On Tuesday a ripple of freedom announced by Texas Governor Greg Abbott began growing into a red, white and blue wave as other states began making more pro-freedom announcements.
And in a shocking turn of events, on Tuesday the New York legislature voted to repeal Governor Andrew Cuomo’s emergency powers in the wake of several devastating scandals that have included his administration lying about COVID deaths, denying the nursing home scandal and a some nasty sexual harassment accusations that prompted an apology from Chris Cuomo’s brother earlier in the week.
(Bloomberg) — New York legislative leaders announced an agreement to curb emergency powers granted to Governor Andrew Cuomo at the start of the pandemic, in the latest blow to his tenure amid growing calls to resign over dual scandals.
“These temporary emergency powers were granted as New York was devastated by a virus we knew nothing about,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said in a statement. “Now it is time for our government to return to regular order.”
RedState’s Shipwrecked Crew covered the details of the deal and broke down why this action is so important – both for New York State residents and those living in other blue states governed by hypocritical dictators who don’t follow the science (looking at you, Gavin).
Six Dr. Seuss books — including “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” and “If I Ran the Zoo” — will stop being published because of racist and insensitive imagery, the business that preserves and protects the author’s legacy said Tuesday.
“These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong,” Dr. Seuss Enterprises told The Associated Press in a statement that coincided with the late author and illustrator’s birthday.
“Ceasing sales of these books is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure Dr. Seuss Enterprises’ catalog represents and supports all communities and families,” it said.
The other books affected are “McElligot’s Pool,” “On Beyond Zebra!,” “Scrambled Eggs Super!,” and “The Cat’s Quizzer.”
The decision to cease publication and sales of the books was made last year after months of discussion, the company told AP.
“Dr. Seuss Enterprises listened and took feedback from our audiences including teachers, academics and specialists in the field as part of our review process. We then worked with a panel of experts, including educators, to review our catalog of titles,” it said.
Books by Dr. Seuss — who was born Theodor Seuss Geisel in Springfield, Massachusetts, on March 2, 1904 —- have been translated into dozens of languages as well as in braille and are sold in more than 100 countries. He died in 1991.
He remains popular, earning an estimated $33 million before taxes in 2020, up from just $9.5 million five years ago, the company said. Forbes listed him No. 2 on its highest-paid dead celebrities of 2020, behind only the late pop star Michael Jackson.
As adored as Dr. Seuss is by millions around the world for the positive values in many of his works, including environmentalism and tolerance, there has been increasing criticism in recent years over the way Blacks, Asians, and others are drawn in some of his most beloved children’s books, as well as in his earlier advertising and propaganda illustrations.
The National Education Association, which founded Read Across America Day in 1998 and deliberately aligned it with Geisel’s birthday, has for several years deemphasized Seuss and encouraged a more diverse reading list for children.
School districts across the country have also moved away from Dr. Seuss, prompting Loudoun County, Virginia, schools just outside Washington, D.C., to douse rumors last month that they were banning the books entirely.
“Research in recent years has revealed strong racial undertones in many books written/illustrated by Dr. Seuss,” the school district said in a statement.
In 2017, a school librarian in Cambridge, Massachusetts, criticized a gift of 10 Seuss books from first lady Melania Trump, saying many of his works were “steeped in racist propaganda, caricatures, and harmful stereotypes.”
In 2018, a Dr. Seuss museum in his hometown of Springfield removed a mural that included an Asian stereotype.
“The Cat in the Hat,” one of Seuss’ most popular books, has received criticism, too, but will continue to be published for now.
Dr. Seuss Enterprises, however, said it is “committed to listening and learning and will continue to review our entire portfolio.”
Numerous other popular children’s series have been criticized in recent years for alleged racism.
In the 2007 book, “Should We Burn Babar?,” the author and educator Herbert R. Kohl contended that the “Babar the Elephant” books were celebrations of colonialism because of how the title character leaves the jungle and later returns to “civilize” his fellow animals.
One of the books, “Babar’s Travels,” was removed from the shelves of a British library in 2012 because of its alleged stereotypes of Africans. Critics also have faulted the “Curious George” books for their premise of a white man bringing home a monkey from Africa.
And Laura Ingalls Wilder’s portrayals of Native Americans in her “Little House On the Prairie” novels have been faulted so often that the American Library Association removed her name in 2018 from a lifetime achievement award it gives out each year.
The governor of Texas on Tuesday ended his statewide mask mandate while allowing all businesses in the state to fully reopen.
“With the medical advancements of vaccines and antibody therapeutic drugs, Texas now has the tools to protect Texans from the virus. We must now do more to restore livelihoods and normalcy for Texans by opening Texas 100 percent,” Gov. Greg Abbott said during an address to the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce at Montelongo’s restaurant.
“Make no mistake, COVID-19 has not disappeared, but it is clear from the recoveries, vaccinations, reduced hospitalizations, and safe practices that Texans are using that state mandates are no longer needed. Today’s announcement does not abandon safe practices that Texans have mastered over the past year. Instead, it is a reminder that each person has a role to play in their own personal safety and the safety of others. With this executive order, we are ensuring that all businesses and families in Texas have the freedom to determine their own destiny,” the Republican added.
Abbott signed an order in July 2020 requiring masks be worn in public spaces in most counties, with some exceptions, including for those younger than 10 years of age.
“Wearing a face covering in public is proven to be one of the most effective ways we have to slow the spread of COVID-19,” he said at the time.
Texas is one of the most populous states in America, with nearly 29 million residents.
Abbott on Tuesday said nearly 2.5 million Texans have been confirmed through laboratory testing to have recovered from COVID-19, and that health officials say the real number of recoveries is typically four to five times the number of those who officially tested positive and recovered.
“Mathematically, what that means is that approximately 10 million Texans—or really more—have recovered from COVID and have the proven ability to beat the disease,” he said.
A customer exits a store with a mask required sign displayed in Dallas, Texas on March 2, 2021. (LM Otero/AP Photo)
In addition, more than 5.7 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the state, and the number of doses available is expected to ramp up in the near future with the recent approval of Johnson & Johnson’s shot.
“Now all of these advancements and events have led to remarkable improvements. Hospitalizations are the lowest that they have been in four months. The number of active COVID cases is the lowest since November, and is less than half of what it was just a month ago. That means that far more Texans are recovering from COVID than contracting it. Also, today is the lowest positivity rate we’ve had in four months,” he said in Lubbock.
Abbott’s new order states that if COVID-19 hospitalizations in any of the 22 hospital regions in Texas rise above 15 percent of bed capacity in that region for seven consecutive days, then a county judge may use different strategies to address the situation. He said he doesn’t think the threshold will be met.
Texas is one of a growing number of states loosening restrictions as the number of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths drop across the nation.
But Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director, said Monday that she was worried about states rolling back restrictions.
“Please hear me clearly: At this level of cases, with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained. These variants are a very real threat to our people and our progress. Now is not the time to relax the critical safeguards that we know can stop the spread of COVID-19 in our communities, not when we are so close,” she said.
Michigan National Guard troops deployed to the U.S. Capitol were served undercooked chicken and dishes with metal shavings, according to reports.
The tainted meals made many soldiers sick, prompting the Army to change the menu from hot food to packaged meals ready to eat (MREs).
Soldiers from the Michigan National Guard who are protecting the US Capitol in DC have been fed undercooked, and underwhelming meals. One Staff Sgt. tells me that metal fragments were found in meals on Sunday. Our first @wxyzdetroit report: pic.twitter.com/YFSK6sSo8m
“Soldiers from the Michigan National Guard who are protecting the US. Capitol in D.C. have been fed undercooked and underwhelming meals,” tweeted WXYX 7 Action News reporter Brian Abel. “One Staff Sgt tells me that metal fragments were found in meals on Sunday.”
A whistleblower told 7 Action News “nearly 75 meals were thrown out Sunday after metal shavings were found, other meals showed up undercooked making soldiers sick.”
The problem is not isolated, according to the anonymous staff sergeant with the Michigan National Guard, whose identity 7 Action News is protecting.
“Yesterday, for instance, there were 74 different meals found with raw beef in them,” the sergeant said. “Just yesterday, the lunches were, soldiers had found metal shavings in their food.”
Both food quality and quantity are an issue, as a catering company’s breakfast was so skimpy the Guardsmen were served only a dinner roll and fruit juice. Some soldiers even bought their own meals instead.
“You were getting maybe a Danish and some sort of juice,” said the sergeant. “And then we had certain days where it was clearly a dinner role and Sunny D.”
After more than a dozen soldiers became sick, some going to the hospital, the matter went up the chain of command, after which there was a noticeable change on the boxes being delivered.
“They said alright, we’re going to make sure we spot check them. And we’re also going to start having them add temperatures to it,” said the whistleblower. “At 140, you cook that chicken, undercook it to 140, and now you’re telling… you’re telling us that it’s… a 30-minute drive. This is what they say on the little placard that’s (inaudible) good for four hours. No, it’s not. It wasn’t good from the start and now it’s had hours to become even more dangerous.”
Less than .01 percent of the catered meals appear to be undercooked, according to Lt. Col. Robert Carver, director of the DC Joint Information Center, reports The Epoch Times.
Carver also said that 78,000 meals were provided daily when nearly 26,000 Guard members were in Washington at the peak of the current mission.
Approximately 5,200 members from various states are still in Washington. Some 18,000 meals are being provided per day.
“That adds up to more than 1.2 million meals since the mission started. With that volume of catered meals, you would expect to see issues with some of them, and we have. At the end of the day, it’s in the military’s best interest to identify and solve problems that could adversely impact the ability of our force to perform the mission,” said Carver.
“There have been no cases of food-borne illness reported. We’re working with our contractors to address concerns. We go to their places of business and spot-check meals for cooking temperature and overall quality. We examine the kitchens for safety and cleanliness. Vendor facilities have been inspected multiple times, and no substantial issues have been recorded. Contracting personnel visit the D.C. Armory daily during the delivery of meals. We observe the deliveries, take pictures of the meals and talk to soldiers on the line about the food they get,” he said.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office was informed, after which the governor called acting Army Secretary John E. Whitley at the Pentagon and insisted the food was “unacceptable.”
Rep. Brenda Lawrence also plans on eating with the Michigan National Guard this week to inspect the food herself.
“I’m pushing for an immediate fix to this problem,” Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mi.) wrote in a tweet on Tuesday.
Sen. Gary Peters (Mi.-D) sent a letter on Monday to Mr. Whitley: “I write to convey my disappointment and frustration regarding the inadequate food and meal procurement for the Soldiers and Airmen of the National Guard currently protecting the Capitol building and the wider National Capital Region.”
New this morning:@SenGaryPeters pens letter to Acting Secretary of the Army and Chief of National Guard Bureau. "I believe that the only appropriate course of action is for the immediate cancellation of the existing food contract, the disbursement of per diem…" pic.twitter.com/xikXzPz4Ni
The men and women of @MINationalGuard are in DC protecting the Capitol: the very symbol of our democracy.
This is completely outrageous and unacceptable. It must be fixed—immediately—and I’ll be looking into this as a member of @SASCDems. https://t.co/pljwfAh0Zq
— Senator Gary Peters (@SenGaryPeters) March 2, 2021
“It has come to light that Guard Soldiers and Airmen are receiving undercooked unsanitary and inadequate meals provided through private catering companies,” said Peters.
The National Guard released the below statement in response to the allegations:
The Michigan National Guard finds the reports of undercooked and poorly prepared food provided to our service members in Washington, D.C. very concerning. The firsthand accounts and pictures of undercooked food being served clearly shows that what is being given to Michigan’s service members is unacceptable. As soon as the first reports were received, Governor Gretchen Whitmer called Acting Secretary of the Army John E. Whitley to communicate Michigan’s concerns. Other Michigan senior leaders also engaged at the highest levels of the federal government to inform those in charge and to ensure that they knew of our displeasure with the conditions. Every assurance was given that the issue would be addressed and corrected.
The Post Inaugural Security Mission is a multi-state taskforce, including Michigan’s 1000 personnel, under the command and control of the Washington D.C. National Guard. A decision was made by the leadership in Washington, D.C., to provide contracted meal service for the troops there. This contract was awarded and is monitored by the National Guard Bureau. Michigan’s Adjutant General has communicated all concerns directly to the Chief of the National Guard, General Daniel R. Hokanson, who has engaged to address the reported shortcomings of the current food service contract.
The health and wellbeing of our Michigan National Guard service members is paramount to their success as they continue to serve in missions in the United States and around the globe. Senior leaders of the Michigan National Guard will remain personally engaged with this issue and will continue to push for accountability and a solution to the ill-prepared meals being served.
The troops are scheduled to return back to Michigan shortly after March 12, the agreed upon end date for this deployment.
The report comes as Republicans who consider the continued military presence unnecessary at this point call on Biden to end the post-Jan. 6 riot deployment.
Michigan has 983 members in Washington.
Troops are supporting the Secret Service and the U.S. Capitol Police.
The Pentagon is planning to keep 7,000National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. through Mar. 12, pulling back to 5,000 later on.
Days after the FDA approved J&J’s COVID vaccine for emergency use, the company announced plans to test the vaccine on newborns, despite the vaccine’s risks and strong evidence that COVID poses virtually no risk to healthy children.
On Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Emergency Use Authorization for Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) COVID vaccine, paving the way for the one-shot vaccine to be administered beginning this week.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also recommended the vaccine for people 18 and older. On Sunday, J&J revealed plans to test its one-shot vaccine on infants, including newborns, pregnant women and the immunocompromised. The expanded clinical trials were laid out in the company’s application for emergency use approval and in briefing materials provided to the FDA and discussed briefly during the meeting.
According to the New York Times, the plan for expanded clinical trials met the approval of Dr. Ofer Levy, director of the Precision Vaccines Program at Harvard’s Boston Children’s Hospital and a member of the FDA’s advisory committee that reviewed the company’s vaccine data.
When Levy saw the outlines of the planned trials, he said: “They did not get into a lot of detail about it but did make it clear they will be pursuing pediatric and maternal coronavirus immunization studies.”
A spokesperson for Janssen Biotech, a J&J subsidiary, confirmed the company plans to extend clinical trials to children –– first to children between the ages of 12 and 18, and immediately after to newborns and adolescents, then to pregnant women and immunocompromised individuals.
Levy noted vaccinating children will help the country reach herd immunity, echoing comments made by Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, during Sunday’s Meet the Press:
“Vaccinating young people will be necessary to approach herd immunity and significantly slow the spread of COVID-19 in the United States. While they typically have fewer symptoms than adults with COVID-19, children can still spread the disease.”
Immunologist Tetyana Obukhanych, Ph.D., and others agree that officials use the concept of herd immunity as a “trump card to justify any measures, often at odds with personal freedom of choice, aiming to increase vaccination compliance,” The Defender reported.
Most of the world’s vaccine market is pediatric vaccines, according to the Times, so it’s not surprising that J&J would be looking to capitalize on a relatively untapped market for its coronavirus vaccine.As The Defender reported in February, Bill Gates set the stage for a pediatric push last year, declaring his desire to make COVID-19 vaccines “part of the routine newborn immunization schedule” despite the fact that 99.997% of young people ages 0-19 survive COVID-19 with most experiencing either mild or no symptoms at all.
A study published in the European Journal of Pediatrics showed only a rare subset of children — mostly children with serious underlying medical conditions — experienced hospitalization or worse from COVID.
The CDC states: “COVID-19 is uncommon in newborns born to mothers who had COVID-19 during pregnancy. Some newborns have tested positive for COVID-19 shortly after birth, but it is unknown when they may have been exposed to the virus. Most infants and newborns who tested positive for COVID-19 had mild or no symptoms and recovered.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, “While all children are capable of getting the virus that causes COVID-19, they don’t become sick as often as adults. Most children have mild symptoms or no symptoms.”
The potential adverse effects of J&J’s experimental vaccine remain relatively unknown. Unlike Moderna and Pfizer’sCOVID-19 vaccines that rely on new mRNA technology, J&J utilized a disabled adenovirus in their vaccine. Existing adenovirus vaccines include the controversial Ebola vaccine and respiratory syncytial virus.
“Do we really want to enlist our children in the war against an infectious disease when they are at little or no risk of getting COVID,” asked Lyn Redwood, RN, MSN, director and past president of Children’s Health Defense.
“After all, these vaccines are medical interventions that the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized as being unavoidably unsafe. We have to ask ourselves this difficult question: Is the potential risk to infants or children worth the potential benefit for society?”
The FDA found J&J’s COVID vaccine to be only 67% effective in preventing moderate to severe symptoms at least 14 days after vaccination, and 66% effective in preventing moderate to severe symptoms at least 28 days after vaccination.
Although Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccines are purportedly 95% and 94% effective, these vaccine-makers have less aggressive plans to test their vaccines in younger age groups, reported the Times.
Two more COVID vaccines from AstraZeneca and Novavax are completing phase 3 clinical trials and are expected to apply for FDA authorization in the spring.
Biden’s administration announced today that J&J has partnered with pharmaceutical giant Merck to produce its COVID-19 vaccine, a senior administration official confirmed to CNBC News.
The announcement comes as the administration works to ramp up production of J&J ’s vaccine. In January, Merck scrapped plans to develop its own COVID vaccine after a clinical trial showed its shot was ineffective.
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves, a Republican, announced on Tuesday that he was lifting the mask mandates in his state effective tomorrow and that businesses in the state would be able to return to operating at full capacity.
“Starting tomorrow, we are lifting all of our county mask mandates and businesses will be able to operate at full capacity without any state-imposed rules,” Reeves said on Twitter. “Our hospitalizations and case numbers have plummeted, and the vaccine is being rapidly distributed. It is time!”
“Executive orders that interfered with peoples’ lives were the worst, but the only possible, intervention for much of the last year,” Reeves said. “Now, we are putting our focus towards rapid vaccine distribution. We are getting out of the business of telling people what they can and cannot do.”
“We’ve been among the 4 or 5 most open states throughout this crisis, and we’ve been rewarded for it with more jobs and economic recovery,” Reeves continued. “That’s not because what we put in place was a light burden. It’s only because the rest of the country was so harsh. That’s good, but we need to recognize that none of these orders, in any state, are anything short of unprecedented. They have to end at the earliest possible moment. This is that moment for Mississippi.”
The announcement from Reeves came shortly after Texas Governor Greg Abbott, also a Republican, announced on Tuesday afternoon that his state was ending the state’s mask mandate and would allow businesses to return to full capacity starting next week.
“Too many Texans have been sidelined from employment opportunities,” Abbott said. “Too many small business owners have struggled to pay their bills. This must end. It is now time to open Texas 100%.”
“So today, I’m issuing a new executive order that rescinds most of the earlier executive orders,” Abbott said. “Effective next Wednesday, all businesses of any type are allowed to open 100%. That includes any type of entity in Texas. Also, I’m ending the statewide mask mandate.”
At least four Christian men recently suffered serious injuries after they were stabbed, forced to eat pages of the Bible, and had “crosses” etched into their skin by eight hooded men, according to a persecution watchdog organization.
Venezuela: Christians forced to eat pages of the Bible during horrific knife attack https://t.co/GU0biLunUj
The attack by men suspected to be criminals from a drug gang took place at Restoration House in the city of Libertador on Feb. 16, Open Doors reported Friday. Restoration House is a church-led drug rehabilitation center in Venezuela’s Mérida State.
The charity, which works with persecuted churches in over 60 nations, explained that Christians, who deter people from criminal lifestyles, are often seen as a threat to the illegal activities of drug gangs in Latin America.
“The criminals covered our faces and started to beat and stab us,” a victim was quoted as saying. “They drew ‘X’ on our bodies and forced us to eat the Bible.”
Christians forced to eat Bible during attack in Venezuela
While the four Christians have been discharged from the hospital, one of them remains in poor health due to two broken ribs and injuries to his lungs and head. Two others had casts put on their legs and arms.
“Weeks before the attack, in the middle of a meeting discussing neighborhood issues, two men said they were going to end the Restoration House because they did not agree with this type of program,” Pastor Dugarte, who founded the center with his wife, told Open Doors.
Pastor Dugarte remains strong in his faith, and he will carry on with the ministry in the predominantly Roman Catholic country.
Calling for an investigation, the Evangelical Council of Venezuela attributed the attack to “hatred towards religion,” according to Premier Christian News.
Christians knifed, forced to eat pages of the Bible in horrific Venezuela attack – Premier Christian News | Headlines, Breaking News, Comment & Analysis https://t.co/fzz4L5kavI
“The cutting of crosses into the bodies of these young Christians, and the forced eating of pages of the Bible is deeply disturbing,” Dr. David Landrum, Open Doors UK’s director of advocacy and public affairs, was quoted as saying.
“This premeditated attack has all the hallmarks of the local ‘collectives’ of the Maduro regime. This shows how Venezuela has become a dictatorial narco-state which is violently opposed to the drugs rehabilitation work of the church.”
Open Doors noted that while Venezuela is not in its 2021 World Watch List of the top-50 countries where Christians are persecuted, Christian persecution in other parts of Latin America is increasing.
President Nicolás Maduro has been in office since 2013. In 2017, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions against Venezuelan government officials and others accused of “undermining democracy in Venezuela.”
“Under Maduro, the Venezuelan government has deliberately and repeatedly abused the rights of citizens through the use of violence, repression, and criminalization of demonstrations,” the department said in a statement at the time. “At his direction, the regime’s security forces have systematically repressed and criminalized opposition parties through arbitrary detention, military prosecution of civilians, and the excessive use of force against demonstrators. Any member of the opposition or critic of the regime risks being detained, imprisoned, assaulted, tortured, and assassinated.”
Maduro’s victory in the 2018 election was denounced as fraudulent by several countries, including the United States.
Anna Ruch, 33, had never met Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) before a New York City wedding reception in September 2019.
According to a report, the governor was working the room after toasting the newlyweds, and when he came upon Ruch, she thanked him for his kind words about her friends.
Cuomo “put his hand on Ruch’s bare lower back,” she said in an interview on Monday.
When she removed his hand with her own, the report cited:
Ruch recalled the governor remarked that she seemed ‘aggressive’ and placed his hands on her cheeks. He asked if he could kiss her, ‘loudly enough for a friend standing nearby to hear.’ Ruch was bewildered by the entreaty and pulled away as the governor drew closer.
“I was so confused and shocked and embarrassed,” said Ruch, whose recollection was corroborated by the friend, contemporaneous text messages and photographs from the event. “I turned my head away and didn’t have words in that moment.”
“He said, ‘Can I kiss you?’” Ruch said. “I felt so uncomfortable and embarrassed when really he is the one who should have been embarrassed.” Apparently, per the report, a friend captured the exchange in a series of photographs taken on Ruch’s cellphone.
Ruch later said she had to ask a friend if Cuomo’s lips had made contact with her face as she pulled away. The governor had kissed her cheek, she was told. Ruch said:
It’s the act of impunity that strikes me. I didn’t have a choice in that matter. I didn’t have a choice in his physical dominance over me at that moment. And that’s what infuriates me. And even with what I could do, removing his hand from my lower back, even doing that was not clear enough.
Ruch said she posed for a photograph with Cuomo afterward. Once the governor walked away, Ruch’s friend approached her with a look of alarm.
Ruch’s account comes after two former aides accused Cuomo of sexual harassment in the workplace, plunging his third term into turmoil as the governor’s defenders and Cuomo himself strain to explain his behavior.
“The women who have come forward with serious and credible charges against Governor Cuomo deserve to be heard and to be treated with dignity,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. “The independent investigation must have due process and respect for everyone involved.”
New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo released a statement on Sunday afternoon apologizing for his behavior after two women came forward and claimed that he sexually harassed them while they worked in his administration.
The statement from Cuomo comes after “Lindsey Boylan, a candidate for Manhattan borough president who formerly worked for Cuomo and the state’s economic development agency, revealed in a blog post on Wednesday that the governor had kissed her without her consent and asked her to play strip poker,” Politico reported. “Then, on Saturday, The New York Times reported that Charlotte Bennett, a former executive assistant and health policy adviser to Cuomo, was also sexually harassed by the governor, including inappropriate questions about her sex life.”
“Questions have been raised about some of my past interactions with people in the office,” the statement began. “I never intended to offend anyone or cause any harm. I spend most of my life at work, and colleagues are often also personal friends. At work sometimes I think I am being playful and make jokes that I think are funny. I do, on occasion, tease people in what I think is a good natured way. I do it in public and in private. You have seen me do it at briefings hundreds of times. I have teased people about their personal lives, their relationships, about getting married or not getting married.”
“I mean no offense and only attempt to add some levity and banter to what is a very serious business,” Cuomo continued. “I now understand that my interactions may have been insensitive or too personal and that some of my comments, given my position, made others feel in ways I never intended. I acknowledge some of the things I have said have been misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation. To the extent anyone felt that way, I am truly sorry about that.”
“To be clear I never inappropriately touched anybody and I never propositioned anybody and I never intended to make anyone feel uncomfortable, but these are allegations that New Yorkers deserve answers to,” the statement concluded. “That’s why I have asked for an outside, independent review that looks at these allegations. Separately, my office has heard anecdotally that some people have reached out to Ms. Bennett to express displeasure about her coming forward. My message to anyone doing that is you have misjudged what matters to me and my administration and you should stop now – period.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki discussed the issue on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday and suggested that Biden believed the essence of the claims that were being made.
“Charlotte should be treated with respect and dignity. So should Lindsey,” Psaki said. “And there should be an independent review looking into these allegations. And that’s certainly something [Biden] supports and we believe should move forward as quickly as possible.”
Reiner Fuellmich and Viviane Fischer, attorneys and founding members of the German Corona Investigative Committee, interview a caregiver in a Berlin nursing home who describes what happened during and after the rollout of Pfizer’s COVID vaccine.
In this 40-minute video, Reiner Fuellmich and his associate Viviane Fischer, attorneys and founding members of the German Corona Investigative Committee, interview an unidentified whistleblower at a nursing home in Berlin, Germany.
The whistleblower, a caregiver, describes what happened at the care facility during and after the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. The whistleblower’s voice has been distorted to protect the individual’s identity, and is in German with English subtitles.
The whistleblower describes how seven of 31 nursing home residents with dementia died after the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, and an eighth was near death at the time the interview was recorded.
After the second dose, 11 more residents became seriously ill and one more died.
In other words, 25% of the residents died immediately, and 36% were severely injured within a short time.
The video contains de-identified footage from the nursing home, where a team of three or four people, including a soldier in uniform, vaccinate residents, in many cases using force. The footage is troubling as it shows some people resisting the shots, being being vaccinated nonetheless.
Fischer has filed a complaint on behalf of the whistleblower with prosecutors and the police. They seek an investigation by law enforcement and publicity about this information to halt further deaths.
An investigation into the deaths at this particular nursing home won’t be the first investigation into deaths among elderly in care facilities, after being vaccinated with a COVID vaccine — there have been many reports of elderly people dying after the vaccines.
In January, officials in Norway and Germany said they were looking into deaths following the vaccine. Last month, in Spain, officials temporarily halted vaccines after 46 nursing home residents died after getting the vaccine.
Children’s Health Defense is working closely with Fuellmich and his associates at the German Corona Investigative Committee to seek information and justice regarding COVID-19.
Throughout the midsection of the United States in February, record frigid temperatures were inconvenient for those politicians who call global warming an “existential threat.”
Global warming is already here, we are told. However, it didn’t feel like it if you lived in Bismarck, North Dakota, where temperatures fell to decades-low numbers, or in Chicago, Oklahoma City, Dallas, or Houston. San Antonio had snow for the first time in recent memory.
The environmental apocalyptics say this doesn’t prove anything about what is happening with the planet’s climate. And you know what? They are 100 percent correct.
But last summer, when hundreds of thousands of acres burned in California, that event was prima-facie evidence of global warming, and if you challenged that premise, you faced ridicule as a “denier.”
About 10 years ago, when Barack Obama was president, his scientists put out a silly report on climate change, showing that the Great Lakes’ ice coverage had fallen to its lowest level in several decades. It was evidence of a warming planet. But the year after the report came out, we had a frigid winter in the Midwest, and the ice cover was abnormally high. This year, we are again experiencing high ice levels on the Great Lakes with the polar vortex.
Whoops. Again, this proves nothing, but the environmentalists made the point in the first place. OK, what’s the following argument?
One of the climate change movement’s ironies is that it talks obsessively about science and the “scientific consensus.” Still, collectively, the adherents suffer from one of the most common scientific reasoning flaws: confirmation bias. This happens when you point to anything supporting a hypothesis as evidence and discount anything contradicting the theory as an outlier. Ice melting means global warming. Ice forming is a natural, expected winter occurrence.
Here is a classic example from The New York Times, which tries to ridicule anyone who would point to the cold weather as a contradiction to the global apocalypse narrative: “Those who deny climate science love to declare that there’s no such thing as climate change whenever the weather turns cold.”
Wrong. The left declares that there is climate change anytime the weather turns warm or there are forest fires such as those last summer.
Here’s another non sequitur from the big green movement, also reported by The New York Times: “In the United States, we’re seeing longer wildfire seasons because of hotter, drier conditions, and our hurricanes are becoming more destructive in several ways, including flooding and storm surge. … We’ve always had floods, fires and storms, but climate change adds oomph to many weather events.”
Is there more “oomph” from severe weather events now than in the past? Generally, no. The historical evidence shows 1) there are no more severe events than there were 50 years ago or 100 years ago (the period for which we have reliable data) and 2) the percentage of people in the world who die from extreme weather events, such as monsoons, forest fires, high temperatures, frigid winters, hurricanes, and tornadoes, has been consistently falling for at least a century and is lower today than any time in human history.
There are many reasons for this. First, we have better warning systems for severe weather events. Second, we are better prepared with superior building codes and more weather-resistant materials. And third, technology and human know-how make us better prepared to deal with the “fires next time.” We learn and we adapt from the vicissitudes of Mother Nature.
It explains why, even though storms may be getting more destructive and we hear constant warnings of rising sea levels, people are paying higher prices than ever before for beachfront properties in states such as Florida, South Carolina, Virginia, and California.
It may sound, to borrow a word from The New York Times, “counterintuitive,” but these are the rock-solid facts.
