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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will likely be rewarded for his allegiance if Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden wins the November election, and he has his sights set on a healthcare committee chairmanship, he told a rally over the weekend. Speaking to a crowd of Democrats, Sanders, who is the primary champion of “Medicare-for-All” style health […]
via Conservative Review
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The dramatic events of the last week will be studied for decades, and much information remains unknown. In the early morning of Friday, October 2nd, President Trump tweeted that he and the First Lady had tested positive for COVID. That evening, after reports that the President was running a fever, he checked in to Walter Reed National Medical Center for treatment. Immediately, speculation began about how he caught the virus and the nature of its severity.
President Trump addressed the nation from Walter Reed Hospital October 4, 2020 (YouTube screengrab)
Presdent Trump drove by supporters gathered outside his hospital, October 4, 2020 (YouTube screengrab)
However, as numerous Republicans in key positions also tested positive, the nature of the speculation began to change. The issue shifted from whether or not the president wore a mask to why so many important Republicans simultaneously got the virus. Among those testing positive were Trump’s campaign manager, the Chair of the Republican National Committee, the President’s senior counselor, and two Senators on the Judiciary Committee who will vote on the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett.
Lin Wood, a high-profile lawyer representing Nick Sandman and Kyle Rittenhouse, tweeted, “Many leaders in administration of @realDonaldTrump are quarantined by what almost appears to almost be targeted strike of Covid-19.” He later tweeted, “There are no coincidences. Zero. None. Hard stop.” Deanna Lorraine, who ran for Congress against Nancy Pelosi, also picked up the theme of a “targeted strike” in her tweet, “Does anyone else find it odd that no prominent Democrats have had the virus but the list of Republicans goes on and on?” And Omar Navarro, a Republican politician in California, developed the theme: “1.RBG dies. 2. Trump announces he will nominate new justice before election. 3. Pelosi makes “Arrow in our quivers comment to stop him.” Week later Trump, his top aide, his campaign manager, two Senators all come down with COVID 5. Schumer immediately requests to delay nomination.” He added, “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it’s enemy action.”
Where did the infection occur? Attention turned to the Cleveland Clinic, where the presidential debate between President Trump and Joe Biden was held on September 29th. On Friday, the city of Cleveland reported that 11 cases of COVID had been linked to the planning and set-up of the September 29th presidential debate. Some commenters on social media speculated that the Republican debate area had been saturated with the virus in a biological attack, coordinated with China.
The sudden illness of so many prominent Republicans brought to mind a mostly forgotten incident in January 2018. A chartered train carrying Republican lawmakers and their families to a retreat collided with a garbage truck that inexplicably was stranded on the track. The front car derailed, killing one person. The media displayed no interest in the story and offered no follow-up articles explaining the unlikely scenario.
Seven months before the train crash, a gunman opened fire on members of the Republican congressional baseball team, severely wounding Steve Scalise, who was then serving as House Majority Whip. NBC reported: “Witnesses told investigators that when the gunman arrived at the ballfield, he asked people, “Are these the Republicans or the Democrats?”
In the almost four years since Trump has become president, Republicans have suffered three potentially mass fatality events. The coming months may finally bring some answers about these incidents. It’s time for the American people to understand what’s happening to them.
The dramatic events of the last week will be studied for decades, and much information remains unknown. In the early morning of Friday, October 2nd, President Trump tweeted that he and the First Lady had tested positive for COVID. That evening, after reports that the President was running a fever, he checked in to Walter Reed National Medical Center for treatment. Immediately, speculation began about how he caught the virus and the nature of its severity.
President Trump addressed the nation from Walter Reed Hospital October 4, 2020 (YouTube screengrab)
Presdent Trump drove by supporters gathered outside his hospital, October 4, 2020 (YouTube screengrab)
However, as numerous Republicans in key positions also tested positive, the nature of the speculation began to change. The issue shifted from whether or not the president wore a mask to why so many important Republicans simultaneously got the virus. Among those testing positive were Trump’s campaign manager, the Chair of the Republican National Committee, the President’s senior counselor, and two Senators on the Judiciary Committee who will vote on the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett.
Lin Wood, a high-profile lawyer representing Nick Sandman and Kyle Rittenhouse, tweeted, “Many leaders in administration of @realDonaldTrump are quarantined by what almost appears to almost be targeted strike of Covid-19.” He later tweeted, “There are no coincidences. Zero. None. Hard stop.” Deanna Lorraine, who ran for Congress against Nancy Pelosi, also picked up the theme of a “targeted strike” in her tweet, “Does anyone else find it odd that no prominent Democrats have had the virus but the list of Republicans goes on and on?” And Omar Navarro, a Republican politician in California, developed the theme: “1.RBG dies. 2. Trump announces he will nominate new justice before election. 3. Pelosi makes “Arrow in our quivers comment to stop him.” Week later Trump, his top aide, his campaign manager, two Senators all come down with COVID 5. Schumer immediately requests to delay nomination.” He added, “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it’s enemy action.”
Where did the infection occur? Attention turned to the Cleveland Clinic, where the presidential debate between President Trump and Joe Biden was held on September 29th. On Friday, the city of Cleveland reported that 11 cases of COVID had been linked to the planning and set-up of the September 29th presidential debate. Some commenters on social media speculated that the Republican debate area had been saturated with the virus in a biological attack, coordinated with China.
The sudden illness of so many prominent Republicans brought to mind a mostly forgotten incident in January 2018. A chartered train carrying Republican lawmakers and their families to a retreat collided with a garbage truck that inexplicably was stranded on the track. The front car derailed, killing one person. The media displayed no interest in the story and offered no follow-up articles explaining the unlikely scenario.
Seven months before the train crash, a gunman opened fire on members of the Republican congressional baseball team, severely wounding Steve Scalise, who was then serving as House Majority Whip. NBC reported: “Witnesses told investigators that when the gunman arrived at the ballfield, he asked people, “Are these the Republicans or the Democrats?”
In the almost four years since Trump has become president, Republicans have suffered three potentially mass fatality events. The coming months may finally bring some answers about these incidents. It’s time for the American people to understand what’s happening to them.
via American Thinker Blog
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New York City became Trump Country on Sunday as a massive parade of supporters took over Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. Most of the members of the caravan drove in from Long Island, and they stopped traffic when they parked in front of Trump Tower to make a joyful noise they hoped would carry to Walter Reed…
The post Huge Parade of Trump Supporters Shuts Down New York’s Fifth Avenue appeared first on The Western Journal.
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On Monday, both NBC’s Today show and ABC’s Good Morning America welcomed an anti-Trump doctor on their broadcasts with open arms to denounce the President’s “political stunt” of driving past a crowd of supporters outside Walter Reed Medical Center. As the shows hailed tweets from Dr. James Phillips labeling the moment “insanity,” hosts conveniently concealed the fact that supposed medical expert recently called on Trump to resign.
After noting on the Today show that Trump’s brief trip to wave at his well-wishers was “approved by the President’s own doctors,” correspondent Tom Costello seized on left-wing attacks from Phillips as if they were a fact-check: “But top physicians that we’ve talked to, including one of them here at Walter Reed, who also teaches at GW, say that, in fact, by pulling this, quote, ‘political stunt,’ he has put his own Secret Service detail, and by extension their family’s lives, at risk.”
Minutes later, co-host Savannah Guthrie brought Phillips on the show and touted how he “called it insanity.” She teed him to hurl more nasty rhetoric: “Doctor, you had a very strong reaction to what you saw, that image. Now, Corey Lewandowski says that those Secret Service agents volunteered for that duty….how likely is it that they could contract COVID, having been in that sealed car with the patient?”
The doctor was happy to oblige:
You know, the reality is that this was a dangerous move. There is no medical benefit for this to have taken place. It violates CDC guidelines that come from the President’s own administration….And it’s been a back and forth between the medical community and this administration, trying to get the right message to the citizens of America.
Alongside Phillips, Guthrie also spoke with Dr. Vin Gupta, an NBC News medical contributor that the network routinely fails to identify as a Biden campaign adviser.
Over on ABC’s GMA, co-host George Stephanopoulos led off the show by heralding Phillips: “The fallout this morning after the President breaks his quarantine for a drive-by outside Walter Reed hospital to visit supporters, putting Secret Service agents at risk. We’ll talk to the Walter Reed doctor who’s calling the stunt political theater.”
During a report moments later, correspondent Cecilia Vega eagerly seized on some of the social media ranting from Phillips:
And Walter Reed attending physician Dr. James Phillips saying, “The irresponsibility is astounding,” adding, “Every person in that car now has to quarantine for 14 days. They might get sick. They may die. For political theater.”
Like NBC, ABC granted the Trump-trashing doctor a softball interview, with fill-in co-host Amy Robach starting off:
We want to talk about your tweet. You tweeted about the President’s SUV ride yesterday, calling it “insanity,” risking the Secret Service agents’ lives, you say, inside the vehicle. The White House said this, that appropriate precautions were taken and that the move was cleared by his medical team as safe. Is that medically possible, that it was safe?
Phillips predictably doubled down: “Well, I have serious concerns that in any automobile, masks or not masks, there’s a very high risk of transmission….I don’t know what the benefits of this political stunt were, but I do know what the risks were.”
As enthralled as the leftist press were with Phillips’s Twitter feed, reporters somehow missed the fact that on September 9 the Democratic hack demanded: “The President has a duty to the country to resign.”
On August 17, Phillips replied “OMG truth” to a tweet that read: “Cities should label post office boxes and related machines as ‘Confederate monuments’ and then there’s no way the Administration would try to remove them.”
A few days earlier, Phillips had ranted: “Of all the ways I feared the Constitution and our democratic process could be usurped, never did I think it would by the intentional dismantling of the @USPS during a pandemic. Look for the #Covid_19 federal ”stay at home” order Nov 1st FTW. #SaveTheUSPS #Fascism #FridayThoughts”
This is the so-called medical expert that NBC and ABC decided to turn to in order to slam the President. Of course most in the media probably see noting wrong with any of the doctor’s online partisan tirades.
NBC’s promotion of Phillips was brought to viewers by Old Navy, ABC’s was brought to viewers by Campbell’s. You can fight back by letting these advertisers know what you think of them sponsoring such content.
Here is a transcript of the coverage on NBC’s October 5 Today show:
7:07 AM ET
(…)
TOM COSTELLO: The White House says that this trip was, in fact, approved by the President’s own doctors. But top physicians that we’ve talked to, including one of them here at Walter Reed, who also teaches at GW, say that, in fact, by pulling this, quote, “political stunt,” he has put his own Secret Service detail, and by extension their family’s lives, at risk.
(…)
7:13 AM ET
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Let’s turn now to NBC News medical contributor Dr. Vin Gupta and Dr. James Phillips, who’s an attending physician at Walter Reed. Let’s talk about this trip in a moment, Dr. Phillips. I know you called it insanity. As I said, you work at Walter Reed.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Trump Criticized for Drive-By; Medical Experts Say Move Put Secret Service and Others at Risk]
(…)
7:17 AM ET
GUTHRIE: And now on that topic, I want to go to Dr. Phillips, who is affiliated with Walter Reed, as well as George Washington University. Doctor, you had a very strong reaction to what you saw, that image. Now, Corey Lewandowski says that those Secret Service agents volunteered for that duty. But just given – let’s look at it in terms of public health. I mean, how likely is it that they could contract COVID, having been in that sealed car with the patient?
DR. JAMES PHILLIPS [WALTER REED NATIONAL MILITARY MEDICAL CENTER ATTENDING PHYSICIAN]: Good morning, and thanks for having me on. You know, the reality is that this was a dangerous move. There is no medical benefit for this to have taken place. It violates CDC guidelines that come from the President’s own administration.
Now, it bears discussion that I am a non-military contractor that works at Walter Reed as an emergency physician. And I’m chief of disaster and operational medicine at G.W., which is my primary employer.
And I think that the reason why the tweets that I sent out have garnered so much attention is because I was being honest in the moment. And you know, I have been on the front lines, along with Dr. Gupta and the rest of our colleagues for the better part of 10 months, trying to keep people safe, not just on an individual level in our hospitals and emergency departments, but also out here in the public health realm, trying to give good messages. And it’s been a back and forth between the medical community and this administration, trying to get the right message to the citizens of America.
And beyond the risk that was clearly taking part, the risk that was imparted on those Secret Service agents, volunteering or not, it’s the message that’s sent to other people that it’s okay to go out. We’re seeing schools try to reopen, we’ve seen parents who have already sent their kids to school with disease. This is the wrong message to be sending. And the only way that somebody can volunteer for something like this and do it safely is through real informed consent. They have to know the real risks of getting into that vehicle. And my concern is that they didn’t.
GUTHRIE: Just real quickly, because I only have a few seconds left, and you’ve gotta be an armchair doc here. But you saw they were in some PPE that looked like a medical grade mask that the agents were in, not the President, he had a cloth mask. Are you concerned that they could contract COVID-19 in a scenario like that and will they have to quarantine no matter what?
DR. PHILLIPS: They absolutely must quarantine. The CDC guidelines are clear that if you spend that period of time within six feet of a person, it requires a mandatory 14-day quarantine. There are no caveats for masks. And this wasn’t just a normal conversation, this was inside a chemical weapon proof vehicle with plexiglass that I don’t see. I’d love to see that clarified. Without fully appropriate PPE, one person has a valved mask, the President’s wearing a cloth mask. They’re not wearing sealed goggles. There are plenty of failures in that PPE. And full PPE still doesn’t protect you. Numerous doctors and nurses have died on the front lines because of getting exposed despite having PPE.
(…)
Here is a transcript of the coverage on ABC’s GMA:
7:00 AM ET
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: The fallout this morning after the President breaks his quarantine for a drive-by outside Walter Reed hospital to visit supporters, putting Secret Service agents at risk. We’ll talk to the Walter Reed doctor who’s calling the stunt political theater.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Trump’s COVID Battle; Drive-By Backlash]
(…)
7:04 AM ET
CECILIA VEGA: And Walter Reed attending physician Dr. James Phillips saying, “The irresponsibility is astounding,” adding, “Every person in that car now has to quarantine for 14 days. They might get sick. They may die. For political theater.”
(…)
7:08 AM ET
AMY ROBACH: For more now, let’s turn to Dr. James Phillips, chief of disaster medicine at George Washington University Hospital and a non-military attending physician at Walter Reed. And we want to be clear, he is not participating in the President’s care, but he has treated COVID-19 patients. So Dr. Phillips, thank you so much for being with us.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Trump’s Drive-By Backlash; President Leaves Walter Reed Hospital to Surprise Supporters]
We want to talk about your tweet. You tweeted about the President’s SUV ride yesterday, calling it “insanity,” risking the Secret Service agents’ lives, you say, inside the vehicle. The White House said this, that appropriate precautions were taken and that the move was cleared by his medical team as safe. Is that medically possible, that it was safe?
DR. JAMES PHILLIPS [CHIEF OF DISASTER MEDICINE AT GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL]: Well, I have serious concerns that in any automobile, masks or not masks, there’s a very high risk of transmission. And then, add into the mix that that’s not any vehicle. That’s a hermetically sealed vehicle designed to be impenetrable to chemical weapon attacks. Therefore, the amount of circulation inside is even poorer than we would expect from a normal vehicle. And as a physician, we look at the decisions we make as risks versus benefits. And I don’t know what the benefits of this political stunt were, but I do know what the risks were. And my concern is perhaps the Secret Service agents that were inside don’t know the full risk of what they were up against there and what the real threats were. And so far as the military and Johns Hopkins physicians who are taking care of the patient, they’re excellent. But they are also under undue pressure and a lot of influence outside of that normal physician-patient relationship.
ROBACH: And speaking to that Dr. Phillips, Walter Reed is a military hospital. President Trump is the commander in chief. I’m curious, can he order staff to do what he wants versus what’s medically advised?
PHILLIPS: Influence weighs heavy. And when we’re dealing with an highly unusual environment like what we’re in right now, the question is, and I would love to hear the answer from military experienced folks, where does that line between physician and patient, that relationship, come into contact with the commanding officer and subordinate relationship? And is there undue influence there?
ROBACH: Dr. Phillips, the President’s physician, as you know, has come under fire for withholding information about his oxygen levels. Should the American public be concerned about the information we’re getting and even not getting as it pertains to the President’s health?
PHILLIPS: Well, the President’s physician, Dr. Conley, is known as a man of integrity. That was before this event happened and it’s well-known around Washington, D.C. And the docs and nurses working at Walter Reed and Johns Hopkins who are caring for him are the same. The President is a patient, he has a right to privacy. But it’s difficult whenever the information provided to constituents is filtered through a lens of trying to paint a rosy picture. And I don’t think that people are being dishonest, I think it’s just that, you know, there’s difficulty whenever you’re pressured to say certain things and thrust into a job that these doctors were never expected to be thrust into.
ROBACH: Dr. James Phillips, we certainly appreciate your time today, thank you.
PHILLIPS: Thank you.
via NewsBusters – Exposing Liberal Media Bias
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A video obtained from law enforcement officials shows what appears to be a heavily armed Mexican cartel conducting a human smuggling operation in South Texas. Officials indicated the smuggler’s drop off point was near Hebbronville, Texas, about 80 miles from the border with Mexico.
Law enforcement in South Texas is still investigating this incident but what is clear from the video is that a significant escalation in smuggling tactics is underway far north of the U.S.-Mexico border. Breitbart Texas traveled to the border last week to cover smuggling operations in the small border community of Roma, Texas. During the border tour, we obtained this exclusive video from local law enforcement.
As the video begins it appears you are watching yet another cartel video from deep inside Mexico with heavily armed cartel sicarios. However, this is not Mexico, this incident occurred in south Texas near the small community of Hebbronville located approximately 80 miles north of the U.S. Mexico border from Roma, according to Breitbart’s law enforcement sources.
The incident reportedly occurred Friday evening on dirt roads near FM1017 traveling toward Highway 285. This location is near a local Border Patrol checkpoint. These back roads are commonly used by smugglers to avoid the checkpoint, law enforcement sources said.
The first thing you notice from the video is the barrel of a rifle with after-market equipment including a quad rail, high capacity drum magazine, scope, and a fore-grip being held by the passenger. The passenger also appears to be videotaping the smuggling operation.
On the dash of the vehicle is a removable emergency light bar typically used by law enforcement. Cartel operators in Mexico frequently utilize the light bars to help them speed through traffic as needed.
The driver is seen wearing a face mask and tactical camouflage clothing. The passenger holding the rifle is also seen wearing black tactical pants and a camouflage shirt as they speed toward their destination on backcountry roads.
As the camera turns toward the back seat of the vehicle you finally see what this operation is all about. A large number of people hiding in the backseat and throughout the bed of the truck are being hauled to a transfer connection.
Google maps can be heard in English letting smugglers know their destination is approximately a half-mile on the right. Officials say this is an indication the operation is located inside Texas.
The smugglers tell the occupants to get ready as Google maps can be heard once again informing, the smugglers they have arrived at their destination on the right.
The driver suddenly stops the vehicle, slams it into park, grabs the rifle from the passenger, and exits to provide cover as all of the smuggled migrants exit simultaneously. The migrants then jumped over a gate later identified to Breitbart Texas by law enforcement.
Officials identified the drop-off location as being a ranch near U.S. Highway 285 and FM 1017. It is an area located near a Border Patrol interior immigration checkpoint operated by Hebbronville Station Border Patrol agents. The area is utilized as a drop-off location where human smugglers march their cargo around the checkpoint.
The migrants then climbed into a waiting silver Ford pickup truck backed up to the gate.
Law enforcement told Breitbart they are extremely concerned about this incident. They could not recall a time when human smugglers used such heavy weapons and tactics to smuggle people especially so far north of the border. This is a clear escalation in tactics used by smuggling organizations inside the United States. Officials said they expect other incidents to follow.
Jaeson Jones is a retired Captain from the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division and a Breitbart Texas contributor. While on duty, he managed daily operations for the Texas Rangers Border Security Operations Center.
via Breitbart News
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Univision, a liberal immigration-interest PAC with a broadcast license seeking FCC approval to be 100% foreign-owned, continues to spread disinformation in the hopes of securing a win for the candidate most amenable to the network’s business interests: Joe Biden.
In a segment on Sunday’s edition of weekly political affairs show Al Punto, senior anchor Jorge Ramos twice pushed the lie that President Donald Trump has not denounced white nationalism generally, or the proud boys specifically. Watch below at his setup of Ilia Calderón’s interview with Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio, his first question to New York Times economic reporter Eduardo Porter in a subsequent segment, and Trump’s Thursday night denunciation on Hannity, subtitled in Spanish for benefit of those who depend on Univision for news and wouldn’t get to see it otherwise:
JORGE RAMOS (AL PUNTO, 10/4/2020): During the past presidential debate, Donald Trump made reference to a group called "Proud Boys". The president did not condemn them.
…
RAMOS: The issue is, without a doubt, one of the most important at this time. You and I, as did many, as did millions, saw the last presidential debate. What does it mean that the current president, Donald Trump, does not want to denounce white supremacists in the United States? What’s going on? It’s 2020.
…
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP (HANNITY, 10/1/2020): I’ve said it many times, and let me be clear again. I condemn the KKK, I condemn all white supremacists, I condemn the Proud Boys. I don’t know much about the Proud Boys, almost nothing, but I condemn that. But he should condemn also Antifa. Antifa is a horrible group of people. They kill people- what they do to people — they are causing insurrection, they’re causing riots. He doesn’t want to do that, but the press doesn’t go after him. And that’s a really bad group of people. But I condemn them. If I say it 100… if I say it 100 times, it won’t be enough because it’s fake news.
There are two flaming lies in that brief intro. The first- that Trump brought up the Proud Boys. In fact it was Biden, as he was interrupting Trump’s response to moderator Chris Wallace. The second lie, the big one, is that Trump has never denounced- or condemned white supremacists.
Interview segments for Al Punto are usually pre-recorded. The show is usually put together on Friday and Saturday, and Ramos will often host live if the news cycle warrants it (for example, during the aftermath of the initial rioting subsequent to the death of George Floyd). There was no reason to exclude Trump’s statement on Hannity except to further the corporate narrative of the Bad Orange Racist, thus stoking the grievances of viewers eligible to vote.
As we saw with Ramos’ shameful interview of actor, pro-life activist and Latinos for Trump member Eduardo Verástegui, the truth takes a back seat to partisan point-making.
History has already recorded the descent of news media into collective madness, and its devolution into partisan propaganda. Unfortunately for the Hispanic community, Univision was already there long ago.
This piece of political disinformation was brought to you by the Subaru Crosstrek. Click here and let them know what you think. Then click here and view Media Research Center Founder and President L. Brent Bozell III’s letter to the FCC in strong opposition to the rule change that would allow Univision to be 100% foreign-owned.
via NewsBusters – Exposing Liberal Media Bias
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Pope Francis says the coronavirus pandemic has proven that the ‘magic theories’ of market capitalism have failed and that the world needs a new type of politics that promotes dialogue and solidarity.
Francis on Sunday laid out his vision for a post-COVID world by uniting the core elements of his social teachings into a new encyclical, ‘Fratelli Tutti’ (Brothers All), which was released on the feast day of his namesake, the peace-loving St. Francis of Assisi.
The document draws its inspiration from the teachings of St. Francis and the pope’s previous preaching on the injustices of the global economy and its destruction of the planet and pairs them with his call for greater human solidarity to address today’s problems.
In April the communist pope urged the global community to implement a “green recovery” to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
Reuters reported:
The pope, who wrote a major encyclical in 2015 on the defence of nature and the dangers of climate change, dedicated his general audience – broadcast from his library because of the coronavirus lockdown – to the theme.
Recounting a Spanish proverb that God always forgives, man sometimes forgives but nature never forgives, Francis said: “If we have deteriorated the Earth, the response will be very ugly.”
A landmark in the emergence of the environmental movement when it first took place in 1970, this year’s Earth Day has prompted calls from many, including U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, for governments to pursue “green recovery” in response to coronavirus
Both the pope and Guterres have made environmental protection and climate change signature themes of their offices.
“We see these natural tragedies, which are the Earth’s response to our maltreatment,” Francis said. “I think that if I ask the Lord now what he thinks about this, I don’t think he would say it is a very good thing. It is we who have ruined the work of God.”
The post Communist Pope ‘Red Francis’ Issues Radical Edict Condemning Capitalism Using St. Francis as His Prop appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
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How Three Prior Pandemics Triggered Massive Societal Shifts
Tyler Durden
Sun, 10/04/2020 – 17:25
Authored by Andrew Latham via TheConversation.com,
Before March of this year, few probably thought disease could be a significant driver of human history.
Not so anymore. People are beginning to understand that the little changes COVID-19 has already ushered in or accelerated – telemedicine, remote work, social distancing, the death of the handshake, online shopping, the virtual disappearance of cash and so on – have begun to change their way of life. They may not be sure whether these changes will outlive the pandemic. And they may be uncertain whether these changes are for good or ill.
Three previous plagues could yield some clues about the way COVID-19 might bend the arc of history. As I teach in my course “Plagues, Pandemics and Politics,” pandemics tend to shape human affairs in three ways.
First, they can profoundly alter a society’s fundamental worldview.
Second, they can upend core economic structures.
And, finally, they can sway power struggles among nations.
The Antonine plague, and its twin, the Cyprian plague – both now widely thought to have been caused by a smallpox strain – ravaged the Roman Empire from A.D. 165 to 262. It’s been estimated that the combined pandemics’ mortality rate was anywhere from one-quarter to one-third of the empire’s population.
While staggering, the number of deaths tells only part of the story. This also triggered a profound transformation in the religious culture of the Roman Empire.
On the eve of the Antonine plague, the empire was pagan. The vast majority of the population worshipped multiple gods and spirits and believed that rivers, trees, fields and buildings each had their own spirit.
Christianity, a monotheistic religion that had little in common with paganism, had only 40,000 adherents, no more than 0.07% of the empire’s population.
Yet within a generation of the end of the Cyprian plague, Christianity had become the dominant religion in the empire.
How did these twin pandemics effect this profound religious transformation?
Rodney Stark, in his seminal work “The Rise of Christianity,” argues that these two pandemics made Christianity a much more attractive belief system.
While the disease was effectively incurable, rudimentary palliative care – the provision of food and water, for example – could spur recovery of those too weak to care for themselves. Motivated by Christian charity and an ethic of care for the sick – and enabled by the thick social and charitable networks around which the early church was organized – the empire’s Christian communities were willing and able to provide this sort of care.
Pagan Romans, on the other hand, opted instead either to flee outbreaks of the plague or to self-isolate in the hope of being spared infection.
This had two effects.
First, Christians survived the ravages of these plagues at higher rates than their pagan neighbors and developed higher levels of immunity more quickly. Seeing that many more of their Christian compatriots were surviving the plague – and attributing this either to divine favor or the benefits of the care being provided by Christians – many pagans were drawn to the Christian community and the belief system that underpinned it. At the same time, tending to sick pagans afforded Christians unprecedented opportunities to evangelize.
Second, Stark argues that, because these two plagues disproportionately affected young and pregnant women, the lower mortality rate among Christians translated into a higher birth rate.
The net effect of all this was that, in roughly the span of a century, an essentially pagan empire found itself well on its way to becoming a majority Christian one.
The plague of Justinian, named after the Roman emperor who reigned from A.S. 527 to 565, arrived in the Roman Empire in A.D. 542 and didn’t disappear until A.D. 755. During its two centuries of recurrence, it killed an estimated 25% to 50% of the population – anywhere from 25 million to 100 million people.
This massive loss of lives crippled the economy, triggering a financial crisis that exhausted the state’s coffers and hobbled the empire’s once mighty military.
In the east, Rome’s principal geopolitical rival, Sassanid Persia, was also devastated by the plague and was therefore in no position to exploit the Roman Empire’s weakness. But the forces of the Islamic Rashidun Caliphate in Arabia – which had long been contained by the Romans and Sasanians – were largely unaffected by the plague. The reasons for this are not well understood, but they probably have to do with the caliphate’s relative isolation from major urban centers.
Caliph Abu Bakr didn’t let the opportunity go to waste. Seizing the moment, his forces swiftly conquered the entire Sasanian Empire while stripping the weakened Roman Empire of its territories in the Levant, the Caucasus, Egypt and North Africa.
Muslim forces of the Rashidun Caliphate captured the Levant – a region of the Middle East – from the Byzantine Empire in A.D. 636. Wikimedia Commons
Pre-pandemic, the Mediterranean world had been relatively unified by commerce, politics, religion and culture. What emerged was a fractured trio of civilizations jockeying for power and influence: an Islamic one in the eastern and southern Mediterranean basin; a Greek one in the northeastern Mediterranean; and a European one between the western Mediterranean and the North Sea.
This last civilization – what we now call medieval Europe – was defined by a new, distinctive economic system.
Before the plague, the European economy had been based on slavery. After the plague, the significantly diminished supply of slaves forced landowners to begin granting plots to nominally “free” laborers – serfs who worked the lord’s fields and, in return, received military protection and certain legal rights from the lord.
The seeds of feudalism were planted.
The Black Death broke out in Europe in 1347 and subsequently killed between one-third and one-half of the total European population of 80 million people. But it killed more than people. By the time the pandemic had burned out by the early 1350s, a distinctly modern world emerged – one defined by free labor, technological innovation and a growing middle class.
Before the Yersinia pestis bacterium arrived in 1347, Western Europe was a feudal society that was overpopulated. Labor was cheap, serfs had little bargaining power, social mobility was stymied and there was little incentive to increase productivity.
But the loss of so much life shook up an ossified society.
Labor shortages gave peasants more bargaining power. In the agrarian economy, they also encouraged the widespread adoption of new and existing technologies – the iron plow, the three-field crop rotation system and fertilization with manure, all of which significantly increased productivity. Beyond the countryside, it resulted in the invention of time and labor-saving devices such as the printing press, water pumps for draining mines and gunpowder weapons.
The Black Death created massive labor shortages. Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
In turn, freedom from feudal obligations and a desire to move up the social ladder encouraged many peasants to move to towns and engage in crafts and trades. The more successful ones became wealthier and constituted a new middle class. They could now afford more of the luxury goods that could be obtained only from beyond Europe’s frontiers, and this stimulated both long-distance trade and the more efficient three-masted ships needed to engage in that trade.
The new middle class’s increasing wealth also stimulated patronage of the arts, science, literature and philosophy. The result was an explosion of cultural and intellectual creativity – what we now call the Renaissance.
None of this is to argue that the still-ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will have similarly earth-shattering outcomes. The mortality rate of COVID-19 is nothing like that of the plagues discussed above, and therefore the consequences may not be as seismic.
But there are some indications that they could be.
Will the bumbling efforts of the open societies of the West to come to grips with the virus shattering already-wavering faith in liberal democracy, creating a space for other ideologies to evolve and metastasize?
In a similar fashion, COVID-19 may be accelerating an already ongoing geopolitical shift in the balance of power between the U.S. and China. During the pandemic, China has taken the global lead in providing medical assistance to other countries as part of its “Health Silk Road” initiative. Some argue that the combination of America’s failure to lead and China’s relative success at picking up the slack may well be turbocharging China’s rise to a position of global leadership.
Finally, COVID-19 seems to be accelerating the unraveling of long-established patterns and practices of work, with repercussions that could affet the future of office towers, big cities and mass transit, to name just a few. The implications of this and related economic developments may prove as profoundly transformative as those triggered by the Black Death in 1347.
Ultimately, the longer-term consequences of this pandemic – like all previous pandemics – are simply unknowable to those who must endure them. But just as past plagues made the world we currently inhabit, so too will this plague likely remake the one populated by our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
via ZeroHedge News
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On Sunday, October 4, 2020, Genesis Familia spoke in honor of her mother, an NYPD officer whom she says was shot dead “just for the blue uniform that she wore.”
ABC 7 NY reported that 48-year-old Miosotis Familia was shot on July 5, 2017, “while sitting in a mobile command unit.”
Other officers closed in on the gunman and killed him.
Genesis took part in a Back the Blue rally on Long Island Sunday, speaking through tears as she remembered her mother and her mother’s commitment to use her job as an officer for a positive good.
“My mom, like every other police officer on the job, who sacrifices so much time from their friends and their families to protect all New Yorkers, put her life on the line every day to make New York City a better place,” she said.
Genesis added, “She was taken from me and those that loved her just for the blue uniform that she wore.”
She tied the horrific 2017 attack on her mother with the numerous attacks on police in 2020, noting that the “violent attacks that have been taking place around the country on innocent police officers are because of their uniform, just how my mother was targeted for her uniform.”
Genesis used her speech to draw attention to the sacrifices officers make: “I just want all Americans to remember that these cops out here, protecting and serving the communities that they do every single day, are human beings with families and loved ones who need them to come home, just how I needed my mom to come home to me that night.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.
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Military Bases On The Moon: US Plans To Weaponize The Earth’s Satellite
Tyler Durden
Sun, 10/04/2020 – 18:15
Authored by T.J.Coles via Counterpunch.org,
In July, Dmitry Rogozin, Director General of Roscosmos, cited the U.S. “retreat from principles of cooperation and mutual support” to justify Russia’s refusal to join the latest U.S. space initiative: to build lunar bases. Rogozin was likely referring to the U.S. refusal to renew the Intermediate-range Forces Treaty and its intention to back out of the Open Skies Treaty.
Russia responded by declaring that Venus is a “Russian planet.” The U.S. continues to reject Sino-Russian efforts to strengthen the Outer Space Treaty 1967, to prohibit the weaponization of space. Doing so would interfere with U.S. plans for “full spectrum dominance.”
Last week on 22 September, the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) signed a memorandum with the Department of Defense (DOD). The signers were NASA’s administrator, Jim Bridenstine, and the U.S. Space Force Chief of Operations General, John Raymond.
The signing of the memo took place in the broader context of NASA’s Artemis program. In December 2017, Donald Trump signed the Presidential Memorandum on Reinvigorating America’s Human Space Exploration Program. It was an update of Obama’s space policy, adding that the U.S. will: “Lead an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system and to bring back to Earth new knowledge and opportunities.”
NASA’s Artemis program oversees the U.S. mission to exploit the moon, including the construction of the Artemis Base Camp at the lunar South Pole, probably near the Shackleton Crater. This will serve as a forerunner to building a base on Mars. It “builds on a half-century of experience and preparation to establish a robust human-robotic presence on and around the Moon,” says NASA. Artemis includes a Space Launch System and the Orion spacecraft. These operations will enable “U.S. commercial companies and international partners to further contribute to the exploration and development of the Moon.”
International partners, at present, include Canada, Japan, and the EU. Though, as we shall see, weaponization and competition remain serious threats to international peace and human survival. Other elements of the program include a Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) and the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO), which Artemis hopes to finalize by 2023. The international efforts include deploying “science payloads” and CubeSats, as well as refueling the Gateway: an orbiting lunar outpost.
Contracts for the Human Landing System (HLS) have gone to Blue Origin, Dynetics (Leidos), and SpaceX. The HLS team includes Draper, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman. Draper will provide avionics, guidance, navigation, and software. The Integrated Lander Vehicle will launch on United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan heavy-lift rocket. Maxar Technologies will develop the PPE. HALO is an initial crew cabin for astronauts visiting the Gateway and will likely be built by Northrop. Pressurized and unpressurized cargo, including space instruments and food, will be delivered by SpaceX.
The recent NASA-DOD memorandum of understanding references the proposed lunar base and says that NASA and the Space Force “reaffirm and continue their rich legacy of collaboration in space launch, in-space operations, and space research activities, all of which contribute to the Parties’ separate and distinct civil and defense endeavors”—the latter are classified. The Space Force will act as the NASA’s guarantor. Space Force’s responsibilities “include developing military space systems and doctrine, as well as presenting space forces to support the warfighting Combatant Commands.” The memo reiterates common NASA-DOD interests.
The memo also seeks to establish a Foundation for Broad Collaboration. General Raymond says:
“A secure, stable, and accessible space domain underpins our nation’s security, prosperity and scientific achievement. Space Force looks forward to future collaboration, as NASA pushes farther into the universe for the benefit of all.”
The Space Force states that it “will secure the peaceful use of space, free for any who seek to expand their understanding of the universe, by organizing, training and equipping forces to protect U.S. and allied interests in space.” “Peace” means U.S. dominance unimpeded by commercial rivals, like China, India, and Russia.
As the BBC acknowledges:
“Many practical products developed by NASA during the Apollo years are well known: cordless drills, PV (solar) panels, freeze-dried food, thermal insulation material, heat coatings and so on.”
Having learned their craft at the Fairchild Semiconductor company, NASA scientists formed Intel, which later worked on personal computers with Microsoft. The so-called Apollo Effect, in reference to the first moon landing, indirectly and reportedly inspired Tim Berners-Lee, who is credited with creating the World Wide Web, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, and Elon Musk of SpaceX, which is now contracted to work on the latest program.
NASA says of the future that taxpayer dollars will fund research and development for corporate, hi-tech innovation: “Space Technology investments will stimulate the economy and build our Nation’s global economic competitiveness through the creation of new products and services, new business and industries, and high-quality, sustainable jobs,” like those above. It notes more broadly:
“Knowledge provided by weather and navigational spacecraft, efficiency improvements in both ground and air transportation, super computers, solar- and wind-generated energy, the cameras found in many of today’s cell phones, improved biomedical applications including advanced medical imaging and even more nutritious infant formula, as well as the protective gear that keeps our military, firefighters and police safe, have all benefitted from our nation’s investments in aerospace technology.”
Colonel Eric Felt, Director of the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate, says: “The space renaissance happening on the commercial side is fantastic, there is innovation we can use.” Felt also notes the link between civilian-commercial and military technology: “We have limited funding in our budget for science and technology … We have to leverage dual-use technologies”—which means weaponized civilian and commercial products.
As pundits analyze what was arguably the lowest point of U.S. electoral politics in the mont of September, namely the “debate” between The Donald and Creepy Joe, Sky News reports on the Space Command’s first foreign deployment to Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar:
“Their mission is to confront new threats in the region from Iran’s missile programme – as well as attempts to jam, hack and blind satellites.”
Confront threats means maintain dominance.
The Space Force has also seen the transfer of Air Force personnel to the Marine Expeditionary Unit, indicating that the Force will integrate into all levels of the U.S. military, realizing the U.S. elite dream of “full spectrum dominance.”
via ZeroHedge News
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