People need bread and circuses just like the Romans with the Christians in the lions, without professional sports violence has no outlet
Dutch Government: SAVE THE DATE: DIVERSITY WEEK 6 t/m 9 OKTOBER
Mail-in voter registration experian
Please don't use my name. I received a postcard from our local voter registar in the mail asking to "verify my address," stating that if I didn't; I might not receive voting materials. I found this odd since I have voted every election and haven't moved in 9 years. I reached out to my large family and asked if they had received the same, they hadn't but my sister a few days later sent me this link. According to the reddit poster our registrar has been using Experian to verify voter info. I've attached the images I sent my family before mailing my card back. Hope I get to vote this year. Thanks for all you both do in keeping us all same.
Ik denk dat je waarschijnlijk al berichten hebt ontvangen over dit onderwerp, maar om zeker te zijn e-mail ik je.
In Nederland was er een rapper genaamd Akwasi die op het befaamde BLM protest in Amsterdam, tijdens de hoogtijdagen van COVID-19 en de burgemeester van Amsterdam, riep dat als hij een zwarte piet zou zien hij die persoonlijk in zijn gezicht zou trappen.
Deze week komt er een bericht naar buiten dat hij vervolgbare feiten heeft gepleegd maar dat hij niet vervolgd wordt omdat hij sorry heeft gezegd. Een bijzonder detail is dat de officier van justitie die met hem zijn sorry-schikking heeft gesloten, in juli is gestopt met haar voorzitterschap van Meldpunt Discriminatie Regio Amsterdam. In deze club zaten ook mensen van Kick Out Zwarte Piet, de club die de Nederlandse geschiedenis kapot wilt maken.
Hier wordt pijnlijk bloot gelegd dat het rechtssysteem in Nederland corrupte trekjes heeft en dat mensen met de juiste mening gevrijwaard zijn van vervolging.
Please rainstick So Cal. Don’t wait for John or show. Thanks.
Masto.host
Breakdown of the primers
Anonymous Corona Lab Technician
ITM Adam,
First of all, great interview with Joe Rogan!
I'm sorry I left you hanging, I really had to dig for the information, trying to keep an open mind. As I was explaining about PCR before, the primers that are required to bind to the specific RNA sequence can only bind to the SARS-CoV-2 corona virus. I attached an article for reference (one of many that I read), but the skinny of it is that, even though there is a match to one of the reverse primers used to bind to covid-19 in chromosome 8, the forward primers can't bind anywhere on chromosome 8. More than one primer is used for detection, so if only one matches, there will be a negative result. This lady has a very gross misunderstanding of how RT-qPCR works. Also she's annoying.
I know this isn't a popular opinion, but I think qPCR is more accurate than reported. I know I use different primers in my research than they do in diagnostics, but every test I have run, with plenty of negative controls, has been accurate. Even the common cold, which is another species of coronavirus, was negative for COVID-19. I'm also very competent and awesome so it could be user error on the clinical side, lol.
But seriously, it could also be a fault in the primers they use. It takes a long time to manufacture primers, and yes, if rushed, they can be faulty. But just being deeply familiar with the process, I am leaning towards the 95% accuracy with PCR. I can see the fault in antibody tests just because there is more room for error, but I'm still not sure about the inaccuracy of PCR. If anything, we'd be getting false negatives. HOWEVER, I'm willing and even eager to receive arguments and conflicting data from others, especially from other science-field people.
I also wanted to report that Remdesivir, the kitty-cat anti-viral, has been proven to be very ineffective, and we have stopped doing tests on it because of it. I'm honestly not the least bit surprised. Subsequently; even though we have way more reported cases now then when we first had our quarantine order, they are still loosening up restrictions, at least in San Diego. We're opening salons, eating indoors, and we're still declining in cases. I find it suspicious that this happened to directly correlate with the discovery of Remdesivir not being very effective. Why isn't anyone bitching about that like they had been with hydroxychloroquine? I haven't seen this in the news anywhere. I also haven't heard much from Bill Gates on that note. I think the last time he talked directly about COVID-19 was back in July. That was around the same time researchers told us that remdesivir was pretty much useless. HMMM!
Mental health responders
TM, Adam,
Heard today on our office's tannoy: "Would a mental health first responder please report to Occupational Health."
The people in my room immediately went quiet and we looked awkwardly at one another. Honestly, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I ended up laughing on the outside (while I still can) and cried a little on the inside. Only one other person made light of it and the rest sent on as though nothing had happened.
Huawei backdoors documented
Here is a deep dive technical analysis performed by a public firm; I believe this is what John was looking for. Page 24-29 are key.
As a young person, I can tell you that going OTG is near impossible at this point in my life. If you want to make friends and hold onto those connections, you don't just need a phone(it better be an iPhone, or else you'll be judged for that too), but you need social media as a way to message people. Giving out your phone number is just too weird. If your social media profile looks off, people will avoid talking to you to avoid being associated with your profile. On Snapchat, people have these things called "streaks," where you've messaged the other person a streak of days in a row. Originally these just meant that you talked to that person a lot, but now, if you run out of things to talk about, you simply send a picture with no text on it to the person to maintain the streak. I used to do streaks, and a couple of my acquaintances stopped talking to me after I stopped doing them. It's simply too much pressure to message someone out of the blue apparently.
CCP Funding Meth business
I believe the CCP is indirectly funding the newest cartel to take power in Mexico. The CJNG - or new generation Jalisco cartel - has came on to the scene and taken power fairly quickly. Their main drugs are Meth and Fentanyl. Both products directly come from China. The chemicals to make meth come from China.
I live in Dallas and they just busted one of the CJNG drug lords in my region.
The CJNG has military assets like never before seen. Professionally armor plated brand new Ford 250 and 350s with matching color schemes. About 40 or 50.
It's no leap to assume that China has a vested interested in creating a highly trained and asset rich ISIS south of the border. This new cartel has money and does not care about keeping the peace like previous cartels. They recently attacked the DA of Mexico City. Mexico City is usually seen as a no go, the biggest cartel (the government) controls that territory.
I have boots on the ground in Guanajuato where my half sister lives and is the newest battleground state. My sister who works around powerful folks in govt has seen an influx of shady Asian individuals in the area.
CCP is hoping to bring chaos to all sides in a potential war with USA.
I wish I had more information, it's probably not pertinent now but I fear it will slowly make its way closer to you and me. With Dallas and Austin being hubs and connective cities for drugs.
Typhoid Mary
Dear AC,
On the last show, you referenced Tony Fauci explaining that asymptomatics have never been a source of contagion. And then JCD referenced the idea of Typhoid Mary ... well
As one of the NA producers - Experts in the Federated Network - I am answering your call to lend my knowledge and expertise.
Mary Mallon was accused of spreading a bacteria, salmonella typhi. But this started in 1906-1907.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3959940/ (Marineli et al. 2013)
Mallon was locked up - accused of spreading disease (as if no one else in New York city carried salmonella typhi bacteria - which was in the water and sewage systems).
In 1909, Mary unsuccessfully sued the health department for her release. During her two-year period of confinement, she had 120/163 stool samples test positive.
According to Marineli et al (2013), Mallon was unsuccessfully treated with Hexamethylenamin, laxatives, Urotropin, and brewer's yeast. Ultimately the woman was imprisoned for 22 years.
Please note, according to the WHO, salmonella is spread - to this day - all over the world. The estimates of cases ranges from 11 - 21 million, with anywhere from 128,000-161,000 deaths.
In standard medical terminology of today, the ailment is called food poisoning and or diarrhea and treated with either nothing or antibiotics.
What is different about the Covid is that such is purportedly a viral, not bacterial infection. The idea of a contagious virus being spread by an asymptomatic carrier was popularized by the Rockefeller institute with research into polio, as early as 1909.
However, for 40 years, though scientists and doctors claimed to have discovered the poliomyelitis virus, they could never find a single case of natural contagion. Instead, lab animals were crippled by injecting polio-laced material (either ground up spinal cord or brain tissue) directly into the skull - of either a monkey or rabbit. See attached, Flexner (1912); see also Flexner and Simon (1909) https://sci-hub.tw/10.3181/00379727-7-31
In fact, as late as 1949, a medical professor from Johns Hopkins, Howard Howe, conceded that no case of transmission of polio from one person to another had ever been recorded or demonstrated. (See attached). Most often only one person in the household of 6-8 people, with three or four children, would have only one case of paralysis. There was no evidence of viral contagion.
So when Fauci (2020) told some reporters that asymptomatics are not responsible for spread of disease, he understated the facts or was misleading. There has never been a proven case of an asymptomatic person (aka healthy, remember pre-cancer, or stage Zero-cancer?) causing illness in others.
Best
JCJ, the super researcher PhD, who teaches statistics, and deconstructs the philosophy of medical science
Shanghai, China
Bio-secure in the workplace
Happy belated birthday my friend and great job on Rogan. I wanted to share this with you. I work for a large corporation and today I was informed that they will be mandating that employees download an app on their personal phone that checks "symptoms" daily to ensure you are biosecure. Obviously this raises my eyebrows upon hearing it so I went to read the apps privacy policy which I've included linked below. Basically they can see all your activity you do on your phone. So now we have private corporations intruding into our personal lives by force. And the kicker? Guess who is providing this service for "free" out of the goodness of their hearts? You guessed Bill Gates and his company Microsoft. I wander, is this even legal?
https://www.weprotectwell.com/privacy-policy
The social dilemma
It is the gradual slight imperceptible change in your own behavior and perception that is the product
Give me a report of how you evaluate me and allow me to adjust it to what I am or shan’t I want to be. Much more profitable I think
We need anti algo AI that combats the Algos. Open source.
Social harvesting networks followed you to the protests and are feeding you more.
Bad Actors can and are using heir knowledge of the algorithms to create movements and actions
Not shadow banned, just nudged away from trend algo's
Political Actors in Sag Aftra
Joe Biden may very well be part of SAG. He had a speaking appearance on Parks & Rec back in 2012:
So did your favorites, John McCain, Madelain Albright, and Michelle Obama.
Soccer is all in on BLM
American soccer is not going to overtake basketball anytime soon in the US.
When American soccer started up again, every coach had to wear a "Black Lives Matter" shirt (see attached image).
American soccer ratings are up 4 to 7% from last year, but that's only an average of 289,000 viewers.
Here's the most recent soccer TV ratings from last month.
People are watching the Champions League (Europe) and Liga MX (Mexican League) more than Major League Soccer (America), but even these ratings are lower than the NBA.
People are more interested in America's Funniest Home Videos than the NBA or soccer.
Cuties on Netflix is French and Boring
Arguing the wrong point - Social networks and pressure are VERY unhealthy for young people, especially girls
Film makes it's point in an annoying form of making the viewer uncomfortable
Bullshit Art, but it worked to some degree
The Social Dilemma
Early Facebook and Google Employees Form Coalition to Fight What They Built - The New York Times
Technology | Early Facebook and Google Employees Form Coalition to Fight What They Built Jim Steyer, left, and Tristan Harris in Common Sense's headquarters. Common Sense is helping fund the The Truth About Tech campaign. Credit... Peter Prato for The New York Times SAN FRANCISCO '-- A group of Silicon Valley technologists who were early employees at Facebook and Google, alarmed over the ill effects of social networks and smartphones, are banding together to challenge the companies they helped build.
The cohort is creating a union of concerned experts called the Center for Humane Technology. Along with the nonprofit media watchdog group Common Sense Media, it also plans an anti-tech addiction lobbying effort and an ad campaign at 55,000 public schools in the United States.
The campaign, titled The Truth About Tech, will be funded with $7 million from Common Sense and capital raised by the Center for Humane Technology. Common Sense also has $50 million in donated media and airtime from partners including Comcast and DirecTV. It will be aimed at educating students, parents and teachers about the dangers of technology, including the depression that can come from heavy use of social media.
''We were on the inside,'' said Tristan Harris, a former in-house ethicist at Google who is heading the new group. ''We know what the companies measure. We know how they talk, and we know how the engineering works.''
The effect of technology, especially on younger minds, has become hotly debated in recent months. In January, two big Wall Street investors asked Apple to study the health effects of its products and to make it easier to limit children's use of iPhones and iPads. Pediatric and mental health experts called on Facebook last week to abandon a messaging service the company had introduced for children as young as 6. Parenting groups have also sounded the alarm about YouTube Kids, a product aimed at children that sometimes features disturbing content.
''The largest supercomputers in the world are inside of two companies '-- Google and Facebook '-- and where are we pointing them?'' Mr. Harris said. ''We're pointing them at people's brains, at children.''
Silicon Valley executives for years positioned their companies as tight-knit families and rarely spoke publicly against one another. That has changed. Chamath Palihapitiya, a venture capitalist who was an early employee at Facebook, said in November that the social network was ''ripping apart the social fabric of how society works.''
The new Center for Humane Technology includes an unprecedented alliance of former employees of some of today's biggest tech companies. Apart from Mr. Harris, the center includes Sandy Parakilas, a former Facebook operations manager; Lynn Fox, a former Apple and Google communications executive; Dave Morin, a former Facebook executive; Justin Rosenstein, who created Facebook's Like button and is a co-founder of Asana; Roger McNamee, an early investor in Facebook; and Ren(C)e DiResta, a technologist who studies bots.
The group expects its numbers to grow. Its first project to reform the industry will be to introduce a Ledger of Harms '-- a website aimed at guiding rank-and-file engineers who are concerned about what they are being asked to build. The site will include data on the health effects of different technologies and ways to make products that are healthier.
Jim Steyer, chief executive and founder of Common Sense, said the Truth About Tech campaign was modeled on antismoking drives and focused on children because of their vulnerability. That may sway tech chief executives to change, he said. Already, Apple's chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, told The Guardian last month that he would not let his nephew on social media, while the Facebook investor Sean Parker also recently said of the social network that ''God only knows what it's doing to our children's brains.''
Mr. Steyer said, ''You see a degree of hypocrisy with all these guys in Silicon Valley.''
The new group also plans to begin lobbying for laws to curtail the power of big tech companies. It will initially focus on two pieces of legislation: a bill being introduced by Senator Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, that would commission research on technology's impact on children's health, and a bill in California by State Senator Bob Hertzberg, a Democrat, which would prohibit the use of digital bots without identification.
Mr. McNamee said he had joined the Center for Humane Technology because he was horrified by what he had helped enable as an early Facebook investor.
''Facebook appeals to your lizard brain '-- primarily fear and anger,'' he said. ''And with smartphones, they've got you for every waking moment.''
He said the people who made these products could stop them before they did more harm.
''This is an opportunity for me to correct a wrong,'' Mr. McNamee said.
Tech platforms make billions of dollars keeping us clicking, scrolling, and sharing. Just like a tree is worth more as lumber and a whale is worth more dead than alive'--in the attention extraction economy a human is worth more when we are depressed, outraged, polarized, and addicted.
This attention extraction economy is accelerating the mass degradation of our collective capacity to solve global threats, from pandemics to inequality to climate change. If we can't make sense of the world while making ever more consequential choices, a growing ledger of harms will destroy the futures of our children, democracy and truth itself.
We need radically reimagined technology infrastructure and business models that actually align with humanity's best interests.
Search autocomplete rejigged by Google for political queries, as tech giants become the election meddlers they claim to fight
(C) AFP / Robyn Beck 'Hey Google, who do you want me to vote for?'
Google is tightening its autocomplete feature on searches, vowing to remove predictions that support or oppose any political party, and any voting info - even if true. If anyone else did this, it would be called election meddling.
The tech behemoth is clamping down on election-related searches, announcing in a blog post on Thursday it will remove all autocomplete entries that "could be interpreted as claims for or against any candidate or political party." Statements about "voting methods, requirements, or the status of voting locations" will also be axed - even if they're 100 percent accurate.
Appearing to grow weary of its self-appointed role as reality's fact-checker, Google explained that "predictions like 'you can vote by phone' as well as 'you can't vote by phone,' or a prediction that says 'donate to' any party or candidate," will not appear in autocomplete at all - regardless of their veracity.
The new rules will be enforced on a preventative basis, meaning Google's algorithms are tasked with "prevent[ing] violating predictions from appearing," though humans from the "trust and safety" team will be standing by to identify violations.
The search giant's insistence on its own political fairness has long elicited smirks, especially after researcher Robert Epstein revealed Google's search manipulations had the ability to redirect millions of votes to its desired candidates, and leaked emails in 2016 revealed shocked employees engaged in post-election brainstorming to prevent a repeat of President Donald Trump's victory.
Content creators whose work falls outside the mainstream - from conservative pundits and progressive commentators to alternative medicine professionals - have long alleged that Google suppresses their work, whether through hiding their sites from search results or featuring derogatory Wikipedia snippets and mainstream media hit pieces alongside searches for them. But never before has Google so openly acknowledged the effect of its censorship in suppressing factually unimpeachable information.
It's certainly a far cry from 2016, when, despite a spike in actual searches for negative terms associated with Hillary Clinton, autocomplete returned only the most glowing results. Back then, Google denied manipulating autocomplete results at all. A company spokeswoman insisted it was merely an automated system filtering "a small set of offensive or inappropriate content," even though the same terms associated with then-candidate Donald Trump or Clinton's Democratic rival Bernie Sanders readily surfaced in autocomplete.
Google's sudden, supposedly nonpartisan sweep of election-related autocompletes comes on the heels of a similarly broad move by its video subsidiary YouTube to remove videos containing "hacked information" that might "interfere with democratic processes" or that could be "shared with the intent to interfere with an election." The platform did not explain how it planned to identify what information was "hacked," or how it would analyze the user's intent before jettisoning their content.
It's not just Google, of course. Twitter announced on Thursday that it will "label or remove false or misleading information intended to undermine public confidence in an election or other civic process," including "unverified information about election rigging, ballot tampering, vote tallying, or certification of election results."
In practice, this could memory-hole the kind of complaints that swept the platform during the primary season about long lines, busted voting machines, closed polling places, and other apparent voter-suppression measures - none of which were "verified," but all of which were experienced by Twitter users attempting to vote.
Facebook, too, has thrown itself into election-season control of information, vowing to block all new political and "issue" ads a week before the vote itself - no matter how truthful or relevant their content - and tag premature reports of victory with warning labels. "Misinformation about voting," meanwhile, will be purged with the assistance of state voting authorities, while Messenger users will be unable to mass-forward messages.
The social media giant's CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally urged his platform's users not to suspect corruption or rigging if election outcomes take "weeks" to be totaled in a recent interview, volunteering Facebook's services in a "messaging" campaign to convince Americans such an unprecedented delay in returning results is "normal."
To the average person, the coordinated inauthentic behavior of the social media triumvirate - all of which have arguably made their own electoral preferences clear for November - in suppressing information even they admit is factual might in itself resemble election-meddling. But just try finding that on Google...
Helen Buyniski is an American journalist and political commentator at RT. Follow her on Twitter @velocirapture23
Creepy 'Geofence' Finds Anyone Who Went Near a Crime Scene | WIRED
In 2018, 23-year-old Jorge Molina was arrested and jailed for six days on suspicion of killing another man. Police in Avondale, Arizona, about 20 miles from Phoenix, held Molina for questioning. According to a police report, officers told him they knew ''one hundred percent, without a doubt'' his phone was at the scene of the crime, based on data from Google. In fact, Molina wasn't there. He'd simply lent an old phone to the man police later arrested. The phone was still signed into his Google account.
The information about Molina's phone came from a geofence warrant, a relatively new and increasingly popular investigative technique police use to track suspects' locations. Traditionally, police identify a suspect, then issue a warrant to search the person's home or belongings.
Geofence warrants work in reverse: Police start with a time and location, and request data from Google or another tech company about the devices in the area at the time. The companies then typically supply anonymous data on the devices in the area. Police use their own investigative tools to narrow down this list. Then they may ask for more specific information'--often an email address or a name of the account holder'--for a phone on the narrower list.
Critics say the process is an invasion of privacy, often subjecting many people to an unconstitutional search. Now, in a rare step, two judges have denied requests for geofence warrants and questioned whether they complied with Fourth Amendment protections for searches. Lawmakers and activists see the court opinions as steps toward a potential ban on the practice.
''This is as clear as day a fishing expedition that violates people's basic constitutional rights,'' says New York state assemblymember Dan Quart. Earlier this year, Quart and state senator Zellnor Myrie introduced bills that would prevent authorities from using data gathered from geofence warrants. ''It should never be used in a courtroom.''
Though relatively new, the practice is becoming increasingly common. Google reported a 1,500 percent increase in requests in 2018 compared with 2017. The New York Times reported the company received as many as 180 requests per week last year. Privacy experts tell WIRED that it isn't just Google. Apple, Uber, and Snapchat have all received similar requests.
''This is a tactic that really can be targeted at literally any company,'' says Albert Fox Cahn, founder and executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, a nonprofit civil liberties organization. The New York legislation would bar law enforcement from obtaining location data from tech companies or any of the nameless data brokers collecting the data from seemingly innocuous apps. The legislation would also prevent law enforcement from bypassing geofence warrants and buying location data directly, as the Secret Service did, a Vice report uncovered.
''This is as clear as day a fishing expedition that violates people's basic constitutional rights.''
Dan Quart, New York state assemblymember
''This exact same data can be gathered by all sorts of commercial data brokers using the free apps on our phone,'' Cahn says. ''Police can potentially use them to get the exact same information as when they send a warrant to Google.''
Google itself has raised questions about the practice. Lawyers for Okello Chatrie, a suspect in a Virginia bank robbery, are questioning the legality of a geofence warrant that led to Chatrie's arrest. Google declined to take a position on his case but, in an amicus brief, called a geofence request "an uniquely broad search of all Google users' timelines."
Quart, the New York state lawmaker, says geofence warrants are impermissibly broad and can gather data about bystanders. ''I could easily see how a reverse search warrant could be used against protesters to violate people's First Amendment rights.''
''Police have no idea how many people's information is going to be captured,'' Cahn says. ''They don't know if it's one person or a thousand people. And the judges who are asked to approve these requests, they don't have enough information to actually make an informed decision.''
Federal magistrate judges echoed these criticisms in July in denying requests from the US Attorney's Office in Chicago for geofence warrants to help investigate stolen pharmaceuticals. The office said it used a three-step protocol that protected user privacy. First, it limited the request to a specific time and location; then, it looked for corroborating information about the phones identified as being in the area. Only after that did it ask Google for specific information about a small number of device owners.
Magistrate judge David Weisman rejected this argument, writing that a geofence request in a densely populated city like Chicago ''ensures an overbroad scope,'' because so many people will be part of the request, even if limited to just a few city blocks. As bystanders will be caught up in any search, the requests could not be considered ''narrowly tailored,'' as required under the Fourth Amendment, he wrote.
When Judge Weisman rejected the application, the government submitted a revised request in which it offered to skip the third step, and not collect from Google the names or email addresses of any phone owners. Judge Gabriel Fuentes denied this request as well, saying the government still has too much discretion in determining which devices to filter in or out of its pool, even after limiting the scope of the warrant. The US Attorney's Office did not respond to a request for comment.
Those rulings apply only to the particulars of the July request. But activists say the rejection could set an important precedent.
"These two opinions show just how strong the Fourth Amendment claims are,'' says Nate Sobel, a fellow at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. ''As the first written decisions assessing the constitutional claims, the two opinions set an important benchmark, and both litigants and judges will rely on them as geofence cases make their way up through the courts around the country."
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Let Us Out!
Matthew Kolken on Twitter: "In New York, Democrats intend to provide the Governor with the authority to identify, forcibly remove, and/or jail anyone testing positive for COVID-19. This is a glimpse what our country will look like if Democrats are in cont
Matthew Kolken : In New York, Democrats intend to provide the Governor with the authority to identify, forcibly remove, and/or jail'... https://t.co/onD66Q8nQZ
simplymanna : @mkolken @seanmdav Then I guess the 90% false positive rate won't be enough. So give a person a "test" that will'... https://t.co/v9koW2KOBU
Thu Sep 10 21:12:40 +0000 2020
David Lamb : @mkolken @aggie_hood considering Cuomo's already murdered 10's of thousands, what's the difference here? https://t.co/NMISuHdfGD
Thu Sep 10 21:11:28 +0000 2020
James Overmeyer : @mkolken @AnnCoulter Does that apply to brothers of the governor?
Thu Sep 10 21:07:51 +0000 2020
fatigu(C) de §a : @mkolken @AnnCoulter Since they released all the criminals, they have to use the jails for something.
Thu Sep 10 21:05:22 +0000 2020
Jeff Darrell : @mkolken @seanmdav Sounds like that monstrosity of a liberal fascist law may work its way rapidly to the SCOTUS, if'... https://t.co/nWnkN9pVF0
Thu Sep 10 21:05:06 +0000 2020
steadybacon : @mkolken @seanmdav No, I think it's far worse than that. The bill itself doesn't mention covid-19. In theory, this'... https://t.co/ZphGrzPloC
Thu Sep 10 21:03:07 +0000 2020
Elmer F Gantry : @mkolken @seanmdav Just get in the damn boxcar!!
Thu Sep 10 21:00:25 +0000 2020
Didnt Vote For Him. Come Up With A Better Insult : @mkolken @seanmdav Imagine if we did this with a certain STD back in the 80's?
Thu Sep 10 20:59:12 +0000 2020
Carlos Antunes : @mkolken im sure republicans and trump supporters will have a lot of cases...
Thu Sep 10 20:58:48 +0000 2020
Nycweatherreporter : @mkolken Don't forget to look at the date this was introduced, January 2019.
Thu Sep 10 20:58:21 +0000 2020
"We are more alike,my friends,than we are unalike" : @mkolken @seanmdav It's going around:https://t.co/h55Xx3srTY
Thu Sep 10 20:57:53 +0000 2020
Lindy Mc ðºð¸ : @mkolken @seanmdav We are in the fight of our lives with this one. I would be out of New York so fast
Thu Sep 10 20:57:45 +0000 2020
C2E : @mkolken @seanmdav Time more people tead the New York State Constitution.... and hold lawmakers accountable for the'... https://t.co/9rDiIDw6tN
Thu Sep 10 20:57:27 +0000 2020
SuperSoniQ : @mkolken @seanmdav That is sick and full blown Nazi.
Thu Sep 10 20:55:58 +0000 2020
CDC: People with COVID-19 twice as likely to have eaten out at a restaurant before getting sick
Here are the symptoms of COVID-19Some of the most common symptoms are fever, a dry cough, shortness of breath and fatigue. But as the virus continues its rapid spread, additional symptoms are being identified.
ATLANTA - Dining out at a restaurant or drinking at a bar may heighten the risk of becoming infected with COVID-19 compared to other social activities, including shopping, visiting a salon or working at an office, according to a new study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The report, published Thursday by the CDC, comes as many states have begun allowing some form of indoor dining with safety measures in place '-- such as wearing a mask, physical distancing and limited capacity. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that indoor dining at restaurants in the once hard-hit New York City could resume at 25% capacity beginning Sept. 30.
A table stands empty at a permanently closed restaurant in Manhattan on Aug. 31, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
The CDC study included individuals who sought out a COVID-19 test at 11 U.S. health care facilities in July and filled out a questionnaire. Out of 314 patients in the study, about half of them (154) tested positive for the virus.
RELATED: CDC tells states to prepare for COVID-19 vaccine distribution as soon as October or November
The researchers asked the participants about possible community exposure in the two weeks prior to their test, such as gatherings in a home, shopping, dining in a restaurant, going to an office, salon, gym, bar/coffee shop, church gathering, or using public transportation.
For each activity, participants were asked to rate the adherence of social distancing measures at the location, like wearing a face mask. The participants lived in states across the country with differing reopening guidelines: California, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Utah and Washington.
Researchers found that the study participants who tested positive for COVID-19 ''were approximately twice as likely to have reported dining at a restaurant than were those with negative SARS-CoV-2 test results,'' the report states.
Those who tested positive without known close contact to someone with COVID-19 were even more likely to have reported visiting a bar or coffee shop in the previous 14 days.
RELATED: Could your symptoms be COVID-19? The signs range from mild to severe
''Reports of exposures in restaurants have been linked to air circulation. Direction, ventilation, and intensity of airflow might affect virus transmission, even if social distancing measures and mask use are implemented according to current guidance,'' the study authors wrote.
''Masks cannot be effectively worn while eating and drinking, whereas shopping and numerous other indoor activities do not preclude mask use,'' the report adds.
One of the limitations of the study is that participants did not specify between whether they ate or drank inside or outside.
CDC guidelines indicate that drive-thrus, delivery, take-out and curbside pick-up presents the lowest risk for transmission. Restaurants with both indoor and outdoor seating, which offer full seating capacity without spacing tables apart, carry the highest risk, the CDC says.
''Choose pick-up/delivery if possible & take steps like staying 6 ft from others & wearing a mask,'' the CDC said on Twitter.
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This story was reported from Cincinnati.
NY State Assembly Bill A99 - elates to the removal of cases, contacts and carriers of communicable diseases that are potentially dangerous to the public health.
S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K________________________________________________________________________ 99 2019-2020 Regular Sessions I N A S S E M B L Y (PREFILED) January 9, 2019 ___________Introduced by M. of A. PERRY -- read once and referred to the Committee on HealthAN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to the removal of cases, contacts and carriers of communicable diseases who are poten- tially dangerous to the public health THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: Section 1. The public health law is amended by adding a new section2120-a to read as follows: § 2120-A. REMOVAL AND DETENTION OF CASES, CONTACTS AND CARRIERS WHOARE OR MAY BE A DANGER TO PUBLIC HEALTH; OTHER ORDERS. 1. THE PROVISIONSOF THIS SECTION SHALL BE UTILIZED IN THE EVENT THAT THE GOVERNORDECLARES A STATE OF HEALTH EMERGENCY DUE TO AN EPIDEMIC OF ANY COMMUNI-CABLE DISEASE. 2. UPON DETERMINING BY CLEAR AND CONVINCING EVIDENCE THAT THE HEALTHOF OTHERS IS OR MAY BE ENDANGERED BY A CASE, CONTACT OR CARRIER, ORSUSPECTED CASE, CONTACT OR CARRIER OF A CONTAGIOUS DISEASE THAT, IN THEOPINION OF THE GOVERNOR, AFTER CONSULTATION WITH THE COMMISSIONER, MAYPOSE AN IMMINENT AND SIGNIFICANT THREAT TO THE PUBLIC HEALTH RESULTINGIN SEVERE MORBIDITY OR HIGH MORTALITY, THE GOVERNOR OR HIS OR HER DELE-GEE, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE COMMISSIONER OR THE HEADS OFLOCAL HEALTH DEPARTMENTS, MAY ORDER THE REMOVAL AND/OR DETENTION OF SUCHA PERSON OR OF A GROUP OF SUCH PERSONS BY ISSUING A SINGLE ORDER, IDEN-TIFYING SUCH PERSONS EITHER BY NAME OR BY A REASONABLY SPECIFICDESCRIPTION OF THE INDIVIDUALS OR GROUP BEING DETAINED. SUCH PERSON ORGROUP OF PERSONS SHALL BE DETAINED IN A MEDICAL FACILITY OR OTHER APPRO-PRIATE FACILITY OR PREMISES DESIGNATED BY THE GOVERNOR OR HIS OR HERDELEGEE AND COMPLYING WITH SUBDIVISION FIVE OF THIS SECTION. 3. A PERSON OR GROUP REMOVED OR DETAINED BY ORDER OF THE GOVERNOR ORHIS OR HER DELEGEE PURSUANT TO SUBDIVISION TWO OF THIS SECTION SHALL BE EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD05242-01-9A. 99 2DETAINED FOR SUCH PERIOD AND IN SUCH MANNER AS THE DEPARTMENT MAY DIRECTIN ACCORDANCE WITH THIS SECTION. 4. NOTWITHSTANDING ANY INCONSISTENT PROVISION OF THIS SECTION: (A) A CONFIRMED CASE OR A CARRIER WHO IS DETAINED PURSUANT TO SUBDIVI-SION TWO OF THIS SECTION SHALL NOT CONTINUE TO BE DETAINED AFTER THEDEPARTMENT DETERMINES THAT SUCH PERSON IS NO LONGER CONTAGIOUS. (B) A SUSPECTED CASE OR SUSPECTED CARRIER WHO IS DETAINED PURSUANT TOSUBDIVISION TWO OF THIS SECTION SHALL NOT CONTINUE TO BE DETAINED AFTERTHE DEPARTMENT DETERMINES, WITH THE EXERCISE OF DUE DILIGENCE, THAT SUCHPERSON IS NOT INFECTED WITH OR HAS NOT BEEN EXPOSED TO SUCH A DISEASE,OR IF INFECTED WITH OR EXPOSED TO SUCH A DISEASE, NO LONGER IS OR WILLBECOME CONTAGIOUS. (C) A PERSON WHO IS DETAINED PURSUANT TO SUBDIVISION TWO OF THISSECTION AS A CONTACT OF A CONFIRMED CASE OR A CARRIER SHALL NOT CONTINUETO BE DETAINED AFTER THE DEPARTMENT DETERMINES THAT THE PERSON IS NOTINFECTED WITH THE DISEASE OR THAT SUCH CONTACT NO LONGER PRESENTS APOTENTIAL DANGER TO THE HEALTH OF OTHERS. (D) A PERSON WHO IS DETAINED PURSUANT TO SUBDIVISION TWO OF THISSECTION AS A CONTACT OF A SUSPECTED CASE SHALL NOT CONTINUE TO BEDETAINED: (I) AFTER THE DEPARTMENT DETERMINES, WITH THE EXERCISE OF DUE DILI-GENCE, THAT THE SUSPECTED CASE WAS NOT INFECTED WITH SUCH A DISEASE, ORWAS NOT CONTAGIOUS AT THE TIME THE CONTACT WAS EXPOSED TO SUCH INDIVID-UAL; OR (II) AFTER THE DEPARTMENT DETERMINES THAT THE CONTACT NO LONGERPRESENTS A POTENTIAL DANGER TO THE HEALTH OF OTHERS. 5. A PERSON WHO IS DETAINED PURSUANT TO SUBDIVISION TWO OF THISSECTION SHALL, AS IS APPROPRIATE TO THE CIRCUMSTANCES: (A) HAVE HIS OR HER MEDICAL CONDITION AND NEEDS ASSESSED AND ADDRESSEDON A REGULAR BASIS, AND (B) BE DETAINED IN A MANNER THAT IS CONSISTENT WITH RECOGNIZEDISOLATION AND INFECTION CONTROL PRINCIPLES IN ORDER TO MINIMIZE THELIKELIHOOD OF TRANSMISSION OF INFECTION TO SUCH PERSON AND TO OTHERS. 6. WHEN A PERSON OR GROUP IS ORDERED TO BE DETAINED PURSUANT TO SUBDI-VISION TWO OF THIS SECTION FOR A PERIOD NOT EXCEEDING THREE BUSINESSDAYS, SUCH PERSON OR MEMBER OF SUCH GROUP SHALL, UPON REQUEST, BEAFFORDED AN OPPORTUNITY TO BE HEARD. IF A PERSON OR GROUP DETAINEDPURSUANT TO SUBDIVISION TWO OF THIS SECTION NEEDS TO BE DETAINED BEYONDTHREE BUSINESS DAYS, THEY SHALL BE PROVIDED WITH AN ADDITIONAL COMMIS-SIONER'S ORDER PURSUANT TO SUBDIVISIONS TWO AND EIGHT OF THIS SECTION. 7. WHEN A PERSON OR GROUP IS ORDERED TO BE DETAINED PURSUANT TO SUBDI-VISION TWO OF THIS SECTION FOR A PERIOD EXCEEDING THREE BUSINESS DAYS,AND SUCH PERSON OR MEMBER OF SUCH GROUP REQUESTS RELEASE, THE GOVERNOROR HIS OR HER DELEGEE SHALL MAKE AN APPLICATION FOR A COURT ORDERAUTHORIZING SUCH DETENTION WITHIN THREE BUSINESS DAYS AFTER SUCH REQUESTBY THE END OF THE FIRST BUSINESS DAY FOLLOWING SUCH SATURDAY, SUNDAY, ORLEGAL HOLIDAY, WHICH APPLICATION SHALL INCLUDE A REQUEST FOR AN EXPE-DITED HEARING. AFTER ANY SUCH REQUEST FOR RELEASE, DETENTION SHALL NOTCONTINUE FOR MORE THAN FIVE BUSINESS DAYS IN THE ABSENCE OF A COURTORDER AUTHORIZING DETENTION. NOTWITHSTANDING THE FOREGOING PROVISIONS,IN NO EVENT SHALL ANY PERSON BE DETAINED FOR MORE THAN SIXTY DAYS WITH-OUT A COURT ORDER AUTHORIZING SUCH DETENTION. THE GOVERNOR OR HIS OR HERDELEGEE SHALL SEEK FURTHER COURT REVIEW OF SUCH DETENTION WITHIN NINETYDAYS FOLLOWING THE INITIAL COURT ORDER AUTHORIZING DETENTION AND THERE-AFTER WITHIN NINETY DAYS OF EACH SUBSEQUENT COURT REVIEW. IN ANY COURTPROCEEDING TO ENFORCE AN ORDER OF THE GOVERNOR OR HIS OR HER DELEGEE FORA. 99 3THE REMOVAL OR DETENTION OF A PERSON OR GROUP ISSUED PURSUANT TO THISSUBDIVISION OR FOR REVIEW OF THE CONTINUED DETENTION OF A PERSON ORGROUP, THE GOVERNOR OR HIS OR HER DELEGEE SHALL PROVE THE PARTICULARIZEDCIRCUMSTANCES CONSTITUTING THE NECESSITY FOR SUCH DETENTION BY CLEAR ANDCONVINCING EVIDENCE. 8. (A) A COPY OF ANY DETENTION ORDER OF THE GOVERNOR OR HIS OR HERDELEGEE ISSUED PURSUANT TO SUBDIVISION TWO OF THIS SECTION SHALL BEGIVEN TO EACH DETAINED INDIVIDUAL; HOWEVER, IF THE ORDER APPLIES TO AGROUP OF INDIVIDUALS AND IT IS IMPRACTICAL TO PROVIDE INDIVIDUAL COPIES,IT MAY BE POSTED IN A CONSPICUOUS PLACE IN THE DETENTION PREMISES. ANYDETENTION ORDER OF THE COMMISSIONER ISSUED PURSUANT TO SUBDIVISION TWOOF THIS SECTION SHALL SET FORTH: (I) THE PURPOSE OF THE DETENTION AND THE LEGAL AUTHORITY UNDER WHICHTHE ORDER IS ISSUED, INCLUDING THE PARTICULAR SECTIONS OF THIS ARTICLEOR OTHER LAW OR REGULATION; (II) A DESCRIPTION OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES AND/OR BEHAVIOR OF THEDETAINED PERSON OR GROUP CONSTITUTING THE BASIS FOR THE ISSUANCE OF THEORDER; (III) THE LESS RESTRICTIVE ALTERNATIVES THAT WERE ATTEMPTED AND WEREUNSUCCESSFUL AND/OR THE LESS RESTRICTIVE ALTERNATIVES THAT WERE CONSID-ERED AND REJECTED, AND THE REASONS SUCH ALTERNATIVES WERE REJECTED; (IV) A NOTICE ADVISING THE PERSON OR GROUP BEING DETAINED THAT THEYHAVE A RIGHT TO REQUEST RELEASE FROM DETENTION, AND INCLUDINGINSTRUCTIONS ON HOW SUCH REQUEST SHALL BE MADE; (V) A NOTICE ADVISING THE PERSON OR GROUP BEING DETAINED THAT THEYHAVE A RIGHT TO BE REPRESENTED BY LEGAL COUNSEL AND THAT UPON REQUEST OFSUCH PERSON OR GROUP ACCESS TO COUNSEL WILL BE FACILITATED TO THE EXTENTFEASIBLE UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES; AND (VI) A NOTICE ADVISING THE PERSON OR GROUP BEING DETAINED THAT THEYMAY SUPPLY THE ADDRESSES AND/OR TELEPHONE NUMBERS OF FRIENDS AND/ORRELATIVES TO RECEIVE NOTIFICATION OF THE PERSON'S DETENTION, AND THATTHE DEPARTMENT SHALL, AT THE DETAINED PERSON'S REQUEST AND TO THE EXTENTFEASIBLE, PROVIDE NOTICE TO A REASONABLE NUMBER OF SUCH PEOPLE THAT THEPERSON IS BEING DETAINED. (B) IN ADDITION, AN ORDER ISSUED PURSUANT TO SUBDIVISIONS TWO ANDSEVEN OF THIS SECTION, REQUIRING THE DETENTION OF A PERSON OR GROUP FORA PERIOD EXCEEDING THREE BUSINESS DAYS, SHALL: (I) ADVISE THE PERSON OR GROUP BEING DETAINED THAT THE DETENTION SHALLNOT CONTINUE FOR MORE THAN FIVE BUSINESS DAYS AFTER A REQUEST FORRELEASE HAS BEEN MADE IN THE ABSENCE OF A COURT ORDER AUTHORIZING SUCHDETENTION; (II) ADVISE THE PERSON OR GROUP BEING DETAINED THAT, WHETHER OR NOTTHEY REQUEST RELEASE FROM DETENTION, THE GOVERNOR OR HIS OR HER DELEGEEMUST OBTAIN A COURT ORDER AUTHORIZING DETENTION WITHIN SIXTY DAYSFOLLOWING THE COMMENCEMENT OF DETENTION AND THEREAFTER MUST FURTHER SEEKCOURT REVIEW OF THE DETENTION WITHIN NINETY DAYS OF SUCH COURT ORDER ANDWITHIN NINETY DAYS OF EACH SUBSEQUENT COURT REVIEW; AND (III) ADVISE THE PERSON OR GROUP BEING DETAINED THAT THEY HAVE THERIGHT TO REQUEST THAT LEGAL COUNSEL BE PROVIDED, THAT UPON SUCH REQUESTCOUNSEL SHALL BE PROVIDED IF AND TO THE EXTENT POSSIBLE UNDER THECIRCUMSTANCES, AND THAT IF COUNSEL IS SO PROVIDED, THAT SUCH COUNSELWILL BE NOTIFIED THAT THE PERSON OR GROUP HAS REQUESTED LEGAL REPRESEN-TATION. 9. A PERSON WHO IS DETAINED IN A MEDICAL FACILITY, OR OTHER APPROPRI-ATE FACILITY OR PREMISES, SHALL NOT CONDUCT HIMSELF OR HERSELF IN AA. 99 4DISORDERLY MANNER, AND SHALL NOT LEAVE OR ATTEMPT TO LEAVE SUCH FACILITYOR PREMISES UNTIL HE OR SHE IS DISCHARGED PURSUANT TO THIS SECTION. 10. WHERE NECESSARY AND FEASIBLE UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES, LANGUAGEINTERPRETERS AND PERSONS SKILLED IN COMMUNICATING WITH VISION AND HEAR-ING IMPAIRED INDIVIDUALS SHALL BE PROVIDED. 11. THE PROVISIONS OF THIS SECTION SHALL NOT APPLY TO THE ISSUANCE OFORDERS PURSUANT TO § 11.21 OF THE NEW YORK CITY HEALTH CODE. 12. IN ADDITION TO THE REMOVAL OR DETENTION ORDERS REFERRED TO INSUBDIVISION TWO OF THIS SECTION, AND WITHOUT AFFECTING OR LIMITING ANYOTHER AUTHORITY THAT THE COMMISSIONER MAY OTHERWISE HAVE, THE GOVERNOROR HIS OR HER DELEGEE MAY, IN HIS OR HER DISCRETION, ISSUE AND SEEKENFORCEMENT OF ANY OTHER ORDERS THAT HE OR SHE DETERMINES ARE NECESSARYOR APPROPRIATE TO PREVENT DISSEMINATION OR TRANSMISSION OF CONTAGIOUSDISEASES OR OTHER ILLNESSES THAT MAY POSE A THREAT TO THE PUBLIC HEALTHINCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ORDERS REQUIRING ANY PERSON OR PERSONSWHO ARE NOT IN THE CUSTODY OF THE DEPARTMENT TO BE EXCLUDED; TO REMAINISOLATED OR QUARANTINED AT HOME OR AT A PREMISES OF SUCH PERSON'S CHOICETHAT IS ACCEPTABLE TO THE DEPARTMENT AND UNDER SUCH CONDITIONS AND FORSUCH PERIOD AS WILL PREVENT TRANSMISSION OF THE CONTAGIOUS DISEASE OROTHER ILLNESS; TO REQUIRE THE TESTING OR MEDICAL EXAMINATION OF PERSONSWHO MAY HAVE BEEN EXPOSED TO OR INFECTED BY A CONTAGIOUS DISEASE OR WHOMAY HAVE BEEN EXPOSED TO OR CONTAMINATED WITH DANGEROUS AMOUNTS OFRADIOACTIVE MATERIALS OR TOXIC CHEMICALS; TO REQUIRE AN INDIVIDUAL WHOHAS BEEN EXPOSED TO OR INFECTED BY A CONTAGIOUS DISEASE TO COMPLETE ANAPPROPRIATE, PRESCRIBED COURSE OF TREATMENT, PREVENTIVE MEDICATION ORVACCINATION, INCLUDING DIRECTLY OBSERVED THERAPY TO TREAT THE DISEASEAND FOLLOW INFECTION CONTROL PROVISIONS FOR THE DISEASE; OR TO REQUIREAN INDIVIDUAL WHO HAS BEEN CONTAMINATED WITH DANGEROUS AMOUNTS OF RADIO-ACTIVE MATERIALS OR TOXIC CHEMICALS SUCH THAT SAID INDIVIDUAL MAY PRES-ENT A DANGER TO OTHERS, TO UNDERGO DECONTAMINATION PROCEDURES DEEMEDNECESSARY BY THE DEPARTMENT. SUCH PERSON OR PERSONS SHALL, UPONREQUEST, BE AFFORDED AN OPPORTUNITY TO BE HEARD, BUT THE PROVISIONS OFSUBDIVISIONS TWO THROUGH ELEVEN OF THIS SECTION SHALL NOT OTHERWISEAPPLY. 13. THE PROVISIONS OF THIS SECTION SHALL NOT BE CONSTRUED TO PERMIT ORREQUIRE THE FORCIBLE ADMINISTRATION OF ANY MEDICATION WITHOUT A PRIORCOURT ORDER. § 2. This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shallhave become a law. Effective immediately the addition, amendment and/orrepeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation ofthis act on its effective date are authorized to be made and completedon or before such date.
Woman becomes the first person in WA to be fitted with a monitoring bracelet for allegedly breaching quarantine - ABC News
A 33-year-old woman has become the first person in Western Australia to be fitted with an electronic monitoring bracelet for allegedly breaching a quarantine direction.
Key points: Police allege the 33-year-old woman breached a self-quarantine direction It's alleged the woman had two men visit her while in home quarantine Police say the woman has been moved to a Perth hotelWA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson, who is also the state emergency coordinator, made the order and the device was fitted to the woman on Friday night.
In a statement, police said the woman arrived in WA from New South Wales on September 1, and was directed to self-isolate at her home in Perth for 14 days' quarantine.
Police said officers with the Self Quarantine Assurance Team were conducting a routine check on Thursday this week, when they discovered two men visiting the woman at her house.
In a statement, WA Police said the woman would be issued with a $1,000 fine.(Adam Haynes: ABC)The woman, who was still under a self-quarantine direction, was advised she would be issued with a $1,000 infringement for failing to comply with the direction and was moved to a Perth quarantine hotel.
"After careful consideration of the circumstances of the breach and the woman's previous history, the State Emergency Coordinator formed a view that it was necessary to monitor her location during the quarantine period," the police statement read.
"The monitoring device, attached to the woman's ankle, will remain in place until the end of the woman's quarantine period."
It makes the 33-year-old woman the first person in WA to be fitted with an electronic monitoring bracelet under laws introduced by the WA Government as part of the COVID-19 State of Emergency.
Last month, Police Minister Michelle Roberts had indicated 53-year-old Paul John Lawrence '-- the man accused of breaching quarantine directions and sparking a COVID-19 scare at a Perth pub '-- would become the first person in the state to be fitted with a tracking device, however that did not eventuate.
Meanwhile, the WA Health Department has recorded no new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.
YouTube stars' account demonetized after they are accused of throwing parties amid pandemic | TheHill
YouTube has temporarily demonetized the account of popular pranksters known as the NELK Boys after they allegedly threw massive college parties amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The decision comes after the YouTubers, who have 5.7 million subscribers on the platform, were seen hosting parties at Illinois State University in what they reportedly called a "protest" of coronavirus regulations.
YouTube said in a statement on Twitter that NELK's recent behavior violates the platform's Creator Responsibility Policy, which mandates that creators do not engage in "on- and/or off-platform behavior [that] harms our users, community, employees or ecosystem."
The company said in a statement that it believes the men are "creating a widespread public health risk."
The Hill has reached out to YouTube for comment.
The company was responding to a NELK video shared on Instagram, obtained by New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz.
The NELK Twitter account also appeared to share footage from the parties.
The video showed hundreds of college students crammed together, without visible face masks or social distancing per safety guidance amid the pandemic.
Illinois State University (ISU) president Larry Dietz told local outlet The Pantagraph on Thursday that officials are investigating the party and those found to have violated the school's code of conduct could face punishments ranging from probation to expulsion.
"Right now we're still gathering information about the individuals and the behaviors that they exhibited at that event and verifying their presence before we start all of this," Dietz said, adding: "We just can't tolerate that behavior. I know people like to have fun, but we're in the middle of a pandemic. There will be time for fun after we get this pandemic handled."
The NELK Boys reportedly visited several locations in the town of Normal, near ISU, which currently prohibits gatherings of more than 10 people, on Tuesday night and early Wednesday.
Police broke up the gatherings, according to The Pantagraph.
A new analysis released on Friday by USA Today found that college campuses are fueling the largest coronavirus outbreaks across the United States.
Of the 25 hottest outbreaks in the U.S., communities with dominant colleges and thousands of recently returned students represent 19 of them.
McLean County, where Illinois State is located, has been identified one of the hotspots. As of Friday, there has been 844 cases reported per 100,000 people.
The NELK Boys channel, which is comprised of Kyle Forgeard, Jesse Sebastiani and Steve Deleonardis, has been traveling around the country and visiting college towns.
In August, they faced criticism for throwing similar parties in Los Angeles amid the pandemic.
Deleonardis posted a video in August on his personal channel called SteveWillDoIt titled "I THREW A PROTEST IN LA!" which showed them leading a crowd chanting "open the gyms" with signs that read "Gym Lives Matter."
The video received more than 1.7 million views and they responded to backlash by saying they'd never "change or simmer down our comedy to please people, especially snowflakes."
On Friday, he posted on Instagram that his personal channel had also been demonetized.
"I officially make 0 dollars from YouTube now. So basically I will be getting millions and millions [of] views on YouTube every single month and not even get paid a dollar," he wrote. "They didn't pay me much every month but now it's completely cut off."
The Hill has reached out to the NELK Boys and the Normal Police Department for comment.
Other social media personalities have faced criminal charges for allegedly throwing house parties during the pandemic.
TikTok stars Bryce Hall and Blake Gray were charged in Los Angeles last month with violating the "Safer LA" emergency order issued during the outbreak, as well as an ordinance that forbids "loud and unruly gatherings."
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BETHLEHEM, Pa. '-- Peeps treats are going on hiatus for several months '-- another consequence of the coronavirus pandemic.
Just Born Quality Confections said it won't be producing the popular marshmallow sweets for Halloween, Christmas or Valentine's Day as the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based company prepares for next Easter, PennLive.com reports.
Production of the holiday-shaped candies was suspended in the spring as the coronavirus spread across the state. Limited production resumed in mid-May with protocols in place to protect employees, Just Born said.
''This situation resulted in us having to make the difficult decision to forego production of our seasonal candies for Halloween, Christmas and Valentine's Day in order to focus on meeting the expected overwhelming demand for Peeps for next Easter season, as well as our everyday candies,'' the company said.
For confectioners, Easter is one of their biggest and busiest times of the year as children '-- and adults '-- use the holiday as an excuse to indulge in candy eggs and chocolate bunnies.
Just Born, which has been in business since 1923, said its other seasonal confections are expected to return to store shelves by Halloween 2021.
A California Law Was Supposed to Give Uber Drivers New Protections. Instead, Comedians Lost Work. - WSJ
Early this year, the organizers of a small Bay Area theater told Alicia Dattner they wouldn't be able to pay her for an upcoming comedy act. The reason: A new California law that reclassified gig-economy workers, such as Uber drivers, as employees meant it would be too expensive to hire her.
Ms. Dattner was confused. Why was a law aimed at Uber and Lyft affecting comedians?
''It makes no sense,'' said Ms. Dattner, who also teaches comedy and public speaking workshops.
When California legislators passed the high-profile labor law last year, they said it would increase protections for drivers for ride-hailing and delivery companies such as Uber Technologies Inc., Lyft Inc. and DoorDash Inc. By classifying these workers as employees, instead of independent contractors, the law, known as AB-5, would make these workers eligible for health insurance, paid time off and other benefits'--if their roles included tasks that are part of the normal course of a company's business, among other requirements.
It hasn't worked out that way. The Silicon Valley companies have defied the lawmakers' intentions, leaving their drivers' status unchanged while they fight the law in the courts and wage a costly campaign to hold a statewide popular vote this November on a measure that would exempt them from the law.
Meanwhile, magicians, freelance journalists and interpreters have found themselves losing work: Many small businesses say such measures would be too costly to implement, and have instead opted to cut back on their use of independent workers.
Besieged with complaints, the California legislature earlier this month amended the law to exempt workers in industries from comedy to youth sports. While a huge array of groups with objections'--including interpreters and journalists--were mollified, concerns about the law's effects still linger among employers and workers alike, including small theaters, fast-food franchises and even some mall Santas.
The ride-sharing and delivery companies' legal and political push against AB-5 is ''such a frustrating example of the way you can buy your way into a regulatory environment that suits you,'' said Veena Dubal, a professor who studies employment law at University of California, Hastings, and has been a vocal critic of the companies. ''They have been defying the order since Jan. 1. Meanwhile, a yoga studio doesn't have that luxury.''
Uber and Lyft have said they believe their drivers are still independent contractors under the law, in part because they describe themselves as digital-app companies that match drivers with riders, not transportation providers. The law doesn't specifically mention ride-hailing or food delivery.
If forced to reclassify their drivers as employees, the companies say their businesses'--already unprofitable'--would be completely upended. They would need to pay workers hourly wages for scheduled shifts, dropping the flexibility many drivers enjoy. They would need to raise fares, decrease service and even stop operating in some areas, they say. Uber estimated in a court filing that at least 150,000 of its 210,000 active drivers in California would no longer be able to work for the company, while fares would go up between 20% and 120% across the state. They have presented petitions signed by thousands of drivers opposing the law.
The companies are currently seeking to have California voters weigh in on the matter using the state's ballot-measure process, which allows laws to be passed, overturned or amended by popular vote instead of by the legislature.
A Lyft spokeswoman said: ''If the legislature had done its job and made policy that actually protected drivers, the ballot initiative wouldn't have been necessary.''
Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and others have thus far spent $180 million to support Proposition 22, as the initiative is known, on the ballot Nov. 3, making it one of the most expensive ballot measures in California history. It dwarfs the more than $6 million being spent by labor groups opposed to the measure, which aims to classify the ride-hail and delivery companies' drivers as independent contractors, exempting them from AB-5.
The AB-5 legislation grew out of a California Supreme Court decision in 2018 that implied a huge swath of professions should be classifying contract workers as employees, eligible for stronger labor protections such as workers' compensation.
To clarify the issue, lawmakers in Sacramento decided to push legislation that would put broad new restrictions on when a company was able to rely on an independent contractor instead of an employee. Debate over the bill quickly ballooned into a referendum on Uber, Lyft and the gig economy overall, with labor groups and most state lawmakers pushing to reclassify drivers and other contractors they contended were only nominally independent.
Initially the ride-hailing and food-delivery companies said the legislation would be disastrous, adding costs and robbing drivers of their flexibility.
Then, around the time the bill passed a year ago, the companies adopted a new argument, saying their drivers clearly didn't qualify as employees under the law at all, in part because their main products were mobile apps, not transportation services.
Lawsuits followed, and a judge in San Francisco state court recently ruled against Uber and Lyft, saying companies had engaged in a ''a prolonged and brazen refusal to comply with California law.'' Still, the companies don't have to change their operations until after the ballot measure in November.
Those who say they have lost work because of the law have been left bitter.
Mario Moncada, a Santa Monica, Calif., physical therapist, had long worked on a freelance basis, getting jobs through a home-health agency. He liked the flexibility and built up a subcontracting business of his own, sending work to other physical therapists. As a result of the law, his subcontracting business vanished and he had to become an employee of the agency, following a more rigid schedule. The shift cost him tens of thousands of dollars a year, he said.
''I now have to move out of my place of residence,'' he said as he was packing up his house to leave for Louisiana.
The follow-up bill that was signed into law last week appears to offer a fix for physical therapists in similar situations, according to a trade group.
Lorena Gonzalez, the California assemblywoman who wrote both AB-5 and the follow-up measure, said she spent a good part of the year hearing concerns about the law, and tried to exempt groups on which it was having unintended effects.
Ms. Gonzalez, a San Diego Democrat, said that even with the recent exemptions, the law would still mean countless workers at nail salons and janitorial companies will now be treated as employees eligible for benefits like paid time off. Such workers have long deserved better protections, she said, while she remains upset about the ride-hail companies.
''We should all be outraged that they continue to not follow the law,'' she said.
Some affected groups aren't pleased.
Franchisees may qualify as employees, meaning a chain like 7-Eleven may need to employ people who lease and operate stores. Currently such franchisees pay a fee to the chain's owner. Matthew Haller, a vice president at the International Franchise Association, said that some brands have halted expansion plans in California as a result of the law.
Small theater groups'--which often paid musicians, actors and crew members as independent contractors'--are particularly frustrated. Gail Gordon, founding director of the one-year-old Numi Opera in Los Angeles, said after the law passed, she realized how much higher her costs would be and in February canceled plans for a performance to be held in May.
''It would have put 30-plus percent on top of my budget'--which was already well strapped,'' she said. As it turned out, the performance of ''Violanta,'' an opera by a 20th-century Austrian composer, would have been canceled as a result of Covid-19, but she remains uncertain what the future holds for another she has scheduled for fall of next year.
''I don't know what's going to happen,'' she said.
Vaccines and such
Coronavirus: Oxford University to resume vaccine trial after pause - BBC News
Image copyright Reuters Trials of a Covid-19 vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University will resume after being paused due to a reported side effect in a patient in the UK.
On Tuesday, AstraZeneca said the studies were being paused while it investigated whether the adverse reaction was linked with the vaccine.
But on Saturday, the university said it had been deemed safe to continue.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock welcomed the news that the trials would resume.
"This pause shows we will always put safety first. We will back our scientists to deliver an effective vaccine as soon as safely possible," he added.
The university said in a statement that it was "expected" that "some participants will become unwell" in large trials such as this one.
It added that the studies could now resume following the recommendations of an independent safety review committee and the UK regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.
It would not disclose information about the patient's illness for confidentiality reasons, but the New York Times reported that a volunteer in the UK trial had been diagnosed with transverse myelitis, an inflammatory syndrome that affects the spinal cord and can be caused by viral infections.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says nearly 180 vaccine candidates are being tested around the world but none has yet completed clinical trials.
Hopes have been high that the vaccine might be one of the first to come on the market, following successful phase 1 and 2 testing.
Its move to Phase 3 testing in recent weeks has involved some 30,000 participants in the US as well as in the UK, Brazil and South Africa. Phase 3 trials in vaccines often involve thousands of participants and can last several years.
The government's chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, told the Downing Street press conference on Wednesday what had happened in the Oxford trial was not unusual.
Risk of 'losing control'The news comes after Prof Sir Mark Walport, a member of the government's scientific advisory group Sage, warned the UK was "on the edge of losing control of the virus".
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "You've only got to look across the Channel to see what is happening in France and what's happening in Spain."
Official figures released on Saturday showed a further 3,497 people have tested positive with the virus in the UK. It is the second day in a row that number of daily reported cases has exceeded 3,000.
It brings the overall number of confirmed cases so far to 365,174. Meanwhile, the government figures revealed that a further nine people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, bring the UK death toll to 41,623.
Official figures indicate the UK's coronavirus epidemic is growing again, after the R number - the reproduction rate of the virus - was raised to between 1 and 1.2 for the first time since March.
Meanwhile, daily coronavirus cases in Scotland have reached a four-month high, according to the Scottish government's latest data.
A total of 221 people tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours - the highest daily figure since 8 May, when there were 225 positive tests.
New "rule of six" restrictions intended to halt the rises are due come into force on Monday.
In England indoor and outdoor gatherings of more than six people will be banned, except in certain circumstances such as for work or school. Those breaking the rules could be fined.
In Scotland, socialising will be limited to a maximum of six people inside and outside - but unlike England they must be from two households, and children under 12 are exempt.
In Wales, also from Monday, it will be illegal for more than six people from an extended household to meet indoors - but up to 30 can still meet outdoors.
Localised restrictions for parts of Northern Ireland, including Belfast and Ballymena, are to come into force on Monday, aimed at reducing contacts between people in homes in the affected areas.
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove agreed fines might be necessary to ensure people self-isolate when required.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I don't want to see fines being levied, but even more I do not want to see people behaving in a way that puts the most vulnerable at risk."
BLM
(1) Trudeau announces $221M business loan program for Black entrepreneurs - National | Globalnews.ca
The federal government is creating a new national program to help Black Canadians get business loans with national banks.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected Black Canadians and put a spotlight on inequality in Canada.
READ MORE: Black neighbourhoods in Toronto are hit hardest by COVID-19 '-- and it's 'anchored in racism': experts
The total value of the program was pegged at $221 million over four years, with $93 million of that coming from the federal government and the rest from Canadian financial institutions.
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The new program will include $53 million for Black business organization to help entrepreneurs access funding, mentorship, financial planning and business training.
5:34 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces Black Entrepreneurship Program Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces Black Entrepreneurship ProgramAnother $6.5 million will go to collect data on the state of Black entrepreneurship and identify the barriers preventing Black Canadians from succeeding in business.
Ottawa and eight major financial institutions are also creating a loan program to fund Black entrepreneurs with loans between $25,000 and $250,000.
Support for Black businesses was one of the requests in a June letter penned by the Parliamentary Black Caucus calling on governments across Canada to immediately address systemic racism.
2:02 #BlackNorth initiative launched to end systemic racism on Toronto's Bay Street, corporate Canada #BlackNorth initiative launched to end systemic racism on Toronto's Bay Street, corporate Canada(C) 2020 The Canadian Press
Chelsea players Willian, Azpilicueta and Tammy Abraham celebrate with Ross Barkley after his Emirates FA Cup winner at Leicester City at weekend
We stand alongside the players, clubs, Premier League, EFL, PFA, LMA, PGMOL and all those who have come together in recent weeks to reject racism and to show support for the message that Black lives matter.
These three words have become an expression of unity for people from all communities who believe it is unacceptable to treat Black people differently to anyone else.
In an unprecedented move, Premier League players from all 20 clubs united in solidarity with this message and the Premier League supported their request to replace their names on the back of playing shirts with 'Black Lives Matter' and then display the Black Lives Matter logo on their match shirts. We're proud to support the Black Lives Matter message in order to show solidarity to the Black community and to highlight inequality and injustice experienced by this community.
As an apolitical organisation and, while we are pleased to offer our solidarity in promoting this important message, we do not endorse any political organisation or movement, nor support any group that calls for violence or condones illegal activity.We'll continue to stand firm against all types of discrimination. Just as we specifically promote campaigns like Rainbow Laces to support the LGBTQ community or Level Playing Field's week of action to highlight discrimination against disabled people, we are supporting Black Lives Matter. To support the message, a Black Lives Matter logo has appeared on shirts in both the Premier League and Emirates FA Cup, along with a badge thanking the NHS for their work during the COVID-19 crisis. In addition, we will continue to support players who "take a knee" before or during matches. We have sanctioned the use of both these logos. For European matches, UEFA is the sanctioning body, just as FIFA the global body has been for international matches when they have supported us in wearing the poppy to support Remembrance Day.
Black lives matter and football is united in this message.
After A 'Damaging' Diversity Training, City Of Austin Won't Use Company Again For Similar Workshops | KUT
A diversity training described by City of Austin employees as ''hurtful'' and ''emotionally and professionally damaging'' has prompted the city to prevent an employee assistance company from doing this type of training for staff again.
In August 2019, the Austin Transportation Department required its employees to attend the one-hour diversity and inclusion training. In all, 272 employees '' more than three-fourths of the department '' sat through the workshop, hosted by a trainer from Deer Oaks Employee Assistance Program.
The point of the training, in emails reviewed from department executives after the training, was to ensure a more inclusive workplace and that employees at ATD understand how to serve a diverse community.Some employees found the training useful. In handwritten evaluations filled out anonymously and obtained by KUT through a public information request one person wrote, ''The presentation was good''; another scribbled ''Great job!''
But others said the training, ''Diversity in the Workplace: Maintaining an Inclusive Environment,'' was horrible.
''This was by far the worst diversity training I have been a part of,'' one employee wrote on the evaluation sheet. ''I found it highly offensive, irresponsible, and embarrassing. This training is unacceptable.''
In a 13-page memo emailed to executives at the transportation department a week after the training, nearly two dozen unnamed employees detailed how the presentation was not only offensive, but also entirely inaccurate at times and ''emotionally and professionally damaging.''
For instance, the trainer incorrectly defined race, twice. On the first day the training was offered, he characterized race as someone's nationality; later he defined it as ''the biological characteristics that a group of people share.''
The trainer also expressed surprise that someone might identify their own gender from a young age.
''There's a new term I heard the other day. It's 'they-babies.' Yeah, I guess parents are letting their kids decide their own gender,'' employees remember the trainer saying.
Experts on race and gender who reviewed the synopsis of the training reacted with disbelief.
''As someone who does this type of training and who has taught about these issues for over 20 years, I am absolutely flabbergasted that a diversity and inclusion training could be so poorly executed,'' Kevin Cokley, a professor in the College of Liberal Arts at UT Austin, wrote in an email. ''This training was so bad that it almost appears to be a parody on diversity training gone wrong."
Another expert said the recounting of the training read as satire.
''It's somehow horribly satirical how wrong everything is,'' said Jamie O'Quinn, a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at UT Austin. She said conflating race with nationality is just wrong. ''Obviously, if you live in the United States and that is your nation of origin, people of all races live in all countries; it just doesn't make any sense.''
"This training was so bad that it almost appears to be a parody on diversity training gone wrong."
KUT reached out to several ATD employees to talk about their experiences, but they either didn't respond or said they didn't feel comfortable talking about it. A department spokesperson ''respectfully decline[d]'' a request to interview ATD Director Robert Spillar about the training, but answered some questions by email.
Joya Hayes, director of the City of Austin's Human Resources Department, said the trainer ''made some major errors.'' She found out about the training after an HR manager with ATD contacted her, saying employees were unhappy with the presentation.
''We had similar concerns and we were in alignment with some of the incorrect inaccuracies that we saw in the training,'' Hayes told KUT.
In response, the HR Department has prohibited Deer Oaks from doing any additional trainings related to diversity and inclusion, and has asked department heads to not contact the company seeking this kind of training for employees.
As for how much the city paid for the training, it's hard to put an exact number on it; in 2016, the city hired Deer Oaks for a variety of employee counseling and training services, and over a contract period of more than four years has paid the company a little more than $1 million.
Deer Oaks, which provides employee assistance services for other large agencies in the state including UT San Antonio and Texas Health and Human Services, did not respond to a request for comment.
While President Donald Trump has called diversity trainings ''anti-American propaganda,'' the City of Austin has placed value on trainings about diversity and inclusion in the workplace over the past several years.
In a 2017 report on institutional racism, a task force put together by Mayor Steve Adler recommended numerous times that local government employees receive diversity and inclusion training.
''We will not be able to address affordability in this city ... until we address race,'' Adler said at a diversity training hosted by Leadership Austin a year later. ''As leaders in this city, this is a conversation that you have to be having, because if you don't have this conversation, then this community does not have this conversation.''
Hayes also emphasized the importance of these trainings.
''We take workplace culture very seriously,'' she told KUT. ''We try to be as proactive as we can to create and establish policies and a culture that ensures all employees are treated fairly and that they are respected.''
But city employees have felt disrespected in the past by inadequate trainings. Just as Austin welcomed its first majority-female City Council in 2015, the city held a seminar for staff on how to work with women.
The speakers made sexist remarks, telling city staff to be prepared for the women on the dais to ask a lot of questions and to shy away from considering financial arguments when making decisions. An assistant city manager who organized the workshop resigned several months after the training became public.
When asked how the city typically vets trainings, Hayes said the city does not routinely observe or monitor workshops offered by a contractor like Deer Oaks. She said before the ATD training, the city had never received complaints about the company's services.
While the bulk of the services Deer Oaks provides is one-on-one counseling for employees, Joya said, department heads can reach out for specialized training on various topics, including diversity and inclusion.
That's just what ATD did. According to a department spokesperson, two employees with the transportation's HR department organized the training. They spoke on the phone with the trainer and reviewed the presentation he would be giving.
But in the memo sent to higher-ups afterward, employees offered 30 bullet points describing how the training was "harmful."
At one point during his presentation, for example, the trainer encouraged employees to shout out derogatory terms to provide examples of words or phrases not to use in the workplace.
In another instance, the trainer asked employees to come up with examples of good inclusionary workplace rules. One ATD employee suggested the U.S. military's policy of ''don't ask, don't tell,'' which prohibited gay and bisexual people from serving openly in the armed forces, was a fine example.
The trainer accepted this as a "correct answer.''
''A workplace that expects silence and hiding from some of its employees is clearly not one that values diversity and inclusion and cannot be the model for our organization,'' employees wrote in their memo.
A New Citywide Implicit Bias Training
Employees demanded a slew of actions from the department and the city, including the creation of a position within the department focused entirely on equity issues. An ATD spokesperson said the city is in the process of defining an ''equity position,'' although this person would work across city departments.
A union representative for city staff said ATD employees ''are satisfied with the progress'' the department has made following the training, although KUT was not able to speak with ATD employees directly.
As for other actions ATD has taken, a spokesperson said it plans to create a group of employees to advise leadership on equity issues and appointed a staff member to evaluate equity within the department.
Cokley said when a company hosts a bad diversity training for its employees, it's imperative they acknowledge the wrong.
''They should communicate that they've heard the concerns, they recognize the concerns to be serious and that they are doing everything within their power to make sure that it does not happen again,'' he said, ''and that they offer the type of quality diversity training that is warranted and needed.''
It appears the city's trying to do just that.
After a years-long effort, City Council earlier this year approved a contract with a Maryland-based consultant to create and provide an implicit bias and cultural competency training specific for city employees.
A spokesperson for ATD said the department contributed $100,000 of its budget to the $900,000 contract, and that department employees will be some of the first to receive this new training, likely in January.
But, Hayes said, training can go only so far.
''We're looking at other initiatives. You're not going to change the culture for good by one class here and one class there,'' she said. ''It's about a systematic approach of changing how you do business and how we operate. I'm really excited that this is one of many initiatives that will move us in the right direction.''
Got a tip? Email Audrey McGlinchy at audrey@kut.org. Follow her on Twitter @AKMcGlinchy.
If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation to support it. Your gift pays for everything you find on KUT.org. Thanks for donating today.
John Engel on Twitter: "New: 'Enter at your own risk!' billboards sponsored by @TMPALegislative are now up along I-35 in Austin. The City Council voted to immediately cut the APD budget by $20 million and transition $130 million in services away from poli
John Engel : New: 'Enter at your own risk!' billboards sponsored by @TMPALegislative are now up along I-35 in Austin. The City'... https://t.co/ZeHoGp2012
Wed Sep 09 16:30:35 +0000 2020
Abbott unveils new plan to punish cities that cut police spending - News - Austin American-Statesman - Austin, TX
Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at a news conference Thursday outlining a new idea to punish cities that cut police spending. [JAY JANNER/AMERICAN-STATESMAN]'²
Gov. Greg Abbott signs a ''Texas Backs the Blue Pledge'' at the Austin Police Association's headquarters on Thursday. [JAY JANNER/AMERICAN-STATESMAN]'²
A ''Texas Backs the Blue Pledge'' was signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, R-Lake Jackson, and others at the Austin police union's headquarters Thursday. [JAY JANNER/AMERICAN-STATESMAN]'²
On the heels of the Austin City Council's move to cut police spending, Gov. Greg Abbott and other state leaders unveiled a proposal Thursday that would strip cities of annexation powers if local officials cut police department budgets.
"Cities that defund their police departments will forever lose their annexation powers, and any areas and any residents that have ever been annexed by that city in the past will have the power to vote to disannex them from the city," Abbott said in a news conference at the Austin Police Association headquarters.
It's the second legislative proposal by the governor to put pressure on cities that move to reduce police spending. Last month, Abbott proposed to withhold property tax revenue growth from local governments.
The City Council last month voted to cut $21.5 million from the Police Department, largely by canceling three cadet classes, with the potential to shift $129 million in police funding toward social service programs and other city departments to take over mental health, addiction and other responses that typically fall to police.
"Combined together, all of these proposals will make it basically financially impossible to defund law enforcement," Abbott said. "It should leave Austin with no choice but to restore the cuts that they've already made to law enforcement."
The Republican-controlled Legislature, which reconvenes in January, would have to approve the proposals.
State law allows a city to annex the equivalent of up to 10% of its incorporated land from its extraterritorial jurisdiction, the 5-mile area that surrounds city limits.
In 2017, the Legislature voted to limit large cities' annexation powers, forcing them to receive voter approval before annexing new areas.
Abbott's pledge
Abbott's news conference came one day after calling on political candidates to sign his "Back the Blue" pledge against cities working "to defund and dismantle police departments."
Austin Mayor Steve Adler called the pledge "political theater intended to scare and distract us from important public safety conversations."
"To be clear '-- Austin City leaders have neither defunded the police department nor support doing so," Adler said in a statement. "Austin is the safest big city in Texas and among the few safest in the country. We'll continue to make an already safe city even safer and, importantly, safer for everyone."
Abbott also said last week that he is considering a proposal that would bring Austin police under the control of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The governor was joined Thursday by Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, R-Lake Jackson, and state Attorney General Ken Paxton.
They all signed the pledge in the Thursday news conference. Abbott and Paxton aren't on the ballot this year, and Bonnen isn't seeking reelection after a political scandal last year.
"Cities must prioritize public safety," Abbott said. "The last thing they should do is defund law enforcement, and yet, that is exactly what the city of Austin has done and is what the Dallas City Council voted to do in announcing its own defunding scheme last night. Other cities in Texas may be considering the same thing."
Abbott spokesman John Wittman said nearly 100 of 181 state lawmakers have signed the pledge and the office received more than 35,000 signatures of support.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and some Republican members of the Texas congressional delegation also signed on. It's not clear if any Democrats have joined the effort.
READ MORE: Abbott unveils 'Back the Blue' pledge for candidates
Democratic response
Democratic leaders dismissed the initiative as a distraction, saying they knew of no legislators or candidates who support defunding the police.
And the Texas Democratic Party on Thursday took aim at the pledge, unveiling its own "Texas First Pledge."
The six-point pledge takes aim at Paxton's challenge to the Affordable Care Act, Abbott's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and President Donald Trump's recent reported comments disparaging service members. It promises to, among other things, defend Texans with preexisting conditions, follow recommendations from public health experts on the pandemic and "defend the brave Americans who served in our armed forces by condemning anyone who calls them 'suckers' and losers.'"
Manny Garcia, the Texas Democratic Party's executive director, called Abbott's pledge a "political stunt" to distract from the coronavirus ahead of the November election.
"Greg Abbott knows Texans are fed up with his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, so he tries a tired old trick to change the subject and manufacture fear," Garcia said in a statement. "He's desperate to change the narrative, so reporters stop asking him about his failure to protect Texans from COVID-19. Abbott thinks Texans will be suckers for it. That is how little he thinks of all of us."
More than 13,000 Texans have died from the coronavirus, and roughly 650,000 Texans have been infected since March. The numbers of cases and those being treated in hospitals increased dramatically after Abbott allowed a range of businesses to reopen in May. He later shut down bars, further limited restaurant capacity and required masks to be worn in public. The pace of new cases and deaths has dropped in recent weeks.
The Texas House Democratic Caucus has advised Democrats that they should not sign the governor's "Back the Blue" pledge.
The caucus released its own "Texas Promise" pledge, a four-point pledge, which included the line: "I do not support defunding the police."
China
This is not the Mexican army or police, it's the CJNG cartel which has gained power since president Lopez Obrador took office. Stuff that they don't show in U.S. cable news. - PublicFreakout
level 1 Another Good Bot Moderator of r/PublicFreakout, speaking officially Score hidden · 1 month ago · Stickied comment Locked level 1Holy shit, when the camera pans and you just see the line of vehicles for a mile. Holy shit
level 2There's an A-10 pilot watching this in a barracks somewhere salivating profusely.
level 2And this is actually quite affordable. The business is still making shitloads of money. Just gotta basically pay these people more than the cops, and there you have it.
level 2Not only did the US probably sell them the vehicles...that's probably American drug users who have flushed them with enough cash to buy all that shit.
level 2It feels like the further back you went, the less disciplined the soldiers became... first shouting... louder shouting... excited shouting... skips video forward 10 seconds and full auto gunfire.
level 2Ugh I hated that. That is a lot of hardware. I wonder....now hear me out... What would happen if ....we just legalized it and spent all of the money on war on drugs and for profit prisons on war on addiction and war on health
level 1They have new raptors lol
level 2The F150 is called the "Lobo" over there, way cooler name.
level 2Why else do you think Ford moved out manufacturing to Mexico? Instant Delivery!
level 2Marines rolling up in black Ford Raptor trucks, helicopters landing, Ram ranch is under siege, under lockdown
level 1The quality of vehicles and adornment drops off as they get further back in the line.
level 2Number one rule in road-side beat sales, you put the good looking beats up front. The beats that make you want to pull over. Say, "I need that beat".
level 2Idk man - those three ford raptors in the back didn't come cheap - you're right about the tundra and wrangler at the very end, but none of these whips are outdated.
China May Be Arming Its Soldiers With Medieval Halberds To Fight India
Chinese Marines train to fight with bayonets on June 9 in Shandong, China.
Getty ImagesForget tanks and jet fighters. Chinese soldiers may have found a new weapon to battle the Indian army: medieval-style halberds.
Photos have surfaced that purportedly show Chinese troops in Tibet carrying polearms. Chinese soldiers in modern battle gear '' including body armor and helmets '' are seen holding long sticks topped with curved blades that resemble machetes. Presumably the weapons are meant to be used against Indian soldiers, with whom China has fought recent border clashes.
If true, this would be consistent with numerous reports that Chinese troops have used improvised edged weapons, such as nail-studded clubs, in previous border skirmishes with Indian forces.
''In the hands of the Chinese, the guan dao is a Chinese edged weapon, similar to a glaive or a halberd, consisting of a long shaft with a warhead in the form of a wide curved blade and weighing in the range of 2 to 5 kilograms [4 to 11 pounds],'' notes Dambiev, a Russian defense site.
Why does the People's Liberation Army resemble a Society for Creative Anachronism joust, or live-action Dungeons & Dragons players? There's actually a very practical reason. A 1996 agreement regarding the disputed border '' known as the Line of Actual Control, or LAC '' states that "neither side shall open fire or hunt with guns or explosives within two kilometers [1.3 miles] from the line of actual control." China and India have skirmished for years '' and even fought a war in 1962 '-- along the 2,500-mile LAC, a loosely defined border that comprises some of the harshest terrain on Earth, including the Himalaya mountains.
In theory, this form of battlefield gun control should have kept a lid on hostilities. But when China began gradually encroaching on the border this summer, its soldiers came up with a creative but lethal solution. In a June clash in the Galwan valley along the northern Indian territory of Ladakh, Chinese troops reportedly attacked Indian soldiers with improvised weapons that included nail-studded rods. India lost 20 soldiers in hand-to-hand battles, while China may have lost dozens of soldiers. There have also been incidents along the border between Tibet, which China annexed in 1950, and the northeastern Indian state of Sikkim.
Both sides have been deploying their most advanced weapons along the LAC. China has sent J-20 stealth fighters and light tanks to Ladakh, while India has deployed its new French-made Rafale fighters there. China may also be building new surface-to-air missile sites in Tibet.
Yet as both nations are keenly aware, the problem with committing this 21st Century hardware to combat is that once one side uses it, the other side will respond with its own advanced weapons, creating an escalatory spiral. Despite much posturing and finger-pointing, neither China nor India '' both nuclear-armed powers '' are eager for war.
Which suggests that the firearms-free border zone will continue for now, though that doesn't mean violence-free. China is now recruiting mixed martial artists for the army, while India has sent commandos trained in martial arts to the Tibetan border.
The status quo will likely remain as long as neither country feels compelled to use jets or tanks '' or even rifles and pistols '' to defend its interests. Both Beijing and Delhi would also prefer that if shots are fired, it's the other side that suffers the blame for firing first.
An interesting question will be how India responds to China's medieval arsenal. India has a rich history of edged weapons, including the famous kukri knife wielded by Gurkha soldiers, the curved talwar sword, and the chakkar, a sharp throwing ring capable of beheading enemies (on the popular TV show Xena: Princess Warrior, Xena uses a similar weapon called the chakram).
Amid all the medieval-style mayhem, there is one bit of good news. The Himalaya mountains are not horse country, so neither China nor India will be deploying knights in armor.
Is China Deploying New Anti-Aircraft Missiles On India's Border?
For Mountain War Against China, Is India's LCH Helicopter Superior To America's AH-64E Apache?
West Coast Fires
Clown World News on Twitter: "Interview with federal law enforcement, who claim: "We are reacting to a coordinated series of attempts to start fires anywhere and everywhere in Oregon. Public and Private lands, incorporated and unincorporated areas" https:
Clown World News : Interview with federal law enforcement, who claim:"We are reacting to a coordinated series of attempts to start fi'... https://t.co/uyYqT6zDjA
Thu Sep 10 20:15:09 +0000 2020
California Firemen: Wildfires Caused by 'Directed Energy Weapons' - Media Blackout
The California wildfires last November were caused by Directed Energy Weapons (DEWs), according to a group of California firefighters.
The anomalies of the fires were largely ignored by the mainstream media and were only reported by a small handful of independent websites.
Forbiddenknowledgetv.net reports: Fires were observed burning at temperatures at least three times hotter than an average house fire; hot enough to melt aluminum and glass, reducing homes to pure ash yet leaving plastic trash cans beside them untouched.
Most of us are familiar with how microwave ovens heat and interact with foods and how this differs from the effects of thermal or convection ovens. We know that plastics are ''microwave safe'', whereas metals explode violently when subjected microwaves. The effects of the NorCal fires of the past couple of years have been widely observed to resemble the effects one might expect to see from directed microwave radiation or masers.
Maser is the acronym for ''microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation''. Likewise, laser is the acronym for ''light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation''. Both masers and lasers are forms of amplified, coherent, electromagnetic radiation and both frequency ranges are used in various Directed Energy Weapons (DEWs). DEWs are a newer class of weapons that are starting to come into wider use.
The SupposedlyShelly YouTube channel interviewed retired California firemen, John Lord and Matt (last name withheld) about the anomalies they've observed and both were left to conclude that DEWs were involved. The firemen reported that plastics attached to metal completely melted while plastics standing alone withstood what must have been extraordinary heat. Other investigators observed how guardrails caught fire at the points where the metal bolts connected to the wood. DEWs could produce these effects.
DEWs can:
be invisible and inaudible.be immune to gravity, wind and Coriolis forces.travel at light-speed and have near infinite range and thus be suitable for use in space warfare.be land-based, mounted on planes, drones, satellites or Boeing X-37s.have pinpoint accuracy.One disturbing effect mentioned by the firemen that I hadn't seen until I saw this video was the anomalous scarring along large swathes of forest, with the rest untouched.
The question of course is why the innocent populace of Paradise would be the target of a diabolical stealth attack using advanced weapons '' and by whom?
Rumors swirled about a high-speed railway and gold reserves discovered in the Paradise area but the most pervasive rumors involved the UN's Agenda 21 action plan and a Globalist plot to declare designated areas unfit for human habitation; to deny property rights, to undermine US sovereignty and to herd any survivors into megacities, with the goal of subjugating humanity to an ''eco-totalitarian'' regime.
While crazy-sounding and unbelievable, one cannot deny that mainstream media hosts were heard casually discussing whether people should be allowed to rebuild in Paradise.
Last Wednesday, the missing persons call center for those who were unaccounted for during the Camp Firewas closed down. Butte County officials were able to locate 3,200 people, with three individuals still considered missing, according to the sheriff's office. Four victims have not yet been named, deputies said. The Camp Fire was the deadliest fire in California's history, claiming 86 lives.
Directed Energy Weapons (DEW) Seem to Be Starting Fires in California and Oregon '' Era of Light
A Directed Energy Weapon was caught on a live stream going right into a fire in California. Then there was another shown igniting a fire in Oregon. Now, there's a black censorship line through the beam .
What is going on?!
YouTuber Dutchsinse has discovered something unbelievable while looking at the fires in the Western United States and studying the earthquakes occurring around the world.
When it's first noticed, Dutchsinse called it ''some kind of ray or beam of some kind.''
If you have trouble seeing, it at first, adjust the brightness on your device. But it is an incredible find:
The video below is a shorter version and has been brightened so the DEW can be seen better:
After this, Dutchsinse discovered another DEW last night.
That's at least two nights in a row. This one appears to come from the ocean and into a fire that has just started in Oregon:
After this was discovered, Dutchsinse noticed that someone decided to ''censor'' the beam by literally putting a black censorship bar right over the heat signature.
The energy beam which was beaming down has been BLACKED OUT ON PURPOSE'-- LOOK CLOSE wth????? To try to hide it'... they tried to match the black of the background but.. because its a live feed grey black its impossible to perfectly match.. so now we have a black line hiding the original beam HAHAHAHAHAAH Look close you'll see it! the black censorship line over it ! hahahahah epic fail. '' Dutchsinse, YouTube Community post
The website used to discover this can be found here.
Is this just a coincidence this happened two nights in a row? Is this just a coincidence these beams go into the fires? Is it just a coincidence that there's now a censor bar over the beams?
How many coincidences do we need?
If this is not a DEW, what the hell is it?
>> Source
Related
Is Chinese Technology Behind the Directed Energy Weapons Fires In No. California? | RevolutionRadio.org
By Dave HodgesTheCommonSenseShow.comDecember 4th, 2018
I am in possession of three different pieces of intelligence information that would indicate that the Deep State and the Chinese are partnering to bring down the country. This information has been made available to me over the past 11 days. Only one of the sources said it was permissible to identify their agency and it was the FBI.Summary of the Intelligence
To the best of my knowledge this is not open source, but neither is it classified because it is event driven. The following is information I have received from three sources:
1.The FBI source said that both Paul Preston and myself are correct about the CALEXIT movement which is designed to exit California from the Union. It is likely that such an event would collapse retail and lead to spot food shortages as well as escalating food prices. Some people within the FBI believe that the technology behind the directed energy weapons (DEW) is Chinese in origin with regard to manufacturing. It is the considered belief of this person given the circumstances, that the Deep State is using Chinese technology. This allows for plausible deniability because the DEW weapons are not of DARPA origin. I want to be clear at this point, the fires in California are not natural. They are the direct result of DEW weapons of Chinese origin. I asked the question, ''Does Trump know this''? The answer I received is that it would be hard for his people to not discover this.2.The second source says that a deal has been struck between CALEXIT and the Chinese. The Chinese, in exchange for use of their DEW technology, will be able buy up California distressed California farmland on the cheap in exchange creating maximum chaos in California. This has already taken place as Sen. Dianne Feinstein's husband, Richard Blum, has been doing exactly. According to radio interviews I have conducted with Paul Preston, if CALEXIT is not initially successful, and it has not been, massive violence is planned. Are these DEW's the manifestation of this? My second source says yes.3.The third source has repeatedly told me that not only are the DEWs Chinese in origin, but this merely represents the first part of what is coming. The burning down of California is designed to create chaos and to destabilize the state thus making it more appealing to more people in California to exit the US. However, I am told that there is a phase two. If California remains intact, an EMP is going to be used and it too, is Chinese in origin. If the readers will recall, that Paul Martin and I, along with another intelligence source, published photos of UN vehicles in Southern Wyoming which were communications devices designed to survive an EMP attack. It is the belief of this source that if American nationalism cannot be thwarted, that an EMP attack combined with other paramilitary activities are planned as the final option.
ConclusionI have also received other leads that I am checking out as of the publication date.
I am interviewing ex-CIA clandestine officer, Robert David Steele, today and there is an element of this that will be discussed. Regardless of one's political persuasion, nobody can argue that the fate of America lies in the balance.
This entry was postedon Tuesday, December 4th, 2018 at 4:57 pmand is filed under China, Earth Changes, New World Order, Technology.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Residents set up checkpoints in Corbett hours after fireworks reportedly ignite brief fire, deputies say - oregonlive.com
The Multnomah County Sheriff's Office on Friday night warned residents of Corbett not to set up illegal checkpoints, even if their stated purpose was ''keeping the community safe.''
The admonition came hours after the sheriff's office said deputies responded to reports of a brush fire near Corbett, and discovered fireworks near the scene.
Neighbors heard several pops, spotted the flames and quickly extinguished the blaze, deputies said.
The sheriff's office tweet about the fireworks was shared nearly 5,000 times on Twitter.
Hours later, the sheriff's office said residents had set up checkpoints around the town.
''While we understand their intent is to keep the community safe, it is never legal to block a public roadway or force other citizens to stop,'' the sheriff's office said in a tweet around 9 p.m. Friday. ''This type of action increases the risk of injury to everyone at one of these roadblocks. We have had extra deputies patrolling Corbett all day and will through the rest of the weekend."
The sheriff's office did not say whether the groups of people left when asked or how many people they had contacted. The agency has not said if investigators learned more about who lit the fireworks that sparked the short-lived fire.
Fears of violence have sparked anecdotal reports of vigilantism across the state, after several right-wing groups began spreading false rumors that the devastating wildfires were started by anti-fascists. Investigators are looking into at least one of the fires as possible arson, but authorities have uniformly stated that there is no evidence to suggest any of the fires are politically motivated.
Law enforcement agencies have increased patrols in fire-affected regions to deter thieves from breaking into evacuated homes and business.
Oregon Public Broadcasting reporter Sergio Olmos and two independent journalists were approached Thursday by armed men in Molalla who told them to leave the city, Olmos said on Twitter. Photos posted by Olmos and a second journalist show armed men standing by the road and looking at the reporters.
''I was interviewing a couple, two men with rifles approached our group and asked what we were doing and what we're taking pictures of,'' Olmos said Thursday afternoon in a tweet. ''Then [they] told us it was time to leave.''
Justin Yau, an independent journalist who was with Olmos at the time, said on Twitter the armed group was ''wary of outsiders based on rumors of arsonists starting fires in the area.''
K. Rambo of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report.
Firefighters monitor a controlled burn along Nacimiento-Fergusson Road to help contain the Dolan Fire near Big Sur, Calif., on Friday. Nic Coury/AP hide caption
toggle caption Nic Coury/AP Firefighters monitor a controlled burn along Nacimiento-Fergusson Road to help contain the Dolan Fire near Big Sur, Calif., on Friday.
Nic Coury/AP Updated at 12:06 a.m. ET on Sunday
Fire crews battling blazes across the western United States are hoping a change in conditions, including increased humidity and cooler temperatures, will aid them in containment efforts.
Some 29,000 personnel are working to stop 97 large fires that have burned some 4.7 million acres across several states, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. About 40 of those fires have prompted evacuation orders in California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Idaho and Utah.
The White House said Saturday that President Trump will visit McClellan Park, Calif., on Monday to be briefed on fires by local and federal officials.
Fires have killed at least 28 people since mid-August, though authorities worry about more who are unaccounted for. In Oregon, an official with the state's department of a emergency management is warning of a "mass fatality incident."
Democratic governors in California and Washington are speaking out about climate change, as the record-breaking fire season scorches parts of their states.
Meanwhile, law enforcement and public officials are contending with online conspiracy theories about the origins of at least some of the blazes.
A man stops on his bike along the Willamette River as smoke from wildfires partially obscures the Tilikum Crossing Bridge on Saturday in Portland. John Locher/AP hide caption
toggle caption John Locher/AP A man stops on his bike along the Willamette River as smoke from wildfires partially obscures the Tilikum Crossing Bridge on Saturday in Portland.
John Locher/AP "Mass fatality incident" and hopes for a break in conditions
The director of Oregon's Office of Emergency Management, Andrew Phelps, warned of a "mass fatality incident" as fires there continue after having burned more than 1 million acres.
Half a million Oregonians are under some kind of evacuation notice while about 40,000 have already fled.
By Saturday evening, at least eight people had died as a result of wildfires in Oregon. Gov. Kate Brown said dozens were missing during a virtual news conference a day earlier.
Fire officials in Oregon expressed optimism that a change in conditions is enabling progress by the 3,000 fire personnel in the state.
"Cooler temperatures, along with moisture in the air, helped the firefighters put us in a position to move from just life safety to the offense against these fires," said Department of Forestry Chief of Fire Protection Doug Grafe during the press conference.
Grafe went on to say that conditions are expected to push through the weekend.
"This is positive firefighting weather for three days. It'll continue to next week with more favorable conditions," Grafe added.
Changing weather conditions are expected to also improve air quality, which Brown noted is the "worst in the world" because of the fires.
On Friday, the National Weather Service in Portland tweeted that marine air with a "modest westerly breeze" was expected to improve air quality in both Oregon and Washington.
Marine air begins to work inland over the next couple of days with a modest westerly breeze. This will allow air quality and visibilities to begin to improve over northwest OR and southwest WA, as seen in this computer model for today (Fri). Purples depict the densest smoke. pic.twitter.com/U7ADxX4smw
'-- NWS Portland (@NWSPortland) September 11, 2020California, Oregon and Washington have all been dealing with poor air quality because of the fires.
In California, Cal Fire said improved weather conditions had helped some containment efforts, though other parts of the state haven't seen much relief from the weather conditions that have driven fires.
"While weather conditions have improved compared to last weekend, warm and dry conditions persist through much of the state, although onshore flow early next week should help with humidity level," Cal Fire said in its daily wildfire update.
But the agency also warned that "critical fire weather" could soon return.
"Red Flag conditions are in effect in the very northern part of California on Sunday, bringing gusty winds and low humidity to the Modoc National Forest and the Tulelake Basin," the agency went on to say.
Governors talk climate change
California Gov. Gavin Newsom surveyed damage from the North Complex Fire in the state's Oroville State Recreation Area on Friday.
The North Complex Fire has burned more than 252,000 acres in three of the state's northern counties. Statewide, Cal Fire said, 28 major wildfires have devastated 3.2 million acres. At least 22 people have died since Aug. 15, with over 4,000 structures destroyed.
Capital Public Radio noted that six of the state's 20 largest fires have burned this year, including the August Complex Fire in the Mendocino and Humboldt counties. That fire, the second largest in recorded state history, has already consumed more than 875,000 acres.
During his visit on Friday, Newsom vowed to accelerate efforts to fight climate change. Newsom called the fires a "climate damn emergency."
"The debate is over around climate change. Just come to the state of California. Observe it with your own eyes," Newsom said.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee made his own call to action on climate. Noting that, as of Friday, more than 626,000 acres burned in his state, Inslee labeled this season's blazes "climate fires."
"Right now, we have a state that is just a tinderbox. And the reason is, is because of the low humidity, the high temperatures and obviously the winds, and these are conditions that are becoming much more frequent in our state. That's why we had three of the last five years some of the worst fires in our state's history," Inslee said.
Also on Friday, Newsom signed a bill to allow inmate firefighters to have their records expunged.
A burned residence is seen as destructive wildfires devastate the region on Friday in Talent, Ore. Paula Bronstein/AP hide caption
toggle caption Paula Bronstein/AP A burned residence is seen as destructive wildfires devastate the region on Friday in Talent, Ore.
Paula Bronstein/AP Authorities battle conspiracy theory narrative
Alongside efforts to contain the blazes, authorities in the Pacific Northwest have been battling the spread of misinformation.
Postings to Facebook and other social media sites have been spreading rumors of looting and even blaming left-wing activists for starting the blaze.
In Oregon, where right-wing and left-wing activists clashed in Portland, conspiracy theories have blamed antifa '-- anti-fascist protesters '-- with starting fires.
Oregon Public Broadcasting reports that in rural parts of the state, vigilante groups have organized to drive off rumored threats. One of the station's reporters was recently stopped by such a group in Clackamas County and told to leave.
Law enforcement organizations have been working to quash the rumors.
In Douglas County, the sheriff's office shot down rumors that it had arrested several antifa members, calling the conflagration of misinformation a drain on resources.
"Rumors spread just like wildfire and now our 9-1-1 dispatchers and professional staff are being overrun with requests for information and inquiries on an UNTRUE rumor that 6 Antifa members have been arrested for setting fires in DOUGLAS COUNTY, OREGON," the Sheriff's office posted to its Facebook page this week.
Similar rumors spread in Jackson County, where officials opened an investigation into the Almeda fire.
"In no way does it point towards any political group, including anybody associated with antifa. Any rumors suggesting that it is pointed toward antifa are entirely fabricated," said Ashland Police Chief Tighe O'Meara.
The FBI field office in Portland says it has investigated such rumors are found them untrue.
"Conspiracy theories and misinformation take valuable resources away [from] local fire and police agencies working around the clock to bring these fires under control," the field office said in a statement on Friday.
Oregon Public Broadcasting's Ryan Haas and Conrad Wilson contributed to this report.
Arson Arrests Being Made Across the West Coast '' Multiple Fires Identified as Arson '' 27 People Killed, Dozens Missing'.... | The Last Refuge
In a rather disconcerting sequence of events many of the west coast forest fires are now being attributed to intentional arson. One of the key aspects to the unnatural outbreak of fires is the proximity to homes and well established neighborhoods in California, Washington State and Oregon.
A twitter account by Katie Daviscourt has been tracking some of the fires and a recent series of events from the area(s) [SEE HERE]. The ongoing thread is updated with several points of evidence where people have been caught, captured or filmed in the act of lighting fires. There is some speculation, and some evidence, that some of these fires may have been ignited by Antifa activists as a method of further creating crisis in the region.
The FBI is saying there is no evidence Antifa or Joe Biden's far-left base of support are behind the fires. However, given the internal dynamic within the FBI; and accepting the FBI carries a political agenda; and considering the facts on the ground do not support the denials; the downplaying of motive by the FBI is not very reassuring.
A statement by federal law enforcement to Law Enforcement Today is troubling and points to several ongoing investigations into these fires:
LawEnforcementToday '' ['...] A federal law enforcement source shared with Law Enforcement Today that the feds are looking into whether some of the cases are linked together'... and warn there could be more ''attacks''.
''We are reacting to a coordinated series of attempts to start fires anywhere and everywhere in Oregon. Public and Private lands, incorporated and unincorporated areas.
By all indications so far in the preliminary stages of these investigations there is a coordinated effort on the part of these individuals to start fires in areas that are the least protected and most vulnerable then slowing working their way into more populated areas and neighborhoods.
Please take this information as an advisory for you own account and welfare and please act in good faith with due diligence to plan accordingly for your own safety and the well being of your community.'' (read more)
We just got level 2 alert (3 is evacuate)We are listening to ham radio & people are getting caught left and right for Arson (I mean in the dozens). We are also hearing that they can't contain any of the fires.Ham radio channel 155.430 155.190Arsonists are getting caught listen''¸ pic.twitter.com/JcCXPOlCdz
'-- Short and Sweet (@nehdah) September 10, 2020
MSM '' ['...] In Oregon's Clackamas and Marion counties south of Portland, smoke was so thick that it was difficult to see more than 10 feet ahead Saturday morning.
Carolee Brown told CNN she has relocated twice this week because of evacuation orders. She's been losing sleep, constantly monitoring her home's security camera online to see if it's still standing. As of Saturday morning, it was.
''It's unreal. You can't really fathom what is going on,'' she told CNN in Marion County. ''You take what you think (you should), and you just get out.''
While Oregon's death toll was at least six on Saturday, the state is preparing for a ''mass fatality incident'' based on how many structures have been charred, Oregon Emergency Management Director Andrew Phelps said Friday.
Already, dozens are missing, the state's governor said, mostly across Jackson, Lane and Marion counties in western Oregon. (read more)
(2) FBI Portland on Twitter: "Reports that extremists are setting wildfires in Oregon are untrue. Help us stop the spread of misinformation by only sharing information from trusted, official sources. https://t.co/ENc4c3kjep" / Twitter
FBI Portland : Reports that extremists are setting wildfires in Oregon are untrue. Help us stop the spread of misinformation by on'... https://t.co/FzfFhYSPSA
Fri Sep 11 18:20:42 +0000 2020
Smudge : @FBIPortland Yeah, but @FBI also said Carter Page wasn't a CIA source, @realDonaldTrump was a Russian Agent, 9/11 w'... https://t.co/s6bRD2pEwH
Sun Sep 13 13:36:20 +0000 2020
Sam Iam : @FBIPortland however one fire was started by a families gender reveal party, just like the fire in Arizona last yea'... https://t.co/chFoQzBbUG
Sun Sep 13 13:30:39 +0000 2020
Tree House Kids : @FBIPortland @ParvezFAhmed
Sun Sep 13 13:29:48 +0000 2020
Woman accused of intentionally starting fires on Highway 101 arrested - KION546
UPDATE 9/11/2020 2:20 p.m. The Monterey County District Attorney's Office tells KION that they have no information or evidence suggesting that a woman accused of intentionally starting fires on Highway 101 has any connection to Antifa.
The DA said there is no evidence of that sort of activity in the area.
PREVIOUS STORY: The California Highway Patrol confirms that a woman has been arrested after being accused of intentionally starting fires.
They said it happened on Highway 101 near Boronda Road, and it was first reported just after 9 a.m. The number of fires was not released.
The suspect, identified as 37-year-old Anita Esquivel, is booked into the Monterey County Jail arson.
Crime / Monterey County / Salinas / Top Stories
Man arrested on arson allegation in wildfire west of Eugene, deputies say - oregonlive.com
The Sweet Creek Milepost 2 fire is seen in an undated photo. Sweet Creek Milepost 2 fire InciWeb page
A 44-year-old man was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of arson in a wildfire that has burned nearly 400 acres and prompted evacuations west of Eugene, deputies say.
Elias Newton Pendergrass is accused of first-degree arson in the Sweet Creek Milepost 2 fire, which covers 382 acres near the community of Mapleton. Pendergrass, a Mapleton resident, is being held in the Lane County Jail.
The county sheriff's office didn't provide details about the arson allegation in a news release Tuesday afternoon.
Officials have previously said several fires started Sunday afternoon and that they were managing the blazes as a single fire.
Some area residents are still under evacuation, while others have been told to be ready or set to leave.
The blaze is estimated to be 15% contained, fire officials said early Wednesday.
-- Jim Ryan; jryan@oregonian.com; 503-221-8005; @Jimryan015
Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.
Arson suspect arrested after allegedly starting multiple fires in Spokane on Monday | News | khq.com
A woman is behind bars after she is suspected of starting fires in east Spokane on Monday.
According to Spokane Police, Officer Mohondro arrived on scene he saw some grass and a pallet on fire outside of a commercial business. SPD said there were no power lines around and there did not seem to be a reason for the start of the fire unless it was human caused.
The same officer spotted another fire a few blocks away.
SPD said the fire was next to an old oil drum under a tree which gave the fire the potential to explode into something much larger was very high. The Spokane Fire Department responded and put that fire out.
Officer Mohondro asked for more units to respond to the area to look for a suspect.
Police detained 36-year-old Christine Comello.
Comello lied about her name to police but it was later discovered she had a warrant for her arrest.
According to SPD, witnesses later identified Comello as the arson suspect.
She was booked for 2nd degree arson, 1st degree arson and burglary.
Eastern Washington woman arrested for starting fires while crews worked to fix fallen power lines - YakTriNews.com
SPOKANE, Wash. '-- Spokane Police arrested a woman for allegedly starting fires in East Spokane while crews were trying to fix fallen power lines and put out electrical fires on Monday.
An officer was responding to a fire call by Magnolia and Riverside; there had been several fallen power lines that day, so he went to investigate.
Instead, he found grass and a pallet on fire outside of a business, with no way it could have started outside of arson, according to Police. A few blocks away, the same officer spotted another fire in an alleyway, next to an old oil drum by a garage and some trees.
The officer called the Fire Department in, who put out those flames.
Given the nature of these fires, the officer called in more units to help investigate. Witnesses told police they saw a woman leaving the locations of both fires, and their description of her was the same.
Officers eventually identified 36-year-old Christine Comello, who lied to police about her name. Comello had a felony warrant for burglary and reckless burning, tied to another incident a few weeks prior where she reportedly started fires at a Spokane Valley business.
Comello was identified in surveillance video and confirmed to be the suspect by witnesses, and a lighter and burnt paper was found in her pocket.
Comello was booked into the Spokane County Jail for first-degree arson, second-degree arson and burglary.
Noodle Gun
Ubisoft CEO apologises for misconduct allegations and other controversies, ahead of Ubisoft Forward show | Business News | MCV/DEVELOP
Ubisoft has released a statement from CEO Yves Guillemot, who apologised for a number of controversies that have surrounded the company of late. This includes the recent abuse scandal as well as criticisms of Ubisoft's new mobile game, Tom Clancy's Elite Squad.
In reference to allegations of abuse by high-level employees, and that Ubisoft's HR department would not respond to said complaints, Guillemot remarked: ''This summer, we learned that certain Ubisoft employees did not uphold our company's values, and that our systems failed to protect the victims of their behaviour.''
''I am truly sorry to everyone who was hurt. We have taken significant steps to remove or sanction those who violated our values and code of conduct and we are working to improve our systems and processes.
''We are also focused on improving diversity and inclusivity at all levels of the company. For example, we will invest an additional $1 million over the next five years in our graduate program. The focus will be on creating opportunities for underrepresented groups, including women and people of color to join and thrive at Ubisoft.
''We are at the start of a long journey. Real change will take time. But I am determined to do everything in my power to ensure everyone at Ubisoft feels welcome, respected, and safe. And to rebuild the trust our teams, fans, and players have in us.''
Guillemot also addressed the controversy surrounding Tom Clancy's Elite Squad, Ubisoft's new mobile title. Some people have argued that the game's imagery and messaging conflates its antagonists with the Black Lives Matter movement. The game's villain's use of a raised fist imagery has drawn particular criticism, with Ubisoft promising to patch this logo out of the game.
''Around the world, this year continues to be a time of societal unrest,'' Guillemot said. ''I want to be clear. Ubisoft stands for equality and respect for all. Unfortunately, one of our recent mobile games included content that was inappropriate. This kind of oversight cannot happen. We are putting in place safeguards to prevent it in the future.''
''We condemn anyone using our game as a proxy for hate or toxicity,'' Guillemot specified in his message today. ''We fully support the Black Lives Matter movement. And today, we are making an additional donation to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.''
Despite these controversies, the Ubisoft CEO rejected any notions that he may step down from his position, stating ''I am fully committed to leading the change at Ubisoft, and to ensuring we always uphold and exemplify our core values. In the company, in the industry, the community, and in our games.''
The video has drawn some criticism for being released separately from the Ubisoft Forward show, which began just hours later. Responding to the complaints in the Twitter replies, Ubisoft stated: '' We hear you, due to timing constraints, we chose to release the video as a standalone message before our #UbiForward event, but we are working to ensure it will be available in full in the VOD versions of the show.''
2020
BIDEN DIAPERS - TruJester on Twitter: "@adamcurry https://t.co/rtYnWEmfxM" / Twitter
Authored by 'sundance' via TheConservativeTreehouse.com,
According to a pre-release excerpt from the Washington Post Bob Woodward writes about a discussion between General James Mattis and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats about a plot to overthrow the elected government of the United States.
[...] ''Mattis quietly went to Washington National Cathedral to pray about his concern for the nation's fate under Trump's command and, according to Woodward, told Coats, ''There may come a time when we have to take collective action'' since Trump is ''dangerous. He's unfit.'' (read more)
What do you call a conversation between the Defense Secretary and the head of the U.S. intelligence apparatus where they are talking about taking ''collective action'' to remove an elected President? That's called sedition'.... A seditious conspiracy.
As alarming as that sounds on its face, this actually aligns with our own previous research into key military leadership, the joint chiefs, and their corrupt intent to overthrow the elected government. Readers will remember when we noted this very issue after Lt. Col Alexander Vindman compromised his position yet was not removed by his command structure within the Pentagon.
NOVEMBER 2019 '' [...] For emphasis let me repeat a current fact that is being entirely overlooked. Despite his admitted usurpation of President Trump policy, Vindman was sent back to his post in the NSC with the full support of the United States Department of Defense.
The onus of action to remove Vindman from the NSC does not just lay simply at the feet of the White House and National Security advisor Robert O'Brien; and upon whose action the removal of Vindman could be positioned as political; the necessary, albeit difficult or perhaps challenging, obligation to remove Lt. Col Vindman also resides purposefully with the Dept. of Defense.
The Pentagon could easily withdraw Vindman from his position at the National Security Council; yet, it does not'.... and it has not. WHY?
There is a code within the military whereby you never put your leadership into a position of compromise; ie. ''never compromise your leadership''. In this example, President Trump cannot remove Vindman from the White House NSC advisory group due to political ramifications and appearances...
The Joint Chiefs certainly recognize this issue; it is the very type of compromise they are trained to remove. Yet they do nothing to remove the compromise. They do nothing to assist.
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was the majority (#1) source for the material CIA operative Eric Ciaramella used in a collaborative effort to remove President Trump from office. Let me make this implication crystal clear:
The United States Military is collaborating with the CIA to remove a U.S. President from office.Do you see the issue now?
The Pentagon has done nothing, absolutely nothing, to countermand this implication/reality.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff have done nothing, absolutely nothing, to diminish the appearance of, nor deconstruct the agenda toward, the removal of President Trump.
Mr. President, do I have your attention?
(Full Outline)
Between 2013 & 2016, James Mattis was on the board of Therano, a healthcare tech startup that provided fraudulent blood testing that swindled $10B from investors.The now-d(C)funt Therano founder & CEO Elizabeth Holmes has been indicted with 11 counts.https://t.co/K7q0ph306d
'-- BenTallmadge (@BenKTallmadge) June 4, 2020Another retired General slams Trump: Stink tank Brookings President John Allen warns of 'descent into illiberalism'-Trillions of dollars had been pissed away in third world hellholes, had these generals ever won a war before?https://t.co/jGeDzsaOHb
'-- BenTallmadge (@BenKTallmadge) June 4, 2020Additionally, Bob Woodward points to Vice President Mike Pence as the whisperer who made sure President Trump blindly nominated officials who could facilitate his removal. Remember, Dan Coats came into the ODNI position from his role within the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI).
The SSCI was at the center of the legislative effort to remove President Trump. It was from the SSCI that Security Director James Wolfe was instructed to deliver a series of intelligence leaks against President Trump. The same SSCI who retained the fraudulent premise of the Trump-Russia collusion narrative.
['...] ''Woodward describes Coats's experience as especially tortured. Coats, a former senator from Indiana, was recruited into the administration by Vice President Pence, and his wife is quoted as recalling a dinner at the White House when she interacted with Pence.
''I just looked at him, like, how are you stomaching this?'' Marsha Coats said, according to Woodward. ''I just looked at him like, this is horrible. I mean, we made eye contact. I think he understood. And he just whispered in my ear, 'Stay the course.'''' (link)
Donald John Trump is the first DC outsider we have ever elected to become President of the United States. The scale of what has been revealed merely by his presence is rather jaw-dropping...
The Atlantic calls to 'end the Nobel Peace Prize' following Trump nominations | Fox News
'Peace had its chance, and blew it,' reads the tagline of the articleThe Atlantic magazine raised eyebrows on Friday when it published a piece calling for the abolition of the Nobel Peace Prize after President Trump was nominated for the prestigious honor.
The president's name was submitted for the 2021 prize by Norwegian lawmaker Christian Tybring-Gjedde, who cited Trump's role in brokering a peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Trump has since earned a second nomination from Swedish lawmaker Magnus Jacobsson for overseeing an economic deal between Kosovo and Serbia.
The nominations, however, apparently didn't sit well with the liberal magazine, which declared Friday that "peace had its chance, and blew it."
ANONYMOUS SOURCES IN THE ATLANTIC'S DONALD TRUMP BOMBSHELL URGED TO GO ON THE RECORD
"If Trump wins the prize, it will be the fourth Nobel awarded for peace between Israel and its neighbors," wrote Atlantic staff writer Graeme Wood. "That will make Arab-Israeli peace mediators more successful at charming the Nobel Committee than the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has won three times in the prize's 120-year history, but still less successful than my favorite, which is no one at all.
"Giving the peace prize to no one at all is a tradition the Nobel Committee should revive, perhaps on a permanent basis," Wood added. "The record of achievement of the peace laureates is so spotty, and the rationales for their awards so eclectic, that the committee should take a long break to consider whether peace is a category coherent enough to be worth recognizing. Peace had its chance, and blew it. The Trump nomination ... helps show why."
Wood described Tybring-Gjedde's nomination of Trump "preposterous," saying the president's "main diplomatic maneuver is to adopt a lickspittle posture toward authoritarians, promising them decades in power in return for a smile and a condo development. Peace does not mean a web of personal agreements between rich psychopaths."
"By now the contradictions of the peace prize should be apparent," he added. "Is it given for peace, or for rumors of peace? Do you deserve a prize for maintaining despots, as long as the despots are part of a stable network? Is it given for accidentally wrecking a great military '-- or only if the destruction is intentional? What if you do all the right things, but you are a boor, or an alleged rapist?"
Wood argued that the peace prize is more "subjective" than the other Nobel honors, stating that 1973 winner Henry Kissinger ended and started "many conflicts" and noting that 2009 honoree Barack Obama refused to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il and expanded America's drone program, adding that the 44th president "won for his promotion of, notably not his success in achieving, 'cooperation between peoples.'"
MSNBC, CNN MOSTLY IGNORE TRUMP'S MAJOR ISRAEL-UAE PEACE DEAL DURING PRIMETIME
"All of this points to one of two conclusions," Wood stated. "The Nobel Committee can either give the prize to do-gooder organizations such as the Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders ... or it can keep the prize locked away for a while, and reevaluate its reasoning for a modern era.
"I suspect that that reevaluation will end, if the committee is honest, with the admission that peace can be recognized only by its fruits, which take decades to mature, and not by its seeds. To keep giving awards for the seeds is to court embarrassment, and to make yourself hostage to wacky attention-seeking nominations like Trump's. Better to shut it down, before the trolls do first."
The article was greeted with incredulity and criticism on social media.
"I don't expect the media to like Trump and don't care about the Nobel, but the hostility here is discrediting," RealClearInvestigations senior writer Mark Hemingway reacted.
"The liberal media are having a mental meltdown over Trump's 2 Nobel Peace Prize nominations," NewsBusters analyst Nicholas Fondacaro tweeted.
"Is this a parody account," Newsweek opinion editor Josh Hammer asked.
TRUMP NOMINATED FOR NOBEL PEACE PRIZE BY NORWEGIAN OFFICIAL, CITING ISRAEL-UAE PEACE DEAL
"This is silly. Trump does something worthy of it, so the entire system must be burned down?" tweeted Erielle Davidson, a senior policy analyst at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America.
"I thought people were just trolling the Atlantic when they were saying they're calling for the end of the Nobel Peace Prize in response to Trump being nominated for 2, but alas, nope: it is real," Daily Wire contributor Harry Khachatrian said.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP
The Atlantic recently generated headlines with its explosive reporting that alleged President Trump disparaged fallen World War I soldiers buried at the Aisne-Marne American cemetery near Paris as "suckers" and described the cemetery as being "filled with losers" on a trip to France in 2018.
President Trump, as well as current and former members of his administration, have strongly denied The Atlantic's reporting.
Remarks by President Trump on the Announcement of Normalization of Relations Between Israel and the Kingdom of Bahrain
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Just a few moments ago, I hosted a historic call between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and King Hamad Al Khalifa of Bahrain. Both leaders expressed their condolences as well to the American people on this very, very tragic, horrible event that took place on September 11th. And they very much meant it. I want to thank them for that.
There's no more powerful response to the hatred that spawned 9/11 than the agreement that we're about to tell you. You will hear something today that's, I think, very, very important for not only the Middle East but for the world.
In the spirit of peace and cooperation, both leaders also agreed that Bahrain will fully normalize its diplomatic relations with Israel. They will exchange embassies and ambassadors, begin direct flights between their countries, and launch cooperation initiatives across a broad range of sectors, including health, business, technology, education, security, and agriculture. This is a truly historic day.
There have been two peace agreements with Israel in the last 72 years. This is now the second peace agreement that we have announced in the last month, and I am very hopeful that there will be more to follow. I can tell you there's tremendous enthusiasm on behalf of other countries to also join. And we think, ultimately, you'll have most countries join, and you're going to have the Palestinians in a very good position. They want to come in '-- they're going to want to come in because all of their friends are in. But we have tremendous enthusiasm for coming into the deal.
I want to thank the group of very talented people behind me, and you're going to be hearing from them in a second. But it's just a very historic day, a very important day, and so interesting that it's on 9/11. It's such a great time. We didn't know this was going to happen in terms of the timing, but it did happen, and we're very honored by it.
When I took office, the Middle East was in a state of absolute chaos. I've restored trust with our regional partners, and together we've eliminated the ISIS caliphate 100 percent; isolated the radicals who pervert Islam and sow instability. Today, nations across the region and throughout the world are joining together, united in their determination to build a better future, free from the evils which perpetuate terror. And I think you see that. I think you see that happening very, very strongly.
I also spoke with King Salman of Saudi Arabia, and we talked about this, and he is '-- he's a great gentleman. And what they've done in terms of fighting terror is a much different ballgame than it was before we attained this office. The fact is that Saudi Arabia was doing things that they're not doing anymore, and so are other countries and neighbors. They are doing things that they just would never have done. Their levels and their '-- all of the things '-- all of the many, many elements of fighting and hate, they seem to be evaporating. And we'll find out very soon. But they seem to be evaporating.
So things are happening in the Middle East that nobody thought was even possible to think about, and that's what's going on right now. Bahrain has agreed to join Israel and the United Arab Emirates for '-- and, by the way, I want to thank Mohammed, who's a great leader, a truly great leader '-- at the White House on Tuesday. So they'll be here on Tuesday for the signing of the Abraham Accords. The significance of the signing will be elevated from an already historic breakthrough to one representing a previously unthinkable regional transformation. And that's exactly what it is. It's unthinkable that this could happen, and so fast.
And, as you know, when we did the original signing with '-- and which will actually take place in terms of official on Tuesday '-- United Arab Emirates, people thought that was amazing. And now they're hearing this, and they're also hearing from other countries because they understand that other countries want to very much come in.
On this occasion, I want to thank the leaders of Israel and Bahrain for their vision and courage to forge this historic agreement. Their leadership is proving that the future can be filled with hope and does not need to be predetermined by conflicts of the past. You know all about the conflicts of the past; they're very legendary. There was a lot of problems going on, but we've been able to work things out to a level that nobody thought possible. This is really something very special '-- very, very special.
As more countries normalize relations with Israel '-- which will happen quite quickly, we believe '-- the region will become more and more stable, secure, and prosperous.
In the meantime, we're pulling most of our soldiers out. So we're doing it the opposite way. They were doing it with nothing but fighting and blood all over the place. The sand was loaded up with blood. And now you're going to see that a lot of that sand is going to be loaded up with peace.
The United States will continue to stand with the people of the region and work with them, and build a brighter and much more hopeful future.
So we're very proud of this. And as time goes by, I think you'll see more and more why. I think most of you realize how important it is. Even the New York Times, who was very generous in their praise of the original deal, and they never thought '-- I think nobody thought this was going to happen so quickly after the first.
But they'll both be here on Tuesday. They're going to be signing. Benjamin Netanyahu will be here. The Prime Minister will be here '-- Israel. And we look forward to that.
Just on this deal, because of the importance of the deal, we'll take some questions. But first, I'd like to ask Jared to say a few words and Mike Pence to say a few words and some of the folks. David, I'd like you to say something about it because it's so historic.
And these people have worked so hard and so long on it. This is really the culmination of a long period of time '-- let's put it that way. I don't want to say how long, but it's been '-- it's a long period of time. It's a great thing.
Jared, please.
MR. KUSHNER: Thank you, Mr. President. And first, I want to thank you for your leadership on this issue. Your first foreign trip was to Saudi Arabia, where you outlined a vision for the region. And all of the promises you made on that trip and all of the things that you foreshadowed have occurred.
It's been a strategy that you've stuck with, and I want to thank you for giving me the trust and confidence that you've given me in order to work on this file over the last years. And I think the results that we've achieved has been beyond anyone's expectations. And I believe that there's even more to come.
I just returned from the region last week. I was in the Middle East, where I took the first commercial flight that's ever flown from Israel to the United Arab Emirates. That flight flew over Saudi Arabian airspace. It was the first time in 72 years that Saudi Arabia has now waived their airspace to allow commercial flights to fly from Israel back and forth.
Bahrain then did the same thing. The United Arab Emirates waived a 48-year boycott on Israel, which was an incredible development. And there are now delegations moving throughout the Middle East, figuring out how to bring the people closer together.
What President Trump has done here is unthinkable. He's brought people in the Middle East together. There's been these barriers that have existed that have led to so much instability, so much war, so much loss, so much hopelessness. And we're seeing so much hopefulness now coming.
And I will say something that I never thought would be the case, which is that, on this last trip, the amount of optimism that has happened, that we're experiencing in the Middle East, is truly incredible.
So I just want to congratulate you. I want to congratulate the people of Israel. I want to congratulate the people from the Kingdom of Bahrain. I want to thank their tremendous leadership. And I also want to congratulate the people of the Middle East because the first deal that you were able to accomplish was so popular that things are really starting to move in a really strong direction.
And this makes America safer. It allows us to '-- to bring our troops home. It allows us to work on bringing prosperity to American communities.
So, really, thank you for your leadership.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Jared. Great job.
MR. KUSHNER: And congratulations on this great success.
THE PRESIDENT: Great job. Thank you very much, Jared.
Mike, please.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Mr. President, I can think of no more fitting tribute to the heroes that were forged on this day 19 years ago, and all the heroes that were forged on battlefields ever since, than to see this peace agreement announced today.
And, Mr. President, you said from early on that we could stand with Israel and we could stand for peace. Your very first foreign trip was to the Arab world '-- to reach out, to create new alliances. You affirmed our support for Israel when you moved the American embassy to Jerusalem. And the strength with which you have approached this has made now this second historic peace agreement possible.
And I just want to '-- I want to congratulate you and thank you, Mr. President, for your leadership.
I also want to '-- I want to thank the people of the Kingdom of Bahrain and the people of Israel for finding a way forward to begin to take one more step toward peace in the Middle East and to know that, in this President and in the American people, they will have an ally with us.
The Good Book says, ''Blessed are the peacemakers.'' And, Mr. President, I just want to congratulate you, I want to congratulate Prime Minister Netanyahu and King Hamad of Bahrain on bringing peace between their nations and widening the reach of peace in the world.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Congratulations.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Mike. Great.
Our wonderful Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, who has been really something. He's been '-- I put him there. I knew him for a long time. He was one of the most successful lawyers in the country, by far. And at least, based on his paycheck, I can tell you that. (Laughter.) And he is a great lawyer. He's a great talent and a great dealmaker. And I put him there for a reason. I put him there to get it done, as in, just don't be a regular ambassador, like so many are. Just get it done; see if you can bring peace to the Middle East.
David, please.
AMBASSADOR FRIEDMAN: Thank you, Mr. President. And I will always be indebted to you for giving me that honor. It's one that I hold extremely dear.
But, as you know, Mr. President, people have thought about the Middle East, for the past 100 years or more, as a place of violence, of hopelessness, of suffering, of war. What we're seeing in real time, in this room today and last month, we're seeing the paradigm for the Middle East completely change. The world is turning in a very positive way. And it's all because, if I may say, because of the policy that you began in May of 2017 of trusting our allies, of empowering our allies; and in my case, of course, of being the greatest friend that Israel has ever had '-- of putting people on the job who share those values and convictions. And the fruit is now being borne in this incredible peace agreement.
Your policy of ''peace through strength'' has changed the world profoundly for the better. And I'm '-- as the Ambassador to Israel, I'm eternally grateful for the changes that you have made for the U.S.-Israel relationship.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, David. Great job. Thank you.
Avi, please.
MR. BERKOWITZ: Thank you, Mr. President. Congratulations.
THE PRESIDENT: He looks young, but he's not as young. (Laughter.) I will tell you, he's very smart. Go ahead.
MR. BERKOWITZ: Thank you, Mr. President. Congratulations on just a tremendous, historic, you know, achievement here today. I think I just speak for everybody in this room, all of my colleagues who have worked in your administration, that thanks to your leadership, there's just a tremendous sense of pride to be an American, to work on these issues under your leadership.
And I'm just so appreciative to you and so honored to be part of your team. So thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Avi. (Applause.)
MR. HOOK: Mr. President, I think historians will look back on these two peace agreements as the beginning of the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict. And you talked about the journey to get here. And I remember I heard you pledge, when you were in Riyadh and when you were in Israel '-- you pledged that you would strengthen America's friendships and to build new partnerships in the pursuit of peace. And you've kept that promise, and we see that very clearly today.
Rather than appeasing America's adversaries in the region, you've recruited America's allies. And you focused on shared interests and shared threats, but you also asked them to shoulder their part of the burden and to fulfill their end of the obligation. Nations rallied behind it, and as a consequence, the foundation has now been laid for great things in the coming years.
THE PRESIDENT: Great. Well said. Thank you very much.
Would you have anything to say?
MAJOR GENERAL CORREA: Mr. President, on behalf of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines, thank you for your bold leadership and Sheikh Mohammed's bold leadership; Prime Minister Netanyahu's bold leadership; King Hamad's bold leadership; Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, again; your bold leadership. What we've tried for the last 100 years has not worked.
And I think it's very fitting that, on September 11th, we honor those special operators that we buried and lost with '-- with peace. And this is a way to beat terrorism at the end of the day. So we're honored and privileged. And thank you for your leadership.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, they had a lot of bad thinking, a lot of bad concepts, a lot of things that I never thought were going to work. These were the ones that we were relying on to make the deals, and they wasted 35 years; they wasted many, many years. And they're the ones that have been critical of us, and look what's happening: Now they're, all of a sudden, saying, ''I think they made a mistake.'' They're all saying that about themselves.
So I just want to thank this group in particular for staying here and helping us out and doing things that nobody thought could've happened. And under the old concepts of national defense or whatever category you want to put it under, it '-- that wasn't working, and it was never going to work. And we changed things around very drastically, and then we started to negotiate.
And the good news '-- and I look at David because you know it, you see it, you hear it '-- the good news is we have many other countries now in the Middle East that want to be in this. And that means peace '-- because they're tired of fighting. You know, they can fight and they're all great fighters, and they're warriors, but even great warriors get tired of fighting, and they're tired of fighting.
And I can see things positively happening with Iran, ultimately. And I think that can all work out very well, and I think that so many great things are going to happen. And then we can also discuss the Palestinians. I think the Palestinians are going to end up doing something that's going to be very smart for them. And all their friends are coming into this, and they want to come into it '-- they want to come into it very badly.
And I can see a lot of good things happening with respect to the Palestinians, which would be really wonderful. Whether you are on their side or not on their side, people want to see it all brought to an end, and brought to an end quickly. So that's going to be very important.
But this is a very historic day. Would anybody else like to say anything? Please, go. Please.
MR. VANDROFF: Mr. President, I just want to thank you and Ambassador O'Brien for giving me the opportunity to serve on the National Security Council staff and be part of something historic and be part of a team. Avi and Jared are tremendous leaders, and the opportunity to work with them to do something important has been the highlight of my life. And thank you for letting me do that, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: And you've been doing this for a long time. You never saw anything like this, right? (Laughter.)
MR. VANDROFF: No. No, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: A little '-- we take a little bit of a different approach.
MR. VANDROFF: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Anybody? Please. Come up, my friend.
MR. POTTINGER: Mr. President, 19 years ago today, my father and I almost got caught in the crosshairs of that first jet that hit the Twin Towers. That event changed the course of my life; it led me to become a United States Marine, which led to other things that brought me through a strange path here. And I want thank you for the leadership you've shown.
Walter Russell Mead recently wrote '-- he was quoting Churchill, who once said '-- he got a bowl of pudding, and he said, ''Take it away. It has no theme.'' There's now a theme emerging in the Middle East.
THE PRESIDENT: There is a theme. That's good.
MR. POTTINGER: And it is a theme of what is possible from peace through strength, from not appeasing our enemies, and holding our allies and friends close.
So, congratulations, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. And this is a very, very big day. Very, very big day. Would you like to say something?
MR. GREENWAY: Yes, sir. Like Matt and many others, 19 years ago, within a month of the attacks of 9/11, I and others were conducting operations in Afghanistan. As General Correa pointed out, it's a privilege to be in different historic circumstances today; to be part of a tremendous team with outstanding leadership, all of it possible, sir, because of your vision, because of your leadership and the relationships of everyone in this room. It's an enormous opportunity. It's something that no one could imagine, but it's an enormous privilege, and I'll always be grateful for it.
So, congratulations to you, sir. And thank you to you and everyone else here.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, it's an honor to have worked with all of you. You're really talented people '-- incredible. And you were willing to be flexible. The word ''flexible'' is a very important word because we weren't going by the old standards and norms; we were going by standards that can get things done. But not only get them done, get them done in a much better way.
MR. GREENWAY: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: And this is just the beginning. A lot of things are happening, and they're happening very quickly. People want to be involved, and they want to be involved. For the first time, I think '-- some of you have told me, the first time ever, that you've ever seen anything like this, where they're rushing into an agreement. They want to be involved.
They're tired of fighting, as I said. They're tired of fighting. No matter how they are, no matter how great a warrior they are '-- and you have some great warriors. I know most of them. But it's time.
Thank you all very much. Thank you. (Applause.)
END 1:22 P.M. EDT
How anonymous is my vote? - voting ElectionDay 3rd-party | Ask MetaFilter
I'll make this super-simple: how anonymous is your vote in the United States? I'm currently working for a progressive-oriented group that does lot of work with Democratic politicians/figures - but I'm considering voting third-party in this year's presidential election.
I know some information on your vote can be accessed (e.g. MoveOn's voter report card, that tells you how often you've voted) - but if I voted for Jill Stein instead of Barack Obama, would anyone ever know? What about non-presidential votes? If they did know, it might cause serious difficulties with work I care deeply about - it might also be limiting if I ever wanted to run for a local office. How secure is that information? I feel ignorant asking this, but really don't know how securely it's kept - thank you.
posted by anonymous to Law & Government (12 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
Exclusive: Data shows that half of 2019 donations to ActBlue came from untraceable 'unemployed' donors | Fox News
EXCLUSIVE: Less than two months ahead of the presidential election '' with concerns of foreign interference again at the forefront '' a conservative political group is raising "serious concerns" about millions of donations reported by a major Democratic fundraising platform.
A preliminary computer analysis by the Take Back Action Fund, obtained exclusively by Fox News, has found that nearly half of all 2019 donations to ActBlue were made by people claiming to be unemployed.
Action Fund President John Pudner questioned the veracity of those donations and called it a loophole that must be closed for the sake of election integrity.
"After downloading hundreds of millions of [dollars in] donations to the Take Back Action Fund servers, we were shocked to see that almost half of the donations to ActBlue in 2019 claimed to be unemployed individuals," he said. "The name of employers must be disclosed when making political donations, but more than 4.7 million donations came from people who claimed they did not have an employer. Those 4.7 million donations totaled $346 million ActBlue raised and sent to liberal causes."
The trend is continuing this year: An Action Fund examination of 2020 data from January through August showed an uptick in "unemployed" donations through ActBlue, to 50.1% this year.
ActBlue defends the integrity of its donations and said many come from retirees and people who aren't counted as employed, such as homemakers.
According to the findings of the Action Fund '' a nonprofit that aims to "educate the public on conservative solutions for political reform" '' 48.4% of ActBlue donations last year, prior to the massive loss of jobs that came with the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic, came from those who did not list an employer or who claimed to be unemployed.
Pudner said the large number is a red flag that some donations may be illicit contributions from foreign interests attempting to impact U.S. elections.
"It is hard to believe that at a time when the U.S. unemployment rate was less than 4 percent, that unemployed people had $346 million dollars to send to ActBlue for liberal causes," Pudner said, adding that "4.7 million donations from people without a job ... raised serious concerns."
REPUBLICANS DEMAND ANSWERS ON MUELLER TEAM WIPING PHONES, SUGGEST 'ANTICIPATORY OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE'
ActBlue, created in 2004, bills itself as a "powerful online fundraising platform available to Democratic candidates and committees, progressive organizations, and nonprofits that share our values for no cost besides a 3.95% processing fee on donations."
"And we operate as a conduit, which means donations made through ActBlue to a campaign or organization are considered individual donations," its website explains.
But critics, including the Action Fund, contend that the website allows credit card donations that are not verified, so anyone from any country in the world can donate without a paper trail.
"ActBlue's insistence on refusing to allow banks to verify their donations is an invitation to foreign programmers or others to send money through them using fake American names, and we encourage them to start letting banks verify the identity of donors to stop the potential for millions of dollars to influence our election," Pudner said.
Last year, the Republican Party created a competing fundraising platform called WinRed to counter ActBlue's prowess in small-donor sourcing.
According to the Action Fund, an analysis of WinRed's 4.9 million donations totalling $302 million found that only 4% came from people who did not list an employer or were unemployed. This year, the rate is 5.6%, according to the data.
2019 data compiled by Take Back Action Fund (Take Back Action Fund)
"We purposely wanted to examine 2019 first, because, before COVID-19, the unemployment rate was at 4 percent or below. It's hard to believe that millions of Americans who were out of work had $346 million to spare to give to ActBlue for liberal causes," Pudner said.
RUSSIA TARGETING BLACK LIVES MATTER, LEFT-LEANING VOTERS ONLINE: INTELLIGENCE SOURCES
Precisely determining if the donations were authentic and genuinely from those who were unemployed requires further time and resources, he said.
"Auditing these suspect donations to determine if millions lied by indicating they were unemployed when in fact they were not, or if their names were just being used by a foreign programmer or someone else to move money without their knowledge, will take time," Pudner said. "We've planned a series of forensic procedures to identify whether or not these donors of record exist or not, if they made the contributions themselves, and whether they were legally able, and whether or not they are potential 'straw' donors, making the contributions after being given the money and direction by someone else."
Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden departs after speaking at a campaign event on manufacturing American products at UAW Region 1 headquarters in Warren, Mich., Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2020. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
In response to questions by Fox News, a representative for ActBlue said "it is best security practice to refrain from publicly sharing any detailed information about how we analyze contributions."
"But we use an array of data sources, internal validation and third-party services to verify the validity of transactions. We take the security of our platform and integrity of donations very seriously," the spokesperson said. "We report every contribution to federal candidates that comes through our platform, and you can look those up on the FEC. We report the information donors enter about their occupation and employer, and we do see a significant portion of donors who report their status as not employed, such as retired donors or full-time parents."
The issue of unauthenticated political donations was also brought to light by The Washington Post in 2008, which was at the time "allowing donors to use largely untraceable prepaid credit cards that could potentially be used to evade limits on how much an individual is legally allowed to give or to mask a contributor's identity."
In 2015, the Action Fund said millions of dollars "could be moved by allowing unverified credit card contributions," and Pudner said that even today, ActBlue continues to use such an "unverified system."
"We found it took other vendors only a matter of hours to switch their system to allow verification of donations and thus prevent the possibility of illegal foreign money being moved into campaigns," Pudner said. "Choosing to use an untraceable system has a higher cost in terms of the risk of credit card fraud and also tends to incur higher bank fees. And this untraceable system allows someone with a gift card to make donations in anyone's name, even if that person never actually made that donation, or even if that person doesn't exist at all."
FILE- In this Sept. 17, 2019, file photo, President Donald Trump boards Air Force One at Albuquerque International Sunport in Albuquerque, N.M. A new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds about half of Americans think Donald Trump's actions as president have made things worse for African Americans, Muslims and women. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Despite such claims, ActBlue currently holds the highest level of certification as a service provider.
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Both WinRed and ActBlue note on their donation pages that law requires donors to list their employer and occupation.
"The problem," Pudner said, "is on the back end where ActBlue does not allow banks to verify the identity of the cardholder, meaning someone could buy endless gift cards and list any name they wanted and leave the employer line blank or type in words like 'not employed,' 'unemployed.'"
Data complied from January-August 2020 (Take Back Action Fund)
"With half of ActBlue donors indicating they do not have an employer, we recommend they start letting their payment processors verify donations to stop any foreign or other illicit donations by simply listing themselves as an unemployed American," Pudner added.
Little Rock, Ark. (Jan. 12, 2011) -- The William J. Clinton Presidential Center's temporary exhibit, "Haiti: Building Back Better" celebrates the people and culture of Haiti as the nation recovers from the devastating earthquake one year ago today. Open until Feb. 6, 2011, the exhibit highlights the history of Haiti, Haitian arts and culture, President Clinton's presidential and post-presidential involvement with the country, and earthquake recovery efforts.
"Today, we mark the one-year anniversary of the devastating earthquake, we planned this exhibit not only to address the tragedy and the rebuilding efforts, but also to highlight the rich history and culture of this remarkable country and it's resilient people," said Stephanie S. Streett, Executive Director of the Clinton Foundation.
President Clinton first traveled to Haiti in 1975. As president, he worked to encourage economic development and restore democratically elected leadership in Haiti. After leaving The White House, he continued to travel to Haiti as a private citizen and responded to the needs of Haitians through the work of the William J. Clinton Foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative, and the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and recently, as the UN Special Envoy for Haiti. After the January 2010 earthquake, he was invited by the government of Haiti to serve, along with Prime Minister Jean Max Bellerive, as the International Co-Chair of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission.
Through the generosity of Clinton Foundation supporters and partners, the total value of assistance to Haiti provided through the Foundation's efforts has been nearly $23 million to date.
The multi-media exhibit begins in the center's first floor Garden View Room where visitors walk through a brief history of Haiti. The exhibit then transitions into a look at the country during President Clinton's administration as well as post presidency. The Garden View Room also features beautiful, hand-crafted Haitian art that is representative of the spirit and the strength of the Haitian people.
Upstairs in the Temporary Gallery, the second half of the exhibit begins at 4:53 p.m. on Jan. 12, 2010, the exact time and date when the massive 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti near its capitol of Port-au-Prince. This portion of the exhibit is dedicated to the moments during and shortly after the earthquake, and the immediate and on-going relief efforts to recover and rebuild Haiti.
Throughout the exhibit, the Center offers "The Haiti: Building Back Better Tour for School Groups." The tour highlights President Clinton's current work and his continued support to Haiti. Students will see the effects of the January 12, 2010, earthquake in Haiti and will learn about the resilience of the Haitian people and the economic value of art to the Haitian community.
Haiti: Building Back Better is in cooperation of the Smithsonian Institution through its Haiti Cultural Recovery Project.
Serge Jolimeau and Michee Ramil Remy was organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, Florida, U.S.A. and was curated by Bonnie Clearwater.
Building Back Better: Defining the Building Blocks for a Just Global Recovery from the Pandemic | Centre for International Governance Innovation
The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are being felt in Canada and abroad with over 18 million cases reported worldwide. The crisis has yet to peak in the Global South. Yet the knock-on effects of the pandemic are becoming increasingly clear in the world's most vulnerable countries with women carrying the biggest burdens, public health systems under massive pressures, economies shattered, trade relations interrupted, food insecurity on the horizon and human rights in peril as nativist policies take root and authoritarian states clamp down on civil society. And when effective treatments or COVID vaccines eventually become available, there will arise the question of having systems for their rapid and widespread distribution globally.
And yet despite the challenges, the pandemic crisis has also expanded perspectives on what is possible '' with governments grounding planes in a matter of weeks, countries like Canada rolling out a universal basic income by another name and a renewed recognition of the role of states and social policies to support those at risk of falling behind. Despite all the human loss, disruption and cost of the pandemic, an opportunity also exists for Canada and the world to emerge stronger and more resilient from the crisis.
This session, co-hosted by CCIC and CIGI, will examine the key policy responses needed for sustainable, equitable, transformative and ambitious recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. It will seek to define some of what a global post-COVID ''Marshall Plan'' might include and what Canada's role could be in supporting such a plan.
Moderator
Dr. Bessma Momani, Senior Fellow, CIGIPanelists
Goldy Hyder, President & CEO, Business Council of CanadaRohinton Medhora, President, CIGINicolas Moyer, President & CEO, Canadian Council for International Co-operationJennifer Welsh, Professor & Director of the Centre for International Peace and Security Studies, McGill University
Middle East Peace Deal
Remarks by President Trump on the Announcement of Normalization of Relations Between Israel and the Kingdom of Bahrain
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Just a few moments ago, I hosted a historic call between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and King Hamad Al Khalifa of Bahrain. Both leaders expressed their condolences as well to the American people on this very, very tragic, horrible event that took place on September 11th. And they very much meant it. I want to thank them for that.
There's no more powerful response to the hatred that spawned 9/11 than the agreement that we're about to tell you. You will hear something today that's, I think, very, very important for not only the Middle East but for the world.
In the spirit of peace and cooperation, both leaders also agreed that Bahrain will fully normalize its diplomatic relations with Israel. They will exchange embassies and ambassadors, begin direct flights between their countries, and launch cooperation initiatives across a broad range of sectors, including health, business, technology, education, security, and agriculture. This is a truly historic day.
There have been two peace agreements with Israel in the last 72 years. This is now the second peace agreement that we have announced in the last month, and I am very hopeful that there will be more to follow. I can tell you there's tremendous enthusiasm on behalf of other countries to also join. And we think, ultimately, you'll have most countries join, and you're going to have the Palestinians in a very good position. They want to come in '-- they're going to want to come in because all of their friends are in. But we have tremendous enthusiasm for coming into the deal.
I want to thank the group of very talented people behind me, and you're going to be hearing from them in a second. But it's just a very historic day, a very important day, and so interesting that it's on 9/11. It's such a great time. We didn't know this was going to happen in terms of the timing, but it did happen, and we're very honored by it.
When I took office, the Middle East was in a state of absolute chaos. I've restored trust with our regional partners, and together we've eliminated the ISIS caliphate 100 percent; isolated the radicals who pervert Islam and sow instability. Today, nations across the region and throughout the world are joining together, united in their determination to build a better future, free from the evils which perpetuate terror. And I think you see that. I think you see that happening very, very strongly.
I also spoke with King Salman of Saudi Arabia, and we talked about this, and he is '-- he's a great gentleman. And what they've done in terms of fighting terror is a much different ballgame than it was before we attained this office. The fact is that Saudi Arabia was doing things that they're not doing anymore, and so are other countries and neighbors. They are doing things that they just would never have done. Their levels and their '-- all of the things '-- all of the many, many elements of fighting and hate, they seem to be evaporating. And we'll find out very soon. But they seem to be evaporating.
So things are happening in the Middle East that nobody thought was even possible to think about, and that's what's going on right now. Bahrain has agreed to join Israel and the United Arab Emirates for '-- and, by the way, I want to thank Mohammed, who's a great leader, a truly great leader '-- at the White House on Tuesday. So they'll be here on Tuesday for the signing of the Abraham Accords. The significance of the signing will be elevated from an already historic breakthrough to one representing a previously unthinkable regional transformation. And that's exactly what it is. It's unthinkable that this could happen, and so fast.
And, as you know, when we did the original signing with '-- and which will actually take place in terms of official on Tuesday '-- United Arab Emirates, people thought that was amazing. And now they're hearing this, and they're also hearing from other countries because they understand that other countries want to very much come in.
On this occasion, I want to thank the leaders of Israel and Bahrain for their vision and courage to forge this historic agreement. Their leadership is proving that the future can be filled with hope and does not need to be predetermined by conflicts of the past. You know all about the conflicts of the past; they're very legendary. There was a lot of problems going on, but we've been able to work things out to a level that nobody thought possible. This is really something very special '-- very, very special.
As more countries normalize relations with Israel '-- which will happen quite quickly, we believe '-- the region will become more and more stable, secure, and prosperous.
In the meantime, we're pulling most of our soldiers out. So we're doing it the opposite way. They were doing it with nothing but fighting and blood all over the place. The sand was loaded up with blood. And now you're going to see that a lot of that sand is going to be loaded up with peace.
The United States will continue to stand with the people of the region and work with them, and build a brighter and much more hopeful future.
So we're very proud of this. And as time goes by, I think you'll see more and more why. I think most of you realize how important it is. Even the New York Times, who was very generous in their praise of the original deal, and they never thought '-- I think nobody thought this was going to happen so quickly after the first.
But they'll both be here on Tuesday. They're going to be signing. Benjamin Netanyahu will be here. The Prime Minister will be here '-- Israel. And we look forward to that.
Just on this deal, because of the importance of the deal, we'll take some questions. But first, I'd like to ask Jared to say a few words and Mike Pence to say a few words and some of the folks. David, I'd like you to say something about it because it's so historic.
And these people have worked so hard and so long on it. This is really the culmination of a long period of time '-- let's put it that way. I don't want to say how long, but it's been '-- it's a long period of time. It's a great thing.
Jared, please.
MR. KUSHNER: Thank you, Mr. President. And first, I want to thank you for your leadership on this issue. Your first foreign trip was to Saudi Arabia, where you outlined a vision for the region. And all of the promises you made on that trip and all of the things that you foreshadowed have occurred.
It's been a strategy that you've stuck with, and I want to thank you for giving me the trust and confidence that you've given me in order to work on this file over the last years. And I think the results that we've achieved has been beyond anyone's expectations. And I believe that there's even more to come.
I just returned from the region last week. I was in the Middle East, where I took the first commercial flight that's ever flown from Israel to the United Arab Emirates. That flight flew over Saudi Arabian airspace. It was the first time in 72 years that Saudi Arabia has now waived their airspace to allow commercial flights to fly from Israel back and forth.
Bahrain then did the same thing. The United Arab Emirates waived a 48-year boycott on Israel, which was an incredible development. And there are now delegations moving throughout the Middle East, figuring out how to bring the people closer together.
What President Trump has done here is unthinkable. He's brought people in the Middle East together. There's been these barriers that have existed that have led to so much instability, so much war, so much loss, so much hopelessness. And we're seeing so much hopefulness now coming.
And I will say something that I never thought would be the case, which is that, on this last trip, the amount of optimism that has happened, that we're experiencing in the Middle East, is truly incredible.
So I just want to congratulate you. I want to congratulate the people of Israel. I want to congratulate the people from the Kingdom of Bahrain. I want to thank their tremendous leadership. And I also want to congratulate the people of the Middle East because the first deal that you were able to accomplish was so popular that things are really starting to move in a really strong direction.
And this makes America safer. It allows us to '-- to bring our troops home. It allows us to work on bringing prosperity to American communities.
So, really, thank you for your leadership.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Jared. Great job.
MR. KUSHNER: And congratulations on this great success.
THE PRESIDENT: Great job. Thank you very much, Jared.
Mike, please.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Mr. President, I can think of no more fitting tribute to the heroes that were forged on this day 19 years ago, and all the heroes that were forged on battlefields ever since, than to see this peace agreement announced today.
And, Mr. President, you said from early on that we could stand with Israel and we could stand for peace. Your very first foreign trip was to the Arab world '-- to reach out, to create new alliances. You affirmed our support for Israel when you moved the American embassy to Jerusalem. And the strength with which you have approached this has made now this second historic peace agreement possible.
And I just want to '-- I want to congratulate you and thank you, Mr. President, for your leadership.
I also want to '-- I want to thank the people of the Kingdom of Bahrain and the people of Israel for finding a way forward to begin to take one more step toward peace in the Middle East and to know that, in this President and in the American people, they will have an ally with us.
The Good Book says, ''Blessed are the peacemakers.'' And, Mr. President, I just want to congratulate you, I want to congratulate Prime Minister Netanyahu and King Hamad of Bahrain on bringing peace between their nations and widening the reach of peace in the world.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Congratulations.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Mike. Great.
Our wonderful Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, who has been really something. He's been '-- I put him there. I knew him for a long time. He was one of the most successful lawyers in the country, by far. And at least, based on his paycheck, I can tell you that. (Laughter.) And he is a great lawyer. He's a great talent and a great dealmaker. And I put him there for a reason. I put him there to get it done, as in, just don't be a regular ambassador, like so many are. Just get it done; see if you can bring peace to the Middle East.
David, please.
AMBASSADOR FRIEDMAN: Thank you, Mr. President. And I will always be indebted to you for giving me that honor. It's one that I hold extremely dear.
But, as you know, Mr. President, people have thought about the Middle East, for the past 100 years or more, as a place of violence, of hopelessness, of suffering, of war. What we're seeing in real time, in this room today and last month, we're seeing the paradigm for the Middle East completely change. The world is turning in a very positive way. And it's all because, if I may say, because of the policy that you began in May of 2017 of trusting our allies, of empowering our allies; and in my case, of course, of being the greatest friend that Israel has ever had '-- of putting people on the job who share those values and convictions. And the fruit is now being borne in this incredible peace agreement.
Your policy of ''peace through strength'' has changed the world profoundly for the better. And I'm '-- as the Ambassador to Israel, I'm eternally grateful for the changes that you have made for the U.S.-Israel relationship.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, David. Great job. Thank you.
Avi, please.
MR. BERKOWITZ: Thank you, Mr. President. Congratulations.
THE PRESIDENT: He looks young, but he's not as young. (Laughter.) I will tell you, he's very smart. Go ahead.
MR. BERKOWITZ: Thank you, Mr. President. Congratulations on just a tremendous, historic, you know, achievement here today. I think I just speak for everybody in this room, all of my colleagues who have worked in your administration, that thanks to your leadership, there's just a tremendous sense of pride to be an American, to work on these issues under your leadership.
And I'm just so appreciative to you and so honored to be part of your team. So thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Avi. (Applause.)
MR. HOOK: Mr. President, I think historians will look back on these two peace agreements as the beginning of the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict. And you talked about the journey to get here. And I remember I heard you pledge, when you were in Riyadh and when you were in Israel '-- you pledged that you would strengthen America's friendships and to build new partnerships in the pursuit of peace. And you've kept that promise, and we see that very clearly today.
Rather than appeasing America's adversaries in the region, you've recruited America's allies. And you focused on shared interests and shared threats, but you also asked them to shoulder their part of the burden and to fulfill their end of the obligation. Nations rallied behind it, and as a consequence, the foundation has now been laid for great things in the coming years.
THE PRESIDENT: Great. Well said. Thank you very much.
Would you have anything to say?
MAJOR GENERAL CORREA: Mr. President, on behalf of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines, thank you for your bold leadership and Sheikh Mohammed's bold leadership; Prime Minister Netanyahu's bold leadership; King Hamad's bold leadership; Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, again; your bold leadership. What we've tried for the last 100 years has not worked.
And I think it's very fitting that, on September 11th, we honor those special operators that we buried and lost with '-- with peace. And this is a way to beat terrorism at the end of the day. So we're honored and privileged. And thank you for your leadership.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, they had a lot of bad thinking, a lot of bad concepts, a lot of things that I never thought were going to work. These were the ones that we were relying on to make the deals, and they wasted 35 years; they wasted many, many years. And they're the ones that have been critical of us, and look what's happening: Now they're, all of a sudden, saying, ''I think they made a mistake.'' They're all saying that about themselves.
So I just want to thank this group in particular for staying here and helping us out and doing things that nobody thought could've happened. And under the old concepts of national defense or whatever category you want to put it under, it '-- that wasn't working, and it was never going to work. And we changed things around very drastically, and then we started to negotiate.
And the good news '-- and I look at David because you know it, you see it, you hear it '-- the good news is we have many other countries now in the Middle East that want to be in this. And that means peace '-- because they're tired of fighting. You know, they can fight and they're all great fighters, and they're warriors, but even great warriors get tired of fighting, and they're tired of fighting.
And I can see things positively happening with Iran, ultimately. And I think that can all work out very well, and I think that so many great things are going to happen. And then we can also discuss the Palestinians. I think the Palestinians are going to end up doing something that's going to be very smart for them. And all their friends are coming into this, and they want to come into it '-- they want to come into it very badly.
And I can see a lot of good things happening with respect to the Palestinians, which would be really wonderful. Whether you are on their side or not on their side, people want to see it all brought to an end, and brought to an end quickly. So that's going to be very important.
But this is a very historic day. Would anybody else like to say anything? Please, go. Please.
MR. VANDROFF: Mr. President, I just want to thank you and Ambassador O'Brien for giving me the opportunity to serve on the National Security Council staff and be part of something historic and be part of a team. Avi and Jared are tremendous leaders, and the opportunity to work with them to do something important has been the highlight of my life. And thank you for letting me do that, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: And you've been doing this for a long time. You never saw anything like this, right? (Laughter.)
MR. VANDROFF: No. No, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: A little '-- we take a little bit of a different approach.
MR. VANDROFF: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Anybody? Please. Come up, my friend.
MR. POTTINGER: Mr. President, 19 years ago today, my father and I almost got caught in the crosshairs of that first jet that hit the Twin Towers. That event changed the course of my life; it led me to become a United States Marine, which led to other things that brought me through a strange path here. And I want thank you for the leadership you've shown.
Walter Russell Mead recently wrote '-- he was quoting Churchill, who once said '-- he got a bowl of pudding, and he said, ''Take it away. It has no theme.'' There's now a theme emerging in the Middle East.
THE PRESIDENT: There is a theme. That's good.
MR. POTTINGER: And it is a theme of what is possible from peace through strength, from not appeasing our enemies, and holding our allies and friends close.
So, congratulations, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. And this is a very, very big day. Very, very big day. Would you like to say something?
MR. GREENWAY: Yes, sir. Like Matt and many others, 19 years ago, within a month of the attacks of 9/11, I and others were conducting operations in Afghanistan. As General Correa pointed out, it's a privilege to be in different historic circumstances today; to be part of a tremendous team with outstanding leadership, all of it possible, sir, because of your vision, because of your leadership and the relationships of everyone in this room. It's an enormous opportunity. It's something that no one could imagine, but it's an enormous privilege, and I'll always be grateful for it.
So, congratulations to you, sir. And thank you to you and everyone else here.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, it's an honor to have worked with all of you. You're really talented people '-- incredible. And you were willing to be flexible. The word ''flexible'' is a very important word because we weren't going by the old standards and norms; we were going by standards that can get things done. But not only get them done, get them done in a much better way.
MR. GREENWAY: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: And this is just the beginning. A lot of things are happening, and they're happening very quickly. People want to be involved, and they want to be involved. For the first time, I think '-- some of you have told me, the first time ever, that you've ever seen anything like this, where they're rushing into an agreement. They want to be involved.
They're tired of fighting, as I said. They're tired of fighting. No matter how they are, no matter how great a warrior they are '-- and you have some great warriors. I know most of them. But it's time.
Thank you all very much. Thank you. (Applause.)
END 1:22 P.M. EDT
WW3 fears: Trump warns US has secret nuclear weapons 'Putin and Xi have never heard about' | World | News | Express.co.uk
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The US President made the shocking revelation about the ''incredible'' nuclear weapons he has created while reflecting on how close the US came to a nuclear war with North Korea. Tensions have also been running high between the US, China and Russia.
{%=o.title%}Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward detailed how Mr Trump disclosed to him the existence of nuclear weapons no other US president has ever had before.
According to Mr Woodward in his book 'Rage', President Trump said: ''I have built a nuclear - a weapons system that nobody's ever had in this country before.
''We have stuff that you haven't event seen or heard about.
''We have stuff that Putin and Xi have never heard about before. There's nobody - what we have is incredible.''
Donald Trump reveals US nuclear weapons system (Image: Getty)
Russian president Vladimir Putin (Image: Getty)
Mr Woodward claims the anonymous sources confirmed the US military had a secret new weapons systems.
But said sources were surprised Mr Trump had disclosed the information.
As of 2019, the US had a staggering 6,185 nuclear warheads, making it one of the countries with the highest number of weapons of mass destruction.
Back in 2017, tensions between North Korean and the US escalated after Pyongyang conducted a series of missile and nuclear tests.
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Tensions between the US and North Korea escalated (Image: Getty)
This, as well as a regular joint US/South Korea military exercise undertaken in August 2017 and US threats, raised international tensions in the region and beyond.
North Korea threatened Australia twice with nuclear strikes throughout 2017, accusing them of siding with the US.
The tensions began to ease at the beginning of 2018, after North Korea agreed to hold talks with South Korea about participation in the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Following an unprecedented bilateral summit between Kim Jong-un and Mr Trump, a joint declaration calling for the "full denuclearization of the Korean peninsula'' was announced.
DON'T MISS US veteran recalls gripping tale of crossing enemy lines [INSIGHT] World War 3 MAPPED: The SIX places where WW3 could break out in 2020 [COMMENT] WW3 latest: China launches secret double aircraft mission [REVEAL]
Countries with nuclear weapons (Image: Express)
In the new book, Mr Trump also admitted he knew the coronavirus pandemic was far more dire than what he had been publicly saying.
In a call in February, Mr Trump said: ''You just breathe the air and that's how it's passed.
''And so that's a very tricky one. That's a very delicate one.
''It's also more deadly than even your strenuous flu. This is deadly stuff.''
Chinese president Xi Jinping (Image: Getty)
However, Mr Trump said he wanted to play it down and told Mr Woodward: ''I wanted to always play it down.''
The US has been the worst hit country due to the pandemic with more than 6,000,000 people infected and 193,652 deaths.
The book is based in part on 18 on-the-record interviews between Mr Woodward and Mr Trump between December and July.
News of Mr Trump's new nuclear weapons comes hours after he was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Donald Trump nominated for Nobel Peace Prize (Image: PA)
The US President's nomination came from right-wing Norwegian politician Christian Tybring-Gjeddee who praised Donald Trump for his efforts towards resolving conflicts worldwide.
He particularly commended the President for his key role in the ''historic peace agreement'' between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Mr Tybring-Gjedde said: "For his merit, I think he has done more trying to create peace between nations than most other Peace Prize nominees."
He said the agreement between Israel and UAE could be a "game changer" that will spark change in the Middle East.
W76 2 - Lame Cherry: This President's Atomic Bullet
Bob, you're a Naval Intelligence operative. The SecNav thanks youfor your cooperation in this intelligence operation. As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.Perhaps now you have heard of the Bob Woodward Watergate 571 sequel on Donald Trump in two parts of Rage and Orgasm or something that Woodward came up with. The book is the DIA exposing the deep state, and as this blog stated, Mike Pence was one of the chief Bush fam operatives against this President, but what this post is about is the new secret nuclear weapons the President, in working with the DIA in an intelligence operation, has informed the world of a weapon's system he has built. Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward detailed how Mr Trump disclosed to him the existence of nuclear weapons no other US president has ever had before.According to Mr Woodward in his book 'Rage', President Trump said: “I have built a nuclear - a weapons system that nobody’s ever had in this country before.“We have stuff that you haven’t event seen or heard about.“We have stuff that Putin and Xi have never heard about before. There’s nobody - what we have is incredible.”Those not in the loop have attempted to appear intelligent in not having DARPA access in fingering the Trident missile of submarines armed with the W76 2 dial a nuclear detonation downward warhead.These are all the cone shape design which Dr. Khan of Pakistan has provided to Obama's Shia Islamocommunists of Iran.James Acton, a nuclear expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said in an interview Friday that Trump may have been referring to the W76-2 warhead. Although its existence was not a secret, the timing of its first deployment was. The warhead is on the business end of a Trident II D-5 missile carried aboard Navy ballistic missile submarines.The Lame Cherry would point this reality out. If a weapon's system has been actively deployed on the standard United States military use of tactical nuclear weapons in the field (I will cover this in a later post which you will have forgotten about by then.) then it is not secret and everyone knows about it.When the President is providing to Naval Intelligence officer Bob Woodward information of this sort it is coordinated and meant to warn nations that the United States has a deployed toy which is not in the testing stages.As the President specifically stated nuclear, then it is nuclear, and the Lame Cherry will discuss what the President was speaking about.It was troubling in the Associated Press produced propaganda which KSTP of Minneapolis featured, the troubling part is KSTP is babe central for anchors and they just invested a great deal in the large breasts of Jackie Cain, which are a thermo weapon in their own right.Now that the important information of large comforting breasts has been dealt with in their thermo reactions, the secondary part of this will now be addressed.Without revealing anything top secret or above black, the matrix upon inquiry confirmed what the voice in me whispered, and it is something my American Government teacher was carrying on about as he just loved nuclear weapons. He had most beneficial and progressive ideas in how to utilize these tools of nature and this is what the poor orphan girl will focus upon.When the President states he has built a new weapon arsenal of specific nuclear weapons, he has done just that from the DARPA stores.It may be best to explain this in a mining scenario.If you are mining for gold, and you lay an explosive charge on a rock and detonate it, it will just blow up and barely damage the rock surface. If though, you put a mud pack on top of the explosive, it will direct to the rock and shatter the rock in amazing physics of cause and effect. It is like drilling holes in rock and inserting dynamite.When Hiroshima had a nuclear charge detonated over the city, the city was chosen due to the amphitheater of hills which surrounded it to contain the blast in the city. See nuclear bombs have so much energy that they require objects to bounce off of. This blog has written of the Lame Cherry Nuclear Slap Law of two or more bombs detonating would slap against each other to amplify and direct energy.What if though, DARPA evolved a way for a nuclear warhead to direct energy, from neutrons in a stream to the literal atomic force of expansion, not in a Hiroshima ball, but in a laser like projection, moving from faster than sound to the speed of light.Imagine such directed energy weapons shooting into bunkers deep in mountains. Imagine of instead of blowing atomic holes in an enemy's battle line, but instead infalidating it or shooting down that line for miles. It would be atomic strafing.The question in this is, instead of nuking wetware in inpenetrable bunkers, if it could shatter incoming meteors of size.Directional nuclear weapons. This President's Atomic Bullet. Tis what the matrix has trended.As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.Nuff SaidThe Monkees - Steppin' Stone [WideScreen] - YouTube https://www.youtube.com /watch?v=CFUOnT0ZnUc "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" is composed by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart 1966agtG
QFS
Mastercard Launches Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) Testing Platform - Mastercard Content Exchange
Mastercard Launches Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) Testing Platform, Enabling Central Banks to Assess and Explore National Digital Currencies September 09, 2020 | Purchase, NY
Innovative virtual and custom testing platform allows central banks to evaluate use cases and test roll-out strategies for CBDCs by simulating a CBDC ecosystem Central banks, commercial banks, and tech and advisory firms invited to partner with Mastercard to evaluate the suitability of CBDCs in a country or region With the global economy racing to embrace digital payments, central banks also are looking to the future and investigating how to support innovation while maintaining monetary policy and financial stability as they issue and distribute currency. In fact, 80 percent of central banks surveyed are engaging in some form of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) work, and about 40 percent of central banks have progressed from conceptual research to experimenting with concept and design, according to a recent survey by the Bank for International Settlements.
Today, Mastercard announced a proprietary virtual testing environment for central banks to evaluate CBDC use cases. The platform enables the simulation of issuance, distribution and exchange of CBDCs between banks, financial service providers and consumers. Central banks, commercial banks, and tech and advisory firms are invited to partner with Mastercard to assess CBDC tech designs, validate use cases and evaluate interoperability with existing payment rails available for consumers and businesses today.
Mastercard is a leader in operating multiple payment rails and convening partners to ensure a level playing field for everyone '' from banks to businesses to mobile network operators '' in order to bring the most people possible into the digital economy. Mastercard wants to harness its expertise to enable the practical, safe and secure development of digital currencies.
''Central banks have accelerated their exploration of digital currencies with a variety of objectives, from fostering financial inclusion to modernizing the payments ecosystem," said Raj Dhamodharan, Executive Vice President, Digital Asset and Blockchain Products and Partnerships, Mastercard. ''Mastercard is driving innovation with the public sector, banks, fintechs, and advisory firms in the exploration of CBDCs, working with partners that are aligned to our core values and principles. This new platform supports central banks as they make decisions now and in the future about the path forward for local and regional economies,'' Dhamodharan added.
Sheila Warren, Head of Blockchain, Digital Assets and Data Policy at the World Economic Forum, said: ''Collaborations between the public and private sectors in the exploration of Central Bank Digital Currencies can help central banks better understand the range of technology possibilities and capabilities available with respect to CBDCs. Central banks can benefit from support in exploring the option set available to them with respect to CBDCs, as well as gaining insight into what opportunities may be forthcoming.''
CBDCs are designed to be equivalent in value to a nation's paper currency and subject to the same government-backed guarantees. In addition to printing money, central banks can issue CBDCs as a digital representation of a country's fiat currency.
Driving Scalable Innovation
While a variety of potential operating models exist, the primary approach sees central banks issuing and distributing currency, including digital currencies, through commercial banks and other licensed payments providers. Mastercard understands every central bank differs in its exploration of CBDCs, and the platform stands ready to explore whether CBDCs fit with the needs of a region or country. The virtual platform can be individually customized to the environment in which the central bank operates, allowing them to:
Simulate a CBDC issuance, distribution and exchange ecosystem with banks and consumers, including how a CBDC can interface with existing payment networks and infrastructures '' e.g., cards and real time payments. Demonstrate how a CBDC can be used by a consumer to pay for goods and services anywhere Mastercard is accepted around the world. Examine various CBDC technology designs and use cases to more quickly determine value and feasibility in a market. Evaluate CBDC development efforts including the technical build, security and early testing of the design and operations. Central Bank Digital Currencies of the Future
Mastercard is committed to supporting central banks in their chosen path to modernize payments as they look for solutions that seamlessly integrate with existing ways to pay. The company is committed to forging partnerships between public and private sectors to together transform the way people and businesses transact.
OTG
YouTube stars' account demonetized after they are accused of throwing parties amid pandemic | TheHill
YouTube has temporarily demonetized the account of popular pranksters known as the NELK Boys after they allegedly threw massive college parties amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The decision comes after the YouTubers, who have 5.7 million subscribers on the platform, were seen hosting parties at Illinois State University in what they reportedly called a "protest" of coronavirus regulations.
YouTube said in a statement on Twitter that NELK's recent behavior violates the platform's Creator Responsibility Policy, which mandates that creators do not engage in "on- and/or off-platform behavior [that] harms our users, community, employees or ecosystem."
The company said in a statement that it believes the men are "creating a widespread public health risk."
The Hill has reached out to YouTube for comment.
The company was responding to a NELK video shared on Instagram, obtained by New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz.
The NELK Twitter account also appeared to share footage from the parties.
The video showed hundreds of college students crammed together, without visible face masks or social distancing per safety guidance amid the pandemic.
Illinois State University (ISU) president Larry Dietz told local outlet The Pantagraph on Thursday that officials are investigating the party and those found to have violated the school's code of conduct could face punishments ranging from probation to expulsion.
"Right now we're still gathering information about the individuals and the behaviors that they exhibited at that event and verifying their presence before we start all of this," Dietz said, adding: "We just can't tolerate that behavior. I know people like to have fun, but we're in the middle of a pandemic. There will be time for fun after we get this pandemic handled."
The NELK Boys reportedly visited several locations in the town of Normal, near ISU, which currently prohibits gatherings of more than 10 people, on Tuesday night and early Wednesday.
Police broke up the gatherings, according to The Pantagraph.
A new analysis released on Friday by USA Today found that college campuses are fueling the largest coronavirus outbreaks across the United States.
Of the 25 hottest outbreaks in the U.S., communities with dominant colleges and thousands of recently returned students represent 19 of them.
McLean County, where Illinois State is located, has been identified one of the hotspots. As of Friday, there has been 844 cases reported per 100,000 people.
The NELK Boys channel, which is comprised of Kyle Forgeard, Jesse Sebastiani and Steve Deleonardis, has been traveling around the country and visiting college towns.
In August, they faced criticism for throwing similar parties in Los Angeles amid the pandemic.
Deleonardis posted a video in August on his personal channel called SteveWillDoIt titled "I THREW A PROTEST IN LA!" which showed them leading a crowd chanting "open the gyms" with signs that read "Gym Lives Matter."
The video received more than 1.7 million views and they responded to backlash by saying they'd never "change or simmer down our comedy to please people, especially snowflakes."
On Friday, he posted on Instagram that his personal channel had also been demonetized.
"I officially make 0 dollars from YouTube now. So basically I will be getting millions and millions [of] views on YouTube every single month and not even get paid a dollar," he wrote. "They didn't pay me much every month but now it's completely cut off."
The Hill has reached out to the NELK Boys and the Normal Police Department for comment.
Other social media personalities have faced criminal charges for allegedly throwing house parties during the pandemic.
TikTok stars Bryce Hall and Blake Gray were charged in Los Angeles last month with violating the "Safer LA" emergency order issued during the outbreak, as well as an ordinance that forbids "loud and unruly gatherings."
Epstein Cuties
Many mainstream film critics have come out in defense of 'Cuties.' Here's why their arguments are wrong
The child-sexualizing "Cuties" on Netflix has prompted enormous backlash from the public, but the media and mainstream critics have circled their wagons around the film.
The enormous chasm between the audience and critic reviews on Rotten Tomatoes '-- 3% vs. 88% fresh, respectively '-- highlights this severe clash of perspectives.I already covered some of the rather desperate excuses and rationalizations being offered for the film's sake. But the most common pro-"Cuties" talking point, put forward most stridently by Washington Post critic Alyssa Rosenburg, warrants a more thorough response. Saying that the "freak out" over the movie "bothers" and "deeply disturbs" her, Rosenburg chided the film's detractors for not having taken the time to actually watch it. According to Rosenburg and many other mainstream media defenders of the film, the hypersexualized content involving pubescent children is appropriate and morally sound because it all leads to a positive message. In her piece titled "The people freaking out about 'Cuties' should try it. They might find a lot to like," Rosenburg argues:
This is very much a film about what happens to kids when their parents aren't physically or emotionally present in their lives. It's highly skeptical of social media platforms and what sexualized mainstream culture teaches children about what behavior is normal or desirable. Though its characters post provocative dance videos and wear revealing costumes, "Cuties" doesn't present their actions as liberated or admirable: Instead, the movie repeatedly shows other characters reacting with sadness or disgust when these girls try to act like grown women.The triumphant climax of the movie isn't a dance competition, but when Amy returns to age-appropriate clothes and games, finding an authentic version of herself in acting like the gummy-bear scarfing, giggly girl she was earlier in the film. In that moment, Amy is not bound by the religious and cultural traditions she found so constraining, but she's not trying to live up to a different and equally restrictive idea of what it means to be a girl, either.
I can see how viewers might be turned off by the way Doucour(C) shoots the dance routines, using close-ups of her young actors' bodies both to show us their abilities as dancers and to make us deliberately queasy. But not liking that choice or not thinking it works in the way she intended does not make Doucour(C) an evil pornographer, just an ambitious director.
Now, first of all, I'm sure it isn't true that all of the people "freaking out" have neglected to actually watch the film, but that's beside the point.
Our contention is that there simply is no context or plot line or noble intention that could ever justify close up shots of the bodies of scantily clad 11-year-old girls as they dance sexually on camera.
One particularly offensive scene in the film shows a child in her underwear thrusting and gyrating while the camera focuses on various body parts. Our whole argument is that this sort of content is immoral and exploitative by its nature.
If you say that it was filmed for the sake of a positive and uplifting story, then you are essentially claiming that the children were sexually exploited for a good cause. Those of us in the "freaking out" camp would say that there is no such thing as sexually exploiting a child for a good cause. Whatever the cause, whatever the reason, it is automatically bad.And that's the obvious and fatal flaw with the argument Rosenburg and others are making. If we were talking about a book where all of these scenes are described but not shown, and no real child is involved in any of it, then they would probably have a point. The problem is that the movie actually does the thing it is supposedly trying to call attention to. And it does it to children '-- real children, not adult actors playing the parts of children. The movie didn't have to exhibit real life child exploitation in order to comment on it or call attention to it. There were other ways of approaching the subject. The lurid camera angles and lengthy, sexual dance sequences were gratuitous and unnecessary choices made by the filmmakers, either because they wanted to sexualize their child actors or were merely willing to sexualize them in service to whatever supposedly positive point they were trying to make. I'm skeptical that there was any positive point, but it doesn't matter. Once again: there is no such thing as sexually exploiting a child for a good cause.
Besides, these claims about the movie "calling attention to" and "critiquing" the sexualization of children have been made mostly in the last few weeks, once the backlash began. Prior to the public outrage, when only film critics had seen the movie, the reviews and descriptions didn't as much present it as a commentary on child sexual exploitation. Consider the synopsis posted months ago on the Sundance Film Festival website:Eleven-year-old Amy lives with her mom, Mariam, and younger brother, awaiting her father to rejoin the family from Senegal. Amy is fascinated by disobedient neighbor Angelica's free-spirited dance clique, a group that stands in sharp contrast to stoic Mariam's deeply held traditional values. Undeterred by the girls' initial brutal dismissal and eager to escape her family's simmering dysfunction, Amy, through an ignited awareness of her burgeoning femininity, propels the group to enthusiastically embrace an increasingly sensual dance routine, sparking the girls' hope to twerk their way to stardom at a local dance contest.With a keen eye for and an understanding of adolescent behavior, Ma¯mouna Doucour(C) '-- whose short film Maman(s) won the Short Film International Fiction Jury Award at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival '-- focuses tightly on her rowdy protagonists, crafting a spirited film that nimbly depicts the tweens' youthful energy and vulnerabilities while exploring their fumbling eagerness to be identified as sexualized. Fathia Youssouf captivates as Amy, shifting like a chameleon between the different identities her character is juggling and deftly anchoring the film's immensely watchable, vivacious young cast.
A story about a young girl exploring her femininity and "escaping her family's simmering dysfunction" through "free-spirited dancing" sounds very different from the searing commentary on childhood sexualization that film critics like Rosenburg are positioning it to be today. The director, in an interview earlier in the year, summarized the film's message this way: "In our culture, even today, I can say I'm not totally free. Because I love to wear short dresses and at the same time, when I go to a religious ceremony, I wear a veil. Just choose as a woman: who do you want to be?"
This makes it sound like the movie is supposed to be a mostly uncritical observation of a girl's choices during her personal journey of self-discovery. Indeed, that is exactly how a review on the website The Playlist characterized it shortly after its debut at Sundance almost a year ago, calling it "a vibrant portrait of self discovery."
It seems that many of the film's defenders today are less offering their honest opinion than doing damage control. But either way, no matter what the movie is supposed to be, or what the intentions of the film makers actually were, we are left with an exploitative bordering on pornographic film that never should have been made, and certainly should not have been picked up by Netflix.
Over 15,000 entries updated on topics ranging from race and sexual orientation to climate and internet cultureThe unprecedented events of 2020, from the pandemic to the protests, have profoundly changed our lives'--and language.
As we explained in our April additions to the dictionary, COVID-19 rapidly introduced an array of new and newly prominent technical terms to our everyday vocabularies, including asymptomatic, viral load, and social distance.
The George Floyd protests against racism and police violence sparked a surge of searches that spoke to the power and passion of the cultural moment, not the least of which were Black Lives Matter and Antifa.
And on top of the public health emergency and cultural upheaval, we're in the midst of an economic crisis, gripped by educational uncertainty, and navigating a contentious presidential election, all while we see the devastating impact of the climate changing all around us. It seems our 2019 Word of the Year, existential, is more apt than ever.
Change, no doubt, is a prevailing theme of 2020'--and change is fundamental to the work of a dictionary.
This September, we have released our biggest update ever. Our tireless team has touched over 15,000 entries. You read that right: 15,000. These massive changes include:
'' 650 new entries'' 2,100 new definitions'' 1,200 new etymologies'' 1,700 new pronunciations'' Over 11,000 revised definitions'' Over 7,000 revised etymologies
Many of these updates'--650 of them, as noted'--are of the sort that usually win attention: the new words that define the culture, technology, and environment of our times. Ecoanxiety, emotional support animal, MeToo, and af (yes, that af) are officially in the dictionary.
But just as important as the new words we've added are the deeper revisions that document what drives us here at Dictionary.com: the ways language is constantly evolving. A great many of these entries we've updated address topics that touch all of us on the most personal levels: race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, health and wellness.
Capitalizing BlackOne of the most comprehensive'--and important'--updates to our dictionary involves the capitalization of the word Black in reference to people. Capitalizing Black confers the due dignity to the shared identity, culture, and history of Black people. It also aligns with the practice of using initial capital letters for many other ethnic groups and national identities, e.g., Hispanic.
Not only does implementing this more respectful and consistent style impact all new entries involving the word Black moving forward, such as Afro-Latina, Afro-Latino, and Afro-Latinx, it also compelled our lexicographers to review and revise hundreds of existing entries.
What's more, our lexicographers developed a whole new entry for Black in reference to people, separating that meaning from the lowercase word black whose dozens of definitions range from senses extending from a core meaning of darkness, to related senses involving dirt, and even metaphorical uses involving evildoing. In the dictionary world, separating the people-related definitions of Black from the other definitions of black is a major'--and extremely rare'--move. As a rule, different senses of words that share an origin, as lowercase black and uppercase Black historically do, are included under the same entry.
It's a rule worth breaking. Dictionaries are not merely a linguistic exercise or academic enterprise. What are the effects of Black, referring to human beings, being grouped together with black, which can mean, among other things, ''wicked''? The effects are social. They are psychological. They are personal. How words are entered into the dictionary'--especially words concerning our personal identities'--have real effects on real people in the real world.
Learn more new entries connected to race and ethnicity, including brownface, Filipina, Filipinx, Pinay, Pinoy, Pinxy, and whitesplain.
Putting people first by using gayCapitalizing Black joins many other dictionary-wide efforts to put people, not practices, first, and ensure our definitions reflect'--and respect'--how people use language.
Informed by GLAAD recommendations and APA guidelines, we have also replaced references to homosexual with gay, gay man, or gay woman as well as references to homosexuality with gay sexual orientation. For example, we now define gayness as ''gay or lesbian sexual orientation or behavior'' compared to the outmoded gloss of ''homosexuality.'' These changes alone affect over 50 entries.
The previously used terms, homosexual and homosexuality, originated as clinical language, and dictionaries have historically perceived such language as scientific and unbiased. But homosexual and homosexuality are now associated with pathology, mental illness, and criminality, and so imply that being gay'--a normal way of being'--is sick, diseased, or wrong.
We have also revised how we define words that use -sexual (bisexual, pansexual, etc.). Our definitions have updated the phrasing of ''romantically or sexually attracted to'' to ''romantically, emotionally, or sexually attracted to.'' For instance, our primary definition of bisexual is now: ''noting or relating to a person who is romantically, emotionally, or sexually attracted to both men and women, or to people of various gender identities.''
Not only do these revisions help eliminate heterosexual bias in language, they also help better convey the diversity and richness of'--and take Pride with a capital P in'--human sexual experience and identity.
We make a point to use the word Pride here. Our lexicographers have also developed a separate entry for Pride with an initial capital P to better document the specific, widespread use of the term:
recognition of LGBTQ identity, affirmation of equal rights, and celebration of visibility, dignity, and diversity in the LGBTQ community (formerly referred to as Gay Pride)events or organizations that celebrate the LGBTQ community and its members (often used attributively)Discover many more LGBTQIA-related terms in our update, such as ace, ambisextrous, asexual, biromantic, deadname, gender-inclusive, gender diversity, and trans+.
Destigmatizing addiction and suicideIn addition to race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality, personal health and wellness are other significant areas where language is evolving.
Improving nearly 20 entries, we've replaced all instances of commit suicide with die by suicide or end one's life, language preferred by mental health professionals and suicide prevention specialists. The moralistic verb commit is associated with crime (in the justice system) and sin (in religion), deepening the emotional pain surrounding this sensitive but important subject'--and thickening the barriers to talking openly about it.
We've also replaced all instances of the noun addict to a person addicted to or a habitual user of. These changes foreground the fact that people who have addictions are human beings, first and foremost. For instance, our new entry for the second sense of user now reads: ''a person who is addicted to or abuses a controlled substance or alcohol; one who uses illegal or addictive drugs.''
We implemented our changes to addict in parallel with revisions to the sometimes offensive noun alcoholic, which we now define as ''a person with alcoholism or alcohol use disorder; a person addicted to intoxicating drinks.''
The English language has many words, from disparaging slang and informal expressions to technical terms, for people who'--while they may not have alcohol use disorder, another new entry in our dictionary'--are habitual drinkers of alcohol. Historically, words used for these people, like lush or dipsomaniac, have been glossed using the noun alcoholic; we revised our definitions of these terms to be in line with whole-person language.
Referring to people with addictions as addicts or alcoholics reduces them to a label'--and one long connoting moral failure and weakness of character'--and defines them by only a single aspect of their complex humanity.
Combined, our updates surrounding addict and alcoholic improved over 50 entries.
Defining the animals we depend onWhile fewer of us are doing so during the coronavirus, air travel in recent years has introduced such terms as emotional support animal and therapy animal into our lexicon. Such terms are often used interchangeably in colloquial settings, but their differences matter.
Domesticated animals enrich our lives and contribute to our general happiness, but the specific physical, emotional, and cognitive benefits they can provide'--as well as the training, legal status, and scope of work they have therein'--varies.
We defined, and distinguished, the terms for six such animals:
assistance animalemotional support animalcomfort animalcompanion animalservice animaltherapy animalThirty years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, it's more vital than ever to give, as one highlight, service animal its lexicographical due: ''an animal that is specially trained and able to provide assistance to a person living with a disability, as guiding a blind person.''
Changing world, changing wordsRace and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, health and wellness'--these topics of identity represent some of the most serious and sweeping changes in our dictionary update. But our release covers many other urgent areas, not least of which is the environment.
We've added a wide range of words concerning the animal kingdom, weather, climate change, and the human impact on a changing natural world, such as:
African pygmy elephantecoanxietybombogenesiscap and tradeconservation statuscritically endangeredextinct in the wildoff-gridTechnology continues to innovateAs ever, digital technology is itself a kind of livestream of new words'--and changing faster than any dictionary can ever keep up with. Some of this novel terminology involves new technology and services. Other new terms reveal how technology is transforming our lives and behaviors, for better or worse. Some highlights are:
agile developmentcommunity managementnatural language processingsharentratiotechlashTwitchNew words from politics and pop cultureAs our tech term upgrades show, the dictionary will never keep pace with the great churn of the English language'--but it's not supposed to.
Especially as it concerns new words and new senses, our dictionary editors patiently monitor lexical changes for widespread, sustained use. Many word trends are just that: trends, with a lifespan ranging from one news cycle up to several years. Other words have long been active (e.g., emotional labor) but only recently spread into mainstream use.
How do words get into the dictionary, anyways? Our experts explain.
Here's a selection of new entries, drawn from everywhere'--business to gaming to fashion to psychology to the social and political forces that have defined the late 2010s:
amiritebattle royalecontouringdead white maleDGAFDunning-Kruger effectempty suitgender revealGOAThodophobiaishinformation bubblejabronijankyMAGAMeToonothingburgerswoleworld-buildingzhuzhChange is constant, a principle that's true in language as in life. No matter what is happening in the world, we're committed to documenting and describing'--and helping you stay informed on and, yes, sometimes entertained by'--the English language as it evolves. Fifteen thousand entries updated. And counting.
15,000 is just one small slice of the dictionary pie. We've got over 300,000 more. So how many words are there in the English language?
Vape Wars
How the FDA Is Saving the Cigarette | Reason Foundation
A large part of the e-cigarette industry may soon be put out of business and the Big Tobacco companies' positions as the leading providers of vapor products could be cemented.
Wednesday, Sept. 9, is the deadline for e-cigarette and other vaping-related products to submit their pre-market tobacco applications (PMTA) to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
If these applications are accepted, the product can remain on the market until FDA determines whether or not to authorize the products.
The PMTA is a consequence of the Family Smoking Prevention & Tobacco Control Act (TCA), which gave the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products in 2009. E-cigarettes were deemed tobacco products in 2016 and the original deadline for PMTAs was set for 2018. But after several extensions, the final deadline was set for Sept. 9, 2020.
The law says that any existing vaping-related product that doesn't submit its pre-market tobacco application by the Sept. 9 deadline must be withdrawn from the market.
The pre-market tobacco application process is extraordinarily expensive and fiendishly complicated. FDA estimates the cost of each application to be between $117,000 and $466,000. But industry experts and those trying to comply with the rules believe the actual cost can easily run into the millions of dollars. These costs are unaffordable for the vast majority of e-cigarette businesses, which typically have hundreds of products'--each of which must have its own PMTA submitted.
In addition to being expensive, this unnecessary and burdensome process is not protecting public health. In Europe, e-cigarettes are also regulated for consumer safety but the process is vastly simpler than the FDA's byzantine system. European consumers benefit from a wide variety of choices and have not made sacrifices in product quality or safety.
The coronavirus pandemic has made compliance with FDA's rules even more challenging for some companies, with many labs shuttered and some of the clinical studies needed for applications suspended. The worst-case, short-term result of this regulatory nightmare is that as many as 14,000 small businesses could be forced to close with more than 100,000 jobs potentially lost. There are scenarios where nearly all vaping products from entrepreneurs and small businesses disappear from the market.
The results would likely be a vaping industry dominated by a few large companies and an increase in black market e-cigarette products that seek to fill the holes left by companies forced to pull their products from the market. It's also likely that many smokers who shifted to safer vaping products could lose access to those products and return to smoking. There may also be a lot of smokers who would've switched to these safer alternatives but continue to smoke instead.
These devastating impacts are not a bug or unintended consequence of the PMTA process but a feature celebrated by some of its supporters. It's designed to stop as many new products coming to market as possible, no matter their benefit to the public health. This process advantages only the biggest companies with the deepest pockets. The number of deemed products that may need to submit PMTAs, according to FDA, is a staggering 400 million. If only a fraction of these products actually submitted PMTAs, it would amount to bureaucratic mayhem with little precedent.
These applications are ostensibly intended to help FDA ensure new products are ''appropriate for the protection of public health.'' In practice, however, the system created by the Tobacco Control Act makes it easier for a new cigarette or cigar to enter the U.S. market than it is for an e-cigarette to enter the market.
This should come as no surprise when we look at who were the biggest boosters for the Tobacco Control Act (TCA). Unsurprisingly, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids was a cheerleader for the legislation. But they found an ally in the world's biggest tobacco company'--Philip Morris. At the time, other tobacco companies argued Philip Morris's support for the TCA was driven by a desire to enshrine its position as the market leader and erect barriers to competition. It's not for nothing that the Tobacco Control Act was nicknamed the ''Marlboro Monopoly Act'' by some in the industry. The alliance of Philip Morris and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is enough to make bootleggers and baptists blush.
Contrary to the claim of its advocates, the PMTAs will do nothing to protect children from tobacco use. As data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention demonstrates, the main reason why kids choose to experiment with vaping is not because of the availability of different flavors, appealing advertising, or cool product design '-- kids say they try vaping because they're curious and have seen family members or friends use the products.
The story is the same across a whole range of products from alcohol to marijuana. You can regulate products and push them into the black market but you can't regulate away the impulse of teenagers to try new things.
Thanks to e-cigarette flavor bans that have already been implemented in some states, a limited flavor ban passed at the federal level, and a campaign of demonization and fearmongering, we're already seeing some vapers return to smoking.
Now, the traditional cigarette is about to receive the greatest boost it has gotten in many years thanks to federal law and a federal agency that is supposed to be focused on the protection of public health.
The modern-day e-cigarette was invented almost 20 years ago. It was a consequence not of government-funded research or Big Tobacco companies. It was the result of a Chinese pharmacist tinkering away to find his own alternative to smoking. Hon Lik's invention was adapted and transformed in thousands of different ways, gifting the world the greatest tool to quit smoking ever invented'--research shows e-cigarettes are far safer than smoking traditional cigarettes, creating thousands of businesses and hundreds of thousands of jobs in the process.
Unfortunately, thanks to a bureaucratic process that seems compromised by industry and idealogues, the U.S. could be about to severely hobble one of the greatest public health advances of the last 100 years. As of this writing, only one electronic nicotine product has successfully navigated the pre-market tobacco application process and been approved'-- and it had more than a million pages of documentation in support: The IQOS tobacco heating system made by Philip Morris International.
Is There Actually a Link Between Vaping and COVID-19? | Time
J ack Drennan had tried to quit vaping before, but it took a global pandemic to make him finally follow through.
''I heard you get a lot sicker if you do vape and get coronavirus, so it kind of [pushed me] to quit,'' says the Mississippi 20-year-old. Plus, ''my mom's on my ass [about it].''
Speculation about a link between vaping and COVID-19 has grown in recent weeks. News reports have noted that some young, hospitalized COVID-19 patients also vaped, and at a tele-town hall on March 19, a constituent asked New York Rep. Anthony Brindisi about the possibility of a connection. The National Institute on Drug Abuse wrote on its blog that people with substance-use disorders, including those who vape, could be especially hard-hit by COVID-19. In various corners of the internet, fringe theories with little-to-no scientific evidence have popped up making connections between a prior outbreak of vaping-related lung illnesses in the U.S. and COVID-19.
But is there any actual link between vaping and coronavirus? Experts say it's impossible to say for sure.
Preliminary data show that a fairly high number of U.S. hospitalizations have been among younger adults'--the same population known for vaping. At this point, though, that's just an interesting observation; there is no real data to back up an association between vaping rates and COVID-19 rates in young adults.
The science around vaping is in general evolving. While some studies have shown that vaping can lead to lung damage and other health problems, the products have not been on the market long enough to speak confidently about their long-term effects. The science around COVID-19, which did not exist three months ago, is also still evolving. Putting the two topics together, then, makes for a lot of uncertainty.
Having a preexisting condition'--especially one related to respiratory health'--increases the chances that someone will experience complications from COVID-19, so it's reasonable to think vaping could play a part. But since scientists can't say for sure that vaping leads to lung disease or other chronic conditions, it's also difficult to say whether it opens people up to more risks associated with COVID-19.
Combustible cigarette-smoking is a clearer cause for concern during the outbreak, says Dr. Michael Siegel, a professor of community health sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health. Early data suggest men are more susceptible to COVID-19 than women, which could be associated with the fact that more men than women smoke'--especially in China. Smoking-related conditions, such as heart and lung disease, put people at risk of more severe illnesses, Siegel says. Smoking also inhibits the body's ability to heal from infections, he adds.
But ''with vaping, we just don't know,'' Siegel says. ''We don't have the evidence.''
Yasmin Thanavala, an immunologist at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York, says some of her group's animal research suggests vaping may prevent the body from healing from bacterial infections. COVID-19, of course, is a viral infection, but Thanavala says ''on a theoretical basis,'' a similar effect could apply. There's not conclusive evidence to say so definitively, though.
Even assuming vaping does cause some amount of lung damage, it's unlikely that most people who vape have been using e-cigarettes long enough to see the full brunt of it, says Dr. Steve Schroeder, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. The exceptions, of course, are patients who got sick during a vaping-related lung injury outbreak last year, which health authorities traced mainly back to THC vape products spiked with the additive vitamin E acetate.
Daniel Ament, a 17-year-old from Michigan who needed a double lung transplant after vaping, is one such patient. ''I definitely am [at higher risk for COVID-19],'' he says. ''[Doctors] didn't have to tell me that.'' Given his past lung injury and fragile immune system post-transplant, Ament is staying inside, wearing a mask almost constantly and visiting his doctors and therapists virtually. His whole family self-quarantined starting last week, to avoid bringing home germs.
E-cigarette users without a known lung injury should not quit if it means they'll go back to using combustible tobacco, Siegel says. ''Relapsing to smoking is the worst thing they could do.'' But for recreational vapers, COVID-19 may be the final push needed to quit'--and that's a silver-lining to the situation, Siegel says.
''It's always better not to be breathing chemicals into your lungs. I would have said that even without this particular outbreak,'' he says. ''It would certainly be a potential incentive to get people who are vaping to stop, just as a precautionary measure.''
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Write to Jamie Ducharme at jamie.ducharme@time.com.
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EuroLand
Police Fire Tear Gas At Refugees Protesting To Leave Greek Island : NPR
Refugees from the Moria camp protest near Mytilene on the Greek island of Lesbos on Saturday, a few days after a fire destroyed the refugee camp. Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
toggle caption Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP via Getty Images Refugees from the Moria camp protest near Mytilene on the Greek island of Lesbos on Saturday, a few days after a fire destroyed the refugee camp.
Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP via Getty Images Just days after fire tore through the Moria refugee camp in the Greek island of Lesbos and displaced more than 12,000 people, some of those same people were tear-gassed by police while protesting the construction of a replacement camp.
Protesters say they want to leave the island altogether.
Hundreds of refugees gathered Saturday, some chanting "freedom" and carrying signs, while bulldozers cleared debris in preparation for a new tent settlement, Reuters reported. Police fired tear gas after some protesters tried to march to Mytilene, the island's main city.
The new Lesbos camp, set up at an army firing range, will host about 3,000 people, according to local media. Families and members of "vulnerable groups" will get priority, government officials said. It's not clear what will happen to the other 9,000 or so refugees.
After the fires, Greek officials relocated more than 400 unaccompanied children to mainland Greece, according to CNN. But authorities have refused mass transfer off the island, despite the pleas of refugees. Officials promised to provide safe and sanitary conditions at the new tent encampment.
The Moria camp was built to house 3,000 people but at least four times as many people have been living there.
Complicating the resettlement are fears of the coronavirus. Authorities have lost track of 35 camp residents who had tested positive for the virus, Reuters reported. And the displaced refugees have had no access to basic sanitation in the days since the Moria camp burned.
"This is a health bomb," Matina Pagoni, president of Athens and Piraeus hospital doctors' union, told Skai television, according to the wire service. "These people haven't even had access to water all these days, they cannot even wash their hands."
bobbyzee29044 : Are people losing their minds? That's what the media and BLM want. https://t.co/OPJvHbtasc
Fri Sep 11 01:26:41 +0000 2020
CYNTHIA HILL : @bbyzee_7 I would have slapped this queen and handcuffed her till the next stop and literally dragged her off the plain.
Sun Sep 13 12:39:30 +0000 2020
Arkansas Susan : @bbyzee_7 Its things like this that are causing all of the racial division. Confrontations like this cause angers r'... https://t.co/xianVQ0Z6C
Sun Sep 13 12:39:11 +0000 2020
FRANCESCA : @bbyzee_7 A punch in the face would have set that bitch back. Why do we put up with that shit.
Sun Sep 13 12:36:51 +0000 2020
conservativerickey : @bbyzee_7 She should have been forcefully taken off plane and prosecuted. She is interfering with the attendants du'... https://t.co/qhoA6DYq7L
Sun Sep 13 12:33:33 +0000 2020
Betty : @bbyzee_7 Get her off the plane !!!!!!
Sun Sep 13 12:27:50 +0000 2020
Jessica : @bbyzee_7 She's wrong and she knows it that's why she started bitching. Bye Felicia.
Sun Sep 13 12:25:25 +0000 2020
Joseph A Colburn Jr : @bbyzee_7 That that woman of dust off the aircraft for not allowing the airplane stewardess to get where she needs'... https://t.co/pRD9GKc8Os
Sun Sep 13 12:03:44 +0000 2020
Ron Jenkins : @bbyzee_7 This is going to lead to a 2nd Civil War. The streets will run red with blood of both black and white.'... https://t.co/GpndiLh0TB
Sun Sep 13 12:02:10 +0000 2020
John Kaye : @bbyzee_7 Where's the Air Marshall? She should be thrown off the plane and be out on the ''Do Not Fly'' list. Nothing'... https://t.co/PtSQ1JQJVH
Sun Sep 13 11:50:36 +0000 2020
Jeff Kay : @bbyzee_7 "I'm a QUEEN,"?!?!?!?!? I'm kind of surprised that hasn't triggered the LBGTQ into some sort of retaliati'... https://t.co/yTQLWqMckd
Sun Sep 13 11:50:35 +0000 2020
Lorilmagnuson : @bbyzee_7 Escort her off the plane!
Sun Sep 13 11:35:26 +0000 2020
RumbleSis162 : @bbyzee_7 I want to see what happened AFTER this video ends. Did they remove her dumb ass off the plane?
Sun Sep 13 11:29:21 +0000 2020
RKC : @bbyzee_7 Not all Black Americans act like a fool. I know plenty who dislike that kind of behavior. No one on the'... https://t.co/fFul9WnLwE
Sun Sep 13 11:24:49 +0000 2020
Bryan Pacheco : @bbyzee_7 Wow?
Sun Sep 13 11:24:44 +0000 2020
Phyllis Chase : @bbyzee_7 OMG Will the MSM report this? This is what the BLM thugs and the progressive liberals in our country have caused
Sun Sep 13 10:41:44 +0000 2020
Charles Spangler : @bbyzee_7 I'm a queen omg lmfao a queen over a pile of shit I can't stand ignorant people like this I hope they put'... https://t.co/RPldbbq0NY
Sun Sep 13 10:37:37 +0000 2020
jakd : @bbyzee_7 Ignorant POS!
Sun Sep 13 09:54:30 +0000 2020
DORSEY & DICK HATE CONSERVATIVES : @bbyzee_7 That's what happens when demon rats make BLM criminals in to kings and queens, and make everyone else to'... https://t.co/LZPf85Qbmm
Sun Sep 13 09:34:56 +0000 2020
RK : @bbyzee_7 OMG ð
Sun Sep 13 09:34:21 +0000 2020
VIDEO-Extraordinary row erupts over Tom Hanks as Queensland's Deputy Premier hits back at Peter Dutton
By Isabelle Stackpool For Daily Mail Australia 09:36 12 Sep 2020, updated 10:16 12 Sep 2020
Hollywood actor Tom Hanks landed in Queensland from America on Tuesday Hanks was granted a special exemption and is quarantining in a luxury resort Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton lashed out at the Queensland government QLD Deputy Premier Steven Miles said Mr Dutton's accusations were lies Mr Miles said Dutton's department were responsible for granting the exemptionAn extraordinary row has erupted over Hollywood actor Tom Hanks as politicians point fingers over who allowed the star to enter Australia.
The controversy was sparked when the A-list star entered Queensland from the US on Tuesday night and was granted an exemption from the state's strict border rules.
Queensland's Deputy Premier Steven Miles has accused Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton of 'lying' about letting Hanks into the country, news.com.au reported.
An extraordinary row has erupted after Hollywood actor Tom Hanks (pictured left with wife Rita Wilson right) was granted a special exemption to enter Queensland on Tuesday Federal Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton (pictured) lashed out at the Queensland government for allowing celebrities to enter the state but keeping ordinary families apartHanks touched down in the Gold Coast alongside cast, crew and 11 family members to continue filming an Elvis Presley biopic directed by Baz Luhrmann.
The actor, who caught coronavirus while filming the movie in March, is completing his mandatory quarantine at a resort in Broadbeach rather than a state facility.
Mr Dutton attacked the Queensland government on Friday over the star's exemption.
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'If you are Tom Hanks from California, you are okay. If you are Tom Hanks from Chermside or Castle Hill, sorry, you are not coming in,' he said.
Mr Miles hit back at the Home Affairs Minister on Saturday, saying the Australian Border Force would have granted him permission.
'And what that means is that when Peter Dutton launched that extraordinary attack during the week, he was lying.
'He was saying that it was us that let Tom Hanks in, when in fact it was him and his own department that let Tom Hanks in,' Mr Miles claimed.
Deputy Premier Steven Miles (pictured) said Mr Dutton was 'lying' and it was his department and the Australian Border Force who granted Hanks permission to enter the stateHanks will portray Elvis's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, in the blockbuster movie scheduled for release in 2021.
Queensland's borders are closed to Victoria, New South Wales and the ACT.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has also come under fire for inconsistency on border rules after letting hundreds of AFL players, WAGs and staff enter Queensland via special luxury quarantine while keeping ordinary families apart.
The premier refused to take any responsibility for her border decisions and said Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young made the call to prevent nurse Sarah Caisip from farewelling her father with her family in Brisbane on Thursday.
Ms Caisip, who lives in coronavirus-free Canberra, applied for an exemption last month to visit her sick father Bernard Prendergast in Brisbane - but it took 20 days to get approved and he died of liver cancer two days before her flight.
Mr Hanks (pictured left with wife Rita) is filming an Elvis Presley biopic on the Gold Coast Sarah Caisip (in yellow) was allowed to have a private viewing of her father's body, dressed in PPE and with security guards minding her. She was not allowed to greet her familyThe young woman, who is in hotel quarantine in Brisbane, was banned from attending her father's funeral on Thursday because officials believe she is a Covid-19 risk.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison had asked Ms Palaszczuk to make an exception but the premier refused and accused him of 'bullying and intimidating' her.
'I said to the prime minister, I would refer it to the chief health officer and I did that,' Ms Palaszczuk said on Friday morning.
Queensland chief health officer Jeannette Young has defended granting exemption to Hollywood staff and AFL players because they provide revenue for the state.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mr Dutton and the Department of Home Affairs for comment.
Queensland's border madness: The heartbroken families Mark Keans
Mark Keans, from Brisbane, was diagnosed with inoperable brain and lung cancer in late July and the doctors believe he won't make it past Christmas.
Health authorities had initially said only one of Mr Keans' four Sydney-based children - all of whom are under the age of 13 - could cross the border to see him one last time.
Queensland Health did not at first respond to multiple requests for an exemption from the truck driver's family, but later told them they can drive into the state and pay for two weeks quarantine in a Brisbane hotel.
A fundraising page to pay for their quarantine has raised more than $200,000, including a $1,000 donation from Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Mr Keans pictured with his children (L-R) Noah 13, Caitlyn 11, Caleb 11, and Isaac, 7 Kimberley Brown
Kimberley Brown and her husband Scott, from Ballina, in northern New South Wales, were told on August 12 that their unborn twins had developed twin to twin transfusion syndrome.
Mrs Brown needed urgent surgery but despite living just two hours away from Queensland's Mater Hospital doctors told her she would need to apply for a border exemption, which took too long.
She was flown 750km to Sydney but lost one of her twins.
It came ten days after Premier Palaszczuk declared that Queensland hospitals are 'for our people'.
Kimberley Brown and her husband Scott, from Ballina, in northern NSW, learned that they had lost their unborn baby after being forced to travel 750kms because of Queensland's border restrictions Jayne Brown
Jayne Brown, 60, spent two weeks confined to a tiny hotel room in Brisbane following her recent return from Sydney, where renowned neurosurgeon Dr Charlie Teo removed two large tumours on her brain.
The grandmother-of-seven requested an exemption from hotel quarantine to self-isolate at home on the Sunshine Coast, but was rejected twice.
She blasted Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who allowed 400 AFL players and officials from coronavirus-riddled Victoria to enter the state and quarantine in a luxury hotel.
Jayne Brown described the decision to allow 400 AFL officials into Queensland as mindblowing Sarah Caisip
Sarah Caisip, who lives in coronavirus-free Canberra, applied for an exemption last month to visit her sick father Bernard Prendergast in Brisbane - but it took 20 days to get approved and he died of liver cancer two days before her flight.
The young nurse was banned from attending her father's funeral on Thursday because officials believed she is a Covid-19 risk even though the ACT has had no cases for 60 days.
Ms Caisip was only granted a private viewing of her father's body, surrounded by guards and forbidden from seeing her shattered mother and 11-year-old sister.
Sarah Caisip was only granted a private viewing of her father's body, surrounded by guards
VIDEO-New effort emerges to save Austin businesses hit hard by pandemic before it's too late
New effort emerges to save Austin businesses hit hard by pandemic before it's too late
Mother's Cafe is on the brink of closure, but a new online effort is underway to identify struggling Austin businesses to help before it's too late (Photo: CBS Austin)
AUSTIN, Texas '--The COVID-19 crisis continues to impact locally-owned businesses, forcing numerous Austin staples to shut down.
However, a new effort has emerged online to identify and help save those businesses before it's too late.
A new online effort is underway to identify struggling Austin businesses to help before it's too late
One of those businesses on the brink is Mother's Cafe in Central Austin.
The vegan restaurant has been around for nearly four decades.
RELATED LINKS:
After 35 years, Cap City Comedy Club closes its doors for goodEast Austin music and comedy venue The North Door closing for goodBen Livingston has been a loyal customer since 1982.
"Ever since I got here, it's just been a staple,'' he said. ''We love it.''
Owner John Silverberg says the pandemic has changed things, "We've seen a 75 percent drop."
Silverberg says they're struggling to make a profit.
Despite looser dine-in regulations, he says they've decided to stick with curbside to go.
"We just do not feel -- we're one of the restaurants that do not feel that it is safe, and I know there's others in Austin."
Silverberg's restaurant is among several other Austin restaurants highlighted in a Reddit thread that the community is rallying around to save.
"There's nothing like these places -- Magnolia's, we lost that one," said Livingston.
Silverberg says they've managed to make it 6 months into the crisis, but says there have been talks of closing down.
"I don't feel special or unique in this situation. I think there's a real chance that Mother's will close at some point -- and many other restaurants will close."
Something long-time customers like Livingston fear.
"They've looked out for the community in so many ways," he said.
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) claimed on Friday that President Donald Trump's recent success in securing peace deals in the Middle East was nothing more than ''a distraction.''
''How much credit do you give the President of the United States for these peace agreements?'' CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked.
''Well, hopefully they won't'--hopefully they will beneficial [sic] to the region,'' Pelosi said. ''We've been waiting for a very long time for the president's proposal for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement that honored the two state solution. It was coming in two weeks, it was coming in two months, it was coming in six months'--it still hasn't come in any way that has brought peace.''
''So, good for him for having a distraction on a day when the numbers of people who are affected and the numbers of people who are dying from this virus only increases,'' Pelosi stated.
WATCH:
Wolf Blitzer: "How much credit do you give the president for these peace agreements?"@SpeakerPelosi: "Good for him for having a distraction on a day when the numbers of people who are affected and the numbers of people who are dying from this virus only increases." pic.twitter.com/uanVmNPlNd
'-- Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 11, 2020
Pelosi's comments come after Trump has been nominated multiple times in recent days for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in securing peace agreements.
The most recent peace deal that the administration secured was on Friday between Israel and Bahrain.
The White House released the following information on the peace deal:
SECURING ANOTHER HISTORIC AGREEMENT: President Donald J. Trump has brokered a deal to establish full diplomatic relations between Bahrain and Israel '' the second such agreement between Israel and an Arab nation in less than one month.
Israel and Bahrain have committed to begin the exchange of embassies and ambassadors, start direct flights between their countries, and launch cooperation initiatives across a broad range of sectors.This peace deal is a significant step forward for both Israel and Bahrain.It further enhances their security while creating opportunities for them to deepen their economic ties.This deal comes on the heels of the historic normalization agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are the first Arab nations to normalize relations with Israel in more than 25 years.The United States will continue to support the people of Bahrain as they work to counter terrorism and extremism, develop economically, and build new peaceful partnerships across the region.CREATING THE CONDITIONS FOR PEACE: President Trump's wise foreign policy strategy has created the conditions for peace between Israel and its neighbors.
When President Trump took office, the Middle East was in a state of extreme turmoil.President Trump has worked to rebuild trust with our regional partners and identify their shared interests, moving them away from the conflicts of the past.Thanks to the President's bold foreign policy vision and his acumen as a dealmaker, nations across the region are realizing the benefits of his thoughtful approach.As the President's work continues, more Arab and Muslim countries will likely seek to normalize relations with Israel.Each country that normalizes relations will build upon the other, bringing peace and prosperity to the region and the people who live there.AN UNPRECEDENTED REGIONAL TRANSFORMATION: After decades of instability and crisis, nations across the Middle East and Africa are increasingly working together to build a more peaceful and prosperous future.
Thanks to President Trump's leadership, the Arab world is experiencing the most rapid geopolitical transformation in more than a generation.As more countries normalize relations with Israel, the region is becoming more stable, secure, and prosperous.Expanded business and financial ties between economies will accelerate growth and economic opportunity across the region.Agreements with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates also help to advance President Trump's vision for finding a fair and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians.The United States will continue to stand with the people of the region as they work to build a brighter, more hopeful future. The Daily Wire is one of America's fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member .
VIDEO-MLS Stage Powerful Protests: Black Players For Change - YouTube
A petition to prosecute Nancy Pelosi for violating Covid-19 regulations by visiting a hair salon in San Fransisco has attracted thousands of signatures in just 24 hours.
At time of writing, the petition hosted at media action network has garnered close to 25,000 signatures.
The petition, addressed to SF Police Chief William Scot, states:
Laws aren't just for the ''little people.''
Not only did Nancy Pelosi knowingly violate health ordinances, but just destroyed a business because she couldn't take a ounce of responsibility.
The salon owner gets death threats, while Pelosi has paid ZERO price for her hypocrisy.
At a very minimum, Nancy Pelosi must be prosecuted by San Francisco for her flaunting of COVID regulations. Now!
The footage of Pelosi was leaked last week, showing her walking around the salon without a face mask. All the while 'ordinary' people are not even allowed to go to hair appointments because salons are still all closed in SF under coronavirus rules.
After several days, instead of apologising, Pelosi claimed that she had been ''set up'' by the owner of the salon.
''I take responsibility for trusting the word of the neighborhood salon that I've been to over the years many times, and when they said, 'We're able to accommodate people one person at a time.' I trusted that,'' Pelosi told reporters.
''So I take responsibility for falling for a setup. And that's all I'm going to say on that,'' Pelosi declared, even adding ''I think that this salon owes me an apology, for setting me up.''
If ever there was a time for the old adage 'one rule for them, another for everyone else' it is now. Pelosi's reaction also betrays how over privileged and out of touch Democrats have become.
Protesters have taken to decorating trees outside Pelosi's home with curlers and blow dryers:
Protesters have gathered in front of Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco home and are stringing up curlers and blow dryers on a tree after a video surfaced of Pelosi getting her hair done indoors/maskless at a SF salon @sfchronicle pic.twitter.com/v6KVORByaP
'-- Jessica Christian (@jachristian) September 3, 2020
Meanwhile, the owner of the salon has been forced to shut down the business permanently.
''I am actually done in San Francisco and closing my doors, unfortunately,'' Erica Kious announced Wednesday .
''I started to just get a ton of phone calls, text messages, emails, all my Yelp reviews'... saying that they hope I go under and that I fail,'' Kious explained, adding ''So just a lot of negativity towards my business.''
''I'm actually afraid to go back, just because of the messages and emails I've been getting,'' she continued, explaining that ''It's a little scary and sad. I do have a lot of positive calls and text messages from clients, but other than that, nothing but negativity.''
A GoFundMe page to help Kious has so far raised over $336,000.
Since the incident came to light, Pelosi has continued to hammer President Trump over the coronavirus response, claiming that he isn't taking it seriously enough, and didn't act quickly enough back in February and March.
The reality is that Trump was intent on closing the borders and pushing for travel bans, against the will of Democrats, at the end of January, while Pelosi and others were still encouraging mass gatherings well into February.
Pelosi then set about blocking coronavirus funding, while gorging on ice cream from inside her luxurious mansion.
VIDEO-FC Dallas fans boo players kneeling during National Anthem in support of racial justice - YouTube
VIDEO-Curtis Houck on Twitter: "Watch Joe Biden spokesman TJ Ducklo absolutely melt down when @BretBaier asks him if Biden has ever used a teleprompter for news interviews from his house. Ducklo explodes and, like he did throughout the interview, accuses
Curtis Houck : Watch Joe Biden spokesman TJ Ducklo absolutely melt down when @BretBaier asks him if Biden has ever used a teleprom'... https://t.co/pNYeinLY1l
Thu Sep 10 22:31:22 +0000 2020
Mhairi : @CurtisHouck @KathySoltani @BretBaier I've seen this several times, but never noticed the idiot's 'background' image! ð
Sat Sep 12 14:45:35 +0000 2020
VIDEO-NC voters can track their mail-in ballot this year amid COVID-19 pandemic - ABC11 Raleigh-Durham
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- Many of us have had or heard a horror story about something getting 'lost in the mail'.
So with all the recent talk of changes at the US Postal Service, state elections officials have scrambled to put a mail-in ballot tracking system in place as well as other tools to assure you ballot is delivered and counted.
"We've tried to put these things in place because we know that people are concerned about being out in public areas and waiting in lines because of their fears of coronavirus," State Board of Elections Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell told ABC 11.
Already well over 700,000 North Carolinians have requested absentee ballots; that's more than 15 times the number of requests at this time in 2016. Four to five percent of voters cast absentee ballots in 2016.
State elections officials now expect as many as 40 percent of the state's voters will cast absentee ballots this year.
RELATED: North Carolina absentee ballot requests are up more than 900 percent from this time in 2016"With that many people being new to this process we knew that we needed to put in tools," Brinson Bell said.
She knows the high volume of requests is all because people don't want to take a chance on voting in-person and possibly being exposed to COVID-19.
"We've tried to take fear away," Bell said.
But then there was a new fear stoked by reports of cuts and changes at the USPS. Bell says that news made it more clear that the state had done the right thing by deciding to use a ballot tracking system - a plan that was already well underway at that time.
"When we learned of the coronavirus situation and the pandemic back in March we identified this tracking tool as a good service to the voters," she noted.
FULL CORONAVIRUS COVERAGEThe company the state board chose is BallotTrax. The program, which goes live on Friday, allows you to register on the state's election website and use a barcode on your ballot's envelope to track it.
NC State Board of Elections said the BallotTrax system will not be live until Friday at the earliest. However, all ballot packets already sent out have barcodes for the return envelopes. So you can go ahead and mail your ballot and when BallotTrax is activated you can register for tracking at this link.
Bell hopes it will alleviate concerns saying, "It's going to allow the voter to receive an email, a text message, or a phone alert so that they know where their ballot is."
And once it arrives at your county elections office, there's a separate tool on the website that allows you to be sure your vote has been counted.
So in an election in which every vote may matter, but in an atmosphere in which casting it in-person may put your health at risk, North Carolina has a reassuringly safe and secure way to cast your ballot.
"I've said time and again since March that no voter will fear disease when they cast their ballot," Bell said adding that it took thousands of people statewide - some working around the clock - to ensure an election in which no one would have to risk their health to vote.
She says her staff and the staffs at every county elections office deserve credit for protecting not only your health but your constitutional right to vote.
ASK US: What are your voting concerns or questions as Election Day approaches?
Copyright (C) 2020 WTVD-TV. All Rights Reserved.
VIDEO-Arcturus Therapeutics' Pad Chivukula, CSO & COO, presents at the 2020 TIDES Conference - YouTube
VIDEO-Fort Smith/Fayetteville News | 5newsonline KFSM 5NEWS | Get the local news and weather where you live from 5NEWS. Covering Fort Smith, Fayetteville, Bentonville, and all of Northwest Arkansas and the River Valley. | 5newsonline.com
14 people were arrested Thursday in the River Valley as part of an investigation into methamphetamine trafficking.
FORT SMITH, Ark. '-- 14 individuals were arrested today by federal, state, and local law enforcement in Sebastian, Crawford, and Logan Counties as part of a roundup following an over year-long investigation into methamphetamine trafficking.
''This investigation has dealt a serious setback to drug trafficking organizations that endanger not only our communities in the Western District of Arkansas but also other communities throughout the nation,'' stated First Assistant U.S. Attorney David Clay Fowlkes, ''The indictments and arrests in this case were only made possible due to the unprecedented cooperation between Federal, State and Local Agencies.
In August 2020, a federal grand jury returned an Indictment charging several individuals in the Fort Smith area with a large-scale, multi-state drug trafficking and money laundering conspiracy.
''Today, DEA, in collaboration with our Federal, State and Local law enforcement partners, took down a violent methamphetamine trafficking organization, with direct ties to Mexico and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, and whose tentacles extended beyond Arkansas to many other states,'' stated DEA Special Agent in Charge Brad L. Byerley. ''These violent offenders not only sold large quantities of methamphetamine, but also used firearms and committed acts of violence in furtherance of their crimes. Because of persistent and collaborative efforts of multiple law enforcement agencies in the area, a major supplier of methamphetamine to this region of Arkansas is out of business.''
Drug Sting in River Valley
Efrain Maciel-Martinez
2/7
''The individuals arrested today enriched themselves off the misery and sufferings of others,'' stated Special Agent in Charge Diane Upchurch of the FBI Little Rock Field Office. ''Working alongside the DEA and our tremendous Arkansas law enforcement partners, we are committed to dismantling criminal organizations who flood our communities with dangerous narcotics and create violence in our neighborhoods. We urge anyone with information about Arkansas criminal organizations to contact our FBI office.''
The defendants who were arrested today (Manuel ''Chuy'' De Jesus Perez-Echeverria, Humberto ''Beto'' Acosta-Martinez, Julio Ivan Enriquez-Munoz, Alberto Ledesma, Efrain Maciel-Martinez, Traye Everett Martin, Julie Ann Pyles, Ezequiel Rodriguez, Paula Lynne Rider, Ronal Salinas, Benjamin ''Ben'' Valdez, Amber Renee Vance, Emily Elizabeth Williams, and Michael Dean Wilson) will be scheduled to appear in the United States District in Fort Smith before United States Magistrate Judge Mark Ford in the coming days.
Editor's Note: The YouTube video below is from a drug sting in Bella Vista in 2017.
ARKANSAS NEWS YOUTUBE PLAYLIST
VIDEO-Young Americans Know Nothing About The 4th of July - YouTube
VIDEO-Pundit Class (unlicensed content distributor) on Twitter: "Trudeau government to license Internet websites #cdnpoli "We would ask that they have a license. Yes." @s_guilbeault https://t.co/oHFjYIthu8" / Twitter
Pundit Class (unlicensed content distributor) : Trudeau government to license Internet websites #cdnpoli "We would ask that they have a license. Yes."'... https://t.co/PWJTtrNakh
Fri Sep 11 19:25:07 +0000 2020
Velvet Thunder : @punditclass @s_guilbeault He cannot answer the questions, they have no idea what they are doing
Sat Sep 12 12:48:08 +0000 2020
Enrique Toscano : @punditclass @s_guilbeault These liberal government are nothing more than a bunch of thiefs, we will soon become a'... https://t.co/KS333zghay
Sat Sep 12 12:47:36 +0000 2020
FifthLastMohican : @punditclass @s_guilbeault Canada - where the actual criminals are making the laws for the citizens.
Sat Sep 12 12:46:45 +0000 2020
Prorogued Trudeau : @punditclass @s_guilbeault Holy shit, blink much Steve?!
Sat Sep 12 12:43:12 +0000 2020
Ian Curtis '¸'¸'¸ : @punditclass @s_guilbeault How very Nazi of them. The Soros Plan.
Sat Sep 12 12:41:14 +0000 2020
my view from the bottom : @punditclass @s_guilbeault Flat out communism
Sat Sep 12 12:34:57 +0000 2020
Fred Kirkey Reluctant Isolationist : @punditclass @s_guilbeault This @liberal_party is laying the foundations for Goebbels or Stalin-like control over a'... https://t.co/xIc4YeVgmk
Sat Sep 12 12:33:02 +0000 2020
Brad : @punditclass @s_guilbeault Why are we listening to a convicted criminal working in a corrupt government?
Sat Sep 12 12:27:11 +0000 2020
Deadmantweeting : @punditclass @s_guilbeault ''I require no license to speak the truth That License was bought by my ancestors who sto'... https://t.co/spszhe9FfY
Sat Sep 12 12:26:37 +0000 2020
VIDEO-Incredible '' Bahrain Joins UAE in Formalizing Peace With Israel '' President Trump Announcement '' Video | The Last Refuge
''Peace is the prize.'' '' Truly a remarkable diplomatic accomplishment and very apropos considering the timing of the events. Today the Kingdom of Bahrain and Israel formalize peace and diplomatic ties between the two nations. Bahrain now joins with the United Arab Emirates in a larger peace initiative. [ Video of White House Announcement ]
WHITE HOUSE '' President Donald J. Trump has brokered a deal to establish full diplomatic relations between Bahrain and Israel '' the second such agreement between Israel and an Arab nation in less than one month.
* Israel and Bahrain have committed to begin the exchange of embassies and ambassadors, start direct flights between their countries, and launch cooperation initiatives across a broad range of sectors.* This peace deal is a significant step forward for both Israel and Bahrain.+ It further enhances their security while creating opportunities for them to deepen their economic ties.* This deal comes on the heels of the historic normalization agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.+ The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are the first Arab nations to normalize relations with Israel in more than 25 years.* The United States will continue to support the people of Bahrain as they work to counter terrorism and extremism, develop economically, and build new peaceful partnerships across the region.
CREATING THE CONDITIONS FOR PEACE: President Trump's wise foreign policy strategy has created the conditions for peace between Israel and its neighbors.
* When President Trump took office, the Middle East was in a state of extreme turmoil.* President Trump has worked to rebuild trust with our regional partners and identify their shared interests, moving them away from the conflicts of the past.* Thanks to the President's bold foreign policy vision and his acumen as a dealmaker, nations across the region are realizing the benefits of his thoughtful approach.* As the President's work continues, more Arab and Muslim countries will likely seek to normalize relations with Israel.* Each country that normalizes relations will build upon the other, bringing peace and prosperity to the region and the people who live there.
AN UNPRECEDENTED REGIONAL TRANSFORMATION: After decades of instability and crisis, nations across the Middle East and Africa are increasingly working together to build a more peaceful and prosperous future.
* Thanks to President Trump's leadership, the Arab world is experiencing the most rapid geopolitical transformation in more than a generation.* As more countries normalize relations with Israel, the region is becoming more stable, secure, and prosperous.* Expanded business and financial ties between economies will accelerate growth and economic opportunity across the region.* Agreements with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates also help to advance President Trump's vision for finding a fair and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians.* The United States will continue to stand with the people of the region as they work to build a brighter, more hopeful future.(LINK)
The TOUROur Virtual Tour will feature a series of conversations with the activists, researchers, and survivors of exploitative tech who are working to build a humane tech future.
Roundtable Q&A '' Sept. 16th
Help kick off our virtual tour with a roundtable Q&A featuring The Social Dilemma director Jeff Orlowski and selected film subjects: Tristan Harris, Rashida Richardson, Ren(C)e Diresta.
Moderator: Sheera Frankel, New York Times
''Perhaps the single most lucid, succinct, and profoundly terrifying analysis of social media ever created for mass consumption.''
'-- IndieWire''so relevant and of-the-moment it's practically already in the future''
'-- Hollywood Reporter''The Social Dilemma may finally convince you that we're being watched, manipulated, and misled by unscrupulous platforms and attention-harvesting algorithms.''
''Vanity Fair
VIDEO-Black sportswriter says 'white liberals' are the 'actual bigots' and 'true racists' '-- and liberalism is 'the new KKK hood'
Sportswriter Jason Whitlock '-- not one to shy away from views that run counter to his left-wing colleagues '-- spoke to Fox News' Tucker Carlson earlier this week about the controversy over now-former George Washington University professor Jessica Krug, who is white but made an entire career out of pretending to be black.
Whitlock didn't hold back in his reaction to it all:
There is a business built around racial grievance. And that business is booming at such a level that white people are like, "Hey, I'm gonna adopt a whole new identity so I can benefit from being Baby Al Sharpton, Baby Jesse Jackson," and in academia, this has been embraced, and [Krug] has been able to pull off this scam. But it's not just her; this isn't just an anecdote. We've had it with Rachel Dolezal; we've had it with the Shaun King guy on Twitter who is white, who has pretended to be black, who has lied and said that, "Oh, my mother slept with a black man, and she didn't tell anybody about it." All of these people moving into the race-bait industry and business, and it must be very profitable and lucrative because everybody wants to be "down with the cause, and y'all know that Jessica Krug is keepin' it real, you know, yo?"Carlson, noting his disgust with a "patronizing" Krug seen earlier in the clip speaking like she's "illiterate," pointed out that such a persona isn't exactly a positive reflection of how leftists like her view the black community. Whitlock agreed '-- and proceeded to eviscerate the growing mob of white leftists who proudly fancy themselves as pro black and anti-racist:
I keep trying to explain it over and over and over again, and people think I'm crazy. The branding has been so strong that if you put on this label of being a liberal, there's virtually nothing you can do negative against black people that will be seen as negative.White liberals '-- I'm sorry '-- they're the actual bigots. And I know that that's gonna blow a lot of people's minds, but liberalism to me is now the new KKK hood. Bigots used to hide under hoods; now they hide under the label of being a liberal and a progressive '-- and that allows you to be as bigoted as you wanna be. If you wanna call yourself an antifascist and support Black Lives Matter as a white person, that means you can go out into the streets, tear down neighborhoods, harass people, say all kinds of disrespectful stuff to white and black people, and it's all good because allegedly you're fighting racism. Allegedly you're on the side of black people. And actually, if you evaluate their actions and their mindset, they actually can't stand black people, have no respect for black people, think very little of black people, and certainly aren't working toward our benefit.
The world is just upside down. It's a big lie and a scam and ... white people, white liberals are going out on a black person's credit card and ... charging of a bunch of things that we have to pay the bill for. They're doing it in our name. This is crazy.
Toward the end of the interview, Whitlock added that an accounting of the results of white liberals' actions "paints them as the true racists."
Jason Whitlock & Tucker Carlson On Racist Liberals & White Leftist Professor Claiming To Be Blackyoutu.be
"Special Report" anchor Bret Baier pressed Trump 2020 campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh Thursday over his claim that there was no difference between President Trump's statements on the coronavirus pandemic to journalist Bob Woodward earlier this year and what Trump was telling Americans publicly.
"The things that are being said in there [to Woodward] are the same things that President Trump has said publically," said Murtaugh, to which Baier responded: "That's not true, Tim. That's not true."
"Yes it is," Murtaugh shot back.
TRUMP DEFENSE DOWNPLAYING CORONAVIRUS AMID WOODWARD BOOK UPROAR
"He was saying publically that the virus would go from 15 [cases] to 0 and that it was magically going to wash away," Baier answered. "That is not the same thing he's telling Bob Woodward -- that it's a deadly virus, that it travels over the air, that it's very serious, that I like to downplay it. He was not saying the same things publicly as he was to Bob Woodward."
Baier was referring to audio excerpts from interviews Woodward conducted with Trump in February and March that were published by The Washington Post Wednesday. The interviews form the basis for Woodward's forthcoming book, "Rage."
FAUCI SAYS HE 'DIDN'T GET ANY SENSE' THAT TRUMP 'WAS DISTORTING ANYTHING' ABOUT CORONAVIRUS
"It was public knowledge at the time ... and it was discussed in coronavirus briefings," Murtaugh said. "Everyone knew that it was transmitted through coughing and sneezing and the president ''
"OK," Baier interrupted, "but what you just said is what he was saying privately and publically was the same. It's not."
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"Dr. Fauci says it is the same," Murtaugh responded. "You just played the sound bite. Dr. Fauci said there's no appreciable difference between what the president was discussing privately versus what he was saying publicly"
"The question was, was the president being straight with the American people?" Murtaugh added later in the segment. "And he was. Every step of the way, the President was straight with the American people. There's no question of that."
VIDEO-CBS News on Twitter: "Biden shows a paper he carries every day listing U.S. military deaths and injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the U.S. COVID-19 toll. "Every one of these lives matter. Every one of these lives left somebody behind, grieving.
CBS News : Biden shows a paper he carries every day listing U.S. military deaths and injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the'... https://t.co/TaGN3eevOF
Wed Sep 09 18:28:39 +0000 2020
VIDEO-Trump Calls Woodward 'Whack Job' Over Coronavirus Revelations | NBC News NOW - YouTube
VIDEO-Benny on Twitter: "This is the most brutal 6 minute interview I have seen so far this campaign cycle. If Biden's Press Secretary can't defend him, I can't even imagine how Joe will do in the Debates. Well done, @BretBaier https://t.co/8TjeW3OG
Benny : This is the most brutal 6 minute interview I have seen so far this campaign cycle.If Biden's Press Secretary can''... https://t.co/gOjAxuF1dl
Fri Sep 11 01:24:17 +0000 2020
Ro : @bennyjohnson @BretBaier I would love to see Kayleigh Mcenany debate this joker!
Fri Sep 11 14:30:02 +0000 2020
Wildhorse Bret : @bennyjohnson @BretBaier It does not matter. Democrats have encouraged people to vote early...before the debates..'... https://t.co/orSAxyAxoY
Fri Sep 11 14:26:13 +0000 2020
John Eggeman : @bennyjohnson @BretBaier There won't be any debates. https://t.co/YpJgo8q8eT
Fri Sep 11 14:23:56 +0000 2020
Burnsy : @bennyjohnson @BretBaier Can the Biden group be any more pathetic? No
Fri Sep 11 14:17:22 +0000 2020
VIDEO-Gov. Abbott's pledge to 'Back the Blue'; State education leaders to vote on sex-ed curriculum | KXAN Austin
AUSTIN (KXAN) '-- KXAN Today Anchor Tom Miller sat down with the Texas Tribune's Alana Rocha Thursday to talk about Governor Greg Abbott's latest approach to Texas cities 'defunding the police' and a controversial school policy up for vote in November.
On Thursday, Gov. Abbott signed a pledge to support law enforcement and also proposed legislation that would strip cities of 'annexation powers' for defunding police.
Gov. Abbott says new proposal would strip cities of 'annexation powers' for defunding policeAnd on Tuesday, the Texas State Board of Education discussed proposed changes to health education curriculum, including sex-ed. The Texas health education standards have remained largely unchanged for more than two decades.
VIDEO-Francis Brennan on Twitter: ""I mean this idea of you know Slow Joe [laughter] anyway I shouldn't laugh about it because anyway." - Joe Biden. https://t.co/raZNGrKZ6E" / Twitter
Francis Brennan : "I mean this idea of you know Slow Joe [laughter] anyway I shouldn't laugh about it because anyway." - Joe Biden. https://t.co/raZNGrKZ6E
Thu Sep 10 20:59:18 +0000 2020
John Edwards : @FrancisBrennan @TeamTrump Every time I hear him talk I say the same thing. ''What the fuck are you taking about?'' ð¤·''¸
Thu Sep 10 21:19:21 +0000 2020
Carol Bombaro : @FrancisBrennan @TeamTrump Lol
Thu Sep 10 21:19:17 +0000 2020
R Blowersðºð¸ : @FrancisBrennan @TeamTrump No, he should not laugh about it. None of us should, he has something seriously wrong th'... https://t.co/z8x9uyeV9f
Thu Sep 10 21:18:59 +0000 2020
Madeline : @FrancisBrennan @TrumpWarRoom Does anybody need more proof?
Thu Sep 10 21:18:53 +0000 2020
Monnie holmes : @FrancisBrennan @TrumpWarRoom Trumps IQ is high at 158!
The Senate on Thursday voted 52-47 to block a $500 billion stimulus package proposed by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), likely ending hopes that such a deal might pass before the November election.
''My home state just passed a sad milestone yesterday,'' McConnell said in a statement Thursday morning in which he called on Democrats to support his measure. ''More than 1,000 Kentuckians have now lost their lives to COVID-19. These families I represent are not burying their loved ones because Republicans or Democrats are the enemy. They are burying their loved ones because of this virus. That's what we are fighting.''
The measure failed along party lines, with the exception of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who voted against it. Paul had said he was against more spending on federal stimulus measures, though voting against the legislation also enables him to bring the bill up again under the Senate's procedural rules.
Democrats argued the measure didn't go far enough to help Americans ailing from economic shutdowns related to the coronavirus pandemic, seeking instead at least four times more in spending than the amount that would have been authorized under the proposal from Senate Republicans.
In more recent days, they also took aim at McConnell's proposal for including funds for the coal industry, including for the development of coal-mining technology.
''How pathetic,'' Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) wrote Tuesday on Twitter. ''While Senate Republicans tell us we can't afford to give $2,000 a month to the working class during the economic crisis, the COVID-19 'relief' bill they just released provides $161 million in corporate welfare to the coal industry during a climate emergency.''
More than half of the funds authorized by McConnell's legislation '-- $258 billion '-- would have been directed to small businesses to apply for loans under the federal government's Paycheck Protection Program. Other allocations included $31 billion for the development of a coronavirus vaccine; $20 billion for farm aid; $16 billion for coronavirus testing; and $15 billion for child care providers. It would also have authorized a $300 weekly supplemental payment for unemployed Americans through December 27.
House Democrats led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) passed a $3.5 trillion stimulus package in the HEROES Act in May. The Senate declined to act on that measure, which included funding for long-time Democratic wishlist items such as billions in federal aid for state and local governments and up to $10,000 in aid for ''economically distressed'' student-loan borrowers.
