On Sale This Week @ The Power Mall:
EyeComplex Special pricing- Last week to save!
The price of Eye Complex CS will be increasing by $3 due to added ingredients and inflation (this price increase was from the manufacturer, not us, just so everyone understands). We will be offering the new formula for the same price as the original which is $49.95 from Friday, April 22nd – Friday April 29th ONLY. The price after that date will be $52.95.
The bottles now contain 120 capsules per bottle and dose is 4 per day instead of 3, this allows for the increase in new ingredients, pills are smaller (easier to swallow) but total of 4 has more than 3 of the older ones
10% off Optivida Products
NEW from Optivida: Basic Essentials
Basic Essentials has a lot of what makes Complete Essentials great, but in a smaller, cheaper, more portable package!
Non-GMO and Organic whole food? Check!
Just like you’ve come to expect from Optivida, we only use the purest ingredients. No synthetic nonsense!
9 servings of fruits and vegetables? Check!
We packed tons of nutrient goodness into Basic Essentials. We’ve stepped up and did what other Multi-Vitamins just can’t do.
Super easy to bring with you anywhere? Check!
Basic Essentials is in a capsule supplement, making it easier than ever to get your nutrients when and where you need!
Easier on the wallet? Check!
For many of us, the choice to get Complete Essentials can be a financial decision all on it’s own. So we kept the basics and cut the price almost in half.
—> 15% off promotion for Basic Essentials this week!
10% off Silver Botanicals Products
CLOSEOUTS:
We have a few different Grown by Nature supplements on closeout due to approaching Best By dates. These will be listed at 50% off:
- Iron & Molybdenum
- Calcium
- Potassium
- VItamin E
- ZInc
Also, Hysorb Q10 from Good Health Naturally will be on closeout
Announcements:
Sadly one of our long time guests and guest hosts, Sharón Lynn Wyeth, passed away on March 28th after being hospitalized with COVID-19. Please say a prayer for her family.
Prayers for long time listener and supporter, Bob, who is receiving a blood transfusion today and is asking for prayers for purity of blood.
COMING SOON TO THE POWER MALL: Calcium Bentonite Clay, Nature’s Pathway to Healing by Perry A
The definitive guide to understanding how clays work. During the nine years since the original book was written, Perry A~ has continued to research, explore and discover more amazing facts, uses and applications of Calcium Bentonite Clays.
Perry A~ guides her readers through scientific data and research, history lessons, and testimonials. She provides readers with precise protocols to use clay for optimizing one’s personal well being. A reader will not help but walk away from this book with a profound appreciation and awe of Calcium Bentonite Clays’ powerful abilities yet gentle actions.
If you care about your health, this book and the fountain of knowledge within its pages are what you are seeking.
Retail Price: $23.99
Introduction Price: $21.59
-PREORDERS AVAILABLE-
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We the People are tired of all the lies and manipulations generated by the elites, media, and all the political puppets. This shirt is a representation of all our collective voices being raised for all the universe to hear it’s time for Truth.
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>>>Update – May 4th: A new episode is available in the Joyce Riley Archive Vault! In this episode, from October 02, 2009, Joyce discusses the swine flu vaccine and interviews Dr. Robert Rowen, Anita Untersee, and Rick Caylor
Guest Schedule: Thursday, May 05, 2022
11am: News
11:30am: Mike Gonzalez
Studio # to call: 202-297-0717
Bio: MIKE GONZALEZ is the Angeles T. Arredondo Senior Fellow on E Pluribus Unum at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. He spent close to twenty years as a journalist, fifteen of them writing from Europe, Asia, and Latin America. He left journalism to join the Bush administration, where he was a speechwriter for Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Christopher Cox before moving on to the State Department’s European Bureau, where he wrote speeches and op-eds. Since 2009, he has been at The Heritage Foundation, where he writes on national identity, diversity, multiculturalism, assimilation, and nationalism, as well as foreign policy in general.
Titles by this Author
- The Plot to Change America: How Identity Politics is Dividing the Land of the Free
The Plot to Change America exposes the myths that help identity politics perpetuate itself. This book reveals what has really happened, explains why it is urgent to change course, and offers a strategy to do so. - BLM: The Making of a New Marxist Revolution
The George Floyd protests that have precipitated great changes throughout American society were not spontaneous events. Americans did not suddenly rise up in righteous anger, take to the streets, and demand not just that police departments be defunded but that all the structures, institutions, and systems of the United States—all supposedly racist—be overhauled. The 12,000 or so demonstrations and 633 related riots that followed Floyd’s death took organizational muscle. The movement’s grip on institutions from the classroom to the ballpark required ideological commitment. That muscle and commitment were provided by the various Black Lives Matter organizations.
12pm: Dean De’Wulf – Silver Botanicals
Studio # to call: 512-920-0147
Topic: Silver Botanical Products @ The Power Mall
Products:
Silver Sheild Deodorant Refill – 4 oz
Silver Shield Deodorant Roll-On 2 oz
Silver Shield Deodorant Spray-On 2 oz
Silver Shield Dog & Bedding Spray (12 fl oz)
Silver Shield Sanitizer (12 oz )
Bio: Silver Botanicals was founded by Dean DeWulf and Raymond d’Amico in 2010, with the help of family and friends. Combining talents–Dean, an organic chemist, manufacturer and formulator; Ray, an IT professional, digital artist and health enthusiast–a brainstorming and experimentation process began. “It was our appreciation of colloidal silver and essential oils that eventually lead to the realization of Silver Botanicals’ products. We began selling our products at the local farmers’ markets, here in central Texas … We quickly began to see that a real demand, beyond our initial expectation exists for natural hygiene products.” This process of meeting our customers face-to-face continues to this day, which gives us insight and guidance.
12:30pm: Janci C. Lindsay, Ph.D
Director of Toxicology & Molecular Biology
Toxicology Support Services, LLC.
Studio # to call: (832)646-1378
Website: www.toxicologysupport.com
Topic: The COVID Conspiracies Turning Into COVID Realities, How COVID-19 vaccines can cause sterilization and can change DNA
Bio: Dr. Janci Chunn Lindsay is the Director of Toxicology and Molecular Biology for Toxicology Support Services, LLC. She holds a doctorate (PhD) in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center-Houston. Dr. Lindsay has extensive experience in analyzing the molecular profile of pharmacologic responses as they pertain to the dose/response relationship. Her expertise centers on evaluating the complex dynamics of toxicity, such as toxicant pharmacology, exposure route, host metabolism, and subsequent cellular effects as they relate to the contribution of specific substances to impairment, health risk, or human disease.
Dr. Lindsay has over 30 years of scientific experience with an emphasis on the study of inhalation (pulmonary) toxicology involving pulmonary pathologies such as asthma, reactive airway disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asbestosis, mesothelioma and pulmonary fibrosis—that may be claimed following chemical, drug, or particulate exposure.
Power Hour News: Thursday, May 05, 2022
WORLD NEWS
Global Bond Market Decimated; Future Performance ‘Policy Dependent’
The leading U.S. benchmark indexes are deep in the red year-to-date. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has slumped about 6.3 percent, the Nasdaq Composite Index has plunged about 17 percent, and the S&P 500 has tumbled nearly 10 percent.
While several U.S. Treasury yields are hitting multi-year highs, many of the top bond exchange-traded funds (ETFs) aren’t performing nearly as well. The iShares U.S. Treasury Bond ETF has slipped roughly 8 percent, while the iShares International Treasury Bond ETF has fallen close to 14 percent. The SPDR Bloomberg International Treasury Bond ETF has dropped 14 percent.
Corporate debt also has slumped this year. The iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF has slipped nearly 14 percent, while the Goldman Sachs Access Investment Grade Corp Bond ETF has slid about 13 percent.
The Bloomberg Global Aggregate Index, a benchmark for government and corporate debt total returns, shed 4.9 percent in April, the biggest monthly decline since it first launched in 1990. After hitting a top in 2021, the index has lost about $2.6 trillion.
Millions are at risk of starvation thanks to COVID and the ongoing war in Ukraine, both of which have helped create a “perfect storm” of a global food crisis.
Experts have warned that millions of people across the world are on the brink of starvation thanks to a “perfect storm” of a global food crisis.
A report by the Global Network Against Food Crises — a multinational organisation founded by the European Union as well as various United Nations bodies — found that 2021 represented the worst year for world hunger, but that things could soon get a whole lot worse thanks to a wide variety of ongoing geopolitical problems.
According to the organisation’s annual Global Report on Food Crises, 193 million people face acute food insecurity in 2021, which they define as being in a state where a person’s food intake is so low as to put their lives or livelihoods in immediate danger.
By far the single largest cause of this food insecurity last year was conflict, while the issue of economic shocks and climate change came in as very distant second and third place causes respectively.
Based on facts that have now been made public, it is clear that the USA and NATO are gearing up for a massive military counterattack against Russian forces in Ukraine. Based on the idea that it takes a few months to build up logistics, hardware and personnel, the likely timeline for this counterattack appears to be around the July / August time frame.
Keep in mind that the overarching context of all this is the plan to cancel the 2022 mid-terms by placing America into a world war before November, accompanied by a domestic police state / martial law response that now includes an actual Ministry of Truth run by Homeland Security (DHS).
Some of the information supporting the coming counterattack includes the recent revelation that military pilot cadets from Ukraine were secretly moved to the United States in March in order to undergo intensive F-16 fighter pilot training in preparation for deployment against Russia. We understand that Ukrainian military teams are undergoing similar training in artillery and tank command as well. Seasoned military observers would correctly point out that you can’t train an effective F-16 fighter pilot in just a few months (nor a tank commander, etc.), yet this only speaks to the desperation of USA / NATO / Ukrainian efforts to try to throw almost anything at the Russians in an effort to stop the seemingly unstoppable, grinding advancement of Russian forces across southern Ukraine.
In addition to the above, it’s also clear that USA / NATO forces are planning to cobble together a false flag operation in Ukraine — likely involving chemical weapons — in order to trigger the internal justification to deploy US troops directly against Russian forces in Ukraine. Congressman Adam Kinzinger has introduced a “Ukraine War Resolution” that specifies this exact escalation plan, in fact.
The timing of the chemical false flag will likely be sometime in June, allowing the US media to whip up outrage and anti-Russia hatred — as the media’s primary job these days is to teach hatred and intolerance to the gullible sheeple — to the point where the American people are screaming for World War III. Falling in line with the engineered outrage, US Senators and House members will call for a declaration of war against Russia, and that will be echoed by the criminal cabal running the fake White House Oval Office sound stage from which fake president Biden declares whatever current state of confusion he is expressing on that particular day.
By July or August, it seems, we will be in a full-blown World War III against Russia, with US troops and weapons deployed in Ukraine, facing off against the far better-equipped Russian forces which have very short supply lines back to Russia, compared to the extremely long supply lines from the USA to Western Ukraine (which involves crossing the Atlantic and all of Western Europe, then somehow navigating Ukraine’s blown up railroads and destroyed bridges while under heavy fire from Russian air power and missiles).
UK Parliament summons Elon Musk
British lawmakers have called on billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk to give testimony about his planned $44 billion purchase of Twitter, asking him to detail his vision for the social media giant.
The request was made public early on Wednesday morning by MP Julian Knight, who chairs the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee. Writing in a letter dated April 29, Knight said the appearance would give Musk a chance to discuss his plans for the platform “in more depth.”
“My committee has noted your proposed acquisition of Twitter and we are interested in the developments you propose,” the letter said, adding: “I know you have expressed your wish that critics remain on Twitter and this may present an opportunity to address any critiques in public.”
Turkey’s inflation rate soars to almost 70 percent
The consumer price index has risen by 69.97 percent year-on-year in April compared with 61.14 percent in March.
Turkey’s official inflation rate has spiralled to nearly 70 percent in April, posing a huge challenge to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose unconventional economic policies are often blamed for the economic turmoil.
The consumer price index rose by 69.97 percent year-on-year in April compared with 61.14 percent in March, the national statistics agency said on Thursday.
Erdogan insists that sharp cuts in interest rates are needed to bring down soaring consumer prices, flying in the face of economic orthodoxy.
The collapse of the lira has pushed up the cost of energy imports and foreign investors are now turning away from the once-promising emerging market.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Man who discovered Hunter Biden’s laptop announces legal action against CNN and Adam Schiff
With his livelihood poisoned by the venom of liberal politics, the computer shop owner who found Hunter Biden’s former laptop computer is fighting back against those he says ruined his reputation.
John Paul Mac Isaac is filing suit against Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California, CNN, The Daily Beast and Politico, claiming that false statements about him led to the destruction of a business he had worked hard to build, according to the New York Post.
Mac Isaac said he was accused variously of stealing the computer or spewing Russian disinformation.
The accusations came during the heat of the 2020 presidential election when the contents of the computer first became public and when the emails that were on the computer were denounced as false. Since that time, the contents of the laptop have been accepted as authentic — even by media outlets that denounced them as false at the time.
Mac Isaac is seeking “at least $1 million in compensatory damages [and] punitive damages, which will be the much bigger number and will be determined at trial,” according to Brian Della Rocca, Mac Isaac’s attorney.
Pro-Abortion Protesters Hit Pastors Outside Supreme Court and Go Free
Pro-abortion protesters outside the Supreme Court attacked four pro-life Christian activists who showed up to counter-protest.
Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust director A.J. Hurley, Priests for Life director Bryan Kemper, and Right To Life East Texas founder Pastor Mark Lee Dickson walked together into the nearly 300-strong pro-abortion protest at about 8 p.m.
The protest was on the left side of a set of barricades that took up most of the center of the Supreme Court.
First, an unidentified protester hit Kemper.
“The police came in after I was punched,” he said. “The person that punched me is no longer here than I can see,” Kemper said.
To protect them, police surrounded the four pastors, forming a line between them and the pro-abortion protesters.
The pro-abortion protesters alternated between chanting toward the men, mocking them, and telling each other to ignore them.
“Whose streets? Our streets!” the protesters chanted.
“Ignore these [expletives],” one protester said.
After surrounding the police line for about 15 minutes, pro-abortion protesters started walking to the right side of the central barricades. They were trying to move away from the men.
The pro-life men chose to follow. Still surrounded by police, they walked to the center until police refused to allow them to move further.
“U.S. Capitol Police are telling us we cannot go peacefully exercise our First Amendment rights,” Mahoney said.
Officers told the group that allowing them to approach the 300 pro-abortion protesters would put them in danger.
Justice Alito Cancels Public Appearance After Supreme Court Roe v. Wade Leaked Opinion
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has canceled plans to make an appearance at an event on Thursday in the aftermath of the leaked majority draft opinion suggesting that Roe v. Wade would be struck down.
Alito was set to appear at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ judicial conference alongside a number of other judges from the New Orleans-based federal appeals court and the district courts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas but canceled for unknown reasons, Reuters reported.
Patricia McCabe, a spokesperson for the Supreme Court, confirmed to Reuters that Alito would not be in attendance on Thursday but did not give a reason as to why.
A spokesperson for the appeals courts’ judicial council, which arranges the conference, told The Epoch Times that it does not make details about the conference public, including its location, “for security reasons.”
Alito’s no-show at the upcoming event comes just days after a 67-page opinion, along with a 31-page appendix, was published on May 2 by Politico regarding the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that guaranteed the right to abortion across the entire United States.
Striving for ‘Menstrual Equity,’ Oregon Puts Tampons in Men’s Bathrooms at Public Schools, Colleges
According to a new poll, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, is officially the least popular governor in America. And considering the law she just signed, it’s not hard to see why.
Thanks to the Menstrual Dignity Act that just passed, local taxpayers are now on the hook for thousands of new tampon dispensers in boys’ bathrooms. This latest madness, which affects every public school and college in the state, is expected to cost up to $400 a machine. And school custodians aren’t the only ones upset about it.
“This will show all of our youth, and especially our trans youth, that the bathroom they’re using, that affirms their gender, that it’s for them,” argued one Portland resident, “and it has the products there that they might need.”
Legislators agreed, expanding a bill that was originally intended to give female students free sanitary products at school. Now, in an absurd gesture, the state has decided to “affirm the right to menstrual dignity for transgender, intersex, nonbinary, and two-spirit students” by trying to “minimize negative attention that could put them at risk of harm … during menstruation.”
In the state’s guidance, school officials are told to use gender-neutral phrases like “menstruating students” instead of “girls.” When it comes to explaining the reproductive process, teachers are instructed to tell kids that “someone with a uterus and ovaries may begin to menstruate,” instead of girls. There’s no such thing as “female hygiene products,” the toolkit argues, only “menstrual products.”
Obviously, state leaders didn’t bother to consult their counterparts in Illinois, where a similar move has literally opened the floodgates to expensive plumbing issues and mischief. “When you give a grade-school boy something that’s adhesive, they’re going to put it in places,” Illinois Republicans argued during their debate.
“These products are not inexpensive, and they are going to be misused if they are placed in elementary school boys’ bathrooms,” Republican state Rep. Avery Bourne fumed last year.
Case in point: campuses like Loyola University, where janitors are dealing with all kinds of pranks, tampering, and vandalism. Sanitary pads “would end up on the mirrors, in the sinks, down the toilet, and completely thrown out,” one students group complained.
Leaked Audio Exposes Level of Corruption in DC
Leaked audio from an event held in March 2022 by Alabama U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks explains that seats on the most powerful committees in Congress must be bought, at a price of $1 million or more
The money for these seats comes from lobbyists, who offer to pay the price of the seat in exchange for political favors
“Special interest groups run Washington, and I don’t mean that metaphorically,” Brooks said. “I mean literally”
This arrangement corrupts debate on public policy, but while the national media is aware of the issue, and both political parties are guilty of engaging in it, no one is bringing it to the forefront as a major public policy issue
Elon Musk Calls for Investigation Into Far-Left Groups Trying to Pressure Advertisers
Elon Musk called for an investigation into left-wing organizations that are pressuring companies to boycott Twitter if Musk changes the social media firm’s content moderation policies, coming about a week after it was announced he would purchase the platform.
It comes as about two dozen left-wing groups reportedly sent letters (pdf) to Coca-Cola, Kraft, and Disney to boycott Twitter after Musk’s purchase. Those groups include Black Lives Matter Network Foundation, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Women’s March, Media Matters for America, and GLAAD.
The group jointly wrote that “as top advertisers on Twitter, your brand risks association with a platform amplifying hate, extremism, health misinformation, and conspiracy theorists,” according to the letter. “Under Musk’s management, Twitter risks becoming a cesspool of misinformation, with your brand attached, polluting our information ecosystem in a time where trust in institutions and news media is already at an all-time low.”
But in response, Musk called for an investigation into those groups.
“Who funds these organizations that want to control your access to information? Let’s investigate …” Musk wrote on Twitter. “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”
Last week, the Tesla CEO wrote that attacks against his character were “coming thick and fast” but mostly “from the left, which is no surprise.”
“However I should be clear that the right will probably be a little unhappy too,” Musk continued. “My goal is to maximize area under the curve of total human happiness, which means the ~80% of people in the middle.”
Late last month, both Musk and Twitter announced that he would purchase the company for $44 billion before taking it private. Previously, Musk has criticized the company’s content moderation practices and likened them to censorship, indicating he may change some of the policies.
The deal, which could take months to finish, has not been completed yet. Twitter’s top corporate management, including CEO Parag Agrawal, is still in charge of the firm.
“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” Musk later said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. “However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.”
Meanwhile, Musk wrote Tuesday that might charge corporate or government accounts a small fee.
“Twitter will always be free for casual users, but maybe a slight cost for commercial/government users,” he wrote.
Illegal Aliens Sue Texas Officials After Arrests for Trespassing
A group of illegal aliens has filed a lawsuit against Texas officials for alleged constitutional violations within the governor’s Operation Lone Star criminal trespass program.
The lawyers for the 15 plaintiffs hope to turn the case into a class action lawsuit on behalf of more than 2,000 illegal immigrants whom they say have been over-incarcerated; arrested based on race, immigration status, or national origin; as well as denied due process.
“In particular, the Plaintiffs and the Class Members have suffered a common cause of injury, namely the violation of their Fourth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights,” the lawsuit states.
“Using state criminal law, the state of Texas and participating counties have created, and are carrying out what is, in reality, a system of state immigration enforcement that targets Black and Brown—primarily Latino—individuals for prosecution and enhanced punishment.”
The lawyers are seeking $18,000 per day for each inmate that is found to have been unlawfully incarcerated or unlawfully reincarcerated. They also seek an injunction to discontinue the Operation Lone Star program.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin division.
Bill Gates Says He Should Have Heeded Melinda’s ‘Sound’ Advice on Jeffrey Epstein Sooner
Billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has said he should have heeded the advice of his ex-wife Melinda Gates, once again saying that it was a “huge mistake” to meet several times with Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier accused of sex trafficking and child abuse.
In an interview with NBC, Gates said he “certainly made a huge mistake” to meet with Epstein, not just the first time, but “a number of times.”
Epstein, who was found dead in a New York jail cell in 2019, at the age of 66, was already a convicted sex offender who had been sentenced with soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008, and had served 13 months in custody in Florida, before he and Gates first met.
Special Counsel John Durham Wins Key Motion in Case Against Former Clinton Lawyer
A federal judge on May 4 granted a motion from special counsel John Durham to review documents that Hillary Clinton’s campaign and other parties had claimed were protected by privilege, which means the documents may ultimately be made available to the public.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, after a hearing in Washington, granted Durham’s motion to compel production of unredacted versions of said documents from the Perkins Coie, a law firm hired by the campaign ahead of the 2016 election; Rodney Joffe, a technology executive; and Fusion GPS, a firm that specializes in opposition research that the campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) used extensively to investigate then-candidate Donald Trump—Clinton’s rival for the presidency.
The parties had resisted producing some documents and handed over redacted versions of others because of shielding afforded by attorney-client privilege or another form of privilege that protects documents used in producing “work product”—claims Durham has disputed in part because Fusion primarily engaged in non-legal matters such as opposition research for the campaign, the DNC, and Perkins.
The documents include details on Fusion’s opposition research into Trump and the firm’s promotion of dubious stories regarding Trump to various media outlets, Durham has said. Among them are emails and attachments sent by or received by Fusion, Perkins, and Joffe.
Other communications between Fusion and Joffe appear related to the claim that the Trump Organization, Trump’s business, had a secret backchannel with a Russian bank.
Evidence purportedly substantiating that claim was brought by Michael Sussmann—at the time representing the campaign and Joffe—to the FBI, which could not substantiate the allegations. The CIA found the claims were not “technically plausible.”
The motion was brought in the case against Sussmann, who is set to go on trial later in May for allegedly lying to the FBI when he said he was not bringing the information on behalf of a client.
The documents in question may or may not ultimately be made available to the general public.
The motion asked Cooper, an Obama appointee, to agree to compel the parties to produce unredacted forms of the documents and then review the documents in private.
After conducting such a review, Durham requested the court to give prosecutors access to unredacted versions of any documents the judge determines aren’t shielded by privilege. Any such documents would likely be posted on the court docket, making them available for anybody to read.
65,000+ Fake Students Enrolled In The California Junior College System
Every few days, Professor Kim Rich looks through new student registrations for the Los Angeles Community College District, including at Pierce College where she teaches criminal justice, and sees hundreds of newly created fake student enrollments.
In our conversations with Rich, she told us that It’s been going on for months.
Hackers enroll the fake students and collect up to $900 million in financial aid and Covid-19 aid each semester. However, no one seems to know for sure the sheer scale of the fraud.
These fake students, usually created by bots, open new accounts using easy-to-spot fake names like Barack Obama, Donald Trump or duplicate first names — Clifford Clifford, Jordan Jordan, Sidney Sidney, Kamara All of the above and fivethousandonehundredseven — names with questions marks or names with numbers.
New fake accounts are created, the fake students enroll in classes, taking seats away from actual students hoping to enroll in those classes. The fake accounts also “qualify” for financial aid.
Rich recently saw 1,000 new student IDs issued under five days and 386 were obviously fake, as duplicated names. There were probably many more that were fake, she said.
The average student in the junior college system gets $5,000 in federal grants.
Rich estimates conservatively that 10 percent of enrolled students — 180,000 out of the 1.8 million students at all 116 California Community Colleges — are fake. If each of those receive an average of $5,000 in financial aid, the cost is up to $900 million for a single semester.
But Rich says that’s a truly conservative estimate — most rosters she reviewed have more than 10 percent fake students. The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office said in August 2021 that about 20 percent of the traffic for the system-wide student application system, CCCApply, is “malicious and bot-related.”
“Even if it’s creating an .edu email account to get Apple discounts, which people do, that’s fraud,” Rich said, also speculating that some email scammers were committing financial aid fraud as well.
While she keeps an eye on this in LACCD, recording the new fake accounts as they pop up, the problem has spread like wildfire throughout California’s community college system.
Hackers aren’t hiding their efforts
In a YouTube video, a hacker named “Targetter” applies through CCCApply and walks his 70,000 viewers through the process of creating an .edu email using a bot. He shows the process of “enrolling” at one of four listed California community colleges — Contra Costa College, Mt. San Jacinto College, San Francisco City College and Sacramento City College.
He shows the bot automatically filling out a Contra Costa College application with fake personal information, and within seven minutes, he has enrolled at Contra Costa College as Ivan N. Atkinson for the fall 2020 term.
65,000 fake student enrollments – but, no one wants to clean up the books
In September 2021, the California Student Aid Commission told the LA Times “it had identified more than 65,000 applications for aid from purported community college students that appear to be fake, lending credence to the idea that scammers are seeking to get their hands on state grants.”
That month the chancellor’s office said any student accounts associated with fraudulent activity will be suspended. Last June, colleges also added bot-detection software and a new policy required colleges to confirm if applications deemed as “likely fraud” are from real students or not within two weeks.
Unless colleges confirm the applicants are actual students, the application will be automatically deemed as confirmed fraud and eliminated from the system, the LA Times reported that Valerie Lundy-Wagner, interim vice chancellor of digital innovation and infrastructure, told colleges.
But Rich said this isn’t happening.
Rosanna Arquette: ‘Millions of Women Figuring Out How to Get Out of This Country for Good’
Actress Rosanna Arquette believes that abortion is such an incredibly sacred right that “millions of women” are now looking to flee the country now that Roe v. Wade stands on the cusp of being potentially overturned.
“Millions of women are figuring out how to get out of this country for good,” the Pulp Fiction actress exclaimed. Arquette later deleted the tweet, but her pro-abortion activism continued.
“Let’s see and hear all the Good men out there (because there are many )stand with us now stand up to the barbaric Tyranny that is happening to American women,” she tweeted. “Stand up speak out with us and make yourselves loud now. Let’s all Get their boots off our wombs.”
Though Arquette and abortion activists greatly fear an America in which some states will outlaw the procedure, they seem to be unaware of the fact that the larger Western world is not exactly an abortion utopia. As conservative activist Elisha Krauss profiled in her Prager U video, America has some of the most relaxed abortion laws in the world, compared to Europe:
In Germany, for example, nearly all abortions are illegal after 12 weeks. And there is a three-day waiting period and mandatory counseling before a woman is allowed to have an abortion, even during the permitted first 12 weeks. That’s more restrictive than Texas.
But in Belgium, like Germany, abortions are permissible only until the 12th week. After that an abortion is permitted only if the woman’s life is in danger. Furthermore, any woman getting an abortion must wait six days after her first medical consultation before an abortion can be performed.
Denmark is similar: After 12 weeks all sorts of restrictions apply. Pregnant women in Finland also have until the 12th week of pregnancy to get an unrestricted abortion, and during those first 12 weeks, a woman must provide a compelling reason for ending her pregnancy.
In France, too, abortion on demand is legal only up to 12 weeks, after which it becomes much more difficult. Socialist Sweden allows abortions until the 18th week of pregnancy, and bans most after the 22nd week. In that four week “gray” period, a woman can get an abortion, but only if it is approved by the National Board of Health and Welfare.
Arquette is just one of many Hollywood celebrities to sound off in favor of abortion after Politico leaked the Supreme Court decision indicating that Roe v. Wade could be potentially over.
Poll: Plurality of Likely Voters Support Overturning Roe v. Wade
A plurality of likely voters support overturning Roe v. Wade, a Rasmussen Reports survey released Wednesday found.
The survey presented respondents with the following: “According to a leaked draft of a majority opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court is prepared to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in the United States. Would you approve or disapprove of a Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade?”
Overall, a plurality, 48 percent, said they would approve of overturning Roe, and of those, 32 percent “strongly” approve. In contrast, 45 percent disapprove, and of those, 35 percent do so “strongly.”
Predictably, opinions are divided along party lines, as 64 percent of Democrats oppose overturning Roe, compared to 66 percent of Republicans who approve. Independents remain more divided, as 48 percent support overturning Roe and 44 percent disapprove.
Likely voters were also asked if they agreed with the statement that the 1973 decision was “egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences”? On that, 47 percent agree, while 46 percent disagree.
Per Rasmussen Reports:
Sixty-six percent (66%) of GOP voters, 31% of Democrats and 46% of unaffiliated voters agree with Alito’s draft opinion that Roe v. Wade “was egregiously wrong from the start.” Sixty-two percent (62%) of Democrats, 29% of Republicans and 46% of unaffiliated voters disagree with Alito’s opinion.
Eighty-five percent (85%) of Democrats, 38% of Republicans and 55% of unaffiliated voters agree with Biden’s statement that ““a woman’s right to choose is fundamental.”
Fifty-two percent (52%) of men and 45% of women would approve of a Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
The survey was taken May 3, 2022, among 1,000 likely voters and has a +/- 3 percent margin of error.
Joe Biden: ‘MAGA Crowd’ the ‘Most Extreme Political Organization in History’
President Joe Biden delivered a sharp political speech from the White House on Wednesday warning of the “extreme” agenda from “MAGA” Republicans.
“This MAGA crowd is really the most extreme political organization that has existed in American history,” Biden said, referring to the Make America Great Again movement sparked by former President Donald Trump.
The president then clarified that he meant the most extreme political group in “recent” American history.
Biden repeatedly mispronounced “MAGA” as “mega” but corrected himself.
“The mega Republicans, the MAGA Republicans, excuse me, I don’t want to mispronounce it, the MAGA Republicans,” he said.
Biden answered a question from reporters about the possibility of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
“This is about a lot more than abortion,” he said.
The president warned that Republicans might pass a law preventing “LGTBQ children” from attending public school with other children.
“Let me tell you about this ultra-MAGA agenda, it’s extreme,” Biden said.
He also suggested that the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade could mean that government could regulate couples from using birth control.
Biden spoke about Republicans during a speech in the White House trumpeting his attempt to reduce the deficit, despite spending more than $3 trillion in his first year as president.
The president repeatedly referred to former President Donald Trump without using his name, choosing instead to focus on “MAGA Republicans.”
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Shell profits nearly triple as oil prices surge
Energy giant Shell has reported its highest ever quarterly profits as oil and gas prices surge around the world.
Shell made $9.13bn (£7.3bn) in the first three months of the year, nearly triple its $3.2bn profit it announced for the same period last year.
But the firm said pulling out of Russian oil and gas due to the Ukraine conflict had cost it $3.9bn (£3.1bn).
On Tuesday, rival BP also reported a sharp rise in profit, but the UK has so far ruled out a windfall tax.
The invasion of Ukraine has helped oil and gas prices skyrocket. Russia is one of the world’s major exporters but Western nations have pledged to cut their dependence on the country for energy.
Oil prices were already rising before the Ukraine war as economies started to recover from the Covid pandemic.
Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden said the war in Ukraine had caused “significant disruption to global energy markets”.
“The impacts of this uncertainty and the higher cost that comes with it are being felt far and wide.
“We have been engaging with governments, our customers and suppliers to work through the challenging implications and provide support and solutions where we can.”
Shell rivals, including BP and TotalEnergies have also reported a sharp rise in underlying profits.
Norway’s Equinor, which supplies a quarter of the UK’s gas, also posted record earnings on Wednesday.
High gas prices may limit some Memorial Day travel
Despite the pent-up demand for travel that consumers are experiencing after a two-year pandemic, fewer Americans are planning to travel during the Memorial Day weekend. For many, the high cost of gasoline is the reason.
In a survey of 1,030 American adults over the age of 18, the Vacationer found that about 60% of respondents are planning a holiday trip this year. More than 50% said their primary mode of transportation will be by car. Nearly 7% said they will fly, while the remaining 2.52% will take public transportation.
Just over half – 54% – said high gas prices are affecting their Memorial Day travel plans. Those who are planning to travel by car aren’t planning to travel that far. One-third of respondents said they’re planning a car trip over the holiday weekend, but they will only travel 100 or fewer miles.
“The youngest generation of American adults aged 18-29 is most likely to travel for Memorial Day,” the survey authors write.
Just over 70% of that group plans to travel, with the rate falling for older demographic groups. Only 63.09% of those aged 30 to 44 say they will travel, and 59.29% of American adults aged 45 to 60 said the same.
Ford recalls model year 2022 F-150 pickup trucks
Ford Motor Company is recalling 19,175 model year 2022 F-150 pickup trucks.
The power-adjustable telescoping steering column connector wiring may be too short and become damaged or separated if the adjustable steering column is extended all the way.
Damaged or separated wiring may result in the steering column not moving as intended in certain crash conditions, increasing the risk of injury in a crash.
Musk Not Worried About Twitter Employees Quitting: ‘It’s a Free Country’
Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk said that he’s not worried by a potential exodus of Twitter employees if his takeover bid becomes reality, with his remarks coming amid reports that some staff are unsettled by his buyout proposal.
“It’s a free country,” Musk told reporters on the red carpet at the annual Met Gala in New York on May 2 when asked about Twitter staff potentially quitting.
“Certainly if anyone doesn’t feel comfortable with that, they will on their own accord go somewhere else. That’s fine,” he added, referring to the prospect that his offer to buy Twitter for some $44 billion will ultimately come to fruition.
Musk has said his aim in seeking to buy Twitter is to take the company private and transform it into an “inclusive arena for free speech.”
The takeover attempt is not about making money, Musk has insisted, but to effect a number of changes to the platform and reduce the “civilizational risk” to freedom and democracy from what Musk has described as Twitter’s excessive and opaque restrictions on expression.
Some of the changes Musk has teased include cracking down on spam bots, making the algorithm open source to bolster transparency, and generally shifting the content moderation policies towards erring on the side of more free speech.
DeSantis: Florida Is Ready if ‘Biden Plunges US Into a Recession
Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis said on May 3 he is concerned about the national economy as he fears President Joe Biden’s policies will “plunge the United States into a recession.”
And DeSantis said that while inflation continues to rise with an upsurge in prices of goods, Florida’s economy is looking good.
The comments came during a press conference where the governor presented a $20 million check to Lee County for flood control and other water management projects.
DeSantis said that Florida’s income for April exceeded expectations.
“It’s our current estimate that the state of Florida brought in about $760 million above estimate,” he said.
DeSantis said that this increased the surplus that has been built throughout the fiscal year, which ends on June 1. Florida is expected to have $20 billion in reserves, he said.
“It’s important that we govern [our money] that way because I think it’s very likely that Biden is going to plunge this country into a recession.
“Florida has been doing well, and we’re happy about that,” but the governor said there are inflationary headwinds, particularly with “the Fed raising interest rates” and market uncertainties.
“There is a possibility of seeing a downturn and unfortunately I think that downturn will be precipitated by bad policy coming out of Washington.”
Even though DeSantis is concerned about inflation and a looming recession, he said the state would be “minimally impacted” because of the combination of the reserves and the preservation of a low tax rate.
“We’re built for the long haul,” he said. “We have no [state] income tax, [a] very low tax burden, but there’s nothing in the foreseeable future that would change that trajectory—it’s important that we’ve governed that way.”
Although DeSantis said he hopes a recession does not happen, he added Florida is ready to deal with it.
“I think prudent statesmanship is to be prepared in case something like that does happen,” he continued. “We have the reserves ready; we would not miss a beat when meeting our priorities like education, water resources, and infrastructure.”
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
First Human Trials Starts For Brain Computer Interface
The first human trials are in view, and it isn’t Elon Musk’s Neuralink Corporation that is leading the charge. Synchron’s vision is “to transform medicine with unprecedented access to brain data” collected by using the blood vessels of the brain as “natural highways”. It is “the science of restoring, treating, and mapping the electrical activities of the brain.” — Technocracy News & Trends Editor
By: Sarah McBride via Bloomberg
Synchron Inc., which develops a so-called brain-computer interface and competes with Elon Musk’s Neuralink Corp., enrolled the first patient in its U.S. clinical trial, putting the company’s implant on a path toward possible regulatory approval for wider use in people with paralysis.
The early feasibility study is funded by the National Institutes of Health and will evaluate the safety of the device, known as the Stentrode, the New York-based company said. It will also assess how effective the Stentrode is in helping patients control digital devices hands-free.
The trial represents a landmark for Synchron, the first startup working on brain-machine interfaces to begin a clinical trial seeking approval to sell its product. It also puts Synchron ahead of Neuralink, which is better funded but is still recruiting a trial director. Neuralink raised $205 million last year. Synchron has raised $70 million total.
Brain-computer interfaces, or BCI, could empower millions of disabled people to more easily communicate and engage in modern life. Paralysis affects more than 5 million people in the U.S. alone, according to researchers at the Centers for Disease Control. Farther in the future, Musk and other technologists talk of a world where anyone could receive implants to achieve a sort of superintelligence.
Synchron’s device, once implanted, travels to the brain through blood vessels. (Neuralink’s is implanted directly into the skull.) After it reaches the brain, the Stentrode translates brain activity into signals designed to allow texting, emailing, online shopping or other activities using an external device, Synchron said.
In the past, other BCIs have received regulatory approval to treat patients on a temporary basis. Synchron’s trial, if successful, would secure approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for long-term use, not just for experiments like those in a lab.
Elon Musk is not the free speech superhero we’d like him to be (OPINION)
The tech billionaire’s government contracts and transhumanist aspirations must not be disregarded
Elon Musk’s Twitter purchase has thrust the social media censorship debate squarely into the limelight, triggering the left and elating the right. Celebrities and the liberal media were quick to denounce Musk’s stance on free speech (which is odd, given that those on the left were the advocates of the First Amendment just a decade ago) and some deleted their Twitter accounts. Conservatives, meanwhile, and anyone who cares about free speech, immediately raised the eccentric billionaire to superhero status. Almost overnight, he went from ‘cool rich guy who values free market capitalism’ to savior of the First Amendment. And maybe he will be. But let’s take a moment to zoom out on the bigger picture. Twitter is not Musk’s only darling, and maybe we’re placing too much of a burden on one man.
Understandably, without Donald Trump in the White House, regular middle-class Americans long for a hero to disrupt the leftist elite empire. Someone influential, powerful, and brave and who will actually take substantive action is like a godsend to us. And at least on the surface, it appears Elon Musk could fill that role. He’s straight forward, seems genuine, and thus far, capable of dealing with the backlash from his enemies. However, Musk is, first and foremost, a businessman who loves building things and creating. When most of us were still playing with blocks, he was already writing code. It remains unclear how he’s going to like playing politics in the long term, and social media is inevitably political. While that’s not entirely new to the prolific tweeter, politics isn’t his usual territory.
The billionaire has already walked back his “free speech absolutist” comments, explaining that what he really meant was free speech that adheres to the law. Fair enough, but the tweet came across as making him seem a bit less steady on his feet. And he will have to be plenty steady, because he’s going to need the proverbial fighting skills of Mike Tyson to handle what’s coming next under the Biden regime. After all, the Democrats have made it clear that they want to control all information to Orwellian extremes. Is Elon ready for that? And even if he is, there’s really only so much he can do with Twitter. It may be a private company, but private companies are subject to government regulations. The founder of multiple multi-billion-dollar companies, he knows this better than anyone and is no stranger to working with the US government and even seeking its help.
Despite being well known as a believer in a limited, hands-off type of government, Musk has on more than one occasion accepted subsidies from the US government for several of his companies. In addition, SpaceX currently has two contracts with the Pentagon to launch Falcon 9 rockets in the coming year.
Because of the immense societal changes that the richest man in the world’s enterprises could bring to humanity – up to the possibility of colonizing Mars – Musk carries some of the weight of the world on his shoulders. With Twitter, he’s feeling the pressure to choose a political side. He took to his newly acquired social platform just days ago to tweet that he doesn’t like the far left or the far right. Fair enough. But more and more Americans are realizing that big government control over our lives is not necessarily a partisan issue, but a freedom and a human rights issue. Which brings us to Tesla and Neuralink.
In case you aren’t paying attention, many Democrats, and a few Republicans, are working hard to make ALL cars electric, which could feasibly open the door to increased surveillance, just as it has in China. Once an entire population is digitized, it’s an easy next step. I think it’s wise to know where Elon Musk would stand on this, and the role Tesla would play. As an aside, it’s also worth noting the self-driving aspect of Tesla has another significant impact on humanity. It puts us at an increased dependence on machines, making moot our in-the-moment decision-making skills that we have always used to navigate. This aspect alone deserves more discussion than it gets. We cannot become permanent idle passengers. If we do, we are sitting ducks for top-down government control over our travel.
Then there is Neuralink, which Musk co-founded with the noble goal of helping quadriplegics communicate. But when it comes to integrating man with machine in the way Neuralink aspires to do – and especially when it moves beyond a medical purpose, which which Musk has shown the intention to do – we must pause and ask some questions. Specifically, we need to talk about our bodily sovereignty and privacy. Neuralink’s success, like any technology, could be a very good thing, but one that has the potential to be used for the wrong purpose and ultimately abused. Without going into conspiracy-style speculation, it’s reasonable to see that AI could very well create a surveillance state on steroids. This matter is surely on the radar of Elon Musk, who has repeatedly named AI among the biggest existential threats to humanity.
For better or for worse, and I do hope for better, Elon Musk will influence the world substantially. He already has. And for the moment, I’m relieved that he has the upper hand in the information war – his power to shape our online dialogue is extraordinary. It’s how he uses his influence on multiple fronts that will determine at least some aspects of our collective future. Hopefully, he is aware that many people aren’t going to be thrilled with being forced to drive electric cars, especially if they are controlled from a government computer. And it’s not far-fetched to imagine that most of us aren’t too keen on the idea of integrating our brains with machines. Transhumanism might be a fun idea for guys who spend their days in basements playing video games, but for most people, merging our minds with AI is a hard pass. I’d ask him to please consider not what Neuralink can do, but what it should do. We all should ask that question.
I’m inclined to take Elon Musk at face value and believe he will use the power he wields to act in good faith on behalf of his fellow man. But instead of fictionalizing him into a white knight with superhero powers who’s here to save free speech and then the world, I suggest we give the man some space to be human, so we can engage him in a human conversation.
Bill Gates Claims Elon Musk Could Make ‘Misinformation’ Worse
Former world’s richest person Bill Gates cast criticism on current richest person Elon Musk’s plan to purchase Twitter and suggested that his ownership of the platform would allow for more so-called misinformation to proliferate.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Gates claimed that Musk “actually could make it worse,” referring to misinformation. “That’s not his track record.”
Gates did not elaborate on why Musk would allow misinformation to spread. The billionaire said that he has often become the target of what he believes is misinformation.
But later in the event, Gates said that he has “nothing but positive things to say about Elon. If he makes Twitter worse, fine, I’ll speak out about that, but I wouldn’t assume that’s what’s going to happen.”
Recently, Musk and Gates were embroiled in a high-profile spat as Musk in late April said he confronted Gates over the Microsoft co-founder’s supposed holding of roughly $500 million in Tesla short stocks. In a screenshot text message, Gates confirmed to Musk that he was short-selling shares of Tesla and was betting on the Musk-operated electric vehicle company’s stock prices dropping.
How Technocrats Turned Your Face Into A Weapon Of War
Controversial Clearview AI has benevolently donated its facial recognition software to Ukraine to use to identify Russian invaders both dead and alive. This may be the first instance for a person’s face to be used as a weapon of war and does not bode well for future warfare. Clearview scrapes images from social media and the Internet to maintain the largest repository of faces in the world. ⁃ TN Editor
Who owns your face? You might think that you do, but consider that Clearview AI, an American company that sells facial recognition technology, has amassed a database of ten billion images since 2020. By the end of the year, it plans to have scraped 100 billion facial images from the internet. It is difficult to assess the company’s claims, but if we take Clearview AI at face value, it has enough data to identify almost everyone on earth and end privacy and anonymity everywhere.
As you read these words, your face is making money for people whom you’ve never met and who never sought your consent when they took your faceprint from your social media profiles and online photo albums. Today, Clearview AI’s technology is used by over 3,100 U.S. law enforcement agencies, as well as the U.S. Postal Service. In Ukraine, it is being used as a weapon of war. The company has offered its tools free of charge to the Ukrainian government, which is using them to identify dead and living Russian soldiers and then contact their mothers.
It would be easy to shrug this off. After all, we voluntarily surrendered our privacy the moment we began sharing photos online, and millions of us continue to use websites and apps that fail to protect our data, despite warnings from privacy campaigners and Western security services. As so many of us sympathize with Ukraine and are appalled by Russia’s brutality, it is tempting to overlook the fact that Ukraine is not using Clearview AI to identify dead Ukrainians, which suggests that we are witnessing the use of facial recognition technology for psychological warfare, not identification. Some people will be fine with the implications of this: if Russian mothers have to receive disturbing photos of their dead sons, so be it.
To understand why we might want to rethink the use of facial recognition technology in conflict, consider the following thought experiments. First, imagine that it was Russia that had scraped Ukrainian biometric data from the internet to build a facial recognition technology tool which it was using to identify dead Ukrainians and contact their mothers. Liberal democracies would likely condemn these actions and add them to its growing list of Russia’s barbaric actions. Second, imagine a conflict in which the United States was fighting against an opponent who had taken American faceprints to train its facial recognition technology and was using it to identify dead American soldiers and contact their mothers. This would almost certainly cause howls of protest across the United States. Technology executives would be vilified in the press and hauled before Congress, where lawmakers might finally pass a law to protect Americans’ biometric data.
We do not need to wait for these scenarios to occur; Congress could act now to protect Americans’ biometric data. If taking inspiration from the European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) seems a step too far, Congress only needs to look to Illinois, whose Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) requires that companies obtain people’s opt-in consent before capturing facial images and other biometrics. Clearview AI is currently fighting multiple lawsuits in federal and state courts in Illinois for failing to obtain users’ consent. These lawsuits highlight a troubling aspect of facial recognition technology in the United States: Americans’ privacy, civil liberties, and rights over their biometric data vary from state to state, and even within states, and are not protected by federal law.
To remedy this problem, Congress could also look to several U.S. allies, including three of its Five Eyes intelligence-sharing partners. In 2021, Canada’s privacy commissioner identified Clearview AI as a tool of mass surveillance and declared it illegal, while British and Australian data regulators fined Clearview AI and ordered it to delete their citizens’ data. In the EU, Italy recently fined Clearview €20 million, ordered it to delete all of the data that it had collected from Italian citizens, and prohibited Clearview AI from collecting more data. Last year, Sweden fined police authorities for using Clearview AI’s technology to identify people, and a number of privacy, civil liberties, and human rights groups filed complaints against the company with data regulators in France, Austria, and Greece. Unsurprisingly, in May 2021, Clearview AI said it had no EU-based customers.
CDC Tracked Millions Of Phones To Surveil COVID Lockdown Orders
Why should a private company be allowed to collect information related to your cell phone and your travel? And worse, to sell that data to government entities who are bound by legal constraints from collecting such information directly? Wherever data flows, you can be sure that there is a group of unprincipled and lawless Technocrats at the other end. ⁃ TN Editor
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) bought access to location data harvested from tens of millions of phones in the United States to perform analysis of compliance with curfews, track patterns of people visiting K-12 schools, and specifically monitor the effectiveness of policy in the Navajo Nation, according to CDC documents obtained by Motherboard. The documents also show that although the CDC used COVID-19 as a reason to buy access to the data more quickly, it intended to use it for more-general CDC purposes.
Location data is information on a device’s location sourced from the phone, which can then show where a person lives, works, and where they went. The sort of data the CDC bought was aggregated—meaning it was designed to follow trends that emerge from the movements of groups of people—but researchers have repeatedly raised concerns with how location data can be deanonymized and used to track specific people.
The documents reveal the expansive plan the CDC had last year to use location data from a highly controversial data broker. SafeGraph, the company the CDC paid $420,000 for access to one year of data, includes Peter Thiel and the former head of Saudi intelligence among its investors. Google banned the company from the Play Store in June.
The CDC used the data for monitoring curfews, with the documents saying that SafeGraph’s data “has been critical for ongoing response efforts, such as hourly monitoring of activity in curfew zones or detailed counts of visits to participating pharmacies for vaccine monitoring.” The documents date from 2021.
Zach Edwards, a cybersecurity researcher who closely follows the data marketplace, told Motherboard in an online chat after reviewing the documents: “The CDC seems to have purposefully created an open-ended list of use cases, which included monitoring curfews, neighbor-to-neighbor visits, visits to churches, schools and pharmacies, and also a variety of analysis with this data specifically focused on ‘violence.’” (The document doesn’t stop at churches; it mentions “places of worship.”)
Motherboard obtained the documents through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the CDC.
The documents contain a long list of what the CDC describes as 21 different “potential CDC use cases for data.” They include:
- “Track patterns of those visiting K-12 schools by the school and compare to 2019; compare with epi metrics [Environmental Performance Index] if possible.”
- “Examination of the correlation of mobility patterns data and rise in COVID-19 cases […] Movement restrictions (Border closures, inter-regional and nigh curfews) to show compliance.”
- “Examination of the effectiveness of public policy on [the] Navajo Nation.”
At the start of the pandemic, cellphone location data was seen as a potentially useful tool. Multiple media organizations, including the New York Times, used location data provided by companies in the industry to show where people were traveling to once lockdowns started to lift, or highlight that poorer communities were unable to shelter in place as much as richer ones.
The COVID-19 pandemic as a whole has been a flashpoint in a broader culture war, with conservatives and anti-vaccine groups protesting government mask and vaccine mandates. They’ve also expressed a specific paranoia that vaccine passports would be used as a tracking or surveillance tool, framing vaccine refusal as a civil liberties issue. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Children’s Health Defense, one of the more influential and monied anti-vaccine groups in the U.S., has promoted fears that digital vaccine certificates could be used to surveil citizens. QAnon promoter Dustin Nemos wrote on Telegram in December that vaccine passports are “a Trojan horse being used to create a completely new type of controlled and surveilled society in which the freedom we enjoy today will be a distant memory.”
Against that inflamed backdrop, the use of cellphone location data for such a wide variety of tracking measures, even if effective for becoming better informed on the pandemic’s spread or for informing policy, is likely to be controversial. It’s also likely to give anti-vaccine groups a real-world data point on which to pin their darkest warnings.
HEALTH
EU Announces “Thousands of the most notorious chemicals will be rapidly banned in Europe”
Research has proven that numerous chemicals can and do make people sick (see 1, 2, 3, 4). In fact, studies have already indicated that up to 25% of the U.S. population is affected by Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS). Of course, many organizations have been and continue to fight the production, sale, and use of harmful chemicals in the U.S and worldwide. Recently the European Commission announced it’s planning to ban thousands of them.
From Sustainable Pulse:
EU Announces Massive Ban on Harmful Chemicals
Thousands of the most notorious chemicals will be rapidly banned in Europe, the European Commission announced today, as part of the Zero-pollution goal in the EU Green Deal. The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) welcomed the move.
If implemented, the action will be the largest ever regulatory removal of authorised chemicals anywhere and covers chemicals that environmental, consumer and health groups have fought against for decades
The plan announced today, called the Restrictions Roadmap, is a political commitment to use existing laws to ban all flame retardants, chemicals that are frequently linked to cancer, and all bisphenols, widely used in plastics but which disrupt human hormones. It will also ban all forms of PVC, the least recyclable plastic that contains large amounts of toxic additives, and restrict all PFAS ‘forever chemicals’, plus around 2,000 harmful chemicals found in baby diapers, pacifiers and childcare products.
European officials are unhappy that some 12,000 chemicals known to cause cancer, infertility, reduce vaccine effectiveness and generate other health impacts are still widely found in products, including sensitive categories like baby nappies and pacifiers. Officials consider the roadmap a rapid first step in an EU chemical strategy, with more fundamental changes coming later, notably starting in late 2022.
Some chemicals on the roadmap list were already facing EU restrictions, but most are new. The banning process for all chemicals on the list will begin within two years. All substances will be gone by 2030, the EEB estimates.
Kidney Disease Results so Stunning They Quashed the Evidence?
Since 1980, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has presented an annual award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility to “scientists, engineers or their organizations, whose exemplary actions have demonstrated scientific freedom and responsibility in challenging circumstances”
The 2019 Scientific Freedom and Responsibility award was slated to be given to two human health researchers who have published papers linking glyphosate exposure to chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology in Sri Lankan farmers
According to the researchers, consumption of glyphosate-contaminated water may contribute to chronic kidney disease by facilitating the transport of heavy metals such as arsenic and cadmium into the kidneys
The AAAS award announcement in February 2019 incited a rash of criticisms by defenders of glyphosate, leading to the AAAS to issue a follow-up statement saying the AAAS was reassessing the award “after concerns were voiced by scientists and members”
Former AAAS president Nina Fedoroff has since become a shill for the biotech industry. In 2015, she joined the OFW Law firm — which lobbies for the agrochemical industry — as senior science adviser for agriculture policy, global food security and government affairs
COVID RELATED NEWS
Safe and effective? FDA excluded pregnant women from COVID-vaccine trial
Recommendation for shot based on experiments on rats in France
The latest release of Pfizer COVID vaccine trial documents by the FDA shows the company deliberately excluded pregnant women from the trials, yet health associations and officials have urged expectant mothers to get the shots anyway, insisting they were safe and effective, according to longtime Democratic consultant and investigative author Naomi Wolf.
The recommendation of the shots for pregnant women was based on a study in France of 44 rats over a period of 42 days, the documents show.
Wolf, in an interview with Stephen K. Bannon on his “War Room” program, pointed to the spike in severe adverse events among pregnant women coinciding with the vaccine rollout in 2021 that is seen in Department of Defense data and the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System database run by the FDA and the CDC.
“This is honestly one of the worse things I’ve ever, ever seen in my 35 years as a reporter,” Wolf said.
She has teamed with health experts and attorneys to mobilize people to pore through the thousands of documents on the Pfizer vaccine trials that the FDA was forced to release through a lawsuit after pressing to hide the data for 75 years. The findings are compiled on the website of her company Daily Clout.
In a previous interview with Bannon, Wolf said the documents show that by August 2021, Pfizer and the FDA knew the vaccines were not safe and effective but rolled them out anyway.
Bill Seeks to Muzzle Doctors Who Tell the Truth About COVID
A California bill is now threatening to strip doctors of their medical licenses if they express medical views that the state does not agree with. California Assembly Bill 2098 designates “the dissemination or promotion of misinformation or disinformation related to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, or ‘COVID-19,’ as unprofessional conduct” warranting “disciplinary action” that could result in the loss of their medical license
Misinformation related to SARS-CoV-2 includes “false or misleading information regarding the nature and risks of the virus, its prevention and treatment; and the development, safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.” But as far as what might constitute “misinformation” or “disinformation” is unclear and basically left open for interpretation by the state
Doctors have an ethical obligation to treat each patient as an individual, and to ensure each patient receives the safest and best care. Bill 2098 will turn doctors into government agents, leaving no one to advocate for patients’ health
California has also introduced six other bills seeking to enshrine tyranny into law, including bills to criminalize “amplification of harmful content,” create a centralized vaccination registry, strip funding from law enforcement that refuses to follow public health orders, mandate COVID jabs for school children, authorize minors to consent to vaccination, and require school districts to conduct routine COVID testing
If you live in California, please review these bills and VOTE NO
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