WORLD NEWS
WHO: Anti-Vaccine Activism Deadlier Than Global Terrorism
The World Health Organization shared a video on Twitter promoting the claim that anti-vaccine activism is deadlier than global terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and gun violence.
Yes, really.
The video quoted Baylor College of Medicine’s Dr. Peter Hotez, who stated, “We have to recognize that anti-vaccine activism, which I actually call anti-science aggression, has now become a major killing force globally.”
Hotez went on to assert that 200,000 Americans died from COVID because they refused to get the vaccine, a claim that isn’t backed up by any source.
“And now the anti-vaccine activism is expanding across the world, even into low and middle income countries,” added Hotez.
Reports: China Continues Mass Arrests Against Suspected Protesters
The left-wing outlet NPR reported on Wednesday that the Chinese Communist Party is quietly, but relentlessly, rounding up and imprisoning people it sees as ringleaders in the huge nationwide protests against dictator Xi Jinping’s coronavirus lockdowns.
Unrest had been simmering for quite some time as Xi imprisoned Chinese citizens in their homes, quarantined neighborhoods, and locked down entire cities — always imposing the orders by surprise so no one could escape and frequently not bothering to check if the millions placed under house arrest had enough food or medicine.
Open Borders Ireland: Green Govt Minister Says Migrants Fleeing Climate Change Must Be Let In
Ireland must prepare to grant asylum to migrants supposedly fleeing climate change, a government minister from the Green Party has declared.
Roderic O’Gorman, Ireland’s controversial Minister for Children, has declared that his country must make preparations to allow in a large number of migrants supposedly fleeing from the effects of climate change.
Vancouver Man Seeks to Open Crack, Meth Store as Canada Decriminalizes Hard Drugs
A Vancouver man named Jerry Martin is floating a business plan to open a store that would sell crack, meth, and heroin over the counter as soon as British Columbia (B.C.) decriminalizes hard drugs — a policy announced in May and scheduled to take effect on January 31, 2023.
British Columbia legalized recreational marijuana four years ago. After a surge of drug-related deaths during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, the province decided the next step would be officially decriminalizing small amounts of most illegal drugs. Police in British Columbia were already in the habit of letting offenders slide for holding “personal” quantities of hard drugs, a practice known as the “Vancouver Bubble.”
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Classified Documents Found in Biden’s Home: President’s Lawyer
Classified documents from the Obama-Biden administration were found in a second location linked to President Joe Biden, a lawyer for the president said on Jan. 12.
After the discovery of materials with classified markings at the Penn Biden Center in Washington—Biden worked out of the center from 2017 to 2019—lawyers for the president searched Biden’s residences in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach, Richard Sauber, one of the lawyers, said in a statement released by the White House.
Those two homes in Delaware are “the other locations where files from his Vice Presidential office might have been shipped in the course of the 2017 transition,” or the transition of Biden from vice president to a private citizen, according to Sauber.
During the search, the lawyers discovered documents with classified markings in a storage space inside the garage at the Wilmington residence. Additionally, a document marked classified was found in an adjacent room.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel on Jan. 12 to investigate whether any person or group broke the law in the handling of classified materials found in an office President Joe Biden had used, as well as in one of Biden’s homes.
“This appointment underscores for the public the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters and to making decisions indisputably guided only by facts and the law,” Garland, a Biden appointee, said in a prepared statement from the Department of Justice (DOJ) headquarters in Washington.
Garland appointed Robert Hur, a former federal prosecutor, as special counsel.
The attorney general said the “extraordinary circumstances” at play required the appointment.
Regulations state that the attorney general will appoint a special counsel when he determines that a criminal investigation is warranted and investigation or prosecution by the Department of Justice “present a conflict of interest for the Department or other extraordinary circumstances” and that “under the circumstances, it would be in the public interest to appoint an outside Special Counsel to assume responsibility for the matter.”
DeSantis Seeks to Ban China-Based Entities From Purchasing Florida Propertyc
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is considering a move to ban Chinese entities from purchasing property in the state because of the economic and security risks posed by China’s communist regime.
“If you look at the Chinese Communist Party, they’ve been very active throughout the Western Hemisphere in gobbling up land and investing in different things,” DeSantis said during a press conference on Jan. 10.
“And, you know, when they have interests that are opposed to ours, and you’ve seen how they’ve wielded their authority … it is not in the best interests of Florida to have the Chinese Communist Party owning farmland, owning land close to military bases.”
The remarks follow warnings from security experts and lawmakers that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which rules China as a single-party state, is seeking to purchase strategic parcels of land throughout the United States from which it can conduct espionage or otherwise sabotage U.S. national security interests.
In recent years, Chinese land purchases in Texas and North Dakota, which both were situated near U.S. military bases, raised alarm among locals and policymakers in state and federal governments.
Court of Appeals Agrees to Expedite Kari Lake’s 2022 Election Case
The Arizona Court of Appeals agreed to expedite consideration of Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s lawsuit alleging that the 2022 election was flawed.
In a brief order, issued on Jan. 9 and made public the next day, the court ordered a reset of “the matter for conference on February 1, 2023,” and agreed with Lake’s arguments that her challenge should be handled as a “special action petition.” The court date was reportedly scheduled for March.
Lawyers for Democrat Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, the state’s former secretary of state, has until Jan. 17 to respond and argue why Lake’s challenge should be rejected, according to the order. Lake had petitioned both the state’s Appeals Court and Supreme Court after a Maricopa County judge rejected her case after a two-day trial in December.
But earlier this month, the Arizona Supreme Court denied Lake’s petition to transfer her election lawsuit to the high court and said it will be heard before the Appeals Court first.
In December, Lake filed a lawsuit against Hobbs in her capacity as secretary of state, Maricopa County supervisors, Maricopa Recorder Stephen Richer, and other officials, asserting that the county’s handling of the election was seriously flawed and disenfranchised Election Day voters. Lake, a former broadcast journalist, argued that such disenfranchisement and election voting issues were enough to swing the election in her favor. She lost by 17,000 votes.
McCarthy Considers Release of Jan. 6 Security Footage
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) indicated during a Jan. 12 press conference that he wants to release all of the security footage from the U.S. Capitol from Jan. 6, 2021.
During the last Congress, many crucial questions about the Capitol breach were left unanswered and unaddressed by the Democrat-led Jan. 6 committee. Republican lawmakers, who have long expressed a keen interest in conducting their own investigations into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach, intend to move forward now that the GOP holds congressional subpoena power by virtue of their House majority.
Hours of surveillance footage recorded at the Capitol that day haven’t been released to the public, raising questions among skeptics of the official narrative.
During his first press conference as speaker, McCarthy was asked about revealing all the tapes recorded that day to the public, an initiative that was pushed by many Republicans during the 117th Congress.
In the last Congress, about two dozen Republicans sent a letter to then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to seek the release of these tapes. The request was ignored. McCarthy was asked if he would acquiesce to the release of the tapes now that he’s the House speaker. While his response indicated openness to revealing the tapes, he demurred from a full commitment.
“I think the American public should actually see all that happened instead of a report that’s written for a political basis,” he said, referencing the recently released Jan. 6 panel report (pdf).
SEC sues Covington for names of nearly 300 clients affected by 2020 cyberattack
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Covington & Burling on Tuesday to obtain the names of 298 publicly traded clients affected by a 2020 cyberattack.
The Jan. 10 lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C., federal court, says the SEC regularly seeks information on corporate cyberattack victims, partly to determine whether there was illegal trading associated with the attack and to determine whether the companies made required disclosures to the investing public.
Covington maintains that the client names are protected by attorney-client privilege, report Law.com, Law360, Reuters and Bloomberg Law.
Covington told the SEC in a June 2022 letter that it “fully cooperated with law enforcement and undertook a considerable effort to identify and inform its affected clients.” But the law firm said it can’t ethically comply with an investigative subpoena for client names because it is privileged information.
Covington learned through its investigation and cooperation with the FBI that the hackers, backed by China, were mostly focused on “policy issues of specific interest to China in light of the incoming Biden administration,” the letter said. The hackers targeted a small group of lawyers and advisers, collecting their emails, their folders on networks drives and the content on one user’s laptop.
Covington said its review found that the cyberattack accessed material nonpublic information for only seven of the 298 clients. The SEC said, however, it hasn’t been able to confirm the information, and it disagrees with Covington’s methodology for determining what constitutes material nonpublic information.
According to Bloomberg Law, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is a Covington partner. Among the firm’s clients is President Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign.
Covington said in a statement published by Law.com it intends to contest the SEC subpoena enforcement action.
“We regard the SEC’s action as an unwarranted attempt to intrude on client confidences and the attorney-client privilege, the protection of which is a fundamental ethical obligation of the legal profession,” the statement said.
Poll: 86 Percent of Republicans Want Harmeet Dhillon as RNC Chair
In the closing weeks of the race to lead the Republican National Committee, new polling shows 86 percent of Republicans would like to see leadership change.
According to a Trafalgar Group/Convention of States Action poll, 86 percent of Republicans support lawyer and California Republican National Committeewoman Harmeet Dhillon to take the helm, while only 14 percent support current chair Ronna McDaniel.
Democrat Gov. Signs Illinois’ Ban on Commonly Owned Semiautomatic Rifles, Magazines
Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signed legislation Tuesday night banning commonly owned semiautomatic rifles and magazines which Democrats consider “high capacity.”
The law took effect immediately with Pritzker’s signature. It allows those who already own the now-banned firearms to retain them, but requires that the owners register the guns with the Illinois State Police.
Illinois Sheriff Says State’s Semiautomatic Ban Violates Constitution, and He Will Not Enforce It
Edwards County Sheriff Darby Boewe has made clear his position that Illinois’ new ban on commonly owned semiautomatic rifles violates the Constitution and he will not be enforcing it.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signed the ban Tuesday night. Breitbart News noted the ban allows current owners of banned firearms to keep them, but requires them to register the firearms with the Illinois State Police.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
US Annual Inflation Rate Slows to 6.5 Percent; Food and Shelter Costs Add to Price Pressures
The U.S. annual inflation rate slowed to 6.5 percent in December 2022, from 7.1 percent in November 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The consumer price index dipped by 0.1 percent month over month.
The core inflation rate, which excludes the volatile food and energy sectors, eased to 5.7 percent last month, from 6 percent in the previous month.
Food prices remained elevated as the index was 10.4 percent higher than in the same period a year ago. Supermarket prices remained relatively unchanged from November 2022, with a rise of 11.8 percent year over year in December 2022.
Gasoline prices continued their downward trend, falling by 9.4 percent from November to December. On an annualized basis, gas prices are down by 1.5 percent. While the cost of fuel oil is up by 41.5 percent year over year, it fell by 16.6 percent month over month.
New vehicles slowed further to 5.9 percent and dropped by 0.1 percent month over month. Used car and truck prices declined by 8.8 percent year over year and fell by 2.5 percent month over month.
U.S. Foreclosure Activity Doubles Annually But Still Below Pre-Pandemic Levels
ATTOM, a leading curator of real estate data nationwide for land and property data, today released its Year-End 2022 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows foreclosure filings— default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 324,237 U.S. properties in 2022, up 115 percent from 2021 but down 34 percent from 2019, before the pandemic shook up the market. Foreclosure filings in 2022 were also down 89 percent from a peak of nearly 2.9 million in 2010.
Those 324,237 properties with foreclosure filings in 2022 represented 0.23 percent of all U.S. housing units, up slightly from 0.11 percent in 2021, but down from 0.36 percent in 2019 and down from a peak of 2.23 percent in 2010.
“Eighteen months after the end of the government’s foreclosure moratorium, and with less than five percent of the 8.4 million borrowers who entered the CARES Act forbearance program remaining, foreclosure activity remains significantly lower than it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Rick Sharga, executive vice president of market intelligence at ATTOM. “It seems clear that government and mortgage industry efforts during the pandemic, coupled with a strong economy, have helped prevent millions of unnecessary foreclosures.”
Republican Congressman Calls for Audit of Federal Reserve
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) reintroduced on Jan. 10 his Federal Reserve Transparency Act in the House of Representatives, an annual tradition for the congressman. Dubbed the “Audit the Fed” bill, the legislation is an evolved iteration of a bill put forth by former congressman Ron Paul (R-Tex.) back in 1983.
“It’s official!” Massi wrote in a tweet on Tuesday afternoon. “I just reintroduced my bipartisan bill to audit the Federal Reserve, HR 24.”
Massie’s bill would “require a full audit of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve system and the Federal Reserve banks.”
Paul’s original bill, despite being introduced in the early 1980s, did not receive a vote in the House until 2012, where it passed 337–98 with overwhelming bipartisan support. Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) refused to hold a senatorial vote on the legislation despite having advocating for a Federal Reserve audit earlier in his career.
The rationale behind the initiative, espoused by free market conservatives like Paul and Massie—who blame the U.S. central bank for its role in the country’s economic instability—is that transparency would better allow the public to prepare for and avoid financial crises.
“I’ve been talking about it for decades and arguing that we had a financial system that was very friable, very vulnerable, and it was the Fed that was creating the bubbles,” said Paul during a speech at the CATO Institute in 2009. “Therefore, we should be looking into it and preventing these problems rather than waiting for a cataclysmic financial crisis to hit.”
FAA Reveals Alleged Cause of Nationwide System Going Down, Causing All Flights to Be Grounded
The cause of a key system outage that triggered nationwide chaos at airports after all flights were grounded on Jan. 11 has been revealed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had indicated that no malign actors caused the system to go down but told news outlets that officials can’t rule it out. However, the FAA issued a statement later on Jan. 11 indicating that the outage was caused by an internal system error.
“The FAA is continuing a thorough review to determine the root cause of the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system outage,” the FAA said in the statement. “Our preliminary work has traced the outage to a damaged database file.”
The FAA didn’t disclose why the database file was damaged.
“At this time, there is no evidence of a cyber attack,” the statement reads. “The FAA is working diligently to further pinpoint the causes of this issue and take all needed steps to prevent this kind of disruption from happening again.”
All flights across the entire United States were grounded for about an hour after the FAA carried out a nationwide ground stop, a first since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. According to tracking website FlightAware.com, more than 8,500 flights were delayed and well over 1,000 were canceled on Jan. 11.
The cancellations and delays continued into Jan. 12. Data from the FlightAware website, which itself appeared to be down on the morning of Jan. 12, shows that more than 600 flights to, from, or within the United States were delayed, while 82 were canceled.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Redefining What It Means To Be Human
The transhumanist movement is a social and philosophical mobilization involving the development of human enhancement through technology; the technocratic cabal are seeking to normalize changes that will give them absolute control over your thoughts, emotions and actions
The mass manipulation used during the COVID-19 generated pandemic was phenomenally successful, using instant notification, fake fact-checkers and smart propaganda that led many down a path resulting in life-altering disabilities and even death
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are technologies currently used to read brain neurons in individuals with impairments that don’t allow them to speak or move. The new goal publicly expressed by the owners of two companies is an interface that allows reading and writing to every aspect of your brain
This movement is integral to The Fourth Industrial Revolution promoted by the World Economic Forum (WEF). Founder and chairman of the WEF, Klaus Schwab, claims to have penetrated the cabinets of industrialized nations, having influenced their thinking through the Young Global Leaders program
Although some are blinded by the idea that the merger of man and machine could make you smarter or live longer, the reality was succinctly described by Dr. Yuval Harari when he said the idea that humans have free will is over
Idaho Murders Suspect Held Without Bail, Trial Won’t Start Until Summer
The suspect in the murder of four Idaho college students appeared in court on Thursday and waived his right to a speedy probable cause hearing, while a judge ordered him held in state custody with no bond.
Bryan Kohberger faces four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, in November. The judge set his probable cause hearing for June, according to footage from inside the courtroom.
Photos and footage showed Kohberger with unexplained cuts and bruises on his face and neck during the Thursday court appearance. He appeared in court wearing an orange T-shirt and pants, and gave the judge short one-word answers when she asked him if he understood his rights during the roughly five-minute-long hearing.
Kohberger’s attorney, Anne Taylor, told Magistrate Judge Megan Marshall that Kohberger was willing to waive his right to a speedy preliminary hearing, which would have required that it be held within two weeks. The hearing itself will likely take four or five days, Taylor said.
“He’s willing to waive timeliness to allow us time to obtain discovery in the case and be prepared,” Taylor told the judge.
SURVEILLANCE STATE
FBI Reveal: It Uses CIA And NSA To Spy On Innocent Americans
The FBI revealed how the bureau uses the CIA and National Security Agency to probe the private lives of Americans without a warrant in its updated rulebook, which is the first version made public since the Obama administration.
The handbook, rewritten in 2021, confirms a decade-old leak showcasing the bureau’s collaboration with the CIA and NSA for FBI probes that may involve surveillance without court orders against people not accused of any crimes. Such probes are known as “assessments” at the FBI.
The revelations will fuel critics who have long accused the FBI of abusing its national security surveillance powers.
The FBI’s partnership with U.S. intelligence agencies that are focused on foreign threats is expected to get intense scrutiny from the new Republican-run Congress. The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and House Judiciary Committee are digging into how intelligence agencies target Americans. Plans include a new panel to examine the weaponization of the federal government against U.S. citizens.
HEALTH
Why Our Drive to Be Likable Is Making Us Exhausted
How speaking our truth can change everything
Society’s levels of emotional exhaustion are reaching epidemic proportions. Presenting as depletion, fatigue, dissatisfaction, burnout, anxiety, depression, or having a sense of emptiness—women are more likely to be affected than their male counterparts.
Is it possible for a woman’s intuition to become a burden? Might our conditioning and proclivity to care for others supersede caring for ourselves? Why do we seem aware of our myriad roles to others but less so for ourselves? Why, when I ask women what they really want, do they often answer “I have no idea?”
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Storms, Tornadoes Cause Extensive Damage Across U.S. Southeast; at Least 7 Dead
Storms and tornadoes caused extensive damage to several communities across the U.S. Southeast on Thursday, including in Alabama, where at least 25 tornadoes were reported, according to the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center.
At least six fatalities have been confirmed in Autauga County, Alabama, located in the central part of the state, Emergency Management Director Ernie Baggett told Weather.com. “The best we can tell is about 40 homes have major damage or have been completely destroyed,” Baggett added.
U.S. Official Airs Safety Concerns over Heavy Electric Vehicles
The safety risks posed by heavy electric vehicles in any collision with lighter vehicles has pushed the head of the National Transportation Safety Board to issue a general warning to all road users.
The official, Jennifer Homendy, raised the issue in a speech in Washington to the Transportation Research Board. AP reports she pointed, by way as an example, to an electric GMC Hummer that weighs about 9,000 pounds with a battery pack that alone is 2,900 pounds — roughly the entire weight of a typical Honda Civic.
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
Investing in a Greenhouse in 2
If you are looking to the various ways you can make money through investments, you are probably baffled by all the different choices you have available. Whether it’s stock investments, currency investments or even agriculture investment. However, a lot of people forget that you can go deeper into these options. In this case, we are going to talk about agriculture and more specifically the use and the reward we could get out of investing in the greenhouse.
A greenhouse is exactly that, a form of a house where you can grow all kinds of flowers or foods and gives us the ability to grow anything in any season. In a greenhouse, you have complete control over the environment which will shelter the crops from the seasons. Say you have a certain crop that can grow only in the summer days, you could create an environment inside the greenhouse which will help the plants to last throughout the cold days of winter too. Another thing you should consider is that the climate of this world will not be getting any better. This means that the weather on our planet is getting a lot more unpredictable than the past which means that something unexpected can happen such as rain or snow which can damage the crops.
COVID RELATED NEWS
FDA Adviser Says Young and Healthy People Shouldn’t Get Latest COVID Boosters
A vaccine adviser to the Food and Drug Administration is questioning whether young, healthy people should get new COVID-19 boosters, arguing those shots should be used for older individuals.
“I believe we should stop trying to prevent all symptomatic infections in healthy, young people by boosting them with vaccines containing mRNA from strains that might disappear a few months later,” wrote Dr. Paul A. Offit, an FDA vaccine panel adviser and professor of pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, in New England Journal of Medicine on Jan. 11.
In his article, Offit cited two studies suggesting that bivalent boosters, which target the original COVID-19 strain and two Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA. 5, do not “elicit superior immune responses.”
“Why did the strategy for significantly increasing BA.4 and BA.5 neutralizing antibodies using a bivalent vaccine fail?” he asked. “The most likely explanation is imprinting. The immune systems of people immunized with the bivalent vaccine, all of whom had previously been vaccinated, were primed to respond to the ancestral strain of SARS-CoV-2. They therefore probably responded to epitopes shared by BA.4 and BA.5 and the ancestral strain, rather than to new epitopes on BA.4 and BA.5.”
Explosive Increase in Cardiac Symptoms After Second Injection
Adolescent COVID-19 vaccination results in cardiotoxicity and ECG changes prompting concern
I have said on national TV throughout the COVID-19 vaccine campaign that no young person should receive a shot because the risks far outweigh the benefits. Chiu et al published a report where both cardiac symptoms and ECG changes were recorded after the first and second injections. The results are alarming. After the second injection of mRNA 17.1% of students reported cardiovascular symptoms.
The letter is addressed “To the editors, authors, and contributors to major scientific, medical, and journalistic publications worldwide.” The addressees include The Lancet, Nature Medicine, The New York Times, and TIME magazine.
The letter was coordinated by the Vandenberg Coalition, and included signatures from House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas), former U.S. National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, Former U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger, and analysts from the Heritage Foundation, the Hudson Institute, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and other security and foreign policy analysts.
“Leading scientific journals censored dissenting voices; many science writers at major news outlets promoted narratives or asserted conclusions unsubstantiated by evidence; reporters failed to make even cursory attempts at surfacing potential conflicts of interest of their sources,” the letter states.
“This served to hamper national and international policy discussions about how to mitigate against future pandemics of any origin—natural, accidental, or deliberate.”
The letter faults editors and reporters at news organizations and scientific publications for stifling debate on the origins of the virus.
Bradykinin Hypothesis Explains COVID-19 Complexities
Genetic analysis using the Oak Ridge National Lab supercomputer has revealed an interesting new hypothesis — the bradykinin hypothesis — that helps explain the disease progression of COVID-19
The bradykinin hypothesis also strengthens the hypothesis that vitamin D plays a really important role in the disease
SARS-CoV-2 not only infects cells that naturally have high numbers of ACE2 receptors but also tricks your body into upregulating ACE2 receptors in places where they’re usually expressed at lower levels, such as your lungs
SARS-CoV-2 also downregulates your body’s ability to degrade or break down bradykinin, a chemical that helps regulate your blood pressure and is controlled by your renin-angiotensin system
The end result is a bradykinin storm, which appears to be the primary cause behind many of COVID-19’s lethal effects, even more so than the cytokine storms associated with the disease
The virus also increases production of hyaluronic acid (HLA) in your lungs. HLA has the ability to absorb more than 1,000 times its own weight in fluid, and when it combines with the built-up fluid in the lungs, it forms a thick hydrogel that makes breathing very difficult
>> Video: Bradykinin Storm Instead of Cytokine Storm?
CANCEL CULTURE
A new release of the Twitter Files provides further evidence that the company was aware that claims of “Russian bots” on the platform, made by Democrats and the media, were wildly exaggerated or outright fabrications. Nevertheless, Twitter continued to indulge the Democrat and mainstream media-pushed conspiracy theory in public.
As Twitter attempted to placate Democrats on the hill with an appeasement strategy, humoring claims about Russian influence they knew were false, Twitter officials complained that the strategy amounted to “feeding congressional trolls.”
Proof Emerges That White House Directly Orchestrated Facebook’s COVID-19 Censorship
During the discovery phase of the Missouri v. Biden lawsuit, alleging social media censorship efforts by the Biden White House, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry unearthed documents proving that the government was directly involved in shutting down discussions related to the Covid pandemic—the most damning proof we’ve seen yet of First Amendment violations.
The revelations come via a series of emails between Biden administration officials and Facebook employees tasked with liaising with the White House (read them for yourself below). One email from Andrew Slavitt, senior advisor to Biden’s COVID-19 response coordinator, dated March 15, 2021, has the subject line, “You are hiding the ball.” Flaherty accuses Facebook of driving vaccine hesitancy. “We are gravely concerned that your service is one of the top drivers of vaccine hesitancy—period,” he wrote. “We want to know that you’re trying, we want to know how we can help, and we want to know that you’re not playing a shell game… This would all be a lot easier if you would just be straight with us.” The email goes on to ominously warn: “Internally we have been considering our options on what to do about it.”
An as-yet-unnamed Facebook official pushed back, saying that Slavitt had relied on “leaked work that’s been done by a small team” to conclude that Facebook was not being completely transparent. “We obviously have work to do to gain your trust,” he continued. “You mention that you are not trying to play ‘gotcha’ with us—I appreciate the approach you are taking to continue discussions. We are working to get you useful information that’s on the level. That’s my job and I take it seriously—I’ll continue to do it to the best of my ability and I’ll expect you to hold me accountable.” That’s noteworthy. The Facebook official considered it his job to give Biden’s COVID-19 team information about social media users who did not buy into the Official Narrative on vaccines. Why? Did Facebook agree to disclose this information because they agreed with the White House? Or did the White House threaten the social-media giant? The tone of the conversation suggests that Facebook was afraid to run afoul of the White House, yet still pushed back on handing over whatever they demanded.
Flaherty seemed frustrated that Facebook was not doing enough to crack down on free speech on the platform. “I’ve been asking you guys pretty directly, over a series of conversations, for a clear accounting of the biggest issues you are seeing on your platform when it comes to vaccine hesitancy, and the degree to which borderline content—as you define it—is playing a roll.” He demanded to know what actions Facebook had been taking. “You said you would commit to us that you’d level with us. I am seeing in the press that you have data on the impact of borderline content, and its overlap with various communities. I have asked for this point blank, and got, instead, an overview of how the algorithm works, with a pivot to a conversation about profile frames, and a 45-minute meeting that seemed to provide you with more insight than it provided us.”
GOOD NEWS
An icy visitor from the far reaches of the solar system is expected to shoot past Earth and the sun in the coming weeks and it might be visible with the unaided human eye. This visitor from afar is a comet believed to have brushed by Earth before—some 50,000 years ago.
Discovered in March 2022, the comet recently passed within Jupiter’s orbit and is heading for the inner solar system. Our witnessing the flyby soon to occur could be a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical occasion.
Bright Enough for Naked Eyesight?
Dubbed C/2022 E3 ZTF, the comet displays a greenish coma, the nebulous envelope surrounding a comet’s nucleus, and a yellow-tinged tail of dust and ion particles in its wake.
Initially showing a stellar magnitude of 17 when it was discovered, according to EarthSky, C/2022 E3 ZTF’s brightness will increase as it approaches the sun, as the frozen matter of a comet’s nucleus sublimates when exposed to solar radiation sometimes causing a spectacular green “glow.”
Just today the comet reached its perihelion, its closest distance from the sun, and currently shines with a magnitude of 7.4—The lower an object’s magnitude the greater its brightness. It’s magnitude is expected to increase to 5 or 6, the range visible to the naked eye, next month when it reaches its closest distance from Earth.
So with dark skies and minimal moonlight or streetlight, C/2022 E3 ZTF might be seen without binoculars or a telescope. However, comets are notoriously unpredictable; it could be even brighter.
ICYMI
Lisa Marie Presley, Only Child of Elvis, Dead at 54
Lisa Marie Presley, the 54-year-old daughter of Elvis Presley, died on Thursday after being admitted to the hospital earlier that day, according to her mother.
Just hours after Priscilla Presley confirmed on Instagram that her daughter was rushed to the hospital, it was announced that Presley had passed away.
“It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us,” Priscilla Presley said in a statement Thursday evening. “She was the most passionate, strong, and loving woman I have ever known.”
Los Angeles County paramedics were called to a home in Calabasas at 10:37 a.m. after receiving a report of a woman in full cardiac arrest. Property records show that the house belonged to Lisa Marie Presley.
According to Craig Little, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County fire department, paramedics arrived at the scene six minutes later. They performed CPR and determined that the patient had signs of life before taking her to a nearby hospital in West Hills for further treatment.
Calabasas is a city located approximately 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.
Presley’s hospitalization was first reported by TMZ and later confirmed by Priscilla in a statement on Twitter, in which she asked for prayers.
“My beloved daughter Lisa Marie was rushed to the hospital. She is now receiving the best care. Please keep her and our family in your prayers,” she wrote. “We feel the prayers from around the world and ask for privacy at this time.”
Presley attended the Golden Globes on Tuesday, where she praised Austin Butler’s portrayal of her father in the movie “Elvis” as “mind-blowing” in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.
“I really didn’t know what to do with myself after I saw it,” she told ET of Baz Luhrmann’s movie. “I had to take, like, five days to process it because it was so incredible and so spot on and just so authentic that, yeah, I can’t even describe what it meant.”
Days before she died, Presley visited Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, to mark her rock legend father’s birthday on Jan. 8.
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