WORLD NEWS
The Power Of Where: The UN’s Rapidly Expanding GEOINT Infrastructure
This is the age in which humans and machines come together. We call it the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR); it is characterized by knowledge derived from data, networks and powerful tools. Interdependence between the digital (machine) world and human world is total; humans design the machines but cannot exist without them.
Many of the world’s greatest challenges are place and time related. For example – poverty and land rights, circular economy, climate change and sea level rise, renewable energy and how we efficiently harness it, and protection against pandemics and the geospatial science of epidemiology. The defense sector has also long recognized the value of geospatial knowledge, often calling it geospatial intelligence.
Be it advanced medicine, automated vehicles or online dating, a combination of sensors, data and analytics support human decisionmaking. They also influence human decisionmaking. Automation is increasingly seeing changes that exclude humans from final decisions. The first driver-less taxi service is now operational and automated drone corridors are being established. But we have not yet reached a state of Nirvana, not even nearly. How often have we heard leaders across the world say that they “don’t yet have the data to know” (and by implication cannot decide what to do), in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic? This one question encapsulates the whole purpose of this Paper. Data is not the endpoint. Knowledge, decisions, services, satisfaction are the value chain that data feeds. Whilst we call data ‘the new oil’, knowledge is perhaps ‘the new capital’. Its value is determined by the application of that knowledge, which is derived from the data. Sadly, data producers often do not know that value either because they are far removed from data integration and the applications, models and machines that deliver the knowledge, and value, for the user.
Data comes in many forms, from many directions and portrays many realities, including the real world. Data and applications largely sit on the global digital infrastructure, which has matured considerably in recent years. Digital Twins represent this world in cyberspace but can only do so if place and time are digital too. Digital place and time are therefore critical components in our digital age, but the associated 4D mathematics is complex science. Geospatial technologies and data have met this complexity and developed alongside the wider digital ecosystem, often leading it. This has led to great successes, but also a degree of separation from the wider digital and knowledge ecosystem. Some data has location as an organizing principle or attribute, other data does not.
Location and time are powerful attributes, the most powerful means to integrate and analyze data to enable understanding through knowledge. Knowledge in the digital world is derived from combining a problem, data and analytical tools virtually, and increasingly in real-time, but this carries far more value if place and time are brought into consideration. In fact, ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘when’ questions cannot be answered in the virtual world without the use of geospatial technologies. Over a three-year program (Jan 2020 to April 2023), a global partnership will develop the concepts of and a blueprint for a Geospatial Knowledge Infrastructure (GKI). In Year One, concepts have been developed from a geospatial perspective, resulting in this Paper, which is concerned with knowledge, be it machine or human, as that is where the value lies. It brings the geospatial ecosystem firmly into the wider digital ecosystem and ensures far greater use of location across industry sectors and government agencies.
In order to make things work it encompasses government and industry stakeholders and focuses on the whole digital/knowledge ecosystem. Year Two will bring engagement with defined broad industry sectors to further develop the concept, including from a technical perspective, and Year Three will engage with government digital policy leads to further develop and advocate GKI adoption as part of integrated government policies. This Paper is based on Year One and will develop and re-fined through the three-year program. We have a vision for ‘geospatial knowledge at the heart of tomorrow’s sustainable digital society’. This Paper provides a blueprint to integrate digital economies, societies and citizens with geospatial approaches, data and technologies and in so doing deliver the location-based knowledge, services and automation expected in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It is a journey that seeks to benefit people and the planet by driving inclusive growth, sustainable development and global well-being.
This Paper examines how geospatial technologies, data, people, processes, and algorithms make up the geospatial component of knowledge across the whole digital ecosystem. It provides direction for geospatial agencies seeking to move up the value chain and examines how 4IR technologies can improve the use of location in the virtual world. It calls upon thought leaders in government, in the digital ecosystem, in the geospatial ecosystem, and in the business world to work towards a common end — better knowledge and decisions. It goes beyond data and current bespoke geospatial technologies to decisions, automation and knowledge on demand.
Governments have an enabling role in delivering GKI, as part of a wider integrated digital policy. In a world of uncertainty there is also an absolute need for authoritative foundation data to support and anchor decisions, whether as a trusted Digital Twin or to improve Artificial Intelligence models. Partnerships are essential; knowledge is born through collaboration in the real the world and so, likewise, in the digital. Increasingly, industry is leading many aspects of knowledge creation and should partner with governments to deliver GKI for the benefit of all. The Analytics, AI, Modeling (and Gaming) communities are vital to knowledge and are no longer customers but one and the same as the data providers.
Finally, the geospatial ecosystem is part of the wider digital ecosystem, and both must coalesce. This GKI leverages many new opportunities enabled by 4IR. It accelerates automation and knowledge-on-demand. It is as relevant in the poorest countries as it is in the rich. It supports the United Nations Vision – The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Indeed, this Paper advocates that the United Nations Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (UN IGIF) be the framework of choice for nations to build the geospatial information essential to a digital ecosystem. GKI supports this but is far wider, with the Geospatial Information enabled by UN IGIF being but one element of GKI.
Nordangård: UN’s Digital World Brain Seeks To Track Everything And Everyone
The seventh commitment in Our Common Agenda is about improving digital collaboration through the creation of a “Global Digital Compact”.[1] This means that all people should be connected to the Internet, that liability criteria for discrimination and misleading content should be developed, that artificial intelligence should be regulated, and the establishment of the “Digital Commons” as a global public good. However, the whole thing is more comprehensive than that. By extension, this constitutes the construction of a digital World Brain intended to regulate and control all human life to keep it within the planetary boundaries.
The commitment is one of the more central ones and is about creating a consensus on the need for total digitization. This builds on the recommendations made in the report The Age of Digital Interdependence (2019) by the UN High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation led by Melinda Gates (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) and Jack Ma from the Ali Baba Group and in collaboration with actors such as the World Economic Forum and their Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.[2]
At the “Summit for the Future” in 2023, the UN, together with civil society and the private sector, are expected to agree on shared principles for an “open, free and secure digital future for all”.
This includes promoting a “trustworthy Internet” with accountability criteria for discrimination and misleading content as well as regulating Artificial Intelligence to be consistent with “our shared global values”. However, what this means in practice is that the “values” must correlate with the beliefs held sacred by the UN and WEF (see The Ministry of Truth).
Secretary-General António Guterres writes in Our Common Agenda that one of the risks of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is “the use of digital surveillance and manipulation to influence behavior and control populations.”
This very legitimate concern, however, is more about the fact that the UN does not want this technology to fall into the hands of forces that they themselves or their partners do not control. This is because the whole idea behind the “Global Digital Compact” is to be able to control the world’s population and align its values to be in line with the UN’s and WEF’s interpretations of the 17 Global Goals of Agenda 2030.
A concrete example is the initiative Coalition for Digital Environmental Sustainability (CODES), which was formed after the launching of the UN Roadmap for Digital Cooperation in March 2021 with the aim of promoting “digital sustainability”.[3] The coalition currently gathers around 1,000 stakeholders from over 100 countries.[4
Founders of CODES are UNEP, UNDP, International Science Council, The German Environment Agency, Kenyan Ministry of Environment, Sustainability in the Digital Age and Future Earth. The latter organisation has a key role in the agenda and are part of the Global Commons Alliance initiative, which I will return to in the last installment of this series – Be Prepared.
CODES works to implement collective system changes and remove any obstacles standing in the way of the total digitization that they believe is needed to implement the sustainability goals (70% of the goals can be achieved through the application of digital solutions according to a study that CODES refers to).
During the environmental conference Stockholm +50 in June 2022, CODES presented its action plan which aims to inform about the priorities included in the Global Digital Compact. The report describes three system shifts, eighteen strategic priorities and nine “global impact” initiatives that will give rise to the “desired” change.[5]
These systems shifts are:
- Enable Alignment – Align Values Visions Objectives
- Mitigate Negative Impacts – Sustainable Digitalization
- Accelerate Innovation – Digitalization for Sustainability
In order to achieve the goals, the establishment of a “World Commission on Sustainability in the Digital Age” is proposed with the aim of conducting research and offering scientifically oriented information on how sustainability should be achieved in the digital era. Their conclusions, in turn, will form the basis for a global platform (Clearing House for Digital Sustainability Standards) that develops digital and financial sustainability standards. This knowledge is then to be disseminated through decentralized education programs.
In order to deal with the negative environmental and social effects from energy use, greenhouse gases, material use, consumption, digital divides, violations, and “incorrect information”, it is proposed, among other things, that platforms for reporting and comparing companies’ greenhouse gas emissions and that digital product passports be introduced with the aim of being able to follow a product entire life cycle. The latter is part of the circular economy and will eventually also be used on us humans. It is a new ecosystem in the making where everything is to be connected in order to measure degree of sustainability. A World Brain that analyzes and keeps track of everything and everyone.
Creators Of ESG Complain That Behavior Isn’t Changing Fast Enough
The story of how ESG investing began is almost as wonky as its name.
The intent of Environmental, Social and Governance, or ESG, investing wasn’t to bring “woke capitalism” to Wall Street, its early proponents say.
Rather, ESG was designed to be another useful metric to help investors assess the health and future profitability of a company. If a company is too heavily invested in coal operations, for example, it’s probably not going to do well long-term in a global economy that’s cracking down on the dirty fuel.
Of course, ESG investing now is much, much more than that.
What started as a half-baked idea among low-level staffers at the United Nations has grown into the green Frankenstein of Wall Street. ESG investing is now worth nearly $2.8 trillion in assets worldwide, according to one estimate.
A big reason for the explosion is that the three-letter acronym has morphed into a vague symbol with few guidelines surrounding what it means. Put another way: It’s as if farmers could market vegetables as organic but without restrictions on genetic engineering.
All of this surprises ESG pioneers.
The goal of ESG investing was “to try and create a positive virus that we could plant in mainstream finance and investment to start a different conversation that these issues are real, they’re material, and they affect your long-term investments,” said Paul Clements-Hunt, the former head of the U.N. Environment Programme Finance Initiative, or UNEP FI, which played a crucial role in popularizing the idea.
“Little could we believe that ESG would end up where it’s ended up,” he added, “for good or for bad.”
Raining Taxpayer Money: Ukraine Gets $1BN More In Arms, Plus $4.5BN For “Budget Needs”
In what’s looking to be endless weapons transfers to Ukraine, the US Defense Department on Monday unveiled yet another $1 billion in additional security assistance to the Ukrainian military.
Acting Pentagon spokesman Todd Breasseale in a press briefing described it as “the single largest package using the president’s drawdown authority, including munitions for long-range weapons and armored medical transport vehicles…”
That’s right, it just won’t end…
“The package adds to about $8.8 billion in aid the United States has given Ukraine since Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24,” Reuters reports. “It includes munitions for HIMARS, NASAMS surface-to-air missile system ammunition and as many as 50 M113 armored medical transports.”
For those trying to tally the math of where this puts all defense monies committed to Ukraine thus far, the DoD statement includes the following:
In total, the United States has now committed approximately $9.8 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden Administration. Since 2014, the United States has committed more than $11.8 billion in security assistance to Ukraine.
The DoD announcement emphasizes the weapons and munitions package includes “the types of which the Ukrainian people are using so effectively to defend their country.” However, the last two months have witnessed consistently bad news for Ukraine coming out of Donbas, where Russian forces have of late made most gains.
Olivia Newton-John, Star of ‘Grease,’ Dies at 73
Legendary Australian actress and singer Olivia Newton-John, the star of “Grease” and a pop sensation in the 1970s and 1980s, died on Monday, according to her family. She was 73.
“We ask that everyone please respect the family’s privacy during this very difficult time. Olivia has been a symbol of triumphs and hope for over 30 years sharing her journey with breast cancer,” said her family in a Facebook post.
The singer and actress died “peacefully at her Ranch in Southern California this morning, surrounded by family and friends,” it added. “In lieu of flowers, the family asks that any donations be made in her memory to the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund,” they said.
“Grease” co-star John Travolta posted a tribute on Instagram.
“My dearest Olivia, you made all of our lives so much better. Your impact was incredible. I love you so much. We will see you down the road and we will all be together again. Yours from the moment I saw you and forever! Your Danny, your John!” he wrote on social media.
The English-born singer confirmed in September 2018 that she was treating cancer in her spine. It was her third diagnosis of cancer following bouts with breast cancer over the years.
Other details about her death were not revealed.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Trump: FBI Has Raided Mar-a-Lago, Property ‘Under Siege’
Former President Donald Trump said his Florida Mar-a-Lago home is “under siege” and “occupied by a group of FBI agents” in a statement late Aug. 8.
“These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
“After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate,” Trump said.
The FBI declined to comment on a press inquiry from The Epoch Times. Its parent agency, the Department of Justice (DOJ), did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump’s lawyer Christina Bobb confirmed with CNN on Monday night that the FBI seized documents from Mar-a-Lago.
“President Trump and his legal team have been cooperative with FBI and DOJ officials every step of the way. The FBI did conduct an unannounced raid and seized paper,” Bobb said.
The alleged raid by the FBI came two days after Trump’s latest hint at a 2024 run, in which he stopped short of giving an official announcement.
“Well, it’s not a long period, regardless, whether you go before or after, certainly not a very long period of time,” the former president said when responding to questions from the press before he took the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas, on Saturday.
“It’s coming,” Trump said, “and I think people are going to be very happy.”
“Our country has never been in a position like this. We lost everything. We’ve lost energy independence. We’ve lost our prestige. We’ve lost every single thing you can lose,” Trump said during the event, noting the withdrawal from Afghanistan, which he previously called “the greatest tactical mistake in history,” and the border crisis.
Weaponized’ Justice System
The 45th president said during his speech that he may be the “most persecuted” person in the history of America.
“A friend of mine recently said that I was the most persecuted person in the history of our country,” Trump said during his speech at CPAC. “And then I thought about it, because I didn’t have time to think much because I’m always being persecuted, and I felt he may very well be right.”
Trump called the raid “prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want [him] to run for President in 2024, especially based on recent polls,” adding that Democrats “will likewise do anything to stop Republicans and Conservatives in the upcoming Midterm Elections.”
“Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before,” Trump said.
During an America First Policy Institute event in July, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), who was part of Trump’s legal defense team during the Democrats’ 2019 attempted impeachment of Trump, told The Epoch Times in an interview that the Biden administration has completely “weaponized” the Department of Justice (DOJ).
By design, the American justice system “is a bulwark against tyranny,” Johnson said. “But if the Department of Justice, for example, is weaponized for political purposes—which is what we’re seeing right now in the Biden ministration—that jeopardizes that foundational pillar itself.”
“Today’s raid on the former President’s home in the middle of an election season looks like another egregious & unprecedented abuse of power,” Johnson said in a statement on Monday.
“We will restore order & accountability as soon as we regain the gavels for a Republican majority in November. It can’t happen soon enough!” Johnson added.
‘Third-World Marxist Dictatorship’
“Such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries,” Trump said in his Monday statement. “Sadly, America has now become one of those Countries, corrupt at a level not seen before.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) echoed Trump’s comment.
“Using government power to persecute political opponents is something we have seen many times from 3rd world Marxist dictatorships,” Rubio said in a statement on Twitter late Monday. “But never before in America.
“After today[‘]s raid on Mar A Lago what do you think the left plans to use those 87,000 new IRS agents for?
“The FBI isn’t doing anything about the groups vandalizing Catholic Churches, firebombing Pro-Life groups or threatening Supreme Court justices. But they find time to raid Mar A Lago,” Rubio said.
Trump Family Reacts to FBI Raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago
Family members of former President Donald Trump have reacted to the FBI raiding his Mar-a-Lago home and accused the federal law enforcement agency of being politically motivated.
Donald Trump Jr., the eldest child of the former president, wrote on Twitter that the Biden administration is “out of control, [Department of Justice] is ripping this country apart with how they’re openly targeting their political enemies. This is what you see happen in 3rd World Banana Republics!!!”
Eric Trump, his second-oldest son, also went to social media after Trump released a statement on the FBI raid: “We truly live in a third-world country.”
“They are terrified. He’s going to announce any day that he’s running for president in 2024,” Lara Trump told Fox News on Monday evening. “This is a very convenient way to just throw a little more mud on Donald Trump as though they haven’t already done enough.”
The former commander-in-chief on Monday evening confirmed on Truth Social that the Florida residence was targeted by the FBI. It’s not clear why, and the bureau has not issued a public comment on the matter.
During the Fox News interview, Lara Trump suggested her father-in-law believes the search was related to presidential records that the former president allegedly brought back with him to Florida after he left office last year. Under the Presidential Records Act, administrations are required to preserve some documents.
“Look, my father-in-law, as anybody knows who’s been around him a lot, loves to save things like newspaper clippings, magazine clippings, photographs, documents that he had every authority … to take from the White House,” Lara Trump remarked. “He’s been cooperating every single step of the way with the people that have questioned any of this.”
David Ferriero, the archivist of the United States, wrote to Congress earlier this year saying that it asked Trump to continue looking for other presidential documents.
House GOP leaders have pledged to take action on the “weaponized politicization” of the Department of Justice (DOJ) “when Republicans take back the House” in the midterm elections, after federal agents raided former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property on Monday.
“I’ve seen enough,” House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in a statement late Monday. “The Department of Justice has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization.”
“When Republicans take back the House, we will conduct immediate oversight of this department, follow the facts, and leave no stone unturned,” McCarthy added.
“Attorney General Garland: preserve your documents and clear your calendar,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy’s comment came after the FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property on Monday. Trump has characterized the raid as “prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical left Democrats who desperately don’t want [him] to run for President in 2024.”
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Ranking Member on the House Judiciary Committee, which provides oversight over the DOJ, called on House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) to bring FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland onto the House floor for questioning on Friday.
“What was on the warrant? What were you really doing? What were you looking for? Why not talk to President Trump and have him give the information you’re after?” Jordan asked in an interview with Fox on Monday night. “We deserve answers now, and this Friday would be a good time.”
“Jerry Nadler: call up Christopher Wray, call up Merrick Garland, bring them in front of the House Judiciary Committee, so we ask them the questions that the American people deserve the answers to.”
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), House Minority Whip, called the raid the “weaponization of the FBI by Biden’s DOJ against his political opponent.”
“Let’s be clear: This is a brazen weaponization of the FBI by Biden’s DOJ against his political opponent—while giving their political allies free passes,” Scalise said in a statement published late Monday. “It’s exactly why the IRS shouldn’t get an army of 87,000 more agents.”
“House Republicans will hold them accountable next year,” the lawmaker added.
Rep. Stefanik, chair of the House Republican Conference, called Monday “a dark day in American history” and said that the “political weaponization of the FBI and Department of Justice is an actual threat to democracy.”
“There is a reason that Americans no longer trust these agencies,” Stefanik said in a Monday statement. “This is the same corrupt agency that illegally fabricated FISA warrants, knowingly deceived Americans about Russian ‘collusion’ for years, and weaponized itself to perpetuate this hoax with their all-too-eager mainstream media accomplices.”
“There must be an immediate investigation and accountability into Joe Biden and his Administration’s weaponizing this department against their political opponents—the likely 2024 Republican candidate for President of the United States,” the congresswoman added.
Huge California County Approves Measure of Possible Secession for 2022 Midterms
The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors this week voted to add a November 2022 ballot measure that would allow the county to secede from California.
The measure, which was voted on 4–0 by the supervisors Wednesday, would ask San Bernardino residents: “Do the citizens of San Bernardino County want the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors to study all options to obtain its fair share of state and federal resources, up to and including secession?”
“Now, that last line is the most controversial,” said Supervisor Curt Hagman during Wednesday’s meeting about the proposal. “It’s a question we’re going to put to our residents. Do they want to include all options to go after [the] fight for their fair share of taxpayer dollars?” he asked.
Over the years, some California counties have evaluated the possibility of seceding from the Golden State due to monetary, cultural, and other differences. In 2016, a failed ballot measure would have split California into six states, while a 2018 proposition that also failed would have created three new states.
But San Bernardino County is the largest county in California and United States, spanning more than 20,000 square miles and home to well over 2 million people. Cities like Fontana, San Bernardino, Victorville, Hesperia, and other municipalities are within its borders, which stretch from Los Angeles County to the California-Nevada and California-Arizona state lines.
Election Integrity Tops Concerns for Attendees at CPAC Dallas Conference
Thousands of conservatives ranked election integrity as the No. 1 concern in a poll conducted at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas last week, outweighing border security and inflation.
The Aug. 6 poll, conducted by McLaughlin & Associates, asked some 5,000 CPAC attendees to rank three topics from greatest to least important.
Election integrity was the top issue for 61 percent of respondents.
The border wall/immigration came in second at 51 percent.
Energy independence, constitutional rights, and inflation/cost of living finished out the top five, respectively earning 31 percent, 30 percent and 25 percent as major issues.
Christian Adams is president and general counsel of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, which files lawsuits across the country fighting for election integrity.
Adams told The Epoch Times that while he is surprised election integrity topped the field of concerns at CPAC, public interest in the topic has risen considerably since the 2020 election.
As a result of voting irregularities, states have worked to fight against voter fraud with new legislation, he said.
“Texas and places like Florida have gotten a lot of statutes on the books,” Adams said. “So in a lot of these places, a lot of good has already happened.”
Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative at the Heritage Foundation, told The Epoch Times he believes the issue looms large for conservatives as the midterm elections approach.
Von Spakovsky said the 2020 election, with its troubling results, seared the issue into the minds of the American populace.
“I have been preaching on this issue for a very long time,” Von Spakovsky said. “They realize that unless the right people get elected into office, those problems aren’t going to get solved.”
Americans took elections for granted and assumed they were being operated properly, he said.
People went to sleep on election night 2020 thinking former president Donald Trump had won, only to wake up to see the election results changed dramatically overnight in favor of President Joe Biden.
Another question on the CPAC survey showed that conservatives are concerned about the threat to America from within.
Ninety one percent indicated that internal forces and the deep state are a far greater threat than external forces such as China and Russia.
People got a glimpse of how institutions have been infiltrated by far-Left ideology. During pandemic lockdowns, parents saw first-hand how the U.S. Department of Education pushed the Marxist ideology of Critical Race Theory onto their children.
Suddenly, all around the country parents began showing up at school board meetings demanding an end to the indoctrination. It upset the Left so much that they labeled them domestic terrorists, he said.
Now people are seeing Marxists propaganda everywhere. “It’s grass-roots America waking up,” Von Spakovsky said.
Chris Gwin, a 74-year-old Dallas resident who attended CPAC, said the country needs strong leaders, such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who spoke out against the Communist threat to America.
“I’ve never seen anything like what’s going on in this country,” Gwin said. “This craziness in terms of the culture.”
So-Called Inflation Reduction Act a ‘Massive Power Grab’ by Democrats: Sen. Cruz
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has criticized Democrats for pushing their so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which he warns is a “terrible bill.”
The bill will double the size of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). But IRS agents are not designed to go after “billionaires and big corporations,” Cruz said in an interview with Fox News. “They’re designed to come after small businesses and working families across this country … The Democrats are making the IRS bigger than the Pentagon, plus the Department of State, plus the FBI, plus the Border Patrol combined … This is a massive power grab.”
Senate Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act on Aug. 7 with a 51 to 50 vote, with Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris casting her tie-breaking vote in favor of her party. The estimated $740 billion package now heads to the House for vote.
Over $300 billion will go to climate change and energy, which is the largest clean energy investment made by a federal government in American history. It also includes tax credits for electric vehicles. The bill institutes a 15 percent minimum tax for corporations making over $1 billion a year.
Cruz warned that the Inflation Reduction Act will “drive up gas prices” and “kill manufacturing jobs.” The bill has “billions in new taxes” charged against U.S. gas and oil production, a decision that will raise gas prices at the pump, he said.
According to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the bill will “reduce” the U.S. budget deficit.
But a recent report by the Congressional Budget Office (CRO) shows that even though the budget deficit will be lowered by $101.5 billion over a 10-year period, the deficit will actually increase by $24.6 billion in the first six years between 2022 and 2027.
GOP Issues Warning as Democrat ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ Includes Hiring of 87,000 New IRS Agents
Republicans say a piece of Democrat-backed legislation worth $740 billion includes funding to hire 87,000 new Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents, which they say will target Americans.
The measure, known as the “Inflation Reduction Act,” was approved in a 51–50 vote as Vice President Kamala Harris served as a tie-breaker for Democrats. A provision includes the hiring of 87,000 IRS agents, a move that was defended by Democrats, who said the funding would target people who cheat on their taxes.
“Millions of Americans aren’t going to be impacted by that other than getting better service from the IRS, having their telephone answered, [and] getting the questions they need in order to comply with our tax laws,” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) told Fox News on Aug. 7. “The auditing is going to be focused on those of high income, the large corporations, etc.”
Democrats have pointed to a May report from the Government Accountability Office showing that IRS audits have dropped over the past decade, including audits for the wealthy.
In a recent letter to Congress, IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said if an additional $80 billion is given to the agency via the legislation, it wouldn’t increase audits for households that earn less than $400,000 per year.
“These resources are absolutely not about increasing audit scrutiny on small businesses or middle-income Americans,” Retting wrote in the letter. “As we have been planning, our investment of these enforcement resources is designed around Treasury’s directive that audit rates will not rise relative to recent years for households making under $400,000.”
Outraged parents launched a lawsuit against Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) in Virginia for teaching inappropriate, sexualized material to children, and other violations of state constitutional rights protecting parents and children.
America First Legal on July 21 served discovery requests seeking answers from LCPS, School District Superintendent Scott Ziegler, and several other school board officials on behalf of 11 parents pressing charges.
LCPS was given three weeks to respond. They did not reply, except in “saying that they’re not going to respond,” said the lawsuit’s main plaintiff, Clint Thomas, to The Epoch Times.
On the first day of the school year, two of Thomas’s daughters were forced to declare their gender pronouns publicly in class. All five of his children have gone through LCPS.
The lawsuit takes aim at LCPS’s Policy 8040 and Regulation 8040, which Thomas says “is trying to stifle [parents] from even knowing if the children are expressing different genders in school.”
“There’s just an overarching theme trying to gain information about private matters in our home, survey after survey being issued, inappropriate surveys being issued asking students about their sex lives.”
Parents have observed “overtly pedophilic, highly sexualized books” in school libraries, and class assignments with “highly sexualized” and “misogynistic” content, Thomas added.
“It’s all basically about race theory, gender theory. … They’ve been forced to sit through homeroom especially during Pride Month and basically watch videos of people who are trying to change their biological sex.”
The parents accuse LCPS of “knowingly, systematically, and willfully violating the Plaintiffs’ fundamental constitutional rights to care for, nurture, and direct the education, moral instruction, and upbringing of their children.”
Public education should be about academic instruction, said Thomas. Values and moral instruction are for the parents to determine.
Leader in School Board Recall Bid Facing False Complaint Charges
With a looming recall election swirling around the culture wars in a small Colorado town, authorities confirmed their arrest of a recall leader on false complaint charges.
The Woodland Park Police Department confirmed in a press release late last week their arrest of Samantha Peck, one of the leaders of a recall campaign aimed at the Woodland Park School Board.
Peck is charged with a misdemeanor charge of false reporting of an emergency to police and a felony charge of attempting to influence a public servant.
Police say that on July 24, the police department received an emergency call from a person identifying herself as Ms Peck.
The caller said that someone she knew to be the wife of the school board’s vice president appeared to be drunk and getting into a car in a Safeway supermarket parking lot, preparing to drive away with a small child.
Officers responding six minutes later found the driver sober and without a child in the car, police said in the press release.
Peck, who was arrested on Aug. 2, is free on a $3000 bond.
Having retained Denver civil rights lawyer David Lane, Peck appears to stand by her story.
Lane, a Berkeley Law graduate who worked with the ACLU and Amnesty International in the past said, “we are investigating whether this is or is not a civil rights violation.”
“There are two conflicting versions of what happened,” Lane said. The police department’s version is one, but the other is that Peck “was seriously reporting someone who appeared to be impaired.”
“Ultimately, what we want to do is talk to witnesses and consult body cameras and go from there,” Lane said.
Peck reinforced civil rights analogies in a Facebook post, comparing herself to Martin Luther King and including photos of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela behind bars, and Rosa Parks being fingerprinted.
Lane abruptly excused himself from a telephone call, citing a meeting with a judge, before he could be asked how civil rights relate to the Peck case, who in her Facebook photos appears to be white.
Peck is the administrator for the Concerned Parents of Teller County Facebook page, one of the recall’s main online outlets.
Woodland Park police had declined earlier in the week to confirm Peck’s arrest or discuss the matter with The Epoch Times.
David Illingworth is vice president of the Woodland Park RE-2 School District. The police department did not name his wife.
Illingworth was elected to the school board of the small town outside Colorado Springs in November, part of a conservative wave winning four of five school board seats in an election amplifying local schools’ rapidly declining enrolment, and parental dissatisfaction over educational practices.
The new board began rapidly addressing the issues.
Did Fox News Ban Trump? Experts Weigh In
News Analysis
With the calendar now up to over 100 days since Trump has appeared on the Fox News network, media reports, citing people close to Trump, say that the former president is complaining that the network has turned against him.
Rather than giving air time to Trump rallies and speeches, Fox has helped highlight conservative competitors to the 2024 likely bid by the former president to regain the White House, such as Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. In late July, the network chose not to do a live airing of Trump’s first speech in Washington since leaving office, but on the same day, it did run a live broadcast of a 17-minute speech by former Vice President Mike Pence.
In the wake of media reports saying that the decision to snub the former president stems from a distrust of Trump from the company’s top leadership—chairman Rupert Murdoch and his son, Lachlan, chief executive—The Epoch Times spoke to former Fox contributors, industry observers, and experts who weighed in on what’s at stake.
For its part, Fox News has countered the allegations with a PR blitz denying that Trump is “persona non grata” at the network, and with several recent attempts by Fox News media properties’ to highlight Trump in a positive manner.
But the belated PR offensive isn’t washing with at least one high-level former contributor and one former Fox News producer.
Former Contributor Doubts Fox’s Denials
Former Fox contributors said that factors contributing to the alleged blockade are high-level figures at Fox who are opposed to Trump, corporate rigidity in trying to control guests, and attempts at kingmaking by Rupert Murdoch that had previously been resisted by the network’s top talent.
“I think [Fox owner Rupert] Murdoch is having a hissy fit that Trump did not slavishly follow his advice and direction when Trump was president,” former Fox contributor Dick Morris told The Epoch Times.
Morris, 73, a best-selling author, a widely-respected pollster and political commentator, is credited by some with saving Bill Clinton’s presidency after the disastrous mid-term defeat by the Democrats in Clinton’s first term.
“I think Murdoch likes to exercise sovereignty over the people he’s working with. And Trump wasn’t about to be that sort,” said Morris.
Morris alleged that Murdoch first approached then-presidential candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to be Fox’s candidate of choice for the 2016 presidential election, but Clinton refused the meeting.
“When it became clear that [Murdoch] couldn’t do that because Roger Ailes was then in charge at Fox and told Murdoch that he would resign if that happened, then Murdoch has to endorse Trump,” added Morris.
Former Fox Producer Skeptical
A former Fox producer, Breanna Morello, who left Fox over what she described as the network’s hypocrisy on COVID-19 vaccine mandates, alleged that, Fox, as a corporation, is fearful of conservatives who they cannot control.
“I just know that they like having safe conservatives on, conservatives that are going to say what Fox wants to say. And Trump isn’t going to do that for you [if you’re a Fox producer],” Morello told The Epoch Times.
Morello said that Fox producers are often stopped from having on certain guests such as former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik because they can’t predict what guests, like Kerik, who are known for bluntness, might say.
“There are plenty of people who we were not allowed to have on air because we couldn’t predict what’s going to come out of their mouth,” said Morello about alleged bans of guests like Trump and Kerik.
“They don’t like that,” added Morello about Fox corporate executives.
Paul Ryan and ‘Never Trumpers’
It might be noted that Kerik, Trump, and Rudy Giuliani, who is also reportedly banned from Fox, are political allies.
According to Morris, further at play at Fox is the continuing tension between who the analyst described as “Never Trumpers” and American nationalists, who are fiercely represented by Trump. Morris described the former as “free market capitalists that want Adam Smith, that wants a free flow of labor and good,” and who opposed tariffs on China because they are “globalists.”
Morris likened the GOP to a layer cake with the globalists and Never Trumpers as the bottom, widest layer, and the American nationalists as the top, smaller layer.
“Ultimately American nationalists run counter to the doctrine of free market economics,” Morris said.
“Free markets economics is essentially globalist in nature and the establishment of the Republican Party is basically globalist, whereas Trump is fiercely nationalist,” Morris added, noting that this disagreement is at the “core of the Never-Trump movement in the Republican Party.”
One figure who many view as a key figure in this movement is former Speaker of the House and vice presidential candidate, Paul Ryan, who is a prominent member of the Fox board of directors, serving as chair of the Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee, appointed in 2019.
Ryan and Trump have often feuded publicly.
In a recent dust-up, Trump called Ryan “a curse to the Republican Party,” after Ryan told the party not to rely on the “appeal of one personality,” a not-so-veiled shot at Trump.
“Paul Ryan has a lot of weight around there,” Morello said about Ryan’s current influence at Fox.
“I don’t know if he’s behind [the Trump ban], but that’s the speculation behind it,” added Morello.
The Epoch Times was unable to reach out to Ryan for comment.
US court sentences Ahmaud Arbery killers to life in prison
A US judge has sentenced father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael to life in prison for federal hate crime in the 2020 murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man fatally shot after jogging in a suburban Georgia neighbourhood.
US District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood also sentenced the two men’s neighbor and co-defendant William “Roddie” Bryan to 35 years in the coastal Georgia city of Brunswick on Monday. All three were found guilty of violating Arbery’s civil rights because of his race earlier this year.
The case had helped fuel mass protests against racism and vigilantism in the United States in 2020.
At the first hearing, Marcus Arbery, the slain man’s father, asked the judge to sentence the younger McMichael to serve the maximum in state prison on the federal charges.
“These three devils have broken my heart into pieces that cannot be found or repaired,” Marcus Arbery told the court.
Travis McMichael declined to testify on Monday, but his lawyer said a Georgia state prison was too dangerous for him, and that he had received death threats.
Wood, the judge, said McMichael had received a “fair trial”.
“And it’s not lost on the court that it was the kind of trial that Ahmaud Arbery did not receive before he was shot and killed,” the judge said.
The McMichaels armed themselves with guns and jumped in a truck to chase Arbery after spotting him running past their home outside Brunswick on February 23, 2020. Bryan joined the pursuit in his own truck, helping cut off Arbery’s escape. He also recorded a phone video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery at close range as Arbery threw punches and grabbed at the shotgun.
Greg McMichael addressed the Arbery family on Monday, saying their loss was “beyond description.”
“I’m sure my words mean very little to you but I want to assure you I never wanted any of this to happen,” he said. “There was no malice in my heart or my son’s heart that day.”
Outside the courtroom, Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones responded to his statement. “I think he realizes that he made some horrible decisions. Unfortunately, his apology doesn’t bring back my son,” she said.
Last November in state court, the three men were previously convicted of murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal intent to commit a felony for chasing and shooting Arbery, with a jury rejecting self-defence claims.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Inflation Reduction Act Will Increase Middle Class, Small-Business Taxes: Tax Law Expert
While Democrats insist that the Inflation Reduction Act won’t boost taxes on people making less than $400,000 a year, collateral effects from the legislation will cause workers and small businesses alike to pay more, according to Preston Brashers, a senior tax policy analyst at the right-leaning Heritage Foundation.
The measure, hammered out as a compromise agreement between moderate Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), serves to fulfill a series of broad Democratic aspirations: increasing federal revenue by closing so-called tax loopholes, enacting climate change policies, expanding the Affordable Care Act, and reducing prescription drug prices.
Its supporters say the legislation also will help to slow the growth of the ballooning U.S. national debt by decreasing the deficit.
While it authorizes about $433 billion in new spending, Democrats’ internal estimates suggest that the bill will bring in around $725 billion in new revenue to the federal government, thus reducing the federal deficit and slowing the growth of the national debt. Specifically, Democrats estimate that the bill will reduce the deficit by about $292 billion annually.
The bill won’t directly increase taxes on individuals at any income level, Brashers told The Epoch Times. The most substantial change will be a modification of corporate taxes, setting a mandatory minimum rate of 15 percent on corporations making $1 billion or more annually.
“There’s nothing in here specifically targeting income levels,” Brashers said. “They’re not targeting people making $400,000 or more.”
Neither, Brashers said, are they targeting businesses necessarily.
“A brand can’t pay a tax,” he said. “Technically, legally, the corporations are the ones paying taxes, but ultimately that has to be paid by people, one way or the other. It’s not like Jeff Bezos—if you tax Amazon—that this is coming out of Jeff Bezos’s pocket.
“It’s coming out of everyone’s pocket that’s involved in that operation, whether you’re a worker, if you buy the products, if you have any stock in the companies, if you have a 401(k).
“Basically, what they’re doing, they’re applying these taxes and they’re not specifically hitting lower-income people. What they’re doing is they’re applying general taxes across the whole economy, and so everyone’s gonna be caught up in it.
“These are gonna be taxes that are just kind of economy-wide.”
In addition, Brashers argued that through indirect effects, individuals below the $400,000 threshold will see an increase in how much they pay.
“There’s no way to take … [Democrats’] claim about $400,000 seriously,” Brashers began, when asked about the truth of the assertion.
“You can quibble with details, but there’s simply no way you can say that these taxes are being exclusively paid by people making $400,000 [or more]. There’s no way you can say that because none of these taxes are being applied to people making $400,000. So you have to look at this as—some of these taxes are gonna hit labor, some portion of that might be shifted off to capital.”
But laborers will be hardest-hit, Brashers said. While investors are able to leave U.S. markets to invest in foreign markets like China, where such rules aren’t in place, laborers “are kinda stuck where [they] are.”
In addition to the economy-wide effects of the new corporate minimum tax, Brashers noted, the bill also contains provisions related to the IRS.
“They’re expanding enforcement of [tax law by the IRS], they’re going to expand audits on individuals and businesses,” he said, noting the appropriation of $80 billion to bulk up the IRS.
Proponents of the bill suggest that, in addition to the new tax code changes, a bulkier IRS will bring in an additional $124 billion annually through enforcement efforts.
The funding for the IRS will go toward “necessary expenses for tax enforcement activities … to determine and collect owed taxes, to provide legal and litigation support, to conduct criminal investigations (including investigative technology), to provide digital asset monitoring and compliance activities, to enforce criminal statutes related to violations of internal revenue laws and other financial crimes … and to provide other services.”
Brashers argued that the IRS expansion will affect lower-income individuals and small businesses.
“If you look at the [dispersion] of audits right now, there’s a lot of audits that happen on the lower end,” he said. “Especially on the business side: if you’re a small business, a sole proprietor—if you’re running your own books—a lot of times the IRS looks at that as a prime target because you don’t have the accountants that are keeping everything buttoned down necessarily.
“If you’re a sole proprietor and you’re keeping your own books … it’s probably just gonna be harder for you to keep up with the convoluted tax code.
“So, if anything, more of that weight is probably gonna hit small businesses.”
After a marathon session to vote on amendments, the Senate approved the bill in a party-line 51–50 vote on Aug. 7. The Democrat-led House is expected to approve the measure before sending it to President Joe Biden for his signature.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Claims CDC Classified Monkeypox as ‘Airborne’ and a Form of Herpes Are False: Officials
Posts shared on Facebook that claim the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) classified monkeypox as an airborne virus, it can cause paralysis, and can last months are false, officials said.
Facebook posts containing the claims reviewed by The Epoch Times show they both have a BBC News logo and credit the World Health Organization and CDC. One of the posts says, “CDC has now classified this disease as airborne and anyone within 15 feet can catch it,” while it adds that it is now being classified as a form of herpes, the illness can last up to four months, and it can lead to paralyzation.
Under the Facebook post, some said the information is fake and one said that it’s “trying to scare us to take more vaccine shots.” The person added, “Only way it can spread is through contact from someone who has it, kissing, sex, cuddling.”
A spokesperson for the BBC told Reuters and The Associated Press the news outlet did not make the images. A spokesperson for the CDC told the Associated Press that the post’s claims “are not correct.”
The CDC, WHO, and other health organizations have not classified monkeypox as “airborne,” and they have said it spreads via close, prolonged contact from one person to another person. Homosexual males are the primary spreaders of the virus, officials say.
CDC spokesperson Kate Fowlie told AP that the virus “is not known to linger in the air and is not transmitted during short periods of shared airspace.” She added, “In the current monkeypox outbreak, we know that those with the disease generally describe close, sustained physical contact with other people who are infected with the virus.”
Transmission is primarily through skin-to-skin contact, and “direct contact with monkeypox rash, scabs, or body fluids from a person with monkeypox,” according to the CDC website.
“Touching objects, fabrics (clothing, bedding, or towels), and surfaces that have been used by someone” infected with monkeypox can also transmit the virus, the agency says.
Paralysis is not generally associated with monkeypox, according to health agencies, and the virus doesn’t last for four months, but rather between two and four weeks, officials say.
Symptoms of the virus include fever, swollen lymph nodes, malaise, and a rash or lesions that may initially be mistaken for chickenpox or a sexually transmitted disease.
As for the claim about it being a form of herpes, monkeypox is classified as a pox virus in the poxviridae family related to smallpox, cowpox, and others. Herpes, meanwhile, is within the herpesviridae family.
HEALTH
New York health officials said there may be “hundreds” of people infected with polio after the virus was detected in wastewater.
Officials are warning anyone who hasn’t been vaccinated against the virus to do so as soon as possible, according to a Department of Health statement on Thursday.
“Based on earlier polio outbreaks, New Yorkers should know that for every one case of paralytic polio observed, there may be hundreds of other people infected,” said State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett.
The virus was first detected in wastewater samples in June in Rockland County, near New York City, and has since been detected in neighboring Orange County, the statement said.
Cholesterol Does Not Cause Heart Disease
A 2018 scientific review presents substantial evidence that high LDL and total cholesterol are not an indication of heart disease risk, and that statin treatment is of doubtful benefit as a form of primary prevention for this reason
Three recent that supported the cholesterol hypothesis were found to have misrepresented data and findings of previous studies to support their own conclusions
Overall, the analysis found the association between total cholesterol and CVD is weak, absent or inverse in many studies
Older people with high LDL do not die prematurely — they actually live the longest, outliving both those with untreated low LDL and those on statin treatment
A 2015 meta-analysis of 11 statin drug studies found statin use postponed death by a mere 3.2 days in primary prevention trials and 4.1 days in secondary prevention trials
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
U.S. Department of Energy Gives Revolutionary Battery Technology to China
An American company called UniEnergy developed revolutionary battery technology that could theoretically allow a house to be powered by solar energy.
The company that made this breakthrough ten years ago is dead and gone because the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) inexplicably gave its tech to China while preventing American companies from manufacturing it.
The astounding saga of UniEnergy and its vanadium redox flow batteries was told by National Public Radio (NPR) last week. The story began with government researchers developing a mixture of fluids that could store almost twice as much energy as existing battery technology, with very little degradation over long periods of time.
This was a crucial attribute for next-generation battery technology since the high cost of replacing degraded batteries is a major hurdle to the widespread adoption of large battery-powered equipment like electric vehicles. High-capacity and durable batteries, in turn, are essential to solar power designs because power must be stored to cover periods when the solar panels are not receiving enough sunlight.
With six years of effort and $15 million in U.S. taxpayer funding, researchers created a high-powered battery using vanadium that could last for up to 30 years. The lead scientist on the project, Gary Yang, secured a license from DOE to manufacture the batteries in 2012 and established UniEnergy Technologies.
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
How To Homestead On Less Than An Acre
Sustainable survival homesteading is possible on less than an acre. While you can’t raise a herd of beef cattle in your backyard, you can still raise your own meat and eggs and grow your own groceries. The space you have to work with of course matters, but how you use that space matters more.
The first thing you have to do is set priorities. Differentiating between wants and needs and creating a list of priorities is a vital part of the homestead planning process, regardless of your budget or number of acres – but it is especially more important when you live on a small plot.
While your priorities will basically be the same as a prepper living on 50 acres, you will have to scale down your projects and use your space very wisely to accomplish your sustainable survival homesteading goals.
Top 10 Small Homestead Priorities
- Water
- Food – garden, livestock, and preservation
- Alternative Energy
- Medical – including growing an apothecary
- Defense
- OPSEC
- Tribe – going it alone is not a realistic long-term survival option
- Maneuvering around legal obstacles
- Storage Space
- LP/OP
FEMA Warning: Power Grid Could Take 10 Years to Repair After Major Solar Storm
According to recently declassified FEMA documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act Request, our power grid is not set up to be able to handle a solar storm known as a “Carrington Event,” and if hit with one, repairs to bring the grid back online and fully operational could take anywhere from 4-10 years.
The problem is not new to emergency management officials; we have covered the possibility of a Carrington Event wiping out our power grid for over a decade.
Our nation’s power grid is a hodgepodge of antiquated equipment and technology, with a large portion of our grid still relying on the 1960s and 70s technology. With administration after administration failing to do anything to secure our country’s power systems, our electrical infrastructure has become a patchwork of interconnected power generation plants, transmission facilities, distribution facilities, and over 400,000 miles of electric transmission lines — some of which dates back to the 1880s.
The U.S. Department of Energy says that 70% of U.S. transmission lines are more than 30 years old and the average age of large power transformers, which handle 90% of U.S. electricity flow, is more than 45 years. As a result, outages between 2015 and 2020 averaged 9,656 annually, more than double the average of 4,609 during the previous six-year period.
COVID RELATED NEWS
600% More Deaths Reported In Last 19 Months Than In Entire 32 Year History of VAERS Database
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began two years ago, the US government has poured billions of your tax dollars into the vaccine program. More than $9 billion of your tax dollars were given to vaccine companies for research and $22 billion of your tax dollars were then used to support vaccine distribution. The feds also shelled out another $10 billion to expand access and currently announced $3 billion more to spend on an ad campaign to combat vaccine hesitancy.
The US government spent well over $130 for every man, woman, and child in America to push the COVID-19 vaccines and yet over one-third of the country still refuses to get fully jabbed while nearly 70 percent refuse to take the booster. Why is that?
Periodically, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) releases the new information on reports submitted to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). The number of reports are at historical levels and more deaths and adverse events have been reported than ever before.
Before going any further, as not to set off the “fact checkers,” it is important to point out that just because data is submitted to the CDC through VAERS, this does not in anyway mean that these reactions are related to the COVID-19 vaccine.
According to the CDC:
One of the main limitations of VAERS data is that it cannot determine if the vaccine caused the reported adverse event. This limitation has caused confusion in the publicly available data from VAERS WONDER, specifically regarding the number of reported deaths. There have been instances where people have misinterpreted reports of deaths following vaccination as deaths caused by the vaccines; that is not accurate. VAERS accepts all reports of adverse health events following vaccinations without judging whether the vaccine caused the adverse health event. Some reports to VAERS represent true vaccine reactions and others are coincidental adverse health events and not related to vaccination.
However, also according to the CDC, “VAERS is a national early warning system to detect possible safety problems in U.S. licensed vaccines.” And, given the sheer volume of reports, alarm bells should be sounding everywhere. Yet the are not.
While the CDC assures us that their database is inaccurate, the volume of claims should be enough to raise some serious red flags.
CANCEL CULTURE
Twitter Threatened With Class-Action Lawsuit for Banning Doctor Over COVID-19 Vaccine Post
A doctor who was banned from Twitter for posting about COVID-19 vaccines is willing to serve as the lead plaintiff in a potential class-action lawsuit against the social media company, his lawyer has informed the tech giant.
Dr. Andrew Bostom “stands with a growing number of similarly situated people who have had their Twitter accounts suspended for sharing their views and opinions on COVID-19,” James Lawrence III, Bostom’s lawyer, told Twitter in a letter dated Aug. 6.
“Dr. Bostom is ready, willing, and able to serve as a lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against Twitter for breach of contract if that becomes necessary,” Lawrence added.
Bostom, with the Brown University Center For Primary Care and Prevention, was permanently suspended in June after sharing the results of a study that linked Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine with lower sperm and semen concentration in men.
After Lawrence contacted Twitter on Bostom’s behalf, the company reversed the suspension, admitting he did not appear to violate any rules with the post.
Just two weeks later, Bostom was banned for asserting that the only randomized controlled trial data on children shows zero hospitalizations prevented by COVID-19 vaccination, while trial data from adults showed the vaccines caused more severe adverse events than the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations it prevented.
Twitter told Bostom in the suspension notice that he violated the company’s policy on spreading misleading information related to COVID-19.
Actress Katharine McPhee Blames ‘Woke’ Voters for Crime Wave in Beverly Hills
Former American Idol star Katharine McPhee said that “woke” voters have helped to create the current crime wave embroiling Beverly Hills.
In an Instagram story last week, McPhee lamented the “sad state” that Los Angeles has become in recent years as she shared a story about three men who beat up and mugged an elderly man of his phone, money, and watch.
“This is literally my worry and thought every time I go out now. We need Rick Caruso,” Kat wrote. “I blame every single woke voter. Seniors getting beat up in [Beverly Hills] while walking. Keep voting for this. What a sad state this city is in.”
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