Month: August 2022

Categories
Back Door Power Grab Education Leftist Virtue(!) Stupid things people say or do.

More Hate from the Progressives. Religious bigotry and hate.

Greenwich, Connecticut – Jeremy Boland, Assistant Principal of Cos Cob Elementary School admitted he discriminates against hiring Catholics. Project Veritas.

Back in the early 70’s I experienced my first example of Religious bigotry. It was working in the steel mill at the time. I was paired up with a guy we’ll call Frank All week he would barely acknowledge me and the conversations were one or two words from him. By the fourth day I lost it and asked him what was his problem? I was Catholic and he was Orange Irish.

Today we still have folks like Frank. Only difference was that Frank was a Republican. Today that hate comes from the left. Project Veritas

caught one of those ass holes.

Greenwich CT Assistant Principal’s Hiring Discrimination Ensures ‘Subtle’ Child Indoctrination; ‘You Don’t Hire’ Catholics Because They Are More ‘Conservative’ … ‘Progressive Teachers’ Are ‘Savvy About Delivering a Democratic Message’

Via Project Veritas:

On this matter, Boland affirms that any teacher who refuses to acknowledge a child’s gender preferences has no place in his Elementary School.

“So, if you have someone [teacher] who is hardcore religious or hardcore conservative, they will probably say something detrimental to the effect, ‘Well, I don’t think kids have enough knowledge to make that decision [gender identity] at this age,’” Boland said.

“You’re out. You’re done,” he concluded.

The Elementary School administrator goes on to say that he discriminates against older individuals as well.

Now his hatred comes across politically, and older folks, but in my experience I’ve found WASP’S more conservative as a group.

 

Categories
Biden Pandemic Corruption COVID Medicine Opinion Politics Progressive Racism Reprints from others.

The Purge: Biden Admin vax mandates were used to suppress dissent, produce ideological conformity.

twitter.com photo

I want to thank one of the writers from Substack for this great article.

For several months, The Dossier has reported on the unscientific, political mRNA mandates being pursued by executive branch agencies within the Biden Administration, particularly the Department of Defense, which has unlawfully forced active duty service members to get injected with the gene juice.

The Dossier
Biden Admin officials scramble to escape blame for unlawful Pentagon order mandating mRNA for troops
Lawyers representing America’s service members are beginning to produce victories defending the U.S. Armed Forces against forced compliance with biomedical gene therapy experiments, and suddenly, nobody in the Pentagon wants to take accountability for their legally dubious mRNA injection order…

Read more

Jordan Schachtel

It seemed obvious to anyone thinking clearly about this issue that the government’s mRNA mandates, especially in the military, are being leveraged to create ideological conformity within the ranks. Clearly, “readiness” is not a serious explanation for the mRNA mandate, given the minuscule threat posed by the coronavirus to young men, coupled with the troubling side effect profile of the shots.

The Dossier
Military whistleblowers: DOD’s legally dubious mRNA mandate has harmed readiness, produced widespread injuries
A group of active U.S. military pilots are coming forward as whistleblowers to challenge both the legal and moral nature of the Department of Defense mRNA mandate, and they’ve produced some shocking testimonials that challenge virtually all of the mainstream narratives about a supposedly “safe and effective” mRNA vaccine…

Read more

12 days ago · 219 likes · 69 comments · Jordan Schachtel

Picket reported, via a whistleblower, that this is exactly what is happening at the FBI. This newly fired agent was allegedly dismissing unvaccinated agents to ensure political compliance within the Bureau.

The agent was allegedly “known for pushing out unvaccinated agents from the FBI’s election squad whom he suspected to be Trump supporters,” the story reads.

This is the real reason for the mRNA mandate. It’s the best way to clean house, ideologically.

Through an even wider scope, COVID Mania as a whole has involved powerful enterprises conducting routine power grabs, dividing up civil society, and installing political compliance tests into every avenue of daily life. The FBI’s reported role in this process serves as just one example of many more to come.

It all began on August 24, 2021, when Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued a memo mandating mRNA “vaccination” for the active military, but with the stipulation that this mandate only applied to fully licensed products. This was because, as The Dossier understands, it is illegal to force service members to take an EUA vaccine.

Sec Def Lloyd Austin memo

The Sec Austin memo and the guidance that followed created an issue, because, as The Dossier readers are well aware of by now, the FDA licensed versions of the mRNA shots never actually made it to market, rendering the initial vaccine mandate useless.

This is where the infamous September 14, 2021 memo comes into play.

Dr Terry Adirim, the woman who signed the memo, is a devoted democrat political activist and, as a medical doctor, advocates for “gender-affirming prescriptions” for “transgender” children. At the time, she was the acting assistant secretary of defense for health affairs (under a Biden political appointment). Adirim’s memo attempted to justify mandating EUA shots as if they were FDA approved.

Terry Adirim Twitter profile

Dr Adirim’s deceptive memo described the EUA and FDA licensed vaccines as “interchangeable,” adding that the Defense Department can “use doses distributed under the EUA to administer the vaccination series as if the doses were the licensed vaccine.” Adirim failed to note that the EUA vaccines were only administratively interchangeable, but not *legally* interchangeable, as made clear by the FDA. This should have rendered any mandate unenforceable.

In other documents and statements, she routinely made claims that FDA licensed vaccines were available to troops, when that was not in fact the case.

Twitter avatar for @JanineG385JanineG385 @JanineG385

@DeptofDefense @SecDef @US_FDA Terry Adirim has made multiple claims that the DOD has licensed vaccines. CDC as of May 24 says they’re ONLY orderable. A lot of separations from commanders issuing unlawful orders. Approved not available. A lot of insubordinate activity to me.

Image
Image
Image
Image

June 2nd 2022

5 Retweets

Following the mRNA injection order, untold thousands of service members were coerced — under threat of both administrative and criminal action — to take a “vaccine” that they wanted no part of. Unsurprisingly, this mandatory novel gene therapy injection has harmed combat readiness and produced widespread, serious, long term injuries throughout the armed forces.

The Dossier
Military whistleblowers: DOD’s legally dubious mRNA mandate has harmed readiness, produced widespread injuries
A group of active U.S. military pilots are coming forward as whistleblowers to challenge both the legal and moral nature of the Department of Defense mRNA mandate, and they’ve produced some shocking testimonials that challenge virtually all of the mainstream narratives about a supposedly “safe and effective” mRNA vaccine…

Read more

2 days ago · 188 likes · 59 comments · Jordan Schachtel
Twitter avatar for @kristina_wongKristina Wong 🇺🇸 @kristina_wong

As the CDC relaxes its COVID guidance, just reminding people of this report from 30 days ago… US Military Might Lose $4 Billion Due To Pentagon’s COVID Vaccine Mandate, According To @RepMattGaetz dailycaller.com/2022/07/14/us-… via @DailyCallerEXCLUSIVE: US Military Might Lose $4 Billion Due To Pentagon’s COVID Vaccine Mandate, According To Rep. GaetzRep. Matt Gaetz conducted an analysis that says the U.S. Military might lose $4 billion due to the COVID vaccine mandate.dailycaller.com

August 15th 2022

106 Retweets

The Pentagon’s unlawful order is being challenged in court by lawyers representing all branches of the military. On Thursday, the Marine Corps became the latest service branch granted a class wide injunction against the mandate.

Twitter avatar for @barnes_lawRobert Barnes @barnes_law

Marines win classwide injunction against vaccine mandate discrimination! U.S. MARINES GRANTED CLASSWIDE PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION!Connect with VivaBarnesLaw and other members of VivaBarnesLaw communityvivabarneslaw.locals.com

August 19th 2022

1,279 Retweets

Since leaving the Pentagon, Adirim has sought to distance herself from the letter, claiming that “crazy” attempts to hold her accountable are misguided, because it was “The Secretary” (Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin) who “directed vaccinations.” Neither Austin nor the Pentagon has confirmed that the Secretary of Defense ordered Adirim to sign off on the unlawful mandate.

Adirim remains in government as the program executive director of the VA’s Electronic Health Record Modernization Integration Office. As a government official, both she and the Secretary of Defense are easily accessible to testify via a congressional subpoena, should congress want to investigate their controversial memos. As Adirim’s memo has come under scrutiny, she has decided to lock her social media accounts.

Who, if anyone, will be held accountable?

 

 

 

 

Categories
Opinion Reprints from others.

North Dakota Citizens Fight Back Against Chinese Company; Suspicious Detail of Planned Corn Mill Emerges

(Bikash Dware/The Rising Nepal via AP))

By Grant Atkinson  August 29, 2022

North Dakota residents are attempting to keep a company allegedly affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party from building a corn mill in their state, suspiciously far from supplies of the crop, some say, but extremely close to a U.S. Air Force base.

Chinese manufacturer Fufeng USA, which makes food for animals, according to the Grand Forks, North Dakota, city website, has purchased a 370-acre site with plans to build a $700 million corn mill, Fox News reported.

Yet state and local officials say the company had ties to the CCP, according to Fox, and it all has the local community concerned.

First and foremost, the site is just 12 miles from the Grand Forks Air Force Base.

The base houses top secret drone technology, Fox News reported. For that reason, many citizens believe the possible presence of a Chinese company could present a national security threat.

Ben Grzadzielewski, a Grand Forks resident who is working with a legal team seeking to stop the project, laid out other concerns for the local community.

“In terms of Grand Forks, its water use, pollution, and smell,” Grzadzielewski told Fox News. “In terms of national, it is security.

“Everyone should be worried nationally about the security issues as well as locally.”

Citizens from the community are attempting to collect signatures for a petition to try to bring the proposed corn mill to a vote, according to Fox. In addition, they are suing the city of Grand Forks to stop the project.

I’m not going to say that economic development isn’t a good thing,” Grzadzielewski said. “But at what cost?”

Security threats and pollution concerns are not the only factors calling the proposed corn mill into question.

The Chinese company offered more than $26,000 an acre

Frank Matejecks, who owns Red River Angus Farm just across from the 370-acre site Fufeng purchased, told Fox there was another detail about the deal that doesn’t look right.

“There will never be enough corn from the growers around here to facilitate that plant, ever,” Matejeck told Fox News.

While Matejeck said the land Fufeng purchased was “some of the best farmland in the country,” he added the land did not include an abundance of corn crops, making the decision to build a corn mill there questionable.

Before Fufeng purchased the land, it was owned by three local farmers, Fox News reported. They were not trying to sell the property at the time, but the Chinese company offered more than $26,000 an acre, which was significantly more than the average price according to Fox News.

Community members have put out yard signs condemning the Fufeng’s plans, and some have even spoken out against the proposed deal at local council meetings.

“This is crazy,” a citizen said a recent meeting according to Fox News. “You people want to bring communist China to Grand Forks. They kill people in communist China.”

The battle against the proposal extends to Washington, D.C.

North Dakota Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is against the deal.

“The China of today is not the China of decades ago,” Cramer said. “China has demonstrated real aggression.”

On the Senate Intelligence Committee, both Chairman Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat, and ranking Republican Sen. Marco Rubio oppose the deal, according to CNBC.

Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican, has introduced a bill that would prevent companies affiliated with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from buying American farmland, according to the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Issues that even have the potential to unite Republicans and Democrats in Washington are few and far between these days, underscoring just how broad the opposition to the Grand Forks plan is.

And with good reason.

Americans deserve to feel safe at home, and a Chinese company spending hundreds of millions to build a corn mill near an Air Force base is suspicious, at best.

The community around Grand Forks is right to be fighting.

And the rest of the country should be paying attention.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/north-dakota-community-fights-stop-chinese-company-fufeng-opening-corn-mill-near-grand-forks

Categories
Life Reprints from others. Science

Why Are Conservatives Happier Than Liberals?

(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Thanks to Real Clear Science for this article.

 

It may be one of the most surefire findings in all of social psychology, repeatedly replicated over almost five decades of study: American conservatives say they are much happier than American liberals. They also report greater meaning and purpose in their lives, and higher overall life satisfaction. These links are so solidly evidenced that, for the most part, modern social scientists simply try to explain them. They’ve put forth numerous possible explanations.

There are a couple clear contributors to point out first. Marriage tends to make people happier, and conservatives are more likely to be married. Religious belief is also linked to happiness, and conservatives tend to be more religious. But these explanations don’t account for the entire gap, which equates to about a half-point on a four-point scale, a sizable happiness divide.But these explanations don’t account for the entire gap, which equates to about a half-point on a four-point scale, a sizable happiness divide.

 

Social psychologist Jaime Napier, Program Head of Psychology at NYU-Abu Dhabi has conducted research suggesting that views about inequality play a role.

“One of the biggest correlates with happiness in our surveys was the belief of a meritocracy, which is the belief that anybody who works hard can make it,” she told PBS. “That was the biggest predictor of happiness. That was also one of the biggest predictors of political ideology. So, the conservatives were much higher on these meritocratic beliefs than liberals were.”

To paraphrase, conservatives are less concerned with equality of outcomes and more with equality of opportunity. While American liberals are depressed by inequalities in society, conservatives are okay with them provided that everyone has roughly the same opportunities to succeed. The latter is a more rosy and empowering view than the deterministic former.

Two other studies explored a more surprising contributor: neuroticism, typically defined as “a tendency toward anxiety, depression, self-doubt, and other negative feelings.” Surveyed conservatives consistently score lower in neuroticism than surveyed liberals.

In 2011, psychologists at the University of Florida and the University of Toronto conducted four studies, aiming to find whether conservatives are more “positively adjusted” than liberals.

They found that conservatives “expressed greater personal agency, more positive outlook, more transcendent moral beliefs, and a generalized belief in fairness” compared to liberals.

 

“The portrait of conservatives that emerges is different from the view that conservatives are generally fearful, low in self-esteem, and rationalize away social inequality. Conservatives are more satisfied with their lives, in general… report better mental health and fewer mental and emotional problems (all after controlling for age, sex, income, and education), and view social justice in ways that are consistent with binding moral foundations, such as by emphasizing personal agency and equity. Liberals have become less happy over the last several decades, but this decline is associated with increasingly secular attitudes and actions.”

There have been a few studies that attempted to rain on conservatives’ happiness parade. In one, scientists proposed that conservatives might simply be more inclined to provide socially desirable answers to surveys than liberals. Society expects you to be happy, and so conservatives say that they are. In another, researchers found that while conservatives certainly report being more happy than liberals, liberals tend to display more signs of happiness, as evidenced by uploading more smiling photographs on Linkedin and posting more positive tweets on Twitter. So maybe conservatives just think they’re happier, or judge happiness differently? Regardless, the gap remains. So if you need some cheering up, maybe turn to a conservative friend rather than a liberal one.

 

Categories
COVID Medicine Opinion Politics Reprints from others. Science

The rise and fall of Tony the Fauch.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, pictured May 17 during a Senate subcommittee hearing, became a hated figure on the right in part because of what he represented—the arrogant, corrupt, and often incompetent bureaucratic managerial class that believes it has a right to make decisions for our society. (Photo: Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty Images)

Again many thanks to our friends at The Daily Signal.

Of all the institutions that have become radicalized in the last couple of years, the realm of medicine is perhaps the most disturbing.

What will our society look like when you can’t trust the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or even your doctor?

Dr. Anthony Fauci announced Monday that he will step down in December from his position at the National Institutes of Health, ending a tenure in public health policy that stretches back to the late 1960s.

It’s a notable moment. Fauci’s long-term obscurity—followed by short-lived, media-driven stardom and then intense polarization—is illustrative of larger trends in American society.

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board noted that other public health experts used Fauci, 81, to “lobby for broad economic lockdowns that we now know were far more destructive than they needed to be” and that Fauci advocated “mask and vaccine mandates that were far less protective than his assertions to the public.”

The Journal rightly highlighted the fact that Fauci’s name being widely recognized is a negative mark, not a positive one, of his tenure. It’s like being the long snapper in football: If people generally know who you are, it’s almost certainly because you messed up.

In the case of Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, he became a notable and polarizing figure because he seemed to make often dubious or at least wide-reaching political decisions while hiding behind his credentials.

Again, as The Wall Street Journal explained, Fauci’s public and private comments suggest his ethos was that the public “is supposed to let a few powerful men and women define science and then impose their preferred policies and mandates on the country.”

It’s a philosophy that runs counter to the ideas of 1776 and the American founding, but many of Fauci’s bureaucratic and ideological ilk seem to have little problem with that.

The important matter to recognize here is how institutions and bureaucrats—like Fauci—seemingly have dropped the pretense of objectivity in favor of ideology and, in many cases, duplicity.

To believe in science is also to believe in our new state ideology.

If the facts don’t line up with preferred outcomes, then fudge the facts and silence those who have doubts.

Perhaps paradoxically, the two-sided nature of Western institutions in the past few years—that claim to be guided by objectivity while becoming more nakedly ideological and partisan—is destroying the authority of institutions in the minds of the public. That’s certainly the case in the United States, where we are particularly prone to rebel against an unqualified pseudo-elite claiming a right to rule.

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were told by Fauci and other public officials that we had to lock down and suspend the most important parts of our lives—including going to church, weddings, and funerals—to stop the spread of the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

However, when the Black Lives Matter-inspired protests erupted in the summer of 2020, many of those same officials and organizations suddenly said it was OK to gather in massive groups because stopping racism as they defined it was too important.

It only added salt to the wound that these “mostly peaceful” protests soon turned violent and caused enormous damage and loss of life in communities around the country.

Fauci became a hated figure on the right in part because of what he represented—the arrogant, corrupt, and often incompetent bureaucratic managerial class that believes it has a right to rule and make decisions for our society.

Any figure or policy that strikes at the power of the managerial class—whether it be Donald Trump or civil service reform or school choice—is met with unhinged hostility. Resistance by the wrong types is a threat to “democracy.”

The fall of so many institutions at once puts conservatives in an unusual position. The instinct of a conservative is to preserve and perpetuate culture and institutions. We look to what has succeeded in the past and try to make it work for ourselves and posterity. That’s why the Constitution of the United States, though revolutionary in design as a written framework of government, is fundamentally conservative in the best sense.

 

What happens when institutions and the culture they seek to perpetuate are inherently revolutionary? That is the reality of where Americans, and many of us in the West, find ourselves. Our institutions no longer perpetuate the general welfare and ideas that our societies were built on. These institutions increasingly are committed to radical societal transformation, and they think they can do it whether you like it or not, as a smarmy California politician once said.

 

And our institutions do this while obnoxiously holding to the façade of expertise and objectivity. We are supposed to believe, for instance, that the American Academy of Pediatrics is promoting “gender-affirming” care for children because of its  commitment to good medicine and science.

However, it’s all too obvious that the academy’s “science” is working backward from ideology, that it would promote gender “transition” no matter what the facts said. Studies or physicians that say otherwise are ignored or, through the power of the academy’s allies in Big Tech, censored and banned.

Worse, every major health institution, professional organization, and government institution is following in lockstep. When a series of disturbing videos from Boston Children’s Hospital surfaced in which medical doctors advocated “gender-affirming hysterectomies” among other “treatments,” many were horrified.

This wasn’t a disturbing outlier, however. It’s the tip of the iceberg. These ideas are simply what’s being pushed in America’s top medical schools, where the cult of diversity, equity, and inclusion now holds absolute sway with negligible dissent. It’s a double-edged sword, though.

 

As members of the institutions both tout and hide behind their credentialism, their obviously ideological positions shred the public’s faith in their credentials.

The rise and fall of Anthony Fauci is illustrative of this trend. Sure, Fauci will retain his acolytes and super fans. But his actions and attitude have only drawn public attention to the rot and illegitimacy of American institutions, institutions that have squandered their reputations in the name of revolution. This is the real death of expertise. Death by suicide

 

Categories
Opinion Politics Reprints from others.

Biden Dismisses Voter Fraud, but His Justice Department Keeps Prosecuting It

President Joe Biden criticizes state legislatures for passing election reforms in a speech July 13, 2021, at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. (Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

This is my follow up to Phoenix’s article on voter fraud.

Thanks again to our friends at The Daily Signal.

The Biden administration’s Justice Department successfully prosecuted election fraud cases last month in Pennsylvania and Louisiana, even as the president has spent much of his term so far asserting that voter fraud is a myth.

Federal prosecutors in individual U.S. attorney’s offices also have brought separate cases in Arizona, North Carolina, and New York during President Joe Biden’s administration.

At the same time, though, Biden ratcheted up rhetoric against state reforms aimed at preventing voter fraud.

Late last year, the White House issued a press release touting plans to “restore and strengthen American democracy” and improve “voting rights.” Part of that effort by the Biden administration included “combating misinformation and disinformation” that could “sow mistrust” in elections.

White House: Fraud ‘Extremely Rare’

In January, Biden spoke in Atlanta to promote congressional Democrats’ legislation to federalize elections and blasted a Georgia measure aimed at preventing voter fraud.

The president, referring to the contested 2020 election in which he defeated incumbent Donald Trump, criticized those who were “sowing doubt [and] inventing charges of fraud.”

During his State of the Union address in March, Biden again ripped Republicans’ state legislation to prevent voter fraud, saying: “In state after state, new laws have been passed, not only to suppress the vote, but to subvert entire elections. We cannot let this happen.”

In July 2021, during a speech in Philadelphia, Biden said the “denial of full and free and fair elections is the most un-American thing that any of us can imagine.”

In August 2021, senior Biden White House officials issued a report criticizing state proposals for election reforms and argued: “An often-cited reason for these bills and laws is voter fraud, yet voter fraud is extremely rare.”

Louisiana Vote-Buying Case

Last month, two former officials in Amite, Louisiana, pleaded guilty as federal prosecutors pursued their roles in a conspiracy to pay or offer to pay voters for casting ballots in a federal election.

Court documents said former Amite Police Chief Jerry Trabona, 72, and former Amite City Council member Kristian Hart, 49, paid voters in Tangipahoa Parish to vote in open primary and general elections in 2016 in which they were candidates, according to a Justice Department announcement.

Trabona and Hart admitted that they agreed to pay voters during the contests, prosecutors said. Because federal candidates appeared on the same ballot, the matter gained the stature of a federal case.

The former police chief and former council member are scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 1. They face up to five years in prison on each of the three counts.

“We must have fair elections, free from the taint of corruption, to ensure a fully functional government,” U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans, who oversees the Eastern District of Louisiana, said in a formal statement.

Former Congressman Pleads Guilty in Philadelphia

In Philadelphia, former Rep. Michael “Ozzie” Myers, 79, pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to deprive voters of civil rights, bribery, obstructing justice, falsifying voting records, and conspiring to illegally vote in a federal election.

“Voting is the cornerstone of our democracy. If even one vote has been illegally cast or if the integrity of just one election official is compromised, it diminishes faith in [the] process,” U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams announced.

“Votes are not things to be purchased and democracy is not for sale,” Williams said. “If you are a political consultant, election official, or work with the polling places in any way, I urge you to do your job honestly and faithfully.”

Myers, a Democrat, represented Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District for two terms in the late 1970s, but resigned in disgrace in 1980 as part of the broad “Abscam” bribery scandal.

Myers was convicted and sentenced to federal prison. After his release in 1985, he became a political consultant.

The former congressman admitted to coordinating plots to fraudulently stuff ballot boxes for specific Democratic candidates in Pennsylvania elections in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018.

Myers’ guilty plea came after several others in the conspiracy pleaded guilty last year. The investigation began in 2020 under the Trump administration’s Justice Department and continued during the Biden administration.

Myers admitted in court to bribing Domenick J. DeMuro, a judge of elections for the 39th Ward, 36th Division, in South Philadelphia. Judge of elections is a title held by some election workers in the city.

DeMuro pleaded guilty in May 2020. Myers admitted to bribing DeMuro to add votes illegally for certain Democrat candidates in primary elections.

Some of these candidates were running for judicial office and their campaigns had hired Myers. Others were his favored candidates for federal, state, or local offices.

Myers solicited “consulting fees” from his clients, then used portions of these funds to pay DeMuro and others to tamper with election results, prosecutors said.

The payments from Meyers ranged from $300 to $5,000 per election. According to the Justice Department, DeMuro added fraudulent votes on a voting machine, also known as “ringing up” votes, for Myers’ clients and preferred candidates,

Myers also admitted to conspiring to commit election fraud with Marie Beren, a former judge of elections for the 39th Ward, 2nd Division, in South Philadelphia.

Beren pleaded guilty in October 2021. Myers admitted to giving Beren directions to add votes to his preferred candidates. Myers said that, on almost every Election Day, he drove Beren to a polling station to open up. During the drive, he advised Beren which candidates he was supporting, so that she knew which ones should get fraudulent votes.

Beren also would advise in-person voters to support and cast fraudulent votes for Myers’ preferred candidates on behalf of voters whom she knew would not or did not show up to vote.

On a given Election Day, federal prosecutors said, Myers would talk to Beren by cell phone while she was at the polling station about the number of votes cast for his preferred candidates. She would report to Myers.

If voter turnout were high, Beren would add fewer fraudulent votes in support of Myers’ preferred candidates.

Prosecutors said that Beren and her accomplices from the Philadelphia Board of Elections would falsify polling books as well as the List of Voters and Party Enrollment for the 39th Ward, 2nd Division, by recording the names, party affiliation, and order of appearance for voters who actually had not showed up at the polling station to cast a ballot.

Arizona Surprises

In March, a federal judge sentenced Joseph John Marak, of Surprise, Arizona, to 30 months of supervised probation and fined him $2,400 for making a false voter registration application, a felony offense.

Already a convicted felon, Marak, 62, wasn’t eligible to vote in Arizona, but voted in six federal elections there, federal prosecutors said.

In January, Marak pleaded guilty to submitting a voter registration application and falsely certified the statement, “I am not a convicted felon.”

In August 2011, Marak was convicted of 18 felony counts in U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of North Carolina for crimes unrelated to voter fraud charges in Arizona. He was sentenced to 72 months in prison for the North Carolina felonies.

Based on the fraudulent registration, prosecutors said, Marak voted in elections from 2015 through 2020.

State laws differ on allowing convicted felons to vote.

“If you wish to vote in Arizona following a felony conviction, please speak first with your local County Recorder to fully understand the process for restoring your voting rights,” U.S. Attorney Gary Restaino, of the District of Arizona, said in a written statement.

Restaino noted that his office has prosecuted multiple voter fraud cases.

“This is the second voter fraud case we’ve charged in the last year, and the first arising out of the 2020 election cycle,” Restaino said.

In February, a federal judge sentenced Marcia Johnson, 70, of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, to one year of supervised probation and fined her $1,000. Johnson pleaded guilty to one count of voting more than once, a felony.

Iranian Election Meddling

In November, federal prosecutors in New York unsealed an indictment charging two Iranian nationals with involvement in a cyber-enabled campaign to intimidate American voters.

Seyyed Mohammad Hosein Musa Kazemi, 24, and Sajjad Kashian, 27, obtained confidential voter information from at least one New York state election office website, according to the Justice Department.

Federal prosecutors said the two Iranian nationals also sent threatening email messages to intimidate and interfere with voters; created and disseminated a video containing disinformation about purported vulnerabilities in election infrastructure; and attempted to access, without authorization, the voting-related websites of several states.

Prosecutors also alleged that Kazemi and Kashian successfully gained unauthorized access to a U.S. media company’s computer network. If not for successful FBI and company efforts to mitigate the threat, prosecutors said, the pair would have used the media outlet to promote false claims after the election.

“As alleged, Kazemi and Kashian were part of a coordinated conspiracy in which Iranian hackers sought to undermine faith and confidence in the U.S. presidential election,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, of the Southern District of New York, said in a formal statement, adding:

Working with others, Kazemi and Kashian accessed voter information from at least one state’s voter database, threatened U.S. voters via email, and even disseminated a fictitious video that purported to depict actors fabricating overseas ballots.

In September and October 2020, the Justice Department said, the two indicted Iranian nationals and other conspirators attempted to compromise 11 state election websites, including those providing voter registration and information services. The Iranians downloaded information on about 100,000 separate voters.

Claiming to be members of the right-wing militant group known as the Proud Boys, prosecutors said, members of the conspiracy sent false Facebook messages and emails to congressional Republicans and others associated with Trump’s 2020 campaign, as well as to journalists.

The two Iranians told Republicans that Democrats planned to “edit mail-in ballots or even register non-existent voters,” prosecutors said.

Noncitizen in North Carolina

In November, a federal grand jury in Raleigh charged a North Carolina man with passport fraud, voting as a noncitizen, and falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen in order to register to vote.

Federal prosecutors said that Garbant Piquant, 53, a resident of Garner, North Carolina, used a false Virginia birth certificate as proof that he was a native-born citizen.

Federal investigators checked records and determined that the Virginia birth certificate didn’t exist. Instead, they found Piquant’s birth certificate in the Bahamas.

Prosecutors said he voted in Wake County, North Carolina, primary and general elections from 2018 through 2020.

Trouble in Troy

In June, a city council member in Troy, New York, pleaded guilty to casting absentee ballots in two other people’s names. She resigned from the council as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.

Kimberly Ashe-McPherson successfully ran for reelection to the Troy City Council in 2021, first in the primary and then in the general election.

In her guilty plea, Ashe-McPherson, 61, admitted that in the primary election, she voted by absentee ballot in the name of another person.

In the general election, she admitted, she voted by absentee ballot in the names of two others.

The first subheadline of this report was corrected shorty after publication to reflect the words used in a White House publication.

Categories
Uncategorized

Hmm: Moderna Sues Pfizer and BioNTech Over Alleged Vaccine Patent Infringement

Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel gestures as he speaks during a session at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on May 23, 2022. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP) (Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)
By Zachary Stieber for Epoch Times   August 26, 2022

Moderna sued Pfizer and BioNTech on Aug. 26, alleging the companies infringed on its patents for technology utilized by COVID-19 vaccines.

Both the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are built on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. The problem is that they both use key features that Moderna scientists developed, including the same coronavirus protein encoding, according to the 39-page lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. court in Massachusetts.

“Despite recognizing the importance of patents to innovators such as Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech have copied Moderna’s intellectual property and have continued to use Moderna’s inventions without permission. Moderna therefore brings this lawsuit to protect the mRNA technology platform it innovated, invested in, and patented, and to ensure that intellectual property is respected,” the suit says.

Pfizer, based in New York, and BioNTech, a German company, did not respond to requests for comment.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said during a conference in 2020 that the company’s mRNA vaccine was using an antigen “which is, I think, the same like the [one] Moderna is using,” the suit notes.

Moderna, based in Massachusetts, says it is suing over patent infringement from March 8. The time before that is not contested, because of Moderna’s pledge that it would not assert its patents because of the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moderna is also not seeking damages for Pfizer sales where the U.S. government would be financially responsible, or for sales to 92 poor countries.

Moderna announced on March 7 that companies would have to start abiding by patent rules. The company said it would consider selling licenses if they were requested. But Pfizer and BioNTech have never reached out to request a license, according to the suit.

“We believe that Pfizer and BioNTech unlawfully copied Moderna’s inventions, and they have continued to use them without permission,” said Shannon Thyme Klinger, Moderna’s chief legal officer, in a statement.

Moderna also filed a patent infringement suit in a court in Germany.

“We are filing these lawsuits to protect the innovative mRNA technology platform that we pioneered, invested billions of dollars in creating, and patented during the decade preceding the COVID-19 pandemic,” Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement.

Moderna itself was sued for patent infringement earlier this year.

Two companies, Arbutus Biopharma and Genevant Sciences, said in one of the suits that Moderna infringed on a patent for technology utilized in the COVID-19 vaccine, while another company, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, accused both Moderna and Pfizer of violating a related patent.

Moderna is also embroiled in a battle with the National Institutes of Health, which says its scientists were wrongly left off of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine patent. The new suit does not concern that patent, Moderna said.

Categories
Uncategorized

Voter Fraud Cases Continue to Occur, Putting Fair and Free Elections in Jeopardy

How free is an election that uses software written in Wuhan, China?

By Katie Samalis-Aldrich / Hans von Spakovsky

The mounting number of voter fraud cases disprove the narrative that voter fraud isn’t real and election integrity measures aren’t needed. Pictured: A tongue-in-cheek modified version of the “I Voted” stickers given out on Election Day to those who vote. (Photo: BackyardProduction, iStock/Getty Images)

Absentee ballots are particularly susceptible to fraud.

 

We recently added nine new cases to the Heritage Election Fraud Database, bringing the total number of entries of proven instances of voter fraud in the database to 1,374. The mounting collection of cases continue to disprove the narrative that voter fraud is not real and that further election integrity measures are not needed.

The database does not purport to be comprehensive. Rather, it contains a sampling from across the country of proven cases, each one demonstrating how election fraud occurs. It shows the vulnerabilities within our current electoral system and provides measures state legislators can take to ensure integrity in every vote cast. To assist state legislatures in that task, Heritage has also produced its Election Integrity Scorecard.

Here is a summary of the recent entries:

In Louisiana, two public officials orchestrated a vote-buying scheme during the Tangipahoa Parish 2016 and 2020 open primary and general elections. Jerry Trabona, who served as Amite City chief of police from 2005-2020, and Kris Hart, an Amite City councilmember, solicited individuals to buy votes for them and other candidates they supported during both the 2016 primary and general elections in Tangipahoa Parish. Hart also solicited vote buyers during his reelection in the 2020 primary and general elections as well.

Hart and Trabona provided sample ballots with names and candidate numbers to vote buyers to ensure voters being paid were voting for Hart and Trabona as well as the other candidates they supported. Hart also employed vote buyers to identify individuals who had not yet voted, take them to the polls (and back home, if necessary), and then pay them for their vote.

In an effort to cover his tracks and conceal the scheme, Trabona had the vote buyers sign contracts stating they would not “make any overture of any kind to any voter or other person of financial award or benefit in exchange for a vote.”

To ensure their vote-buying scheme was getting a return on investment, Hart and Trabona made the vote buyers provide a list of the voters paid. The vote buyers would be paid up to $20 for each vote they had procured.

Trabona pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit vote buying. Hart pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit vote buying and three counts of vote buying and to aiding and abetting vote buying. They are both awaiting sentencing.

But they weren’t the only candidates for public office added to the database in this most recent batch.

In New Jersey, Frederick Gattuso, a former Carteret Republican mayoral candidate, was charged with one count of fraudulent voting for voting twice during the November 2020 presidential election as different people with similar names. Gattuso pleaded guilty to one count of tampering with public records and was sentenced to one year of probation.

As Heritage scholars have often said, no one disputes the need for absentee or mail-in ballots for people who cannot make it to their neighborhood polling places on Election Day because they are sick, physically disabled, or serving the country abroad, or because they cannot make it to the polls for some other legitimate reason. However, absentee ballots are particularly susceptible to fraud.

Some argue that such instances of fraud are rare and could never alter the results of an election.

Four cases in this most recent batch of entries involve fraud using an absentee ballot.

Muse Mohamed of Minneapolis, Minnesota, was charged with lying to a federal grand jury about trafficking absentee ballots during the 2020 primary election in Minneapolis for a state senate position. He requested and filled out absentee ballots on behalf of three individuals whom he did not know. His crime was first detected when one of the people Mohamed defrauded went and voted in person. Mohamed was convicted following a jury trial of two counts of making false statements to a grand jury. He will be sentenced later this year.

Melissa Fisher of Quakertown, Pennsylvania, submitted a mail-in ballot on behalf of her deceased mother during the 2020 election. She pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of violating absentee and mail-in ballot provisions and two unrelated theft charges and was sentenced to three to 23 months in prison and three years’ probation.

Elizabeth Gale of San Diego, California, was charged with four felony offenses after casting an absentee ballot on behalf of her deceased mother during the 2021 California gubernatorial recall election. After absentee ballots were sent to all registered Madera County voters, Gale filled out the ballot, forged her mother’s signature, and falsely swore as a witness to her mother signing the ballot. Gale pleaded nolo contendere (accepting the conviction without admitting guilt) to one felony count of fraudulently casting a vote. She was sentenced to two years’ probation.

In Colorado, Barry Morphew was charged with one count of forgery and a mail-in ballot offense after submitting an absentee ballot on behalf of his missing wife during the 2020 general election. He told the FBI he submitted the ballot because he “wanted Trump to win.” Although murder charges against him related to his wife’s disappearance were recently dropped, Morphew recently pled guilty to the forgery charge and was sentenced to one year of probation and fined $600.

Another way people defraud the system is by using commercial addresses as residential addresses when registering to vote, which shows them as registered in another state or voting district and allows them to vote for candidates they are not eligible to vote for or allows them to vote more than once.

Lawrence Klug used the address of a UPS Store in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, as his residential address to vote in a town in which he did not live during the 2020 general election. He was convicted of one misdemeanor charge of falsifying voter registration and fined $500.

Some argue, of course, that such instances of fraud are rare and could never alter the results of an election. There are cases in our database, though, that prove otherwise.

Take, for example, the case out of Texas where the results of an election for the board of directors of a road utility district were overturned because three individuals used a hotel address to register to vote, even though none of them were residents of the district.

And in another case out of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, Donald Holz, who was not eligible to vote after having been previously convicted of a felony DUI charge, voted in the 2020 general election. He served 10 days in jail and was fined $500.

Vulnerabilities to fair and free elections will continue, and perhaps even get worse, if states don’t prioritize efforts to secure the integrity of their elections. These cases demonstrate some of the myriad ways fraudsters can take advantage of vulnerabilities that occur within the electoral process. Since maintaining election integrity is an issue that affects all citizens, state legislatures should respond by taking reasonable steps to protect the votes of the American people.

As we say in the introduction to the Election Fraud Database:

Preventing, deterring, and prosecuting election fraud is essential to protecting the integrity of our voting process. 

Winning elections leads to political power and the incentives to take advantage of security vulnerabilities are great, so it is important that we take reasonable, common-sense steps to make it hard to cheat, while making it easy for legitimate voters to vote.

Americans deserve to have an electoral process that they can trust.

 

 

Categories
Biden Pandemic Child Abuse COVID How sick is this? Opinion Politics Progressive Racism

For the loons who claim that only White Conservatives didn’t get the jab. DC Mayor Says No Virtual Learning, Giving Unvaccinated Black Teens Zero Alternative Options

Washington, D.C., has a vaccine mandate requiring students aged 12 and older to be inoculated against COVID-19. Many black students will not meet that requirement. Pictured: D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser attends a news conference May 2, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Remember when Joe and Kamala said don’t get the jab cause it’s the Trump vaccine? But then they jumped the line and got theirs. Well the black folk listened and they still aren’t taking the jab. Especially the children. Well Mayor Bowser of DC has a surprise for you.

During a press conference, Bowser, a Democrat, admitted there are no alternative options, including virtual learning, for students who cannot attend school due to the District’s vaccine mandate, meaning unvaccinated children will effectively be left without an education.

Some interesting numbers from The Daily Signal. Over 40% of blacks ages 12-17 are not vaccinated, according to city data. Among black teens aged 16-17, 42% are unvaccinated.

Updated data from the government’s vaccine numbers website shows 47% of the black children in the district ages 12-15 had not completed their primary vaccination series necessary to go back to school in person.

 

Categories
Back Door Power Grab Corruption Leftist Virtue(!) Polls Privacy

Report Critical of Group Managing Voter Rolls in 33 States & DC

A voter fills out his ballot in Palos Hills, Illinois, on primary day June 28, 2022. (Cara Ding/The Epoch Times)
By Beth Brelje for Epoch Times Aug. 21, 2022 Updated: Aug. 23, 2022

Personal information of 56 million voters shared

Your voter registration shouldn’t be used by another person to cast a ballot.

When someone moves or dies, their name should be removed from the registered voters’ roll so it can’t be used to vote. The National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993 requires states to make a reasonable effort to remove ineligible people from voter rolls.

It’s usually handled at the county or state level, but today, 33 states and the District of Columbia, are outsourcing parts of this task to the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC).

According to a report by Verity Vote, ERIC, which claims that it’s nonpartisan, is actually connected to left-leaning backers and engages in a host of troubling practices that could sway elections across the nation.

Verity Vote is a group of citizen volunteers with professional data research and investigation backgrounds who examine election integrity throughout the country.

New Jersey and Massachusetts joined ERIC in August. The other ERIC member states are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, plus Washington, D.C.

In a July 13 letter, Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin gave notice that the state was officially dropping its ERIC membership. This followed a January statement in which Ardoin announced that Louisiana was suspending participation in the voter registration agreement “effective immediately,” citing concerns about questionable funding sources and the possibility of partisan actors having access to ERIC data for political purposes, potentially undermining voter confidence.

The Epoch Times has reached out to ERIC and a connected organization, the Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR), for comment. Neither of the nonprofit organizations responded.

Partisan Leanings

David Becker is CEIR’s director and founder. He also founded and is still a board member of ERIC. Becker didn’t respond to a request for comment.

According to its website, “CEIR’s mission is to restore trust in the American election system and promote election procedures that encourage participation and ensure election integrity and security.”

But CEIR leans to the left with its assertion dismissing the election integrity concerns of many Republicans over the 2020 election, saying: “The 2020 general election was the most secure in American history.”

It calls claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent “The Big Lie,” and the CEIR website states that the majority of the GOP and Trump supporters see conspiracies—some of which U.S. media outlets had previously raised concerns about—assume the worst about election integrity, and are pushing harmful, unnecessary new election laws.

Before forming ERIC and CEIR, Becker was a senior staff attorney at the left-leaning People for the American Way and director of election initiatives at Pew Charitable Trusts, according to Influence Watch.

In 2020, CEIR received nearly $70 million from the left-leaning Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and distributed $64 million in grants to fund “urgent voter education assistance” in 23 different states, with the largest amounts going to Pennsylvania ($13.2 million) and Michigan ($11.9 million).

On its tax-exempt 990 form, ERIC describes itself as working to improve the accuracy of U.S. voter rolls by providing member states with information on voter registration records that are inaccurate because of voters moving or dying. ERIC provides lists of possible ineligible voters, then states may contact them by mail to verify the information, then adjust the voter rolls.

Verity Vote found that states are slightly better at this than ERIC. While non-ERIC states removed an average of 2.3 percent from voter rolls, ERIC states removed an average of 1.9 percent.

Using the data that states provide, ERIC also runs a get-out-the-vote operation, giving lists of eligible but unregistered (EBU) residents to states a minimum of every 425 days. As per the ERIC agreement, states must contact every person on the list and inform them how to register to vote.

This results in a significant swelling of voter rolls. The report shows EBU additions consistently exceed suggested removals—by 10 times.

Sharing Private information

Member states give ERIC more than voter registration records. By agreement, they also hand over all records of individuals who went to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and other places where people are given a chance to register to vote.

In Pennsylvania, that includes state offices that provide public assistance or services to people with disabilities, armed forces recruitment centers, area agencies on aging, county mental health/mental retardation offices, centers for independent living, and the county clerk of court. It’s similar in other states.

In the right hands, personal information gleaned from these agencies could predict which political party a person may belong to.

Since voter registration is offered in these places, all personal information is shared with ERIC, even if the individual didn’t register to vote, Verity Vote found.

“This appears to violate federal law,” the report reads. “The NVRA prohibits states from sharing any records that relate to a declination to register to vote, or to the identity of a voter registration agency through which any particular voter is registered.”

ERIC’s website states that it has handled 56 million voters.

Although ERIC is required to protect personally identifiable information, the report documents how ERIC shares the data with CEIR.

“CEIR is creating the lists of voters who should be targeted for voter registration efforts and laundering the lists back through ERIC for distribution to the states,” the report reads.

In September 2021, Pennsylvania Republican lawmakers investigating the 2020 election subpoenaed the Department of State, requesting detailed voter lists including name, date of birth, driver’s license number, last four digits of Social Security number, address, and, date of last voting activity.

The Democratic governor, state lawmakers, and secretary of state went to court to block access, citing the protection of voters’ personal information.

In court papers, the Department of State stated that it couldn’t provide the information to investigators because “bad actors who gain access to this information would have all the data they need to control the voters’ registrations, and even their votes.”

Verity Vote noted in its report that the Department of State “was comfortable sharing data about voters and citizens who have chosen not to register to vote with Zuckerberg funded CEIR but went to court to keep that data from the Pennsylvania Senate.”

Targeted Communication

Imagine the power to text targeted voters on election day. CEIR is launching a free service for election officials called REVERE, aimed at combating disinformation in real time, according to the report.

It’s unclear who gets to define what constitutes disinformation.

In a communication from Becker to an official in Georgia, Becker describes REVERE’s power.

“REVERE will enable states to draw on phone numbers and email addresses contained in the voter file, and send texts, emails, and even voicemails to any set of voters (a particular precinct or county, older voters, etc.) rapidly. This will allow states to proactively communicate with voters about how to vote effectively (deadlines, early voting, etc.), send links to official websites (drop box and early voting locations), and rapidly respond to disinformation,” he wrote.

In its report, Verity Vote asks if it’s proper to entangle the private motivations of CEIR and ERIC with the governmental role to execute elections, placing the power to judge what’s disinformation—and whom to distribute it to—in the hands of this public/private partnership.