PP NewsBrief: 2021-06-07

We need to begin to reclaim control over the institutions which have such oversized roles in our lives. As you read this people work tirelessly to see to it that you are dumb and docile. Let's stop them.

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The FBI's Strange Anthrax Investigation Sheds Light on COVID Lab-Leak Theory and Fauci's Emails

"One of the most significant events of the last two decades has been largely memory-holed: the October, 2001 anthrax attacks in the U.S. Beginning just one week after 9/11 and extending for another three weeks, a highly weaponized and sophisticated strain of anthrax had been sent around the country through the U.S. Postal Service addressed to some of the country's most prominent political and media figures. As Americans were still reeling from the devastation of 9/11, the anthrax killed five Americans and sickened another seventeen.

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In many ways, the prospect of a lethal, engineered biological agent randomly showing up in one's mailbox or contaminating local communities was more terrifying than the extraordinary 9/11 attack itself. All sorts of oddities shrouded the anthrax mailings, including this bizarre admission in 2008 by long-time Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen: “I had been told soon after Sept. 11 to secure Cipro, the antidote to anthrax. The tip had come in a roundabout way from a high government official. I was carrying Cipro way before most people had ever heard of it.” At the very least, those anthrax attacks played a vital role in heightening fear levels and a foundational sense of uncertainty that shaped U.S. discourse and politics for years to come. It meant that not just Americans living near key power centers such as Manhattan and Washington were endangered, but all Americans everywhere were: even from their own mailboxes.

The FBI first falsely cast suspicion on a former government scientist, Dr. Steven Hatfill, who had conducted research on mailing deadly anthrax strains. Following the FBI’s accusations, media outlets began dutifully implying that Hatfill was the culprit. A January, 2002, New York Times column by Nicholas Kristof began by declaring: “I think I know who sent out the anthrax last fall,” then, without naming him, proceeded to perfectly describe Hatfill in a way that made him easily identifiable to everyone in that research community. Hatfill sued the U.S. Government, which eventually ended up paying him close to $6 million in damages before officially and explicitly exonerating him and apologizing. His lawsuit against the NYT and Kristof was dismissed since he was never named by the paper, but the columnist also apologized to him six years later.

A full seven years after the attack, the FBI once again claimed that it had found the perpetrator: this time, it was the microbiologist Bruce Ivins, a long-time “biodefense” researcher at the U.S. Army’s infectious disease research lab in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Yet before he could be indicted, Ivins died, apparently by suicide, to avoid prosecution. As a result, the FBI was never required to prove its case in court. The agency insisted, however, that there was no doubt that Ivins was the anthrax killer, citing genetic analysis of the anthrax strain that they said conclusively matched the anthrax found in Ivins’ U.S. Army lab, along with circumstantial evidence pointing to him.

But virtually every mainstream institution other than the FBI harbored doubts....

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When an independent investigation was finally conducted in 2011 into the FBI’s scientific claims against Ivins, much of that doubt converted into full-blown skepticism. As The New York Times put it — in a 2011 article headlined "Expert Panel Is Critical of F.B.I. Work in Investigating Anthrax Letters" —  the review “concludes that the bureau overstated the strength of genetic analysis linking the mailed anthrax to a supply kept by Bruce E. Ivins.” A Washington Post article -- headlined: "Anthrax report casts doubt on scientific evidence in FBI case against Bruce Ivins" -- announced that "the report reignited a debate that has simmered among some scientists and others who have questioned the strength of the FBI's evidence against Ivins."

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In short, these were serious and widespread mainstream doubts about the FBI’s case against Ivins, and those have never been resolved. U.S. institutions seemingly agreed to simply move on without ever addressing lingering scientific and other evidentiary questions regarding whether Ivins was really involved in the anthrax attacks and, if so, how it was possible that he could have carried out this sophisticated attack within a top-secret U.S. Army lab acting alone. So whitewashed is this history that doubts about whether the FBI found the real perpetrator are now mocked by smug Smart People as a fringe conspiracy theory rather than what they had been: the consensus of mainstream institutions.

But what we do know for certain from this anthrax investigation is quite serious. And because it is quite relevant to the current debates over the origins of COVID-19, it is well-worth reviewing. A trove of emails from Dr. Anthony Fauci — who was the government’s top infectious disease specialist during the AIDS pandemic, the anthrax attacks, and the COVID pandemic — was published on Monday by BuzzFeed after they were produced pursuant to a FOIA request. Among other things, they reveal that in February and March of last year — at the time that Fauci and others were dismissing any real possibility that the coronavirus inadvertently escaped from a lab, to the point that the Silicon Valley monopolies Facebook and Google banned any discussion of that theory -- Fauci and his associates and colleagues were privately discussing the possibility that the virus had escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, possibly as part of a U.S.-funded joint program with the scientists at that lab.

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What we know — but have largely forgotten — from the anthrax case is now vital to recall. What made the anthrax attacks of 2001 particularly frightening was how sophisticated and deadly the strain was. It was not naturally occurring anthrax. Scientists quickly identified it as the notorious Ames strain, which researchers at the U.S. Army lab in Fort Detrick had essentially invented....

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Why was the U.S. government creating exotic and extraordinarily deadly infectious bacterial strains and viruses that, even in small quantities, could kill large numbers of people? The official position of the U.S. Government is that it does not engage in offensive bioweapons research: meaning research designed to create weaponized viruses as weapons of war. The U.S. has signed treaties barring such research. But in the wake of the anthrax attacks — especially once the FBI’s own theory was that the anthrax was sent by a U.S. Army scientist from his stash at Fort Detrick — U.S. officials were forced to acknowledge that they do engage in defensive bioweapons research: meaning research designed to allow the development of vaccines and other defenses in the event that another country unleashes a biological attack.

But ultimately, that distinction barely matters. For both offensive and defensive bioweapons research, scientists must create, cultivate, manipulate and store non-natural viruses or infectious bacteria in their labs, whether to study them for weaponization or for vaccines....

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Having extensively reported on the FBI’s investigation into the anthrax case and ultimate claim to have solved it, I continue to share all the doubts that were so widely expressed at the time about whether any of that was true. But what we know for certain is that the U.S. government and other governments do conduct research which requires the manufacture of deadly viruses and infectious bacterial strains. Dr. Fauci has acknowledged that the U.S. government indirectly funded research by the Wuhan Institute of Virology into coronaviruses, though he denies that this was for so-called “gain of function” research, whereby naturally occurring viruses are manipulated to make them more transmissible and/or more harmful to humans.

We do not know for sure if the COVID-19 virus escaped from the Wuhan lab, another lab, or jumped from animals to humans. But what we do know for certain — from the anthrax investigation — is that governments most definitely conduct the sort of research that could produce novel coronaviruses...."

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As The Supreme Court Prepares For Major Rulings, Sen. Blumenthal Issues Warning To Conservative Justices Of “Seismic” Changes If They Rule The Wrong Way

"I have previously criticized Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., for his almost unrivaled advocacy of censorship and speech controls. Blumenthal previously threatened social media companies not to “backslide” in censoring opposing views.  Now, Blumenthal is taking up the cudgel of court packing with not so subtle threats to conservative justices that, if they do not vote with their liberal colleagues, the Court may be fundamentally altered.  He is not alone in such reckless and coercive rhetoric.

Blumenthal told The Hill:

“It will inevitably fuel and drive an effort to expand the Supreme Court if this activist majority betrays fundamental constitutional principles. It’s already driving that movement. Chipping away at Roe v. Wade will precipitate a seismic movement to reform the Supreme Court. It may not be expanding the Supreme Court, it may be making changes to its jurisdiction, or requiring a certain numbers of votes to strike down certain past precedents.”

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Democratic leaders not only have embraced court packing but now openly threaten the Court to vote with the liberal justices or face dire consequences for the Court. The effort seems to be a play for the change in voting on the Court the followed prior threats for court packing in the 1930s. Faced with a conservative majority ruling against his New Deal legislation, Roosevelt called for up to six additional justices, one for every justice older than 70. That was basically the profile of the “four horsemen” blocking his measures.

Like the latest calls, the FDR plan was based on politics rather than principle. When the politics changed, the plan died. FDR dropped his plan as soon as he got what he wanted with a favorable majority. That is why the switch of Justice Owen Roberts in favor of a New Deal case became known as a “switch in time that saved nine.”

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It is particularly chilling to see United States senators openly pressuring justices to vote with their side or face severe consequences.  Blumenthal went as far as to mention specific cases and the expected rulings. This follows raw demands in the confirmation hearing of now Justice Amy Coney Barrett that she promise to rule on particular cases “correctly” as a condition for her confirmation."

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CNN Shows Its Naked Bias About The Arizona Audit

"...The reporter, Lah, questioned the legitimacy of the audit because the cameras monitoring the audit are “controlled by OANN” and isn’t a “credible” news outlet. Many in mainstream media call allegations of election fraud in the 2020 election “The Big Lie,” refusing to believe that Americans have a right to investigate it in any way.

Lah said that the audit was being conducted to “disprove conspiracies”—to which Fann answered, “If [we] have to yes, why wouldn’t we. If somebody says something is out there, I would love to be able to say, ‘That’s not true, guys.'” Lah responded by questioning whether this audit was just “giving rise to these conspiracy theories.”

When Fann enumerated several possible, problematic issues associated with the 2020 election such as chain of custody issues, dead people who may have voted, or ballots filled out by individuals other than the actual voter—Lah’s reply was, “I can say that what the data shows us was that there was no widespread fraud…that the data has shown overwhelmingly that this was the most secure election in American history.”

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Secretary of State Hobbs continues to raise contentious questions about the audit. Her latest concern is over the way the audit materials were stored during the week-long pause in the 100-degree heat.

“Where the ballots were being stored, it was not a facility that was suitable for storage because everything was exposed to heat and also humidity because of the method of cooling in the building,” Hobbs said in an interview Monday, as auditors resumed their process. “Any time you’re doing any process like this, the idea of having to start and stop, that interruption, we were already concerned that there were a lot of procedures that were changing and errors that were happening, and I think this increases the chance for those errors.”

Reportedly, on May 25, Hobbs was “‘stripped’ of her ability to defend election lawsuits by the state’s Republican-led House Appropriations Committee and transferred to Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) through the end of the 2023 fiscal year—a move that Democrats in the state have called “highly political.” The Appropriations Committee also took away Hobbs’ oversight of the Capitol Museum because she flew a Gay Pride flag from the balcony of the Capitol, according to reporting by ABC15.

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In other Arizona election integrity news, two Republicans, Michelle Udall of Mesa and Joel John of Buckeye, joined all 29 Democrats in defeating SB1713 Wednesday, a bill that “would have required absentee ballots to list a voter’s birthday, plus either the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, a state-issued identification number or a voter registration number.” Some are saying “the only purpose of the bill is to make it harder for eligible voters to vote.”"

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18 Connecticut Teens Hospitalized for Heart Problems After COVID Vaccines, White House Says Young People Should Still Get the Shots

"One week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced it was investigating heart inflammation in recently vaccinated young adults, Connecticut reported 18 new cases of heart problems among teens who had received a COVID vaccine.

All 18 cases resulted in hospitalization — the vast majority for a couple of days, reported NBC Connecticut. The cases were reported to the Connecticut Department of Public Health by vaccine providers, said Deirdre Gifford, acting health commissioner.

“One individual that we’re aware of is still hospitalized,” Guifford said Monday. “The other 17 have been sent home and they’re doing fine.”

The first case at Connecticut Children’s was Rachel Hatton’s 17-year-old son, Gregory.

“It’s terrifying,” said Hatton. Her son started complaining of severe chest pain three days after his second vaccine dose. It worsened on the fourth day, causing back pain.

After blood work and an x-ray, doctors diagnosed Gregory with pericarditis, an inflammation of the tissue surrounding the heart that can cause sharp chest pain and other symptoms.

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Doctors couldn’t confirm Gregory’s condition was caused by the COVID vaccine, but two more recently vaccinated patients presented to the hospital with similar symptoms. A spokesperson from Connecticut Children’s said patients have presented with both pericarditis and myocarditis

Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle that can lead to cardiac arrhythmia and death. According to the National Organization for Rare Disorders, myocarditis can result from infections, but “more commonly the myocarditis is a result of the body’s immune reaction to the initial heart damage.”

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NBC Connecticut spoke with other parents of teens who received their first dose of COVID vaccine and are scheduled to get their second.

“I can’t believe the government would really put out a shot that would really negatively impact the health of my child so I’m behind the vaccine 100%,” said Heather Salgado.

“I’m just trusting the science and the recommendation is to get the vaccine,” said Theresa Galizia.

Other parents, like Siobhan Cefarelli, had reservations. “It’s one thing for me to get the vaccine, but for my child to get the vaccine, it’s kind of scary not knowing what’s going to happen and not having a lot of research having been done on it.”

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White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during a press briefing Monday the Biden administration will continue to advise young people to get vaccinated, despite reported cases of myocarditis.

“Our health and medical experts still continue to convey that it is the right step for 12- to 15-year-olds to get vaccinated, that these are limited cases, and that, obviously, the risks of contracting COVID are certainly significant even for people of that age,” Psaki said.

According to CDC data, the death rate among adolescents ages 0 to 17 who get COVID and are subsequently hospitalized is 0.7%, with many experiencing either mild or no symptoms at all. The COVID death rate in all adolescent age categories is less than 0.1%.

While the CDC numbers appear to contradict Psaki’s assessment of young people’s risk of getting COVID, new research suggests that even the CDC’s numbers are too high.

As The Defender reported, two papers published May 19 in the journal of Hospital Pediatrics found pediatric hospitalizations for COVID were overcounted by at least 40%, carrying potential implications for nationwide figures used to justify vaccinating children."

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EU unveils digital ID wallet that can link to citizens’ bank details, driving license and other services

"The European Commission has launched the EU’s new digital identity wallets, allowing users in the bloc’s 27 member states to prove their identity and access services via their mobile phones.

The EU’s 450 million citizens will be able to use the service to file tax returns, open bank accounts, enroll at universities and link their national digital identity to their driving license, officials said at a press conference on Thursday.

The wallets are not compulsory, and people will be able to choose which aspects of their identity, data and certificates they share with third parties, the Commission said.

The EU’s executive has asked member states to set up the technical system and guidelines underpinning the scheme by September 2022, and for them to start preparatory work immediately.

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Margrethe Vestager, the Commission’s lead on digital technology, said the scheme is “secure and transparent.”

“EU citizens not only expect a high level of security but also convenience,” the Commission’s industry chief, Thierry Breton, said."

You can't have both security & convenience. You've got to choose one.

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Federal judge OVERTURNS California’s assault weapons ban, sparks liberal pushback for comparing AR-15 rifle with Swiss Army knife

"A federal judge has issued a permanent injunction against enforcing California’s decades-long ban on assault weapons, defending the use of AR-15 rifles for home protection. Liberals blasted the move as a threat to public safety.

"Like the Swiss Army knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment," US District Judge Roger Benitez of the Southern District of California stated in his ruling on Friday.

Benitez went on to argue that California’s 1989 Assault Weapons Control Act (AWCA), which banned specific makes and models of assault weapons in the state, was unconstitutional and a by-product of “incorrect” interpretation of the Second Amendment at the time. The judge pointed out that “prior to 2008, lower court opinions did not acknowledge that the Second Amendment conferred an individual right to own firearms, or that the right applied against the states.”

Brushing off the argument that AR-15-style rifles should not be covered by the Second Amendment because they are too dangerous to handle, Benitez called the outlawed assault weapons “fairly ordinary, popular rifles.”

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“One is to be forgiven if one is persuaded by news media and others that the nation is awash with murderous AR-15 assault rifles,” Benitez wrote, noting that the facts defy this “hyperbole.” Citing statistics reported by the FBI in 2019, he pointed out that there were seven times more deadly stabbings than shootings, where any type of rifle was used. “A Californian is three times more likely to be murdered by an attacker’s bare hands, fists, or feet, than by his rifle,” Benitez wrote.

The ruling, which is unprecedented in nature, has sent shockwaves across the Califorian political elite, with state Attorney General Rob Bonta announcing that he would be appealing what he lambasted as a “fundamentally flawed” decision."

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IDF brags of waging 'first AI war,' lending credence to view that Gaza serves as testing ground for Israel's fighting techniques

""For the first time, artificial intelligence (AI) was a key component and power multiplier in fighting the enemy," a senior officer in the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) Intelligence Corps said, as cited by Israeli media.

The elite intelligence Unit 8200 used programs called "Alchemist," "Gospel" and "Depth of Wisdom," to further boost an already overwhelming superiority that IDF has over militants in the blockaded Gaza enclave. AI-powered analysis was applied to vast amounts of data collected through satellite imaging, surveillance cameras, interception of communications and human intelligence, according to the Israeli military.

The volume of intelligence was staggering. The IDF said, for example, that any given point in Gaza was imaged at least 10 times each day during the conflict. The military appears to be happy with what it got out of the algorithms.

The "Gospel" program, for example, flagged in real time hundreds of targets for the Israeli Air Force to strike, while the "Alchemist" system warned Israeli troops of possible attacks on their positions, according to the reports.

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Some people argue trials conducted during regular flare-ups of violence are essential for Israel to maintain a competitive edge in the global weapons market. Israeli producers market advanced drones, missile defense systems and other products to foreign customers under labels like "battle-tested" or "combat-proven." The country's defense sector maintains a cozy relationship with its military and the government in general.

Not only weapons systems but also information-collection technologies, which provided the fodder for the IDF's analytical algorithms, are also rooted to a large degree in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Public concerns about terrorist attacks by radicalized members of the population in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories allowed for justification and for resources to pour into many policing tools. These include mass surveillance through street cameras, bulk harvesting of communication metadata, real-time monitoring of social media, and others.

The IDF says the use of AI-powered warfare in Gaza allowed it to minimize civilian casualties. Health officials in Gaza reported that at least 243 Palestinian civilians were killed during the fighting, including 66 children. The Israeli side said it killed 100 militant operatives and blamed misfired Hamas rockets for some of the civilian casualties in Gaza. On the Israeli side, 12 civilians and one soldier were reported killed due to the fighting."

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WHO proposes using Greek alphabet to label Covid-19 strains to avoid ‘stigmatizing’ countries with namesake variants

"The new labels would not substitute the scientific names of the variants – typically an intricate succession of characters and numbers – but rather would “help in public discussion” of the new Covid-19 strains, Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, announced on Monday.

Per WHO’s proposal, the Covid-19 mutation known as ‘the UK variant’, or B.1.1.7, should be referred to as ‘Alpha’, while the strain widespread in South Africa is rebranded as ‘Beta’. Two Brazilian variants, known as P.1 and P.2, become ‘Gamma’ and ‘Zeta’, respectively, while two subliniages of the so-called ‘Indian variant’, B.1.617.1 and B.1.617.2, are listed as ‘Kappa’ and ‘Delta’.

Two further coronavirus variants, first reported by the US in March, are designated as ‘Epsilon’ and ‘Iota’ by the WHO.

The rebranding is ostensibly aimed at removing the stigma from countries where certain strains are believed to have originated.

“No country should be stigmatized for detecting and reporting variants,” Van Kerkhove said, noting also that the numbering system used by researchers, but shunned by non-scientific publications, “can be difficult to follow.”"

This is the kind of silliness that technocratic managers love.

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Israel finds ‘likely’ link between Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine and cases of heart inflammation in young males

"A specially appointed epidemiological team has found “a likelihood of a link” between receiving the second dose of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine and the onset of myocarditis in young men, Israel’s Health Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry says the team was set up following reports of cases of heart inflammation, known as myocarditis, among males aged 16 to 30 shortly after the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine was administered. The link was found to be stronger in people aged 16-19 relative to other age groups, and weakens as the age of the recipients increases. Most patients who experienced the problem spent up to four days in the hospital, and 95% of the cases were classified as mild, according to the ministry.

The Health Ministry commissioned the study after 275 cases of myocarditis were reported in Israel between December 2020 and May 2021. Nearly 150 cases were recorded after the vaccine was administered. The number of cases reported after the second shot was four times greater than those recorded after the first, the ministry said.

Myocarditis is a condition characterized by chest pain, shortness of breath, or palpitations, and can be caused by Covid-19, according to the ministry.

While the type of vaccine in question is not directly mentioned in the statement, Israel relies almost exclusively on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and it’s the only product mentioned on the vaccination information page of the Health Ministry website.

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The Israeli Health Ministry says that given the findings, it will review the 12-15-year-old population’s eligibility for the vaccine. The shot was recently approved in the EU for people aged 12 and older.

Israel has been a leader in the world’s vaccination effort, having already inoculated 55% of its population of 9 million. It has now removed social distancing restrictions and the vaccination passes that were required in order to enter certain venues."

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Liberating Yourself From Faucism

"In coming months few will continue to deify Fauci. Fauci’s veneer of charm and brilliance will chip away and the political flip-flopper will be revealed. Increasingly the public will become aware that Fauci and his apostle politicians used the shield of false science to lie about such issues as herd immunity, the dire need for school closings, and other destructive policies.

Michael Brendan Dougherty, writing in the National Review, offers two explanations for Fauci’s role.  Either he “purposely manipulated viral narratives and circumstances in order to assert his own authority” or Fauci is “just a big-mouth wannabe out over his skis.”  

Blame and rejection may come Fauci’s way, but few will learn the real lesson of why it is wrong to give one person so much power.

If Faucism is to die, the beliefs that give life to Faucism must be exposed and rejected.

We need to understand why a concentration of power creates errors. All “experts” given the power to control others are over-their-head big-mouth wannabes.

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Most Faucists have never read Hayek’s “The Use of Knowledge in Society.” They do not know why the idea of allowing one man to determine policy is absurd:

“The knowledge of the circumstances of which we must make use never exists in concentrated or integrated form but solely as the dispersed bits of incomplete and frequently contradictory knowledge which all the separate individuals possess.”

“Our ignorance is sobering and boundless,” observed philosopher Karl Popper. Faucists don’t believe that about their beloved leader. Who else should decide, they proclaim, but our most learned expert?

Popper continued with what could be a credo for individuals willing to humbly explore their beliefs and admit the limits of individual knowledge: “With each step forward, with each problem which we solve, we not only discover new and unsolved problems, but we also discover that where we believed that we were standing on firm and safe ground, all things are, in truth, insecure and in a state of flux.”

If the world is full of challenging problems and individuals with boundless ignorance, it is not surprising that Popper believed, “There are no ultimate sources of knowledge.” We can only “hope to detect and eliminate error” by allowing criticism of the theories of others and our own.

To put it more succinctly, physicist Richard Feynman wrote, “Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.”

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Psychologist Paul Slovic is a leading authority on risk. He explains, “[T]here is no such thing as ‘real risk’ or ‘objective risk.’” Like the rest of us, experts suffer cognitive biases. Thus, Slovic concludes that the public’s view of risk should not be trumped by experts with greater political power.

Dougherty observed that, “The public-health consensus around COVID-19 and the proper or necessary interventions to take against it shifts all the time.” Once we understand the nature of knowledge and the subjective nature of risk, how can it be any other way? The problem is that this consensus is filtered and defined by few people, such as Fauci, and then translated into rigid rules. Alternative views are then suppressed....

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In his book The Wisdom of Crowds, journalist James Surowiecki, echoing Hayek on knowledge, explains “[T]here’s no real evidence that one can become expert in something as broad as ‘decision making’ or ‘policy.’”

For those who believe in decision making by elite experts, Surowiecki has counterintuitive conclusions: “If you can assemble a diverse group of people who possess varying degrees of knowledge and insight, you’re better off entrusting it with major decisions rather than leaving them in the hands of one or two people, no matter how smart these people are.”

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Dr. Peter Pronovost is a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University. In his book Safe Patients, Smart Hospitals, Pronovost reveals a common mindset among physicians and medical professionals and explores why this mindset increases medical errors and compromises patient safety.

Pronovost relates, “[Doctors] are taught to ignore the crowd and trust their own training and education.” Referring to Surowiecki’s book, Pronovost explains that doctors have no use for the wisdom of crowds—nurses, physicians from other specialties, and others. As you read, notice how Pronovost’s mindset is Hayekian:

“Each of the members of a patient’s team, including a parent if the patient is a child, sees problems through a different set of lenses that is shaped by personal experiences and training. Each of those lenses provides valuable information, information that helps us make wise decisions. Nurses see things differently than doctors, junior doctors see things differently than senior doctors; patients see things differently than clinicians; and family members have their own lenses.”

Understanding that knowledge is dispersed leads to humility, not a desire to make your view supreme....

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Tacit knowledge is knowledge gained from experience and wisdom that can be difficult to express. Pronovost explains how guidelines from central authorities, such as the CDC, suppress tacit knowledge. He writes, “One of the greatest sources of knowledge in medicine comes from what physicians and nurses learn on the job. This tacit knowledge develops and spreads into a ‘tribal knowledge’ of techniques at work and these techniques are soon practiced by a number of physicians and nurses.”

Pronovost explains that much of “this [tacit] wisdom is not from the published literature, and some of it may not be very effective, but it is one of the ways physicians learn.” Pronovost adds “there is no existing system for capturing this knowledge and sharing it with the medical world.” Today, notice how tacit knowledge is stamped out as physicians developing effective treatments for Covid are ridiculed and censored.

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In 1974 when Solzhenitsyn was arrested, and exiled to the West, the text of his short essay “Live Not by Lies” was released. Solzhenitsyn railed against those who complained about the destructive policies of the ruling “they” while pretending they themselves were “helpless:”

   “We are approaching the brink; already a universal spiritual demise is upon us; a physical one is about to flare up and engulf us and our children, while we continue to smile sheepishly and babble: ‘But what can we do to stop it? We haven’t the strength.’”

Solzhenitsyn describes the mindset of helplessness, “We have internalized well the lessons drummed into us by the state; we are forever content and comfortable with its premise: we cannot escape the environment, the social conditions; they shape us, ‘being determines consciousness.’ What have we to do with this? We can do nothing.”

Helplessness is a common state of mind today. One may say, If vaccine passports become mandatory, what can I do? I must keep my job. Another may say, I am a family physician with reservations about administering the experimental vaccine to those at low risk for Covid. Yet, I must keep my mouth shut or risk censure by the administration of my hospital-owned practice.  

Solzhenitsyn writes, “But we can do—everything!—even if we comfort and lie to ourselves that this is not so. It is not ‘they’ who are guilty of everything, but we ourselves, only we!”

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Solzhenitsyn adds,

“For when people renounce lies, lies simply cease to exist. Like parasites, they can only survive when attached to a person.

We are not called upon to step out onto the square and shout out the truth, to say out loud what we think—this is scary, we are not ready. But let us at least refuse to say what we do not think!”

Our job is infinitely easier than was Solzhenitsyn’s. The big lie of Faucism is that rule by benign experts is possible when it is never possible. We must admit the limits of individual knowledge. Authoritarians and totalitarians rule by lies; their ignorance is as sobering and boundless as ours. Is it too much to ask of Americans that they learn why Faucism is a bankrupt philosophy? Is it too much to ask that they refuse to cooperate anymore in the censorship and canceling of others?

In place of helplessness, we can choose not to participate in lies. “Let their rule hold not through me!” is the key to our liberation. We can be open and eager for public jousting and arguments from diverse points of view. If this is too much to ask, we will lose our remaining freedoms."

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Mich. court rules six recall petitions against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer can proceed

"A Michigan court has ruled several recall petitions against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) can move forward, denying her bid to thwart them. In a ruling last week, the Michigan Court of Appeals backed the State Canvasser Board’s approval of six recall petitions against Whitmer and one against Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist (D).

The Democrats had claimed the petitions did not adequately describe what the authorities cited as reasons for the recall and therefore, plan to appeal the court’s ruling.

This comes as Whitmer has garnered notable scrutiny over her COVID-19 lockdown orders and violating her own rules multiple times. The Michigan Democrat has attracted controversy after her and several members of her administration were caught violating COVID-19 protocols."

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NYPD operates over 15,000 facial recognition cameras as part of ‘Orwellian’ surveillance network – report

"The NYPD controls an extensive network of cameras that it can use to track New Yorkers across the city, raising concerns about invasive and discriminatory policing tactics, according to an investigation by Amnesty International.

The NGO enlisted thousands of volunteers to hunt for cameras at intersections in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, in an effort to document the size and scope of the New York Police Department’s surveillance capabilities. In total, 15,280 cameras were located. When synced with facial recognition technology (FRT), the cameras are capable of tracking New Yorkers across all three boroughs, Amnesty said.

FRT works by comparing camera imagery with the images of millions of faces stored in a database, many of them taken from sources such as social media without users’ knowledge.

As part of its report, the group also released a video modeling the “extensive field of vision” of New York’s CCTV network. It’s believed the NYPD can use the cameras to track faces as far as 656 feet (200 meters) away – the equivalent of two street blocks.

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The report noted that the NYPD has used FRT in 22,000 cases since 2017...."

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'What are we doing in society?' Suspect in New York sucker-punch attack on Asian woman has been arrested EIGHT TIMES in past year

"A homeless man facing hate-crime charges for sucker-punching an Asian woman walking down a New York City street has reportedly been arrested eight times in the past year for similarly random attacks and setting fires.

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Wright faces charges of assault as a hate crime, assault and possession of a controlled substance. New York's ABC affiliate, WABC, reported that his recent arrests have been for such incidents as throwing a brick through an office window, scratching a man's eye and throwing hot coffee at traffic agents.

New York City has seen a 353% jump in hate crimes against people of Asian descent so far this year. In one of the latest cases, Shea said a man was arrested on Friday for allegedly pushing a 65-year-old Asian woman down a flight of stairs at the 34th Street subway station. The suspect in that case, 64-year-old John Chappell, has 67 arrests on his rap sheet."

This story provides us with an example of why the "hate crime" label is just a way to weaponize the "justice" system even more than it already is. How can it be a hate crime when he's randomly attacked others in the past? Even if he's screaming: "I hate asians!" as he does it, who cares? How does that actually change anything? There are no hate crimes. Just crimes.

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“A Political Problem”: New Mexico District Attorney Gives Probation To All Rioters

"The obelisk was erected in 1866 to honor Civil War-era soldiers who died in battle. The North-facing Panel #4 however read: “TO THE HEROES WHO HAVE FALLEN IN THE VARIOUS BATTLES WITH SAVAGE INDIANS IN THE TERRITORY OF NEW MEXICO.”  The “savage” reference was removed in the 1970s. It was a National Landmark.

Police did not stop protesters as they attached ropes and pulled down the obelisk.

The seven defendants destroyed the obelisk in broad daylight and showed little concern for arrest or prosecution. It turns out they had reason to be so self-assured. They will be given six months to two years probation and perform 40 hours of community service. They will also be  required to write a letter admitting their role in toppling the obelisk.

The seven defendants were charged with felony counts of damaging property worth over $1,000.

I actually do not want to see these defendants given any serious jail time.  In that sense, I agree with Carmack-Altwies that any sentence should be large probationary.  However, my objection is the statement that this is just a “political problem.” Would Carmack-Altwies have taken such a view if the statue involved a different symbol or figure? The concern is that prosecutors identify with some of these protesters or their causes.  Short jail stints, even for a few months, can offer some deterrence and, more importantly, establish that this criminal conduct will not be tolerated.  Even without such jail time, it was important for Carmack-Altwies to establish the clear criminality of such actions. Instead, she dismissed the conduct as political rather than criminal.

There is an important national debate to have over such controversial public art. However, we are not having that debate. Mobs been allowed to dictate what public art will remain and what will be torn down. The message being sent is that you can skip any effort to try to convince other citizens to remove public art and just destroy such pieces unilaterally. The question is how Carmack-Altwies will punish the next wave of rioters for such destruction when she has already declared such premeditated acts as a “political problem that got forced upon the criminal justice system.”"

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Why the Minimum Wage Should Be $18/Hour

"Given the rising prosperity we keep hearing about, shouldn't we be able to provide minimum wage workers the same purchasing power they enjoyed 50 years ago in 1970? This is a very simple proposition: either can provide minimum wage workers the same purchasing power they enjoyed 50 years ago or we can't, and if we can't, then all the claims about "rising prosperity" are revealed as false.

Since I was a minimum wage earner in 1970 at age 16, I have first-hand experience of the purchasing power of minimum wages in the 1970-1974 era. Let's keep it simple: how many hours of minimum wage labor did it take to buy a new economy car, a new house and rent a studio apartment in one of the most expensive cities in the U.S.?

...

In 1970, I earned $1.65 an hour. A new economy car (Ford Maverick or VW beetle) was $2,000, so it took about 1,200 hours of work to buy a new economy car.

A new house cost on average about $26,000 in 1970, so it took 15,750 hours of minimum wage labor to buy a new house.

At today's federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour, it takes 3,000 hours to buy a basic 2021 Honda Civic or equivalent which costs $22,000. To buy a new economy car today with 1,200 hours of minimum wage labor, the minimum wage would need to be $18.30 /hour: 1,200 time $18.30 = $21,960.

At today's federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour, it takes 56,000 hours to buy the average priced house which now costs $408,000. Let's say there are houses available for $300,000, so it takes 41,380 hours of minimum wage labor to buy a house.

To buy a new house for $408,000 with 15,750 hours of labor, the wage would need to be $25.90/hour. To buy a $300,000 home with 15,750 hours of labor, the wage would need to be $19/hour.

...

In 1974, I paid $89.25 in tuition and $27 student fees per semester to attend the University of Hawaii at Manoa. (These numbers stick in your head when you're paying for them in cash earned at low-paying jobs while you're carrying a full five courses a semester.) That's $233 per year. At a wage of $2/hour, it took 116 hours of labor to pay the annual tuition and fees.

The current cost of tuition and fees at the University of Hawaii at Manoa is $12,186 per year. To pay the tuition and fees with 116 hours of work, the hourly wage would need to be $105/hour. If America gets any more "prosperous," I won't know whether to puke or go blind."

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Trump triggers critics, promising to retake White House ‘sooner than you think’ in fundraising ad

"As rumors swirl around his political future, Trump alarmed critics on Friday when he said in an interview that he may be interested in running for Congress in the near future.

Speaking with right-wing radio host Wayne Allyn Root, it was suggested that Trump should become House Speaker, which the former president admitted was a “very interesting” proposition.

“People have said, run for the Senate, OK?” Trump said following the suggestion. “But you know, your idea might be better.”"

The House would be a better place than the Presidency for Trump.

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Biden commemorates Tulsa massacre, notes ‘terrorism from white supremacy’ is ‘greatest threat’ to US

"The Tulsa destruction began when a young black man named Dick Rowland was falsely accused of rape by a white woman. With a white mob demanding the sheriff turn him over, dozens of black citizens showed up to guard Rowland at his trial. After being turned away, they returned in greater numbers only for things to descend into violence with a mob of white people. The chaos led to the destruction of the Greenwood neighborhood, referred to as “Black Wall Street” thanks to its thriving black-owned businesses. Numerous homes and shops were destroyed and black citizens were killed, some even by private planes dropping bombs.

The true death count from the day is not known, but some have estimated that it could be higher than 300.

...

“Imagine all of those hotels and diners and mom-and-pop shops that could have been passed down this past 100 years,” he later added, before announcing efforts to help in “black wealth creation,” including increasing federal contracts to “black or brown owned” businesses by 50% as well as combating the “racial discrimination in housing,” noting black home ownership is lower today than 50 years ago.

...

The president also said he was putting Vice President Kamala Harris in charge of an effort to push back against new voting laws in various states he claims are trying to suppress the “right to vote.” Biden did not go into specifics, but said he would have more details about his plan in the coming days.

He wrapped his commemoration by comparing the “hate” at the center of the Tulsa Massacre, as well as voting rights issues, to more recent events such as the 2017 Charlottesville riot and Capitol riot - done by a mob of “violent white extremist thugs,” according to Biden - on January 6, which led to the death of five people, though he did mistakenly say the latter took place on January 9.

“Terrorism from white supremacy is the most lethal threat to the homeland today,” Biden claimed, citing concerns from US intelligence communities."

I'm pretty certain that transhumanist technocrats who seek to measure everything you do and eventually destroy humans are the greatest threat, not "white supremacy".

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In algorithms we trust? Twitter draws criticism over potential new ‘misinformation warning’ system

"Tech blogger Jane Manchun Wong, who is known for reverse engineering apps to find hidden features, revealed on Monday that she had come across a tiered warning label system that Twitter is toying with, apparently in an effort to expand its crackdown on ‘misinformation’.

According to Wong, Twitter could potentially place problematic material into three categories: “Get the latest,” “Stay informed,” and “Misleading.” The new system appears to take a more nuanced approach to fact-checking, employing labels on content that may not be wrong but, in Twitter’s opinion, requires more context.

As an example of how the labels might be employed, Wong created three separate tweets. Her first message, “Snorted 60 grams of dihydrogen monoxide and I’m not feeling so well now,” was countered with a “Get the latest” label that offered more information about water.

In a second post she wrote: “In 12 hours, darkness will ascend in parts of the world. Stay tuned,” triggering a “Stay informed” label that provided a link to information about time zones. A third tweet, “We eat. Turtles eat. Therefore we are turtles,” resulted in a “Misleading” label, tagging the content as a “logical fallacy.”

Wong explained that while the labels were real, she added her own text below them in order to demonstrate how the system might respond to alleged misinformation.

A Twitter employee confirmed that the labels were genuine, describing them as “early experiments” as the company continues to target misinformation."

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Twitter sued, accused of being “deputized” to carry out censorship on behalf of Biden administration

"The American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) is suing Twitter and the company’s CEO Jack Dorsey, as well as US President Joe Biden, for colluding to impose online censorship of criticism of the government’s policy on COVID, the vaccination-related issues in particular.

The lawsuit alleges that the current US administration is using major social networks to work around the fact that the constitution prohibits it from censoring speech critical of its policies; instead, as AFLC Senior Counsel David Yerushalmi put it, privately owned platforms have been “deputized” to carry out that work.

...

The First and Fifth Amendments, as well as the US Constitution are violated in this process, the non-profit charges, while accusing Twitter, its CEO, and the Biden administration of conspiring to discriminate people’s viewpoints.

...

The filing mentions that both the Biden administration and Twitter have in the past made statements confirming that they are communicating and cooperating on stopping what they deem to be COVID misinformation.

AFLC co-founder Robert Muise blasted Twitter as getting away for a long time with doing the bidding “of the Democrat Party and other left-wing organizations” – without being held accountable, despite its huge power to shape public opinion."

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‘Neither legal nor constitutional’: Virginia teacher who was put on leave for opposing gender pronoun rules SUES school district

"Lawyers for Byron ‘Tanner’ Cross, a gym teacher at Leesburg Elementary School, filed suit against the Loudoun County School Board and two of the district's top executives on Tuesday, alleging that he suffered “content and viewpoint-based retaliation” after openly opposing the pronoun rule at a board meeting last month.

According to the lawsuit, Cross was called to meet with his superiors two days after he spoke out and told he was under investigation for “conduct that has had a disruptive impact on the operations” of the school. The core issue of the case, the suit said, is whether public schools can “punish a teacher for objecting… to a proposed policy” that would force them to “express ideas about human nature” that they believe are false – especially at a board meeting, which are meant to host open dialogue about school policies.

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The Alliance for Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative activist group, is representing Cross in the lawsuit. In a letter published on the teacher’s behalf last week, the ADF argued that “public schools have no business compelling teachers to express ideological beliefs that they don’t hold.”

“The school favors certain beliefs, and it wants to force Tanner to cry uncle and endorse them as well. That’s neither legal nor constitutional, and neither was the school’s move to place Tanner on leave,” ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer said.

...

On Wednesday, one day after the gym teacher's lawsuit was filed, a group of parents reportedly sued the district in federal court over initiatives that allegedly discriminate against white students based on their race."