Securing America’s Borders
Are fully vaccinated liberals afraid to remove their masks because they’ll look like Republicans?
There might finally be an answer to what many believe is inexplicably weird and contradictory mask-wearing guidance from the CDC: Liberals are afraid to remove their masks in case it might make them look like Republicans.
The report from the DCist “overheard of the week” column alleges that two masked women were walking in downtown Washington D.C discussing the recent update to the CDC guidance when one apparently said, “I guess I’m vaccinated so I don’t have to wear a mask outside but… I really don’t want people to think I’m a Republican.”
Earlier this week, the CDC announced updates to their face veiling guidelines, which are alleged to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. The new guidelines say vaccinated individuals can forgo the face mask when they are outside unless they are in crowds of people.
Stone Says He Took ‘Not a Dime’ From Anyone Seeking Trump Pardon
The Daily Beast reported Thursday that Stone offered to help Joel Greenberg, a former Florida tax collector who’s expected to plead guilty this month, get a pardon from President Donald Trump before he left office. The pardon was never granted.
The report was based on alleged text messages between Stone and Greenberg, as well as an alleged written confession by Greenberg saying that he and Gaetz, a Florida Republican and Trump ally, paid for sex with women as well as with a 17-year-old girl.
Stone, who was himself pardoned by Trump after being being convicted of lying to Congress and tampering with witnesses in an effort to protect the president during the Russia probe, said in a text message late Friday that his communications with Greenberg were “clipped out of context.”
“I told Greenberg he would need a lawyer (I am not a lawyer) and that he should be prepared to wire a $250,000 retainer to the right lawyer if he could find one,” Stone said. “I made no effort whatsoever to secure a pardon for Mr. Greenberg and I took not a dime from him or anyone else seeking a pardon.”
To be tracked or not? Apple Is now giving us the choice
By Brian X. Chen, The New York Times Company
If we had a choice, would any of us want to be tracked online for the sake of seeing more relevant digital ads?
We are about to find out.
On Monday, Apple released iOS 14.5, one of its most anticipated software updates for iPhones and iPads in years. It includes App Tracking Transparency, a new privacy tool that could give us more control over how our data is shared.
Here’s how it works: When an app wants to follow our activities to share information with third parties such as advertisers, a window will appear on our Apple device to ask for our permission to do so. If we say no, the app must stop monitoring and sharing our data.
A pop-up window may sound like a minor design tweak, but it has thrown the online advertising industry into upheaval. Most notably, Facebook has gone on the warpath. Last year, the social network created a website and took out full-page ads in newspapers denouncing Apple’s privacy feature as harmful to small businesses.
A big motivator, of course, was that the privacy setting could hurt Facebook’s own business. If we choose not to let Facebook track us, it will be harder for the company to see what we are shopping for or doing inside other apps, which will make it more difficult for brands to target us with ads. (Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has disputed that his company’s business will be hurt by Apple’s policy.)
“This is a huge step in the right direction, if only because it’s making Facebook sweat,” said Gennie Gebhart, a director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital-rights nonprofit.
But, she added, “One big question is: Will it work?”
Gebhart and other privacy experts said Apple’s new feature might not be enough to put an end to shady tracking on iPhones. It could simply push developers and ad-technology firms to find loopholes so they can continue tracking people in different ways, she and others said.
Doctors prescribe more opioids to COVID-19 ‘long haulers,’ raising addiction fears
COVID-19 survivors are at risk from a possible second pandemic of opioid addiction, given the high rate of painkillers being prescribed to these patients, health experts say.
A new study in Nature found alarmingly high rates of opioid use among COVID-19 survivors with lingering symptoms at Veterans Health Administration facilities. About 10% of COVID-19 survivors develop a mysterious condition known as long COVID, struggling with often disabling health problems even six months or longer after a diagnosis.
For every 1,000 long COVID patients who were treated at a Veterans Affairs facility, doctors wrote nine more prescriptions for opioids than they otherwise would have. They also wrote 22 additional prescriptions for benzodiazepines, which include Xanax and other addictive pills used to treat anxiety.
Although previous studies have found many COVID-19 survivors — also known as long haulers — experience persistent health problems, the new study is the first to show they’re using more addictive medications, said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, the lead author.
(READ) FBI releases Seth Rich-related documents | “The records appear to suggest that someone could have paid for his death.”
Courtesy: Democratic National Committee
The FBI has released documents pertaining to the 2016 unsolved murder of Seth Rich, a Democrat National Committee (DNC) worker.
The records appear to suggest that someone could have paid for his death.
There was much speculation after Rich’s murder that he — rather than “Russia” — was the person who had leaked sensitive, internal DNC emails to WikiLeaks.
Among other things, the documents included emails exposing numerous scandals related to Hillary Clinton. They also showed that the DNC was taking steps that favored Clinton over her challenger, Bernie Sanders.
Antifa Assaults Small Child, Seattle Police During May Day Riot, Say Cops
Police in Seattle declared an Antifa May Day protest to be a riot after marchers reportedly assaulted cops and a small child. The rioters continued, marching into the streets committing crimes.
BREAKING: Mitt Romney Booed At Utah GOP Convention, Tells Crowd ‘You Can Boo All You Want’
Sen. Mitt Romney, the lone Republican Senator to vote to impeach President Donald Trump in both of the 45th President’s Senate impeachment trials, was just loudly booed at the Utah Republican Party convention at the Maverick Center in West Valley, Utah.
Romney was greeted by boos immediately after entering the stage. Apparently mistaking the boos for applause, Romney began by smiling and thanking the booing crowd profusely. He offered thanks and thumbs up to the crowd for over two minutes as the crowd continued to boo his presence.
“So what do you think about President Biden’s first 100 days,” Romney said, beginning his speech even as the crowd made it almost impossible to hear him through their boos. Romney eventually stopped speaking for several seconds before asking the crowd, “Aren’t you embarrassed?” At one point a Republican Party operative approached the podium and instructed the crowd to “show respect.”
“So yeah, I understand I have a few folks who don’t like me terribly much, and I’m sorry about that.” Soon after, the crowd began booing again. “You can boo all you want, I’ve been a Republican all my life.” The crowd later broke into thunderous applause when Romney left the stage.
Ben Winslow, a Utah based reporter, confirmed the booing with another video captured from a different angle. “Senator Romney is getting boo’d loudly at the Utah GOP convention,” wrote Winslow.
.@SenatorRomney is getting boo’d loudly at the @UtahGOP convention. @fox13 #utpol #utgop pic.twitter.com/4vMwVnh6YI
— Ben Winslow (@BenWinslow) May 1, 2021
Romney has repeatedly suffered public humiliation at the hands of Trump supporters due to his repeated verbal criticisms of the 45th President. After voting to confirm electoral votes from states with credible reports of widespread voter fraud, Romney was heckled on a crowded flight back to Utah.
Hacker Erases UNC Conservative Student Publication’s Website
A hacker breached the website of a conservative student publication at the University of North Carolina, erasing hundreds of articles and leaving a threatening message for the paper’s staff.
The Carolina Review’s website was left largely blank Wednesday night around 10:00 PM, save for a note the hacker left on the masthead that called editor in chief Bryson Piscitelli a “nazi scum fuck off.” The hack came just hours after one of the Review’s campus distribution boxes—installed last Sunday—was vandalized with the word “racist” in black Sharpie.
Piscitelli, a sophomore, told the Washington Free Beacon that the school’s liberal political culture has made his publication a target, leading him to believe a student is responsible for the hack.
“The sad truth is, this sort of thing is really not surprising to us,” Piscitelli said. “We all in the back of our minds have always expected this—it’s been a fear certainly, but a thing we’ve had to stoically embrace as people who are not willing to keep in ideological step with the leftwing orthodoxy of the university’s student body.”
Expressing conservative views on college campuses can in many cases leave students vulnerable to physical attacks and intimidation from their liberal peers. A conservative at Berkeley was punched in 2019 while recruiting students to join the Leadership Institute, a conservative activist group, and student government leaders have been pressured to resign for holding Christian beliefs and defending Israel.
Conservatives at UNC have also faced harassment for their beliefs. One UNC student assaulted a pro-life advocate at the university in 2019. Liberal students lambasted Fox News host Tucker Carlson when he spoke at UNC in 2018, calling him a neo-Nazi and white supremacist.
Founded in 1993, the Carolina Review is an independent student publication that expresses the university’s “conservative and libertarian voice.” Carolina Review managing editor Elliot Gualano said he often fears for the safety of his staff writers.
“I am less concerned for myself but more concerned about the people that work for us, our staff writers that make up the most of the publication. They have been attacked and ostracized by their peers for joining the journal,” Gualano told the Free Beacon. “I fear for their personal safety sometimes, for the horrible backlash these individuals get just for being a staff writer.”
BLM-Antifa Rioters Target Upscale Restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky – Heroic Patrons Refuse to Bow Down, Tell Mob ‘Bring It On, Let’s Go!’
BLM and/or Antifa goons targeted an upscale restaurant in Louisville restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky this evening.
The patrons were having none of it as they faced the mob and taunted them like, ‘Come on, Let’s go!”
Some tweets are coming out of Kentucky tonight indicating BLM and Antifa are in full force again. It’s spring so the rioters are gonna riot. Noticeably none were wearing Trump hats.
What was amazing was the patrons of the restaurant were having none of it with at least one saying to the goons something like, ‘Come On, Let’s Go’.
The group is walking on the sidewalk, past police. pic.twitter.com/26wLPQbAKl
— Hayes Gardner (@HayesGardner) May 2, 2021