March 28, 2024

The Power Hour

Knowledge is Power

Today's News: August 12, 2020

World News

First batches of Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine to be delivered within a fortnight – Minister of Health

RT – Russia’s Ministry of Health has announced that the initial batches of the world’s first registered Covid-19 vaccine will be released within just two weeks, with doctors and teachers being prioritized.
Health Minister Mikhail Murashko explained that the first, due to be produced in Russian factories, would be distributed to the domestic market, with preference given to those who work in the highest-risk environments, such as education and medical professionals.
“Vaccination will be voluntary,” he said, explaining that many medical workers already have immunity, so it’s not always necessary. “Each medical worker will be given the choice to receive the vaccine or not.”
Despite what Murashko called “export potential,” he made it expressly clear that vaccines produced in Russia would be used to immunize Russians, before subsequently being offered to consumers from other countries. The authorities are also looking at producing batches abroad purely for foreign markets.
On August 11, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia had registered the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine, named Sputnik V. The president revealed that one of his daughters was among the volunteers who had been given the vaccine before registration, gaining immunity with only one side effect: a mild temperature.

John McAfee Arrested for Wearing a Thong as a Mask in Norway

Breitbart – John McAfee, the tech pioneer behind one of the world’s first consumer anti-virus programs, was reportedly arrested in Norway this week for wearing wear a woman’s undergarment as a coronavirus mask. McAfee was ultimately released from a Norweigian jail after a brief stay.
According to a report by the New York Post, anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee was arrested by Norweigian law enforcement this week over his decision to wear a lacy thong as a coronavirus mask.
McAfee’s wife began posting updates from John’s account on Monday morning. She claimed that John would be released from jail after just a few days. “I’ll manage John’s account until he escapes (usual method), bribes someone (very quick – might be out in a few hours), retains the right lawyer (will be a few days) or becomes warden of the jail, in which case we will have to force him out,” Janice McAfee tweeted.

Authoritarianism in Auckland

Activist Post- For months we’ve heard the cry: oh how wonderfully New Zealand dealt with the coronavirus! They did the tightest lockdown in the world! The coronavirus – no doubt astonished by the decisiveness and ferocity of prime minister Jacinda Ardern, the heroine of all media – just decided not to make this wonderful country a home. The virus was bested by political wit!
Oh what a fantasy it was all along, as Oxford’s Sunetra Gupta pointed out from the beginning. What was actually happening in New Zealand was delaying the inevitable. In the modern world, there is no chance for a developed society to replicate the experience of a primitive tribe with naive immune systems living in isolation.
You wouldn’t want to do that anyway because you make the whole population of your tribe fatally vulnerable to the next bug that comes along. In Gupta’s view, New Zealand’s “success” wouldn’t be that at all.
For months we’ve heard the cry: oh how wonderfully New Zealand dealt with the coronavirus! They did the tightest lockdown in the world! The coronavirus – no doubt astonished by the decisiveness and ferocity of prime minister Jacinda Ardern, the heroine of all media – just decided not to make this wonderful country a home. The virus was bested by political wit!
Oh what a fantasy it was all along, as Oxford’s Sunetra Gupta pointed out from the beginning. What was actually happening in New Zealand was delaying the inevitable. In the modern world, there is no chance for a developed society to replicate the experience of a primitive tribe with naive immune systems living in isolation.
You wouldn’t want to do that anyway because you make the whole population of your tribe fatally vulnerable to the next bug that comes along. In Gupta’s view, New Zealand’s “success” wouldn’t be that at all.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

TRUMP ON KAMALA: “SHE WAS MY NUMBER ONE PICK”

“I was a little surprised that he picked her.”
Infowars – President Trump says that he is happy Joe Biden has picked Kamala Harris as his running mate, saying that the Californian Senator was his “number one draft pick”.
In comments made during a press briefing, Trump said of Harris “She is a person that’s told many, many stories that weren’t true.”
“She’s very big into raising taxes. She wants to slash funds for our military at a level that nobody can even believe.” Trump continued.
He added “She is against fracking. She’s against petroleum products. I mean, how do you do that and go into Pennsylvania or Ohio or Oklahoma or the great state of Texas? She’s against fracking. Fracking’s a big deal.”
President Trump says that he is happy Joe Biden has picked Kamala Harris as his running mate, saying that the Californian Senator was his “number one draft pick”.
In comments made during a press briefing, Trump said of Harris “She is a person that’s told many, many stories that weren’t true.”
“She’s very big into raising taxes. She wants to slash funds for our military at a level that nobody can even believe.” Trump continued.
He added “She is against fracking. She’s against petroleum products. I mean, how do you do that and go into Pennsylvania or Ohio or Oklahoma or the great state of Texas? She’s against fracking. Fracking’s a big deal.”
Trump continued his list of points on which to hammer Harris, noting “She’s in favor of socialized medicine, where you’re going to lose your doctors. You’re going to lose your plan. She wants to take your healthcare plans away from 180 million Americans. 180 million Americans that are very happy with their health insurance and she wants to take that away.”
“She was extraordinarily nasty to Kavanaugh, Judge Kavanaugh then, now Justice Kavanaugh. She was nasty to a level that was just a horrible thing…And I won’t forget that soon.” Trump added, referring to Kamala’s aggressive line of questioning during the justice’s heated 2018 confirmation hearings.
Trump continued his list of points on which to hammer Harris, noting “She’s in favor of socialized medicine, where you’re going to lose your doctors. You’re going to lose your plan. She wants to take your healthcare plans away from 180 million Americans. 180 million Americans that are very happy with their health insurance and she wants to take that away.”
“She was extraordinarily nasty to Kavanaugh, Judge Kavanaugh then, now Justice Kavanaugh. She was nasty to a level that was just a horrible thing…And I won’t forget that soon.” Trump added, referring to Kamala’s aggressive line of questioning during the justice’s heated 2018 confirmation hearings.

The Real Kamala Harris

Michael Snyder – Could the White House soon be occupied by a power-hungry authoritarian that will not hesitate to use the full power of the presidency to absolutely crush political enemies?  And no, I am not talking about Joe Biden.  There are certainly a whole lot of negative things that you can say about Joe Biden, but I wouldn’t call him an “authoritarian”.  In part one of this series, I called him a “creepy old man that likes to sniff hair and rub up against people at awkward moments”, and at this point everyone can see that he is in an advanced state of decline.  In fact, one recent survey found that 59 percent of likely voters do not believe that he will even finish a single term in the White House…
In another illustration of how many Americans are concerned about Joe Biden’s advancing age and declining mental faculties, a new Rasmussen poll has found that 59 percent of likely voters don’t believe he’ll finish a 4 year term in the White House.
Broken down along party lines, 74 percent of Republicans believe Biden won’t make it through his first term while 49 percent of Democrats agree.
Of course that survey question assumed that Biden will make it to election day, and there is absolutely no guarantee that will actually happen considering how rapidly he is deteriorating.
In any event, it appears that Kamala Harris will take over for Biden at some point, and that should deeply alarm all of us.
There are some people that get into politics because they truly want to serve the American people, and there are others that get into politics for the fame and the power.  Tom Del Beccaro actually ran against Kamala Harris in California, and he assures us that she is squarely in the latter category
For Harris, politics is a game of ambition not something of substance.
She is not a policy person. Her convictions aren’t with respect to the issues; they are with respect to power and the limelight.
And once she gets her hands on power, she is not afraid to abuse it.
During her time as attorney general of California, she ruthlessly went after pro-life activist David Daleiden.  You may remember that Daleiden had filmed numerous undercover videos in which Planned Parenthood employees admitted that they make huge profits from the sale of tissue from aborted fetuses, and that upset Harris so greatly that she sent a team of heavily armed agents to his home to seize all of his footage
Daleiden, the founder of the pro-life Center for Medical Progress and a self-described citizen journalist, made headlines last summer with a series of “sting” videos purporting to show Planned Parenthood clinic employees discussing the illegal sale of tissue from aborted fetuses.
The videos prompted a congressional investigation and an attempt by GOP lawmakers to defund Planned Parenthood. The women’s health provider also sued the Center for Medical Progress, claiming the videos were deceptively edited.
Throughout her tenure, Harris seemed to think that the solution to just about any problem was to throw someone in jail.  In fact, at one point she even supported a bill which would have put “parents of truant children” in prison…
Harris was also fond of overcriminalization. She supported legislation that would jail the parents of truant children. She strongly opposed criminal justice reform measures throughout her tenure in California. She also supported the Golden State’s unconstitutional law muzzling crisis pregnancy centers, which the Supreme Court struck down last year as a clear violation of the First Amendment and an attempt to criminalize the moral and political viewpoints of others.
During the Democratic debates, Tulsi Gabbard used her record to attack Harris repeatedly.
In one very memorable moment, Gabbard pointed out that Harris put more than 1,500 people in prison for marijuana violations even though Harris basically admitted that she had used marijuana herself
I want to bring the conversation back to the broken criminal justice system that is disproportionately negatively impacting black and brown people all across this country today. Now Senator Harris says she’s proud of her record as a prosecutor and that she’ll be a prosecutor president.
But I’m deeply concerned about this record. There are too many examples to cite but she put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana.
She blocked evidence — she blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so. She kept people in prison beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California.
I don’t know about you, but that certainly does not sound like someone that I want in the White House.
And when she was running for president, Harris actually mocked Biden when he suggested that her plan to impose nationwide gun control via executive order would not be constitutional
Last year, Senator Kamala Harris may have become the first presidential candidate in history to laugh derisively at the idea that the Constitution limits what a president can do.
When former Vice President Joe Biden said that her plan for gun control by executive fiat didn’t pass constitutional muster, she scoffed and deployed one of her canned one-liners, “I would just say, ‘Hey, Joe, instead of saying no we can’t, let’s say yes we can!’”
As bad as Hillary Clinton was, she never proposed using an executive order to institute a nationwide gun grab.
If Harris really does become president, I anticipate that there will actually be discussion in some red states about the possibility of declaring independence from the federal government.

Kamala Protested With Jussie Smollett In 2018

NationalFile – Democrat vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris took to the streets with hate hoaxer Jussie Smollett back when Smollett was known as a television actor, prior to his hoax about being attacked and nearly lynched by imaginary Trump supporters in Chicago. Will Harris face questions on the campaign trail about her association with Smollett, considering that Cook County prosecutor Kim Foxx — who attempted to help Smollett avert prison time — considers Harris to be her “mentor”?
Kamala Harris stood in solidarity with Smollett on January 15, 2018 at Los Angeles’ Kingdom Day Parade where Smollett and his sister Jurnee wore shirts supporting the “Time’s Up” progressive protest movement. The archived photos are used here in the interest of journalism.
As I reported: Cook County state’s attorney Kim Foxx appointed Kamala Harris to co-chair her transition committee to office in 2016, according to Cook County records. Foxx arranged for hate hoax charges to be dropped against the Obamas’ friend Jussie Smollett after Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff Tina Tchen intervened in the case by texting Foxx. Foxx’s spokeswoman then admitted that Foxx did not actually recuse herself in the Smollett case as Foxx’s office claimed prior to the dropping of the charges.
Chicago magazine reported in December: “She now counts the rapper Common and singer John Legend as friends, and a while back, when she saw the superstar U.S. senator Kamala Harris across the room at an Emily’s List event and went over to introduce herself, Foxx had barely gotten a word out before Harris interrupted and said, “You’re Kim Foxx! I’ve been watching you.’”…

Gundlach, Who Correctly Called The 2016 Presidential Election, Predicts Trump Will Win Again

ZeroHedge – Back in early, DoubleLine’s Jeff Gundlach made a prediction that was viewed as anathema in “serious” circles: he said that Donald Trump would win the 2016 presidential election. And much to the chagrin of all his “serious” colleagues, he was proven correct which is why earlier today we said that the one thing we were most curious about from Gundlach’s latest webcast was who he thinks would win this time around.
Well, we got the answer, and once again if Gundlach is correct a whole lot of “experts” (not to mention pollsters) will again be humiliated on Nov 4, because according to the bond king Trump will once again emerge victorious.
One would not know it based on such online betting sites as PredictIt (which incidentally are remarkably illiquid, and extremely easy to manipulate by anyone with modestly deep pockets), which show Biden as a clear favorite with a roughly 15 point lead…
So it makes sense to ignore the pollsters, the online bookies and the exports who were dead wrong in 2016, and focus on those who called it right.
With that in mind, during a Q&A on his Tuesday afternoon webcast, Gundlach said that “my base case is actually that Donald Trump will win re-election,” adding that he’d “bet against” former Vice President Joe Biden defeating Trump in November.
“I think polls are very, very squishy right now because of the highly toxic political environment in which we live,” the 60-year-old billionaire said. Gundlach said he’s come across data suggesting that about “two-thirds of conservatives or moderate conservatives say that they have lied about their support for Donald Trump either directly or by omission.”
“I just think there’s a lot, a lot of time here. There’s going to be twists and turns,” Gundlach added.

NJ gym that defied coronavirus restrictions gets license rescinded: report

The mercantile license of Atilis Gym was rescinded following a 5- to-1 vote
Fox – A New Jersey gym had its license rescinded during a town vote on Tuesday, ending a long-running saga that saw its owners repeatedly defy a state order to remain closed during the coronavirus pandemic, according to multiple reports.
The Bellmawr council in Camden County voted 5 to 1 to rescind the mercantile license of Atilis Gym following an hourlong hearing that featured arguments from lawyers on both sides, according to NJ.com. The decision came amid a monthslong standoff between the gym’s owners and Gov. Phil Murphy over the importance of limiting the spread of the virus or the livelihood of local businesses.
“In a clear political move, the all democrat town council followed their orders from Gov. Murphy to revoke our business license,” said Ian Smith, one of the gym’s owners on Instagram following the hearing. “Zero evidence was put forth to support the claim that @atilisgymbellmawr poses any threat to the public.”

Wrong narrative? US mainstream media mum on murder of 5yo white boy allegedly shot by black man in his own front yard

RT – The story of a 5-year-old North Carolina boy who reportedly was killed when a man ran up to him and shot him in the head for no known reason apparently was not compelling enough to merit US mainstream media coverage.
There were some details that might have drawn the attention of the decision makers at CNN, the Washington Post and other mainstream outlets, that have remained conspicuously silent on the story. The boy, Cannon Hinnant, was riding his bike in front of his own house Sunday in North Carolina, and the 25-year-old suspect was a neighbor. He allegedly shot the child at point-blank range as the boy’s 7- and 8-year-old sisters looked on.
The hair-raising details of the incident, however, are not gracing the front pages. While it can be speculated why the story was generally overlooked, the fact is Hinnat was white. The alleged shooter, Darius Sessoms, who was arrested Monday, is black. Critics of mainstream media, such as podcast host Matt Walsh, said they’ve seen a pattern of black-on-white violence being ignored by the press and white-on-black violence being hyped to fit an agenda.
“This is an actual conspiracy,” Walsh said Tuesday on Twitter. “These media companies have to make an editorial decision to blacklist stories like this. It’s not like they haven’t heard of it. This is a considered and intentional decision to ignore the murder of a child, and the reason is that he’s white.”
Walsh added that the shocking nature of the incident belies any suggestions that the story wasn’t newsworthy on a national level. “It is absolutely jaw dropping,” he said.
While the killing of a child would seem to add to the story’s news value, some netizens argued that even murders of black children are largely ignored when the alleged perpetrator is also black.

Trump: Mail-in Voting a ‘Rigged Election Waiting to Happen’ — ‘It’s Going to Be Catastrophic Corruption’

Breitbart – During a wide-ranging interview that aired on Tuesday’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” President Donald Trump warned viewers of possible troubles with vote-by-mail elections.
Trump told FNC’s Sean Hannity he saw Democrats as willing to play a “much dirtier game” than their GOP counterparts, citing tactics used in a mail-in voting scheme.
“[T]hey play a much dirtier game, a much tougher game than the Republicans,” he said. “The Republicans, fortunately, much better policy, but they ought to get tougher. The Republicans have to get tougher. And this whole thing with this mail-in ballot, that’s a rigged election waiting to happen.”
“It’s rigged, and everyone knows it because you can’t send out 60 million mail-in ballots to everybody in the — who knows who’s getting them?” Trump continued. “The mailmen are going to get them. And people are going to just grab batches of them. And you talk about China and Russia. They will be grabbing plenty of them. It’s a — it’s a disaster. It’s a rigged election waiting to happen.”
Trump argued that if vote-by-mail is allowed, the result will be a “rigged election.”
“It’s just common sense,” he explained. “You wouldn’t even have to know anything about politics or elections. It’s common sense. And an absentee ballot is OK, where you send in for a ballot, they go through a process, and they send it to you, and then you send it. It’s fine. But these mail-in ballots, where they send millions of them all over the country, it’s a — it’s going to be a rigged election. And this country shouldn’t allow it. The courts have to step in. We are in many different courts right now. If the courts don’t step in, the federal courts, you will never know who won the election.”
The President cited the recent primary election win by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-CA), who defeated Suraj Patel in a primary election marred by mail-in voting problems.
“Just like in New York, they had an election with Carolyn Maloney, a third-rate congresswoman that I have known for a long time, third-rate,” Trump said. “Well, she won, but they have no idea where the ballots are. Where are the ballots? Many missing ballots. Her opponent is having a fit. But they declared that because it was so embarrassing. Then you look at Paterson, New Jersey. They declared her the winner because it was so embarrassing. You look at then Paterson, New Jersey. Look at what happened there. Look at what just happened in Virginia, where they sent in 500,000 applications. And they’re — most of them are to wrong people. They sent some to dogs. They sent two to cats. They sent people that are — that passed away, dead people. They were sent to dead people and 500,000 applications.”
Trump also said the U.S. Postal Service might not be equipped to handle the flood of mail-in ballots.
“This is crazy, what we are doing,” he added. “And it’s not a question of anything else. It can’t work. It hasn’t worked in little districts. Small, little defined districts, they can’t do it. And it’s an impossibility. Plus, the post office isn’t set up for this. The post office is not set up for millions. When you look at what they did in Nevada and take a look, where they are sending millions of ballots, and you don’t have to have a confirmed signature, there is nothing to say that that person signed it.  It’s going to be catastrophic corruption.”

Stone Mountain braces for another armed protest

AJC – Hundreds of members of a Black militia turned heads July 4 as they marched with assault rifles, shotguns and other firearms, on Stone Mountain and its famous Confederate memorial.
Now several far-right groups, including militias and white supremacists, are planning an answer rally on Aug. 15, and a broad coalition of leftist anti-racist groups are organizing a counter-demonstration. Local authorities, who have been closely monitoring online chatter about the rally, are bracing for possible conflict.
The City of Stone Mountain last week issued a public warning about the planned demonstrations and asked locals to stay away.
“Residents, business owners, and stakeholders may want to consider refraining from travel and other activities within the City that may heighten the risk of engagement with the demonstrators or with any other aspect of the demonstration,” the statement said.
No one knows how many people will show up for the demonstration and counter-demonstrations, but if past demonstrations are any guide, the combined groups will be in the hundreds. It’s not clear whether the heavily armed Black militia will counter the other militia groups. John Fitzgerald Johnson, the group’s leader who goes by Grand Master Jay, did not respond to several requests for comment, but at the July 4 march, Johnson dared the far-right groups to confront his militia.
For years, the park has been a focal point in the debate over Confederate monuments and has been the scene of angry standoffs between neo-Confederates, white supremacists and militia members on one side and a broad leftist coalition of anti-racist groups on the other.
But Johnson’s group, which goes by the Not F**king Around Coalition, or NFAC, threatens to elevate the stakes considerably.

Economy & Business

Mortgage Mayhem Begins: Overall Delinquency Rates Soar As Housing Crisis Lurks

ZeroHedge – Readers may recall as early as April we outlined how mortgage lenders were preparing for the most significant wave of delinquencies in history as tens of millions of people lost their jobs because of the virus-induced recession.
Mortgage lending standards have since tightened as mass foreclosures and mortgage market mayhem appears to be ahead.
The Trump administration has found creative ways to prevent the foreclosure wave during the election year – which has placed millions of homeowners in forbearance programs to shift the mortgage crisis until after November. 
Property data and analytics firm CoreLogic published a new report Tuesday warning about early-stage delinquency rates are starting to rise. 
CoreLogic said on a national level, 7.3% of mortgages were 30+ days or more overdue (in May). This is a 3.7-percentage point increase in the overall delinquency rate compared to 3.6% in May 2019.
Stages of delinquency: 

  • Early-Stage Delinquencies (30 to 59 days past due): 3%, up from 1.7% in May 2019.
  • Adverse Delinquency (60 to 89 days past due): 2.8%, up from 0.6% in May 2019.
  • Serious Delinquency (90 days or more past due, including loans in foreclosure): 1.5%, up from 1.3% in May 2019. This is the first year-over-year increase in the serious delinquency rate since November 2010.

CoreLogic’s chief economist Dr. Frank Nothaft said, “the national unemployment rate soared from a 50-year low in February 2020, to an 80-year high in April. With the sudden loss of income, many homeowners are struggling to stay on top of their mortgage loans, resulting in a jump in non-payment.”

Health

Could a blood test predict whether coronavirus will kill you? Researchers find five signs for inflammation and blood vessel problems that could tell doctors which COVID-19 patients are at risk for fatal infection

DailyMail – Researchers at George Washington University (GWU) believe that a simple blood test could predict which coronavirus patients could become deathly ill. 
The scientists have identified five biomarkers that indicate risks of complications like inflammation and bleeding disorders that make someone more likely to die if they contract coronavirus. 
High levels of two of these blood indicators, in particular, are linked to far greater odds of dying from the infection. 
The GWU team believes a blood test for these biomarkers could give doctors a clearer picture of who might need ventilator support or early aggressive treatment with a more finely tuned tool than general risk factors like age and underlying conditions. 

Cordyceps Fungus: Top 7 Benefits of This Miracle Mushroom

Dr. Group – For centuries, traditional Chinese medicine practitioners used Cordyceps to give men a natural boost of vitality. That’s one of the reasons why it’s so popular in coffee blends these days. Men are, once again, turning to medicinal mushrooms like Cordyceps to boost sex drive, energy, and exercise performance.
Ang Wang, a Chinese author from the 1600s, brought Cordyceps to the world’s attention. He wrote about its uses in his 1694 book, The Classic of Herbal Medicine, a record of all known Chinese medicinal herbs.
What Is Cordyceps?
Though often called a mushroom, Cordyceps is a mushroom-like fungus. It’s native to high-altitude prairies of the Himalayan mountains, particularly in the Qinghai, Tibet, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Gansu provinces of China.[1]
Aside from the booming world of mushroom coffee, you can take Cordyceps supplements in powder, liquid extract, and capsule forms.
You can find two main species in supplements: Cordyceps sinensis and Cordyceps militaris. Cordyceps sinensis spores land on a caterpillar and consume it. These fruiting bodies resemble the caterpillar host and are not vegan — they can not be cultivated without the use of insects. Further, because of collection from the wild, they’ve become rare and hard to find, bringing their cost sky-high.
Cordyceps militaris have orange-red club-shaped fruiting bodies that — in the wild — grow out of pupa in the ground. However, most supplements are grown on farms without the use of insects. Cultivated varieties grow on grains, such as brown rice and are vegan.
Your supplement may contain mycelium, or the branching “hyphae” of a fungus that usually grows underground, the fruiting body, and some starch from the food source. Together, these components contain alpha and beta-glucans, cordycepin, and other health-giving nutrients.
How Cordyceps Can Boost Your Health
Below, we’ve listed the top seven ways Cordyceps benefits your health.

  1. Enhances Sex Drive
  2. Boosts Your Energy
  3. May Improve Exercise Performance
  4. Promotes Healthy Aging
  5. Supports Gut Health
  6. Promotes Kidney & Liver Health
  7. Boosts Your Immune System

Social Share Buttons and Icons powered by Ultimatelysocial