WORLD NEWS
Disgraced Tavistock Trans Kids Clinic Faces Lawsuits From 1,000 Families
Over 1,000 families are expected to bring legal action against the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, which operated the only gender clinic for children in England before being ordered to shut down over safety concerns.
The Tavistock Centre and its Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), which has been accused of offering puberty blocking drugs to children after as little as just one consultation, is now facing legal action from families over allegedly misdiagnosing their children.
Since opening in 1989, the Tavistock Centre “treated” some 19,000 children for alleged gender dysphoria, a condition in which an individual feels a disconnect between their biological sex and their gender identity.
Speaking to The Times, Tom Goodhead of the Pogust Goodhead law firm said that he is expecting “at least 1,000” families to join in the legal action against the NHS trust.
“Children and young adolescents were rushed into treatment without the appropriate therapy and involvement of the right clinicians, meaning that they were misdiagnosed and started on a treatment pathway that was not right for them,” he said.
“These children have suffered life-changing and, in some cases, irreversible effects of the treatment they received.”
In 2021, Keira Bell sued the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, alleging that the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) had pressured her into medically transitioning her gender at the age of 16, something which she later grew to regret as an adult.
While the High Court had initially ruled in her favour, finding that it was wrong for the clinic to prescribe puberty blockers without the authorisation of a court, the decision was later overturned by the Court of Appeal.
In May, the Supreme Court ruled that she will not be able to challenge the decision, clearing the way for more children to be prescribed with life-altering drugs.
Bell says that as a result of her “treatment” she was left with “no breasts, a deep voice, body hair, a beard, affected sexual function and who knows what else.”
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Officials: Deputies fatally shot pilot deputized to have gun
Deputies in the Florida Keys on Wednesday fatally shot a pilot who was deputized to carry guns on planes in what appears to be a “suicide by cop,” officials said.
Lane Morgan Caviness, 48, was killed at a Key Largo home following reports of an intoxicated, armed suicidal man, a Monroe County Sheriff’s Office news release said.
The sheriff’s office had initially identified Caviness as an “off-duty federal law enforcement officer.” The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, a state agency investigating the shooting, later clarified that Caviness was part of the Transportation Security Administration’s Federal Flight Deck Officer Program. The program allows armed pilots and flight crewmembers of passenger and cargo aircraft to defend against acts of criminal violence or air piracy.
Multiple deputies had responded and observed an armed man at the home, officials said. Deputies were able to reach Caviness by phone after he disappeared from view. He told deputies he was intoxicated and was prepared to confront law enforcement, officials said.
Caviness reappeared and pointed a gun at deputies, who responded by firing at him, officials said. Deputies began first-aid, but the man was pronounced dead.
In a news release, Sheriff Rick Ramsay said that “although this appears to be a suicide by cop situation,” state law enforcement officials will conduct an independent investigation of the shooting.
Officials did not immediately disclose who the pilot worked for.
Pro-Antifa California Teacher Who Vowed to Turn Students Into ‘Revolutionaries’ Is Paid to Resign
A California teacher who bragged about using his position to radicalize students into far-left “revolutionaries” has been given three years of pay by his school district to resign, according to a report.
Gabriel Gipe, a teacher of Advanced Placement government at Inderkum High School, agreed in January to leave his post with a $190,000 payout from the Natomas Unified School District, according to The Sacramento Bee, citing district records.
Gipe, whose annual base salary is about $60,000, received a final paycheck of about $100,000 after taxes were withheld, according to the newspaper.
The teacher drew outrage from the school district community last year after he was featured in a video by undercover news organization Project Veritas.
In the video footage, Gipe says he gave students extra credit for them to attend left-wing events, including counter-protests to the “right-wing rallies.” He also allegedly kept track of his students’ political inclinations to make sure they drifted further left as time went on.
“So, they take an ideology quiz and I put [the results] on the [classroom] wall. Every year, they get further and further left,” he tells the undercover journalist, who was posing as a left-wing sympathizer.
“I’m like, ‘These ideologies are considered extreme, right? Extreme times breed extreme ideologies.’ Right? There is a reason why Generation Z, these kids, are becoming further and further left.”
Gipe says he displayed on his classroom wall an Antifa flag, which he claimed was “meant to make fascists feel uncomfortable.” The video footage also shows a poster of Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong on a wall in the teacher’s classroom.
When asked about his views on the Chinese Communist Party, Gipe says in the video footage that Mao’s Cultural Revolution, which took place after a disastrous economic campaign that triggered mass starvation and famine, provides lessons for how socialism can take root inside the United States.
“You need propaganda of the deed—your economics—and cultural propaganda as well. You need to retrain the way people think,” he says. “We have to hit both fronts. We have to convince people that this [socialism] is what we actually need.”
Later, when a Project Veritas reporter confronted Gipe on the street, the teacher was wearing a T-shirt with a hammer and sickle on the front. Gipe didn’t respond to the reporter’s questions regarding his persuading of students to adopt far-left ideologies.
Following parents’ outrage, the school district placed Gipe on unpaid leave pending an investigation, acknowledging that Gipe’s “educational approach” was “disturbing and [undermined] the public’s trust.”
An administrative judge later ordered that Gipe be put on paid leave as the district’s investigation continued.
LEWIS: Many Republicans won’t tell the truth about Trump. Here’s why
With Trump candidates doing so well in the summer primaries, many Republicans remain conspicuously silent about the former president’s enduring appeal. Not me.
“If criticism of Mr. Trump is what you want,” I write in my new book, “Party Animal, The Truth About President Trump, Power Politics & the Partisan Press,” “turn on the television, read any newspaper or scroll any website. It is ubiquitous and won’t be repeated here…”
AG Merrick Garland Says He ‘Personally Approved’ FBI’s Trump Raid
Attorney General Merrick Garland on Aug. 11 said he personally approved the FBI’s raid earlier this week of the personal Mar-a-Lago residence of former President Donald Trump.
The FBI usually seeks approval from the top before conducting a raid on a political target. Garland’s confirmation was the first public statement from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI on the unprecedented search.
Garland told reporters that his agency filed a motion on Aug. 11 to unseal the court-approved search warrant that was executed at a home “belonging to the former president,” after Trump confirmed the raid, “as is his right.”
“I personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant in this matter. … The Department does not take such a decision lightly,” Garland said.
He said copies of the warrant were provided to Trump’s lawyers on Aug. 8 by FBI agents.
The attorney general claimed that FBI agents are “patriotic” and “dedicated” public servants who protect Americans against violent crime and terrorism. “I am honored to work alongside them,” he said.
So far, the Justice Department and FBI have remained mostly quiet about the purpose and probable cause behind the raid and have repeatedly declined to publicly comment to The Epoch Times and other news outlets. Only alleged anonymous sources within the FBI and Justice Department have sporadically provided details about the incident to legacy media since Aug. 8.
A day before Garland’s statement, FBI Director Christopher Wray declined to speak about the FBI search, saying that it is “not something I can talk about, and I’d refer you to the department.”
The White House, meanwhile, said it wasn’t aware of the FBI raid. On Aug. 9, when asked by reporters about what Garland told him, President Joe Biden didn’t answer.
The judge who reportedly signed off on the warrant in the case, Bruce Reinhart, ordered the Justice Department on Aug. 10 to file a response before Aug. 15 after Judicial Watch and others asked the court to unseal the warrant.
Republicans in Congress have repeatedly called on the Justice Department to release documents and other information about the raid, with some arguing that it appears to be politically motivated. Even some Democrats, including former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, asserted that the agencies need to provide answers about the raid.
Because of the extraordinary targeting of a former U.S. president, many have speculated that officials at the highest levels of the Biden administration, including Garland and Wray, would have signed off on it. Meanwhile, news of the incident has triggered a political firestorm with just 90 days to go before the 2022 midterms and a possible announcement that Trump might run for president in 2024.
Biden Administration Asks Court to Unseal Trump Search Warrant Materials
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Aug. 11 asked a federal court to make public materials on the search warrant FBI agents obtained and executed on former President Donald Trump’s residence in Florida this week.
Government lawyers asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart to unseal the warrant itself and some supporting materials, as well as a receipt listing items taken from the Mar-a-Lago resort.
“The department filed the motion to make public the warrant and receipt in light of the former president’s public confirmation of the search, the surrounding circumstances and the substantial public interest in this matter,” Attorney General Merrick Garland, a Biden appointee, said in prepared remarks delivered in Washington on Thursday.
Christina Bobb, one of Trump’s lawyers, told The Epoch Times that agents were seeking classified and presidential records.
The government before the raid asked the court to shield the documents. But making them public now “would not ‘impair court functions,’ including the government’s ability to execute the warrant, given that the warrant has already been executed,” the government lawyers said in the new filing.
The request asks Reinhart to unseal the warrant and “Attachments A and B,” in addition to the receipt.
Chris Farrell, director of research and investigation at Judicial Watch, told The Epoch Times that attachment A is the affidavit, or the document from a law enforcement agent outlining to the judge why a warrant would be needed.
On the other hand, Andrew Crespo, a professor of criminal law and procedure at the Harvard Law School, said on social media that he believes neither attachment is the affidavit.
Farrell’s group asked the court on Aug. 9 to unseal the search warrant materials, including the affidavit, arguing that the public has a right to the records, particularly in light of the unprecedented circumstances surrounding the raid.
“It’s absolutely critical to get the affidavit. The affidavit is the foundation. It’s the predicate for the entire search warrant process,” Farrell said.
Court Removes Page for Judge Who Approved Raid of Trump’s Home
A federal court in Florida has removed the webpage for the judge who signed off on the FBI raid of former President Donald Trump’s home.
The page for U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart was taken down on Aug. 10, archived versions of it confirm.
“No information at this time,” the computer operations manager for the court, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, told The Epoch Times.
A deputy clerk for the clerk did not pick up the phone or return a voicemail.
The page contained Reinhart’s biography, his email address, directions to the courthouse at which he works, the phone number for his chambers, the number for his deputy, and the names of the deputy and the judge’s law clerks.
The pages for all of the other magistrate judges for the court remain online.
Signed Off on Raid
Reinhart, who was appointed to his position by other judges, has confirmed that he was the judge who approved the FBI’s raid of Trump’s Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago.
The resort was raided on Aug. 8 by approximately two dozen agents, one of Trump’s lawyers told The Epoch Times.
Christina Bobb, the lawyer, said Reinhart’s name was listed as the approving judge on the search warrant agents gave to Trump representatives.
The warrant and the supporting materials, such as an affidavit outlining why the FBI was asking for a warrant, remain sealed. But Reinhart responded to requests to unseal the material, which identify the warrant as the one used to raid Trump’s resort, by ordering the Department of Justice to respond to the requests, indirectly confirming that he approved the warrant.
The government’s response to the requests to unseal, filed by nonprofit Judicial Watch and the Albany Times Union, may be filed under seal “to avoid disclosing matters already under seal,” Reinhart said in a brief order.
The response must be filed by 5 p.m. on Aug. 15.
It has not yet been filed.
Neither the FBI nor the Department of Justice have explained why the raid took place. Lawyers for Trump say agents were looking for classified and presidential materials. Earlier this year, U.S. archivist David Ferriero told Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), the chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee, that there were classified materials discovered in boxes of records that were transferred from Trump’s residence to the National Archives in January.
Social Security Payments Set for Biggest Rise Since 1981
Social Security recipients may be due for the largest cost of living adjustment (COLA) to their benefits in decades as the Social Security Administration prepares to address the impact of rampant inflation.
According to a recent analysis by The Senior Citizens League, an advocacy group that promotes the interests of the elderly, Social Security benefits are currently being eroded by inflation at a rate of more than 3 percent per year. The league predicts that if this trend continues, recipients will see their purchasing power decline by 11.2 percent over the next 12 months.
The analysis by the league predicts that Social Security payments could be adjusted by 9.6 percent (about $150 more each month) as inflation continues to devalue the U.S. dollar at the current rate. If this were to come to pass, it would be the largest cost of living adjustment to Social Security payments since 1981, when payments were raised by 11.2 percent.
“It’s not possible to be precise until we see the data for the next two months, but it’s probably safe to say at this point we can expect a COLA in the 8 to 10 percent range,” David Certner, who serves as director of legislative policy for government affairs at AARP, which advocates for the interests of people aged 50 and older, said in a statement.
Florida’s AG Commissioner Challenges DOJ Reply in Cannabis Patients’ Gun Rights Suit
Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner took issue with a recent Department of Justice memo attached to a move to dismiss a lawsuit that challenges disqualifying the state’s medical cannabis patients from legally owning firearms. The memo characterized marijuana users as “dangerous.”
“The DOJ’s argument is as offensive as it is inaccurate,” Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, a Democrat, said in an Aug. 8 written statement. “We were disappointed not only with the motion but with the memo attached to the motion, calling marijuana users dangerous.”
“DOJ’s argument is … inaccurate, utilizing centuries-old case law and making false claims demonizing medical marijuana patients—including perpetuating prejudicial stereotypes that cannabis users are dangerous or mentally ill.”
However, the Justice Department argues in their request for dismissal that it would be “dangerous to trust regular marijuana users to exercise sound judgment” with firearms because marijuana “causes significant mental and physical impairments that make it dangerous for a person to possess (a) firearm.”
On Aug. 9, Fried responded to a motion from the DOJ to dismiss her April lawsuit challenging the disqualification of the state’s nearly 741,000 medical cannabis patients with active identification cards from owning firearms. According to Fried’s office, Florida has 2.5 million concealed weapons permit holders on record.
In her written response to the motion to dismiss, Fried said the case “goes on.”
Fried, who is an attorney, took to Twitter to express her disappointment in the Justice Department’s decision.
“We were disappointed not only with the motion but with the memo attached to the motion, calling marijuana users dangerous,” Fried posted in a Twitter “…that they would perpetuate such harmful and offensive, prejudicial stereotypes that cannabis users are dangerous or mentally ill to do so. We MUST keep fighting for equitable legalization.”
Fried has long championed those who want to exercise their second amendment rights and also exercise their freedom to pick a medical treatment that works for them in the form of cannabis use.
“The federal prohibition of a state-legal medicine continues to harm patients, imprison tens of thousands of Americans, and stifle the growth of this growing industry to the detriment of our economy. It is beyond disappointing that with this motion to dismiss, rather than taking this opportunity to address this violation of cannabis patients’ constitutional rights, the Department of Justice has chosen to double down on harmful prohibition policies,” Fried said in her statement.
Fried said she filed the lawsuit to raise awareness about cannabis reform on a national scale.
“I filed this lawsuit to bring attention to how the federal government’s inconsistent and illogical cannabis policies are creating not only confusion but actual harm,” Fried said in her Aug. 9 statement.
Fried said she is determined to fight for people’s rights to obtain legal cannabis and will continue to lobby for reform.
“Unfortunately, the issue raised in our lawsuit is just one of the many dilemmas posed that is affecting a massive number of Floridians and even more patients nationwide,” she said. Though this particular pathway intended to move much-needed cannabis reform forward might be cut off, I will never stop looking for outside-the-box ways we can further this fight until we achieve full and equitable legalization.”
The DOJ attorneys argued that “intoxication and firearms are a dangerous mix” when they asked a federal judge to dismiss Fried’s lawsuit.
“Marijuana users pose a danger comparable to, if not greater than, other groups that have historically been disarmed, such as mentally ill people,” they wrote.
In court papers, the DOJ said federal firearms restrictions are “legally sound” and that it is “dangerous to trust regular marijuana users to exercise sound judgment while intoxicated.”
o uphold the Florida Constitution, the institution of the Office of Sheriff, and the clear mandate of Florida’s voters, the Florida Sheriffs Association today filed a lawsuit against the Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners.
In June of this year, the Miami-Dade County Commission passed a resolution that directly violates Article VIII(1)(d) of the Florida Constitution, requiring that there be an elected constitutional sheriff in every Florida county, including Miami-Dade, and prohibiting the transfer of a sheriff’s duties. A sheriff has law enforcement jurisdiction throughout the county and is the primary provider of police services in the unincorporated portion of the county. The Florida Constitution prohibits counties from abolishing, changing the term of office, or transferring the duties of the Office of Sheriff to any other county official or entity.
The County Commission’s resolution requires the Miami-Dade Police Department, which operates under the Mayor and the Board of County Commissioners, to provide law enforcement services in unincorporated Miami-Dade County after the new Miami-Dade County Sheriff takes office on January 7, 2025. This action is an unlawful transfer of the sheriff’s power to another county entity.
In November 2018, a supermajority of Florida’s voters passed constitutional Amendment 10 ensuring that every Florida county will have an independently elected sheriff as its chief law enforcement officer. The will of the voters must be honored. The Florida Constitution and Florida Statute are clear. The Board of County Commissioner’s actions not only violate the clear and unequivocal provisions of the Florida Constitution by illegally transferring the sheriff’s duties, but they improperly constrain the sheriff’s ability to serve the interest of the citizens of Miami-Dade County.
Further, the effect of the Board’s action is financially devastating to the taxpayers of Miami-Dade County. Funding both a Miami-Dade Police Department that has its own chief and falls under the power and control of the Mayor and Board of County Commissioners, as well as the constitutionally mandated Sheriff’s Office with an independent sheriff, is duplicitous, needless, and wasteful spending of public funds.
“The Board of County Commissioner’s action is a constitutional violation that must be remedied. Not only is the resolution unlawful, it contradicts what 62% of the voters in unincorporated Miami-Dade County voted for—an independently elected sheriff as their police provider,” said FSA Legislative Chair and Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri. “We met with the Mayor and Commissioners prior to the Board’s action to express our concerns because we want Miami-Dade County to be set up for success when it comes to public safety, accountability, and protecting the residents’ rights to elect their constitutional officers. It is disappointing that it has come to this, but illegal actions have consequences.”
The Commissioners can decide who operates the jail, who provides fire services, and who operates emergency management, but when it comes to policing the unincorporated area and having police power throughout the county, the Constitution and Florida law plainly state that the sheriff will exclusively provide those services.
“The voters of Miami-Dade County understand that the Office of the Sheriff is a proven and effective model, and that is why they want to have their voices heard when it comes to choosing their law enforcement leader who will work to keep their streets and families safe,” said FSA President and Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis. “Public safety should not be subject to a power grab by bureaucrats. It should be decided upon by the collective voice of each community.”
The Miami-Dade voters, like their counterparts in Florida’s 66 other counties, want a Sheriff who derives authority, not from the motivations of politicians or administrators, but directly from the people of Miami-Dade County. The Mayor and the County Commission are attempting to have it both ways – reestablish the Office of Sheriff, but at the same time keep their countywide police department that they control, and this cannot stand. The Commission must rescind its resolution and honor the Florida Constitution, or the courts must enforce the law.
How could mistaken release of cellphone data affect Texas lawyer for Infowars founder Alex Jones?
Because of a mistaken cellphone revelation, the Houston lawyer representing Infowars host Alex Jones in a Texas defamation lawsuit could have exposed himself to malpractice claims by his client, legal disciplinary action by the state and sanctions in a separate case in Connecticut.
Reuters, Bloomberg Law (here and here) and Law & Crime have stories on potential legal problems for Jones’ lawyer F. Andino Reynal, whose paralegal mistakenly sent the opposing counsel a link to files from Jones’ cellphone. The opposing lawyer, Mark Bankston, used the information to impeach Jones.
Jones was sued for defamation in the Texas case by the parents of a child killed in the 2012 mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Last week, Texas jurors awarded the parents $4.1 million in compensatory damages and $45.2 million in punitive damages for Jones’ false claims that the massacre was a hoax.
Reynal said his paralegal mistakenly sent the link, and he told Bankston to “please disregard” when informed of the error. Bankston contended that response was insufficient under the Texas “snapback” law that allows lawyers to claw back evidence sent by mistake to legal opponents.
Randy Johnston, a Dallas legal malpractice lawyer, told Reuters that Jones could sue for malpractice, but he would have to show that the error resulted in a worse result at trial.
“Any complaint he would make is, essentially, ‘But for my lawyers, I would have been a successful liar,’” Johnston said.
Johnston also said Sandy Hook parents could seek sanctions against Reynal and Jones for failing to turn over texts regarding Sandy Hook before trial. When questioning Jones, Bankston said the cellphone data contradicted Jones’ claims that he didn’t have any Sandy Hook texts.
Reynal could also face possible disciplinary action, even if his paralegal made the mistake, according to Bloomberg Law. The Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct hold lawyers responsible for actions of people they supervise, according to John G. Browning, a trial lawyer and a former Texas appellate court judge, who spoke with Bloomberg Law.
An amendment to the legal ethics rules in 2019 also requires lawyers to be proficient in technology or to work with someone with that expertise, Browning said.
Reynal and another lawyer, Norm Pattis, also face possible sanctions in another Sandy Hook defamation case against Jones in Connecticut because of the possible release of medical records.
In orders here and here, Judge Barbara Bellis of Waterbury, Connecticut, ordered Pattis and Reynal to show cause why they shouldn’t be referred to disciplinary authorities or sanctioned by the court for the “purported release” of the records concerning the plaintiffs in the Connecticut case. The release could violate a court protective order and state and federal laws, Bellis said.
Bankston confirmed to Bloomberg Law that the medical records were part of the cellphone data sent to him.
Pattis told Bloomberg Law in an email that he doesn’t think that discipline is warranted.
“Our office shared with other lawyers representing Jones discovery material. We believe we acted appropriately and did not violate a rule,” Pattis said.
Mary Mack, CEO and chief legal technologist at the Electronic Discovery Reference Model, said it is likely that the file link sent to Bankston didn’t have a name that would raise alarm bells.
“When the forensics software creates an image, the examiner can name it, and my guess is the name of that file was not ‘Alex Jones’ whole cellphone.’ It was probably something like ‘xyz1056t,’ and it could have been accidentally included in production,” Mack told Law.com.
Mack was surprised, however, that Bankston received the actual file instead of a converted PDF file. Native, original files are less secure than the converted file, which she referred to as a “Bates-numbered TIFF,” Law.com reports.
IRS JOB LISTING (later pulled by the government after scrutiny and complaints):
Use deadly force to kill American taxpayers who resist warrants?
No wonder the job ad was pulled.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
The Price Of Eggs Is Up 47 Percent As Food Costs In The U.S. Spiral Out Of Control
Now they are trying to convince us that dramatically higher prices are good news. Are you kidding me? Our standard of living is being systematically destroyed, and more Americans are falling out of the middle class with each passing day. The government just announced that in July the consumer price index was 8.5 percent higher than it was the previous July. Of course many have challenged the value of the inflation numbers that the government is giving us because the way inflation is calculated has been changed many times over the years. As John Williams of shadowstats.com has pointed out, if the rate of inflation was still calculated the way that it was back in 1980 it would be far higher than anything that we experienced during the Jimmy Carter era of the 1970s. You can spin that any way that you want, but it is still a raging national crisis.
Yes, energy prices in the U.S. have fallen a bit, and many Americans are very thankful for that.
This reprieve won’t last indefinitely, and so don’t celebrate too much.
Workers in These States Would Pay Most Under Biden’s New Business Tax
Where will President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats get the money to finance their large expansion of subsidies for green energy and extension of Obamacare subsidies for the upper middle class?
The simple answer is: “From hardworking taxpayers.”
Taxpayers across the income spectrum should expect they ultimately will pay for the left’s deceptively named Inflation Reduction Act.
But the new taxes would fall more heavily across specific industries and parts of the country. The largest tax in the bill, the new “book minimum tax,” accounts for $222 billion of the more than half a trillion dollars of expected new tax collections. The book minimum tax would hit manufacturing disproportionately.
According to recent government estimates by the Joint Committee on Taxation, manufacturing would bear 49.7% of the book minimum tax, despite accounting for only about 11% of the economy.
More specifically, the nonpartisan committee estimated that 16.1% of the tax would fall on chemical manufacturers and 6.9% on transportation equipment (mostly automobile) manufacturers.
Since the committee released those estimates, Senate amendments to the legislation likely have reduced manufacturing’s share of the tax somewhat. However, even using a conservative estimate, manufacturing likely still would bear at least 2.5 times as much of the burden of the tax, relative to the sector’s size as a share of the economy.
Foreign manufacturers would not be subject to the new tax unless they have significant U.S. operations. Therefore, to remain globally competitive, U.S. manufacturers would face pressure to cut labor costs or scale back their U.S. operations. This would mean fewer jobs and lower wages in U.S. manufacturing.
Due to their states’ large manufacturing bases, workers in Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, and Kentucky would endure the biggest economic hit from the new tax. Manufacturing accounts for about 26.6%, 18.9%, 18%, 17.1%, and 17.4% of the economies of these five states, respectively.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Roomba Rooms: Amazon Buys iRobot To Map Inside Your Home
Amazon.com Inc.’s $1.7 billion acquisition of robot vacuum cleaner company iRobot Corp. is a move by the megacorporation to use Roombas to map the interior of homes. This data type is a digital gold mine for Amazon because if marketers know more about what’s inside, they can easily create tailormade ads.
From a market perspective, Amazon’s acquisition of iRobot is to gain deeper insight into customers’ homes via the autonomous robotic vacuum cleaner called “Roomba.”
The latest model of the Roomba, called J7, has a front-facing, AI-powered camera that maps out each room and will identify nearly everything in its path, such as floor plans, where the kitchen is, which space is the master bedroom, and where the kids sleep, as well as items on the floor.
“Slightly more terrifying, the maps also represent a wealth of data for marketers. The size of your house is a pretty good proxy for your wealth. A floor covered in toys means you likely have kids. A household without much furniture is a household to which you can try to sell more furniture. This is all useful intel for a company such as Amazon which, you may have noticed, is in the business of selling stuff,” Bloomberg said.
Roomba’s surveillance from within the home is pure digital gold, as Amazon’s ambition to learn more about the customer will allow marketers to sell more junk.
Warning: The Metaverse Is A Grave Danger To Child Development
According to a recent poll, half of parents aren’t aware of how much screen time damages kids’ vision. In fact, numerous studies have already determined that exposure to blue light from screens and LED light bulbs is biologically harmful (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11). Additionally, research has determined that exposure to electromagnetic radiation being emitted by screens (and other wireless tech) is especially harmful to kids as well (see 1, 2, 3, 4).
Other warnings about kids’ screen use (addiction, etc.) have been cited by various experts over the years as well. American tech insiders (aka “Silicon Valley Parents”) seem to be aware of at least some of these issues otherwise they probably wouldn’t have been taking significant and sometimes extreme measures to limit their own kids’ use and exposure to screens and other tech for many years already (see 1, 2, 3, 4). In the meantime, other parents as well as American school districts (see 1, 2, 3, 4) are encouraging kids to spend more time using screens including virtual reality (VR) headsets.
Warnings about VR use – especially by kids – aren’t new either. Research has indicated that VR use can cause behavioral changes, balance problems (see 1, 2), cognitive problems, eye problems (soreness, vision changes), headaches and other discomforts, skin issues, as well as other short-term and/or long-term health issues.
Children also absorb 2-5 times more harmful radiation than adults while using VR systems. Nevertheless, VR, AR (augmented reality), and mixed reality (MR) systems are increasingly being promoted for use by people of all ages for a variety of purposes. None of that is included in an NBC News segment about kids not necessarily being safe in a virtual setting. However, it is included that Meta does not recommend its products be used kids under the age of 13.
Inside the metaverse: Are your kids safe in a virtual world?
Virtual worlds are for the most part new and exciting but they are also largely unregulated. Millions of kids across the country and around the globe are becoming immersed in the metaverse, where they can be exposed to hateful, violent or sexual content. NBC News’ Kate Snow took a deep dive into the dangers that children may face when putting on these headsets.
Government Surveillance Doesn’t Stop at Your Bank’s Door
Modern life is full of sharing mundane information with others. Your cellphone company knows where you’ve been, your home security system knows your visitors, and your bank knows your spending habits.
And it’s often not just your service providers that know. Law enforcement has used many of these treasure troves of information without first obtaining a warrant. This warrantless surveillance — which prompted a recent hearing by the House Committee on the Judiciary — may be novel for technology and media companies, but it is nothing new when it comes to the government’s surveillance of Americans’ financial activity.
The Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 (BSA) requires financial institutions to assist federal agencies in detecting and preventing money laundering and other crimes. It does this in a number of ways, including by enlisting financial institutions to report certain customer activities to the government.
One report is a “currency transaction report,” which is filed for any deposit, withdrawal or other transaction involving currency of more than $10,000. That means if you deposit more than $10,000 in cash, your bank must tell the government. And it’s illegal to try to avoid the report by breaking a transaction into smaller increments.
Financial institutions also must file “suspicious activity reports” on transactions suspected to be related to illegal activity. The government requires these reports be kept confidential, including from the customer implicated.
These obligations don’t just apply to banks; they also apply to a host of entities including currency exchanges, money transmission businesses, broker‐dealers, casinos, pawnbrokers, travel agencies and car dealerships. In 2019, more than 20 million reports were filed by more than 97,000 entities.
As Rep. Jerrold Nadler put it: “The easy availability of personal data to the government poses significant risks to minorities, to those with unpopular views, to our system of justice, and ultimately, to the stability of our democracy itself.” While the government’s interest in stopping crime is certainly an important one, the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment already balances that interest with an individual’s interest in privacy by requiring the government to obtain a warrant to access a person’s documents and information.
The BSA fails to achieve the Fourth Amendment’s balance, and the Supreme Court is partly to blame. Several cases in the 1970s established what is known as the “third‐party doctrine,” which essentially exempts information that has been provided to a third party, like a bank, from the Fourth Amendment’s protections. Under that doctrine, since such information is no longer “private,” the government can access it from the third party.
Although the Supreme Court upheld the law’s constitutionality — when the government required less reporting from financial institutions — several justices were concerned about the BSA’s privacy intrusions. Two justices cautioned in California Bankers Association vs. Shulz that significantly extending the reporting requirements would be problematic, explaining that “[f]inancial transactions can reveal much about a person’s activities, associations and beliefs. At some point, governmental intrusion upon these areas would implicate legitimate expectations of privacy.” Other justices thought that the BSA had already crossed the constitutional line. Justice Thurgood Marshall was clear: “By compelling an otherwise unwilling bank to photocopy the checks of its customers the government has as much of a hand in seizing those checks as if it had forced a private person to break into the customer’s home or office and photocopy the checks there.”
The scope of the BSA’s surveillance has greatly expanded since then through additional regulatory requirements and the increasing use of intermediaries in routine financial transactions. Some current Supreme Court justices, including Neil Gorsuch and Sonia Sotomayor, have recognized that today’s reliance on technology requires revisiting the third‐party doctrine. As Gorsuch explained, “just because you have to entrust a third party with your data doesn’t necessarily mean that you should lose all Fourth Amendment protections in it.”
Even without a Supreme Court condemnation of the BSA, though, Congress should step up to prohibit this type of government surveillance. While not without its problems, the Stored Communications Act prohibits an end‐run around the Fourth Amendment for data collected by internet service providers. The bipartisan Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, introduced in the Senate, would prohibit law enforcement from purchasing individuals’ data. Congress should apply the same logic to financial data.
Catching criminals is a worthy goal (even if it’s questionable how much the BSA contributes to that effort), but the Fourth Amendment already balances privacy with law enforcement needs by requiring the government to get a warrant. The same rules should apply under the BSA.
HEALTH
J&J to End Sales of Baby Powder With Talc
Johnson & Johnson is pulling baby powder containing talc worldwide next year after it did the same in the U.S. and Canada amid thousands of lawsuits claiming it caused cancer.
Talc will be replaced by cornstarch, the company said.
The company has faced litigation alleging its talcum powder caused users to develop ovarian cancer, through use for feminine hygiene, or mesothelioma, a cancer that strikes the lungs and other organs.
J&J insists, and the overwhelming majority of medical research on talc indicates, that the talc baby powder is safe and doesn’t cause cancer.
However, demand for the company’s baby powder fell off, and J&J removed the talc-based product in most of North America in 2020.
The company did so after it saw demand drop due to “misleading talc litigation advertising that caused global confusion and unfounded concern,” about product safety a company spokeswoman said.
J&J said the change announced late Thursday will simplify its product selection and meet evolving global trends.
It is rarely too late to start resistance training; you can build muscle mass after age 60, which is about when I started. In 2022, I set a new personal record in the leg press for 600 pounds, which I believe is even better than the 400-pound deadlift I did last year
Sarcopenia — age-related muscle loss — threatens a healthy lifespan. Skeletal muscle not only manages physical activity, but also plays a major role in metabolism, circulation and cognition
Skeletal muscle acts as endocrine organ secreting myokines and transcription factors into the bloodstream, thereby regulating the function of other organs. It also has immune regulatory properties
The loss of muscle mass with advancing age is thought to be a primary driver of insulin resistance in older adults. Declining muscle strength and reduced physical activity also contribute to metabolic dysfunction
Four key lifestyle strategies that have allowed me to get stronger with age are time-restricted eating in combination with a cyclical ketogenic diet, exercising while fasting and adding blood flow restriction (BFR) training to my strength training routine
A 100-year-old neurologist who’s still working shares his secrets to longevity
Dr. Tucker practiced neurology at a time when CT scans and MRIs didn’t exist, so diagnosed his patients using little more than his knowledge of medicine.
“We used to have to really think through a problem because there weren’t any diagnostic tools of that magnitude,” Tucker told JTA. “We used to agonize over a problem. Is this a pattern of a tumor? Is this a pattern of abnormality with a stroke? In those days we had to work harder, but it was fun.”
It’s no surprise that, as a neurologist, he believes keeping mentally active is the secret to a long life. He told News 5 Cleveland that he tries to learn something new every day with a focus on new advancements in the medical field.
He stresses the fact that people should remain active as they age, whether that means staying in their careers or engaging in mentally challenging hobbies.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Top 8 Nontoxic Cleaners You Can Use at Home
Once-weekly use of cleaning products for 20 years may be equivalent to smoking 20 cigarettes a day for 10 to 20 years. Cleaning agents and personal care products are also the second and third most frequent cause for calls to poison control in the U.S.
Long-term exposure to household cleaners and disinfectants has been linked to increases in asthmatic symptoms, nervous system damage, low sperm count, irregularities in menstruation and miscarriage
The most acutely dangerous cleaning products are corrosive drain cleaners, acidic toilet bowl cleaners and oven cleaners
Common household products also contribute to air pollution, not just inside the home but also outdoors
Clearing out your cleaning cabinet is a simple way to safeguard your family’s
8 Nontoxic Household Cleaning Products You Can Use
One of the primary reasons for cleaning your home regularly is to clear out many of the toxic chemicals accumulating in your dust. Flame-retardant chemicals and phthalates are among them, along with thousands of species of bacteria and fungi.26
A clean and decluttered home is a sanctuary from the outside world, but if you use rubber gloves and spray harsh chemicals to get the job done, you’re likely doing more harm than good. Research shows even products labeled green, natural and organic emit hazardous air pollutants.27
The good news is you really don’t need to buy chemical cleansers to keep your home spick-and-span. Keeping a few natural and nontoxic staples on hand will allow you to clean your home from top to bottom, saving you money to boot. Core staples to consider include the following. In the sections that follow, I’ll provide guidance on how to use them all.
- Baking soda
- White vinegar
- Lemons (both juice and peel)
- Castile soap
- Coconut oil
- Essential oils (citrus essential oil being a good overall choice)
- Hydrogen peroxide
- Rubbing alcohol or vodka
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
Through life-changing 4‑H programs, nearly 6,000,000 young people take on critical issues such as addressing community health inequities, engaging in civil discourse and advocating for equity and inclusion for all. We believe in young people and their strengths and influence to improve the world around us.
COVID RELATED NEWS
NYC Department of Health Signals No Covid Vax Mandate for NYC Schools
The New York City Department of Health (NYC DOH) has sent a signal that the covid shot will not be required to attend school this September.
Two days ago NYC DOH sent a letter to parents strongly encouraging them to get all children 6 months and older vaccinated for covid. They informed parents that the vaccine clinics around the city have covid shots as well as all other childhood vaccines. The letter is craftly worded in a way that it may trick some parents into thinking the covid shot is mandatory to attend school. The letter states:
COVID-19 vaccines and other vaccines, including those required for child care and school, can be given at the same medical visit.
If parents read that sentence too quickly, they may come away thinking the covid shot is required for child care and school.
Today is August 11th and this letter was sent just two days ago. School starts in less than a month. Why is NYC DOH saying children “should” be vaccinated if they are about to make it mandatory? And when will the mandate be announced?
While there is a slim (very slim) chance Mayor Eric Adams may mandate a covid shot for children 12 and up, as recently happened in Washington DC., it is unlikely.
DC’s covid shot mandate has been criticized by the Washington Post as racist and out of step with the entire nation. Kathy Hochul is trying to win the gubernatorial election this November, and hundreds of NY Democrats running for office are fearful of a red wave in this midterm election.
In addition, The NY Times recently reported that their is a new group of single issue voters whose sole issue is getting rid of all mandates that may swing elections this year. Just three days after that Times article Newsday interviewed me as a leading voice of these single issue voters now backing Congressman Lee Zeldin to be the next Governor of New York.
While there is a slim chance Adams will mandate a covid shot for kids 12 years old and up, it is microscopically slim at this point, and every day that passes is another nail in the coffin of a September covid shot mandate in NYC.
But if Hochul wins in November, you better believe that changes everything. She must go!
EXCLUSIVE: CDC Admits It Gave False Information About COVID-19 Vaccine Surveillance
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is admitting it gave false information about COVID-19 vaccine surveillance, including inaccurately saying it conducted a certain type of analysis over one year before it actually did.
The false information was conveyed in responses to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for the results of surveillance, and after the CDC claimed COVID-19 vaccines are being monitored “by the most intense safety monitoring efforts in U.S. history.”
“CDC has revisited several FOIA requests and as a result of its review CDC is issuing corrections for the following information,” a CDC spokeswoman told The Epoch Times in an email.
No CDC employees intentionally provided false information and none of the false responses were given to avoid FOIA reporting requirements, the spokeswoman said.
Fauci Decries COVID-19 ‘Distruths,’ Claims Vaccines Don’t Kill People
Dr. Anthony Fauci this week urged people to vote out members of Congress who are spreading “total lies” about COVID-19, but made a false claim himself about COVID-19 vaccines.
Fauci, speaking at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle on Aug. 9, was asked how the scientific community can deal with congressional leaders “who promulgate unscientific ideas yet control funding for public institutions.”
“Vote,” Fauci responded, drawing applause from the room.
In commencement speeches he’s given this year, Fauci urged graduates, “Don’t accept the normalization of untruths.”
“Because there’s so much preposterous lying that goes on, and including, unfortunately it’s true … that members in our own Congress, in our own Senate, who just get up and say things that are total lies,” added Fauci, the longtime head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). “‘Vaccines kill people, that kind of thing.’ It’s so much untruths that people who have a lot of other things in their lives that they have to worry about, they kind of start accepting it and all of a sudden, lying becomes normal.”
Vaccines do kill people, according to U.S. health authorities.
Nine deaths from a combination of blood clotting and low blood platelet levels, for instance, have been determined to be “causally associated” with Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Causally associated means the vaccine caused or was related to the deaths.
Severe allergic reactions are also triggered on occasion by the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, as are cases of heart inflammation. People who have experienced the conditions have died.
Does Fear of Contagion Make Us Intolerant and Compliant?
Behavioral immune system” is a set instincts and acquired habits that help us avoid pathogens in the wild
Behavioral scientists and psychologists who studied fear of disease and contagion found that it makes us more inclined to punish those who don’t follow the official rules
During COVID, our natural “sense of disgust” was cynically used to manipulate our emotions and behavior
Some of the scientists engaged in social engineering may have been well-intended but it was none the less a very wrong thing to do
In the end, it’s on each of us to overcome our trauma and our fear — and to make the mysterious transformation from a wounded child to a warrior
CANCEL CULTURE
House Dems Say No to Switching Funds for 87,000 New IRS Agents to Hire More Border Patrol Agents
House Rules Committee Democrats killed an amendment offered by Rep. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) that would have redirected billions of tax dollars that the Senate has slated for hiring 87,000 new IRS agents to instead hire thousands of new border security personnel.
No changes were allowed by the Democratic majority to the Senate version of the Inflation Reduction Act approved by the Senate on Aug. 7 in a 51–50 vote; Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote in the evenly split chamber.
“If we amend this, it basically derails the bill … any amendment at this point derails the bill,” committee Chairman Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said during the five-hour meeting.
The measure includes $80 billion to hire the additional IRS agents—an expansion that would double the federal tax agency’s workforce. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) plans to put the legislation up for a vote in the chamber on Aug. 12.
The committee’s rejection of the Budd proposal spared Democrats in the chamber from a vote that would have put them on record favoring either doubling the size of the IRS or taking dramatic measures toward restoring control of the U.S. southern border, where record numbers of illegal immigrants have flooded into the country, along with unprecedented amounts of illegal, deadly drugs, including fentanyl.
With President Joe Biden’s popularity at record low levels, Republicans appear headed to regain the House majority in November’s midterm elections and could retake control of the Senate as well. With inflation roaring at the worst levels since 1981 and most Americans struggling to keep up with spiraling gas and food prices, voting to double the size of the federal tax agency could hurt Democrats who are facing tough reelection campaigns.
Budd couldn’t be reached for comment on the committee’s refusal to allow debate on his amendment.
“Instead of hiring 87,000 more IRS agents to treat working families like tax cheats, that funding should be directed to the crisis on the southern border. In Fiscal Year 2022, there have been over 500,000 ‘got-aways’ at the border, and 8,400 pounds of fentanyl has been seized,” the North Carolina Republican said in proposing the amendment in an Aug. 10 statement.
“We should be devoting more resources to the Biden Border Crisis, instead of making life harder for working families who are struggling under the weight of the Biden Recession.”
Whitehead: Feds Seek To Silence Opposition With Fear, Terror, Repression
“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.” — President Harry S. Truman
Militarized police. Riot squads. Camouflage gear. Black uniforms. Armored vehicles. Mass arrests. Pepper spray. Tear gas. Batons. Strip searches. Surveillance cameras. Kevlar vests. Drones. Lethal weapons. Less-than-lethal weapons unleashed with deadly force. Rubber bullets. Water cannons. Stun grenades. Arrests of journalists. Crowd control tactics. Intimidation tactics. Brutality. Lockdowns.
This is not the language of freedom. This is not even the language of law and order.
This is the language of force.
This is how the government at all levels—federal, state and local—now responds to those who speak out against government corruption, misconduct and abuse.
These overreaching, heavy-handed lessons in how to rule by force have become standard operating procedure for a government that communicates with its citizenry primarily through the language of brutality, intimidation and fear.
We didn’t know it then, but what happened five years ago in Charlottesville, Va., was a foretaste of what was to come.
At the time, Charlottesville was at the center of a growing struggle over how to reconcile the right to think and speak freely, especially about controversial ideas, with the push to sanitize the environment of anything—words and images—that might cause offense. That fear of offense prompted the Charlottesville City Council to get rid of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee that had graced one of its public parks for 82 years.
In attempting to err on the side of political correctness by placating one group while muzzling critics of the city’s actions, Charlottesville attracted the unwanted attention of the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and the alt-Right, all of whom descended on the little college town with the intention of exercising their First Amendment right to be disagreeable, to assemble, and to protest.
That’s when everything went haywire.
When put to the test, Charlottesville did not handle things well at all.
On August 12, 2017, government officials took what should have been a legitimate exercise in constitutional principles (free speech, assembly and protest) and turned it into a lesson in authoritarianism by manipulating warring factions and engineering events in such a way as to foment unrest, lockdown the city, and justify further power grabs.
On the day of scheduled protests, police deliberately engineered a situation in which two opposing camps of protesters would confront each other, tensions would bubble over, and things would turn just violent enough to justify allowing the government to shut everything down.
Despite the fact that 1,000 first responders (including 300 state police troopers and members of the National Guard)—many of whom had been preparing for the downtown rally for months—had been called on to work the event, and police in riot gear surrounded Emancipation Park on three sides, police failed to do their jobs.
In fact, as the Washington Post reports, police “seemed to watch as groups beat each other with sticks and bludgeoned one another with shields… At one point, police appeared to retreat and then watch the beatings before eventually moving in to end the free-for-all, make arrests and tend to the injured.”
“Police Stood By As Mayhem Mounted in Charlottesville,” reported ProPublica.
Incredibly, when the first signs of open violence broke out, the police chief allegedly instructed his staff to “let them fight, it will make it easier to declare an unlawful assembly.”
In this way, police who were supposed to uphold the law and prevent violence failed to do either.
Indeed, a 220-page post-mortem of the protests and the Charlottesville government’s response by former U.S. attorney Timothy J. Heaphy concluded that “the City of Charlottesville protected neither free expression nor public safety.”
In other words, the government failed to uphold its constitutional mandates.
The police failed to carry out their duties as peace officers.
And the citizens found themselves unable to trust either the police or the government to do its job in respecting their rights and ensuring their safety.
This is not much different from what is happening on the present-day national scene.
Indeed, there’s a pattern emerging if you pay close enough attention.
Civil discontent leads to civil unrest, which leads to protests and counterprotests. Tensions rise, violence escalates, police stand down, and federal armies move in. Meanwhile, despite the protests and the outrage, the government’s abuses continue unabated.
It’s all part of an elaborate setup by the architects of the police state. The government wants a reason to crack down and lock down and bring in its biggest guns.
They want us divided. They want us to turn on one another.
They want us powerless in the face of their artillery and armed forces.
They want us silent, servile and compliant.
They certainly do not want us to remember that we have rights, let alone attempting to exercise those rights peaceably and lawfully, whether it’s protesting politically correct efforts to whitewash the past, challenging COVID-19 mandates, questioning election outcomes, or listening to alternate viewpoints—even conspiratorial ones—in order to form our own opinions about the true nature of government.
And they definitely do not want us to engage in First Amendment activities that challenge the government’s power, reveal the government’s corruption, expose the government’s lies, and encourage the citizenry to push back against the government’s many injustices.
Why else do you think Wikileaks founder Julian Assange continues to molder in jail for daring to blow the whistle about the U.S. government’s war crimes, while government officials who rape, plunder and kill walk away with little more than a slap on the wrist?
This is how it begins.
We are moving fast down that slippery slope to an authoritarian society in which the only opinions, ideas and speech expressed are the ones permitted by the government and its corporate cohorts.
In the wake of the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol, “domestic terrorism” has become the new poster child for expanding the government’s powers at the expense of civil liberties.
Of course, “domestic terrorist” is just the latest bull’s eye phrase, to be used interchangeably with “anti-government,” “extremist” and “terrorist,” to describe anyone who might fall somewhere on a very broad spectrum of viewpoints that could be considered “dangerous.”
This unilateral power to muzzle free speech represents a far greater danger than any so-called right- or left-wing extremist might pose. The ramifications are so far-reaching as to render almost every American an extremist in word, deed, thought or by association.
Watch and see: we are all about to become enemies of the state.
As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, anytime you have a government that operates in the shadows, speaks in a language of force, and rules by fiat, you’d better beware.
So what’s the answer?
For starters, we need to remember that we’ve all got rights, and we need to exercise them.
Most of all, we need to protect the rights of the people to speak truth to power, whatever that truth might be. Either “we the people” believe in free speech or we don’t.
Fifty years ago, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas asked:
“Since when have we Americans been expected to bow submissively to authority and speak with awe and reverence to those who represent us? The constitutional theory is that we the people are the sovereigns, the state and federal officials only our agents. We who have the final word can speak softly or angrily. We can seek to challenge and annoy, as we need not stay docile and quiet… [A]t the constitutional level, speech need not be a sedative; it can be disruptive… [A] function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger.”
In other words, the Constitution does not require Americans to be servile or even civil to government officials. Neither does the Constitution require obedience (although it does insist on nonviolence).
Somehow, the government keeps overlooking this important element in the equation.
PET NEWS
Nova Scotia Couple Welcomes a Surprising New Addition: A Green Puppy!
Dogs come with all sorts of quirks, but have you ever seen a green puppy? And don’t worry, this pup’s not green because her humans went overboard for St. Patrick’s Day.
One Canadian couple just got a surprising gift ahead of St. Patrick’s Day: a green puppy!
Audra Rhys and Trevor Mosher of Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia, say they feared for the worst when their female valley bulldog—a boxer and bulldog hybrid—Freya gave birth to a black amniotic sac on Jan. 27. They assumed the puppy inside this oddly colored sac was stillborn because she arrived apart from the other seven healthy pups Freya delivered in clear sacs.
But then something amazing happened: the puppy started to move.
“We started to dry her off and noticed she was green and immediately again thought there was something wrong. So we Googled, ‘My puppy is green, what’s wrong,'” Rhys told Global News. Luckily, it turns out green puppies are very rare but otherwise normally healthy.
Specialist in veterinary reproduction Bronwyn Crane, DVM, MS, with the Atlantic Veterinary College at the University of Prince Edward Island, explained how the occurrence is incredibly rare.
“I don’t know if I can find an exact rate of occurrence, but I would suspect it is [less than] 1:10,000,” she told Global News, adding she hasn’t come across a green puppy before.
While we’re not entirely sure why it happens, some light-colored pups may gain a green tint when they come into contact with a green pigment called biliverdin during development. Biliverdin, the same pigment that gives bruises their greenish hue, may on occasion contaminate the placenta and amniotic fluid and effectively dye a puppy’s fur. (Just so everyone’s clear: It’s not artificial green dye applied after birth.)
GOOD NEWS
Aged Horse About to Be Sold to Butchers in Mexico Gets Rescued, Thrives With Loving Care
The horse recovered royally after receiving big doses of love and extensive medical care
Nothing heals like love.
Bud, a used up and aged horse from a dude ranch in West Texas, was about to be sold to butchers in Mexico for his weight in horse meat. One of over fifty work horses kept at the Texas ranch for trail rides and summer camps, his treatment had left him suffering from years of starvation, parasite infestation, and poor dental care, which all led to gastrointestinal damage. Like many aged horses being sold in the same auction, he was emaciated, chronically lame, and had not received proper veterinary care in years.
At the time of auction, Bud’s body score condition was a “1” (generally, the scale ranges from a “1” for emaciation to a “9” for obesity). His skeleton was visible, and he had virtually no fat on his body. His back was severely swayed, and his front legs were nearly unusable.
That’s when he was saved by Christina Hays, the 27-year-old owner and founder of Forever Freedom Reins Equine Rescue Corp., a nonprofit organization based out of Spring, Texas.
“I first heard of Bud through a close friend of mine who had recently been hired at this ranch. She was shocked at the conditions many of the horses were in,” Hays told The Epoch Times.
In 2019, Hays purchased Bud along with seven other horses that were being sold that day. All of them were being offloaded by the dude ranch due to their deterioration and inability to work.
Instead, they found a home at Forever Freedom Reins.
Two of the eight rescued horses did not survive. One of the two was so overworked and starved that it suffered organ failure. The other had advanced joint collapse in both front legs. The remaining six, however, including Bud, recovered royally after receiving big doses of love and extensive medical care.Bud’s recovery took patience. It took a full year to achieve his medical recuperation. After post-rescue dental work, blood checks to assess his overall health, and radiographs to assess his lameness, he experienced severe episodes of irritable bowel syndrome for roughly a year and was hospitalized and put on IV fluids multiple times for impactions and diarrhea.
Currently, Bud receives routine back and fetlock injections, and daily medication to reduce inflammation and pain. Since Bud had lost all his teeth after improper dental care, he cannot chew hay or hard feed, so he is fed a soaked mash twice daily.
Loving care has restored this old work horse.
Hays says Bud has gained over 200 pounds since rescue and now experiences little to no lameness, allowing him to gallop pain free in the paddocks. Although Bud is probably overweight, Hays thinks that the old horse deserves it, given the past that he has come from. Now, he’s making up for lost time.
“To this day, he neighs and neighs at mealtime. He is always so excited!” Hays said.
ICYMI
Report: Actress Anne Heche ‘Not Expected to Survive’ Fiery Crash, Will Be Taken Off Life Support
Actress Anne Heche will reportedly be taken off life support and is not expected to survive the injuries she sustained in a horrific car crash in Los Angeles last Friday that left her with severe burns.
Heche’s family and friends were reportedly holding out hope that the actress would recover but have now decided to take her off the ventilator after doctors declared her brain dead.
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