Just Putting this out there. Vaccines and Long COVID. Below are portions about the threat of Long COVID especially for the folks who are into getting the JAB. One of the links below also show how a popular drug for COVID has reverse results in some folks.
Paxlovid May Not Be Associated With Lower Long COVID Risk, Survey Suggests
One in five of treated with the agent reported rebound COVID symptoms, researchers found.
Nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (Paxlovid) did not reduce the odds of developing long COVID in vaccinated, non-hospitalized adults, survey data showed.
About 16% of those treated with nirmatrelvir-ritonavir during acute infection with SARS-CoV-2 self-reported long COVID symptoms that persisted for 3 months or longer after infection, compared with 14% of those who were not treated with the medication (P=0.310), noted Matthew Durstenfeld, MD, of Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, and colleagues in the Journal of Medical Virologyopens in a new tab or window.
The survey data also showed a high rate of rebound among participants who took nirmatrelvir-ritonavir. About 21% of participants who had symptomatic improvement with the agent went on to report rebound symptoms. Also, nearly 26% of patients who completed treatment and tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 reported a subsequent positive antigen test, indicating rebound.
While it might be amusing that the latest victim of a phony police call of a violent crime in progress was extreme-left Billionaire George $oro$ (who probably wasn’t even in the country at the time), “Swatting” is no joke.
George Soros’ posh Southampton estate was swatted over the weekend as the leftist billionaire became the latest high-profile victim of the 911 pranks.
Southampton police said they received the 911 call shortly before 9 p.m. Saturday, with the caller telling cops he had just shot his wife at the ritzy South Shore manse and was threatening to shoot himself — sending officers rushing to the scene.
The report turned out to be bogus, Southampton Police Detective Herman Lamison said Monday.
“Spoke to security, searched the premises. It was [a] negative problem,” one cop responding to the scene reported, according to a recording of police radio traffic obtained by The Post.
Lamison did not identify Soros as the owner of the home, but sources confirmed to The Post that it was indeed the 93-year-old billionaire’s Long Island estate on Old Town Road.
It is not clear if Soros or members of his family were home at the time of the incident.
The Southampton prank was just the latest incident of swatting — phony calls to police reporting crimes at a specific address — targeting high-profile individuals.
On Friday, police in Virginia responded to the home of George Washington University legal scholar Jonathan Turley after a bogus 911 call to Fairfax County police that someone had been shot at the address.
“Yes, I was swatted this evening,” Turley said in a statement. “It is regrettably a manifestation of our age or rage.”
On Christmas Day, police were dispatched to the home of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) following a fake 911 call from a man who said he shot his girlfriend there.
Four other Georgia lawmakers — Republican state Sens. John Albers, Kay Kirkpatrick and Clint Dixon, and Democrat Kim Jackson — were swatted the same day, according to reports.
Another victim of the Christmas Day pranks was upstate New York GOP Rep. Brandon Williams.
On Thursday, Georgia GOP Lt. Gov. Burt Jones was also swatted, with a bogus bomb threat called into police — one day after US Rep. Rick Scott (R-Fla) was the target of another call that sent police rushing to his Naples home.
Among the other recent swatting victims were Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, a Democrat, and US Rep. Kevin Miller, an Ohio Republican.
Soros has backed dozens of far-left prosecutor candidates across several cities as part of his efforts to overhaul the criminal justice system, including Larry Krasner in Philadelphia, Kim Foxx in Chicago, former DA Kim Gardner in St. Louis and others.
However, Soros’ work to overhaul the criminal justice system extends beyond prosecutors.
In what seems like an “uh-oh” realization that swatting call targets have been almost exclusively conservatives, there has been a sudden uptick in high-profile Democrats being targetted by these calls.
To long-time Disqus conservatives, this scenario sounds suspiciously like the infamous upvote theft bot of a couple of years ago that destroyed commenters’ ability to post on new sites because their ‘Disqus Rep” fell below the threshold of automatically going to pending — or marked as spam. When people started pointing out that all those losing their upvotes were conservatives, suddenly, a few token leftists were hit (and their vote counts were quietly restored soon after). Some conservative posters have had their upvotes restored, but only when an individual begged a Disqus staffer who was somewhat sympathetic to the user’s plight.
But while Disqus’s little dirty trick didn’t harm anyone in the real world, Swatting definitely could. And — sooner or later — it will.
In the interests of transparency, I have had this happen to me, and having a gun pointed at you for no good (ie, legal) reason is NOT conducive to a calm, well-thought-out analysis of the situation. Using one’s wife to hide the gun while standing out of the line of sight escalates an already bad situation.
Sooner or later, someone is going to get seriously injured or killed.
If it’s a conservative “MAGAt,” the story will be shrugged off. But if it happens to be a leftist, all hell will break loose, IMHO.
I loved the excitement surrounding women’s sports this year—particularly the NCAA women’s basketball tournament, topped by the Iowa-LSU championship (go Hawkeyes!). —Ashley L.
As a child of immigrant parents who also moved around a lot, I always felt that the little traditions and habits were what gave us control of otherwise changing and often hectic circumstances. —Mitchell K.
It’s inspiring to witness that age has no barrier; it’s about seizing every moment to pursue the passions that ignite your joy in this lifetime. —August M.
A captivating narrative about friendship and adventure with the legendary musician that prompts you to reflect on how you’re living your own life and how you show up in this world. —Sony K.
The world mourned the deaths of many iconic cultural, political, and sports figures in 2023. Among the most impactful for me were Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Matthew Perry, Harry Belafonte, and Tina Turner. —Bobby A.
I was impressed by the shift in public opinion toward UFOs (now called unidentified anomalous phenomena) this year, as leaders in government and science sought to take whatever they are more seriously. —Teddy B.
As an avid football fan, finding out that flag football was approved to be an official Olympic sport gave me a thrill. It would be great to see familiar NFL stars competing on the world stage to represent the US, but I would also love to see the enthusiasm for the sport brought by other countries. —Scott J.
As a mother of a child with a rare disease, it really hits home to hear inspiring stories of children defying the odds and living their best lives. —Kellie S.
I got married this year and, in the past, worked for a wedding magazine, so these photos had me feeling nostalgic. They were the perfect treat to scroll through, bringing me back to an incredibly joyous day. —Amanda B.
As someone who is always looking to continue learning about the functions of the body, I am always looking to read about how medical science continues to evolve and help people. —Jessica L.
The life of Erich Weisz—professionally known as Harry Houdini—is fascinating to me. An icon surrounded by so many feats and myths ultimately succumbed to the common condition of appendicitis (and it may have been caused by a punch to the abdomen). —Lizzie M.
This breakthrough brings so much hope to thousands of people living with the pain of sickle cell and the knowledge their life expectancy is significantly lower. It’s inspiring to see the promise of CRISPR being realized and, for the first time, accessible to people who can benefit from it. —Aaron E-L
I thought this trailer was so impressive, but even more so that his skills were recognized, and he was hired by the filmmakers. —Sam B. Justice for Neanderthals I loved this protective view of our hominin brethren, who are often stereotyped as knuckle-dragging dumb dumbs. They were people, they were artists, they were way more similar to us. —Alissa S.
Dr. Robert Waldinger’s study on lifelong happiness—which followed thousands of humans over 85 years—found the people who were happiest, who stayed healthiest as they grew old, and who lived the longest were the people who had the warmest connections with other people. Good relationships were the strongest predictor of who was going to be happy and healthy as they grew old. —Tim H.
The rise of Ozempic and other GLP-1 agonists The downstream effects of the explosion of these antiobesity drugs will be fascinating to watch unfold. Obesity-related ailments account for around $200B in annual healthcare spending in the US, an industry that accounts for 17% of GDP. These drugs have the potential to not only improve the quality of life for millions but drive a paradigm shift in the economy. —Drew S.
Ruth Underwood and Andy Weller met when they both boarded the same Greyhound bus on Christmas Day 1962. They exchanged addresses, beginning a love story that's spanned 60 years and counting.
Graphic by Leah Abucayan/CNN/Photos courtesy R Weller
Ruth Underwood woke up with a start, and realized – to her horror – that she’d fallen asleep on a stranger’s shoulder.
It was the evening of Christmas Day, 1962. Ruth was traveling via Greyhound bus from her parents’ house in Olympia, Washington to her home in Seattle, Washington.
She’d spent a fun, festive day with her family. But Ruth was working December 26, and needed to get back in time. She was 18, it was her first job, and she didn’t want to risk being late.
“So I took the Greyhound bus and I got on, and I sat down in the first seat that was available, which was next to this good-looking young man,” Ruth tells CNN Travel today.
“I promptly went to sleep and I woke up with my head on his shoulder.”
Still slightly bleary-eyed, Ruth blushed when she realized what had happened. She apologized to the stranger next to her, straightened her blouse and tried to regain some composure.
“Oh my goodness, I’m sorry,” she said.
But the man waved her apologies away, smiled and introduced himself.
This was 21-year-old Andy Weller. He’d been on the bus since Astoria, Oregon, and was heading to the military base at Fort Lewis, Washington, where he was stationed.
Andy had noticed Ruth as soon as she’d boarded the bus.
“I looked at her because I saw her beautiful red hair,” he tells CNN Travel today.
And he’d noticed when she’d fallen asleep on his shoulder. Andy hadn’t known what to do about it. Should he wake her? Was that rude? What if she missed her stop?
When the Greyhound reached Nisqually Hill on Interstate 5, not too far from Fort Lewis, Andy gently nudged Ruth.
“It took me a long time to even get up the gumption because I was shy,” he recalls. “I finally got enough nerve to say, at least, ‘Hi.’”
Over the next 20 minutes, as the bus traveled along Washington’s tree-lined highways, Andy and Ruth made conversation.
“We began to talk to one another,” says Ruth. “It was pretty frivolous. You know, ‘What is your name? And how are you doing? And where are you going?’ And just discovering that we were both headed back to our workplaces.”
There wasn’t enough time to go much beyond these introductions. But both Ruth and Andy enjoyed the conversation and each other’s company.
Then, the bus pulled up at Fort Lewis.
“This is me,” said Andy. He grabbed his bag and was about to get off, but then he paused.
“Shall we exchange addresses?” he suggested. Ruth readily agreed.
“So, as the bus stopped at Fort Lewis, I was giving him my address,” she recalls today. “The bus driver was a little annoyed. He says ‘I’ve got a schedule to keep up.’”
The two strangers parted ways, both hoping it wouldn’t be the last time they met.
Letters and uncertainties
Andy was a romantic. When he wrote to Ruth for the first time, he was already wondering if she might be “the one.”
But then he learned, via Ruth’s reply, that she was engaged to someone else – a man she’d known since childhood.
“He was in the Air Force. I hadn’t seen him or been around him for almost a year,” explains Ruth.
When Ruth met Andy, she still had every intention of marrying her childhood sweetheart. But she also had no qualms about giving Andy her address. There hadn’t been anything specifically romantic about their bus interactions, after all.
“He had asked for my address, and I thought, ‘Well, there was no harm in writing back and forth to someone,” says Ruth.
But Andy was less sure about the situation.
“I didn’t know where I fit in,” says Andy today. “I wrote her off.”
But then, out of the blue, Ruth’s fiancé ended the engagement.
“He broke up with me – which ended up being a very good thing,” she says.
Her ex-fiancé, it turned out, had met someone else.
Ruth was more shocked than upset. She remembers walking into the living room of her Seattle apartment and sharing the news with her roommate. Her friend’s response was pragmatic.
“She said, ‘You’re not going to just sit here in the apartment and do nothing, and be grumpy and gloomy,’” recalls Ruth.
The roommate suggested Ruth could go out with some of the men they knew in Seattle. Then Ruth’s friend remembered the man from the bus – Ruth should write to Andy and tell him she was single, Ruth’s roommate insisted.
“She said, ‘If you don’t pick up a pen and write to this fellow that you got that letter from, I’m going to have these others guys come and take you out every night.’” recalls Ruth.
“Well, I wasn’t a going-out person. Every night, that didn’t suit me. So, I wrote the letter.”
“So she did,” says Andy. “And so we got together.”
“We corresponded for quite a while,” says Ruth. “We always looked forward to the letters.”
Read these next
She ended her relationship and moved in with a man she knew for just 3 weeks
They met while hiking and fell in love. Then she was diagnosed with cancer
He met then lost the love of his life. He had a genius idea to find her
They had a teenage summer romance. What happened when they reunited years later
In letters sent back and forth, Ruth and Andy grew closer.
“We shared the things we enjoyed doing and shared the goals we were trying to achieve,” says Ruth.
A few weeks into their correspondence, Ruth told Andy she was thinking of moving back to Olympia, Washington, where her parents lived.
Andy suggested he could help Ruth move – it would be an opportunity to see her again, and see if their epistolary connection translated to real life.
“I went over there,” says Andy. “I knocked on the door, she opened it. The rest is history.”
Their chemistry was apparent right away. Almost immediately, Andy asked Ruth what she was going to be doing on August 22.
“How should I know?” said Ruth. “Why?”
“Well, I thought we could get married that day,” said Andy.
“No way,” said Ruth, laughing.
But as they boarded another Greyhound bus together – this time traveling from Seattle to Olympia – Ruth felt more and more sure that she wanted Andy to be part of her life.
This certainty was only confirmed when “almost halfway between Seattle and Olympia, Andy began singing to me,” says Ruth.
“He sang to me most of the way back and serenaded me.”
From then on, Andy would come to visit Ruth in Olympia whenever he could. And whenever they were apart, Andy and Ruth continued their letter-writing correspondence.
“We saw each other every weekend, so much of our letter-writing consisted of what we did during the week, and how we were missing each other,” recalls Ruth.
On weekends, Andy would borrow an army buddy’s car, pick Ruth up and they’d head to Squaxin Park on the city’s waterfront.
“We’d hold hands and walk together and talk together,” says Andy.
“I just got to know him,” says Ruth. “And I liked what I saw.”
They fell in love on a Greyhound Bus 35 years ago. They’ve been together ever since
An unorthodox proposal
Here’s Ruth and Andy, pictured in 1963.
R Weller
On July 4, 1963, Ruth and Andy were spending the holiday together when Ruth suddenly handed Andy a thick white envelope.
It was a wedding invite. Andy stared at Ruth in shock.
“I was wondering if she was marrying the other guy,” he says, referring to Ruth’s ex-fiancé.
“I started reading it. And of course, I was kind of distraught at the moment – until I got down to the part that said that she was marrying me.”
Ruth had the idea when she was alone one day, during the week, thinking about Andy and the idea of a future with him. He’d mentioned marriage again a few times.
“I got to thinking, ‘I really do love this man.’ And so I went to the printers and I had wedding invitations printed up,” recalls Ruth.
Ruth had no idea about the wedding venue or really any of the details. But she knew when it would take place. There was no question about it – August 22, the date Andy had suggested on their second meeting.
When she handed him the invite, Andy was overwhelmed, then delighted. He hugged Ruth tightly.
And a couple of months later, on August 22, 1963, Andy and Ruth got married in Olympia, Washington, at the church Ruth attended as a child. Ruth took Andy’s name, becoming Ruth Weller.
The couple extended the wedding invite to all the local churchgoers. They expected about 100 guests, but in the end numbers were closer to 200 – all the people who’d watched Ruth grow up wanted to be there to toast her and Andy.
Thanks to the ballooning numbers, on the day, Ruth realized they didn’t have enough wedding cake for all their attendees. They had to scramble to find more.
“We had all kinds of different kinds of cakes,” recalls Ruth.. It worked out, and was a special celebration.
Ruth and Andy were excited to begin married life together. But they were both very young, and their first few years together were a learning curve.
“Neither one of us had really dated a whole lot – like I said, I was engaged to another young man, but I had not dated many other young men,” says Ruth. “And so we basically did grow up together during that time.”
The couple were also both busy with their jobs. Ruth worked for the state of Washington, Andy left the army and also started working for Washington state, in the licensing department.
The couple realized that they have, as Ruth puts it, “very different personalities.” But they had a similar way of looking at the world and felt like a team from the beginning. It was “magic”, says Ruth.
That first Christmas, the anniversary of their meeting, the couple celebrated by going to the 88 cent store together, to do their Christmas shopping.
“We were just married and things were tight,” says Andy.
They giggled as they walked around the store, buying small gifts for their loved ones. It was their first time giving gifts as a couple, and felt special.
Then, they got together with their family.
“We always had a close family and just had lots of fun and fellowship with one another,” says Ruth. “My parents loved Andy.”
In time, Ruth and Andy had three children. They moved from Olympia, Washington to Yakima, Washington.
They loved being parents.
“Andy’s a wonderful person. He’s attentive. He’s always been there for us, his family, in every way,” says Ruth.
“She was always there with the children, guiding them, directing them,” says Andy.
“But has it always been easy? No,” says Ruth.
Ruth and Andy’s daughter Joanne was born with Maffuci syndrome, a rare bone disorder, and needed a lot of extra care when she was young.
“She grew up to be a very brilliant young woman. She was a 911 dispatcher for several years. She gave us a lovely grandson,” says Ruth.
Joanne sadly passed away a few years ago.
“We’ve been through things like that – that a lot of other people don’t have to face and don’t have to figure out how to get through,” says Ruth. “It is true that I believe that it’s made us stronger in one another.”
Over their decades together, Ruth and Andy have supported one another through the hard times and cheered each other on during the good.
The key, says Ruth, is “when you find the one that’s the right one, hang on tight.”
“Yes, you have to go through hard times,” she says. “But remember, you go through good times, too. And those are the ones that you hold on to and that you keep close to you. And you remember. Those are the things that keep you going.”
Feeling thankful
Here’s a recent photo of Ruth and Andy, who’ve been married for over 60 years.
R Weller
Over the decades, Ruth and Andy began to associate their love story with one particular song, “I Say a Little Prayer,” first recorded by Dionne Warwick in 1967, and later released by Aretha Franklin the following year.
Andy would often sing the lyrics to Ruth. The song still resonates with them both today, as they regularly give thanks for one another’s presence in their lives.
“It is a little unusual to meet someone on a Greyhound bus that you’ve never met before and make a connection,” says Ruth. “Actually it’s a miracle that would happen, even – two total strangers come together and end up being married to one another. And being married for as long as we have.”
This past August, Ruth, who is now 79, and Andy, who is 82, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.
Their wedding anniversary is an important day to them both – but so is Christmas Day.
“Every Christmas Day we reminisce,” says Ruth. “We look across the table and know what the other’s thinking.”
This Christmas, the couple will celebrate the day with their loved ones by their side. Ruth and Andy remain close to their family, which now numbers four grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
“I love being alive and seeing all our grandchildren growing up and their families, and their great-grandchildren,” says Andy.
“It’s absolutely wonderful,” says Ruth. “Their hugs are just so important to us, especially at this age.
“We are looking forward to being together this Christmas, 61 years after we first met,” she continues. “I’m sure we will reminisce, laugh, joke, and be teased about our chance meeting those 61 years ago on Christmas Day, 1962.”
A Texas teen managed to safely steer her car off the road and save her passengers’ lives after being fatally shot in a road rage incident.
Louise Jean Wilson, 17, along with her boyfriend and a friend, were driving through Houston on Dec. 10 when the incident occurred, the New York Post reported.
According to police, Wilson unintentionally swerved in front of a four-door sedan to avoid getting into an accident on Interstate 45.
“The vehicle that they had cut off accelerated and overtook her on her driver’s side,” Det. Caleb Bowling said during a news conference. That was when the driver of the sedan opened fire.
Wilson pulled her vehicle off to the side of the freeway before succumbing to her injuries. She died at the scene.
“Louise’s last act was to safely pull over, most likely saving the lives of the two [passengers],” Bowling said. “It was a heroic act for her to be able to get that car to the side and stopped with the injuries that she sustained.”
A 17-year-old male passenger was hospitalized with a gunshot wound and released. A second male passenger was not injured.
“Our daughter was just trying to go to the beach to watch the sunrise with her boyfriend on her day off before she had to go back to work again,” said Wilson’s father, Daniel Wilson.
“She ended up dying a hero. She was shot through her heart, and she was still able to safely pull over the car and save people in her car and other people who were driving. She wanted to help people, and she helped them.”
Daniel Wilson also addressed his daughter’s killer.
“Just think about … what you took from this world and what she could have done,” he said. “Lay that on your conscience, whoever did this. Just know you gave an angel, but you took our baby girl.”
“Louise was a great girl, a wonderful soul, a great daughter, granddaughter and sister, and to have her life senselessly taken by a dirtbag — this should not have happened,” Wilson’s uncle, Leo Amoling, told KTRK-TV.
“I know it’s not just happening to us. There is a real crime issue in this country. We just want justice.”
The suspect, described as a black male in his mid-20s, is still at large, according to the Post.
According to Wilson’s obituary, she graduated high school a year early and was “just a few classes shy” of obtaining an associate’s degree. She hoped to work in law enforcement.
“Louise was a caring and gentle soul with a lovely personality that could light up a room,” the obituary said.
“Her life had far reaching impacts that only now we are able to comprehend. She is forever in our hearts and memories. We know she is up there with God singing and dancing in the perfect, peaceful landscape of heaven.”
Dr. Maha Almasri was fired from her position as a math tutor for her posts supporting Palestinians. - CNN
Story by By Alaa Elassar, CNN (Arab/Muslim, per CNN)
The Council on American-Islamic Relations has requested the US Department of Education investigate the expulsion of a Palestinian American high school student over pro-Palestinian content his mother posted on social media.
Jad Abuhamda, 15, was expelled on November 19 from the Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. His mother, Dr. Maha Almasri, was fired from her position as a math tutor at the school after she made posts criticizing Israel’s “collective brutality” against Palestinian civilians and children in Gaza during the ongoing war, CAIR said in a Wednesday news release.
The private school issued a statement saying they considered Almasri’s social media posts to be “hateful and incendiary,” which Almasri has denied. “We viewed some of this individual’s posts — including, for example, an image of a soldier pointing a machine gun at an infant inside of an incubator and an image with commentary suggesting that some wanted to roast babies in an oven — as having the possibility of inciting hatred and creating a climate of fear,” Pine Crest School said. “Her behavior was also such that the School believed it could increase the risk of violence in our community and compromise the safety of our students, employees, and families.”
Almasri told CNN her posts were taken out of context and her son has been subjected to wrongful treatment.
CAIR Florida managing attorney Omar Saleh said during a Thursday news conference they have not received a response from the school to their letters requesting more information on why Jad was expelled. The school responded to CNN’s request for comment with a link to its news release.
“For these reasons, the Student Handbook and enrollment agreement make clear that if a parent engages in behavior that is ‘disruptive, intimidating, or overly aggressive’ or ‘interferes … with the School’s … safety procedures, responsibilities, or the accomplishment of its educational purpose or program,’ the School may take the action that it deems necessary to address the situation,” the school statement said.
CNN has independently viewed the social media posts, which discussed the mounting death toll of children in Gaza, the number of explosives dropped on Gaza, and the history of Palestinians who were “violently expelled from Palestine in 1948 to form the state of Israel.”
One of the photos the school alluded to is a cartoon graphic depicting an Israeli soldier pointing a gun at a baby in an incubator, a metaphorical reference to the premature babies at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, whose incubators stopped working when Israeli airstrikes cut off the generator powering the incubators. At least three of the babies died, according to previous CNN reporting.
Almasri says her posts were referring to the mounting humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where in response to Hamas’ October 7 attack that killed 1,200 people, Israel has launched a siege and war that has killed more than 18,700 Palestinians, 70% of whom are women and children, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza.
“None of my posts were inciting violence, they were merely shedding light on what was happening, the humanitarian crisis that was happening in Gaza,” Almasri said during a CAIR news conference Thursday. “It didn’t call for hate or violence or any of that. I feel that, again, criticizing a government or a set of people should not lead to any retaliation against that person who’s trying to express that and also take it upon themselves to also punish her child.”
Saleh said the group’s call for an investigation is about the expulsion of Jad, who Saleh says did not say or do anything to warrant the expulsion, as well as what CAIR described as inaccurate accusations regarding Almasri’s social media posts.
Jad, who is in 10th grade, has been unable to attend classes since November 19. The expulsion has interrupted his studies and college preparation, his mother told CNN, adding they now have to find a new school.
“He gets very depressed and withdrawn. He doesn’t know what to do with all this time,” Almasri told CNN. “He misses his friends a lot, he misses the school corridors, he misses everything. He’s trying to be strong, but he feels betrayed. At the end of the day, this is about expelling Jad for nothing he did.”
‘It’s almost like a weight lifted off my chest’ Jad, who was born and raised in Florida and grew up at the school, said he had always hidden his Palestinian identity until he was expelled as a result of his mother’s social media posts.
“Most people at Pine Crest had no idea that I was Palestinian, because I never felt safe to say that I was Palestinian at Pine Crest School,” Jad said. “Now that it’s out, it’s almost like a weight lifted off my chest … Now I feel that I can finally come out as who I am, which is a Palestinian kid who was wrongfully expelled by Pine Crest School.”
“Pine Crest School was my home, is a place where I was very comfortable, since 1st grade, since I was six years old,” Jad said during the news conference as he stood next to his mother.
“The friends I made there became family, even the people who I am not as close with there are still my community. They are the people I’ve seen every day of my life for the past 10 years. To have that taken away from me, for no reason at all, is heartbreaking,” he added. “I didn’t do anything at all.”
A petition started by an anonymous person calling for the school to reinstate Jad garnered more than 31,000 signatures in over two weeks and the family has received “overwhelming” support from community members, Almasri said.
“Think about the other Jads in that school and around,” said Abdullah Jaber, executive director of CAIR-Florida. “Our main concern is suppressing the right of Americans to express what they feel within their heart is to be decent human rights.”
The treatment of pro-Palestinians who speak up, Saleh said, is dangerously “one-sided” and the same discipline is not applied to those who post or make pro-Israeli commentary.
Both CAIR representatives and Almasri denied accusations her social media content condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza incited hatred or violence and instead advocated for the rights of Palestinians.
CAIR has recorded more than 2,171 requests for help and reports of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bias in the nine weeks since October 7, including students and faculty being targeted for supporting Palestinian rights.
In Maryland, the advocacy group filed a discrimination complaint on behalf of a Black Muslim, Arab American teacher who was placed on administrative leave for her email signature, which included “from the river to the sea,” a controversial phrase supporting Palestinian rights.
By requesting a DOE investigation into Jad’s expulsion and the accusations made against Almasri based on her posts, CAIR said it hopes to protect other Arabs, Muslims, and pro-Palestinian people from receiving unfair punishment for condemning Israel’s actions.
CNN has reached out to the Department of Education for comment on the request.
“We have to get real. Speech because it’s sympathetic to Palestinians or because it’s critical to Israeli military or because it evokes a sense of conscience for humanity, it doesn’t make it antisemitic, it doesn’t make it anti-Jewish, it’s not disruptive and it’s not inciteful,” Saleh said. “You can wish peace to Israel and say free Palestine at the same time.”
REBUTTAL:
Screenshot from footage taken in Gaza NICU showing a stashed gun hidden in an incubator.
Hospital workers admit: Weapons hidden in NICU incubators intended to treat premature babies.
It would seem that that “paragon” of Journalism (insert LMAO meme here), CNN, is on the same side as this woman. This isn’t surprising; after all, the reporter is also a Muslim. An Egyptian -Palestinian, to be exact.
I couldn’t find the actual cartoons — for some strange reason, nobody has reposted them. Yet, there are at least four major listings for this story.
And isn’t it strange how this arrogant woman thought she could get away with posting libelous cartoons in a conservative state with a large Jewish population? And isn’t it also strange that the boy was “afraid to admit he was Palestinian?
I also have to question the claim: “A petition started by an anonymous person calling for the school to reinstate Jad garnered more than 31,000 signatures in over two weeks…” I would love to know how many of the IP addresses associated with these “signatures” come from outside Florida and how many of them come from OUTSIDE the USA.
Israel has launched a siege and war that has killed more than 18,700 Palestinians, 70% of whom are women and children, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza.
After it’s been shown that Hamas has been using hospitals as “Human Shields” for C & C centers and weapons storage, why would anyone with more than two brain cells believe anything they post?
Iranian protesters burn an Israeli flag during an anti-Israel rally at Enqelab-e Eslami (Islamic Revolution) Square. (Sobhan Farajvan via Getty Images)
Headlines making the news. Today we have a very long list of what’s happened and is happening around the world. See if any of the topics peaks your interest, and feel free to comment.
North Carolina is suing HCA Healthcareopens in a new tab or window, alleging that it breached terms of the takeover agreement with Mission Health and has “degraded” care at the former nonprofit. (STAT)
Emergency contraception useopens in a new tab or window among American women more than doubled since the morning-after pill was approved to be sold without a prescription (from 10.8% in 2006-2010 to 26.6% in 2015-2019), according to CDC data.
(Left) Special counsel Jack Smith in Washington on Aug. 1, 2023. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) / (Right) Former U.S. President Donald Trump. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
(Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Pool via Getty Images)
Reported by THE EPOCH TIMES
The special counsel’s office is preempting former President Donald Trump’s appeal of his case to the U.S. Supreme Court by petitioning the high court for a writ certiorari before judgment—an immediate ruling—of whether the former president can rely on his presidential immunity defense.
Special counsel Jack Smith has charged President Trump on four counts regarding his actions to challenge the 2020 election results; President Trump has filed four motions to dismiss the case. Several were rejected by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, and the defense has since appealed the motion to dismiss based on presidential immunity to a federal appeals court.
The prosecutors are asking the Supreme Court “whether a former President is absolutely immune from federal prosecution for crimes committed while in office or is constitutionally protected from federal prosecution when he has been impeached but not convicted before the criminal proceedings begin.”
President Trump had asked the district court to pause proceedings pending appeal, noting that he would seek that pause from the appeals court if the district court didn’t grant it. If granted in either court, the legal strategy would certainly throw off the trial schedule.
Prosecutors are now asking the Supreme Court to issue judgment before the appeals court makes a decision.
“This case presents a fundamental question at the heart of our democracy,” the special counsel’s team argued in the new filing. “The district court rejected respondent’s claims, correctly recognizing that former Presidents are not above the law and are accountable for their violations of federal criminal law while in office.”
They argue that President Trump’s legal strategy in the appellate court now jeopardizes the March 4, 2024, trial date.
“It is of imperative public importance that respondent’s claims of immunity be resolved by this Court and that respondent’s trial proceed as promptly as possible if his claim of immunity is rejected,” the prosecutors argued.
They claimed that President Trump is “profoundly mistaken” on the law and only the Supreme Court can “definitively resolve” the issues at hand. The court’s granting the writ of certiorari before judgment would “provide the expeditious resolution that this case warrants.”
he former president issued a statement describing the move as a “Hail Mary” on the prosecutor’s part, “by racing to the Supreme Court and attempting to bypass the appellate process.”
He also noted Mr. Smith’s poor record at the high court, which he stated “has not been kind to him, including by handing down a rare unanimous rebuke when the Court overturned him 8-0 in the McDonnell case,” in which Mr. Smith prosecuted former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell.
President Trump reiterated his belief that the prosecution is politically motivated.
“There is absolutely no reason to rush this sham to trial except to injure President Trump and tens of millions of his supporters. President Trump will continue to fight for Justice and oppose these authoritarian tactics,” he stated.
Trial Date
The trial on March 4, one day before Super Tuesday Republican primary elections in more than a dozen states, would be the first of the four criminal cases against President Trump.
The 45th president, who has pleaded not guilty to 91 criminal counts, was also facing a May trial date in a federal criminal case in the Southern District of Florida, which is almost certainly going to be postponed as the judge is set to revisit the trial schedule in January.
In Georgia, prosecutors have pushed for an August 2024 trial start, which President Trump’s attorney has argued falls too close to the general election, likely putting jurors in the position of voting for or against him while they attempt to try the case objectively.
President Trump is also facing criminal charges in Manhattan; prosecutors originally set a March 2024 trial date, but the court is set to postpone the case around the schedules of these other criminal cases.
On top of that, President Trump faces several civil lawsuits, one with trial ongoing in New York and another two set to go to trial in mid-January.
Presidential Immunity?
On Dec. 1, a federal appeals court ruled that presidential immunity doesn’t shield President Trump from lawsuits regarding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach and noted that the court wouldn’t be the final authority on the issue.
In November 2022, Mr. Smith was appointed special counsel on issues related to the Capitol breach, just days after President Trump announced his candidacy. This summer, he unsealed the indictment against President Trump alleging criminal conspiracy in his actions to challenge the 2020 results, tying much of the case to Jan. 6, 2021.
U.S. Circuit Judge Sri Srinivasan ruled that President Trump was acting as candidate Trump in much of what he is being sued for and that his actions weren’t official acts of a president.
“When a sitting president running for re-election speaks in a campaign ad or in accepting his political party’s nomination at the party convention, he typically speaks on matters of public concern. Yet he does so in an unofficial, private capacity as office-seeker, not an official capacity as office-holder. And actions taken in an unofficial capacity cannot qualify for official-act immunity,” he wrote, rejecting an appeal filed by President Trump, who is also facing civil lawsuits related to Jan. 6, 2021.
The judge added that the rejection of presidential immunity in this case assumes truth in the plaintiffs’ allegations against him, which will need to play out in district court.
“When these cases move forward in the district court, [President Trump] must be afforded the opportunity to develop his own facts on the immunity question if he desires to show that he took the actions alleged in the complaints in his official capacity as President rather than in his unofficial capacity as a candidate,” he wrote. “At the appropriate time, he can move for summary judgment on his claim of official-act immunity.”
The special counsel’s office argues that President Trump sought to “overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by using knowingly false claims of election fraud” and that he conspired with several people outside of office to do so.
They rebutted President Trump’s presidential immunity defense by arguing that a former president doesn’t have the same immunity and that if he did, it “would be narrower than the ‘outer perimeter’ standard” afforded a sitting president.
The defense argued that President Trump has a history of taking allegations of election fraud seriously, pointing to several investigations he approved while in office, and argued that the speech about election fraud during the end of his term fell squarely within the duties of a president. The special counsel frames the situation quite differently, arguing that President Trump was aware of having legitimately lost the election when he made allegedly false claims about election fraud and “stolen” votes.
In the petition to the Supreme Court, they are also arguing that President Trump has been impeached on similar issues and that the immunity argument is “undercut” by the impeachment clause.
The special counsel has argued, and the district court affirmed, that to grant President Trump presidential immunity here would be to put him “above the law.”
If the Supreme Court agrees to issue judgment before the appeals court rules, it may throw off President Trump’s plans to stall the case past the general election.
*Ohio has reported 142 cases in one county alone. Massachusetts hasn’t quantified them officially, but one doctor reported it as “a whole lot” of cases.
Experts say a mixture of several seasonal bacterial and viral bugs are hitting at once, putting pressure on hospitals.
A mystery outbreak of pneumonia has hit several parts of China, and now Ohio is the first American location to report an outbreak of the illness, with an ‘extremely high’ number of children being hospitalized.
The strain of pneumonia, now dubbed ‘white lung syndrome,’ has spawned 142 pediatric cases in Warren County since August.
Warren County Health Department said that not only is the number of cases above average, but it also meets the Ohio Department of Health’s definition of an outbreak.
This highlights the two locations where rises in pneumonia cases in children have been reported in the US so far. They are Warren County, Ohio, and East Longmeadow, in Massachusetts
Meanwhile, in western Massachusetts, physicians are seeing ‘a whole lot’ of walking pneumonia, a milder form of the lung condition, which is caused by a mixture of bacterial and viral infections.
Neither outbreak is being caused by a novel pathogen and not all of the pneumonia cases are being caused by the same infection. Experts say a mixture of several seasonal bacterial and viral bugs are hitting at once, putting pressure on hospitals.
SIDE NOTE: A recent ruling by a New York state appeals court effectively upheld the right of state officials to arbitrarily seize and detain pretty much any person they deem necessary.
And, of course, it’s in the name of public safety.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that nationally, cases are not out of the ordinary, but the spread of cases has raised fears that an outbreak can overwhelm American hospitals.
Dr Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, said: ‘I would caution against extrapolating one Ohio county to a country of 330million people.’
But he would not be entirely surprised if ‘some places in the US are above baseline’ this year, as it appears several bacterial and viral infections are rebounding post-Covid.
Officials in Ohio say that an investigation is ‘ongoing,’ but the illness does not look like a new disease, but rather several common infections hitting all at once.
Does anyone else find this suspicious? — TPR
According to the news outlet, so far, patients have tested positive for mycoplasma pneumonia, a bacterial lung infection that is mostly resistant to antibiotics, strep, and normally benign infection, adenovirus.
The ages of the patients range from 8 to 3, and there are several theories as to why children are more susceptible to the illness. Some suggest it is caused by lockdowns that have weakened the immune system or mask-wearing and school closures leaving children vulnerable during seasonal illnesses.
It is reported that bacterial respiratory infections usually flare up every few years, normally as people recover from waves of flu or other viral illnesses.
The Warren County Health District officials said that they believe the pneumonia cases are a large uptick of cases normally seen at one time rather than a new respiratory disease.
Officials also want to remind the public to take necessary precautions to protect their health, as many of us will be gathering with friends and family during the holiday season.
Doctors say the most common symptoms are fever, cough, and fatigue. Hand washing, covering your mouth when you cough, and staying up-to-date on vaccines will help decrease your chance of illness.
According to the news report, the county was first alerted to the increase in illnesses after schools were recording more children off sick than normal.
Ohio is not the only area outside of China to report an outbreak. The Netherlands and Denmark are also reported to have mysterious spikes in ‘walking pneumonia’ cases, most common in younger children.
The above image pictures the lungs during ‘white lung syndrome’ or acute respiratory distress syndrome, which is diagnosed via the white spots or opaque areas appearing in the lungs. The above patient was a 57-year-old man in 2014
It is unclear if any deaths have resulted from the illness and officials have not responded to requests for more information.
In Massachusetts, doctors say the main issue is RSV, a respiratory virus that kills more than 10,000 Americans each year, mostly young children and the elderly.
Dr Adalja believes the pneumonia outbreaks cropping up around the world could be due to the ‘cyclical’ nature of mycoplasma.
Mycoplasma goes through epidemic cycles every few years and that may be what’s occurring globally at the moment.’
He said China may be getting hit by a double-whammy of viral and bacterial infections. China is entering its first winter without pandemic restrictions and is reporting surges in Covid, flu, and RSV as well as mycoplasma.
The US, Canada and Europe — where Covid restrictions were lifted earlier — were hit by massive upswings in those viruses last year.
‘So what’s happening in China makes sense’, Dr Adalja said, adding: ‘Last year we were dominated by so much Covid, flu and RSV when we opened up.’
He said he thinks this year’s winter outbreak will be ‘less severe’ that last year’s, when thousands of children were hospitalized with RSV and flu.
If this is true, why didn’t we hear more about it last year? — TPR
But Dr Adalja admitted that lockdowns have contributed to the emerging global phenomenon.
“When children are born they haven’t experienced any infectious diseases so more of them you have in population so lower threshold for outbreak to start.
“That group of children born provide new people for illnesses. The pandemic allowed the number of these susceptible people to build up over the years.”
Mycoplasma pneumonia normally causes a mild flu-like illness, sometimes called ‘walking pneumonia’. Cases are most common in younger children.
Some antibiotics, such as penicillin, have no effect.
Strep also normally causes a mild illness and tends to leave patients with sore throats. It’s more common among those aged five to 15 years old.
And adenovirus, which has also been detected in patients in Ohio, causes symptoms similar to the common cold.
Dr Scott Roberts, an infectious diseases expert at Yale School of Medicine, Connecticut, said the uptick in cases was likely still being driven by weakened immunity in children.
“This is probably a recurrence of known pathogens that are hitting us a bit harder because of low immunity to them.”
He suggested children’s immune systems could still be suffering from the effects of Covid restrictions which blocked their exposure to ‘good germs’ for building immunity. He also pointed out that immunity wanes over time.
It comes after the Netherlands and Denmark also said they were recording mysterious spikes in pneumonia cases, many of which are being attributed in part to mycoplasma.
China has been recording a surge in childhood cases of pneumonia since May which only came to light LAST MONTH.
Naw, there’s nothing suspicious about this new outbreak, is there? — TPR
I’ve just finished reading the hilariously terrible book “What’s Left Unsaid” by Melissa DeRosa, secretary to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (New York) that is so unself-aware, so arrogant, so embarrassing that I have to review it.
I only read it in the first place because I wanted to interview Cuomo on my Substack, figuring that after his defenestration, he’d be a fun interview. But I’m willing to sacrifice that possibility just to wallow in the awfulness of this book. (Plus, recent press reports say he’s thinking of running for mayor of New York, so it’s topical.)
Most dumbfounding, DeRosa brags about Cuomo bullying everyone into implementing his tyrannical COVID policies — all of which, as we now know, accomplished absolutely nothing (other than causing half a million New Yorkers to flee the state, making 2020-2021 New York’s largest single-year population loss in history).
— First, Cuomo bulldozed the legislature into giving him emergency powers to “institute mass quarantines, order businesses to close, suspend laws and issue sweeping directives.”
His COVID diktats did squat to slow the spread of COVID, but they did destroy businesses, annihilate cultural institutions, kill budding careers, stunt children’s educational development and delay urgent medical care, among other things. (What’s the word for that, again? It begins with an “A” … describes a strongman …)
— Next, Cuomo closed all public colleges in the state and browbeat private universities into doing the same.
In the first year of the pandemic, there were a grand total 648 deaths among 15-to-24-year-olds in the entire country — and we don’t know what other health problems those kids had. Cuomo ruined hundreds of thousands of young lives for no reason.
— Then, he badgered Mayor Bill de Blasio into shutting down public schools in New York City — over the objections of the (wildly left-wing) mayor and the teachers union. As DeRosa puts it, both “were adamantly opposed to closing schools in the city, no ifs, ands or buts about it.”
One week after the governor had demanded that de Blasio close the schools, DeRosa writes, “the governor was done waiting.” He peremptorily called into a local TV station and simply announced that the city’s public schools were closed.
This was the single worst decision made during COVID, as even The New York Times has admitted. The little tykes were at essentially zero risk from COVID. But shutting down schools did irreparable harm to their cognitive and psychological development.
— Next, Cuomo bullied President Trump into sending the military to convert the Javits Center and the USS Comfort into field hospitals for New York City.
“’This will get Trump’s attention,’” Cuomo predicted of his op-ed. “The piece ran [in the Times] the next day under the headline: ‘ANDREW CUOMO TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: MOBILIZE THE MILITARY TO HELP FIGHT CORONAVIRUS.’”
A kazillion dollars later, it turned out these temporary hospitals were completely unnecessary. They were shuttered after about a month, at which time the Javits Center had a grand total of 72 patients for its 2,500 beds.
— Finally, Cuomo demanded that upstate hospitals send all their ventilators to New York City, leaving upstate residents high and dry. He even forced recalcitrant private hospitals to relinquish their ventilators by calling the CEOs and threatening: “I will personally pull your operating license.”
Everyone now knows that ventilators were wildly overused and killed a lot of patients because COVID confused the oxygen readings, meaning the mechanical breathing tubes were unnecessary.
It could be argued that some of these policies were not known to be utterly catastrophic when Cuomo imposed them. But 1) That’s why it’s not a good idea to give one man the authority to “institute mass quarantines, order businesses to close, suspend laws and issue sweeping directives”; and 2) Now that we do know, why would you write a book reminding everyone that it was your boss who forced these policies on the public? It’s like bragging that he was the guy who made doctors give Thalidomide to pregnant women.
DeRosa seems quite pleased with herself for her own contribution to New York’s ludicrous COVID rules. She was the one, for example, who pushed for a quarantine on travelers from states like Texas, Florida and Arizona.
To his credit, Cuomo initially rejected the idea, saying, “Isn’t that exactly what we opposed back in March when Rhode Island threatened to quarantine New Yorkers?” To his discredit, he then acceded to Madam Ceausescu.
DeRosa was also the one whose bright idea it was to wreck New Yorkers’ 2020 Christmas holidays by insisting on a 10 p.m. curfew on bars and restaurants. She says she’d have preferred to “unilaterally close all bars, restaurants and other State Liquor Authority–licensed establishments” but was worried that “there would be no public buy-in.” (You think?)
To really nail down the nuking of everyone’s holidays, she also “advocated that we limit indoor and outdoor gatherings at private residences to no more than 10 people.”
Again, at first, Cuomo objected, on the grounds that the idea was insane, but quickly deferred to his drunk-with-power assistant.
Amazingly, DeRosa still doesn’t understand the virus she dedicated a year of her life to suppressing. In humble-brag fashion, she recounts her conversation with a senior health official early in the pandemic:
Health official: “'[A]ccording to top medical professionals at the CDC and WHO, by all accounts, this virus acts like, well, the flu,’ he said.
“’The flu?’ I asked, honestly confused.
“’Yes, the flu; that’s what the federal government is saying.’
“’Okay, accepting that premise, can I ask you a stupid question?’ I went on. [This is always the tip-off that sheer brilliance is coming.]
“’Of course.’
“’Isn’t the major difference between this and the flu that the flu has a vaccine?’”
Although the “health official” agreed (naturally), that was a stupid question. A vaccine is not the main difference at all. The difference is: Our immune systems were familiar with the flu but had never encountered anything like COVID before.
The 1918 flu virus is still in circulation, and yet 50 million people don’t die of it every year because our immune systems recognize it. Now that we’ve all been exposed to COVID, it is just like the flu. (Also, FYI, only about half of adults in America get the flu shot anyway, and its effectiveness, year to year, is a crapshoot.)
Finally, it’s nice that DeRosa’s COVID lockdown was a blast, but kind of annoying to have her tell us about it. While poor families were jammed like sardines into tiny living quarters for a year, DeRosa spent her lockdown living like a queen.
She moved into the “Princess Beatrix suite” at the governor’s mansion, which, she says, had “a large bedroom and a separate sitting room with its own fireplace. There was an en suite bathroom, multiple closets to hang my perpetually wrinkled clothing in and an antique vanity.”
While gyms were closed throughout the state, she worked out in the mansion’s gym every day. While pools were closed and gatherings of more than 10 people banned, she regularly worked, dined and hung out by the mansion’s pool.
Once a week, DeRosa helicoptered with the governor to New York City. Whizzing through the city in the governor’s car one day, she describes the deserted streets of the once-bustling metropolis as “haunting and yet somehow beautiful.”
I’m sure little Pedro, who spent his lockdown in a one-bedroom apartment with his abusive father, drunk mother and seven siblings, appreciates these poetic reflections on the empty city created by you, Melissa. It makes you sound like a really swell person.
