Coronavirus passports with vaccination info in development: report
‘Testing is the first key to enable international travel without quarantine measures’
Fox – The future of flying during the coronavirus means carrying a passport to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19.
The International Air Transport Association is in the process of finalizing a digital COVID-19 passport that would include information about a traveler’s COVID-19 testing and vaccinations that would be verified by labs, airlines and government agencies, according to a new report.
“Testing is the first key to enable international travel without quarantine measures. The second key is the global information infrastructure needed to securely manage, share and verify test data matched with traveler identities in compliance with border control requirements,” CEO of IATA Alexandre de Juniac said in a statement, explaining: “We are bringing this to market in the coming months to also meet the needs of the various travel bubbles and public health corridors that are starting operation.”
The Hill was first to report news that the digital COVID-19 passport is in development.
The COVID-19 passport would provide a health itinerary of sorts that would identify testing facilities and labs for passengers at their place of departure, and ensure passengers are safe and able to travel to their destination without restrictions such as quarantine.
No governments have enforced a requirement for travelers to get vaccinated before entering another country. However, the CEO of Australian airline Qantas has stated his intentions for the carrier to require vaccinations ahead of international travel.
State Department Reveals Strategy to Thwart Chicom Takeover
Infowars – “Grounded in America’s founding principles and constitutional traditions… served by government officials who understand the American people and the American political system, recognize the diversity and common humanity of the peoples and nations of the world… will enable the United States to secure freedom.”
Amidst America’s struggle to fight off a globalist attack and reject a Chinese blackmailed Biden presidency, a new report from the State Department outlines a plan that could push back the advancing Asian world order.
The report begins by stating:
“To understand China’s peculiar form of authoritarianism and the hegemonic goals to which it gives rise, it is necessary to grasp the intellectual sources from which China’s conduct springs: the CCP’s Marxist-Leninist beliefs and the party’s extreme interpretation of Chinese nationalism.”
Ten tasks are outlined that could enable America to over-ride the Communist Chinese plan to establish a tyrannical Asian world order, some of which include:
…the United States must educate American citizens about the scope and implications of the China challenge because only an informed citizenry can be expected to back the complex mix of demanding policies that the United States must adopt to secure freedom
…the United States must secure freedom at home by preserving constitutional government, promoting prosperity, and fostering a robust civil society…
…the United States must reevaluate its alliance system and the panoply of international organizations in which it participates to determine where they fortify the free, open, and rules-based international order and where they fall short.
…the United States must champion the principles of freedom — principles that are at once universal and at the heart of the American national spirit — through example; speeches; educational initiatives; public diplomacy; foreign assistance and investment…
Big Tech is betting on a Chinese win, moving its business to the Communist country and silencing opposition to the takeover. Apple recently lobbied to soften laws against slave labor in China, yet another example of the anti human, freedom crushing force that is sweeping the globe.
Should America survive after 2020 with President Trump serving a second term, America has an opportunity to launch a new renaissance that could lead to a new golden era.
A Biden Presidency will be a Chinese presidency. Chinese state media has praised Biden, saying that his “worldview runs parallel to Beijing’s.”
Obama criticizes Americans for liking ‘cheap gas and big cars’ more than ‘the environment’
The former commander-in-chief recounted a press conference he gave more than a month into the oil spill, saying that his public comments did not adequately express how he truly felt.
Fox – Former President Barack Obama, in his latest memoir, criticized Americans for liking “cheap gas and big cars” more than they care about “the environment” – even during a catastrophic event like the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The comments came during a section in Obama’s 700-page book, “A Promised Land,” released earlier this month.
On page 570, the former commander in chief recounts a press conference he gave more than a month into the oil spill – now considered one of the largest in history – saying his comments did not adequately express the frustration he truly felt.
“Reading the transcript now, a decade later, I’m struck by how calm and cogent I sound,” Obama writes in his book. “Maybe I’m surprised because the transcript doesn’t register what I remember feeling at the time or come close to capturing what I really wanted to say before the assembled White House press corps.”
What he really wanted to say was that government regulatory agencies were not fully equipped to address an environmental accident because many American voters for decades had “bought into the idea that government was the problem and that business always knew better, and had elected leaders who made it their mission to gut environmental regulations, starve agency budgets, denigrate civil servants, and allow industrial polluters to do whatever the hell they wanted to do.”
He then chastised Americans for not being willing to foot the bill for technology to “quickly plug the hole because it would be expensive to have such technology on hand, and we Americans didn’t like paying higher taxes—especially when it was to prepare for problems that hadn’t happened yet.”
The only way to truly prevent another catastrophe, like the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Obama says, “was to stop drilling entirely.”
“But that wasn’t going to happen because at the end of the day we Americans loved our cheap gas and big cars more than we cared about the environment, except when a complete disaster was staring us in the face,” he writes.
The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in April 2010 killed 11 people and injured 17 others. For nearly three months, more than 200 million gallons of crude oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico, polluting 16,000 miles of coastline in the southern U.S. and killing 8,000 animals.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch called it “the worst environmental disaster in American history.”
New research published earlier this year in the journal Science Advances, showed that toxic and invisible oil spread well beyond the initial footprint of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
How Trump’s Hill allies could take one last shot to overturn the election
It’s deeply unlikely to succeed, but some House Republicans are weighing an effort to challenge Biden’s Electoral College win.
Politico – President Donald Trump’s arsenal for overturning the election will soon be down to one final, desperate maneuver: pressing his Republican allies on Capitol Hill to step in and derail Joe Biden’s presidency.
Although the Electoral College casts the official vote for president on Dec. 14, it’s up to Congress to certify the results a few weeks later. And federal law gives individual members of the House and Senate the power to challenge the results from the floor — a rarely used mechanism meant to be the last of all last resorts to safeguard an election.
But several House Republican lawmakers and aides now tell POLITICO they’re considering this option to aid Trump’s quest.
“Nothing is off the table,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).
Gaetz pointed out that in January 2017, a handful of House Democrats took this precise procedural step before their efforts flamed out during a joint session of Congress presided over by none other than Biden, then the outgoing vice president.
“It is over,” Biden said at the time, gaveling down Democrats as Republicans cheered.
This time, Vice President Mike Pence will be in the chair for any potential challenges — a potentially awkward scenario as his boss continues to deny the reality of the election he lost.
Indeed, Trump lost the election. His legal battles have failed to stop states from certifying his defeat. And his bid to pressure state legislators to overturn Biden’s victory appears to be going nowhere. Congress — where Republicans are still largely in lockstep with Trump — is the last institution that could be a factor.
Apple is Lobbying Against a Bill Aimed at Stopping Forced Labor in China
Slashdot – Apple lobbyists are trying to weaken a new law aimed at preventing forced labor in China, the Washington Post reported Friday, citing two congressional staffers familiar with the matter, highlighting the clash between its business imperatives and its official stance on human rights. From the report:
The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act would require U.S. companies to guarantee they do not use imprisoned or coerced workers from the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang, where academic researchers estimate the Chinese government has placed more than 1 million people into internment camps. Apple is heavily dependent on Chinese manufacturing, and human rights reports have identified instances in which alleged forced Uighur labor has been used in Apple’s supply chain.
The staffers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks with the company took place in private meetings, said Apple was one of many U.S. companies that oppose the bill as it’s written. They declined to disclose details on the specific provisions Apple was trying to knock down or change because they feared providing that knowledge would identify them to Apple. But they both characterized Apple’s effort as an attempt to water down the bill. “What Apple would like is we all just sit and talk and not have any real consequences,” said Cathy Feingold, director of the international department for the AFL-CIO, which has supported the bill. “They’re shocked because it’s the first time where there could be some actual effective enforceability.”
Kentucky AG, Christian school file emergency request with Supreme Court to keep schools open
Gov ordered schools must shut down in-person learning through 2020
Fox – A private Christian school and the Kentucky attorney general filed an emergency request with the Supreme Court this week, asking justices to rule on a recent executive order halting in-person classes at schools.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who will consider the filing, asked Gov. Andy Beshear to file a response by Friday.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron and Danville Christian School argued that private religious schools should be allowed to open because the “governor’s orders prohibit gathering for religious education while also failing to prohibit gathering for other secular activities.”
“In Kentucky, one can catch a matinee at the movie theater, tour a distillery, work out at the gym, bet at a gambling parlor, shop, go to work, cheer on the Wildcats or the Cardinals, and attend a wedding,” the lawsuit reads.
“A parent can send his or her child to daycare or preschool. And college students can attend classes. But all of Kentucky’s religious schools are shuttered.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Sunday that Beshear’s order to close schools can stand.
“While we all want to get our kids back to in-person instruction, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recognized that doing so now would endanger the health and lives of Kentucky children, educators, and families,” he said in a statement Sunday.
“Almost every county is in the red zone, we have had nearly 10,000 students and staff in quarantine over the past two weeks, our hospitals are on the verge of being overwhelmed and we have lost nearly 1,900 fellow Kentuckians, including health care workers, a teacher, and a 15-year-old student.”
Cameron argues that the governor’s orders infringe on parents’ constitutional rights.
“When you tell folks who send [students] to religious-affiliated schools, which is an act of worship within itself, that they cannot go to school, it infringes upon the First Amendment rights,” Cameron told Fox & Friends Monday.
“You have to have a delicate balance in terms of keeping people safe and respecting the constitutional rights of our citizens. What [Beshear] has done repeatedly is infringe upon the First Amendment free exercise of religion here in the commonwealth of Kentucky.”
Beshear, meanwhile, has argued that his orders treat all schools the same, so they should stand.
Beshear, meanwhile, has argued that his orders treat all schools the same, so they should stand.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed attended French Laundry party the night after Gavin Newsom
Breed is the latest in an increasingly long line of public officials to come under fire for breaking their own coronavirus rules
Fox – San Francisco Mayor London Breed has officially joined the ranks of public officials who have been busted for breaking their own coronavirus guidelines.
A Tuesday report from the San Francisco Chronicle says that the mayor dined at the upscale French Laundry restaurant the day after California Gov. Gavin Newsom was there for a friend’s birthday dinner.
Breed joined seven others on Nov. 7 to celebrate the 60th birthday of socialite Gorretti Lo Lui, a spokesman for the mayor told The Chronicle. Their dining area was reportedly in a partially enclosed room with a ceiling and chandelier – just like Newsom’s birthday dinner.
The French Laundry restaurant is located in Napa County, which at the time did not cap the number of households that could gather. The governor did not implement a new round of lockdowns on “Purple Tier” counties – the most severe level – until about two weeks later. Napa was among the counties that were affected.
Whistleblowers claiming USPS threw out, backdated ballots before election
The claims were announced on the same day the Justice Department said they have found no proof of widespread voter fraud.
Fox – A conservative law firm says that several whistleblowers from the United States Postal Service have come forward, alleging that thousands of ballots in some states were backdated, tampered with, or tossed out ahead of the 2020 election, to the disservice of President Trump, despite the Justice Department announcing Tuesday it has found no proof of widespread voter fraud.
The Amistad Project of the Thomas More Society, which has forged ahead with an independent investigation of alleged voter fraud in several key battleground states that Trump lost, has claimed that the FBI asked them to turn over their findings to their Los Angeles Field Office.
The FBI told Fox News that it’s their “standard practice to neither confirm nor deny the existence of investigations. As such, we will decline further comment.”
On Tuesday, the Amistad Project said that multiple “whistleblowers” lobbed serious accusations of “multi-state illegal efforts by USPS workers to influence the election in at least three of six swing states.”
“Details include potentially hundreds of thousands of completed absentee ballots being transported across three state lines, and a trailer filled with ballots disappearing in Pennsylvania,” the group said.
One subcontractor alleged that over 100,000 ballots were improperly backdated on the day after the election so that they would be counted in Wisconsin, while another said they witnessed a vendor of Dominion machines and election officials in Pennsylvania tampering with voter machines.
The claims bear similarities to debunked lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign in Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, alleging voter fraud in the presidential election.
Attorneys for Trump have alleged, among other things, that Republicans were denied the opportunity to observe the canvassing process, with Trump claiming they have “hundreds and hundreds of affidavits” of witnesses’ personal stories to back their argument up.
However, the so-called proof has not been presented during numerous court hearings, with judges repeatedly ruling against the Trump campaign in most of those states.
On Tuesday, Attorney General William Barr, put a pin in Trump’s declaration of widespread voter fraud as well, telling the Associated Press in an interview that U.S. attorneys and FBI officials have been working to follow up on specific complaints and information they have received, but have not uncovered enough evidence that would change the outcome of the election.
Mysterious monolith ‘disappears’ from Romanian hillside
The Romanian monolith went viral shortly after the discovery of another monolith in a remote Utah desert grabbed international attention.
Fox – A monolith that went viral after appearing on a Romanian hillside mysteriously has “disappeared.”
Local media reported that the strange structure was removed Sunday night, but it’s unclear who took it. Locals reported seeing “strange lights” in the area, according to Jurnalfm.
The monolith in Romania appeared on the plateau of Batca Domnei, according to Romanian news outlet Ziar Piatra Neamt. The metal structure, which was between 9.8 feet and 13.1 feet tall, is near the ancient fortress Petrodava, the outlet said.
The Romanian monolith went viral shortly after the discovery of another monolith in a remote Utah desert.
It sparked plenty of speculation about what it was and how it got here.
The strange structure in Utah also was removed by an unknown party, the state’s Bureau of Land Management confirmed.
During a site visit Saturday, a bureau team said an unknown person or group removed the illegally installed structure referred to as the “monolith” the evening of Nov. 27.
Estimated between 10 feet and 12 feet high and thought to be some kind of metal, it was discovered by state wildlife employees while they were counting sheep from a helicopter. The structure sparked comparisons with a similar-looking slab in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
Despite attempts to keep the mysterious object’s location secret, reports soon emerged of people visiting the site.
Officials said visitors who flocked to the site parked on vegetation and left behind human waste, noting that the undeveloped area does not have restrooms or a parking lot.
Police won’t be opening a major investigation into the mysterious silver-colored monolith. The sheriff in San Juan County says the office doesn’t have the resources to devote much time and energy to the taking of the object. It was illegal to begin with, because it was placed without permission amid red rocks on a remote section of public land. Its creator also remains a mystery.
Trump’s coattails pulled hundreds of Republicans over the goal line in 2020
Fox – It’s not exactly clear how it happened. No one expected it, least of all the media and pollsters. But that promised big blue wave of Democratic victories across the country turned instead into a red tidal wave from coast to coast. Most progressive ballot issues in the states — from tax increases to racial preferences — also came crashing down.
A big reason for this turnaround in the election was the massive turnout for President Donald Trump on Election Day. The irony is that Trump’s coattails pulled hundreds of Republicans over the goal line — but they didn’t save him from a razor-tight defeat.
So, how deep were the losses for the Democrats? In the U.S. House, Nancy Pelosi thought her troops would gain 10 to 12 seats. Instead, they lost, at last count, nine.
But the real carnage was in the statehouses. Hold on to your hats; here is the latest from our allies at the American Legislative Exchange Council. The GOP gained a total of 192 House and 40 Senate seats. Republicans flipped control of three chambers.
As a result of these big and improbable wins, Republicans now have majority control in both House and Senate chambers in 31 of 50 states. Democrats have control in only 18 states. That’s a map of the USA that looks awfully red throughout middle America, with only the rusting Northeast and the West Coast colored blue.
What is truly stunning about this story is that Democrats and liberal/progressive donors (Michael Bloomberg, George Soros, Mark Zuckerberg, et al.) poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the states to take over legislatures with unprecedented spending in Florida, Texas and Pennsylvania.
Reasons why the 2020 presidential election is deeply puzzling
If only cranks find the tabulations strange, put me down as a crank
The Spectator – To say out-loud that you find the results of the 2020 presidential election odd is to invite derision. You must be a crank or a conspiracy theorist. Mark me down as a crank, then. I am a pollster and I find this election to be deeply puzzling. I also think that the Trump campaign is still well within its rights to contest the tabulations. Something very strange happened in America’s democracy in the early hours of Wednesday November 4 and the days that followed. It’s reasonable for a lot of Americans to want to find out exactly what.
First, consider some facts. President Trump received more votes than any previous incumbent seeking reelection. He got 11 million more votes than in 2016, the third largest rise in support ever for an incumbent. By way of comparison, President Obama was comfortably reelected in 2012 with 3.5 million fewer votes than he received in 2008.
Trump’s vote increased so much because, according to exit polls, he performed far better with many key demographic groups. Ninety-five percent of Republicans voted for him. He did extraordinarily well with rural male working-class whites.
Trump grew his support among black voters by 50 percent over 2016. Nationally, Joe Biden’s black support fell well below 90 percent, the level below which Democratic presidential candidates usually lose.
Trump increased his share of the national Hispanic vote to 35 percent. With 60 percent or less of the national Hispanic vote, it is arithmetically impossible for a Democratic presidential candidate to win Florida, Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico. Bellwether states swung further in Trump’s direction than in 2016. Florida, Ohio and Iowa each defied America’s media polls with huge wins for Trump. Since 1852, only Richard Nixon has lost the Electoral College after winning this trio, and that 1960 defeat to John F. Kennedy is still the subject of great suspicion.
Midwestern states Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin always swing in the same direction as Ohio and Iowa, their regional peers. Ohio likewise swings with Florida. Current tallies show that, outside of a few cities, the Rust Belt swung in Trump’s direction. Yet, Biden leads in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin because of an apparent avalanche of black votes in Detroit, Philadelphia, and Milwaukee. Biden’s ‘winning’ margin was derived almost entirely from such voters in these cities, as coincidentally his black vote spiked only in exactly the locations necessary to secure victory. He did not receive comparable levels of support among comparable demographic groups in comparable states, which is highly unusual for the presidential victor.
We are told that Biden won more votes nationally than any presidential candidate in history. But he won a record low of 17 percent of counties; he only won 524 counties, as opposed to the 873 counties Obama won in 2008. Yet, Biden somehow outdid Obama in total votes.
Victorious presidential candidates, especially challengers, usually have down-ballot coattails; Biden did not. The Republicans held the Senate and enjoyed a ‘red wave’ in the House, where they gained a large number of seats while winning all 27 toss-up contests. Trump’s party did not lose a single state legislature and actually made gains at the state level.
Another anomaly is found in the comparison between the polls and non-polling metrics. The latter include: party registrations trends; the candidates’ respective primary votes; candidate enthusiasm; social media followings; broadcast and digital media ratings; online searches; the number of (especially small) donors; and the number of individuals betting on each candidate.
Despite poor recent performances, media and academic polls have an impressive 80 percent record predicting the winner during the modern era. But, when the polls err, non-polling metrics do not; the latter have a 100 percent record. Every non-polling metric forecast Trump’s reelection. For Trump to lose this election, the mainstream polls needed to be correct, which they were not. Furthermore, for Trump to lose, not only did one or more of these metrics have to be wrong for the first time ever, but every single one had to be wrong, and at the very same time; not an impossible outcome, but extremely unlikely nonetheless.
Atypical voting patterns married with misses by polling and non-polling metrics should give observers pause for thought. Adding to the mystery is a cascade of information about the bizarre manner in which so many ballots were accumulated and counted.
Protest held outside OSHA inspector’s home after Salem gym fined $90K for staying open
Fox – People rallied outside the home of an OSHA inspector who fined a Salem area gym on Sunday.
As part of the two-week state freeze gyms and fitness centers were required to close.
But Courthouse Club Fitness didn’t and was fined $90,000 for remaining open.
Sunday people who are against the freeze and restrictions gathered outside the inspector’s home in Silverton to make their voice heard and show their support for the gym.
“We want these people to understand we don’t want them writing fines or taking people to jail privately and being able to run and hide,” Joey Gibson said. “We want them to understand the people will respond and we will support these businesses that stay open 100 percent whether it be financially or bodies, whatever it is they need we will support them.”
Biden selects anti-supplement crusader for covid-19 task force
Alliance for Natural Health – Dr. David Kessler, an anti-supplement crusader, drug industry adviser, and former FDA Commissioner, has been named to Biden’s COVID-19 task force. We must push back. Action Alert!
Dr. Kessler has been named co-chair of President-elect Joe Biden’s COVID-19 task force. Dr. Kessler was FDA commissioner between 1990 and 1997. During that time, Kessler demonstrated his hostility towards the dietary supplement industry. The last thing we need is someone who is diametrically opposed to natural medicine in a position of power, particularly concerning how our country deals with a virus against which natural medicines like zinc, potassium, and vitamin D have demonstrated efficacy.
The record on Dr. Kessler is clear. In 1993, he took aim at the supplement industry by trying to limit the health claims supplements could make under the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990. This law gave the FDA the authority to approve disease-prevention claims for food, including supplements (for example, “adequate calcium throughout life may reduce the risk of osteoporosis”)—but Dr. Kessler said the FDA would not approve any of the proposed claims for supplements. He stood before Congress that same year and compared the supplement industry to “snake oil salesmen.”
Ironically, Dr. Kessler’s aggressive campaign against supplements led to a grassroots movement in favor of supplements culminating in the landmark Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA). Industry observers note that Dr. Kessler was “so infuriated by the enactment of DSHEA that he ordered the FDA not to enforce the new law.” Former FDA officials subsequently admitted that the goal of this policy of non-enforcement was to allow the worst aspects of the supplement industry to run wild in hope that the law would be repealed. Thankfully, his plan failed, but this episode demonstrates the extreme measures Dr. Kessler was willing to pursue to undermine supplement access.
Dr. Kessler also serves as board chair for the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s (CSPI) Board of Directors. It is a fitting post for Dr. Kessler, as CSPI shares his negative views on dietary supplements. In particular, CSPI worked to eliminate legal structure/function claims for dietary supplements. (A structure/function claim describes the role of a nutrient on the structure or function of the body, such as “calcium builds strong bones,” or “antioxidants maintain cell integrity.”)
There is also speculation that Dr. Kessler is being considered for a more prominent role in govern
CDC to release revised guidance reducing COVID-19 quarantine time from 14 days to 7-10
The CDC is expected to announce that quarantine can end on Day 7, after receiving a negative test result, or on Day 10, without testing.
Fox – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to release revised guidance on quarantine time for those who may have been exposed to the novel coronavirus from 14 days to 7 days, for those who have received a negative test, and 10 days for those who have not been tested, Fox News has learned.
Fox News obtained an internal CDC document on Tuesday which outlined the proposed changes. A source told Fox News that the changes have been discussed with and approved by the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
The CDC is expected to release the revised guidance on Wednesday, a source told Fox News.
“Quarantine is used to keep someone who might have been exposed to COVID-19 away from others. Quarantine helps prevent spread of disease that can occur before a person knows they have the virus,” the document states. “CDC and other scientists have explored changing the current recommendation to quarantine for 14 days.”
“Reducing the length of quarantine may increase compliance by reducing economic hardship,” the document continues. “In addition, the reduction in time will lessen stress on the public health system, especially when new infections are rapidly rising.”
The document states that “based on local resources, quarantine can end on Day 7 after receiving a negative test result” or on “Day 10 without testing.”
“After stopping quarantine, you should: watch for symptoms until 14 days after exposure; if you have symptoms, immediately self-isolate and contact your local public health authority or healthcare provider; wear a mask, stay at least 6 feet from others, wash your hands, avoid crowds, and take other steps to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” the document states.
The document adds, however, that the CDC “continues to recommend quarantine for 14 days to more completely reduce the risk of spread of COVID-19.”
“CDC recognizes that any quarantine shorter than 14 days balances reduced burden against a small possibility of spreading the virus,” the document states. “These recommendations are based on what we know now.”
The document added that: “CDC will continue to evaluate new information and update recommendations as needed.”
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