Today’s News: December 01, 2021

3 Dead in Shooting at Michigan High School, Suspect in Custody: Officials

Epoch Times – Authorities on Tuesday said that at least three people were shot and more injured at a Michigan high school, and the suspect is in custody.

The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that a suspect was taken into custody. The shooting occurred at Oxford High School in Oxford, Michigan.

The identity of the suspect and a motive haven’t been disclosed. The suspected shooter was identified as a 15-year-old male who officials believe acted alone, according to the news release.

“There was no resistance during the arrest and the suspect has asked for a lawyer and has not made any statements as to a motive,” the release continued.

Officers responded at around 12:55 p.m. to a flood of 911 calls about an active shooter at the school, Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe said during a news conference. Authorities arrested the suspect at the school and recovered a semi-automatic handgun and several magazines.

“Deputies confronted him, he had the weapon on him, they took him into custody,” McCabe said.

The three who were killed are believed to be students, while six others were shot, including a teacher, said the release. Their identities were not revealed.

Penn State Employees Who Refuse Vaccination Face Reeducation

Epoch Times – Despite a federal judge declaring President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate unconstitutional, Penn State University will keep its Jan. 4 deadline requiring employees to get vaccinated, and some employees who choose not to get vaccinated will be given education and counseling.

“Many of you know (the mandate) is being challenged in the courts so we don’t know the outcome of that process yet, but we are planning around it prevailing, and so implementing that mandate,” Penn State Provost Nicholas P. Jones said Tuesday in the University Faculty Senate meeting. “We’ve got to prepare because there’s not a lot of runway between now and January the fourth.”

The University is navigating two versions of the mandate. The federal contractor mandate applies to nine campuses and the College of Medicine, Wyatt DuBois, assistant director of University Public Relations told The Epoch Times in an email. Employees covered under the federal contractor mandate must upload proof to the university that they have received their final vaccine dose by Jan. 4 or be granted a disability/medical- or religious-related exemption. For those with and exemption, “accommodations will include a requirement to test weekly in the university testing protocol program,” DuBois said.

Employees at all other Penn State locations are subject to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) on vaccination and testing, which applies to employers with 100 or more employees. “Under the OSHA ETS, disability/medical- and/or religious-related accommodations are not required for an employee to be put into the testing protocol. So, employees at these locations must receive their final vaccine dose by Jan. 4 or test weekly for COVID-19,” DuBois said.

In other words, those under the OSHA rules won’t lose their jobs if they don’t get vaccinated, but those under the federal contractor mandate who are not granted an exemption could lose their job.

National Guard Members Who Refuse Vaccination Face Ban on Training and Withheld Pay

Epoch TImes – National Guard members who refuse COVID-19 vaccinations will no longer be able to participate in training and risk having their pay withheld, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin revealed Tuesday.

In a memo to military officials (pdf), Austin stressed that vaccination is “essential to the health and readiness of the force,” and that the secretary of the Army and the secretary of the Air Force, in coordination with the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness and the chief of the National Guard Bureau, should “establish policies and implementation guidance to address the failure to maintain this military medical readiness requirement by members of the non-federalized National Guard who remain unvaccinated.”

Unvaccinated members of the National Guard who fail to get their COVID-19 shots by the June 30, 2022 deadline will be barred from participating in drills, training, and other duties, unless they are granted an exemption in accordance with department policy, according to the memo.

National Guard members who remain unvaccinated by next year’s deadline will also not receive any payment from the Department of Defense for their performed duties.

Additionally, members who do not comply with the mandate deadlines may be ousted from the National Guard.

Austin stated that “no credit or excused absence shall be afforded to members who do not participate [in] drills, training, or other duty due to failure to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.”

Historic Number of Workers Quit Jobs to Become Their Own Bosses Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

Epoch Times – A historic number of workers have become their own bosses amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (pdf).

As of October, there were about 9.44 million unincorporated self-employed individuals in the United States, as per the Bureau’s data. In that same month last year, there were about 8.78 million unincorporated self-employed individuals in the United States.

CDC Expanding Surveillance at 4 Major Airports, May Tighten Travel Rules: Walensky

Epoch Times – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may impose more travel restrictions and rules over the emergence of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus Omicron variant, according to federal officials.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told reporters Tuesday that the CDC is evaluating whether to change its policy by having travelers to the United States test for COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP virus, closer to their departure as well as “additional post-arrival testing and quarantine” measures. The CDC is working with airlines to obtain information on passengers for contact tracing should the need arise, she continued.

“Based on the data … the medical team will make a recommendation on any changes to international travel policy,” Jeff Zients, President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 response coordinator, told reporters.

The CDC is also expanding its surveillance at four major international airports in a bid to determine whether Omicron is present in travelers into the United States, Walensky said. The surveillance measures will be implemented at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, and San Francisco International Airport.

“This program allows for increased COVID testing for specific international arrivals,” Walensky continued, “increasing our capacity to identify those with COVID-19 on arrival to the United States and enhancing our surveillance for the Omicron variant.”

Already, the federal government imposed travel restrictions on eight southern African nations due to the Omicron variant, which was first discovered in South Africa and Botswana earlier this month. Those restrictions went into effect starting Monday at 12:01 a.m.

Welcome to Mark Zuckerberg’s New Dystopia: the Metaverse

The Daily Signal – Americans are familiar with the idea of a dystopian future, dominated by an inescapable metaverse and ruled over by Big Tech overlords. Films such as “Blade Runner” and “Minority Report” depict a world conquered by technology and the terrifying consequences.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that he wants to take that world from the screen and make it our own.

“Facebook is making itself bigger. It’s basically making an incursion into your everyday life with this metaverse conception,” explains Kara Frederick, research fellow in technology policy at The Heritage Foundation, parent organization of The Daily Signal. “This is going to be, in my mind, a totalization of control of your life in the future.”

Frederick joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss Zuckerberg, the metaverse, and how dire the consequences might be if Big Tech is allowed to take over our lives.

CNN Suspends Host Chris Cuomo ‘Indefinitely’

Epoch Times – CNN has suspended host Chris Cuomo “indefinitely” on Tuesday following news earlier this week that he had tapped sources to seek help for his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, amid sexual harassment and assault allegations against him.

The move comes after materials released Monday by the New York Attorney General’s Office showed that the anchor was not truthful to viewers when he said in August that he did not contact other media members about the scandal.

The newly released material showed that Chris Cuomo tapped sources, including some inside rival outlets, trying to see whether more women were coming forward against his brother with sexual misconduct allegations.

CNN was reviewing the materials before it suspended Cuomo on Tuesday.

“The New York Attorney General’s office released transcripts and exhibits Monday that shed new light on Chris Cuomo’s involvement in his brother’s defense,” a CNN spokesperson said Tuesday evening. “The documents, which we were not privy to before their public release, raise serious questions.”

“When Chris admitted to us that he had offered advice to his brother’s staff, he broke our rules and we acknowledged that publicly. But we also appreciated the unique position he was in and understood his need to put family first and job second,” the spokesperson continued.

“However, these documents point to a greater level of involvement in his brother’s efforts than we previously knew. As a result, we have suspended Chris indefinitely, pending further evaluation.”

Experts have told The Epoch Times that Chris Cuomo’s behavior violates journalism standards and questioned CNN’s lack of transparency regarding the situation.

Judge Blocks Biden’s COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate for Federal Contractors

Epoch Times – A judge on Tuesday blocked President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors, finding that Biden likely lacks the authority to force them to get vaccinated.

“This is not a case about whether vaccines are effective. They are. Nor is this a case about whether the government, at some level, and in some circumstances, can require citizens to obtain vaccines. It can,” U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove, a George W. Bush nominee, wrote in the 29-page order.

“The question presented here is narrow. Can the president use congressionally delegated authority to manage the federal procurement of goods and services to impose vaccines on the employees of federal contractors and subcontractors? In all likelihood, the answer to that question is no,” he said.

The judge granted a request for a preliminary injunction by the attorneys general of Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee.

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“This is not about vaccines, it’s about the mandates,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican, said in a statement. “The judge’s opinion clearly states that and it has been our position all along that the president cannot impose these mandates on the people.”

Biden signed an executive order on Sept. 9 that led several weeks later to the White House requiring contractors force all their workers to get a COVID-19 vaccine unless the worker is entitled to an exception.

Contractors who did not comply with the order, originally set with a Dec. 8 deadline, were poised to lose the government’s business.

The states charged that the vaccine mandate was both illegal and unconstitutional, in part because it was imposed with little regard to “important aspects surrounding the mandate, including but not limited to economic impacts, cost to States, cost to citizens, labor-force and supply-chain disruptions, the current risks of COVID-19, and basic distinctions among workers such as those with natural immunity to COVID-19 and those who work remotely or with limited in-person contacts, among other aspects.”

The government disagreed, arguing that the president does have authority to regulate contractors under the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act because. Courts have ruled the president can pursue “efficient and economic” procurement, which he was in the order, lawyers asserted.

Van Tatenhove sided with the states.

Ghislaine Maxwell ‘No. 2’ in Jeffrey Epstein’s Circle, Epstein Pilot Testifies

Epoch Times – A pilot testified at Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial on Tuesday that the British socialite was “number two” in disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s hierarchy.

Pilot Lawrence Paul Visoski Jr., the first witness in the trial, said Tuesday Maxwell was “the No. 2” before adding that “Epstein was the big No. 1” in his circle.

Maxwell faces sex trafficking and related charges for allegedly recruiting and grooming four underage girls between 1994 and 2004. Maxwell, the daughter of media mogul and fraudster Robert Maxwell, has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutor Lara Pomerantz told jurors Monday that both Epstein, who was found dead in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019, and Maxwell were “partners in crime.” Maxwell and Epstein, Pomerantz alleged, groomed and recruited underage girls, which they then abused.

Visoski testified that high-profile celebrities and politicians flew on Epstein’s plane, although none of the high-profile individuals mentioned are alleged to have committed wrongdoing in the case.

“I never saw any sexual activity, no,” Visoski said during the trial. When he was asked if he saw any inappropriate behavior with underage girls, he said, “Absolutely not.”

The plane’s cockpit door was closed during the flight, the pilot recalled.

Visoski, who worked for Epstein between 1991 and 2009, also testified that Epstein paid for his two daughters’ education and also gave him acreage at a  New Mexico ranch where Visoski built himself a home. The pilot also confirmed he signed a non-disclosure agreement as a part of his employment with Epstein.

As Ghislaine Maxwell Trial Opens – FAA Accidentally Reveals Over 700 Previous Unknown Jeffrey Epstein Flights

Gateway Pundit – As the trial for Ghislaine Maxwell opens, the Federal Aviation Administration accidentally revealed data on over 700 previous unknown Jeffrey Epstein flights on private jets.

Maxwell is known for her close association with financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in jail in New York City.

According to Insider, the records reveal 704 previously unknown flights taken by Epstein’s planes. These include hundreds of trips from a three-year gap in the public record, from 2013 to 2016, when the jets’ movements were unaccounted for.

World Record Holder Has Heart Damaged by Vaccine

Mercola – 

Florian Dagoury is a world record holder in static breath-hold freediving; he held his breath for an astonishing 10 minutes and 30 seconds  After receiving his second dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 injection, he experienced increased heart rate and a reduction in his breath-holding capacity  A cardiologist diagnosed him with myocarditis and pericarditis, both recognized adverse effects linked to the shots  In another instance, 34-year-old Jeremy Chardy, a professional tennis player ranked 73rd in the world, suspended his season due to a severe adverse reaction to the COVID-19 shot  Veteran triathlete Antoine Méchin, 32, is also facing the potential end to his career after receiving Moderna COVID-19 injections and developing a pulmonary embolism  While health officials remain silent about COVID-19 injection reactions, the growing number of reports of adverse reactions cannot be silenced forever

Will Smallpox Be the Next ‘Lab Leak’?

Mercola – While attempts have been made to assess the risks posed by research on lethal pathogens, we still know very little. We don’t know the frequency at which lab accidents happen, how often lab accidents result in exposures, or the underlying factors that allow for incidents and exposures

We also do not know what features might be most effective at mitigating incidents, and we lack answers to basic questions such as fluid dynamics of a spill

Human error is 100 times more likely to cause an accidental release of a dangerous pathogen than any kind of mechanical failure

In recent weeks, a number of news reports have hinted at the possibility of a bioterror attack involving smallpox. November 4, 2021, Bill Gates warned about the possibility of a smallpox terror attack during a Policy Exchange future pandemics meeting

November 3, 2021, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices reviewed two presentations featuring a newer attenuated live smallpox vaccine called JYNNEOS. Smallpox has also been featured in pandemic exercises such as Operation Dark Winter in 2001

A Major Abortion Case Goes Before the Supreme Court. Here’s What You Need to Know.

Daily Signal – The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a major abortion case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, on Wednesday. 

What’s at Stake?

While policymakers have successfully enacted life-affirming laws, such as informed-consent requirements, mandatory reflection periods, and prohibitions on the inhumane partial-birth abortion procedure, outdated abortion jurisprudence has blocked much state policymaking on pre-viability abortions that accounts for advances in modern science and technology.

Notably, most Americans support significant restrictions on abortion, but because of Roe v. Wade, America is an outlier when it comes to international abortion policy. We’re one of only seven countries in the entire world that allows elective abortion after 20 weeks—we’re in the company of human rights violators like China and North Korea.

America is an outlier when it comes to earlier restrictions, as well: A recent study found that “47 out of 50 European nations limit elective abortion prior to 15 weeks,” the point at which Mississippi draws a line in the Gestational Age Act.

Overturning Roe v. Wade wouldn’t mean that abortion in America would immediately be prohibited. It would mean that the American people in their respective states, through their elected representatives, could establish policies that account for advances in modern science and technology as well as pro-life shifts in public sentiment.

The pro-life movement would still have much work to do—states like Mississippi would pursue policies that differ from those in, say, California.

Beyond policy debates about protecting life in law, there is still much work to be done to promote a culture of life more broadly. Women across the country facing challenging or unplanned pregnancies would continue to be able to look to civil society, including churches and thousands of community-based pregnancy resource centers, for support.

Former Physician to the President: Here Comes the MEV – Midterm Election Variant – Democrats Need Excuse for Mail-in Voting, Will Do Anything to Cheat

Gateway Pundit – Dr. Ronnie Jackson was the physician to the president for President’s Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

On Saturday Rep. Jackson posted on the latest COVID variant and what this means for Americans — likely mail-in votes again.

In less than one year Democrats have destroyed the American economy, the American energy sector, American foreign policy, America’s reputation around the world. Just like in 2020, there is no possible way they can keep power in 2022 unless they cheat.

And they will.

Look for Democrats to use the “Midterm Election Variant” to push for a national mail-in vote in November 2022. They can’t win if they can’t cheat.

How Much Will Biden’s Infrastructure Plan Eventually Cost? History Suggests Some Worrisome Answers

CATO Institute – Here at Cato we’ve written many times about the record of big infrastructure projects and “megaprojects”:

• Cost overruns are rampant.
• “Here is a rule of thumb to remember when you hear about a proposed government project: If a politician says that it will cost $1, it will end up costing $2 or more.”
• “Contractors were essentially rewarded for delays and overruns with added cash and guaranteed profits.”
• “The ongoing saga of California’s high‐​speed bullet train may end up being as classic a story of Democratic politicians’ hubris as the Solyndra debacle.”
• “Linda Bilmes, coauthor with Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz of The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict, analyzes the massive problems in three somewhat smaller government projects — the Iraqi reconstruction effort, Hurricane Katrina reconstruction, and the Big Dig artery construction in Boston — and finds that ‘in any organization that starts to increase spending very rapidly there are risks of waste, fraud and inefficiency.’ ”
• “In fact, as megaprojects expert Bent Flyvbjerg explains in the following article, these grandiose projects operate by an iron law: over budget, over time, over and over again.”

And now we welcome the New York Times to the beat with its impressive Monday story titled “Years of Delays, Billions in Overruns: The Dismal History of Big Infrastructure.” Ralph Vartabedian, who covered the “bullet train” fiasco for years at the Los Angeles Times, lays out problems across the country with big infrastructure projects, from a Honolulu transit line to the Long Island Railroad. Read the whole thing, but you can start here:

Honolulu’s tribulations are far from a lone cautionary tale. To the contrary, they signal the kind of cost overruns, engineering challenges and political obstacles that have made it all but impossible to complete a major, multibillion‐​dollar infrastructure project in the United States on budget and on schedule over the past decade.…

When California voters approved a bond in 2008 for a high‐​speed rail system from Los Angeles to San Francisco, the project was supposed to cost $33 billion and be completed by 2020. The job is now projected to finish in 2033 for $100 billion, though those estimates are dated and there is an $80 billion funding gap.…

Mr. Schofer said many projects are justified by estimating that future benefits will exceed costs, but when the costs go up astronomically, no one recalculates the ratio.

In a candid admission of how the political world operates, Willie Brown, the former mayor of San Francisco, once dismissed cost overruns on a transportation hub intended for the bullet train.

“In the world of civic projects, the first budget is really just a down payment,” he wrote in a guest newspaper column in 2013. “If people knew the real cost from the start, nothing would ever be approved. The idea is to get going. Start digging a hole and make it so big there’s no alternative to coming up with the money to fill it in.”

A Brief Guide to Leftist Destruction

Dennis Prager – To understand the modern world, perhaps the most important rule one needs to know is this: Everything the Left touches it ruins.

This first became clear to me years ago during my radio show. I was talking about the Left’s war on the Boy Scouts (for not accepting announced gay people). It was becoming clear that this would ultimately lead to the decline of the Boy Scouts, which led me to ask: “Will the left replace the Boy Scouts with a left-wing Boy Scouts?”

Then I answered my own question: Of course not. Because the Left only destroys; it doesn’t build anything (other than government).

In support of that observation, here is a list of many of the things the Left ruins and often destroys.

No. 1: Art.

The Left long ago conquered the art world. Consequently, since the 20th century, most modern art has been ugly, meaningless, and nihilistic—the opposite of what Western art had always been.

No. 2: Music.

What the Left did to the eyes in art, it did to the ears in music. As a part-time conductor, I can say with some knowledge that since the invention of atonal music (an oxymoron if there ever was one), most contemporary classical music is also ugly, meaningless, and uninspiring. The people who like such music are almost all music critics and, of course, music professors. Most lovers of classical music never listen to the stuff.

No. 3: Journalism.

Journalists were once highly respected. Unless a piece was listed as “opinion,” people generally believed they were getting, to the best of a journalist’s ability, as truthful a report as possible—“just the facts.” Today, on virtually any controversial issue, they are getting opinion, not truth. The purpose of nearly every major newspaper and other “news” outlet is the same purpose Pravda had in the Soviet Union: to transmit the party line.

No. 4: Colleges and universities.

The Left has destroyed universities as places of learning devoted to seeking truth and therefore welcoming, even cultivating, diverse opinions. Virtually every left-wing idea was born at a university.

No. 5: High schools and elementary schools.

Most schools in America—private as much as public—teach children that America is systemically racist and that they are not born male or female, but at a later age will choose whether to be one or the other—or neither. And increasingly, American educational institutions deny objective truth exists, even in mathematics.

No. 6: Happiness.

You can meet happy and unhappy liberals and happy and unhappy conservatives, but you are unlikely to ever meet a happy leftist. The only question is whether the unhappy gravitate to leftism or whether leftism makes people unhappy. Both are probably true.

No. 7: The family.

People on the Left increasingly choose not to get married and not to have children—in other words, not to make families. And their welfare policies serve to disincentivize the creation of families.

No. 8: Women.

The rates of depression among young people, especially young women, are higher than ever recorded in American history. One reason is that for half a century, women have been told, as one famous feminist saw put it, “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.” But the fact is that the vast majority of (heterosexual) women need a man to be fulfilled, just as the vast majority of (heterosexual) men need a woman to be fulfilled.

No. 9: Childhood.

One reason young people on the Left don’t want children is that the Left doesn’t particularly like children. The teachers unions’ adamant refusal to open schools for over a year has opened many Americans’ eyes to this fact. So has the war on children’s innocence—like prematurely talking to them about sex and having schools introduce them to drag queens from the age of five.

No. 10: Black life.

Like the Democratic Party historically, the Left is racist. And it is so in precisely the way the word was always used—the Left believes in black inferiority. That is why leftists advocate lowering standards for blacks. That is why they advocate policies that always result in more blacks dying at the hands of other blacks. That is why they believe the state must take care of blacks more than any other group. That is why left-wing policies, from the Great Society to today, have destroyed so much of black life, especially its family life—and they don’t care.

No. 11: Black-white relations.

According to polls and according to just about every American who remembers life from about a decade ago, black-white relations were far superior then and both groups were optimistic about relations continuing to improve. The Left shattered that with its anti-white, “America is systemically racist” propaganda shouted from almost every major media and relentlessly pushed in almost every school and big business. The Left knows that when blacks and whites feel good about one another, the Left loses its appeal and loses elections.

No. 12: The military.

As the military gets more and more woke—recall the testimony of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff testifying before Congress about the need to teach the military about white racism—soldier morale declines. Add to this the utterly gratuitous and cruel mandate that every member of the military get vaccinated or be discharged and you understand why military morale is in steep decline.

No. 13: Late-night television.

Americans who remember the titans of late-night comedy—Johnny Carson and Jay Leno—remember how their sole aim was to bring some smiles and laughter to Americans before they went to sleep. Few people had any inkling of the political views of either host. That is now history. The Left has destroyed late-night comedy. It now consists of little more than angry rants against conservatives.

No. 14: Superman.

Superman was an iconic American hero. Thanks to the Left, he is no more. About a decade ago, Superman stood in front of the United Nations to announce he was renouncing his American citizenship to become a “citizen of the world.” And the Left has now changed his motto from “Truth, Justice, and the American way” to “Truth, Justice, and a Better Tomorrow.”

No. 15: Free speech.

Never before has freedom of speech been threatened as it is today. As has been true since the communist revolution in Russia, everywhere the Left has gained power—from Russia in 1917 to the university and social media today—it has suppressed free speech. There is no exception.

No. 16: Sports.

Until last year, sport was a great American unifier. It was one place Americans could go and, leaving politics behind, Left and Right, Democrat and Republican could root for the same team. No longer. The Left has ruined it by radically politicizing baseball, football, and basketball.

The great American tragedy is just about every liberal knows the above is true, but nearly every one will still vote for the Left.