, announced he had tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus despite having received two doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford University’s experimental AZD1222 COVID vaccine on Mar. 17 and May 16.5 In a message posted on Twitter, Javid wrote:
“This morning I tested positive for COVID. I’m waiting for my PCR result, but thankfully I have had my jabs and symptoms are mild.”6
With a population of more than 66 million people, two-thirds of adults in the U.K. have received COVID-19 vaccine, representing a total of 82,592,996 vaccinations as of July 20. Some 46,349,709 Britons have received the first dose and 36,243,287 have gotten the second dose. The country is not vaccinating children.7
The U.K. is among the most highly vaccinated countries in the world, but it is experiencing a third wave of coronavirus infections reportedly largely due to the spread of the Delta variant of the virus.8,9 Other highly vaccinated countries like Israel are also experiencing a new wave of coronavirus infections due to the Delta variant.
Most Infections in Israel Are Among Vaccinated People
In Israel, about 60 percent of the country’s population of 9.3 million has received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine. About 85 percent of adults in Israel have been vaccinated. Yet most of the new coronavirus infections are occurring in vaccinated people.10
In early-July, former Health Minister Chezy Levy, MD confirmed that “55 percent of the newly infected [people in Israel] had been vaccinated.”11
There has also been a concerning rise in the number of vaccinated people in Israel being hospitalized. An article in The Jerusalem Post last week noted that the Israeli Health Ministry reported 124 people had been hospitalized for COVID-19 on July 20 and that 65 percent of them were fully vaccinated. Of the 124 people, 62 were in serious condition and 70% of those patients were fully vaccinated.12
Earlier this month, the Health Ministry estimated that the Pfizer/BioNTech’s BNT162b2 COVID biologic was only 64 percent effective in preventing symptomatic infections of COVID-19, specifically those caused by the Delta variant. But the effectiveness rate for Pfizer’s experimental COVID vaccine in preventing infection (and transmission) could be lower.13
“We do not know exactly to what degree the vaccine helps, but it is significantly less,” said Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.14
Infections in Chile, Seychelles and Mongolia Mostly in Vaccinated People
Another example of a highly vaccinated country which has been experiencing a new outbreak of coronavirus infections mostly among its vaccinated population is Chile. Of the thousands of new coronavirus cases being reported daily in that country, 80 percent of them are in vaccinated people. Chile has fully vaccinated 55 percent of its population.15
The examples of the U.K., Israel and Chile, as well as other highly vaccinated countries like the Seychelles and Mongolia experiencing coronavirus infections mostly within the vaccinated segments of their populations pose a dilemma.16 The governments of these countries have to decide if the problem is that not enough of their people have been vaccinated, or that the vaccines are simply not as effective as initially assumed they would be.
Could Vaccinations Be Causing Rise in Infections?
There is also a third possible problem which was raised by French virologist and Nobel laureate Luc Montagnier, MD in May 2021. In an interview with Pierre Barnérias of Hold-Up Media, Dr. Montagnier said he believed that the mass vaccination programs for COVID may actually be causing SARS-CoV-2 mutations like the Delta variant and, thus, prolonging the pandemic.17
Dr. Montagnier explained that in each country that undertakes a mass vaccination campaign, “the curve of vaccinations is followed by the curve of deaths.” He said that the COVID vaccines create antibodies that force the virus to “find another solution” or “die,” adding that it is the variants that “are a production and result from the vaccination.”18
Dr. Montagnier’s views are admittedly controversial. The thought that vaccinations may actually be exacerbating the COVID pandemic is perhaps too difficult a concept for government officials to consider. But this possibility should not be dismissed outright.
One of the best explanations of this dynamic was given by Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) in a 2011 interview when she described the evolution of pertussis bacteria to evade the vaccines:
“[E]very life form wants to live, wants to survive. Universal principle. And viruses and bacteria are no exception. And when you put a pressure on a virus or bacteria that’s circulating, with the use of a vaccine that contains a lab-altered form of that virus or bacteria, it doesn’t seem that it would be illogical to understand that that organism is going to fight to survive, it’s going to find a way to adapt in order to survive.”19
Lockdown-Critical Academics Get ‘Canceled’ | Video: 4 Minutes 05 Seconds
Some academics say they’ve experienced a form of cancel culture, including censorship on social media and even losing their job. NTD spoke with a health expert in Belgium who was labeled an “anti-vaxxer” and then got fired.
Bosnia’s Peace Envoy Imposes Jail Terms for Genocide Denial
BELGRADE—Bosnia’s outgoing international peace overseer decreed amendments to its criminal code on Friday to allow jail terms for the denial of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, a frequently expressed view among nationalist Serbs.
The decree by High Representative Valentin Inzko sets jail terms of up to five years for anyone who “publicly condones, denies, grossly trivializes or tries to justify” the genocide or war crimes committed during Bosnia’s 1992–95 conflict.
In July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces seized the UN-protected enclave of Srebrenica in the country’s east and killed about 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys they took prisoner.
It was the worst atrocity in Europe since World War Two and was judged an act of genocide by two international courts.
Inzko, whose 12 years in office ended on Aug. 1 when he will be replaced by Germany’s Christian Schmidt, can impose laws and fire officials under the 1995 peace treaty that divided Bosnia into Bosniak-Croat and Serb entities.
“Genocide in Srebrenica, war crimes, and crimes against humanity … must not be forgotten or denied,” his decree read.
It was hailed by top Bosniak politicians and condemned by Bosnian Serbs. . . .
Most Pro Athletes Shun Role of ’Public Spokesperson’ on COVID Vaccines
Santa Clara County, where the San Francisco 49ers train and play their NFL home games, has one of the highest COVID vaccination rates in California. As of July 11, more than 76% of its vaccine-eligible residents were fully vaccinated, partly because the county and the 49ers franchise turned Levi’s Stadium into a mass inoculation site where more than 350,000 doses were administered over four months.
The 49ers themselves, however, are not so enthusiastic about the shots. In June, head coach Kyle Shanahan said only 53 of the 91 athletes on the team roster — 58% — were fully vaccinated. The team has issued no updates since.
It’s a familiar story in the world of professional sports. Despite resources that other industries can only dream of, most pro leagues in the U.S. are struggling to get their teams’ COVID-19 vaccination rates to 85%, a threshold considered high enough to protect the locker room or clubhouse from spread of the disease. Only the Women’s National Basketball Association, at 99%, can boast a highly successful campaign to educate and vaccinate its players.
And while the public might expect sports figures, and the rich leagues they play for, to help rally the national vaccination effort, that’s not happening. Although the leagues and unions have advocated for players to get the shots, the industry clearly regards vaccination as a personal decision — not a responsibility.
“It’s everyone’s choice whether they want to get vaccinated or not,” Sam Darnold, the Carolina Panthers’ quarterback and a former USC star, said in June when revealing that he had not gotten a shot. “For me, I’m staying by myself right now. I don’t have a family or anything like that. There’s a ton of different things that go into it.”
Comments like Darnold’s and those of Buffalo Bills receiver Cole Beasley, who tweeted a long rant casting the COVID vaccines as a threat to “my way of living and my values,” have dominated news cycles. Meanwhile, the leagues themselves, whose overall vaccination numbers outpace those of the country at large, pad around the topic carefully.
Tell Schools/Universities No Vaccine Mandates for Children/Young Adults!
“Push? No. Encourage,” said Tony Clark, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, when asked at an MLB All-Star Game news conference about the union’s position on player vaccination. “We’ve encouraged from the beginning.”
And most players have shunned the role of public health spokesperson, making the pro-vaccination campaign a largely faceless one. Few have publicly endorsed vaccination or acknowledged receiving shots, even though the league’s numbers suggest large majorities are vaccinated. Most don’t want to discuss it.
In May, NBA superstar LeBron James pointedly refused to answer questions about whether he’d been vaccinated, saying, “Anything of that nature is all family talk.” Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Shaq Barrett said he and his wife had received vaccines, but as for encouraging teammates, “it’s to each their own. I don’t know why people wouldn’t get it, but whatever makes you comfortable, whatever helps you sleep at night, you do that.”
Zachary Binney, a sports epidemiologist at Emory University in Atlanta, believes pro athletes aren’t that different from the rest of us when it comes to vaccines: “A lot of them are vaccinated. A lot of them are willing to become vaccinated. Some of them have concerns. And some of them just are not going to do it — and they are never going to do it.”
In fact, most of the teams are doing well by overall U.S. standards. More than 70% of NFL and NBA players are at least partially vaccinated, according to reports. That puts both leagues’ rates higher than they are for young U.S. adults as a whole. . . .
Deadly drug-resistant ‘superbug’ now spreading in 2 cities, CDC says
More than 100 patients at a US nursing home and two hospitals have been infected with an untreatable fungus, including three victims who died, federal officials say.
The ongoing outbreaks of the drug-resistant “superbug,” Candida auris, at a Washington, DC, nursing home and two Dallas, Texas-area hospitals were reported by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday.
It appears that the drug-resistant strain, which brings fever and chills, spread from patient to patient for the first time in the US. Earlier cases diagnosed in New York in 2019 were also resistant to the drugs, but nothing indicated those patients had passed the bug to each other.
The harmful form of yeast was first identified in 2009 in Asia before spreading worldwide, according to a CDC fact sheet.
The 123 cases at the two Dallas-area hospitals and a nursing home in DC were identified from January to April. Three of the five patients who did not respond to treatment died, including two in Texas and one in DC, according to CDC officials.
Additional infections have also been identified since April, but those figures were not included in Thursday’s release. . . .
Big Ten will let individual schools decide on COVID-19 protocols
“Our schools are finalizing their proposed policies and procedures for the fall,” Commissioner Kevin Warren said at Big Ten football media days.
Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren said the conference will take take a “decentralized” approach to COVID-19 protocols by allowing each school to put in place its own plan.
“Our schools are finalizing their proposed policies and procedures for the fall,” Warren said at Big Ten football media days at Lucas Oil Stadium. “We’ll get that information in early August, we’ll combine it, and then we’ll get together with our chancellors and presidents and other key constituents to make the determination as far as how we handle the fall.”
Warren also said there has been no determination on whether games would be forfeited — as has been suggested by the Southeastern Conference and Big 12 — if teams cannot play because of COVID-19 issues.
Last season, the Big Ten at first called off its fall football season because of the pandemic before reversing course and deciding instead to start in late October.
The late start left no room for games to be made up and numerous Big Ten games were canceled because of COVID-19 left teams short players.
Warren said the conference plans to hire a chief medical officer before football season starts.
Preseason All-Big Ten
The preseason all-Big Ten team released Thursday includes three Ohio State players among 10 players selected by a media panel.
Offensive left tackle Thayer Munford and wide receivers Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson are cornerstones for a Buckeyes program that has won four consecutive conference titles and qualified for the College Football Playoff the past two years.
Each were 2020 first-team All-Big Ten selections.
Olave returns for his senior year with 87 receptions for 1,435 yards and 19 touchdowns in three seasons. In two seasons, Wilson has 73 receptions for 1,155 yards and 11 TDs.
Other East Division players honored were Indiana quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and Penn State wide receiver Jahan Dotson.
The West Division players include Minnesota running back Mohamed Ibrahim, Northwestern safety Brandon Joseph, Iowa center Tyler Linderbaum, Purdue wide receiver David Bell and Wisconsin linebacker Jack Sanborn. Ibrahim and Joseph were first-team All-Big Ten last season.
Ibrahim rushed for 1,076 yards and 15 TDs on 201 carries as a junior. The scores rank fourth for a single season in school history.
Advisor Alvarez
Former Wisconsin athletic director and coach Barry Alvarez is joining the Big Ten as the special adviser for football.
Alvarez retired from Wisconsin after the past 18 years as AD and 16 seasons previously as coach of the Badgers. Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren announced Alvarez would be joining the conference, starting Aug. 2.
“I trust Barry Alvarez implicitly,” Warren said. “He means everything to this conference.”
Alvarez will work with Warren on College Football Playoff expansion, television and bowl contracts, scheduling, and player health and safety.
Alvarez led the Badgers to three Big Ten titles and three Rose Bowl victories as a head coach and went 119-74-4.
Warren also said Wisconsin Chancellor Rebecca Blank will replace Northwestern President Morton Schapiro as chairperson of the Big Ten Council of President and Chancellors. . . .
U.S. businesses and municipalities weigh vaccine mandates as N.Y.C.’s mayor calls for companies to require shots.
Mayor Bill de Blasio urged on Friday that New York City’s private businesses require their workers to get vaccinated against the coronavirus and signaled that he would introduce similar measures for hundreds of thousands of municipal employees.
The mayor’s comments came just days after he announced that all employees in the public hospital system would have to either receive a virus vaccine or submit to weekly testing.
The highly contagious Delta variant has fueled outbreaks among the unvaccinated across the United States and in recent days many local governments and private organizations have been grappling with whether to put vaccination mandates in place. Several organizations — including various hospital systems, schools, the city of San Francisco and professional football — have taken steps to require vaccinations.
The mayor’s new position reflected growing concern that New York, like much of the United States, is on the verge of another wave of the pandemic. In just a few weeks, case counts in the city have tripled, to more than 650 a day on average, while inoculation rates have leveled off.
“If people want freedom, if people want jobs, if people want to live again, we have got to get more people vaccinated,” Mr. de Blasio said on Friday during a weekly radio appearance on WNYC. “And obviously it’s time for whatever mandates we can achieve.” . . .
Female artist-scientist is named a finalist for one of the eight seats on SpaceX flight to the moon
Female artist-scientist is named a finalist for one of the eight seats a Japanese businessman purchased and is giving away for SpaceX’s first civilian mission to the moon in 2023
- Dr Tracy Fanara has been named a finalist of Project dearMoon
- She is now in the running for a week-long mission around the moon in 2023
- Fanara is an engineer and research scientists who is now the Coastal Modeling manager for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- She also raps, creates space-themed art and has appeared in a Marvel comic Project dearMoon is a SpaceX flight purchased by billionaire Yusaku Maezawa
- Maezawa plans to take eight people with him for the mission around the moon
Concerned About BlackRock Pricing Out Home Buyers? Wait Until You Hear How Connected They Are To The Government
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has become a prime example of the so-called revolving door between Wall Street and Washington, according to Business Insider. At least three former high-ranking employees of the New York-based firm hold prominent roles in President Joe Biden’s administration.
Biden nominated Brian Deese to serve as director of the National Economic Council (NEC). He previously served as deputy director of both the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the NEC under former President Barack Obama. After his stint in the Obama administration, Deese joined BlackRock as global head of sustainable investing, according to the WSJ.
Jeff Hauser, director of the Revolving Door Project, a group that monitors corporate influence in government, told Reuters in November 2020 that BlackRock’s stake in policy decisions could compel Deese to “be absent from big chunks of his job.”
Biden nominated Adewale Adeyemo to serve as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. He also worked in the Obama administration first as a senior international economics advisor in the Treasury Department and then as the former president’s deputy national security advisor for international economics. He later joined BlackRock as a senior advisor, according to WSJ. . . .
mRNA Vaccine Inventor, Dr. Robert Malone, Says What’s Happening With The Covid-19 Vax is ‘Fundamentally Different’ | Video: 5 Minutes 50 Seconds
Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 1 | Recorded July 22, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 25 Seconds
Episode 1,114 – Media is Covering for Fumbling Joe Biden. Police stand down during the Mi capitol storming, and Google whistle blower exposes them for acting as a foreign intelligence propaganda outlet. Guests are: Jack Posobiec, Darren Beattie, Zach Vorhies.
Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 2 | Recorded July 22, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 16 Seconds
Episode 1,115 – We Have Enough Data to Decertify. Mike Lindell has replacement coming for compromised voting machines and MAGA congressional candidate promises for be a firewall in DC. Guests are: Jack Posobiec, Wendy Rogers, Mike Lindell, Karoline Leavitt, Josh Mandel.
Bannon’s War Room | Evening Edition | Recorded July 22, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 58 Seconds
Episode 1,116 – Government Has Metastasized Into A Dictatorship Robbing Us Of Liberties And Freedom. Guests are: Jack Posobiec, Natalie Winters, Raymond Ibrahim, Deena Hackett, Dr. Robert Malone.
Biden Education Department Says It Was an ‘Error’ to Push CRT Activist Handbook
The Biden administration says that it was a mistake to promote an activist handbook that included critical race theory (CRT) in schools.
“The Department does not endorse the recommendations of this group, nor do they reflect our policy positions,” the Department of Education (DOE) said in a statement, referring to a book from the Abolitionist Teaching Network called “Guide for Racial Justice & Abolitionist Social and Emotional Learning.”
“It was an error in a lengthy document to include this citation.”
The Abolitionist Teaching Network’s Twitter account, which uses jargon that’s heavily used by CRT proponents or individuals within the “antiracist” movement, describes itself as an activist group that promotes “liberation” for “Black, Brown, and Indigenous folx, inclusive of all intersecting identities.”
The group also calls (pdf) on educators to “remove all punitive or disciplinary practices that spirit murder Black, Brown, and Indigenous children” and to “build a school culture that engages in healing and advocacy.” It doesn’t offer an explanation about how certain forms of disciplinary practices “spirit murder” the aforementioned minority groups.
The group’s handbook also states that social and emotional learning is a “covert form of policing used to punish, criminalize, and control Black, Brown, and Indigenous children and communities to adhere to White norms.”
The group doesn’t make any specific mentions of CRT on its website, but it uses many terms and ideas from the ideology—including that U.S. institutions are inherently racist. A number of Republican-led states have signed executive orders or have approved legislation prohibiting curriculum that claims the United States was founded on racist principles or that any groups—namely white people—are inherently racist.
In recent years, CRT has become somewhat of a catchall term used to describe the “antiracist” movement and training or instruction around “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
Opponents of the theory say that it’s an outgrowth of the European Marxist critical theory school, which itself drew on the writings of Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and others. . . . .