NEW YORK — If there was a growing mental health crisis before 2020, a new study finds the coronavirus pandemic may have sent it spiraling out of control. Half of Americans feel they lost complete control of their lives during the last year.
A survey of 2,000 people reveals 47 percent feel helpless, while 44 percent say they hit their lowest emotional point within the last year. Since last March, Americans report struggling more with anxiety (42%), depression (37%), and loneliness (31%) than ever before.
Loudoun County is in the news again with its last school board meeting of the year on Tuesday. Elicia Brand, a Loudoun County parent, forwarded to UncoverDC a whistleblower document and the phone number of a local candidate for Congress, Paul Lott, who is also fighting a similar battle in Prince William County.
Brand plans to present to the school board both the whistleblower documents and the text from a recent partisan (Democrat) House bill, HB1904, filed in January in Virginia. The bill seems to be slipping Critical Race Theory (CRT) in the schools via “cultural competency training.” Parents in the county have been fighting for months to ban CRT from the curriculum. Brand and the other parents had no idea the law was passed in February.
Cultural competency training is usually code for CRT training. Specifically, the language for the training was added to a current statute, “Standard 5—Quality of Classroom Instruction and Education Leadership.” The training is required at least every two years.
Amendment to Statute
Lott explained that instead of using straight curriculum and materials to implement CRT, the schools are training the teachers to be purveyors of the attitudes and mindset of the CRT curriculum—“and not calling it CRT.”
Alarmingly, the training is required to obtain licensure or renew licensure. Several teachers have sent anonymous emails indicating not only are they required to participate, but they face tremendous peer pressure and backlash if they dare question the training framework. A teacher who does not cooperate with the training will see it reflected in their yearly evaluation. It is a top-down mandate to think and teach from a particular point of view that is then associated with penalties for not towing the party line.
HB1904 licensure requirements/cultural literacyCultural Literacy Training for Teachers/Prince William County
UncoverDC spoke with Paul Lott, who is currently running for Congress in Virginia. The bio on his website indicates he is no stranger to racism and the attendant barriers:
Paul Lott For Congress
“My parents were part of the Great Migration of Black Americans who came North in the 1950s to find better jobs and make a future outside of the South. They met, married, and had eight children together. I lived in the Deep South and Midwest from the 1960s to the late 1970s. I lived racism. I know what racism looks like. And, what pains America today is not caused by racism, systemic or otherwise. So, the question is, what evidence is there that poor race relations are preventing school systems from delivering education, and how can introducing aspects of Critical Race Theory, or other race-based ideologies, enable children to learn better? School systems need to justify their actions by showing that race is a significant factor in determining education quality for Black and minority students.”
Lott is concerned about the law, set to go into effect this coming school year. He disagrees with laws that mandate teacher training or curricula that focus on CRT. He says it promotes “division” instead of addressing what he believes to be the real problem—”systemic illiteracy.”
The rollout of the law this summer prompted a “Care Lead Facilitator” teacher to contact Lott via email. Care Lead Facilitators are charged with disseminating material associated with the equity training and then, according to Lott, “retraining the framework of the way teachers think.”
The Care Lead told Lott that the training is a work-around to quietly insert Critical Race Theory in the schools without directly introducing the materials and books associated with it—possibly a sneaky way to avoid conflict cropping up at school board meetings all over the country.
Lott paraphrased the conversation with the teacher. The schools are training teachers in the concept of racism and “then using it against them to squash opposition…anyone questioning the prescribed definition of racism in a training session is immediately attacked and intimidated.” In other words, no discussion or the free exchange of ideas is allowed in the training. An excerpt of the email from the teacher is quoted below:
“I can tell you many in (Prince William County School District) PWCS don’t agree with this. We hate going to meetings where we are pitted against each other to talk about this. Many of the administration with principals don’t want to push this training on staff, particularly after the brutal year of teaching virtual and hybrid.
Featured below are just some of the documents forwarded by the Care Lead Facilitator that are now being used in the “Cultural Proficiency and Culturally Responsive Instruction” sessions for teaching staff in the Prince William Schools. The Level 1 “Onboarding” training is captured below:
Level 1 Equity Training/Onboarding/Prince William School DistrictLevel 1 Equity Training/Onboarding/Prince William School District/p. 2Level 1 Equity Training/Onboarding/Prince William School District/p. 3
It is difficult to conclude from the above documents that CRT will not be taught in some way, shape, or form in the schools there. Words like equity, institutional racism, Euro-centrism, gender identity are all words associated with the doctrine of the Critical Race Theory movement. Phrases like “racist beliefs and structures are pervasive in all aspects of our lives” are classic CRT speak.
It is not CRT but it really is/Loudoun County
Lott also explained that the state education website—Virginia is for Learners—headlines racism as its top priority for the public schools there. Their Equity Resources page is just one of several devoted to concepts associated with CRT.
Virginia is for Learners/State Website
The June 22 LCPS School Board Meeting
Those who attended Tuesday’s Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) school board meeting were spirited and, at times, quick-tempered. Both local parents and outside groups showed up in droves—259 attendees. Loudoun County school board member Beth Barts, who has previously organized activities to counter the parents protesting CRT, helped organize transportation designed to bus in outside groups to show up at the board meeting and a rally run by Ian Prior’sFight For Schools group on Tuesday afternoon. Her call to action was retweeted and led to this donation website.
Early in the meeting, Brand sent UncoverDC a video as the school board meeting was in progress. Apparently, transgender parents spoke first, and according to Brand, “A pro trans parent started with hate speech slamming people who are Christian. The room erupted. The Board walked out and would not call Hate speech.” Eventually, after a 5-minute recess, the board returned.
Brand and others were upset because of the double standard. On one hand, proponents of CRT were allowed to name call without repercussions, but if a parent from the Anti-CRT movement spoke disrespectfully, they were reprimanded or shut down.
However, toward the end of the public comment session, Brand sent UncoverDC another video. The footage below shows parents protesting the fact that the board members closed public comment, shut down the meeting, and then left. The parents who remained first loudly chanted, “Shame on You,” and then proceeded to sing the National Anthem—some are heard voicing a wish to be unified as “one united people.”
At least two people were arrested.
2 parents protesting against CRT and a transgender policy have just been arrested after a Loudoun County, Virginia school board meeting was declared an unlawful assembly. pic.twitter.com/0lKhZYG7Pw
— Pembrokeshire-Patriot (@DarrenEdmundso1) June 23, 2021
President Joe Biden on Wednesday tapped Vice President Kamala Harris to lead a national vaccination tour as part of a “month of action” to boost slowing vaccination rates – adding to an expanding list of herculean tasks assigned to the vice president.
The White House COVID response team announced Tuesday the U.S. will not hit President Joe Biden’s goal of getting 70% of all adults ages 18 and older vaccinated with at least one shot by the symbolic July Fourth holiday.
The press is reporting that vaccine hesitancy, particularly among the young, is keeping people away, for one thing.
Not even lotteries and free stuff, as some states are offering, are making a difference, either. Biden just figured that if he sent Kamala on the road, all would be fixed.
And no, she never addressed young people’s issues, which was the problem of blood clots and high incidences of heart failure which is but one reason why young people are saying ‘no.’ Weighing the risk of COVID, which kills virtually no one who is young, against a life-changing heart condition or even death (with no possibility of suing), is kind of an easy decision for the vaccine-hesitant. What’s more, Kamala had expressed vaccine hesitancy herself when President Trump was in office. If the vaccine was ‘bad’ then, why would it be ‘good’ under Joe Biden? And heck, why do we even have these vaccine ‘goals’ like the Soviet tsentral planners do? Maybe if she had honestly addressed these things instead of take Instagram posts, there would be more confidence.
The amazing thing is, it’s not her only failure. S.1, the election-rigging bill put out by the Democrats eager to legitimize their skeevy 2020 victories and ensure that Republicans can never challenge them at election time, went down in flames last night in the Senate. Democrats yelled that “democracy is at stake” and somehow the republic manages to chug on.
Democrats, at least, are noticing how useless she is, according to this report in the Guardian:
After the Democrats’ major voting rights bill was killed in the Senate by a GOP filibuster yesterday, some Democratic progressives are hinting that the White House should have done more to prevent the defeat. They argue that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris could have done more with their bully pulpit to increase attention and urgency around the bill. The White House, in turn, is arguing that they have done plenty to spotlight the legislation.
Mondaire Jones, a congressman from New York, has been one of the more critical Democrats, telling the Associated Press that Barack Obama, who has been pushing for voting rights legislation, “has been doing more to salvage our ailing democracy than the current president of the United States.”
“[Biden] is someone who has all the resources available to him as the most powerful person in the world to rally members of his own party to at least make an exception to the filibuster for purposes of saving our democracy,” Jones told CNN.
Harris actually claimed that she wanted this job. What did she do in this job? Nothing. Thanks, Kamala, say the Republicans.
Lastly, there’s her failure to resolve the migrant surge, claiming that she was only looking for “root causes” and doing “head of state” diplomacy. That “border czar” thing has fallen flat, not just based on her failed trip to Guatemala and Mexico, where both presidents rebuked her, while she looked haggard and ill prepared, she also failed to answer a softball question from NBC News’s Lester Holt about visiting the border, breaking out in giggles and cackles instead of answering him. She didn’t even consult Central America’s Catholic bishops, who, according to this argument, could have helped her. On the border, she’s a mess.
Which raises the question about her political opponents, who urge Joe Biden to replace her. With someone that idiotic, racking up task after task of failure, maybe they should be calling on Biden to keep her. Everything she touches seems to turn to (bad stuff) on Joe’s command. She’s proving herself to be impressively useless. Maybe she should stay right where she is to ensure that Joe can’t destroy the country owing to her incompetence.
Her failures are starting to pile high for Joe. What a lemon.
Fast-food sandwich chain Subway is currently facing a class-action lawsuit over the contents of the tuna product the company offers its customers.
A weekend New York Times report took a look at what goes into the eatery’s tuna offerings — and even had some sandwiches tested by a lab. The Times said the lab found no identifiable tuna DNA in the tuna sandwiches the paper had tested.
What did the report say?
For the report, Times reporter Julia Carmel purchased 60 inches of Subway tuna sandwiches from three different franchises across Los Angeles.
Carmel noted that she removed the tuna from the sandwiches, froze it, and then paid $500 for analysis from a third-party commercial food testing lab to conduct a PCR test to determine the composition of the food. The lab, she said, was "already wary about the challenges of identifying a fish that’s been cooked at least once, mixed with mayo, frozen and shipped across the country," but agreed to the testing regardless.
The lab — its identity not disclosed — tested the fish over a period of 30 days and determined that "no amplifiable tuna DNA was present in the sample," and thus the lab did not obtain any "amplification products from the DNA."
"Therefore," the lab concluded in its findings, "we cannot identify the species."
A spokesperson for the lab told Carmel that two different conclusions could be possible based on the results.
"One, it’s so heavily processed that whatever we could pull out, we couldn’t make an identification," the spokesperson said. "Or, we got some and there’s just nothing there that’s tuna."
Carmel noted that there are major caveats to consider when looking at the results of such testing.
"Once tuna has been cooked, its DNA becomes denatured — meaning that the fish’s characteristic properties have likely been destroyed, making it difficult, if not impossible, to identify," she reported.
A January report from the seafood list, which was compiled by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, defines 15 different species of fish that can be labeled as "tuna."
Carmel in the report also added that the lawsuit’s plaintiffs over the last several months have also reportedly "softened their original claims," and instead of claiming that there is no tuna in Subway’s tuna offerings, they are now questioning whether the product is skipjack and yellowfin tuna, as the company has previously insisted.
"In a new filing from June, their complaints centered not on whether Subway’s tuna was tuna at all, but whether it was ‘100% sustainably caught skipjack and yellowfin tuna,’" Carmel wrote.
Carmel also cited Peter Horn, director of the Ending Illegal Fishing Project at the Pew Charitable Trusts.
"In the defense of Subway, or quite a lot of these fishmongers, the further you get the fish from the bone, the harder it is to recognize what that fish is," he said of the suit. "Most of us see the fish on the bone, skin intact, and we can recognize what sort of fish that is. You drop the head and the tail off, it becomes more difficult, but you can still probably recognize it. You take the skin off it, you take it off the bone and you cut it into slices then you’re only sort of saying, ‘Right, what’s the color and texture?’"
The company declined to comment on the Times report’s findings.
Another test, different results
In February, Inside Edition sent samples from three Subway locations in Queens to an independent Florida-based lab, which determined that the submitted specimens were, indeed, tuna.
"Yes, we confirmed that tuna was definitely in all three samples we received," LeeAnn Applewhite, the CEO of Applied Food Technologies told Inside Edition for their reporting.
Following the test, a spokesperson for Subway told the outlet, "The tuna our franchisees serve to their guests every day is 100% real, cooked tuna, and there simply is no truth to the allegations in the complaint filed in California."
In June’s amended complaint, the plaintiffs stated that they are now questioning whether the fish is sustainably caught and harvested.
A Subway spokesperson told People that the new filing was evidence that the plaintiffs "abandoned their original claim that Subway’s tuna product contains no tuna."
"However, they filed an amended complaint that now alleges our tuna is not 100% tuna and that it is not sustainably caught skipjack and yellowfin tuna," the spokesperson said. "Just like the original claim, the new claims have absolutely no merit. In fact, the amended complaint does not remedy any of the fundamental flaws in the plaintiffs’ case and it is disappointing that they have elected to continue to pursue these baseless claims."
Is Subway’s Tuna Sandwich Actually Made of Tuna?www.youtube.com
What else is there to know about this lawsuit?
Plaintiffs Karen Dhanowa and Nilima Amin filed the initial lawsuit in California federal court in January, stating that the restaurant was attempting to pass off an undetermined type of fish as yellowfin tuna and skipjack.
A portion of the suit stated that the quick-service restaurant is "selling and continuing to sell some mixture that is deceptively and dishonestly being passed off as in line with their representations to purchasers but are not actually compliant" and that the product in question is "completely bereft of tuna as an ingredient."
The restaurant has categorically denied the allegations, and told the Times that it "delivers 100 percent cooked tuna to its restaurants, which is mixed with mayonnaise and used in freshly made sandwiches, wraps, and salads that are served to and enjoyed by our guests."
"Subway’s tuna sandwich ranks among our guests’ favorite sandwiches," the spokesperson added. "The taste and quality of our tuna make it one of Subway’s most popular products and these baseless accusations threaten to damage our franchises. Given the facts, the lawsuit constitutes a reckless and improper attack on Subway’s brand and goodwill."
The Loudoun County School Board shut down public comment Tuesday night after residents expressed concerns over the district’s leftist ‘indoctrination.’
Vice President Kamala Harris will finally visit the United States-Mexico border this week, three months after being put in charge of the immigration crisis, and days after Republicans urged President Joe Biden to relieve Harris of her duties and replace her with a new border czar.
Politico reports that Harris “will make a stop in El Paso, Texas on Friday, according to sources familiar with the trip. She is expected to be accompanied by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.”
Harris’s office and the Department of Homeland Security both refused to confirm details of the Vice President’s planned visit.
It appears that Harris was trying to beat former President Donald Trump to the border. Trump is scheduled to pay a visit to the border in Texas and speak with Governor Greg Abbott about his plans to build his own border barrier and send reinforcements to the Texas border with Mexico, a plan that Abbott announced last week.
“Harris’ trip comes just days before former President Donald Trump is set to visit the border,” Politico noted. “Trump will be joined on that trip by Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott and a group of House Republicans.”
Harris was placed in charge of the Biden administration’s border crisis back in February, after a sudden, major spike in illegal alien apprehensions at the border. She has repeatedly said, however, that she is not in charge of the border itself — she claimed that DHS Secretary Mayorkas is tasked with handling the issue of illegal immigration — but that she was tasked with solving “root causes” of migration in the Northern Triangle — El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
This is a developing story, please refresh the page for updates.
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Podcast superstar Joe Rogan believes Hollywood’s left-wing bent has a lot to do with “hungry actors” who parrot radical talking points to land jobs, surmising that most of them are just “nonsense people” who have not “thought these things through” and concluding it is “fucking horseshit.”
Speaking on the June 17 episode of the podcast Breaking Points, Rogan explained why he believes Hollywood is so ideologically left-wing.
“It all comes down to young, hungry actors saying whatever they believe casting directors are going to want to hear to land the job,” Rogan said, adding that these individuals often hear what others are saying and parrot those talking points to secure jobs in the industry.
“You see people bend to whichever way the wind is blowing. It’s like, ‘What do I have to say?’ And you see the disingenuousness,” he said, surmising that most celebrities do not actually hold opinions. Rather, they have what he described as a “conglomeration of opinions that they’ve adopted because they think it will be beneficial for their career.”
“I would go on these auditions and I would see these poor fuckers that were lost in this world of being chosen for things. And that’s what shapes the entire mindset of that part of the country,” Rogan continued. “The entire mindset of that part of the country is doing things that you think other people will like. They are insecure people that go to a place where they’re going to get rejected a lot. It’s the worst thing ever for their mental health.”
Rogan continued, explaining that it is possible for there to be such an ideological divide in Hollywood because the country is “basically divided 50/50.”
“So is it that you’re telling me that everyone who is creative [is left-wing]? Is it everyone who is expressive? Is it everyone who is theatrical? Is that possible? It’s not possible,” he said. “Because it’s not really opinions. They’re willing to not have any opinions on anything else other than feeding narcissism, feeding this career that seems insurmountable and impossible to achieve.”
He continued:
You can feel the angst pulsating off their bodies. And you run into that more often than you don’t. Because most people are bitter, and most people are weirded out, and they adopt these liberal sensibilities and ideologies and they don’t necessarily do it because they thought these things through. I mean occasionally you’ve got your Mark Ruffalo type characters who are really all in, but most of them are not. Most of them are just nonsense people and those nonsense people will just get on stage and they’ll say at the Academy Awards or the Grammys,’This is what we have to do. We have to make sure that we support this, and that.’
“It’s fucking horseshit,” Rogan added.
Rogan has continued to speak out strongly against cultural norms, highlighting the phenomenon of people flooding to Florida and Texas amid the oppressive lockdowns in blue states.
“[Cities] can be irreversibly fucked, like I think some of our cities are right now. I think there’s some there’s some sections in LA, I don’t know how the fuck they’re gonna bounce back. You drive down the street and you see everything boarded up. You go, ‘How does this come back? How long does it take?” Rogan’s said during an appearance with Dave Chappelle in episode 1647 of the Joe Rogan Experience.
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