WORLD NEWS
Kremlin Makes Announcement Amid Rumors on Putin’s Health
A top Kremlin official on Monday disputed reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s health is getting progressively worse amid rumors that he may have cancer.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov issued a response to the reports, saying that Putin “makes public appearances on a daily basis.”
“You can see him on TV screens, read, and listen to his speeches. I don’t think that a sane person can suspect any signs of an illness or ailment in this man,” he added. “I’ll leave it on the conscience of those who disseminate such rumors despite daily opportunities for everyone to see how he and others look like.”
Lavrov, who was speaking to a French TV station, did not address claims that Putin is suffering from an undisclosed form of cancer.
Christopher Steele, the former UK spy and reputed author of the infamous and discredited “Steele dossier,” told Sky News earlier this month he believes Putin is “seriously ill” and claimed that factored into the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
Notably, Steele was hired by organizations on behalf of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign to conduct opposition research against then-candidate Donald Trump, creating the dossier accusing Trump of having connections to Moscow. Most of the claims within Steele’s notes have been debunked by U.S. intelligence officials, although those allegations ultimately made it to corporate American news outlets such as MSNBC and the New York Times.
Far-Reaching US Amendments to WHO Regulations, Global Pandemic Treaty Raise Concerns: Journalist
U.S.-proposed amendments to the international health regulations which govern response to pandemics and the new global pandemic treaty, both on the agenda of the World Health Organization’s general meeting, pose a threat to countries’ sovereignty, said journalist and author Nick Corbishley.
The amendments proposed in January by the Biden administration will give the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) unilateral authority to declare a public health emergency in any nation based on whatever evidence the director chooses.
The WHO’s International Health Regulations were introduced in 2005 and were “stimulated a bit by the SARS outbreak in 2003, Dr. David Bell, an expert in global health and infectious disease who previously worked at the WHO, told EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” program.
The 13 amendments put forward by the Biden administration were on the agenda of the 75th World Health Assembly held last week in Geneva, Switzerland. The World Health Assembly is the decision-making body of the WHO and is attended by delegations from all member states, according to the organization’s website.
The assembly also started deliberation on what the newly proposed global pandemic treaty might include.
The global pandemic treaty is a parallel mechanism of the WHO. It will have force under international law and is very similar to the International Health Regulations’ amendments, but it will give far more power to the WHO and its director-general, Bell said.
Corbishley believes that the assembly will focus more on compliance of WHO member states with regulations adopted by the organization. The Biden administration mentioned setting up a compliance committee that will ensure that WHO participants follow its regulations, Corbishley told EpochTV’s “Crossroads” program.
Currently, the WHO “only has an advisory role. It’s only able to make recommendations to member states and it is up to the participating nations to decide whether and how they implement those recommendations,” Corbishley explained. “That is likely to change if there is a global pandemic treaty. ”
He pointed out that the concept of a compliance committee if implemented, will be “almost like to police the actions of each member state.
“The countries that are most at risk of losing the most sovereignty in this sort of scenario are likely to be poorer, smaller countries.”
Similar cases have been observed within the last 15 to 20 years in the World Trade Organization, where global corporations can sue national governments in an international court for infringing on their profits or even threatening their future profits, Corbishley said. “It hits poor countries, smaller countries much more because they don’t have the money to be able to pay off these kinds of lawsuits.”
“They don’t have the diplomatic clout on an international level to be able to resist these things.”
China’s Interests in U.S. Agriculture: Augmenting Food Security Through Investment Abroad
U.S. is often a target of China’s efforts to strengthen its agriculture sector and food security, sometimes through illicit means.
China faces growing demands on its agricultural production that it seeks to address through policy, technology, and economic activities. In 2021, China imported a record amount of corn at 28.35 million metric tons (mmt), 152 percent more than in 2020 and more than 10 percent of China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) estimate for the country’s total corn consumption (see Tables 1 and 2). 1 The China Academy of Social Sciences’ 2020 Rural Development Institute report claimed “there is likely to be a grain shortfall of about 130 mmt, including about 25 mmt of staple food grain” by the end of 2025.
Diminishing arable land, shifting demographics, and natural disasters compound these trends and present food security challenges to China’s leaders. In response, China has introduced domestic policies to promote food security and lessen food waste, both of which have been a priority of General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Xi Jinping since he assumed power. Under his rule, the government has also established policies to expand domestic farmland and harness innovations in agricultural technologies, such as genetically modified (GM) seed lines, all in an effort to bolster food security.
The Chinese government’s domestic efforts, however, are not enough to solve China’s problems. Recognizing its challenges, China has also gone abroad to address its needs through investments and acquisitions of farmland, animal husbandry, agricultural equipment, and intellectual property (IP), particularly of GM seeds. The United States is a global leader in all of these fields, making it a prime trading partner and often a target of China’s efforts to strengthen its agriculture sector and food security, sometimes through illicit means.
Canada would implement a “national freeze” on handgun ownership and force owners of “military-style assault weapons” to sell their guns to the government under newly-introduced legislation, prime minister Justin Trudeau has announced.
“As a government, as a society, we have a responsibility to act to prevent more tragedies,” Mr Trudeau said.
The proposals, which are expected to pass, come in the wake of last week’s deadly mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 21 people, and a 2020 tragedy in rural Nova Scotia in which 22 people died in Canada’s deadliest mass shooting.
The gun buyback plan is modelled on other successful efforts in the wake of national tragedies.
In 2019, New Zealand banned semi-automatic weapons and bought back guns following attacks on two mosques in Christchurch that killed 51 people.
Following a 1996 shooting in Port Arthur, Australia, the government collected more than 650,000 semi-automatic rifles and numerous shotguns after such weapons were banned.
Government purchases of guns could begin later this year.
Under the Canadian legislative proposals, people would also no longer be able to buy, sell, import, or transfer handguns, and those shown to have committed domestic violence or criminal harassment offences like stalking could have their gun licences taken away.
The bill, known as C-21, would also require long-gun magazines to be permanently altered to hold no more than five bullets.
“Other than using firearms for sport shooting and hunting, there is no reason anyone in Canada should need guns in their everyday lives,” the prime minister added on Monday.
Canada already has stricter gun laws than the US. The US has never engaged in a large-scale assault weapon buyback like other nations, but it did temporarily ban semi-automatic weapons, although the prohibition lapsed in 2004.
Scotiabank Apologizes for Freezing Canadians’ Bank Accounts
Scotiabank has become the first Canadian bank to apologize for freezing people’s bank accounts, specifically the account of Freedom Convoy organizer B.J. Ditcher.
“We understand you raised a concern regarding your personal accounts having a hold placed on them. Please accept our sincere apologies for the frustration and inconvenience this situation may have caused and thank you for your patience while we prepared our response,” Scotiabank wrote in an email to Ditcher that can be found on his Substack.
“We can confirm that financial institutions acted quickly to unfreeze accounts after the RCMP notified us that it believes that individuals and entities previously identified are no longer engaged in conduct or activities prohibited under the Emergency Measures Regulations.”
Scotiabank continues, stating that while they’ve unfrozen most accounts, some may remain frozen due to other legal issues.
“While most customer accounts have been unfrozen, it is important to remember that some accounts may be frozen for a variety of other reasons, including to comply with court orders or proceedings related to illegal activities or other unrelated legal matters,” Scotiabank writes.
While it’s good that at least one bank has apologized for wrongfully restricting access to Canadians’ bank accounts, there’s little evidence that the Prime Minister had the authority to order these restrictions in the first place. Furthermore, it speaks volumes about the untrustworthiness of Canadian banking institutions that complied without a second thought.
Indeed, despite Chrystia Freeland’s claims that the Freedom Convoy was engaged in “terrorist financing” — the main argument used by the government to justify freezing bank accounts — FINTRAC Deputy Director of Intelligence Barry MacKillop disagreed completely, stating that there was never any evidence to support claims of ideologically motivated, violent extremism.
During a public safety committee meeting, MacKillop said,
“What’s happening in Ottawa has not been, to my knowledge, identified as ideologically motivated, violent extremism. [sic] might come into Canada to support ideologically motivated, violent extremism, and the United States would be extremely concerned about money leaving the States or funding such extremist views or extremist actions. Our partners in FINs are quite alive to this; we share a lot of intelligence back and forth with respect to IMVEs, with respect to travelling and people who want to leave the country to participate in terrorist activities, for example.”
“…. the sources of funding that we’ve seen today, we have not seen a spike in — as you know, I can’t speak to specific reporting or reporting on any individuals or organizations — but we have not seen a spike in suspicious transaction reporting, for example, related to [the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa].”
Ukraine may soon get US long-range MLRS rocket system
The US government appears close to sending a long-range multiple-rocket system (MLRS) to Ukraine.
Russia sees such deliveries of heavy weapons as a provocative escalation.
President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials have urged delivery of the MLRS to counter Russia’s heavy bombardments in the eastern Donbas region.
But President Joe Biden said the US would not send Ukraine rocket systems “that can strike into Russia”.
There are concerns that such action would risk drawing the US and its Nato allies into direct conflict with Moscow.
Moscow has welcomed President Biden’s decision not to send weapons to Ukraine that could reach deep inside Russia.
Russia continues to pound Severodonetsk and other parts of Donbas with rockets, tanks and air strikes.
Kyiv’s forces are already using US-delivered M777 howitzers, which have a range of about 25km (16 miles). But the MLRS would allow Ukraine to reach targets much further away than that.
An M270 MLRS battery can fire a range of munitions, with the most advanced able to hit targets up to 300km (186 miles) away. However, it can also fire shorter-range rockets with a range of around 70km (43 miles).
Limiting Ukraine to the smaller rockets could be a way for the US to avoid escalating the conflict, while still significantly improving Ukraine’s arsenal.
A senior US official quoted by the Washington Post said the White House was comfortable with giving Ukraine the MLRS, but would withhold the longest range weapons compatible with the system.
Eurovision winner sells trophy for $900K to buy drones for Ukraine
The Ukrainian band which took home the top prize at the Eurovision Song Contest has sold its trophy for $900,000 in order to buy drones to help their native country fight off the Russian invasion.
Kalush Orchestra, the rap-folk band that won the May 14 competition with its song “Stefania,” sold the crystal mic trophy to an Estonia-based cryptocurrency exchange, WhiteBit.
The band announced on its Facebook page that it sold the trophy at auction.
“You guys are amazing!” the band wrote.
“We appreciate each and every one of you who donated to this auction, and a special thanks to the team (of cryptocurrency exchange) Whitebit who purchased the trophy for $900,000 and are now the rightful owners of our trophy.”
The funds raised will be used to purchase the PD-2 unmanned aerial system, which includes three aircraft and a ground control station, Ukrainian television host Serhiy Prytula said at the auction.
In Ethiopia, mass detention signals shrinking press freedom
Twenty-two media employees have been arrested across Ethiopia this year alone.
On April 26th, an official from the Ethiopian attorney general’s office took to state media to lament what he called a lack of police action in clamping down on disinformation and hate speech.
A number of journalists in the country saw that as a bad omen.
“When I heard the call, I knew a crackdown on the press was imminent,” an Addis Ababa-based journalist told Al Jazeera on the condition of anonymity for fear of being targeted. “I had already heard rumours that the government was keen on reining in the press, especially producers of digital content. The only question now was how many of us would be jailed.”
That prediction has proven to be accurate.
By April 29th, the state-run Ethiopian Media Authority announced that it had filed criminal cases against at least 25 media outlets.
Then, during the course of this month, Ethiopian police pounced on local newsrooms, detaining 19 people, including journalists, magazine editors and talk show hosts.
“We reiterate that Ethiopia’s media law clearly prohibits pre-trial detention for any alleged offence committed through media,” said Daniel Bekele, head of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, a public institution. “All detained media personnel should be released.”
In addition, The Economist correspondent Tom Gardner was expelled from the country on May 13th.
At least a dozen of the arrests are linked to critical coverage of the breakout of fighting between the Ethiopian army and militias in the Amhara region. In addition, security forces in the region have detained more than 4,000 anti-government demonstrators and opposition politicians critical of plans to demobilise ethnic Amhara militias.
The arrests raised the total number of media employees arrested across Ethiopia this year to 22. The authorities have accused the detainees of worsening the bloodshed at a time when the country is torn apart by strife.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Biden: Let boys into girls showers or we’ll withhold school-lunch funding
Agenda copies Barack Obama’s ‘unconstitutional’ attempt to impose ideology
A commentary at PJMedia has slammed the Biden administration agenda for demanding that schools open their restrooms and showers to students of either sex by highlighting what the administration actually is requiring.
That would be that kids be allowed to starve if schools fail to cooperate with Biden’s pro-transgender agenda.
The report by Matt Margolis was headlined, “Biden admin wants kids to starve if schools don’t let boys use girls showers and bathrooms.”
That’s based on the actual requirements demanded by Biden.
That would be that if schools don’t allow the open-to-anyone access to showers and such, those schools wouldn’t qualify for the benefits of the National School Lunch Program, the report explained.
“The National School Lunch Program feeds approximately 30 million kids nationwide daily. But now, getting access to federal funds for the program will come with a huge catch: K-12 schools will have to allow boys into girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms if they want to continue receiving funds for the school lunch program,” the report said.
Biden said he was reinterpreting “the prohibition on discrimination based on sex found in Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and in the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, as amended, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly the Food Stamp Program (7 USC § 2011 et seq.), to include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”
Joy Pullman, in a report at The Federalist, explained the position clearly: “Under this new demand, establishments that accept any federal food funding, including food stamps, must also allow males who claim to be female to access female private spaces, such as showers, bathrooms, and sleeping areas. Such organizations must also follow protocols such as requiring staff to use inaccurate pronouns to describe transgender people and allowing male staff to dress as women while on the job.”
PJMedia reported a similar move was attempted by the Barack Obama administration in 2016, when it claimed the federal government would “treat a student’s gender identity as the student’s sex for purposes of enforcing Title IX,” and it said all students must be allowed to pick which showers – boys or girls – they would use.
PJMedia explained, “This move was unconstitutional and was promptly reversed by the Trump administration. Title IX only refers to biological sex, not ‘gender identity’ or ‘gender expression;’ ergo, Obama’s decree amounted to rewriting Title IX without congressional approval. Obama intentionally treated sex and ‘gender identity’ as the same thing in order to redefine a decades-old law when it suited his needs, and Joe Biden is now doing the same thing.”
PJMedia reported the comment from John Elcesser, chief of the Indiana Non-Public Education Association, “It seems to be playing politics with feeding poor kids, which is really unfortunate.”
Axios Report: Midterm Outlook ‘Bleak’ for House Democrats
House Democrats have such a bleak outlook for the upcoming midterms even districts President Joe Biden won by up to 15 points are in danger of flipping red, according to a report from Axios.
Citing the Cook Political Report that predicts Republicans will gain a net 20 to 35 seats in the midterm, shifting 10 races in favor of Republicans while only two in favor of Democrats, Axios concluded that Democrats have “bleak” prospects for this November. Per the report:
23 House Democrats have announced they won’t seek re-election, compared to just 11 Republicans.
President Biden’s approval has been hovering in the low 40s for several months, with inflation driving down his popularity.
Polling shows Republicans are winning the generic congressional ballot by an average of 1.9 points — and they have still room to grow.
Cook’s U.S. House editor Dave Wasserman said the most competitive races will be in states like New York, Michigan, Arizona, and California, states where “a court or commission drew a congressional map as opposed to a partisan one.”
“That’s where you’re going to see a lot of money spent,” Wasserman told Axios.
Wasserman referred to states with tight races and no competitive statewide election (as in Georgia) to drive turnout as “orphan states” that will be especially vulnerable come November.
“The only path to survival for those Democrats may be to go ‘scorched earth’ against still-undefined Republican challengers — which, at this point in the race, includes essentially all first-time candidates,” Axios noted.
The report comes after Democrats’ gerrymandering efforts have proven largely ineffective to secure them victories in November.
Biden Visits Texas Shooting Site as DOJ Launches Review of Police Response
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden arrived in Uvalde, Texas, on Sunday to pay respects to the victims who were killed during last week’s mass shooting as the Justice Department signaled that it would initiate a federal review of the police response.
Reporters on the scene in Ulvade said that the Bidens arrived in the Texas city on Sunday morning. Biden visited a makeshift memorial outside Robb Elementary School before he went to attend Mass at a local Catholic church
Biden was also scheduled to meet with family members at a community center and later meet with first responders at a local airport before returning to Washington. The White House said he won’t deliver a speech
Texas school officials had been monitoring students’ social media prior to the deadly shooting in Uvalde Tuesday, it has been revealed – but still failed to pick up on concerning posts from the teenage gunman in the days leading up to the tragedy.
As an 18th birthday present to himself earlier this month, now-deceased suspect Salvador Ramos bought two AR-style rifles and paraded them on social media – including in ominous messages sent hours before the killing started.
The teen’s photo-op also saw him share an image to his since-scrubbed Instagram account, of him cradling the magazine of a rifle on his lap.
The ensuing massacre – the deadliest at a US elementary school since the infamous 2012 Sandy Hook shooting – left 19 students aged under 11 and two adults at Uvalde Elementary dead. Ramos also reportedly shot his 66-year-old grandmother before embarking on the killing spree.
Now, Uvalde School officials say they had been monitoring its students’ social media pages using an advanced AI-based service called Social Sentinel, designed to recognize signals of potential harm found in digital conversations.
The district revealed Monday it had been using the platform ‘to monitor all social media with a connection to Uvalde as a measure to identify any possible threats that might be made against students and or staff within the school district.’
According to its creators, the service – powered by advanced linguistics technology – scans and analyzes digital content to pick out and flag potential safety and security risks, as well as mental health and social and emotional concerns.
The software scans selected digital content – in this case, thousands of students’ social media accounts – and identifies language that fit those criteria.
The powerful technology is designed to then alerts leaders if a community member is showing signs of crisis, so they can intervene before an incident occurs.
The service also scans threatening images, along with its associated text, before determining whether it is something community leaders should look into.
However, in this particular instance, the technology fell short – failing to spot Ramos’ objectively concerning posts and notify district officials.
It is not immediately clear why the technology failed to flag Ramos’ posts. DailyMail.com reached out to Social Sentinel and Uvalde district staffers for comment on the software’s apparent failure Wednesday morning, but did not immediately hear back.
Students and parents also failed to spot the post from the troubled student, who was described as a bullied loner who slowly dropped out of school due to teasing about his lisp, habit of wearing eyeliner, clothes and his family’s poverty
Uvalde district policy encourages ‘[s]tudents, parents, staff, and community members are encouraged to share information that is deemed troubling’ with the district using a reporting system’ so that it can ‘take appropriate action.’
Florida Teen Arrested for Posting Photo With Guns With Caption: ‘Directions to the Nearest School’
A Florida teen was arrested over the past weekend for posting a photo with guns and a message that asked for directions to the nearest school, officials announced.
Corey Anderson, 18, allegedly posted a photo with a rifle, handgun, and tactical vest along with a caption that read: “Hey Siri, directions to the nearest school.” According to Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister in a news release, Anderson was arrested at his Tampa home on Sunday and was charged with a written or electronic threat to conduct a mass shooting or act of terrorism.
However, deputies found that the weapons in the photo were actually airsoft guns, which shoot a type of small pellet rather than bullets, according to the news release. The sheriff said that the photo was intended to be a “sick joke” following the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, last week.
But such a “threat is unacceptable,” Chronister said in the release. “This man intentionally instilled fear into our community as a sick joke, but be warned, this is no laughing matter.”
Records did not indicate whether he has an attorney. Anderson was booked into jail and was later released on bond, according to jail records.
Law enforcement officials in Hillsborough County will do “everything within our power” to deal with anyone who threatens schools.
“Protecting our students is our greatest priority,” Chronister added. “We take school threats very seriously, if you see something suspicious, please contact us immediately.”
Biden Suggests He Wants to Ban 9mm Pistols
President Joe Biden suggested he wants to ban 9mm handguns in remarks to reporters on Monday at the White House’s South Lawn.
As he visited Texas over the weekend, officials “showed me an x-ray … he said, ‘a 22-caliber bullet will lodge in a lung and we can probably get it out … and maybe save a life. A 9mm bullet, blows the lung out of the body,’” Biden said.
“So the idea that these high caliber weapons—there’s simply no rational basis for it in terms of self-protection, hunting–and remember, the Constitution, the Second Amendment was never absolute,” said Biden.
The Second Amendment of the Constitution reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
It’s not clear why Biden was making reference to 9mm ammunition, which is primarily used in handguns, not rifles—or if he was confused with another cartridge caliber. Although a small number of AR-15-style rifles take 9mm rounds, officials said Uvalde shooter Salvador Ramos used .223 rounds, which are typical for that type of firearm.
Later in his comments to reporters, Biden appeared to rule out the possibility of issuing an executive order for new gun restrictions. Members of Congress, he said, need to come to an agreement on passing gun legislation.
“I can’t dictate this stuff. I can do the things I’ve done and any executive action I can take, I’ll continue to take. But I can’t outlaw a weapon. I can’t change a background check. I can’t do that,” he said.
In 2021, Biden suggested that he wanted to eliminate all 9mm handguns, which are exceedingly common firearms, and magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. According to Shooting Industry magazine, 9mm pistols accounted for 56.8 percent of all pistols in the United States as of 2019.
“The idea you need a weapon that can have the ability to fire 20, 30, 40, 50, 120 shots from that weapon, whether it’s a, whether it’s a 9mm pistol or whether it’s a rifle, is ridiculous,” the president said in July of last year. “I’m continuing to push to eliminate the sale of those things, but I’m not likely to get that done in the near term,” Biden added.
And during a fundraiser in 2019, Biden issued a similar comment: “Why should we allow people to have military-style weapons including pistols with 9mm bullets and can hold 10 or more rounds?”
Paul Pelosi: Nancy Pelosi’s husband arrested on DUI charges
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s husband was arrested and charged with driving under the influence after being involved in a collision Saturday night, law enforcement officials said.
Paul Pelosi, 82, was arrested at 11:44 p.m. PT and charged with driving under the influence and driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.08% or higher, according to the Napa County Criminal Justice Network’s public booking report. Both charges are misdemeanors.
Sen. Booker: ‘Under No Illusion’ Congress Will Pass Major Gun Reform Laws
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said on May 29 that he’s under “no illusion” that Congress will pass possible gun-reform legislation following the mass shooting in Texas that left 21 dead.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said Sunday that bipartisan negotiations regarding potential gun legislation are underway.
They include expanding the federal gun background check system, laws around weapons storage, and red flag laws, which refer to measures that allow police or family members to petition a state court to order the removal of a firearm from an individual who may pose a danger to themselves or others.
However, Booker told NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd on Sunday that while he fully supports bipartisan talks among lawmakers regarding stricter gun control laws, he ultimately does not believe such laws will be passed.
“Well, whatever we can get done. If it saves a life, it’s worth doing,” Booker said. “And so, my colleagues who are entering the bipartisan talks, I fully support that, but I’m under no illusion that we’re going to do the things that need to be done, that the majority of Americans overwhelmingly support, Republican and Democrat, that can create significant safety.”
Booker claimed that Senate Republicans “won’t allow, research, basic scientific research on gun violence” but added that “we know enough to know that there are things we can do that will dramatically lower gun violence. And so, the question is when will we do it.”
America under Joe Biden:
** Wide open borders — 2 million illegal immigrants flooding the country in one year — more this year.
** Surrender in Afghanistan, abandoning essential base, arming Taliban with $80 billion in US weaponry, dead soldiers in retreat
** Shutting down energy sector – failure to approve any new drilling projects
** Record spending, record inflation nearing 10% annually
** Highest gas prices in history – new records every day now!
** Destruction of First Amendment led by Big Tech and deep state
** Corrupt media gaslighting public
** Total destruction of working class
** Politicized and Broken Justice Department
** Political prisoners
In March the President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele posted a stunning remark on Twitter.
Bukele pointed out the elephant in the room — Joe Biden and his handlers are destroying America and it is likely on purpose.
Over the weekend, Lara Logan re-truthed President Bukele’s tweet.
And Trump Truth user added: Civil War.
President Trump re-truthed the statements today and now the fake news media is hysterical.
Eric Swalwell is upset.
The Daily Mail reported.
Just sit and watch. Democrats and the fake news will obsess over this statement and likely misrepresent it for the rest of today rather than focusing on the historic destruction of our country under Joe Biden.
Former President Trump reshared a post on Truth Social on Sunday that claimed the U.S. is heading toward civil war because of an ‘enemy from within.’
A Truth Social user who goes by ‘MAGA King Thanos’ wrote ‘Civil war’ and quoted a Truth post from Fox Nation host Lara Logan that was a screen grab of a tweet from El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele. Trump ‘ReTruthed’ the post.
Bukele had written on Twitter: ‘The most powerful country in the world is falling so fast, that it makes you rethink what are the real reasons. Something so big and powerful can’t be destroyed so quickly, unless the enemy comes from within
Bukele was quoting a Bloomberg op-ed headlined ‘Inflation Stings Most If You Earn Less Than $300K. Here’s How to Deal.’
Prices are now running 8.3 percent higher from one year ago as of April, and gas prices have been rising for two straight weeks and Monday reached a record high of $4.60 a gallon.
Bukele’s hardline immigration stance has aligned him with Trump and led to tensions within the Biden administration.
In April the State Department put out a statement expressing concerns about threats to press freedom and spokesman Ned Price added on Twitter: ‘The U.S. government continues to support El Salvador in its efforts to reduce the proliferation of gangs. We urge El Salvador to protect its citizens while also upholding civil liberties, including freedom of the press.’
Bukele fired back: ”The U.S. government continues to support El Salvador to reduce the proliferation of gangs’. Really? Yes, we got support from the U.S. government to fight crime, but the was UNDER THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION. You are only supporting the gangs and their ‘civil liberties’ now.’
Trump’s post drew concern from his critics.
‘Any of my fellow Republicans wanna speak out now? Or are we just wanting to get through ‘just one more election first…?” outgoing Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger wrote on Twitter.
‘Donald Trump is calling for Civil War. Of course, like Vietnam and the walk to the Insurrection, he won’t be man enough to fight it,’ Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., griped.
‘Nothing to see here. Just a former president of the United States sharing a social media post advocating or predicting civil war in the United States. No biggie,’ anti-Trump conservative George Conway wrote on Twitter.
On Friday, Trump took to the social media company he founded Truth Social, to claim Elon Musk had told a lie and that his bid to buy Twitter was ‘probably illegal.’
‘Gee, Elon Musk never told me that until now he voted for Democrats. Actually, it was quite the contrary, but now it seems, with all of his problems with a probably illegal purchase of Twitter he wants to be a Republican because the Dems are “a party of hate.” I could have told him that a long time ago, but actually they are a Party of sickness, greed, corruption and absolutely horrible policy. Good luck Elon, have fun!!!’
Trump did not explain what element of Musk’s Twitter bid, which was accepted by the company’s board in a legally binding contract, might be ‘illegal’.
Texas Governor Says New Laws to Be Passed After Elementary School Shooting
New laws will be passed after the shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said on May 27.
“Do we expect any laws to come out of this devastating crime? The answer is yes. Absolutely yes,” said Abbott, a Republican.
Those laws will be “in multiple different subject areas,” he added.
One area will be making schools safer. He also wants laws that address the “array of healthcare issues that relate to those who commit gun crimes.”
“The status quo is unacceptable. This crime is unacceptable. We’re not going to be here and talking about it and do nothing about it. We will be looking for the best laws that we can get passed to make our communities and schools safer,” Abbott said.
Governors across the nation, and members of Congress, have discussed new legislation following the shooting, which left 21 dead, and the shooter, at Robb Elementary School on May 24.
Some legislators and governors see the need for bills that curb access to guns, but Abbott suggested he isn’t of the same mind.
Pressed on whether he’d support legislation to tighten background checks, Abbott said background checks can be avoided, pointing to how the Dimitrios Pagourtzis, a 17-year-old who carried out the shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, in 2018, took the gun he used from a parent.
“Anyone who suggests, ‘well, maybe we should focus on background checks as opposed to mental health.’ I suggest to you is mistaken,” Abbott said.
The Republican also brushed aside talk about moving the legal age to buy rifles to 21, noting that 18-year-olds in Texas have been able to buy the guns for some 150 years and school shootings have only recently started happening.
Salvador Ramos, the alleged Uvalde shooter, was 18 and legally bought two guns.
State. Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat, interrupted the briefing to urge Abbott to call a special session so lawmakers can reconvene, and said the session should focus on gun laws.
“We have to do something,” Gutierrez said, adding that he feels 18-year-olds shouldn’t have guns.
The Texas Democratic Party, meanwhile, called for a bill that would ban “assault weapons,” which it did not define.
“The Texas Democratic Party joins their call for a special session to ban assault weapons and pass life-saving legislation to end gun violence in Texas,” Gilberto Hinojosa, the party chairman, said in a statement.
Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, a Republican, has largely aligned with Abbott, saying he thinks the focus should be on mental health legislation as opposed to bills concerning firearms.
Beto O’Rourke Edits Campaign Website to Reflect Newer Position on AR-15s
Texas gubernatorial candidate Democrat Beto O’Rourke has changed his position on the use of AR-15 guns as evidenced by modifications made on his campaign website.
The section on gun safety on O’Rourke’s campaign website contained a statement that he wanted to “reduce the number” of AR-15s and AK-47s on the streets, according to an April 1 archive. But the same section now contains a statement saying that “I don’t believe any civilian should own an AR-15 or AK-47,” as of May 28.
The AR-15 rifle is currently in the news as it was the gun used by the school shooter at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24 who killed 19 children and two teachers.
In the past, O’Rourke has flip-flopped on the gun issue several times. Back in 2018 when running against Republican Ted Cruz, O’Rourke claimed to support the Second Amendment, insisting that “if you own a gun, keep that gun.”
In 2019 when he was running for president, the Democrat politician promised that he would ban the sale of AR-15s and seize guns from current owners. As recently as November 2021, he had stuck to this position.
But in February this year, O’Rourke softened his stance on the matter once more. “I’m not interested in taking anything from anyone,” O’Rourke said to reporters, according to KLTV.
“What I want to make sure that we do is defend the Second Amendment. I want to make sure that we protect our fellow Texans far better than we’re doing right now. And that we listen to law enforcement, which [Gov.] Greg Abbott refused to do.”
Since the Robb Elementary shooting, O’Rourke has been heavily critical of the current state administration.
During Abbott’s press conference on May 25 addressing the school shooting, O’Rourke interrupted the event, insisting that the shooting was “totally predictable” and that the administration had failed to do anything to prevent it.
Cruz, who was one of the Republican officials on stage, asked O’Rourke to “sit down and don’t play this stunt.”
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin used even harsher words. “I can’t believe that you’re a sick son of a [expletive] that would come to a deal like this to make a political issue,” McLaughlin said, according to The Texas Tribune.
Political strategists were divided on O’Rourke’s outburst at the press conference. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Jennifer Holdsworth Karp, a Democratic strategist, called O’Rourke’s actions “incredibly brave.”
Texas-based GOP consultant Matt Mackowiak flatly dismissed O’Rourke, stating that his actions disqualify him as a person who could be a leader of the state.
“Beto O’Rourke showed yet again that he is unfit for high office by causing a scene while federal, state, and local officials were briefing the media and the local community,” he said. “Beto’s desire to ‘go viral’ was obscene and disqualifying.”
Biden Admin Worked ‘Under the Radar’ to Give WHO More Power: Liberty Counsel’s Senior Attorney
Jonathan Alexandre, a senior counsel from international litigation nonprofit Liberty Counsel, says changes to the United Nations’ 2005 international health regulations (IHR) have been happening “under the radar” because they know people would object to the unconstitutionality of the changes.
The Biden administration’s proposed amendments to the IHR would further strengthen the WHO’s authority to declare public health emergencies and override U.S. governing bodies.
“They’ve done this undercover because they knew at any point, if you were to tell Americans, you’re ceding the authority to an international body that is unaccountable to the people, if the media, were to echo that message, certainly Americans would have no regard for this,” Alexandre said during a recent interview with NTD News Today. “And we ought not to have any regard for this international body (the WHO) that is not accountable to us.”
The Biden administration proposed thirteen amendments to the IHR, that, if passed, would alter international public health rules—including expanding the powers given to the WHO Director-General to declare a public health emergency, bypassing U.S. governmental bodies.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs Loyce Pace defended the amendments during remarks given virtually to the 150th Session of the Executive Board at the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland about pandemic preparedness in January 2022.
“The United States led an inclusive and transparent process to develop this decision, as we are mindful that updating and modernizing the IHR are critical to ensuring the world is better prepared for and can respond to the next pandemic,” said Pace.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Mortgage Payment Costs Rise 45 Percent This Year, Worsening Home Affordability
If the Fed keeps raising rates, mortgage payments for a typical home will be $800/month more, according to an estimate
The monthly mortgage payment for a typical home in the United States for new buyers has climbed by 45 percent or about $600 over the previous year, according to the estimates by the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
In April, the average monthly mortgage payment for a single-family home increased to $1,900, based on a median home value of $391,200 with a 10 percent down payment and 5 percent 30-year mortgage rate, an analysis by Gay Cororaton, NAR’s senior economist showed.
This is a significant jump over last year’s average $1,300 mortgage payment, Cororaton told The Epoch Times.
Estimates indicate that if the Federal Reserve continues with its projected rate hikes this year, monthly mortgage payments will be about $800 higher compared to last year, making homeownership much more challenging.
Rising home prices and mortgage rates are slowing down buyer demand, Cororaton noted.
“The risk right now is greater than it was a year ago, when the economy was still rising,” she said.
Given the heightened risk and uncertainty in the economy, she added, people recognize that it’s not a good time to buy a property. As a result, they continue to rent, driving up rental prices.
Mortgage rates have already risen in anticipation of Fed rate hikes. Compared to last year, the interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has increased from around 3 percent to 5 percent, representing the largest jump since the 1980s.
So far, the U.S. central bank has increased its benchmark rate by 75 basis points bringing it to a range of 0.75–1 percent recently as part of its effort to combat persistently high inflation. Fed officials signaled that there will be a couple more rate hikes in the coming months.
According to Fed projections, interest rates are expected to rise to nearly 1.9 percent by the end of the year. If the Fed proceeds with additional rate hikes, the mortgage rates might jump to 6 percent this year, according to the NAR’s estimates.
Looming Price Hikes on Food Set to Hit Americans This Fall
Higher inflation could force Fed action, leading to a ‘deeper recession’
In its effort to contain inflation, the Federal Reserve has launched what many expect to be an ongoing series of interest rate increases, which are already taking a toll on stock and housing markets, with job losses likely to follow. As weary as Americans have become from paying record high gas and grocery prices, however, another round of price hikes is making its way through the food supply chain and is expected to reach consumers this fall.
“People don’t realize what’s fixing to hit them,” said Texas farmer Lynn “Bugsy” Allen. “They think it’s tough right now, you give it until October. Food prices are going to double.”
The 8.8 percent increase in food prices that Americans have already seen does not take into account the dramatic cost increases that farmers are now experiencing. This is because farmers pay their costs upfront and only recoup them at the point of sale, months later.
“Usually, what we see on the farm, the consumer doesn’t see for another 18 months,” said John Chester, a Tennessee farmer of corn, wheat, and soybeans. But with the severity of these cost increases, consumers could feel the effects much sooner, particularly if weather becomes a factor.
Lorenda Overman, a North Carolina farmer who raises hogs and grows corn, soybeans, and sweet potatoes, said the spike in fuel costs has put her farm into the red this year. “Nothing that consumers are paying is going to bridge the gap for farmers right now,” she said. “The prices now have not hit the grocery stores yet,” but she expects they will start to by the end of summer.
Much of the cost of food hinges on the price of oil.
“They have no electric trucks delivering that food and there are no electric tractors,” Allen said. “It takes diesel to run all this.”
Chester said that fuel and fertilizer together make up 55 percent of his total costs. The price of diesel fuel has more than doubled, from $2.50 per gallon at the end of 2020 to more than $5 per gallon today. Farmers say the cost of fertilizer, an oil derivative, has tripled and in some cases quadrupled.
“When you look at the machinery that uses diesel, it’s farm equipment, it’s railroads, and it’s truckers,” said Daniel Turner, Executive Director of Power the Future, an energy advocacy group. Diesel “moves all of our goods, it grows our food. From cargo ships arriving from overseas to trucks or trains getting those goods across the country. All those things now have added costs that will get sent to the consumer.”
“That surge in food and energy costs is very demand destructive for U.S. households,” said Joseph Lavorgna, Chief Economist at Natixis, a European bank. “If you have to pay a lot more money for your food, to heat or cool your home, or put gasoline in your vehicle to get to work, there’s less money available elsewhere.” Price hikes in gas and food will leave Americans with less money to spend on other goods, which will reduce demand and have a knock-on effect on the wider economy.
Economic reports are indicating that Americans are already unable to keep up with inflation. Household savings fell to the lowest rate in 14 years, as people struggle to maintain their standard of living. Credit card debt is hitting record highs, and retailers say they are preparing for more consumers to limit their spending to the “bare-bones basics.”
While it is possible that Americans’ loss of spending power may help to reduce inflation, some economists fear a return of 1970s-era “stagflation,” rising prices coupled with economic stagnation and increasing unemployment. That period of inflation was ultimately tamed by the Fed raising interest rates to nearly 20 percent.
Elon Musk: Recession ‘A Good Thing,’ Bankruptcies ‘Need to Happen’
Billionaire Elon Musk wrote on Twitter that a recession would be “a good thing,” adding that “some bankruptcies need to happen.”
The Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO published a poll on his Twitter account, asking, “Who do you trust less? Real question.” He offered two answers: politicians and billionaires. More than 75 percent chose politicians.
In the May 26 thread, Musk engaged with other users on politics and tax policy. He rejected the unrealized capital gains tax proposal, while favoring the elimination of estate tax loopholes “since probability of kids being effective stewards of capital is lower.”
One individual asked Musk if he thinks the United States is heading toward a recession.
“Yes, but this is actually a good thing. It has been raining money on fools for too long. Some bankruptcies need to happen,” Musk replied, later adding that it will likely last between 12 and 18 months.
“Companies that are inherently negative cash flow (ie value destroyers) need to die, so that they stop consuming resources.”
He also remarked that the new COVID-induced stay-at-home trends have “tricked people into thinking that you don’t actually need to work hard.”
“Rude awakening inbound!”
Earlier this month, Musk told the All-In Summit in Miami Beach that the U.S. economy was “probably” in a recession that could last as long as 18 months.
“What tends to happen is, if you have a boom that goes on for too long, you get misallocation of capital—it starts raining money on fools, basically,” he said.
Musk also commented on soaring inflation, blaming the government for creating enormous amounts of money in a two-year span.
“The honest reason for inflation is that the government printed a zillion amount of more money than it had,” he said. “This is not like, you know, super complicated.”
In December, Musk was asked when he thought the next recession would happen. The world’s richest person—with a net worth of about $193 billion, according to Bloomberg—conceded that forecasting macroeconomics was difficult, but said, “My gut feel is maybe around spring or summer 2022, but not later than 2023.”
HEALTH
Hepatitis A outbreak possibly linked to fresh strawberries
The US Food and Drug Administration is investigating a potential link between a hepatitis A outbreak and fresh organic strawberries.
The FDA with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and state and local partners, said the strawberries were branded as FreshKampo and HEB and purchased between March 5 and April 25.
They were distributed nationwide and sold at a number of retailers including Aldi, HEB, Kroger, Safeway, Sprouts Farmers Market, Trader Joe’s, Walmart, Weis Markets and WinCo Foods.
The potentially affected strawberries are now past their shelf life, FDA said, but people who froze them for later use should not eat them.
Combo Probiotic, Immunotherapy Treatment Reversed Peanut Allergy in Kids
For families of children with peanut allergy, there may be some hope. Researchers say they’re working on a treatment that can create immune system changes that put kids into remission from their allergy.
A parent of a child who participated in an allergy trial in Australia said her 9-year-old daughter, Stella, has been in remission for almost four years and eats peanuts regularly. (Managing a food allergy requires avoiding the food).
“Stella’s quality of life has improved considerably since the trial,” said her mom, Ju Lee Ng.
Stella no longer has to always check food labels for peanuts. Her level of freedom has increased and her anxiety has dropped dramatically, her mother reported.
“We previously had to avoid travel to countries that use lots of peanuts in the food, including Malaysia, where my husband and I are from,” Ng said. “Shortly after Stella achieved remission we were so excited to be able to travel on a family holiday to Thailand. We tried local dishes and enjoyed an amazing holiday without the stress that Stella could have an allergic reaction.”
Led by researchers from Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia, and the Telethon Kids Institute in Australia, the study showed that gene networks are rewired after a combination treatment of a probiotic and peanut oral immunotherapy (gradual introduction of the allergenic food). The reprogramming appears to shut down the allergic immune response that caused the food allergy.
“The immunological changes leading to remission of peanut allergy were largely unknown,” said lead researcher Mimi Tang, a professor of allergy and immunology at Murdoch Children’s.
Previous studies had mostly focused on examining the levels of gene expression but did not explore how genes interact with one another. It made sense to look at communication between the genes, the researchers said.
“What we found was profound differences in network connectivity patterns between children who were allergic and those who were in remission,” Tang said in an institute news release. “These same changes were also seen when we compared gene networks before and after immunotherapy in the children who achieved remission following immunotherapy.”
Food allergies affect about 10% of infants and 5% to 8% of children around the world.
For this study, the researchers worked with 62 peanut allergic children ages 1 to 10 years old. The children were randomized to receive a treatment of a probiotic with a gradual introduction of peanut immunotherapy or a placebo for 18 months.
About 74% who had the combination treatment achieved remission from their allergy. About 4% of those in the placebo group also achieved remission.
A separate trial found that peanut immunotherapy alone was also highly effective at inducing remission and desensitization. In that, about half of the children achieved remission.
The study was published May 25 in the journal Allergy.
This approach is still far from prime time, however. Desensitization often waned after treatment ended or even during ongoing maintenance dosing, said co-author Sarah Ashley, a Murdoch Children’s researcher.
“Certain changes in the allergen-specific immune cells, called Th2 cells, are critical to achieving lasting remission,” Ashley said in the release. “Th2 cells are essential for generating allergen-specific antibodies and the development of food allergy. We found that the Th2 signaling that drives allergy is ‘turned off’ in children in remission.”
Ng said it was reassuring to learn that new treatments could be developed off the back of the latest study results.
—> Power Mall Product Recommendation: Living Streams Multi-Blend Liquid Probiotic (4 oz)
“This research will give a lot of hope to families who have children with a peanut allergy,” Ng said in the release. “We hope other families can experience the same sense of comfort we now have with a child who can eat peanut freely without fear of a reaction.”
Blood Clots May Be The Root Cause Of All Heart Disease
In this interview, repeat guest Dr. Malcolm Kendrick, a board-certified family physician and author of the book, “The Clot Thickens: The Enduring Mystery of Heart Disease,” reviews the underlying mechanisms for heart disease, which for the last century has been the leading cause of death in the U.S.
Of all the books he’s written, this is my favorite, as it goes into great detail, giving you the biological understanding of the process of atherosclerosis leading to heart attacks and strokes. He also has solid strategies for lowering your cardiovascular disease risk.
Incidentally, once you understand the disease process, then you can also understand how both COVID-19 and the COVID jab can contribute to heart disease.
The Thrombogenic Hypothesis
“The Clot Thickens” is Kendrick’s effort to explain an alternative hypothesis for what actually causes heart disease. If it’s not saturated fat and cholesterol, what is it? In 1852, a Viennese researcher, Karl von Rokitansky, developed what he called the encrustation hypothesis of heart disease.
Today, this hypothesis has been renamed the thrombogenic hypothesis. ‘Thrombo’ stands for thrombosis, i.e., blood clots, and ‘genesis’ means the cause of, or the start of. So, the thrombogenic hypothesis is that blood clots are the basic pathology that causes all heart disease.
We know blood clots cause the final event in cardiovascular disease. We know blood clots cause plaques to grow. Why won’t you accept that blood clots are the thing that starts heart disease in the first place? Because then we have one process all the way through, and it makes sense, because it fits with what you can see. ~ Dr. Malcolm Kendrick
In a nutshell, when a blood clot forms on your artery wall, which can happen for a number of reasons, it will typically be covered over and dissolved. A problem arises, however, if the blood clot is not fully eliminated and another blood clot forms in the same ‘vulnerable’ area. This then becomes what’s conventionally referred to as atherosclerotic plaque.
As noted by Kendrick, the conventional view is that low-density lipoprotein or LDL gets into the artery wall where it initiates plaque formation. It then, inexplicably, stops initiating plaque, and the plaque continues to grow through the addition of repeated clots.
However, Kendrick says, once you start drilling down into the cholesterol, aka LDL hypothesis, the whole thing starts to fall apart. LDL simply cannot explain the disease progression. Yet despite the many holes in the theory, the idea that LDL causes heart disease is touted as an absolute, indisputable fact.
COVID RELATED NEWS
Amish minister: COVID-19 ‘left before salvation arrived’
‘Even if we had accepted the vaccination, coronavirus still left us prior to the vaccines’
An Amish minister in Ohio is taking a shot at what some consider to be the “salvation” against COVID-19, specifically the vaccines, saying the coronavirus “left before salvation arrived.”
“Five years from now no one will bother trying to prove what I want to tell you now,” said Marvin Wengerd of the New Order Amish Church in Holmes County, Ohio.
“In five years an illusion will erase reality. People will believe something about 2020 and COVID-19 that won’t be true if no one speaks up now.”
Wengerd, who owns Carlisle Press, a small publisher of books and magazines, says the coronavirus arrived in his county in March 2020.
“The Amish community, 38,000 people strong, braced for its approach with narratives from ‘it’s political’ or ‘it’s really nothing to worry about’ to ‘it’s demonic.’ It hardly matters whether these narratives had a grain of truth or were completely false – COVID-19 came.
“We felt the sting of COVID along with the rest of the world. We felt the pain of increased deaths. The elderly and those with pre-existing conditions felt it most. Smaller funerals and weddings were a short-term cultural shift.”
Wengerd says the Amish community in Holmes County responded with a month of canceled church services “because our medical world thought us irresponsible to continue.”
“We wore masks where required in public places,” he explained. “We temporarily adjusted the size of our funerals and weddings as a nod to civil authority and medical experts. A few social events were canceled.
“But, for the most part, life among our 38,000 members quickly resumed normal. Thousands attended auctions. No masks in sight. No six feet between bodies. Business as usual. Our schools didn’t close. We avoided consigning our children to fear and alienation. Amish didn’t wear masks to church, social, and family gatherings or to work (except where required by non-Amish employers). Social closeness has been and remains a plain-people distinctive.”
“COVID came,” says Wengerd, the father of nine children. “When it did some of us left earlier than we expected. We had a few more funerals than usual. But then COVID left. COVID exited.
“Then the vaccine came. Trillions of dollars were thrown at their warp speed development and hasty distribution. Mankind was saved by a jab in the arm just in the nick of time. Or was it?
“Not the Amish community. COVID came, then COVID left. COVID exited, then the vaccine entered. Note the order here. Yes, COVID caused some to leave earlier than expected. Yes, it interrupted our social and spiritual lives for a month or so. But it left. It left before salvation arrived. It left the Amish community prior to the arrival of the vaccine.
“Even if the vaccine had arrived prior to COVID’s exit the vaccine would have failed its purpose for a very important reason: almost no Amish were or are vaccinated. Very few of the Amish population chose to vaccinate. Reasons for not vaccinating may vary but even if we had accepted the vaccination, COVID still left us prior to the vaccines’ arrival.
“When medical experts, anthropologists, sociologists, and government agencies look back on 2020 and the COVID pandemic they will do so with the sharpness of 20/20 hindsight. ‘COVID came,’ they will say, ‘then we mandated, masked, social distanced, and vaccinated it out of existence.’ And in their perfect hindsight they may miss a group of 38,000 people for which that was not true.
“They may miss it, that is, unless someone says something today. So I have.”
Reuters published a so-called “fact check” about COVID’s impact on the Amish community, saying claims the Amish have not been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic were false.
A study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Nov. 2020 examined an outbreak of the virus in a rural Amish community in Wayne County, Ohio, and found seven members tested positive for COVID in early May 2020. This prompted an additional 30 people to get tested, with 23, or 77%, returning positive results.
Dr. Kimberly Thompson, a global health expert and president of the risk and disease modeling organization Kid Risk Inc., told Reuters: “Everybody can be affected by the pandemic. The extent by which you are affected as an individual does depend on what is happening in your community and how much you are mixing but everybody is potentially infectable.”
“The difference in the United States is that some may not be vaccinated at the same rates as we are seeing in other communities and for that reason, they would remain vulnerable.”
FDA Authorizes Pfizer Boosters for Kids 5 to 11
The FDA has authorized the use of a booster COVID-19 shot in children ages 5 to 11; less than one-third — only 28.8% — of U.S. children in this age group have received the first two doses of this experimental gene therapy
Effectiveness of COVID-19 shots in children wanes rapidly; a CDC study found that two to four weeks after the second dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 shots, effectiveness was 60.1% among 5- to 11-year-olds, but this fell to just 28.9% by month two
There is still no data on whether the booster is effective against COVID-19, and whether the effectiveness will quickly wane, as it has with all previous shots as well as booster doses in adults
Artificially inflated antibodies triggered by booster shots signal to your body that you’re always infected, and the resulting immune response could prove to be detrimental to your health
COVID-19 shots are associated with liver injury, including liver failure that led to a liver transplant
Children are at an extremely low risk of serious illness from COVID-19, and CDC data show that COVID-19 case rates among children who received two COVID-19 shots are now higher than rates in children who did not get the shots
The Monkey Business Behind Monkeypox Propaganda
Just as hysteria about COVID-19 is winding down, another “pandemic” is poised to take its place. This time, it’s monkeypox, a typically mild infection that often resolves in three to four weeks without treatment
The first European case of monkeypox was confirmed May 7, 2022, in the U.K. Then, seemingly overnight, cases were being reported across the world. May 20, 2022, the World Health Organization held an emergency meeting to discuss reports of more than 100 suspected or confirmed cases in at least nine countries
A tabletop simulation exercise of a monkeypox outbreak took place in March 2021, and in this fictional scenario, the first European case of monkeypox was also identified on May 7, 2022
The first case in the U.S. was reported May 18, 2022. By May 23, suspected monkeypox cases were reported in three additional states: New York, Florida and Utah
President Joe Biden has stated that strict quarantine protocols are not likely to be implemented in the U.S. He has, however, already placed a $119 million order for a monkeypox vaccine. Belgium, meanwhile, has introduced a 21-day quarantine for anyone who tests positive, and the U.K. is urging anyone who has had direct contact with a confirmed case to voluntarily isolate for 21 days
CDC Quietly Fires Monkeypox Deniers
The Centers for Disease Control has quietly begun firing employees who won’t toe the agency’s monkeypox narrative, a CDC whistleblower told Real Raw News.
The whistleblower, a tenured research scientist at the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID,) said that Dr. Christopher Braden, the Dept.’s head, has since May 16 terminated a tenured virologist and two lab assistants for questioning the veracity of current monkeypox cases in the United States. The firings, he added, occurred within days of the employees questioning whether the CDC was artificially amplifying the existence of active monkeypox cases for political gain.
“Look, throughout Covid some working at CDC became very suspicious, knew something was off. That Rochelle Walensky was putting out fictitious active cases and making up symptoms that just didn’t exist—like Covid toes. A lot of us don’t want this to happen again, and a few have spoken out, and gotten in trouble,” the whistleblower said.
RRN was asked to conceal the identities of the fired employees because the CDC had compelled them to sign confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements as a condition for receiving severance packages.
The first to be fired was a virologist who had worked at the CDC for 17 years. On 16 May he was shown pictures of an alleged monkeypox patient, a Massachusetts man with no international travel history and whose hands were covered with blisters, boils, and pustules—symptoms of monkeypox. The CDC had already declared the man monkeypox positive but wanted the virologist to sign off on the diagnosis. The virologist apparently felt something was amiss, for he compared the image against a CDC database of past monkeypox patients, and discovered it matched exactly the picture of an American missionary who had contracted monkeypox while in East Africa in 2012. That person had never lived in Massachusetts, and was, in fact, now dead.
“The virologist we’re talking about brought his findings to Dr. Braden, saying he couldn’t in good conscious sign any paperwork because the case was fraudulent. He said someone within the center was recycling old photos and presenting them as current active cases. Braden thanked him for uncovering ‘an inconsistency’ and said he’d bring the matter to Rochelle Walensky’s attention,” the whistleblower said.
Upon arriving at work the next morning, the virologist was promptly fired. The reasons given were “unethical behavior” and “misuse of company property.” According to the whistleblower, the CDC offered the virologist a healthy severance package in exchange for signing a confidentiality/non-disclosure agreement stating he would not speak to the press about monkeypox or reasons for his termination. CDC security, he said, watched the virologist pack his personal belongings, then ushered him out the door.
“He was told, directly, to avoid media, under threat of having payouts and health insurance cancelled. Also, the NDA stipulated he could be litigated against if he violated it. It’s risky giving you this information, but it’s a matter of public importance,” the whistleblower told RRN.
Two days later, Braden fired the virologist’s two laboratory assistants. They, too, were given severance packages after signing aggressive non-disclosure agreements.
“There’s an ongoing effort to push monkeypox into the limelight,” the whistleblower said, “even though there’s no evidence of an actual outbreak, or even a single active case in the U.S.”
Study Finds COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates Had Damaging Political, Legal, Socioeconomic Effects
Mandating COVID-19 vaccines and related passports have had damaging political, legal, and socioeconomic effects; while also destabilizing the integrity of science and public health, according to new research published at the BMJ Global Health, a global online health journal based in London.
Several countries have implemented vaccine mandates and passports to manage the COVID-19 pandemic, with some introducing them through the democratic process while others imposing them via emergency declarations, said the May 26 research report titled “The unintended consequences of COVID-19 vaccine policy.”
Vaccine passports risk “enshrining discrimination” into law based on the “perceived health status” of individuals, even against those who might not be vaccinated but have recovered from prior infection and are generally at lower risk of a COVID-19 infection. Also considered is the data privacy and security aspect of vaccine passports.
“Having set these population-wide passport precedents, it is conceivable that they could be expanded in the near future to include other personal health data including genetic tests and mental health records, which would create additional rights violations and discrimination based on biological status for employers, law enforcement, insurance companies, governments, and tech companies,” the report warns.
Moreover, the research points out that COVID-19 vaccine policies have triggered intense political debate and mass street protests, even potentially influencing upcoming elections.
It blamed “center and left politicians” for using “anti-vaccination fervor” among groups on the right to progress their own agendas.
In the United States, pro-vaccine advocates have equated those who protested against COVID-19 vaccines with domestic terrorists, asking the government and social media companies to “strengthen censorship laws” against such groups and individuals.
“Echo chambers have skewed the reasonableness of risk assessment of some pro-mandate individuals, who now fear that unvaccinated people are ‘unsafe’—physically but also culturally—despite the scientific evidence.”
The report criticized scientists for calling unvaccinated individuals the source of future COVID-19 variants, thus fuelling inflammatory rhetoric against such people. In wealthy nations, universities have mandated boosters even for low-risk healthy students and faculty.
Some COVID-19 vaccination policies disproportionately restrict people’s access to public transport, education, work, and social life, something which the report says can amount to a violation of constitutional and human rights.
Vaccine mandates also violate public health ethics, the report suggested. The principle of proportionality requires that any public health intervention must generate benefits that outweigh the restriction of liberties and other burdens.
Additionally, the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccine mandates in reducing transmission is likely smaller than expected, the research report said.
“These issues have been widely discussed in the public arena, raising the idea that many current vaccine policies are no longer being guided by the best science but are rather being used to punish individuals who remain unvaccinated and to shape public opinion and compliance.”
The report pointed to some U.S. universities and colleges mandating a third vaccine dose for boys despite the “lack of evidence for substantial clinical benefit.” On the contrary, there is evidence of a “small but significant” risk of myocarditis that compounds with each dose.
Many American states have taken steps to prevent the imposition of vaccine mandates and passports. In Georgia, Republican Governor Brian Kemp signed a bill in May that prohibited state and county agencies from asking for proof of COVID-19 vaccination.
In Arizona, Republican Governor Doug Ducey signed into law legislation that bans state health officials from adding COVID-19 vaccines to a list of inoculations required to attend public schools.
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