Politics > Biden's Precipitous Fall from Grace; Russian's Surprising Stand on Democracy and Socialism; AUKUS Mess Still a Mess

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Biden’s approval plummets further as over 70% say

country headed in wrong direction – NBC poll

31 Oct, 2021 16:36

©  REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Bad poll numbers continue to plague President Joe Biden as the latest survey shows a majority, including almost half of Democrats, believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.

The NBC News poll, released Sunday and conducted among 1,000 adults in the US, represents only the latest disappointing poll numbers for Biden. His approval has been steadily slipping in most surveys, including those conducted by NBC, with the latest job approval rating standing at 42%, a dip from 49% in August and 53% in April.

More than half of respondents said they disapprove of Biden’s job performance, which is an increase of 6% since August. 

Seven in 10 respondents said they believe the country is also headed in the wrong direction under the Biden administration. Broken down by party, 93% of Republicans say the country is going in the wrong direction, while 70% of Independents agree. While Biden’s polling is typically much better among Democrats, even 48% of their supporters said things are not headed in the right direction.

Only 22% said the country is actually headed in the right direction, according to the polling data. 

Respondents were more split on which political party should control Congress after the 2022 midterms (47% for Democrats, 45% for Republicans), and over half of those surveyed believe the US’ best years are already behind it. 

A recent ABC/Ipsos poll found the president’s overall approval standing at only 45%, with 49% of respondents saying they disapproved. 

Biden’s approval ratings have slipped as his administration has dealt with a number of issues, including record numbers of migrants at the southern border, the Covid-19 pandemic and controversial vaccine mandates, as well as supply chain and staffing issues causing disruptions in multiple industries.

The president has also struggled to push his massive $1.75 trillion spending bill, which includes infrastructure and climate spending, through Congress as Republicans have stood staunchly against the massive price tag, along with key Democrat senators like Kyrsten Sinema. On this specific issue, Biden received more bad news on Sunday, with an ABC poll finding that 7 out of 10 Americans know very little about the spending package, and only 25% think the spending would actually benefit them. 

Biden’s polling unpopularity has given his critics plenty to point to when blasting the president’s agenda, and many signaled the NBC poll and its 70% disapproval as perhaps one of the worst polls for the Democrat yet. 

It would be nice to know specifically what policies are being rejected by the masses.

An excellent analysis of the attitudes of Russian citizens toward democracy, socialism and authoritarianism. It was written by a Turkish scholar who specializes in Russian and Ukrainian history.

Grass isn’t always greener? Russians are increasingly skeptical of

Western-style democracy, and young are turning against the left

31 Oct, 2021 17:11

FILE PHOTO: Russian presidential candidate, acting President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin during

the voting at the Russian presidential elections at a polling station, March 18, 2018. © Sputnik / Kira Novikova

By Tarik Cyril Amar, a historian at Koç University in Istanbul working on Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe, the history of World War II, the cultural Cold War, and the politics of memory. He tweets at @tarikcyrilamar.

What do the Russians want? It’s a question that many Western commentators find themselves coming up with more and more extreme answers to – a strong leader, to conquer new territory, rebuild the USSR, or start a nuclear war. 

Western-style democracy, however, doesn’t appear to be on the list. A new poll by Moscow’s internationally acknowledged Levada Center (registered as a foreign agent over links to overseas funding) has found that more Russians say they aren’t “a democrat,” or “a person with democratic beliefs,” than those who claim they are. Almost half (47%) of the more than 1,600 people surveyed across the country disagreed with the statement, with those holding democratic convictions at around 44%. 

The ‘non-democratic’ group, it seems, is growing. When the same question was asked in 2018, 41% backed the notion and only 38% rejected it. Non-believers, it seems, are on the rise – and are now in the relative majority.

There’s also something of an age gap. Those aged 18-24 were the most likely to identify as democrats (50%); those between 40-54 were the least (41%). Intriguingly, people over 55 displayed more democratic inclinations (44%) than the middle-aged. The oldest and the youngest held democratic ideals, while few in between did.

Some observers, perhaps especially in the West, will probably be tempted to jump to conclusions, along the lines of: “There you have it! Most Russians are not democrats” or, perhaps, even that “they’re positively against democracy!” And from there, the usual misleading pseudo-explanations will flow. “It’s built into their genetic code from Ivan the Terrible to today – they’re brainwashed and can’t imagine life without autocracy.” And so on, as long as you can stand it.

There are, of course, better observations to be made.

One fascinating result concerns Russian attitudes toward the political left. Asked if they saw themselves as “adherents of left, socialist views,” a large majority, 72%, said no. Only 18% said they did. Moreover, on this question, the young were even more ill-disposed toward the left than the old.

Post-Soviet Russia is a capitalist country with a significant degree of inequality in wealth and income. Its Gini Index, for instance, a measure of income inequality, shows Russia positioned between Germany (which has less inequality) and the US (which has more inequality), according to the most recent data available from the World Bank. Of course, it is hard to properly understand how Russia’s wealth is really distributed, given the number of salaries and transactions paid under the table, as in almost all former Soviet nations. 

You might, however, expect a stronger interest in left-wing politics aiming at more equality, perhaps, especially in a country where the forging of capitalism is within living memory as a story not only of opportunity and entrepreneurship but also of massive insider dealing, inequity, and exploitation. 

Clearly, one reason why an explicit adoption of socialist values is so rare, for now, has to do with the long Soviet experience of authoritarianism and inefficiency. In practice, it has left the word socialism with a bad reputation of stultifying and intolerant state ideology, unaccountable and obstinate rulers, and scarce and shoddy goods. 

Last but not least, in the Soviet case, the system’s highly authoritarian variant of socialism was a result of a revolution; a revolution, moreover, that occurred inside a bloody world war and was followed by a civil war, that – for Russia – was even bloodier. Against these experiences, “socialism” is associated with violent upheaval and that, in turn, with devastation.

We should be careful, however, this may also be one of those cases, where the answer to a poll question depends strongly not on its actual content, but its packaging, the phrasing. How would the respondents have answered if they had been asked about issues of equality and solidarity, but in terms avoiding the trigger words “left” and “socialist”? 

Moreover, if you think that a dislike of “socialism” necessarily translates into enthusiasm for the market, Russia will complicate your idea of the world. In the same country that has little time for the left, only 32% of respondents saw themselves as “adherents of market economy transformations,” while a solid majority of 58% did not. 

If we look at the whole – fairly short – poll and not only at the question about democracy, we see a society that does not like market economy reforms very much, seems cool about democracy, and cannot stand “socialism.” 

Yet, as with “socialism,” we should ask what Russians actually associate with the terms “democracy”? There are two good answers to this question, one complex, the other simple. 

The complex answer has to do with the fact that in Russia, as in the rest of the world, the term “democracy” is multifaceted. It takes no “relativism” to note that democracy can take different shapes. It can be, for instance, heavily constrained by elements of oligarchy, such as in the US. Critical observers could plausibly argue that Washington is, actually, run by an oligarchy ever more weakly constrained by democracy. It can be centralized with a strong executive, such as in France, or decentralized with an executive of less power and visibility, such as in Switzerland. Democracy can come with relatively strong redistribution of income and wealth, or not. It can be more “social” or more “market,” or make a special point of trying to reconcile these two tendencies, such as postwar West Germany.

Moreover, democracy is an ideal at least as much as a reality: Arguably, despite herdlike assertions to the contrary, humanity has, unfortunately, not yet produced a genuine democracy. The idea has been around, but not the fact. Every single polity that has called itself democratic up until now has been so in a substantially flawed manner at best, be it because of degrees of social inequality that are not reconcilable with true political equality – and you don’t need Marx to understand this simple fact, Aristotle will do – or the interference of exclusivist ideologies, such as racism or nationalism. 

Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the real-existing differences in failing or succeeding (relatively speaking) at democracy matter, a lot: It makes sense to classify some states as democratic (by the standards of our age and as by comparison with other states), while other states won’t qualify. As of now, two of the minimum conditions that being labeled a democracy requires are that incumbent rulers can effectively be removed from office by an equal and fair system of voting. And that all adults under de facto long-term rule can participate in such elections, at the very least passively, that is by voting, if not also actively, that is by standing for office. 

These conditions mean that Israel is no democracy as long as it exerts de facto long-term rule over a large disenfranchised population of Palestinians. The US was, at best, an extremely incomplete democracy before the Voting Rights Act of 1965 at long last addressed the systematic disenfranchisement of black Americans. Despite the existence of political parties and some competition, Russia as well cannot make a convincing case for being labeled a democracy now, given its elections do not credibly expose the incumbent rulers to the risk of loss of office.

Let’s be clear about one thing, however: Not being a democracy is not something that should ever be abused to target a country for outside intervention, because viable, lasting democracy cannot be imposed from outside (except under extremely rare and unusual conditions that are anything but typical). And because once “democracy promotion” is treated as a justification for interference and intervention, the real aim of such activities always ends up being something else, namely geopolitical power advantage. In that process of pretext and misguided “assistance,” democracy is demeaned and its reputation damaged. Western maitre penseurs who lend their names to such ideological cover-ups are naive or detestable.

Against this backdrop of complexity and politicization, we have some evidence on how Russians understand the word “democracy.” Thus, important survey research published 10 years ago by Henry Hale, an American political scientist, revealed three important findings. First, “many of the studies claiming to find evidence of mass authoritarian sentiment in Russia are based at least in part on misinterpreting terms that are assumed to have the same meaning in Russia as elsewhere (such as ‘democracy’ or ‘strong hand’).” Second, the putative Russian mass preference for autocracy (the “tsar” of widespread cliches) is a misleading myth. Third, instead, many Russians show a preference for what political science calls “delegative democracy,” or, in the words of the study worth quoting in full: “a strong leader who is largely unconstrained by other institutions in solving Russia’s immense challenges of transition, but Russians are also quite clear that they simultaneously want and expect to choose that leader through free, fair and competitive elections and to have the right to remove that leader in the same way should things go wrong. Russians are thus strikingly principled in rejecting outright autocracy…” 

Hale is no starry-eyed optimist. He has recently reiterated his sense of disappointment with Russia’s politics. But he has also restated his argument that Russian politics are not shaped by deep cultural predispositions toward autocracy. 

The second, straightforward answer to the question of what Russians think of when you say “democracy” has to do with recent experience, still well within living memory: Whereas “socialism” can’t shake off bad memories produced in the Soviet period, between 1917 and 1991, “democracy” suffers from being associated with the 1990s. 

Perhaps there are still some obdurate Western observers who won’t let go of the illusion that Russians experienced “democracy” in that decade of relentless post-Soviet aftershocks and disruption. But that’s not even a half-truth, it's merely an ideological self-deception. In reality, this was a time not only of insecurity, impoverishment, and humiliation, but also of a political system that can be described as oligarcho-mafiotic, not democratic in any meaningful sense of the term. It was also a moment of massive and, in essence, open Western interference in Russia’s domestic politics, another feature that clashes with any self-respecting definition of democracy.

Yet the tragedy is that this sad, corrupt, low decade was sold under the label of “democracy.” If you had been challenged to find the most efficient way of disabusing Russians of democracy, you could not have found a more devastating approach than applying the term to the 1990s. And that is why it is actually astonishing how many Russians are not giving up on the idea. While the greedy oligarchs, the ruthless “reformers,” the cynical leaders of the 1990s, and their Western sponsors and advisers did their worst to give democracy as bad a reputation as “socialism” in Russia, Russians are far less skeptical of democracy than of “socialism.” There’s hope in that.

Australia’s Morrison contradicts Biden, says US knew Canberra

didn’t warn France about ditching submarine deal in favor of AUKUS

31 Oct, 2021 08:08

Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison arrives for the G20 leaders summit in Rome.

© Reuters / Guglielmo Mangiapane

Canberra had kept Washington updated on its dealings with France, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison insists, despite US President Joe Biden earlier saying that he thought Paris knew about the AUKUS pact beforehand.

France was left stunned and even said it was stabbed in the back after the surprise announcement of the AUKUS deal by the leaders of the US, UK, and Australia in mid-September. The reaction was so harsh because the new plan to arm Canberra with a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines resulted in the Australian government unilaterally canceling the $90 billion diesel-electric submarine contract with Paris. France even recalled its ambassadors from Washington and Canberra, though they have both since returned.

When addressed on the trio’s falling out with Paris during the G20 Summit in Rome on Saturday, Morrison told reporters that Canberra “kept the US administration up to date on the status of what the conversations and discussions had been with the French government.”

“We worked closely with the US and the UK. We kept them up-to-date – the administration – as to where we were at in our various discussions with France,” he told the media.

The prime minister again defended the decision to abandon the French contract, saying the Australian government needed to “ensure we had the right submarine capability to deal with our strategic interests.”

“There was never an easy way for us, I think, to get to a point where we had to disappoint a friend and partner – it was a difficult decision, but for Australia, it was the right decision.”

However, Morrison’s comments didn’t line up with the account offered by Biden to French President Emmanuel Macron during their talks in Rome a day earlier.

The US president apologized to Macron, saying he was “under the impression that France had been informed long before that the deal [with Canberra] was not going through.”

“What we did was clumsy,” Biden said of the treatment of Paris regarding AUKUS. “It wasn’t done with a lot of grace.” It’s not clear if the remark was made in reference to his own administration or both the US and the Australian governments.

During the summit in Rome on Saturday, Morrison and Macron got together for the first time since the diplomatic scandal erupted. It was a brief and informal meeting ahead of the official photograph of the G20 leaders.

The Media is the Message > How Society Really Works; GSFNC - Geo. Soros Fake News Co.; Tulsi Slams Admin Over Assange

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Brilliant, unattributed analysis of why you should not trust

the mainstream intelligentsia, ever.

I'm not sure who wrote this, although I have my suspicions, but it is brilliant and one of the most accurate analyses of how society works in a fallen world.

Jeffrey writes:

The 1920s Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci was right about a lot of things. Hegemony is the idea that power structures persist because they control what people think about them. They don't persist because they are good, just, or beneficial. They persist because they control all the institutions which collectively create the narrative of society. Essentially the rich and powerful hire a High Priest Class, which consists of the best salesman and talkers that they can buy. The High Priests are given a cut, and the dissidents are harassed - to include prison, torture, or death if need be.

The upshot of this is that the intelligentsia of societies are rarely to be believed. People are led to believe that the intelligentsia have earned their positions on account of their wisdom and skills, and thus they are models spouting truth. In reality, they are bought off by the powerful. A Sports hero might rise because of his skills but his salary will be paid if he endorses a shoe or a beer or whatever. People know for their political thoughts, such as reporters and pundits, are paid almost entirely by the powerful to endorse the continuation of systems which have made them powerful. But whereas Nike won't try to destroy a player who won't endorse their shoes, the political game is much rougher. There is a great salary for going along and ostracization and far worse those that don't.

Therefore, in almost every society the elites are simply a caste of the best liars. Almost all societies have been tyrannies. And didn't every one of those tyrannies have an intelligentsia that supported it wholeheartedly?

You betcha.

All the smartest people in my society can't be wrong???  Think again.  

In every tyranny (i.e., almost all societies), the entire intelligentsia are whores who can't be believed. And they all have the degrees and titles and awards - bestowed not for truthfulness but for faithfully playing their role in upholding the powerful. Anyone who tells the truth about the nature of the tyranny has been ejected from the intelligentsia.

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George Soros backs liberal media company with a mission

to counter fake news & promote ‘GOOD INFORMATION’

26 Oct, 2021 23:43 

©  goodinfo.us/screenshot

By Nebojsa Malic, senior writer at RT

The newest combatant in the US ‘disinformation’ wars is a media company bankrolled by Democrat mega-donors Reid Hoffman and George Soros, and run by an operative whose astroturfed local news outfit was actual misinformation.

Good Information, Inc. launched on Tuesday as “a civic incubator committed to investing in immediate solutions that counter disinformation and increase the flow of good information online.” According to Axios, it is bankrolled by LinkedIn co-founder Hoffman, Soros, as well as Silicon valley investors Ken and Jen Duda and Incite Ventures.

Tara McGowan, a former Democratic strategist who worked on Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s 2012 and 2016 campaigns – and ran a progressive nonprofit called ACRONYM that spent a whopping $100 million on a digital ad campaign to defeat Donald Trump in 2020 – has been put in charge of the venture. 

I'm sure she will be truthful and unbiased!!!!

ACRONYM was a major investor in Shadow, the outfit that mangled the results of the Iowa Caucuses early on in the Democratic primary process, hurting the candidacy of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Another of its operations, Courier Newsroom, will be sold to Good Information for an undisclosed sum; McGowan reportedly recused herself from the deal. 

Ironically, Courier Newsroom was repeatedly called out as misinformation, including by NewsGuard – another major player in the “disinfo” wars – in the pages of the Washington Post no less.

“Courier Newsroom is a clandestine political operation,” wrote NewsGuard’s Gabby Deutch, who described it as “a different, more tech-savvy form of political misinformation.”

Courier and Acronym are “exploiting the widespread loss of local journalism to create and disseminate something we really don’t need: hyperlocal partisan propaganda,” Deutch added in a February 2020 article.

None of that prevented McGowan from gushing about her new venture as something that will fix the “broken, divisive information ecosystem in which we find ourselves today” that is “an all-hands-on-deck challenge for American democracy.”

“I still believe that winning elections is necessary to preserving our democracy,” she added. “But the information crisis is bigger than politics – and requires solutions beyond it.”

To prove that her new outfit won’t be a hyper-partisan Democrat operation, McGowan cited The Bulwark, “a center-right news site founded in opposition to Trumpism,” as an example of a conservative news outlet Good Information could support. Left unsaid is that the Bulwark are “conservatives” in name only, whose obsessive hatred of Trump has them endorsing just about every Democrat running for any office in the US. 

The new company’s advisory board tells a similar story, consisting of mainly Democrat activists advocating for censorship. One notable name that leaps out is Nandini Jammi, previously of the pressure group Sleeping Giants who then launched her own operation called Check My Ads. Jammi’s modus operandi is to contact advertisers and services used by people she disagrees with, and call them racist.

All of this, however, pales in comparison to the chief founder of the new venture. Namely, Hoffman publicly apologized in December 2018 for funding New Knowledge, a Democrat tech outfit advising the Senate Intelligence Committee on “Russian meddling” in US elections.

That’s because New Knowledge admitted to running a false-flag “Russian bot” campaign to get a Democrat elected in the special election for the Senate in Alabama the year prior. 

Again, the only actual meddling in US elections by ‘Russian bots’ turned out to be a false flag by a Democrat-run tech company. New Knowledge has since rebranded while its operatives moved up to bigger and better things – such as the Stanford Internet Observatory, another major “disinfo” player.

Soros, of course, is well known for lavishly funding Democrat candidates and causes, from backing California Governor Gavin Newsom against the recent recall initiative to dropping massive quantities of cash into local elections for district attorneys in major US cities and counties over the past several years.

More recently, he has pivoted to condemning “false and misleading information” allegedly proliferating online.

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‘Another nail in the coffin of democracy’: Tulsi Gabbard slams

Biden administration’s ‘crusade’ against Julian Assange

28 Oct, 2021 19:13

© Reuters / Henry Nicholls

Former Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has called out the “Biden-Garland administration” for its “vindictive retaliatory crusade against Julian Assange,” warning it was a slippery slope to the demise of American democracy.

“If they succeed in [extraditing Assange], this will be yet another nail in the coffin of democracy here in our country and around the world,” Gabbard warned in a video posted to social media on Thursday. 

The Democratic representative slammed what she referred to as the “increasingly authoritarian Biden-Garland administration,” dodging any mention of Vice President Kamala Harris in favor of Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Gabbard’s dislike of the VP is well known and her debate-stage takedown of Harris’ controversial record as attorney general of California is pointed to by some as the moment the senator's own presidential campaign went up in flames.

In its continued persecution of Assange, Gabbard declared, the Biden administration was “doubling down on its crusade against our constitutionally protected rights,” specifically those protected by the First Amendment: freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of the press. 

The clip came just a day after prosecutors issued a series of “binding” assurances aimed at defusing concerns over the WikiLeaks publisher’s mental health were he to end up in a US prison. Assange’s attorneys have said they fear he might commit suicide if extradited to the US, where he faces a sentence of up to 175 years in jail on charges related to obtaining and publishing classified government and military documents. 

A group of civil-liberties campaigners co-signed a letter earlier this month urging Garland to drop the charges against Assange as the US’ efforts to extradite him continue. While UK judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled in January that the publisher could not be extradited due to concerns regarding his mental health, Washington on Wednesday put forth a number of conditions apparently aimed at assuaging such concerns. 

Assange would receive “any clinical and psychological treatment” recommended by prison doctors and would not be sent to the US “super-max” prison ADX Florence, nor would he be sentenced to a restrictive form of solitary confinement unless he committed a “further offense” – a nebulously defined qualification that has raised eyebrows among his supporters. Additionally, he could apply to serve his sentence in his native Australia rather than in the US. 

However, Assange’s lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald QC, dismissed the conditions as “caveated, vague, or simply ineffective,” including the offer to serve his sentence in Australia, which has not consented to housing him.

Amnesty International also blasted the so-called assurances as “not worth the paper they’re written on,” saying they were not, in fact, legally binding. 

The WikiLeaks co-founder has been locked up at Belmarsh Prison since April 2019, after he was dragged out of London’s Ecuadorian Embassy by police. He had been granted asylum by former president Rafael Correa in 2012, only for Correa’s successor Lenín Moreno to permit British law enforcement agents to enter the diplomatic mission to arrest Assange on arguably defunct charges of bail-jumping.

Gabbard’s condemnation of the Biden administration over its continuation of its predecessor’s pursuit of Assange was criticized by some, who recalled the Hawaii congresswoman’s endorsement of the Democrat for president during the 2020 election.

Covid 19 > FDA Recognizes Heart Issues With Moderna; Fauci Slams Rand Paul; Swedish Inquiry Slams Government

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Increased risk of heart inflammation from Moderna Covid jab in

young men, US regulator says, after suspensions in Nordic nations

22 Oct, 2021 12:08

FILE PHOTO: A vial containing doses of the Moderna vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and syringes are pictured at Japan Airlines (JAL) facility where its staff receive the vaccines at Haneda airport in Tokyo, Japan June 14, 2021.

© Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reiterated the risk of heart inflammation in young men following vaccination with Moderna’s Covid-19 jab after a handful of Nordic nations halted its use in this age group.

In an announcement released on Wednesday, the body shared that “ongoing analyses from the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) safety surveillance systems have identified increased risks of inflammatory heart conditions, myocarditis and pericarditis following vaccination with the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.”

As per the statement, this risk has been seen particularly following the second dose, with symptoms appearing a few days after receiving the jab.

“The observed risk is higher among males under 40 years of age, particularly males 18 through 24, than among females and older males,” the notice read.

The comments in the FDA press release echo similar concerns from Nordic nations that led to Spikevax, the marketing name for Moderna’s Covid vaccine, to be suspended in some form.

Icelandic health authorities announced on October 8 that it will no longer administer Moderna’s mRNA shot due to the risk of rare heart inflammation seen in other Nordic countries.

The director of Finland’s National Institution for Health and Welfare, Mika Salminen, said that “A Nordic study involving Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark found that men under the age of 30 who received Moderna Spikevax had a slightly higher risk than others of developing myocarditis.”

The findings prompted Helsinki to announce that men born in 1991 and after would no longer be given the jab.

Sweden, just one day prior, froze the use of Spikevax on all of its population under 30, citing an “increased incidence” of heart inflammation diseases, myocarditis and pericarditis. Meanwhile, Norway recommends that men under the age of 30 opt for Pfizer’s jab instead.

Concerns over heart inflammation after receiving mRNA jabs from both Pfizer and Moderna, however, are not new. In June, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to the CDC revealed a total of 323 preliminary incidents, of what met the CDC definition of myocarditis or pericarditis, were recorded in Americans under the age of 29. A total of 309 of those were hospitalized.

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Fauci slams Rand Paul’s claims US-funded bat virus research led to

Covid-19 after senator demands his firing amid longstanding row

25 Oct, 2021 13:18

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies at a Senate Health,

Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on July 20, 2021 in Washington, DC.

© AFP /Getty Images / Stefani Reynolds-Pool

White House Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci has lashed out at claims made by Senator Rand Paul that US-funded bat virus research in China could have spawned Covid-19, rebuffing the idea as “molecularly impossible.”

Speaking on Sunday to ABC News, Fauci blasted accusations made by Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had funded research in Wuhan which resulted in the origination of the coronavirus: “He's absolutely incorrect. Neither I nor Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the NIH, lied or misled about what we've done.”

The senator also called for Fauci to be fired by US President Joe Biden “for lack of judgement,” and said it is unlikely he will “admit that he lied” in an interview with Axios on HBO. “He's gonna continue to dissemble, and try to work around the truth, and massage the truth,” Paul remarked.

Of course, no one can ever admit doing anything close to willfully creating the CV19 virus.

The remarks come after the NIH’s principal deputy director, Lawrence Tabak, revealed last week that nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance did experiment on coronaviruses in China with the organization’s funding, but he denied this had anything to do with the virus that causes Covid-19.

Fauci also reiterated this and said that the viruses being studied “were distant enough molecularly that no matter what you did to them, they could never, ever become SARS-CoV-2.” It would be “molecularly impossible,” he insisted.

In a letter sent to Republican lawmakers, Tabak said the experiment found mice infected with one bat coronavirus “became sicker than those” given another type.

Despite there being a 96-97% similarity between SARS-CoV-2 and the RaTG13 and BANAL-52 bat coronaviruses, Tabak insisted “the bat coronaviruses studied under the EcoHealth Alliance grant could not have been the source of … the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The World Health Organization announced a renewed probe to determine the origins of the coronavirus earlier this month. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian promised that Beijing would continue to support and participate in finding out where the virus came from, but said it will “firmly oppose any form of political manipulation.”

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Government response to Covid-19 was too slow and insufficient

to stop spread, Swedish commission finds

29 Oct, 2021 12:37

People enjoy the sun at an outdoor restaurant during first wave of Covid-19 in Stockholm, Sweden

(FILE PHOTO) © TT News Agency/Janerik Henriksson via REUTERS

A commission appointed by the government has said that Sweden’s interventions at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic were insufficient to prevent the spread of the virus, and the state’s preparedness was substandard.

The commission investigating the government’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic has issued a scathing interim report, accusing the state of introducing measures too late to prevent the spread of the deadly virus. 

“Sweden’s handling of the pandemic has been marked by a slowness of response,” the commission stated, adding that “the initial disease prevention and control measures were insufficient to stop or even substantially limit the spread of the virus in the country.” 

The commission also contended that it had taken “far too long” to build sufficient testing capacity as, at first, only targeted groups, such as healthcare staff, were able to get tested.

Sweden embarked on a no-lockdown strategy with tighter restrictions added during later waves of the pandemic. The country had recorded around 15,000 deaths from the virus, substantially more than its Nordic neighbors who locked down quickly. 

The strategy, largely reflecting the now-defunct Great Barrington Declaration, was controversial at home and abroad as preventative measures were dropped in favor of asking the public to make their own decisions.

The move was praised by some who saw the model as more business friendly, and some predicted naturally developing herd immunity would eventually slow the spread of the virus.

The commission will deliver its final findings in a 2022 report, although the interim reports have been highly critical of the government. Beyond making its findings public, the commission has no legal power.

Nearly all Covid-19 measures have now been removed in Sweden.

Bits and Bites From Around the World > Insurance Co. shamed in Russia; PETA Worries Bovine Baseball Beasts Bullied; More Power for Hapless Harris - Sharpton

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Russian mother ordered to pay for repairs to train that mowed down 15-year-old son

has bill scrapped after public outcry – reports

29 Oct, 2021 18:19

© Unsplash / Sasha Yudaev

A Russian woman was reportedly told to cover maintenance costs after her son was killed by a high-speed train, with insurance bosses’ requests for compensation only withdrawn after the firm came under fire in the press.

In a statement issued to journalists on Friday, insurance company Rosgosstrakh said that it is now looking to return around 400,000 rubles ($5,645) paid by the family of the tragic boy since the 2019 incident. While the company insisted it is legally bound to collect funds on behalf of its clients, the statement said that “unfortunately the automated collection process may not take into account the social consequences for a particular person or family.”

The response, published by Moscow’s TV Dozhd, registered as a foreign agent by Russia’s Ministry of Justice, comes amid a public outcry after details of the case came to light. According to reports, the schoolboy was killed while walking across a ground-level pedestrian crossing at a railway station just outside Moscow. The 15-year-old is said to have been wearing headphones and did not hear the high-speed train coming down the tracks on its way into the Russian capital.

The young man, whose name has not been released, was thrown around 50 meters from the collision and died before emergency workers could get to the scene, sources say. According to Dozhd, Rosgosstrakh compensated the owner of the train, Russian Railways, for maintenance work in the aftermath of the fatal incident, and elected to collect damages from his family, alleging that he had violated station rules by being on the track.

“In order to avoid transfer of collection to the judicial stage and an increase in the amount of debt, you need to pay an amount of 400,972.37 rubles within 10 days from the date of receipt of this letter,” a letter to the family reportedly reads. The company is now looking into the best route to return the funds to the bereaved mother.

It is so good to see that the conscience of Russian people is growing. There have been a few such stories where people have stood up for those badly treated. 40 or 50 years ago, such a thing would never have happened.

‘This can’t be real’: MLB fans in hysterics as animal rights watchdog

PETA deems the term ‘bullpen’ insensitive to cows

And they should have mentioned that "dugouts" are insensitive to dead and buried people!

28 Oct, 2021 18:42

The 'bullpen' could change names to be more respectful to cow rights © Bill Streicher / USA Today Sports via Reuters | © Agustin Marcarian / Reuters

Animal rights group PETA has called on baseball chiefs to change the term 'bullpen' to something a little less offensive to cows, such as 'arm barn', after complaining that the word "mocks the misery of sensitive animals".

And, I'm sure they are really upset about it!

PETA, or the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, have long positioned themselves as a voice for mistreated animals – something which only the most sociopathic in society would fundamentally disagree with.

But the watchdog has occasionally come under fire for what some see as overstepping their boundaries when it comes to ethics and animal rights.

And judging by the latest decree by the group, this seems to be one of those occasions. 

"As the World Series turns into a pitching duel, PETA is pitching a proposal to the baseball world," they announced.

"Strike out the word 'bullpen,' which references the holding area where terrified bulls are kept before slaughter, in favor of a more modern, animal-friendly term. PETA's suggestion? The arm barn.

"Words matter, and baseball 'bullpens' devalue talented players and mock the misery of sensitive animals," added PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman.

"PETA encourages Major League Baseball coaches, announcers, players, and fans to changeup their language and embrace the 'arm barn' instead."

According to RT Sport's analysis, the term 'bullpen' has been used in baseball since the 1870s – and has since migrated to several other definitions, also including holding cells used by police to detain criminals.

It has also been used by Marvel comics to describe their array of writers – 'The Marvel Bullpen' – as well as its original meaning as a holding pen for, well, bulls.

Given that the term has been associated with baseball for around 150 years, it would take a gigantic effort to change the word at this point in time – and surely the term 'arm barn' isn't the one that's going to replace it.

"Does PETA know what baseballs and baseball gloves are made with?" asked one fan in response to the report.

"The cows must have discussed this during their recent town hall meeting," joked another. "Just very upset and finally had enough."

"They got this from [satirical site] The Onion... this can't be real," said a third.

=========================================================================================

Democratic agitator Al Sharpton leans on Biden to give

Kamala Harris ‘more positions of power’

Oh, God! Help us!

29 Oct, 2021 00:05

©  Reuters / Evelyn Hockstein

MSNBC host and Democrat power-broker Al Sharpton has called for US President Joe Biden to “use” VP Kamala Harris more effectively going forward, despite her perceived failure to handle her existing responsibilities at the border.

Sharpton, whose National Action Network is a powerful player in Democratic Party politics, has called for Harris to be better deployed within the Biden administration. In an interview with The Root on Tuesday, he expressed dissatisfaction with the “marginal positions” and called for Biden to give the first-ever black and female VP “more positions of power,” suggesting “her being in charge of voting was important,” but that something more was required.

“I would like the president to put her in charge of the voting package and criminal justice. Also, he needs to put Kamala at the forefront of the George Floyd bill that he promised to get through,” he said, referring to a police reform bill that died in Congress last month. Neither party could reach an agreement on the legislation, and Biden has pledged to examine “further executive actions” in the hope of pushing some parts of the package through.

Harris “was a prosecutor and a state attorney general, so she knows the criminal justice system and understands both sides,” Sharpton opined, adding that “she is also a Black woman in the time of Breonna Taylor and other Black women who have suffered racism, so I think that she should have those assignments and be able to get certain things to Congress.”

However, Harris’ tenure as California state attorney general was not exactly kind to black women. They were more likely to be caught up in her infamous anti-truancy campaign, which saw parents locked up when their children failed to attend school. Despite attempting to distance herself from the program, video of her laughing over the initiative surfaced during the 2020 presidential primaries, helping sink her campaign. Harris’ office also attempted to cover up a massive scandal within the state’s crime lab and infamously attempted to withhold DNA evidence that could have exonerated a death row prisoner.

Despite her controversial criminal justice record, Sharpton insisted he wanted to see Harris “thrive,” vowing to “communicate that to the president,” but discreetly. 

“It would be unwise for me to have her at my event and use that as a platform to raise the issue, so instead, I will speak directly to the President,” he reasoned.

Harris was tasked earlier this year with managing the immigration crisis at the US-Mexico border, an assignment she largely ignored for several months as unprecedented numbers of migrants streamed into the country. An all-time record of 1.7 million arrivals have been detained in the fiscal year 2021.

While the Biden-Harris administration initially adopted a welcoming posture toward the crowds of immigrants surging into the US illegally, Harris was forced to roll back the welcome mat, belatedly telling the masses “Don’t come” or “you will be turned back.” However, neither Mexican nor American authorities have thus far been able to halt the human tide, and a thousands-strong caravan broke through a border crossing between Mexico and Guatemala last week, headed for Mexico City and ultimately the US.

The Biden administration has quietly readopted some of its predecessor’s border policies, despite running on a platform that denounced them as “racist.” Next month, the White House will reinstate Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, requiring migrants to wait out their asylum proceedings there instead of being permitted to live freely in the US while awaiting their court hearing. Attempts to revoke it were stopped in court in August, after Texas and Missouri filed lawsuits arguing the reversal had led to an uncontrollable influx of illegal immigrants.

Islam - Current Day > Nutcase Brit Murders Sisters; Sanctions for Iran's Drone Program; Tunisia Takes Down Two ISIS Cells

..

British man gets 35 years for killing sisters in demon lottery plot

By UPI Staff

Oct. 28 (UPI) -- A British man who prosecutors say was obsessed with demons and killed two sisters because he thought it would help him win a lottery jackpot was sentenced Thursday to more than three decades in prison.

Nineteen-year-old Danyal Hussein was given two 35-year jail sentences, one for each of his victims, which will be served concurrently.

Hussein killed Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman in a London park during a birthday celebration in June 2020. He stabbed Henry eight times and Smallman 28 times before dragging their bodies into a wooded area.

He later told authorities that he planned to kill six women every six months as part of a pact that he believed would bring him wealth through the Mega Millions Super Jackpot lottery.

The court said it handed down a lesser sentence due to Hussein's young age and the fact that he's been diagnosed on the autism spectrum. In Britain, a convict must be at least 21 to receive a life sentence.

Hussein will be eligible for release after 35 years if officials conclude that he no longer presents a danger to the public.

Mina Smallman, the girls' mother, said she's considering a campaign to oppose Britain's minimum age for life sentencing.

US Treasury imposes sanctions against Iran’s Revolutionary Guard

commanders, companies over alleged drone attacks on ships

29 Oct, 2021 19:08

FILE PHOTO: A drone is pictured during a large-scale drone combat exercise of 

Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in Semnan, Iran, on January 4, 2021.

©  Reuters / WANA (West Asia News Agency) / Iranian Army

The US Treasury has slapped sanctions on two Iranian generals and firms over their involvement in the Islamic Republic’s drone program which, according to Washington, led to attacks on ships, including the Mercer Street tanker.

The companies and individuals added to the US sanctions list on Friday “provided critical support to the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) programs of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),” the Treasury Department claimed in a statement.

The department then said that the IRGC “expeditionary unit” – the Quds force – supplied “lethal UAVs” to various groups across the Middle East, allegedly including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas militants in Gaza, Houthis in Yemen, and even Ethiopia.

There is more on this story here.

Tunisia reports dismantling two ISIS-linked cells in days,

one cell was planning attacks

29 Oct, 2021 19:37

FILE PHOTO: Military forces and police are seen in downtown Tunis, Tunisia, on March 24 2020.

©  Reuters / Zoubeir Souissi

Tunisian forces have dismantled two extremist cells linked to Islamic State active in various parts of the country. At least one of them was plotting terrorist attacks, according to the Interior Ministry.

One cell was uncovered by the Tunisian authorities in the southern city of Tataouine, the ministry said on Friday, adding that the extremists sought to attack the military and security forces.

“They planned to carry out terrorist attacks targeting the security and military units in the region (Tataouine), using explosive devices,” the ministry said in a statement.

The authorities did not provide any details about the number of cell members involved, or the measures taken against them. The ministry also did not reveal how security forces detected the extremists.

Earlier, the spokesman of the Tunisian National Guard, Hossam Eddine Al-Jabali, said in a Facebook post that the authorities had arrested members of a “female cell” active in Tunisia’s western regions, between the provinces of Kef and Tozeur.

Its mission was reportedly to attract other women online and make them join Islamic State. The group was “linked to terrorists affiliated with the so-called Caliphate Soldiers Organization settled in the Tunisian mountains,” Al-Jabali said. The Caliphate Soldiers Organization is itself an IS affiliate, he added.

All members of the female cell were arrested and put into custody, the national guard spokesman said.

Tunisia has seen several terrorist attacks since 2011. The number of incidents has risen since 2013, with dozens of security and military personnel, as well as tourists, killed in such attacks. Six years ago, an IS extremist killed 39 foreign tourists on a beach in the once-popular vacation hotspot of Sousse, triggering a visitor exodus that impacted the nation’s economy.

Approaching Sodom > PC Madness in Universities; Virology Labs - Crimes Against Humanity? Politicizing the FBI - Cruz Rips Garland

..

Head of UC Berkeley climate research hub resigns in protest after

invitation to host Chicago professor blocked amid woke row

19 Oct, 2021 09:48

©REUTERS/Mike Hutchings / ©Octavio Jones / GETTY via AFP

A UC Berkeley climate researcher has resigned after his request to host a fellow scientist from the University of Chicago was denied. The Chicago professor was targeted by ‘woke’ students due to his views on diversity admissions.

The threat of climate change is less acute than the threat of woke academics hearing a speech by a professor whose views on diversity admissions to US campuses they despise. This seems to be the conclusion from the unfolding controversy surrounding Dorian Abbot, a geophysicist who holds tenure at the University of Chicago.

Actually, I believe that woke, PCMad people are so self-righteous that they believe anyone who disagrees with them in one area must also be completely wrong in all areas, and therefore not worth listening to, and should be barred from having any kind of voice at all.

Abbot was scheduled to deliver a lecture on climate change and exoplanets at MIT, but it was cancelled earlier this month due to pressure from students, who disagree with his political views. The professor is a vocal critic of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) effort in US academia, which he sees as detrimental to scientific pursuit. Abbot’s opponents have been organizing public pressure campaigns to ostracize him, and have succeeded in stopping him from speaking at the Massachusetts university.

Abbot has his supporters in academia, and one of them is David M. Romps, head of the Berkeley Atmospheric Sciences Center (BASC) at UC Berkeley. In a Twitter thread on Monday, he explained how his intention to have the Chicago researcher deliver his prepared MIT speech at the California university resulted in him submitting his resignation.

By having Abbot talk about “Climate and the Potential for Life on Other Planets,” as his lecture at the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Science was titled, UC Berkeley would “reaffirm that BASC is a purely scientific organization, not a political one,” Romps said.

The prestigious annual John Carlson Lecture at MIT, for which Abbot was booked, is meant for the general public rather than professional scientists. BASC hosted Abbot as speaker in 2014, before he came forward with his views on DEI. Romps’ proposal was apparently not viewed favorably by his faculty.

“In the ensuing discussion among the BASC faculty, it became unclear to me whether we could invite that scientist ever again, let alone now,” he said. Romps believes that excluding people from climate research based on their political views is detrimental to the stated mission of BASC.

“I hold BASC and its faculty -- my friends and colleagues -- in the highest regard, and so it has been a great honor to serve as BASC's director these past five years. But it was never my intention to lead an organization that is political or even ambiguously so,” he said, explaining his decision to step down.

Abbot became a target for what he calls an “outrage mob” last year, after he released a series of YouTube videos arguing his opposition to DEI. At the time, people unhappy with his views said they “threaten the safety and belonging of all underrepresented groups” at his department. Critics demanded that the university take several measures against Abbot, which boiled down to allowing students and postdocs to boycott him without repercussions.

The professor eventually took down the videos but has not changed his position, which he outlined in an August opinion piece published in Newsweek. He believes DEI stifles colleges’ ability to enroll students based on their merits and unfairly punishes individuals for belonging to groups that are supposedly overrepresented at campuses, like white people or males.

The result is both detrimental to the primary goal of universities – which is to seek truth and generate knowledge – and inherently unjust to people, who are being discriminated against. Ultimately, graduates who are supposed to benefit from DEI suffer too, since their degrees lose value in the eyes of the public, he wrote.

A better approach, Abbot believes, would be getting rid of legacy and athletic admission advantages, making the evaluation of applicants more robust and unbiased, and spending university resources on talent support programs in underprivileged communities.

“American universities are diverse not because of DEI, but because they have been extremely competitive at attracting talent from all over the world,” he concluded his piece. “Ninety years ago Germany had the best universities in the world. Then an ideological regime obsessed with race came to power and drove many of the best scholars out, gutting the faculties and leading to sustained decay that German universities never fully recovered from.”

He said the Nazi example was a warning to American academia. Though the article seemingly didn’t give his detractors on US campuses much pause for thought, not everyone has been discouraged by their continued pressure. His canceled MIT lecture is now scheduled to be shown on a Zoom call hosted by the James Madison Program at Princeton University.

Newly Released Documents Show NIH Funded Gain-of-Function

Research in China: Experts

This aerial view shows the P4 laboratory (C) on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on May 27, 2020. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

BY ZACHARY STIEBER 

October 22, 2021

Epoch Times

The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded research in China that created a more potent form of a bat coronavirus, according to newly disclosed documents.

An experiment conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, situated near where the first cases of COVID-19 were reported, compared mice infected with the original bat coronavirus to mice infected with a modified strain created by researchers, according to the documents.

The mice infected with the modified version “became sicker than those infected” with the original version, Lawrence Tabak, the principal deputy director at the NIH, told lawmakers in letters (pdf) on Oct. 20.

The “limited experiment” was aimed at seeing if “spike proteins from naturally occurring bat coronaviruses circulating in China were capable of binding to the human ACE2 receptor in a mouse model,” Tabak wrote, adding that the “unexpected result” was not “something that the researchers set out to do.”

Whether intended or not, the research fits the definition of gain-of-function, some experts say.

“The genetic manipulation of both MERS and the SARS conducted in Wuhan clearly constituted gain-of-function experiments,” Jonathan Latham, executive director of The Bioscience Research Project, told The Epoch Times in an email. “Further, it is absurd of NIH to describe the enhanced viral pathogenicity that was observed in the experiments they funded as ‘unexpected’ when clearly these experiments were expressly designed to detect increased pathogenicity.”

The NIH “corrects untruthful assertions by NIH Director Collins and NIAID Director Fauci that NIH had not funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan,” Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist with Rutgers University, wrote on Twitter.

The newly released documents primarily consist of the fifth and final progress report (pdf) for the series of grants. The report was submitted on Aug. 3, over two years after the research concluded.

Which would mean that the research was likely concluded in 2019, right about when the coronavirus made its public debut down the street.

EcoHealth’s final report also contained a description of experimenting on clones of MERS-CoV, a virus that caused an outbreak in the Middle East in 2012 and has a mortality rate of approximately 35 percent, according to the World Health Organization.

The scientists said they used a “similar reverse genetics strategy” that they utilized in studies of the bat coronaviruses and, after constructing a “full-length infectious clone of MERS-CoV,” they replaced the receptor binding domain of the virus with domains from various strains of coronaviruses identified in bats from southern China.

Jack Nunberg, a virologist and director of the Montana Biotechnology Center at the University of Montana, told The Epoch Times in an email that both viruses use the same receptor protein.

“By keeping to the same receptor protein, I’d label the experiment overly risky (due to the pathogenic backbone and their previous findings of increased virulence in some chimeras) but not blatantly” gain-of-function, he said.

Both Dr. Francis Collins, the outgoing director of the NIH, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, who heads the agency’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), have denied the agency has funded gain-of-function research in China.

“Neither NIH nor NIAID have ever approved any grant that would have supported ‘gain-of-function’ research on coronaviruses that would have increased their transmissibility or lethality for humans,” Collins said in a May statement.

The term generally refers to any research that increases the pathogenicity or transmissibility of a biological agent like a virus.

The research in question was funded through millions of dollars of grants from the NIH to EcoHealth Alliance, which then funneled money to the lab in Wuhan.

That's called money laundering by the Mafia.

The NIH has repeatedly declined to make documents concerning the research public, only disclosing many after being sued or pressured by members of Congress.

“Thanks to the hard work of the Oversight Committee Republicans, we now know that American taxpayer dollars funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab,” House Oversight Ranking Member James Comer (R-Ky.) told The Epoch Times in an email.

The documents were sent to the Comer and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The NIH says a review of EcoHealth’s research plan before it allocated the funding determined it did not fit the definition of research involving “enhanced pathogens of pandemic potential” because the bat coronaviruses “had not been shown to infect humans.” However, “out of an abundance of caution,” language in the terms and conditions of the grant award stated that a secondary review would be triggered by multiple scenarios, including EcoHealth reporting one log, or 10-time increase, in growth.

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, appears before a Senate hearing to discuss vaccines, in Washington, on Sept. 9, 2020. (Michael Reynolds/Pool/Getty Images)

“This means EcoHealth should have reported if any of the viruses being tested turned out to grow 10 times faster or more than the control virus would without their new spike proteins,” an NIH spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.

EcoHealth failed to abide by conditions of the grant, Tabak said, and was notified that it has five days from Oct. 20 to submit to NIH all unpublished data from the experiments and work conducted under the award.

Presented with the accusation by some that the new documents show Fauci and Collins lied to Congress, the NIH spokesperson said that the allegation is incorrect.

The challenge appears to revolve around different definitions of gain-of-function research. The NIH has defined it as research that is “reasonably anticipated to confer attributes to … viruses such that the resulting virus has enhanced pathogenicity and/or transmissibility (via the respiratory route) in mammals.” Its parent office, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), defines “enhanced potential pandemic pathogens” in a framework (pdf) as a highly transmissible and highly virulent pathogen that is enhanced through research.

“While the findings of this limited experiment in mice were somewhat unexpected, NIAID reviewed the progress report and has determined that the research described in the progress report would not have triggered a review under the HHS P3CO Framework because the bat coronaviruses used in this research have not been shown to infect humans and the experiments were not reasonably expected to increase transmissibility or virulence in humans,” the spokesperson said.

The grant is suspended while the NIH conducts a review that includes working with EcoHealth to get more information about its noncompliance.

EcoHealth has not responded to requests for comment, including questions sent last month after another set of documents, detailing other work the nonprofit funded with U.S. taxpayer money, were made public.

The fresh disclosures add to the concern about government transparency, Gary Ruskin, executive director of U.S. Right to Know, told The Epoch Times in an email.

“It has been obvious for decades that our federal government is not transparent enough, that there is not nearly enough congressional oversight and that the Freedom of Information Act badly needs strengthening. We citizens need better transparency tools to uncover all sorts of corruption, mismanagement, waste, fraud, abuse of power, and impending disasters,” he said, adding that NIH in particular has an “abysmal” track record of being transparent.

“Even if the research EcoHealth conducted under the National Institutes of Health grant does not precisely fit the definition of gain-of-function, which is for scientists and not policy analysts to decide, government transparency certainly required the NIH to reveal this information at the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. At this point, it is obvious that the NIH and other government health agencies require reform and far more intensive oversight by Congress, and in some cases outright abolition,” added S.T. Karnick, publications director at The Heartland Institute.

The very idea of gain-of-function research is bizarre. They chose to work with a bat virus because it wouldn't infect humans, and they 'improved' its pathogenicity until it could and did infect humans. These are crimes against humanity and should never be allowed in any country. It's madness!

‘Resign in disgrace!’: Republicans eviscerate AG Garland as they

accuse him of sending FBI after parents protesting school boards

27 Oct, 2021 21:29 

©  Tom Brenner/Pool via REUTERS

Republican lawmakers have savaged Attorney General Merrick Garland for doubling down on a memo pitting the federal government against parents criticizing school boards. The GOP accused Garland of waging “political retribution”.

Garland testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, and Republicans on the committee were out for blood. The hearing took place several weeks after Garland authored a memo seemingly directing the Justice Department to sic the FBI and other federal agencies on parents protesting school boards over mask mandates, transgender policies, and the inclusion of ‘Critical Race Theory’ in curricula – according to the conservatives and the parents in question. 

Garland has denied targeting parents, claiming that the effort is directed at the threats to school board members, not the First Amendment rights of the parents.

While Garland’s memo doesn’t implicitly mention “parents,” it was issued after the National Association of School Boards (NASB) claimed in a letter to President Joe Biden that the protests of angry parents “could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes,” and should be handled like “domestic terrorism,” using the Patriot Act. 

PC Madness!

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) accused Garland of “politicizing” the Justice Department and using it as “a tool of political retribution” against the angered parents. No violent incidents were cited in Garland’s memo, and Cruz forced the Attorney General to admit that he knew of no such incidents, and that speaking out to school boards is protected by the First Amendment.

Documents retrieved by parents under the Freedom of Information Act show that NASB President Viola Garcia and CEO Chip Slaven planned their letter over several weeks with the White House, and sent it without the approval of the association’s board of directors, who considered its language “extreme.” The letter has since been disavowed by the NASB, but Garland’s memo has not been rescinded.

Under questioning from Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska), Garland maintained on Wednesday that he acted based on the recommendation of the NASB, but Sasse cut off the AG mid-sentence.

“No, you didn't receive an anonymous letter,” Sasse interjected. “White House political staff co-wrote it with this organization, which is why the organization has rejected it. You know these facts now to be true, yet you still won’t disavow your memo.”

Garland insisted that his memo toned down some of the language contained in the NASB’s letter, and told the hearing that “True threats of violence are not protected by the First Amendment...those are the only things we are worried about here. We are not investigating peaceful protests or parent involvement in school board meetings.”

One of the cases cited in the letter was that of Scott Smith, who was arrested at a Loudoun County School Board meeting in Virginia earlier this year. Smith physically threatened someone and resisted arrest, and was taken to the ground by officers. However, Smith’s daughter had been raped in the school’s bathroom by a boy in a skirt. A member of the board told Smith that she didn’t believe him, and it later emerged that the rape did happen, and was covered up by the school, apparently to protect its transgender bathroom policy.

“Do you apologize to Scott Smith?” Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton (R) asked Garland on Wednesday. Garland didn’t directly apologize, but did admit that Smith was within his rights to cause a scene at the board meeting. “Thank God you’re not on the Supreme Court,” Cotton shot back. “You should resign in disgrace, Judge.”

The Smith case has further inflamed tensions in the affluent Virginia county, where students staged a walkout on Tuesday to protest the cover-up. The case, as well as disputes over mask mandates and the teaching of critical race theory, has become a key issue in Virginia’s gubernatorial election, set to take place next week.

Democratic Candidate Terry McAuliffe has alternated between insisting that critical race theory is not taught in public schools, and claiming that such theory “is as important” as math and English. He has accused his rival, Glenn Youngkin, of trying to “silence the voices of black authors” by suggesting that parents should be made aware that their children are being shown books like ‘Genderqueer’ and ‘Lawn Boy,’ the latter of which contains descriptions of gay sex between children.

Youngkin is a supporter of parents having some say in what their children are taught, while McAuliffe stated at a debate this month that “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” More than six in 10 Virginians say school curricula will be a “major factor” in how they vote next week.