Florida Governor Ron DeSantis set off a firestorm last Friday when he dared challenge the orthodoxy that justifies mass vaccination mandates.
At a Friday press conference, DeSantis had the temerity to suggest that the vaccine might not be a healthy choice for all.
“It’s about your health and whether you want that protection or not. It really doesn’t impact me or anyone else,” DeSantis said.
The question shouldn’t be whether our choice to be vaccinated or not “impacts” people other than ourselves. It clearly does, since COVID-19 is an infectious disease and getting vaccinated can help stop the spread of the coronavirus. (It should be noted that the vaccine is not a magic bullet in stopping the pandemic.)
The question is whether or not we not have control over what goes into our own bodies and whether the state can coerce people to take the shot “for the good of society”? Dr. Fauci is sure he knows the answer to that question.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is “completely incorrect” to suggest vaccines are a personal choice with no broad implications, says Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease authority.
“If [DeSantis] feels that vaccines are not important for people, that they’re just important for some people, that’s completely incorrect,” Fauci said after being asked about DeSantis’ views during an interview Tuesday with CNN.
DeSantis never said the vaccines “are not important for people” or that they’re “important for some people.” That’s an outright lie — something Dr. Fauci is noted for. DeSantis never said anything remotely close to being construed as vaccine discouragement. He was saying that getting vaccinated or not getting vaccinated is a personal choice.
Perhaps Fauci and others who are piling on DeSantis for his inelegant but accurate statement might want to tell us: If vaccination isn’t a “personal choice,” whose choice is it? Is it the government’s choice to vaccinate an individual or not?
In response to DeSantis’ comments, Fauci said on Tuesday: “Yeah, that’s not true at all.”
Aside from the personal benefit of being protected against the coronavirus, Fauci said, “When you have a virus that’s circulating in the community and you are not vaccinated, you are part of the problem. Because you’re allowing yourself to be a vehicle for the virus to be spreading to someone else.”
“So it isn’t as if it stops with you,” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said, adding that if an unvaccinated person becomes infected, they could pass the coronavirus on to older people or those who are otherwise more vulnerable.
Fauci and others are dancing around the real issue; Does the state have the power to coerce people to get vaccinated? And if Fauci and others try and dismiss that argument, then why the hell are they yelling at people about not getting vaccinated? Are they trying to show us how responsible and caring they are?
If you’re not going to advocate for the government to tie people down on a gurney and stick them with needles full of vaccines, then stop your carping, your declarations of supposed moral superiority that show us how much better you are than the rest of us.
If they spent half as much energy promoting the vaccine, building trust and confidence the old-fashioned way — telling the truth and being transparent — as they do in looking for ways to criticize those who are hesitant or unconvinced, we might close out this pandemic the way we should; With the freedom to choose what goes into our bodies.
US gasoline prices, retailing at seven-year highs above $3.15 per gallon due to peak seasonal demand and outages from Hurricane Ida, are expected to fall to under $3 by the fourth quarter of this year, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday.
“US regular gasoline retail prices averaged $3.16 per gallon in August, the highest monthly average price since October 2014”, the EIA said in its Short-Term Energy Outlook Report for September. “We forecast that retail gasoline prices will average $3.14/gal in September before falling to $2.91/gallon, on average, in 4Q21.”
The EIA said the drop will be in line with expectations that the profit margin for processing gasoline will decline from currently elevated levels and refinery runs will normalize after the fallout from Hurricane Ida.
“Estimated gasoline margins surpassed 70 cents/gal in late August. We expect margins will remain elevated in the coming weeks as refining operations in the US Gulf Coast remain disrupted”, the EIA added.
The National Archives Records Administration placed a “harmful content” warning on the Constitution, labeling the governing document of the United States as “harmful or difficult to view.” The warning applies to all documents across the Archives’ cataloged website, including the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence.
“NARA’s records span the history of the United States, and it is our charge to preserve and make available these historical records,” the administration said in a statement. “As a result, some of the materials presented here may reflect outdated, biased, offensive, and possibly violent views and opinions. In addition, some of the materials may relate to violent or graphic events and are preserved for their historical significance.”
The NARA, which is responsible for preserving and protecting documentation of American heritage, noted that so-called harmful historical documents could “reflect racist, sexist, ableist, misogynistic/misogynoir, and xenophobic opinions and attitudes; be discriminatory towards or exclude diverse views on sexuality, gender, religion, and more,” and “include graphic content of historical events such as violent death, medical procedures, crime, wars/terrorist acts, natural disasters and more.”
Along with committing to diversity and equity, the NARA said it would “[work] in conjunction with diverse communities, [and] seek to balance the preservation of this history with sensitivity to how these materials are presented to and perceived by users.”
This isn’t the first time the National Archives has catered to a leftist view of history. In June, the National Archives’ racism task force claimed that the Archives’ rotunda, which houses founding documents, is an example of “structural racism.” The task force also pushed to include trigger warnings around displays of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, which are all in the rotunda.
As news of the website’s warning circulated on Twitter, the NARA issued a standard response to those concerned by the “harmful” label on the Constitution.
This alert is not connected to any specific records, but appears at the top of the page while you are using the online Catalog (https://t.co/dwGmbXhjFP).
To learn more about why the alert about harmful language appears in our Catalog, please go to https://t.co/E3uoAKaF5J
“This alert is not connected to any specific records, but appears at the top of the page while you are using the online Catalog. To learn more about why the alert about harmful language appears in our Catalog, please go to ‘NARA’s Statement on Potentially Harmful Content,’” the tweet said.
Podcast host Joe Rogan says he rapidly recovered from Covid-19 after taking a stack of medication, including ivermectin. Now he’s talking about suing CNN for calling the anti-parasitic drug he took a “horse dewormer.”
“Bro, do I have to sue CNN?” Rogan asked during an episode of his podcast released on Tuesday. “They’re making s**t up. They keep saying I’m taking horse dewormer. I literally got it from a doctor.”
“It’s an American company. They won the Nobel Prize in 2015 for use in human beings and CNN is saying I’m taking horse dewormer. They must know that’s a lie,” Rogan fumed.
Podcaster Joe Rogan asks whether he should sue CNN for saying he took horse dewormer:
Rogan fell ill with Covid-19 just over a week ago, recovered, and tested negative within three days. He attributed his speedy recovery to “[throwing] the kitchen sink at it,” and taking a cocktail of medications including ivermectin, monoclonal antibodies, azithromycin, and intravenous NAD.
His use of ivermectin, however, caught the media’s attention. An anti-parasitic drug, ivermectin has shown some promise in treating Covid-19 and has been given to patients in some Latin American countries, but has not been approved as a therapeutic by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Ivermectin has been shown to fight Covid-19 by working as a protease inhibitor, preventing the virus from replicating. The fact that drug firm Pfizer is developing its own protease-inhibiting Covid pill has led some commenters to accuse the media of unfairly demonizing ivermectin, which is a cheap, generic drug.
Ivermectin is also used in veterinary medicine, albeit in much larger doses than on humans. CNN and other critics used this to criticize Rogan for treating his case of Covid-19 with a “livestock drug” and “horse dewormer.”
Ok I mean these CNN chyrons are just straight up factually inaccurate.
CNN wasn’t the only outlet to conflate Rogan’s prescribed ivermectin with the veterinary version. The Washington Post reported that the podcast host was treating his infection with “unproven deworming medicine.”
The media’s antipathy toward ivermectin is shared by the FDA, which put out a snarky tweet last month warning Americans away from veterinary blends of the drug. “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it,” the tweet read.
Nothing for Lori Flynn to challenge because her account was never closed, it claims.
Chase Bank is “coaching” the employee who notified Lori Flynn, the wife of former Trump National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, that it would close her credit cards on Sept. 18, a JP Morgan spokesperson told Just the News.
The Aug. 20 notification letter, posted on Telegram by Michael Flynn Aug. 29 with the first name redacted, cited the bank’s “careful consideration” before deciding that her account “creates possible reputational risk” to Chase.
“Chase Bank has gone full blown woke!” Flynn wrote in a different post. “DOJ dropped my case for their own egregious government misconduct, appears you weren’t that lucky with the DOJ,” he said, alluding to JPMorgan’s agreement to pay $920 million to resolve federal wire fraud charges against the company for its role in separate criminal schemes to defraud the precious metals and U.S. Treasuries markets.
Chase previously told the Daily Mail that “we made an error” with the letter and had contacted Lori Flynn to apologize “for any inconvenience this caused.”
“We have never and would never close an account due to political affiliation,” the spokesperson told Just the News, emphasizing that Lori Flynn’s account was never closed.
Purported fact-checker Snopes initially questioned the authenticity of the letter posted by Lt. Gen. Flynn. It later updated its rating on Flynn’s claim to “Mixture,” meaning it “has significant elements of both truth and falsity,” even though Chase Bank confirmed it sent the letter. Flynn’s original post made clear Chase was targeting “my family,” not just him.
After nearly a decade and a half, pop star Britney Spears’ father has filed to end his daughter’s conservatorship, which gave him unilateral control over the 39-year-old entertainer’s purse strings.
“As Mr. Spears has said again and again, all he wants is what is best for his daughter,” the legal document states. “If Ms. Spears wants to terminate the conservatorship and believes that she can handle her own life, Mr. Spears believes that she should get that chance.”
Before it can move forward, though, Judge Brenda Penny, who oversees the case, will have to sign off on ending the 13-year conservatorship.
David Glass, a certified family law attorney not associated with the Spears matter, told Fox News that, given Jamie Spears is asking for “the entire conservatorship to be vacated,” it will put pressure on co-conservator Jodi Montgomery “to either explain how Britney is still mentally ill or go along” with ending the conservatorship entirely.
Montgomery stated in early August she has concerns, according to TMZ, about Britney Spears’ “recent behavior and overall mental health.” At the time, Jamie Spears claimed the co-conservator frantically called him on July 9 to say Britney Spears was “spiraling out of control.”
Jamie Spears’ filing Tuesday comes weeks ahead of a Sept. 29 hearing over a petition submitted by Britney Spears’ attorney to have the pop star’s father removed from the conservatorship. The singer’s dad, it should be noted, signaled in an Aug. 12 filing that he planned to step down as conservator over his daughter’s finances, although he offered no timeline on when his authority would lapse.
Britney Spears has sought to be freed from the conservatorship several times.
It was established in 2008, when the “Gimme More” singer began struggling very publicly with issues of mental health, likely made worse by an over-the-top media constantly documenting and critiquing her every move.
In mid-June, Britney Spears delivered a passionate speech in court begging to be released from the conservatorship, which has garnered a lot of press attention and has sparked the “Free Britney” movement made up of fans eager to see the entertainer regain full autonomy over her life’s decisions.
“I just want my life back,” Britney Spears said June 23. “And it’s been 13 years, and it’s enough. It’s been a long time since I’ve owned my money. And it’s my wish and my dream for all of this to end without being tested.
During her speech, Britney Spears also made clear her desire to make her own decisions regarding her medical and therapeutic care, stating at the time she has been compelled, as part of the conservatorship, to take certain medications as well as use an intrauterine device for birth control against her desires.
Jamie Spears, for his part, called for a court investigation into those claims, noting such decisions were not in his purview, given he had stepped down as conservator over his daughter’s person — a position now held by Montgomery.
The filing this week notes that Britney Spears was not aware she could file her own petition to end the conservatorship, which she has not yet done. It does state, however, that Penny’s decision to allow “Oops!… I Did It Again” singer to hire her own lawyer, Mathew Rosengart, shows the court trusts Britney Spears with making big decisions, adding that evidence to date has “demonstrated a level of independence” on the entertainer’s part.
In an Instagram post published this week, Britney Spears thanked fellow pop star Iggy Azalea for her support, writing, “God bless you and thank you for all your kind words.”
The two entertainers collaborated in 2015 for the song “Pretty Girls.”
“It’s basic human decency to, at the very least, remove a person Britney has identified as abusive from her life,” the Australian rapper wrote in July. “This should be illegal. During the time we worked together in 2015, I personally witnessed the same behavior Britney detailed in regards to her father last week and I just want to back her up [and] tell the world that: she is not exaggerating or lying.”
Back in February of this year, The New American reported on the opening of “COVID jails” in Germany, where repeat quarantine offenders were detained in a juvenile detention center in the state of Saxony. Modeling a similar approach as the Germans, who fenced off sections of a refugee camp and kept inmates under police guard, the government of Australia’s Northern Territory has resurrected a former mining camp — described as “a stylish, innovative and sustainable accommodation village” on the facility’s website — where people returning to the country after traveling across state lines or abroad are required to quarantine for 14 days in the now state-supervised and -sponsored facility.
Australians forced to stay — at their own expense — in the splendid bush of the Outback at the Centre for National Resilience, formerly known as the Manigurr-ma Village, are seemingly healthy people. The facility, praised on its developer’s website for its “award-winning urban design,” boasting “tropical courtyard buildings, green space corridors, landscape zones and parks,” situated on the outskirts of the city of Darwin is today anything but a comfortable respite for those looking to escape the routine of their normal, everyday lives.
Footage taken from inside the facility did not show people enjoying leisurely activities such as “swimming, cycling, beach volleyball and indoor cricket, to improve and maintain their health and fitness,” as illustrated on the facility’s website. Instead, an inmate at the Centre described disturbing conditions, wherein he is “waiting patiently to be fed,” adhering to the state-imposed rules of quarantine. Moreover, should captives of the “village accommodations” violate the rules of quarantine, their stay could be extended another 10 days, and they could face thousands of dollars in fines.
International and interstate travelers (from designated hotspots) who are eligible to enter the Northern Territory are required by law to undertake 14 days of quarantine in state supervised accommodations under the Public and Environmental Health Act 2011. The accommodation is determined by the Northern Territory Government.*
Individuals entering into mandatory supervised quarantine in the Northern Territory will be charged a rate of $2,500 per person or $5,000 for a family of two or more people for 14 days.
Any person found breaching quarantine regulations will be liable for fines.
So far, two supervised-quarantine facilities exist in the Northern Territory: The Centre for National Resilience in Howard Springs, Darwin; and Alice Springs Quarantine Facility in Alice Springs. Travelers are required to enter facilities “closest to their entry in the Northern Territory unless otherwise directed by the Chief Health Officer or their delegate.”
A troubling TikTok video that went viral online shows Australian Jeremy Longdon at the Howard Springs facility, standing outside his room awaiting a meal to be delivered. “I’m just waiting patiently to be fed,” he said, visibly distressed. “It’s like when you shake the bag of dog treats, and the dogs come running. We’re always outside waiting.”
Using his camera phone, Longdon panned the facility property showing one-story, cabin-like structures that chillingly recall a “nicer version” of the barracks at Auschwitz for anyone who has visited the German death camp.
Longdon described a scary police presence, with cops hovering nearby, waiting to catch inmates with their masks pulled down. In the video, he explained a “tense” situation involving a woman in a “cabin” across from him, who pulled down her mask “for about five seconds” in between sips of tea. “The cops came around literally on the dot,” he said, quoting the woman who told the officer, “I’m just drinking my tea.” “Well not now you’re not. Put your face mask on,” said the officer, according to Longdon.
The Howard Springs facility requires citizens to remain in their “allocated rooms” or “veranda space” unless given permission by an officer on duty. Inmates are not allowed to interact with others in the facility, unless it is a family member also in quarantine. Upon arrival, each person receives a “resident booklet,” which states that they must remain “at least 1.5 metres away from any person in the facility,” and wear a face mask when outside the room unless authorized by an officer. Residents also must comply with any directions given by an officer and are not allowed outside the “quarantine zone” unless escorted by an officer.
According to local news reports, the quarantine camp is among the first of its kind in the Australian Commonwealth. Yet another, larger facility in the Orwellian-named area of Wellcamp, expected to hold up to 1,000 beds, is now under construction near the city of Toowoomba, in the northeastern region of Queensland.
Australia Health Minister Greg Hunt, who has led the country’s response to the coronavirus since March 2020, has allegedly deemed the Wellcamp facility “unsuitable,” yet Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk appears to have circumvented federal authorities and forged ahead with the “urgent” project.
Contracted to build at Wellcamp is property development and investment group Wagner Corporation. According to Palaszczuk, the facility will symbolize a “commitment by the Wagner family working with the Queensland government to say to the people of Queensland, ‘we want to keep you safe,’ and the best way to keep you safe and to keep Delta out of Queensland is to build as quickly as possible a regional quarantine facility.”
“We are up against a highly infectious Delta variant that’s sweeping the world,” said Palaszczuk in a video announcement. “We don’t know what’s next. We need to get these facilities up and running and everybody has seen how successful Howard Springs is.”
JUST IN – Australia builds the first "quarantine facility" to "keep the community safe," Premier of Queensland announces.pic.twitter.com/rmKEOywdlv
Wellcamp was expected to be completed by the end of August, providing what officials in Queensland say is a much-needed reprieve for hotels in the area experiencing a surge in reservations since the mandatory quarantines began earlier this year.
According to 7News, Palaszczuk told reporters that Wellcamp would be “a great boost for our defense against the Delta virus in this country and, in fact, I believe we need regional facilities right across the country.”
“We are going to be dealing with Delta for some time, and if we want to open Australia, we want to open our states up, regional quarantine facilities are the second part of the answer — the first part of the answer is vaccines.” Such unprecedented actions by the Australian government are no doubt leading people worldwide to a very dark place, yet Australians know well not to complain, for fear of being arrested by the authorities. As writer David Hiscox wrote, “the lockdown of everybody is being transitioned into the ‘lockout’ of the unvaxxed.”
Americans have repeatedly been warned, but should the people decide not to stand against the unconstitutional vaccine and mask mandates, certainly the harassment and captivity will be coming here next.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was targeted by protesters throwing what appears to be handfuls of gravel — small stones — during the latest demonstration the Liberal Party leader has faced on the campaign trail.
Mr Trudeau was attending a campaign event in London, Ontario, on Monday when he and his entourage were confronted by yet another protest that saw some in the crowd throw rocks or gravel at him as he attempted to get on his campaign bus.
According to a report from Canadian public broadcaster CBC, which identified the projectiles as gravel, Mr Trudeau spoke about the incident a short time later, saying that he had not been injured.
The incident is the first time since the start of the Canadian election campaign that protesters have attempted to physically assault the Liberal leader. But Trudeau has been followed by protests across the country during the campaign, some of which have led to the cancellation of election events over alleged safety concerns.
Opposition party leaders were quick to condemn the attempted assault on Trudeau, with Conservative Party (CPC) leader Erin O’Toole stating: “Political violence is never justified and our media must be free from intimidation, harassment, and violence.”
Many protests have been linked to those opposing coronavirus vaccine mandates and vaccine passport programmes, including a Liberal policy to ban unvaccinated people from air and train travel.
Trudeau commented on the protesters on Monday, saying: “Yes, there is a small fringe element in this country that is angry, that doesn’t believe in science, that is lashing out with racist, misogynistic attacks.”
Canadian Prime Minister and Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau continues to lose ground in polling after calling a mid-pandemic snap election that some commentators have called “pointless”. https://t.co/RAFsTOZEay
“But Canadians, the vast majority of Canadians, are not represented by them, and I know will not allow those voices, those special interest groups, those protesters — I don’t even want to call them protesters, those anti-vaxxer mobs — to dictate how this country gets through this pandemic,” he added.
Maxime Bernier, the leader of the populist People’s Party of Canada (PPC) and the only major party leader against vaccine passports in the campaign, also condemned the attack on Trudeau in London, saying: “Some idiot threw pebbles at Mr Trudeau yesterday. I condemn it. Words are our weapons. But physical violence is ALWAYS wrong.”
Bernier also pointed out that no other political leaders had condemned an assault on him last week by a man who broke an egg over his head during a campaign stop. The populist criticised Trudeau and far-left New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh over their ambivalence towards certain kinds of political violence in the past.
Canada's biz & progressives jointly put migration in overdrive — and they delivered slow-growth wages, spiked real estate costs & bigger wealth gaps. This month's national election gives Canadians a chance to reduce the damage. https://t.co/IUKhc8nt0F
“Leftists always had a soft spot for violence. Trudeau and Singh praised a communist mass murderer and they’re fine with that,” Bernier said, referencing both Singh’s and Trudeau’s prior praise for former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
“But when we push back against the systematic attack on our rights and freedoms by this leftist psychopath, they say WE are dangerous??!” Bernier added.
Canadians are scheduled to take to the polls on September 20th, and so far, polls are showing it is unlikely Trudeau will win a majority of seats in the House of Commons and may even lose to the Conservative Party.
Some staffers in the Biden White House would rather miss their boss speak in public than endure another gaffe, according to a new report.
Anxiety about what President Joe Biden might say if he takes questions from the media drives some in the White House to mute him or turn off his public appearances altogether, Politico reported Tuesday, citing White House officials.
“I know people who habitually don’t watch it live for that reason,” an unnamed official told the outlet for the report, which focused on occasions when Biden strayed from messaging crafted by the West Wing.
Biden has made frequent flubs during press events and other public appearances by losing his line of thinking, stumbling , and forgetting names.
The president mistakenly referred to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as “Jennifer” during an event in August, and in March, he said “President Harris” when referring to Vice President Kamala Harris.
On Tuesday, Biden asserted during a briefing about the damage incurred from Hurricane Ida that tornadoes are called something else now.
“The members of Congress know, from their colleagues in Congress, that, uh, you know, the, looks like a tornado, they don’t call them that anymore, that hit the crops and wetlands in the middle of the country, in Iowa and Nevada. It’s just across the board,” Biden said at a press conference in New Jersey.
Biden occasionally shrugs off reporters’ inquiries by telling the press that his staff directed him not to take questions, suggesting officials seek to minimize the number of those incidents.
Michael Gwin, the director of Rapid Response for the White House, told the Washington Examiner that Biden “deeply values” the press’ role and asserted that Biden frequently makes himself available for questioning.
“As the president has shown over and over since he announced his candidacy more than two years ago, he’s the most effective communicator for his vision and his agenda,” Gwin said in a statement.
Some Republicans have seized on Biden’s verbal miscues and overall posture, saying his public appearances indicate the 78-year-old president is out of his league.
“I think he’s either going to resign — they’re going to convince him to resign from office at some point in the near future for medical issues — or they’re going to have to use the 25th Amendment to get rid of this man,” Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, a former White House physician, said in July.
The move by South Dakota to restrict the use of abortion pills comes in the wake of the introduction of a controversial abortion law in Texas, which bans the termination of pregnancy after six weeks.
Governor of South Dakota Kristi Noem announced on Tuesday that she had signed an executive order prohibiting telemedicine abortions and restricting chemical abortions in the state.
“The Biden administration is continuing to overstep its authority and suppress legislatures that are standing up for the unborn to pass strong pro-life laws”, Noem stated. “They are working right now to make it easier to end the life of an unborn child via telemedicine abortion. That is not going to happen in South Dakota”.
She also vowed to continue working with the legislature and her “Unborn Child Advocate” Mark Miller to “ensure that South Dakota remains a strong pro-life state”.
Today, I signed an Executive Order preventing telemedicine abortions in South Dakota.
The Biden Administration is working right now to make it easier to end the life of an unborn child via telemedicine abortion. That is not going to happen in South Dakota. pic.twitter.com/sFWaLIYzmF
Under the new order, abortion pills can only be prescribed after an in-person examination by a state-licensed physician. It also prohibits the distribution of abortion-inducing drugs via courier, delivery, telemedicine, or mail service.
Many welcomed the decision, among them Catherine Glenn Foster, president and CEO of Americans United for Life.
“This is no longer about ‘a woman and her doctor’, but a woman – or girl – and a stranger on the internet. States can no longer depend on the FDA to regulate abortion drugs in any meaningful way, and I am pleased to see Governor Noem step up for her state. Abortion is never safe, but it’s far more dangerous when women are abandoned by physicians and left to manage their complications alone”, Foster said.However, some observers, including social media users, lambasted the executive order, especially in light of the recent Texas abortion law that bans the termination of pregnancy after the sixth week – a time period during which a woman often does not notice that she is pregnant.
No… the Biden administration is trying to protect a woman's *constitutionally protected* right to end her pregnancy, safely and under the care of a doctor. What state purpose does it serve to prohibit telemedicine for one legal procedure (abortion) but not another (pick one)?
Yet you do anything but put into policies that actually reduce unwanted pregnancies like comprehensive sex Ed programs, widespread access to contraceptives, etc. you are just pro forced birth
The Texas abortion law has drawn backlash, with the Biden administration joining the choir of critics, as the president decried the legislation as “almost un-American” and pledged a federal response to it.
If Getting Vaccinated Isn’t a ‘Personal Choice,’ What Is It?
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis set off a firestorm last Friday when he dared challenge the orthodoxy that justifies mass vaccination mandates.
At a Friday press conference, DeSantis had the temerity to suggest that the vaccine might not be a healthy choice for all.
“It’s about your health and whether you want that protection or not. It really doesn’t impact me or anyone else,” DeSantis said.
The question shouldn’t be whether our choice to be vaccinated or not “impacts” people other than ourselves. It clearly does, since COVID-19 is an infectious disease and getting vaccinated can help stop the spread of the coronavirus. (It should be noted that the vaccine is not a magic bullet in stopping the pandemic.)
The question is whether or not we not have control over what goes into our own bodies and whether the state can coerce people to take the shot “for the good of society”? Dr. Fauci is sure he knows the answer to that question.
NPR:
DeSantis never said the vaccines “are not important for people” or that they’re “important for some people.” That’s an outright lie — something Dr. Fauci is noted for. DeSantis never said anything remotely close to being construed as vaccine discouragement. He was saying that getting vaccinated or not getting vaccinated is a personal choice.
Perhaps Fauci and others who are piling on DeSantis for his inelegant but accurate statement might want to tell us: If vaccination isn’t a “personal choice,” whose choice is it? Is it the government’s choice to vaccinate an individual or not?
Fauci and others are dancing around the real issue; Does the state have the power to coerce people to get vaccinated? And if Fauci and others try and dismiss that argument, then why the hell are they yelling at people about not getting vaccinated? Are they trying to show us how responsible and caring they are?
If you’re not going to advocate for the government to tie people down on a gurney and stick them with needles full of vaccines, then stop your carping, your declarations of supposed moral superiority that show us how much better you are than the rest of us.
If they spent half as much energy promoting the vaccine, building trust and confidence the old-fashioned way — telling the truth and being transparent — as they do in looking for ways to criticize those who are hesitant or unconvinced, we might close out this pandemic the way we should; With the freedom to choose what goes into our bodies.