- The Era Of Informed Consent Is Over
The Era Of Informed Consent Is Over
Authored by Victor Dalziel via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
In a significant blow to patient autonomy, informed consent has been quietly revoked just 77 years after it was codified in the Nuremberg Code.
(Jan H Andersen/Shutterstock) On the 21st of December 2023, as we were frantically preparing for the festive season, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a final ruling to amend a provision of the 21st Century Cures Act. This allowed
“… an exception from the requirement to obtain informed consent when a clinical investigation poses no more than a minimal risk to the human subject …” [emphasis added]
This ruling went into effect on January 22nd, 2024, which means it’s already standard practice across America.
So, what is the 21st Century Cures Act? It is a controversial Law enacted by the 114th United States Congress in January 2016 with strong support from the pharmaceutical industry. The Act was designed to
“… accelerate the discovery, development, and delivery of 21st-century cures, and for other purposes [?] …”
Some of the provisions within this Act make for uncomfortable reading. For example, the Act supported:
• High-risk, high-reward research [Sec. 2036].
• Novel clinical trial designs [Sec. 3021]
• Encouraging vaccine innovation [Sec. 3093].
This Act granted the National Institutes of Health (NIH) legal protection to pursue high-risk, novel vaccine research. A strong case could be made that these provisions capture all the necessary architecture required for much of the evil that transpired over the past four years.
Overturning patient-informed consent was another stated goal of the original Act. Buried under Section 3024 was the provision to develop an “Informed consent waiver or alteration for clinical investigation.”
Scholars of medical history understand that the concept of informed consent, something we all take for granted today, is a relatively new phenomenon codified in its modern understanding as one of the critical principles of the Nuremberg Code in 1947. It is inconceivable that just 77 years after Nuremberg, the door has once again opened for state-sanctioned medical experimentation on potentially uninformed and unwilling citizens.
According to this amendment, the state alone, acting through the NIH, the FDA, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will decide what is considered a “minimal risk” and, most concerning, will determine:
“… appropriate safeguards to protect the rights, safety, and welfare of human subjects.”
Notice the term subjects, not patients, persons, individuals, or citizens… but subjects. In asymmetrical power relationships such as clinician/patient, it is understood that the passive subject will comply with the rulings and mandates of their medical masters. The use of the term subjects also serves to dehumanise. The dehumanisation of populations was a critical component of Nazi human experimentation and, as Hannah Arendt argued, is an essential step toward denying citizens “… the right to have rights.”
This ruling also allows researchers and their misguided evangelical billionaire backers to potentially pursue dangerous experimental programs such as Bill Gates’ mosquito vaccines, mRNA vaccines in livestock, and vaccines in aerosols. This Act encourages these novel and high-risk programs, with medical studies approved as “minimal risk” by the regulators no longer requiring researchers and pharmaceutical companies to obtain patient consent. Yet, the histories of pharmacology and medicine are plagued with clinical investigations and interventions that were thought to pose no more than minimal risk to humans but went on to cause immeasurable pain, suffering, and death.
This amendment represents merely a first tentative step as the U.S. government tests the waters to see what it can get away with. Given the lack of attention this ruling received in both the corporate press and independent media, the government is likely to feel emboldened to widen its scope. Thus, this decision represents the beginning of a chilling revisionism in Western medical history, as patient autonomy is again forsaken.
This ruling, to be actioned by potentially corrupt scientists, health bureaucrats, and captured health and drug regulators, is another step toward a dystopian future unimaginable just five years ago. No doubt the infrastructure to implement this decree is already being constructed by the same groupthink cultists responsible for the nightmarish pandemic lockdowns, continuing to place the pursuit of profit and the greater good above individual choice, bodily autonomy, and informed consent.
From the Brownstone Institute
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 03/30/2024 – 23:20 - Rivian Drivers Are The Most 'Brand-Loyal' Vehicle-Owners In The World
Rivian Drivers Are The Most ‘Brand-Loyal’ Vehicle-Owners In The World
This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu, visualizes the best and worst car brands in terms of brand loyalty. This is measured by the % of current owners who would buy from the same brand for their next vehicle.
Data comes from Consumer Reports’ owner satisfaction survey, which includes responses from owners of more than 330,000 vehicles.
Car Brands With the Most Loyal Customers
Rivian takes the top spot in this ranking, with 86% of owners saying they would buy from the brand again. The EV startup has carved an interesting niche for itself with its outdoor adventure-focused models, and despite several recalls, appears to have won the hearts of its early customers.
It’s interesting to note that Tesla held the #1 spot in last year’s ranking.
Car Brands With the Least Loyal Customers
At the other end of the spectrum we have brands with the least loyal customers, suggesting that owners are less satisfied with their purchase.
At the bottom of this table is Nissan’s luxury marque, Infiniti, with only 43% of owners saying they would revisit the brand for their next car.
Infiniti dealerships are aware of this alarming trend, and have attributed it to the brand’s aging lineup. In a recent interview, Steve Lapin, Chairman of the Infiniti National Dealer Advisory Board, said: “Product is king. Infiniti doesn’t have the right products right now to compete in the marketplace.”
Tyler Durden
Sat, 03/30/2024 – 22:45 - Behind Massive Mail-In Ballot Push Is A Little-Noticed Executive Order
Behind Massive Mail-In Ballot Push Is A Little-Noticed Executive Order
Authored by Kevin Stocklin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
A federal effort to register voters using the government’s vast reach, including throughout the U.S. prison system, is raising concerns from critics who have said it won’t benefit Democrats and Republicans equally.
(Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images) Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson wrote to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on March 6 alleging that agencies under the attorney general’s charge are “attempting to register people to vote, including potentially ineligible felons, and to co-opt state and local officials into accomplishing this goal.”
The allegation relates to President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14019, which states, “The head of each agency shall evaluate ways in which the agency can, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, promote voter registration and voter participation.”
Among other things, this order has forced U.S. Marshals to modify more than 900 contracts with prisons and jails to provide voter registration documents and facilitate mail-in voting for inmates, Mr. Watson wrote.
“We have worked extremely hard to restore the confidence of Mississippi voters in our election process,” Mr. Watson told The Epoch Times. “To have the Biden administration and the DOJ purposefully undermine these efforts and jeopardize the integrity of Mississippi’s elections is unacceptable.”
The secretary of state is the chief election officer in Mississippi.
The work by the Department of Justice to register voters in prisons, critics say, is just the tip of the iceberg.
Other agencies, including the Department of Education, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, are also carrying out campaigns to sign up new voters.
On Feb. 26, Vice President Kamala Harris lauded a federal plan to use work-study grants to pay students to register voters.
In addition, President Biden’s executive order directed federal agencies to select “approved, nonpartisan third-party organizations and state officials to provide voter registration services on agency premises.”
President Biden’s executive order was called “visionary“ by Ceridwen Cherry, a former staff attorney on the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Voting Rights Project, who said, ”In a democracy, governments at all levels should be doing everything they can to help eligible people register to vote.”
However, critics say elections are under the purview of states, not the federal government.
“The reason it’s such a big problem is that, with the president, it’s only one political party that’s in power,” Stewart Whitson, legal director of the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), a conservative think-tank, told The Epoch Times.
“If you allow the president to be the one to decide where all these massive resources are channeled, that’s problematic,” he said, adding that this is why the Founders gave election authority to states and not to the federal executive.
Cook County jail detainees check in before casting their votes after a polling place was opened in the facility for early voting in Chicago on Oct. 17, 2020. (Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images) Implementation Questions
The plan has been called “Bidenbucks” by some of its detractors, referencing the injection into state election programs of $400 million in 2020 from Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, dubbed “Zuckerbucks.”
“This is Zuckerbucks on steroids because instead of $400 million, it’s unlimited funding and resources and the reach of the federal government and all its offices located across the country,” Mr. Whitson said.
Previous efforts to federalize elections through Congress have failed.
In 2022, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) attempted to eradicate the legislative filibuster in order to pass H.R. 5746, the “Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act,” which would have given the federal government authority over parts of state election systems, expanded voting by mail, and eliminated security protocols such as requiring voter identification.
Democrats claimed the bill was necessary to fight “voter suppression” by state governments.
President Biden’s executive order includes the directive for federal agencies to find ways to distribute “vote-by-mail ballot application forms” as well as assist applicants in completing the application “in a manner consistent with all relevant State laws.”
In 2020, nearly 45 percent of voters used mail-in-ballots.
Since the president signed EO 14019, a number of attempts have been made to obtain information about how federal agencies will implement it, particularly which private organizations it has selected to work out of federal offices alongside government officials.
Federal departments refused to release this information, and requests were followed up with FOIA filings and subsequently by lawsuits; however, the Biden administration continues to defy the requests.
In July 2021, the FGA filed a FOIA request regarding President Biden’s Voting Access plan. The group sought information about what federal agencies were doing to implement the plan, as well as records from planning and strategy meetings among President Biden’s staff, federal agencies, and the architects of EO 14019.
“These documents, in any other context, would be handed over much more quickly,” Mr. Whitson said. “So this indicates to us that there’s something there the Biden administration really does not care to share, because they’ve withheld it for nearly three years now.”
President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama step off Air Force One upon arrival at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City on March 28, 2024. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images) The America First Legal foundation, another plaintiff in a FOIA suit, characterized EO 14019 as “the president’s unprecedented effort to deploy federal agencies in support of partisan voting operations and fortify politically aligned private organizations working to circumvent state election integrity laws.”
More than two years later, court battles over the information requests are ongoing. The administration has brought in White House counsel and the Department of Justice to fight the requests.
How Federal Agencies Enact EO 14019
Prominent among the many federal agencies carrying out the executive order is the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which announced in 2022 that federal health centers across the nation now have the discretion to participate in activities—including voter registration—that are outside the scope of core department activities.
“Such voter registration activities may include making available voter registration materials to patients, encouraging patients to register to vote, assisting patients with completing registration forms, sending completed forms to the election authorities, providing voter registration materials in waiting rooms, and allowing private, non-partisan organizations to conduct on-site voter registration,” the HHS website says.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development instructed more than 3,000 public housing authorities managing some 1.2 million public housing units across the country to run voter registration drives in those units.
The Department of Education sent a letter to universities, directing them to use Federal Work Study funds “to support voter registration activities.”
The letter states, “If a student is employed directly by a post-secondary institution, the institution may compensate a student for [Federal Work Study] employment involving voter registration activities that take place on or off-campus.”
The Department of Education has been particularly active in turning out likely Democrat voters, according to Scott Walter, president of the Capital Research Center.
“Every college campus is massively dependent on Department of Education largesse, from Pell grants to every other kind of aid,” Mr. Walter told The Epoch Times.
“The Department of Education in 2022 was threatening campuses that you better be registering students or you could lose your federal funds.”
The Department of Agriculture issued letters to state agencies administering the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Women’s Infants and Children’s low-income food program, instructing them to carry out voter registration activities with federal funds.
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Sat, 03/30/2024 – 22:10 - Black Mayors Hold National Meeting On Crime – Discussion Closed To The Public
Black Mayors Hold National Meeting On Crime – Discussion Closed To The Public
The “Black Mayors’ Coalition on Crime” gathered this week in Memphis, Tennessee to discuss the dangers of crime across the US, as well as apparent solutions to the growing threat. The question is, was the meeting really about stopping crime, or, was it all about maintaining optics and making the public believe crime is going down when it’s not?
It’s difficult to say because public and media access to the event was strictly limited. In many states private meetings between public officials related to policy are illegal. However, in Tennessee the regulations are a bit more lax in terms of what constitutes a “meeting subject to law.”
The Tennessee Open Meetings Act defines a “meeting” as “the convening of a governing body of a public body for which a quorum is required to make a decision or to deliberate toward a decision.” A “governing body” is “any public body [consisting] of two or more members, with the authority to make decisions for or recommendations to a public body on policy or administration.”
In other words, a quorum is required, which means Tennessee was very carefully chosen by the Black Mayor’s Coalition (the vast majority of them Democrats) because it allowed them more legal room to hold closed door meetings. But why not include the press and the public in this discourse?
Perhaps because the event is in itself an admission that crime is rising; a reality which Democrat representatives have tried to deny for the past few years. Another reason may be because the solutions being discussed are not something the voting population would agree with.
In the interview below the Mayor of St. Louis, Tishaura Jones, mentions that gas stations and convenience stores attract a high rate of crime and asks how the business owners can be ‘held accountable’ for this, rather than how they can be protected from it?
“We have a lot of violence around convenience stores and gas stations…So how can we hold those business owners accountable and also bring down crime? Some of the things are already doing, we’re finding other mayors are doing as well.”
In other words, how can these mayors blame businesses for the crime rate instead of taking responsibility as elected representatives?
There are the obvious ironies to mention here, including the fact that many of these mayors supported far-left measures to defund police departments, only to quietly remove those measures a few years later. Then there’s the plethora of statistical tricks used by city politicians to hide real crime data.
This includes greatly reduced prosecution and conviction rates; in many Democrat controlled cities the conviction rate is less than 5 out of every 100 arrests. From 2018 to 2023, conviction rates dropped over 58%, and convictions sharply declined specifically from 2020 onward. From 2011 to 2021 prison populations dropped over 22%, despite the fact that criminal activity increased over the same period.
The less prosecutions, the less convictions, the lower the crime stats. It’s that simple. Democrats have also taken advantage of a change in the FBI criminal reporting policies which was conveniently initiated in 2020. Because of this change, numerous US cities will not be reporting full numbers to the FBI until 2025. This is why the FBI recently reported a “drop” in violent crime nationally – Because they don’t have complete statistics.
Then of course there’s the disproportionate number of crimes committed by minorities in these same cities. Black on black crime rates in places like St. Louis are stunning. Studies from 2022 show that 92% of homicide suspects and 86% of victims in St. Louis and St. Louis County were black. Around 84% of them were repeat offenders. Blacks make up 43% of the population in that region.
Leftist mayors have long suggested that public perception of crime deviates from the reality of crime; yet, here they are holding closed-door meetings to discuss the growing crime problem in their own towns. Perhaps the issue is not public perception mismatching reality, maybe the issue is political spin mismatching reality. The populace deals with these crimes on a daily basis; it’s going to be hard to gaslight people into thinking criminal activity isn’t a problem.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 03/30/2024 – 21:35 - In 2024, Digital Is Everything In Politics
In 2024, Digital Is Everything In Politics
Authored by Scott Farmer via RealClear Politics,
As the 2024 election heats up, now is the time for campaigns to invest wisely. Questions abound: Do you invest in cable news advertising? Door-to-door canvassing? Social media? Something else?
For answers, I look back to the past. In 2000, I oversaw the South Carolina Republican Party’s history-making effort to post real-time presidential primary results online. The election night vote-counting for the epic Bush vs. McCain battle played out on screens across the world – not just in the South Carolina GOP’s vote tabulation center. On that night, the ground shifted beneath our feet.
Over more than two decades of working on Senator Lindsey Graham’s campaigns, first as his finance director and then as his campaign manager for multiple elections, I watched digital operations transform from a backwater oddity to the beating heart of modern campaigns. To outsiders, this revolution seemed obvious, given the meteoric rise of social media, data collection, and mobile devices. However, for an industry steeped in “retail politics” that values handshakes, parades, and stump speeches, embracing the Internet’s intangible nature was a massive culture shock.
Many candidates didn’t understand the social media platforms that can decide elections, and many still don’t. But the digitization of politics is now undeniable, with digital ad spending alone expected to increase by about 30% in 2024. Billions of political dollars are now spent on digital ads without even taking into account the organic reach of a given candidate.
The tide turned when digital proved it could raise money. In the early 2000s, campaigns dabbled with websites and a few email donations. Digital was seen as a minor complement to traditional fundraising, not a replacement. Today, large grassroots-fueled campaigns often generate a majority of their funding from small-dollar donors. In fact, we raised a whopping 84% of Senator Graham’s record-breaking $110 million in 2020 from generous digital and direct mail donors. Again, we felt the ground shift beneath our feet.
But fundraising is only the tip of the iceberg. The Obama campaign’s pioneering use of technology in 2008 opened the floodgates, reaching more voters, organizing more efficiently, and raising more money thanks to an unmatched digital operation. Fast forward to 2024, and digital is intertwined with every aspect of a political campaign.
Want to recruit volunteers or distribute yard signs? Utilize your website and social media. Need to map out the most effective door-knocking routes? There’s an app for that. Want to encourage donations during a debate? Send out a text. Looking to target voters on social media and streaming TV? Digital advertising has it covered. “Retail politics” still happens in person, but campaigns are now powered by data and analytics. Digital rules behind the scenes.
The central role of digital highlights one of its most critical values: Real-time metrics. Digital is the canary in the coal mine, detecting a message’s effectiveness long before polls or pundits reflect it. If a strategy shows early success, data quantifies and scales it. If you’re falling behind the metrics, your campaign is doomed. We saw this real-time impact in 2020 when Senator Graham raised over $5 million in only 24 hours due, in part, to standing up for then-Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. On that day, the ground again shifted beneath our feet.
In 2024 and beyond, the digital team can no longer be siloed off. It must be fully integrated into every aspect of a winning campaign, so digital should be part of every strategic decision through constant collaboration. Future campaigns will be won or lost based on which candidates have digital in their DNA – and invest in it. Leaders who fail to embrace this truth do so at their own peril.
Scott Farmer serves as chief operating officer at Push Digital Group.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 03/30/2024 – 21:00 - Deadly Lung Disease Cases Surge To 10-Year High, Children Most Affected: CDC
Deadly Lung Disease Cases Surge To 10-Year High, Children Most Affected: CDC
Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
U.S. cases of tuberculosis, a deadly infectious disease that typically strikes the lungs, have soared to their highest level in a decade, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with the largest relative increase among children.
A doctor examines the x-rays of a tuberculosis patient in a file image. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) After 27 years of declining tuberculosis rates in the United States, cases of the disease started to climb again in 2020—and they’ve continued to rise every year since, the CDC said in a March 28 report.
In 2023, tuberculosis case counts jumped by 1,295 from the prior year to 9,615, the agency said. This represents an increase of 16 percent and is the highest level since 2013.
While the CDC expected cases to rise, the extent of the increase came as somewhat of a surprise to the agency.
Dr. Philip LoBue, director of the CDC’s Division of Tuberculosis Elimination, told The Associated Press that the 2023 case count was “a little more” than expected.
Tuberculosis incidences increased in every age group in 2023 compared to the year prior, but for reasons unknown children aged 5–14 experienced the largest relative increase—42 percent.
Infections Most Common Among Non-US-Born Individuals
The vast majority—76 percent—of tuberculosis cases in the United States in 2023 were in non-U.S.-born persons.
Among 9,573 tuberculosis cases in persons for whom birth origin was known, 7,259 occurred among those who were born outside the United States, the CDC said. This represents an 18 percent increase compared to 2022.
Tuberculosis, which is caused by a bacteria that typically attacks the lungs, is one of the deadliest infectious diseases in the world.
Nearly 4,400 people globally die each day from tuberculosis, which is spread through the air when someone is infected with the disease sneezes or coughs.
The United States has one of the lowest rates of tuberculosis in the world, but the CDC said in its report that the uptick in cases means that capacity should be strengthened in public health programs to carry out “critical disease control and prevention strategies.”
California With Highest Number of Cases
As was the case in 2022, California reported the highest number of tuberculosis cases in 2023, with 2,113 infections.
Alaska reported the highest infection rate, at 10.6 per 100,000 people.
An estimated 85 percent of the people counted in 2023 were infected at least a year or two earlier and had what’s known as latent tuberculosis. This is when the bacteria enters the body and hibernates in the lungs or other parts of the body, and then becomes reactivated.
Health experts estimate as many as 13 million Americans have latent tuberculosis. People with latent tuberculosis don’t feel sick or have any symptoms, nor can they spread the bacteria to others.
The CDC says that, in order to prevent transmission and reduce fatalities, the disease must be detected quickly and treatment must be initated promptly.
Last November, California health officials said that at least 10 cases of tuberculosis were linked to a casino in Contra Costa County.
“TB can live inside someone for years without showing signs of its presence,” Dr. Meera Sreenivasan said of the disease, according to an earlier report from The Epoch Times.
“That is why it’s important to take a test, even if you do not feel sick. TB can cause serious illness, but it is treatable and curable with medicine, especially when caught early,” he added.
In another widely reported incident, an outbreak of tuberculosis cases at a migrant shelter on Cape Cod was the subject of an alleged coverup.
Types of Tuberculosis And Symptoms
Tuberculosis can be categorized into different types based on its stage (active versus latent) and the part of the body it affects (lungs or outside the lungs), with the two main categories being pulmonary and extrapulmonary.
Pulmonary tuberculosis is an infection involving the lungs, though this form of the disease can also spread to other organs.
Extrapulmonary tuberculosis originates in organs outside the lungs and never enters the lungs. This type often arises from the spread of infection through the bloodstream or directly from other organs. Unlike the type that involves the lungs, extrapulmonary tuberculosis is generally not contagious.
While latent tuberculosis is asymptomatic, people with the active form of the disease typically have symptoms that include chills, fever, profuse night sweats, weight loss, general malaise, loss of appetite, weakness, and fatigue.
Pulmonary tuberculosis also often involves difficulty breathing, chest pain, persistent cough lasting over three weeks, swollen glands, and sore throat.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 03/30/2024 – 19:50 - Gen-Z American YouTuber Kidnapped In Haiti
Gen-Z American YouTuber Kidnapped In Haiti
A YouTube and Twitch star known as “YourFellowArab” was reportedly kidnapped by a ruthless Haitian gang. The Gen-Zer attempted to interview gang leader Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier earlier this month amid the Caribbean nation’s descent into civil war.
Local media outlet Haiti24 reports Addison Pierre Maalouf traveled from his home in Atlanta to interview Barbecue, the leader of the G9 Family and Allies, abbreviated as “G9” or “FRG9”, a coalition of over a dozen Haitian gangs based in Port-au-Prince.
But on March 14, the YouTuber was kidnapped by a group of armed men from the “400 Mawozo” gang.
Haiti24 reports:
The incident took place when he was returning from Cap-Haïtien, accompanied by his Haitian colleague, Sacra Sean. Adisson Pierre Maalouf went to Delmas 6 to do an interview with Jimmy Cerisier, aka “Barbecue,” a spokesperson for Viv Ansanm.
The outlet continued:
According to information, the kidnappers, acting under the orders of the fearsome gang leader “Lanmò 100 jou”, member of the “Viv Ansanm” coalition, demanded an exorbitant ransom of $600,000 for the journalist’s release. Despite the payment of an initial tranche of $40,000, the kidnappers demanded a much larger sum for his complete release.
Addison makes videos about his experiences with gangsters all over the world. In one recent video, he lived with the Mexican cartel for days. He’s hunted pirates in the Red Sea and toured the favelas in Rio de Janeiro.
Earlier this month, the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince urged all American citizens still in the country to “leave as soon as possible” while other embassies restricted services. The US State Department placed the nation on the “Do not travel” list for Americans.
Another Twitch streamer, Lalem, said on X, “Tried keeping it [kidnapping] private for 2 weeks, but it’s getting out everywhere now. Yes Arab has been kidnapped in Haiti, and we’re working on getting him out. Love ya’ll, he’ll be out soon.”
Here are some of the YouTuber’s last posts on X:
Going on another one of those trips 🤫
If I die, thanks for watching what I’ve put out. If I live, all glory to God.
— Arab (@YourFellowArab) March 11, 2024
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My taxi just got in an accident in the middle of the Dominican while I was asleep.
Everything good, just another sign that God is watching over 🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/NeQAQNryqY
— Arab (@YourFellowArab) March 12, 2024
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Dominican Republicans are by far the worst drivers in the entire world.
Worse than Indians, worse than Asians, worst in the world 🇩🇴
— Arab (@YourFellowArab) March 12, 2024
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Imagine all the shit I’ve done that should’ve killed me & I die to a car accident 😂
I’d be the biggest pussy of all time. Light scratches keep moving.
— Arab (@YourFellowArab) March 12, 2024
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Youngsters will do anything for those clicks…
Tyler Durden
Sat, 03/30/2024 – 19:15 - Payment Processor Stripe Backs Off Dr. Malone After Legal Threat
Payment Processor Stripe Backs Off Dr. Malone After Legal Threat
Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Stripe, the only payment processor Substack writers can use, has backed off a demand that Dr. Robert Malone link his bank account, according to the law firm Dr. Malone retained.
Dr. Robert Malone in Washington, on June 29, 2021. (Zhen Wang/The Epoch Times) Stripe earlier in March asked Dr. Malone, who has an EpochTV show, to “link the primary bank account for your business to your Stripe account,” which would enable Stripe to review the account’s “current account balance and transactions, as well as historical transactions,” according to emails reviewed by The Epoch Times.
The request was part of “a routine credit review” of Dr. Malone’s Substack, one email stated.
Stripe said that if the bank account was not linked, then it might block Dr. Malone from being paid.
The request “which deviated from Stripe’s standard operating procedures, would have compelled Dr. Malone to provide extensive financial information from his business banking activities, including transactions and account balances spanning the entire history of his business bank account,” Dhillon Law Group, which Dr. Malone hired to represent him in the matter, said in a statement.
After the legal firm reached out to Stripe, the company rescinded the demand, the law firm said.
“Financial service providers must tread carefully when requesting client data. It is critical to uphold the delicate balance between regulatory requirements and an individual’s right to financial privacy,” Mark Meuser, an attorney with the group, said in a statement. “We are satisfied with Stripe’s decision to withdraw its request, allowing Dr. Malone to continue his valuable work without unnecessary intrusion into his business affairs.”
Stripe has not responded to requests for comment. A Stripe spokesperson told The Federalist, “Stripe may, in certain instances, request users to link their bank account to assess businesses’ liquidity as part of the underwriting process, but also allows businesses to submit a form with relevant information in lieu of linking their bank account.”
That alternative was not presented to Dr. Malone, according to his lawyers.
Dr. Malone said retaining lawyers was expensive but a move he felt he had to make after neither Stripe nor Substack provided any options other than linking his account.
“It was a hard and costly decision to justify this level of cost and risk, but the risk of losing a business that had been developed over years of careful, daily customer service was too high to not take this seriously,” he wrote on his Substack.
The result was the disclosure that, instead of linking his account, Dr. Malone could provide certain information on a form. The form requested information on which services Dr. Malone is selling through Stripe, and whether Dr. Malone accepts payments from customers before the customers receive the services, according to a screenshot of the document.
“In my opinion, it is very unfortunate that Stripe and Substack are pursuing these policies, which are absolutely contrary to the principles of support of free speech upon which Substack was founded. Stripe has apparently modified those web-based resources in which they has [sic] previously indicated that this policy was being implemented in response to Federal US Government pressure to delete any reference to Federal US Government actions prompting these policies,” Dr. Malone wrote.
Dr. Malone was referring to a recent U.S. House of Representatives report that detailed how the U.S. government is conducting surveillance of financial providers, although neither Stripe nor Substack were mentioned in the report.
Substack responded in an automatic message to an inquiry, stating, “If you’re a journalist reaching out with a press request, a member of our communications team will be in touch.” No Substack employees ever responded to the inquiry.
“In this case, we were able to obtain prompt revision of the Stripe/Substack action by spending considerable funds to obtain highly qualified legal representation,” Dr. Malone said. “But what of the average author who is either caught unaware by such policies or who cannot justify such legal costs? This appears to be a new normal, weaponization of finance and financial transactions to restrict and control free speech.”
Tyler Durden
Sat, 03/30/2024 – 18:40 - Judge Rebukes DOJ Arguments Against Release Of Jan. 6 Defendant
Judge Rebukes DOJ Arguments Against Release Of Jan. 6 Defendant
Authored by Chase Smith via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
A Jan. 6 defendant seeking to be released from prison was granted in part by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia this week.
Kevin Seefried holds a Confederate flag outside the Senate Chamber during a protest after breaching the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, on Jan. 6, 2021. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images) The order, signed by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden on March 26, will grant (pdf) the release of Kevin Seefried, a defendant convicted for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach, pending the appeal of his conviction.
This decision comes despite stark warnings from the Justice Department regarding the implications of such a move.
Mr. Seefried received a three-year prison sentence for obstructing an official proceeding among other charges, facing a potential maximum sentence of 23 years.
After his conviction, he appealed and requested release pending appeal, a request that gained new relevance when the Supreme Court decided to review a related case, Fischer v. United States, which could impact many Jan. 6 defendants.
The high Court’s decision on this case may influence the outcome of Mr. Seefried’s conviction, suggesting it could be vacated depending on the justices’ ruling.
Judge Notes Deja Vu
The decision to release Mr. Seefried is grounded in the ongoing legal debate over the application of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c), the obstruction of an official proceeding statute, beyond the context of “evidence impairment.”
“Seefried’s current motion is déjà vu all over again,” Judge McFadden wrote.
This legal question is currently under review by the Supreme Court in a related case, Fischer v. United States, which directly challenges the scope of § 1512(c) and its application to the Jan. 6 defendants.
Judge McFadden, in his memorandum order, outlined that the release is premised on two conditions mandated by 18 U.S.C. § 3143(b): a defendant is not likely to flee or pose a danger to the community if released, and that the appeal raises a substantial question likely to result in a significantly lesser sentence or reversal.
Judge McFadden found that Mr. Seefried met both conditions, noting a lack of evidence to suggest Mr. Seefried would flee or pose a danger, and that the Supreme Court’s review of Fischer represents a substantial question of law that could materially affect Mr. Seefried’s conviction.
Judge McFadden noted the argument of the Justice Department that, in their belief, he now knew the “day-to-day reality of confinement in prison” and was therefore “more likely” to flee than return to prison.
Judge McFadden also noted U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves’s argument of 2024 being an election year involving “what will likely be another fiercely contested presidential election” and if released, the Court “would be releasing defendant into the same political maelstrom that led him to commit his crimes in the first place.”
Judge McFadden said those arguments were “unavailing.”
“The riot on January 6th was the culmination of a unique—indeed, never-before-seen—confluence of events,” Judge McFadden wrote. “The Government provides the Court no evidence suggesting that any of the events that led to that riot are reasonably likely to recur. Nor does it point to any evidence that Seefried would participate in another riot if they did.”
Furthermore, the decision reflects on the procedural aspects and standards for release pending appeal, challenging the Justice Department’s arguments against Mr. Seefried’s release.
Judge McFadden wrote he should be released on the one-year anniversary that he first surrendered himself to serve time, which is “on or before” May 31.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 03/30/2024 – 18:10 - Outrage Ensues As Biden Celebrates "Transgender Day of Visibility" On Easter
Outrage Ensues As Biden Celebrates “Transgender Day of Visibility” On Easter
The White House has released a statement celebrating “Transgender Day of Visibility,” which President Joe Biden ‘proclaimed‘ in 2021 as March 31 – and which has been celebrated by activists on this day since 2014 after this individual ‘founded and organized’ it.
According to the White House:
“NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim March 31, 2024, as Transgender Day of Visibility. I call upon all Americans to join us in lifting up the lives and voices of transgender people throughout our Nation and to work toward eliminating violence and discrimination based on gender identity,” the statement read.
And where Easter is typically held the first Sunday after the full moon occurs on or after the spring equinox, while “Transgender Day of Visibility” is on the same date each year, many have taken offense to the day’s proximity to the Christian holiday.
They hate us and our Christianity.
— UnipartyBomber (@magajcs) March 30, 2024
Declaring EASTER to be
‘Transgender Day of Visibility’Translation:
They Hate You
They Hate Our Children
They Hate Christians …..
They Hate America !!!We the People see you 🤛🏼
— Cyndexia America Truther 💯🥂 (@TrutherAmerica) March 30, 2024
They are mocking us
— Steve Ferguson (@lsferguson) March 30, 2024
Trending on X:
As for the White House’s Easter egg design submission…
“The Submission must not include any questionable content, religious symbols, overtly religious themes,” a flyer with instructions from the White House stated.
But, of course, the White House is fine with this…
The demonic Biden White House is banning religious symbols from this year’s Easter egg hunt because they don’t want to offend anyone.
The same demonic Biden White House during a Pride Month celebration last summer 👇 pic.twitter.com/zyudS3sxGU— Vince Langman (@LangmanVince) March 30, 2024
You know what should have been covered up is this …
Now this was pure trash at the White House … Easter twerking, topless trans thingy and whateve the fvck that was at Christmas … pic.twitter.com/eHwnssP50D— The Ms Francesca (@TheMsFrancesca) March 25, 2024
145 calendar days celebrating LGBTQ+ pic.twitter.com/kxtGx9Scg1
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 30, 2024
The Bidens have stated that Decency is on the ballot .. last year we saw the Easter Rabbit “twerking” at the White House and a trans topless and fondling itself on the White House lawn. Ther was no decency, no dignity, no respect and no class … just a vile and disgusting… pic.twitter.com/AV8QllMd20
— The Ms Francesca (@TheMsFrancesca) March 29, 2024
But it’s ok to display the trans flying the prestigious white house‼️
We are the laughing stock of the world‼️ pic.twitter.com/CorAa7fH2a— MnM13 (@mnmbes13) March 30, 2024
And Google…
Easter/Good Friday: Pride Month: pic.twitter.com/m2N3TVa4Xm
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 29, 2024
Former President Trump wasn’t thrilled with the woke activism coming from the White House:
Good question.
Putting aside whatever views one may have on transgenderism, why would you overshadow one of the holiest Christian days of the year to promote another ideology/movement of any kind?
Aren’t there already other days on the calendar acknowledging/celebrating transgenderism?
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) March 30, 2024
The radicals in the White House might have overplayed their hand in their crusade against Christianity, as even the most left-leaning centralists are appalled by Biden’s new declaration.
This seems to be a miscalculated move as blowback nears.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 03/30/2024 – 18:05 - America's Ongoing Death-By-A-Thousand-Cuts
America’s Ongoing Death-By-A-Thousand-Cuts
Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,
Oh Say Can You See?
“A modern nuc can fit in the trunk of a compact car. When millions of people can walk across our border with impunity what do you think the chances are we would catch something that size?”
– Sam Faddis, Retired CIA
Who was not impressed seeing the sudden and total collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after getting its pylon bonked by the container ship Dali a few hours before the dawn’s early light in Baltimore harbor? In America’s ongoing death-of-a-thousand-cuts, that one literally severed a major artery, but it may take a while to know how badly the wounded colossus known as the USA is bleeding out.
“Joe Biden” emerged from his crypt pronto to state that the federal government would pony-up the cost of building the bridge back better, meant to reassure the public, you’d suppose. But perhaps the real reason was to obviate an otherwise requisite investigation of the crash by ship-owner Grace Ocean’s insurance company — since legal wrangling over responsibility would add more years to the already years-long estimated bridge replacement time-frame. And Gawd knows what else they might discover about how the darn thing came to pass. . . rumors of a Ukrainian captain at the Dali’s helm. . . stuff that the ruling intel blob might not want to get out there, especially given the still-murky role of the joint USA-UK black-op blobs in the Moscow Crocus Theater Massacre just a week earlier.
The Crocus op, you understand, was probably the worst clusterfuck qua Three Stooges blob operational procedure in memory, since four of the six surviving Tajiki shooters were nabbed in a car enroute to the Ukraine border (where they would’ve been whacked into silence, since they failed to martyr themselves at the scene-of-the-crime), and by now had surely sung their hearts out to persuasive interrogators of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) — the take-away being that President VV Putin has got to be mighty pissed-off and itching for revenge. Was the FSK Bridge take-down the first repayment for that, lots of people inside and outside Blob Central were probably wondering?
You’d also have to wonder, qua the bridge disaster itself, about the implied reverberations through the insurance industry. Consider that the insurance industry is a major cog in the machinery of finance and banking, since insurance company reserves are traditionally allocated in supposedly safe sovereign treasury bonds. Liquidations anyone? Maritime insurance was already groaning under the burden of all that monkey-business in the Red Sea, thanks to Houthi rocket and drone attacks on the shipping of Western Civ. Are the banks quaking harder now? Many across Western Civ were already trembling before the FSK Bridge job.
While the awesome spectacle of the bridge collapse traumatized the country, it also brought to mind the fantastic flow of ten-thousand illegal border crossings a day, stage-managed by the “Joe Biden” Homeland Security team. Did you kind of wonder how many in that 10K-a-day flow might be the same species of Central Asian mutts who volunteered to slaughter over 150 (so far) Russian concert-goers? Nobody is checking who they are, you realize. They just step on US soil, get issued smartphones, loaded debit cards, walking-around cash money, airplane and bus tickets and, voila, there they are in your home town tomorrow, looking for something to occupy themselves. Thanks a bunch, Alejandro Mayorkas!
Are you wondering what sort of mayhem they might be capable of unleashing any place from Bangor to Burbank in the weeks and months ahead? (And, while you’re at it, think about all the food processing plant fires, train wrecks, and other mysterious tribulations around the country the past couple of years.) Consider that this very week alone, following the FSK Bridge disaster, absolutely nothing has been done by our government to stem that flow of countless potential saboteurs into the country. The news media isn’t even talking about it (of course).
The prospects might look a bit unnerving, wouldn’t you agree? Things catching fire, blowing up, and falling down here, there, and everywhere. . . more of those thousand cuts adding up. Just maybe, the dazed-and-confused (possibly hypnotized) American public, a.k.a., the “voters,” might put together that “Joe Biden” and the Party of Chaos that owns him, are actually responsible for the on-going take-down of our country. After a certain point — now apparently passed — sheer incompetence is no longer a plausible explanation for what you are seeing.
Oh, one other thing, look out for on-the-ground economic reverberations from the FSK Bridge disaster. For instance, Baltimore is the USA’s top port for importing and exporting automobiles. Also, earth-moving and large farm equipment, fertilizer, lumber, coal, and steel. Other arrangements must be made, for years ahead, considering the trucking links. It’s especially an interruption for trucking between the mid-Atlantic / New England states and much of Dixieland. It will affect the transport of fruits and vegetables to the Washington-Boston corridor. Things are going to cost more and we are already in an inflationary trouble-zone. How will this thunder elsewhere through an economy which, despite the japes of “Joe Biden’s” statisticians, is actively disintegrating? The fluttering wings of this black swan already throw a chill on spring’s incoming zephyrs.
* * *
Support his blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page or Substack
Tyler Durden
Sat, 03/30/2024 – 17:30 - "Long Troubled" CarePoint New Jersey Hospitals To Undergo Financial Restructuring
“Long Troubled” CarePoint New Jersey Hospitals To Undergo Financial Restructuring
It looks like high interest rate market shocks and the commercial real estate dumpster fire have only just begun. The latest example of volatility comes from New Jersey hospital operator CarePoint Health.
The operator owns three hospitals, including the 261-bed Bayonne Medical Center, as well as Hoboken University Medical Center and Christ Hospital in Jersey City, according to Bloomberg/Yahoo Finance.
Michigan-based Insight has stepped in to try and help financially stabilize the network and then rebrand under the Insight name.
Dr. Achintya Moulick, CarePoint’s chief executive officer said last week: “Throughout these past challenging months, CarePoint Health has remained resolute and focused on its mission of providing excellent patient-centered care to the people of Hudson County, and our collaboration with the Insight team has been extraordinarily helpful.”
Moulick continued: “Ensuring that our system’s safety net hospitals receive the investment they need to operate sustainably both now and well into the future remains our top priority, and we are exploring various options to meet that goal.”
The report notes that hospitals continue to face high costs for staffing and supplies, impacting even renowned institutions. The financial strain is particularly acute for facilities like CarePoint, which serve a larger proportion of lower-income patients and consequently receive lower reimbursements from government programs compared to private insurers.
The challenges at CarePoint serve as a prime example, Yahoo writes. The New Jersey Department of Health has provided almost $8.4 million in support since mid-February to assist the hospital system with payroll needs and to appoint a chief restructuring officer to aid in its financial recovery.
Insight’s Chief Strategy Officer Atif Bawahab added: “We’ve been in this situation before and we do have a strong sense of optimism for these hospitals to continue to stay open. But at the same time, we do have to make changes, and those changes will take some time.”
Insight acquired Chicago’s oldest hospital, Mercy Hospital and Medical Center, from bankruptcy in 2021, preventing its closure. This move by Insight, known for its focus on neurosurgery, orthopedics, and sports medicine, was followed by the purchase of a closed rural hospital in Iowa.
Concerned by CarePoint’s financial situation, the New Jersey Department of Health appointed a monitor in January and recently required CarePoint’s hospitals to develop emergency plans for potential closures or service halts. CarePoint reported a $68 million loss last year, and several vendors have sued for unpaid bills.
CarePoint has faced financial difficulties for some time. Attempts to sell its Jersey City and Hoboken hospitals to RWJ Barnabas Health fell through in 2019.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 03/30/2024 – 16:55 - $935 Diabetes Jab Can Be Made For Less Than $5, Study Suggests
$935 Diabetes Jab Can Be Made For Less Than $5, Study Suggests
Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
It costs Novo Nordisk less than $5 per month to produce its top-selling diabetes injection, Ozempic, even as it charges nearly $1,000 for a month’s supply before insurance, according to a new study.
In this photo illustration, boxes of the diabetes drug Ozempic rest on a pharmacy counter in Los Angeles, California, on April 17, 2023. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) The study, published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Network Open, raises questions about the prohibitive cost of the popular diabetes treatment and other weight loss drugs that belong to a pricy class of medications based on GLP-1 technology.
Those medicines work by mimicking a hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), which stimulates the pancreas to release insulin when blood sugar rises too high, slows down the emptying of the stomach, and targets brain receptors involved in reducing appetite. Over the past year, demand for GLP-1 agonists has exploded despite soaring costs and limited insurance coverage.
For their study, researchers at Yale University, King’s College Hospital in London, and the nonprofit Doctors Without Borders looked at the cost of manufacturing insulin and compared it with that of GLP-1 agonists. They estimated those prices by combining manufacturing costs for the weekly injection with costs of formulation and other operating expenses, plus a profit margin with an allowance for tax.
The foundational price for a weekly dose of injectable semaglutide—the generic name for Ozempic—ranges from $0.89 to $4.73 per month, the study found. By contrast, a vial of human insulin can be manufactured at a cost between $2.37 and $5.94 per month.
A month’s supply of Ozempic is $935.77 for those in the United States without health insurance, according to Novo’s website. The Danish company’s GLP-1 weight loss drug, Wegovy, is listed as $1,349 per month.
Wednesday’s study concluded that GLP-1s “can likely be manufactured for prices far below current prices, enabling wider access.”
“High prices limit access to newer diabetes medicines in many countries,” the researchers wrote. “The findings of this study suggest that robust generic and bio-similar competition could reduce prices to more affordable levels and enable expansion of diabetes treatment globally.”
Citing the findings, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called on Novo to slash prices for both Ozempic and Wegovy, highlighting the price gap for the identical drugs sold in America and other developed countries.
“A new Yale study found that Ozempic costs less than $5 a month to manufacture. And yet, Novo Nordisk charges Americans nearly $1,000 a month for this drug, while the same exact product can be purchased for just $155 a month in Canada and just $59 in Germany,” the senator said in a statement.
“As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, I am calling on Novo Nordisk to lower the list price of Ozempic—and the related drug Wegovy—in America to no more than what they charge for this drug in Canada,” he continued. “The American people are sick and tired of paying, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs while the pharmaceutical industry enjoys huge profits.”
In a statement on Wednesday, Novo declined to provide production costs for Ozempic and Wegovy. However, it emphasized that it invested almost $5 billion in research and development last year, and will be spending more than $6 billion to boost manufacturing to meet the soaring demand for GLP-1s.
The company also noted that the out-of-pocket costs for Ozempic depend on a patient’s insurance coverage, noting that there are different options on its website to help patients address their affordability concerns.
“Congress has been focused on the complexities of the U.S. healthcare system and the interplay of rebates, discounts, administrative fees, co-pays and deductibles–which all play a role in creating a situation where a majority of U.S. patients covered by commercial health plans pay as little as $25 a month for their prescriptions,” it said in a statement.
“Still, affordability challenges are real,” the company said, adding that it supports policy changes to “improve patient affordability and access for those living with chronic diseases.”
Tyler Durden
Sat, 03/30/2024 – 16:20 - Victoria White Files $2 Million Suit For Police Using 'Excessive' Force In Jan. 6 Beating
Victoria White Files $2 Million Suit For Police Using ‘Excessive’ Force In Jan. 6 Beating
Authored by Joseph M. Hanneman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
A Minnesota woman beaten by police in the Lower West Terrace tunnel at the U.S. Capitol has filed a $2 million civil suit for being repeatedly struck in the head and slammed into a concrete wall on Jan. 6, 2021.
Victoria White is jostled and spun around by police in the Lower West Terrace tunnel at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Metropolitan Police Department/Screenshot via The Epoch Times) Victoria Charity White, 42, of Rochester, Minnesota, alleges at least two Metropolitan Police Department officers unlawfully used “deadly force” by repeatedly striking her head and face with steel riot batons and fists at about 4 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021.
The complaint—filed on March 27 by Washington attorney Paul Kamenar—names MPD Commander Jason Bagshaw and MPD Officer Neil McAllister, and alleges other unnamed officers took part in the beatings.
It alleges violations of the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S. Code § 1983. It is an amended version of a suit Ms. White filed representing herself in January.
“The defendants willfully and unlawfully seized plaintiff by means of objectively unreasonable, excessive, and indeed, deadly force that shocks the conscience, thereby unreasonably restraining and depriving plaintiff of her freedom and inflicting physical and mental harm and anguish,” read the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington.
“Because of the senseless and unlawful beating she received at the hands of the defendants and the other MPD officers, Ms. White suffered great physical, traumatic, and emotional harm that day and continues to suffer to this day, particularly the traumatic and emotional harm,” Mr. Kamenar wrote in the lawsuit.
Mr. Bagshaw, the suit alleges: “Repeatedly struck an unarmed and defenseless White about her head, face, shoulders, and upper body with a metal baton and his fists.”
He is being sued in his professional and personal capacity, the lawsuit stated.
Mr. McAllister “along with defendant Bagshaw and other police officers, physically assaulted the plaintiff,” the suit said.
Mr. McAllister is also being sued in his professional and personal capacity.
According to the suit, video evidence shows Mr. McAllister “slamming Ms. White up against the concrete tunnel wall, whereupon, inexplicably, his bodycam is shut off for some 30 seconds.”
The department declined to comment on the suit.
Acceptable force with this type of subject would involve “low-level physical tactics to gain control and cooperation,” with techniques that could involve pain but would generally not inflect injury, the MPD policy cited in the suit states.
The suit outlines the beating first documented in The Epoch Times on Dec. 23, 2021, after Ms. White’s then-attorney Joseph McBride secured the release of previously sealed security video from the tunnel.
The newspaper’s analysis of the CCTV video showed Ms. White was struck by police 39 times in a little over four minutes.
A series of videos show Ms. White suffering rapid fire hits, punches to the head, a baton poked at her head, and being doused with pepper spray.
Bodycam video released in 2023 revealed more information on the beating, including a bystander in the tunnel who begged police to stop striking Ms. White.
At 4:09 p.m., the man said: “No, no, no, please! Please don’t beat her,” according to the video. Two minutes later, as police shouted at him to “move it, keep walking!” the man replied, “No! You’re going to kill her!”
At the time of the first lawsuit, Mr. McBride said a special prosecutor should be named to investigate the beating.
None of the officers allegedly involved in Ms. White’s case has been disciplined or faced criminal charges.
“That is somebody who’s not only acting with authority but is acting with license,” Mr. McBride said, referring to Mr. Bagshaw, then an MPD lieutenant.
“That is somebody who is acting because he has no fear that he’s going to be reprimanded for his actions. Do I think that’s criminal? There is no doubt in my mind that what that man did was criminal.”
Jan. 6 defendant Victoria White was pushed, shoved, and beaten about the head by police in the Lower West Terrace tunnel on Jan. 6, 2021. (Metropolitan Police Department/Screenshots via The Epoch Times) Mr. McBride filed suit on Ms. White’s behalf on Jan. 5, 2022, but she withdrew the suit in November 2022 to concentrate on defending herself against criminal charges brought by the U.S. Department of Justice for her time at the U.S. Capitol.
That initial lawsuit identified seven police officers who allegedly took part in the beating.
Ms. White was indicted on Jan. 26, 2022, on four counts, including felony civil disorder.
She accepted a plea deal in August 2023 and was found guilty of the civil disorder charge.
Prosecutors sought a four-month jail term, but U.S. District Judge John D. Bates on Nov. 22, 2023, sentenced Ms. White to eight days of intermittent jail time.
Ms. White was featured in the July 2022 Epoch Times documentary, “The Real Story of Jan. 6.”
She said the beatings on Jan. 6 gave her flashbacks to a decade of domestic abuse.
“I’ve had those with my ex, where I’d be awake doing something as simple as laundry, and all of a sudden, I’m there, being choked to death and beat or punched,” she said.
“This was the feeling of all that. It was like those blows, but now in the tunnel.”
Tyler Durden
Sat, 03/30/2024 – 15:10 - Israel Believes Only 60-70 Out Of 134 Hostages Are Still Alive
Israel Believes Only 60-70 Out Of 134 Hostages Are Still Alive
Israel’s official count for the number of people still being held hostage in the Gaza Strip remains at 134 mostly Israeli citizens as well as some foreigners, which includes possibly deceased victims. Amid stalled truce negotiations in Qatar, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz has revealed that Israeli officials believe only 60 to 70 Israeli hostages in Gaza are still alive.
“According to the IDF, a total of 134 hostages and bodies are being held in Gaza,” Haaretz wrote Thursday. “Thirty-six of the people were confirmed by the army as killed – some on October 7, when their bodies were taken into the Strip. Of the 98 living hostages, 10 are foreigners (eight Thais, one Nepalese national, and one man with Mexican and French citizenship).”
Via BBC What’s more is that a month ago some of the families of the hostages were informed that 20 captives were in life-threatening condition. An unnamed source close to the crisis told Haaretz, “I hope I’m mistaken, but the number may even be lower”—suggesting there may be even fewer that are alive.
Given the intense battles unfolding across most of the Gaza Strip, it is widely speculated that the hostages are being held somewhere within the miles of underground tunnels below, where Hamas also has command and control centers.
There’s a possibility that some of the hostages could have been killed by Israeli’s relentless bombing campaign which has decimated entire neighborhoods. A horrifically tragic incident last December saw three Israeli hostages shot dead by Israeli forces who mistook them for Palestinian militants.
Israeli leadership under Netanyahu has been accused by the hostages’ families of prioritizing the military operation to defeat Hamas far and above hostage recovery.
Some recent testimony of hostages freed in last year’s truce and exchange with Hamas said the following:
Echoing this sense of an indiscriminate and haphazard policy, testimonies from newly freed Israeli hostages, who were released as part of exchange deals for Palestinian prisoners during a temporary ceasefire in late November, as well as from some of the hostages’ families, indicate that one of the main fears of those held captive in Gaza was the threat of being hit by Israeli airstrikes and shelling. Many of the hostages, according to these testimonies, were held above ground rather than in tunnels, and were therefore particularly vulnerable to such attacks.
Large-scale anti-Netanyahu protests led by victims’ families have persisted in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Pressure has also mounted on Washington to strike a ceasefire.
Prime Minister Netanyahu is currently facing accusations from within his own government of ‘sabotaging’ the truce process with an aim to prolong the war, and also thus his political future in the top office.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 03/30/2024 – 14:35 - Republicans Score Win in Court Battle Over Pennsylvania Mail-In Ballot Requirements
Republicans Score Win in Court Battle Over Pennsylvania Mail-In Ballot Requirements
By Zach Stieber of The Epoch Times
Pennsylvania rules that require mail-in ballots to be dated are legal, a federal appeals court has ruled.
A state law that says voters must fill out, date, and sign envelopes containing the ballots is not prevented by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a majority said in the March 27 ruling.
The act bans denying “the right of any individual to vote in any election because of an error or omission on any record or paper relating to any application, registration or other act requisite to voting.”
But that provision “only applies when the state is determining who may vote,” U.S. Circuit Court Judge Thomas Ambro, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, wrote for the majority of a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit panel. “In other words, its role stops at the door of the voting place. The provision does not apply to rules, like the date requirement, that govern how a qualified voter must cast his ballot for it to be counted.”The same court ahead of the 2022 election ruled that state officials must count undated ballots but the U.S. Supreme Court vacated that order. After the state’s acting secretary of state said counties should still count undated ballots, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that counties could not count mail-in ballots with missing or incorrect dates. About 7,900 ballots were not counted in the 2020 election because they were missing a signature or date, or had an inaccurate date, according to state officials.U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter later ruled that the Pennsylvania law violated the Civil Rights Act provision, meaning Pennsylvania officials had to count mail-in ballots even if they lacked dates, or contained inaccurate dates.“Federal law prohibits a state from erecting immaterial roadblocks, such as this, to voting,” Judge Baxter, appointed by former President Donald Trump, wrote at the time, referring to the Pennsylvania law.
According to the law, a voter casting a ballot by mail must mark the ballot, then place it inside a provided envelope. That envelope must then be placed into a second envelope, which contains the areas for the date and signature.“The elector shall then fill out, date and sign the declaration printed on such envelope,” the law states.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) and other groups appealed Judge Baxter’s ruling, arguing that her conclusion was wrong.
“This is a crucial victory for election integrity and voter confidence in the Keystone State and nationwide. Pennsylvanians deserve to feel confident in the security of their mail ballots, and this 3rd Circuit ruling roundly rejects unlawful left-wing attempts to count undated or incorrectly dated mail ballot,” Michael Whatley, the RNC’s chairman, said in a statement after the new ruling was handed down.
Groups that sued over the law expressed disappointment.
“If this ruling stands, thousands of Pennsylvania voters could lose their vote over a meaningless paperwork error. The ballots in question in this case come from voters who are eligible and who met the submission deadline,“ Mike Lee, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, said in a statement. ”In passing the Civil Rights Act, Congress put a guardrail in place to be sure that states don’t erect unnecessary barriers that disenfranchise voters. It’s unfortunate that the court failed to recognize that principle. Voters lose as a result of this ruling.”
The ruling can be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the groups have not yet indicated whether they’ll appeal.
Justice Samuel Alito has said that the Pennsylvania law did not appear to violate the Civil Rights Act provision because it did not deny people the right to vote.
“When a mail-in ballot is not counted because it was not filled out correctly, the voter is not denied ’the right to vote,’” he said previously. “Rather, that individual’s vote is not counted because he or she did not follow the rules for casting a ballot.”
Several other justices supported his view, offered in a dissent when the rest of the court initially said Pennsylvania counties could keep counting undated ballots.
Continue reading on the Epoch Times
Tyler Durden
Sat, 03/30/2024 – 14:00 - "Your Life Is In Danger": Suge Knight Warns Diddy Over 'That Secret Little Room'
“Your Life Is In Danger”: Suge Knight Warns Diddy Over ‘That Secret Little Room’
Imprisoned rap mogul Suge Knight opined on recent happenings involving hip-hop rival Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, whose houses in Miami and Los Angeles were raided last Monday by Homeland Security in connection with a federal investigation into sex trafficking, sexual assault, and the solicitation and distribution of illegal narcotics and firearms.
“We believe that there is a disturbing history of sex trafficking,” a DHS officer told The NY Post on Thursday, following the raid which resulted in the seizure of hard drives, phones and other evidence.
“We are responding to concrete, detailed, explicit allegations. This is not random. We didn’t choose his name out of a hat. We had allegations that we’re following up on,” the officer continued.
Knight Speaks
In response to the raid, Death Row Records co-founder Marion Hugh Knight Jr., aka “Suge Knight,” said during a Friday episode of his “Collect Call” prison podcast (!) that Combs needs to watch his back since he has “secrets” involving a “secret room.”
“It’s a bad day for hip-hop…for the culture…Black people, because if one looks bad, we all look bad. That’s definitely not nothing to cheer about,” said Knight.
“But I’ll tell you what, Puffy: your life is in danger. Your life is in danger ’cause you know the secrets, who’s involved in that little secret room you guys are participating in. They gonna get you if they can.”
While Diddy hasn’t been charged with a crime and has vehemently denied breaking the law, Knight – who’s serving a 28-year prison sentence for a 2015 hit-and-run incident, recommended that the rap impresario ‘surrender’ to authorities.
Listen:
Tyler Durden
Sat, 03/30/2024 – 13:25 - US Withheld From Russia Intel On Terror Plot Due To 'Adversarial Relationship'
US Withheld From Russia Intel On Terror Plot Due To ‘Adversarial Relationship’
Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,
The US did not share all the information it had about a terrorist plot in Russia ahead of the shooting at a concert hall outside of Moscow that killed over 140 people, The New York Times reported on Thursday.
The paper said that the “adversarial relationship between Washington and Moscow prevented US officials from sharing any information about the plot beyond what was necessary, out of fear Russian authorities might learn their intelligence sources or methods.”
AFP via Getty Images In response to the report, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he was unaware of information about the US withholding intelligence and cast doubt on the report. “The information of The New York Times, citing sources, is information that should be treated with great caution,” he said.
The US Embassy in Moscow issued a public warning on March 7 that specifically warned Americans in Russia that “extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts” and to avoid large gatherings for 48 hours.
The US also passed along the warning to Russia privately, which Russian FSB chief Aleksandr Bortnikov said was “of a general nature.”
Sources told the Times that Russia tightened security after the warning but may have relaxed it after an attack didn’t happen in the 48-hour window. The report said it was unclear if US intelligence was wrong about the timing of the attack or if the perpetrators noticed the heightened security and decided to wait.
ISIS-K, the Islamic State affiliate based in Afghanistan, took credit for the massacre, and the US has backed their assertion. Russia has pinned the blame on “Islamist extremists” but has also said there is a link to Ukraine and, by extension, the US and the UK.
Another video capturing the initial moments of the terrorist attack at “Crocus” has been released by Baza. pic.twitter.com/lDvlTyGvQK
— Russian Market (@runews) March 22, 2024
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Both the US and Ukraine denied any involvement in the attack, but the Russian Investigative Committee said Thursday that the attackers had links to “Ukrainian nationalists.” Four Tajiks have been charged in Russia for carrying out the shooting.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 03/30/2024 – 12:50 - Watch: New York Governor Kathy Hochul Confronted At Slain NYPD Officer's Wake
Watch: New York Governor Kathy Hochul Confronted At Slain NYPD Officer’s Wake
New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) was confronted by a mourner during the wake for slain NYPD officer Jonathan Diller Friday afternoon, after which a round of applause could be heard as she left the scene.
Hochul, who has come under fire over New York’s controversial bail reform – which law enforcement blames for the rise in crime, could be seen in the confrontation with an unidentified man dressed in black, who clearly gave her what for as onlookers gathered outside the venue.
Watch:
TIME TO GO: Crowd claps as New York Gov. Kathy Hochul leaves slain NYPD officer’s wake just minutes after arriving. The incident comes a day after a police union president called on anti-police politicians to stay away from the wake and funeral. https://t.co/ZVThe4Jy97 pic.twitter.com/aSEy7vPGKh
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 30, 2024
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsAccording to the NY Post, Hochul arrived at the Massapequa Funeral Home on Long Island for the second day of viewing around 1:45 p.m., after asking the NYPD, the NYPD Police Benevolent Association, and the Nassau County Police Benevolent Association about attending.
Diller’s widow also appeared to be “telling [Hochul] off,” one witness told the Post. “It didn’t look like the widow had a kind word to say.“
Another source suggested that Hochul made a “brief respectful visit,” and “was not asked to leave.”
Hochul’s visit came one day after former President Donald Trump paid his respects during the first day of viewings – staying around 40 minutes, during which he spent time talking to Stephanie and the couple’s young son, Ryan.
President Trump: “We have to stop it. We have to get back to law and order…because this is not working. This is happening too often.” pic.twitter.com/k5MQutyEsw
— MAGA War Room (@MAGAIncWarRoom) March 28, 2024
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Diller’s brother-in-law shared a picture of Trump embracing a woman in the family line-up.
Diller was shot and killed during a routine traffic stop in Far Rockaway, Queens on March 25. The suspect, Guy Rivera – who has 21 prior arrests and was found to have a shiv in his rectum during the shooting – shot Diller once in the stomach below his bulletproof vest. He was rushed to Jamaica Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
Jonathan Diller The person driving the car with Rivera during the shooting, Liddy Jones, is an ex-con who was arrested after a second gun was found in his car.
On Tuesday, New York Mayor Eric Adams – a former NYPD captain, slammed Albany over its approach to bail reform.
“What’s interesting is that our practices, laws and policies are not going after these issues,” said Adams. “We’ve always had a problem with recidivism, it’s always been a problem but we’ve really never zeroed in on it with case after case.”
Prior to the wake, Sergeants Benevolent Association President Vincent J. Vallelong warned City Council members not to attend.
“Adrienne Adams, Jumaane Williams and their cohorts should stay home,” he told the Post, calling out the lawmakers who pushed the council to reject Mayor Adams’ veto on the “How Many Stops” act in January.
“They detest cops and have no appreciation for what they do. They should stay home and not pretend they are grieving. They have caused enough heartbreak and destruction,” said Vallelong, adding that their presence at the services “is a stain on the legacy of a true hero who made the ultimate sacrifice.“
Tyler Durden
Sat, 03/30/2024 – 12:15
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