Rideshare companies Lyft and Uber issued separate statements announcing they will supplement legal fees for any drivers transporting women to abortion clinics who are sued under the recently passed Texas abortion law.
Lyft said that it formed a “Driver Defense Fund” to cover 100% of legal fees for any driver sued under the abortion law while working for its platform. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi tweeted that the company would “cover legal fees in the same way” as Lyft, and it added that “drivers shouldn’t be put at risk for getting people where they want to go.”
“This law is incompatible with people’s basic rights to privacy, our community guidelines, the spirit of rideshare, and our values as a company,” Lyft said of the legislation.
Senate Bill 8, which took effect on Wednesday after the Supreme Court did not act on an emergency appeal to block enforcement of the measure, prevents medical workers from performing or inducing abortions if they have “detected a fetal heartbeat for the unborn child” but provides exemptions related to medical emergencies.
Under the law, anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion after the detection of a heartbeat, including those providing transportation to a clinic, could be liable to facing lawsuits that can yield at least $10,000 in “statutory damages” per abortion.
In addition to legal fee coverage, Lyft said it would donate $1 million to Planned Parenthood to ensure “transportation is never a barrier to healthcare access.”
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed the abortion law in May, and the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to allow the law to take effect.
Other companies have pledged to begin fundraising efforts to help Texans gain access to abortion services in the state.
Dating apps such as Bumble and Tinder have pledged to help fundraising efforts, and Match CEO Shar Dubey said Thursday she established a fund for workers who need to travel to an outside state for abortion procedures.
The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) is resisting full compliance with New York City’s vaccine mandate for public school teachers and staffers.
Michael Mulgrew, president of UFT, said city hall has asserted that unvaccinated staffers will be taken off the payroll without exception, that is, including those with religious and medical exemptions.
“The city, however, announced during our negotiations its intentions to refuse to honor medical and religious exemptions for Department of Education (DOE) staff from COVID-19 vaccination,” Mulgrew said in a statement directed to UFT members.
The union is going to try to arbitrate the impasse together with other labor groups.
“Its proposed policy states that staff with medical issues can stay on the payroll until their sick days are exhausted and then go on unpaid leave, while staff with religious objections would immediately go on unpaid leave. In both cases, those on leave would lose not only their pay but also their health insurance,” he said.
He further noted that the “no exceptions mandate” for all the members of the Department of Education violates federal and state law, as well as their contract.
The UFT has declared an impasse in negotiations, and at the same time, the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC) has recommended to its general members that the MLC take legal action to challenge the city Department of Health’s power to mandate the shots.
“With the first day of school fast approaching, we are as frustrated as you are with the mayor’s perpetually last-minute announcements and late planning. We assure you that we are working to get as many answers for you about this upcoming school year as soon as possible. We will be keeping you informed via email about the latest developments and updates on safety, instructional plans, and more,” Mulgrew said.
Michael Mulgrew (L), president of the United Federation of Teachers, listens as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks during a news conference at City Hall in New York, on May 1, 2014. (Seth Wenig/AP Photo)
Custodians’ union President Robert Troeller said he was concerned that the city had announced the requirement without bargaining. He said he believed about 60 percent of the 850 members of Local 891 of the International Union of Operating Engineers had gotten at least a first shot, but some others “are dead-set against this.”
About 70 percent of adults have gotten at least one dose of vaccine in the city.
Some other unions have favored mandating all staff and teachers to get vaccinated.
“The health and safety of New York City children and the protection of our employees is at the core of the vaccine mandate,” said the press secretary at NYC DOE, according to the New York Post. “We will continue to negotiate with the UFT to reach a successful agreement because that is what’s best for our school communities.”
The new requirement came as federal regulators gave full approval to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, one of three vaccines available in the United States. All already have authorization for emergency use, but officials hope the full approval will increase public confidence in the vaccines.
The Epoch Times reached out to City Hall for comment.
‘Lying to the rest of us about what is actually happening with our troops with our money in our name in a foreign country has been the philosophy of this nation’s military establishment for the last twenty years,’ says Fox News host.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson explained how the U.S. military has been lying to the American people about “progress” in the Afghanistan War for the last two decades.
“Consider that no matter how badly our mission in Afghanistan was deteriorating—we were never clear on what that mission was—but clearly, our strategy of pacifying the nation was falling apart,” Carlson said Friday on his “Tucker Carlson Tonight” opening monologue.
“No matter how bad it got in Afghanistan, the Pentagon and its spokesmen repeatedly told us they were making incredible progress. And “progress” is the word they used again and again and again—almost as if they coordinated it.”
Carlson went on to play several clips of military brass over the years talking about the incredible “progress” the U.S. has made in Afghanistan.
“So if you’re wondering why Americans are so confused that Kabul fell in an afternoon and the Taliban controlled the country we occupied for 20 years, maybe it’s because they thought we were making progress,” Carlson noted.
Carlson explained how that attitude extended to Joe Biden himself, who told the American people that we were making great “progress” in the Middle Eastern country, despite telling installed Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani in a private phone call released by Reuters that the situation wasn’t looking good.
“So considering that whole chronology — consider the news Reuters broke this week about Joe Biden’s recent conversation with the guy we installed as the “president” of Afghanistan, some college professor called Ashraf Ghani,” Carlson said.
“Joe Biden told Ghani that, even as the Taliban was taking over the country this summer, the most important thing was keeping up the appearance of, you guessed it, progress. ‘I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things are not going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban,’ Biden said. ‘And there is a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.’”
Carlson then concluded that it’s become U.S. military doctrine to lie to the American people, and even more so with Biden in charge.
“Lying to the rest of us about what is actually happening with our troops with our money in our name in a foreign country has been the philosophy of this nation’s military establishment for the last twenty years, and it’s also the philosophy of every high-ranking official in the Biden administration,” Carlson said.
“Project the illusion of progress, even when it’s clear we’re failing. Tony Blinken, who runs the State Department ineptly, just announced the news that more than a hundred American citizens are trapped in Afghanistan—really kind of progress.”
“So now, we’re arming the Taliban and marooning our own citizens in Afghanistan. Who could possibly have seen that coming?” he added.
A new article from ProPublica found that thousands of Trump supporters are taking over local GOP positions.
BREAKING: We found 1000s of Trump supporters taking over local GOP positions — an unprecedented grassroots groundswell devoted to Trump’s insistence that the 2020 election was stolen & Republicans need to stop that from happening again https://t.co/btjMNXvft3
A new article from ProPublica found that thousands of Trump supporters are taking over local GOP positions.https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3NwYWNlX2NhcmQiOnsiYnVja2V0Ijoib2ZmIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH19&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1433404798649393160&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2021%2F09%2Fthousands-trump-supporters-taking-local-gop-positions%2F&sessionId=51249362f851b3879e28e08d5ecac58db5756d6b&theme=light&widgetsVersion=1890d59c%3A1627936082797&width=500px
ProPublica contacted GOP leaders in 65 key counties, and 41 reported an unusual increase in signups since Bannon’s campaign began. At least 8,500 new Republican precinct officers (or equivalent lowest-level officials) joined those county parties. We also looked at equivalent Democratic posts and found no similar surge.
“I’ve never seen anything like this, people are coming out of the woodwork,” said J.C. Martin, the GOP chairman in Polk County, Florida, who has added 50 new committee members since January. Martin had wanted congressional Republicans to overturn the election on Jan. 6, and he welcomed this wave of like-minded newcomers. “The most recent time we saw this type of thing was the tea party, and this is way beyond it.”
Patriots are working to make sure the fraud of 2020 never happens again.
In Maricopa County, Arizona, 50 new committeemen were sworn in in one night:
Christian singer Danny Gokey expressed his opposition to vaccination mandates in the United States and issued a call for unity, warning that Satan is behind the “division” the pandemic has caused.
Gokey, whose latest album Jesus People is currently No. 1 on the Christian charts, clarified in an Aug. 28 Twitter thread that he is not against vaccinations but also does not believe that U.S. citizens should be forced by any entity to receive the COVID-19 vaccination.
“If you don’t want the vaccine you shouldn’t have to,” Gokey, who is vaccinated, tweeted. “It’s the safety of this vaccine and the measures used to enforce it that I am concerned about — is it a cure? Technically ‘no’ but it is being treated like one.”
He highlighted the importance of civil dialogue regarding issues like vaccines, lamenting the fact that “conversations are no longer a thing anymore.”
“The only topic discussed is Covid and the only acceptable thought is vaccination. That’s dangerous — very dangerous,” he wrote.
Gokey said that if postings like his raise concerns, then it shows that “we have a society [that] would rather be lullabied to sleep with lies rather than be told the truth which always brings freedom.”
“My sister works in [the] medical field and is losing her job. She is also seeing horrible side effects of people who have had horrible reactions to this vaccine. I believe it will eventually be mandated,” he explained.
“Is it a cure? Technically no, but it’s being treated like one through mass coercion and manipulation, they’re using techniques that vilify and divide the vaccinated from the unvaccinated,” he noted.
The Christian artist said that he believes the vaccine will eventually be required, a move he warned will “lead to an even greater and more diabolical plan.”
“I know many people who don’t want it, now saying that they’re going to get it so that they don’t lose their job. That is coercion,” he stressed. “Unfortunately, I do believe it will eventually be mandated, that’s the end goal and will lead to an even greater and more diabolical plan.”
Gokey, who had to cancel his shows in 2020 along with many artists due to the global pandemic, revealed that he does not want to have to stop doing concerts again “because popular opinion grips our society and convinces people that they are only safe if we all get the vaccine.” He wrote that he will be deemed a “super spreader” by doing shows.
“Research proves that idea as incorrect, yet I’m seeing concerts being canceled, and makes me wonder if mine are next,” The 41-year-old noted. “The weird thing about this is that the COVID vaccine does not prevent transmission. CDC COVID vaccines won’t stop transmission. Fully vaccinated can still get, spread Delta strand it’s specifically designed in that way. Don’t believe me, research it for yourself.”
As a child, the father of four said he often wondered about the verse in Revelation that mentions that “in the last day, people will not be able to buy or sell without the mark of the beast.”
“But now I see, it will be accomplished through a crisis that will make people think they are not safe unless they get it, and many will think that those who don’t have the mark are very dangerous to society. Sound familiar?” he wrote. “It’s already happening in some areas of our country and the world, but it starts suddenly and has a birthing point.”
The pandemic and the division it has caused indicates society is “in the birthing point of the mark of the beast,” Gokey said.
“Let me stress this—I don’t believe it’s the mark of the beast yet,” he said, but acknowledged he “could be wrong.”
“It’s so subtle and cunning how division works,” he continued. “It starts as a moral argument that convinces you to believe that you’re an immoral person and don’t care about others, unless you put this serum in you. And the CDC clearly states that it has an over 99. 97% recovery rate. What happened to natural immunity?” he questioned. “An Israeli study shows natural immunity 13 times more effective than the vaccines at stopping Delta. Why is this not a topic we can have civil conversations about? Also, where did the flu go?”
Gokey was referencing an Israeli study that concludes the natural immunity that develops after a SARS-CoV-2 infection offers more protection than two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against the Delta variant of coronavirus.
The “American Idol” alum explained that many people who do not want the vaccine are demonized by those in power. He pointed to the phrase “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” coined by Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“It’s very crafty and cunning and I’m seeing a great divide in our society,” he said. “The fact that I’m even talking about this comes at a great cost to me. I could be identified as an extremist and my music can get pulled down from radio and other platforms because of this. People are threatening my livelihood saying they won’t buy my music and won’t stream it. Some want to cancel me for asking questions and are even calling out my Christianity because I post these questions.”
Phrases like “Jesus would get the vaccine” are “manipulative,” the artist said, adding that Scripture says that Jesus “healed everyone that came in contact with Him.”
“Jesus did not run away from people who had diseases but ran to them to heal them. He didn’t divide and demonize anyone, Although he did rebuke those in power who were controlling people and those who forced burdens on them. He was confident in God’s love and never walked in fear of anything,” he wrote.
History, Gokey added, proves that people should ask questions. He used Hilter as an example of using “harsh terminology that turned the hearts of many against the Jews that ended up costing 6 million Jewish lives.”
“The enemy of your soul, Satan is very calculated and builds long term plans to destroy you as well. Just like God uses people to bring great things into the earth, the devil uses people to bring destruction into the earth,” he argued.
“The same Spirit is at work right now that has allowed massive atrocities in times past to be accepted,” Gokey contended. “It’s the same spirit but today it looks different.”
Concluding his thoughts, Gokey said he doesn’t want to “build a platform” over the issue.
“I want unity, I want freedom for not only me and you, but for our children,” he said. “Freedom and freedom of speech is a constitutional right. The Constitution was and is supposed to protect the people from the government and not the other way around. I’m calling on God’s people to pray and ask God to intervene and bring unity and expose the lies and reveal truth.”
The Biden administration has lost contact with roughly one-third of migrant children caught and released between January and May, according to data obtained by Axios through a public records request.
Data received from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request showed about 1 in 3 migrant kids or their sponsors did not respond to calls in the first five months after President Joe Biden took office and restored a catch-and-release border policy for those who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.
“This is very dismaying,” Mark Greenberg, who oversaw the unaccompanied minors program during the Obama administration, told Axios. “If large numbers of children and sponsors aren’t being reached, that’s a very big gap in efforts to help them.”
The Trump administration had moved to stop catch-and-release, having imposed a Remain in Mexico policy and utilized Title 42, restricting migration during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“While we make every effort to voluntarily check on children after we unite them with parents or sponsors and offer certain post-unification services, we no longer have legal oversight once they leave our custody,” a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told Axios, noting that sponsors do not tend to return phone calls and sometimes do not want to be contacted.
Of the 14,600 calls placed by the administration to children released from HHS border shelters, 4,890 went unanswered by the kids or their sponsors (33.49%), according to Axios.
Notably, the percentage of unsuccessful contacts grew from 26% in January to 37% in May, according to the data obtained.
And 65,000 unaccompanied minors crossed the border illegally from January to May, while July set an all-time record in that category, suggesting a growing problem of migrant children the administration cannot locate after being released into the country, according to Axios.
Further, the Biden administration is making far fewer calls than the totals of migrant children released into the U.S. From Biden’s inauguration through May, HHS released 32,000 children but only placed 14,600 calls, according to the records obtained via FOIA.
March and April both saw twice as many minors released as check-in calls placed the following month, suggesting the administration is not fully following up on the unaccompanied children.
By contrast, the Trump administration was heavily criticized by Democrats and the media for having lost track of 1,500 migrant children over a three-month period in 2018.
HHS’ Administration for Children and Families oversees migrant children and follows up after they are released with a 30-day call “to determine whether the child is still residing with the sponsor, is enrolled in or attending school, is aware of upcoming court dates, and is safe,” the agency website reads.
“I’ve been taking care of myself. This really, really kicked my ass.”
Boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya announced on Friday that he is hospitalized and being treated for COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated against the virus and would have to drop out of his pay-per-view comeback match set for September 11.
De La Hoya, 48, has been retired for 13 years and was scheduled to fight former mixed-martial-arts champion Vitor Belfort, 44, at Staples Center in Los Angeles next Saturday.
He posted multiple tweets from his hospital bed on Friday breaking the news.
“Wanted you to hear directly from me that despite being fully vaccinated, I have contracted Covid and am not going to be able to fight next weekend,” tweeted De La Hoya. “Preparing for this comeback has been everything to me over the last months, & I want to thank everyone for their tremendous support.”
“I am currently in the hospital getting treatment and am confident I will be back in the ring before the year is up,” he continued. “God bless everyone and stay safe.”
I am currently in the hospital getting treatment and am confident I will be back in the ring before the year is up. God bless everyone and stay safe.
The Hall-of-Famer from East L.A. also posted a short video of himself lying in a bed wearing a hospital gown, appearing to express frustration over his current situation.
“I mean, what are the chances of me getting Covid?” De La Hoya says. “I’ve been taking care of myself. This really, really kicked my ass.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, “Triller, the upstart entertainment app turned boxing producer, is now trying to salvage the show by finding a replacement opponent,” and:
Triller has called on four-time heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, 58, to face the former UFC champion Belfort, but the bout would need to be approved by the California State Athletic Commission.
It’s highly unlikely the CSAC would approve a professional bout between Holyfield and Belfort. In November, the CSAC called for the Mike Tyson versus Roy Jones Jr. fight to be an exhibition. Tyson was 54 years old at the time and Jones was 51.
Triller could also move the event out of California, with Florida being one option. UFC legends Anderson Silva and Tito Ortiz were slated to fight in the co-featured bout.
Earlier this week, De La Hoya revealed that he had been raped when he was 13-years-old by an older woman. He said that experience partly motivated his comeback “to put closure on my roller coaster of a story.”
Nicknamed “The Golden Boy,” De La Hoya has not fought since December 2008 when he was beaten handily by Manny Pacquiao. He ended his career with a record of 39-6.
De La Hoya founded Golden Boy Promotions in 2002. The New York Times reported that he broadcasted an ad in 2017 to taunt President Donald Trump about his proposal of building a wall along the Mexican border. According to the Times, the spot promoted a Cinco de Mayo bout between two boxers of Mexican descent that showed them “barreling through a concrete wall.”
“The idea of a wall was a direct hit to Donald Trump,” De La Hoya told The Times. “This is letting him know that not every Mexican is what he’s stated they are. Mexicans are hard workers.”
Eleven people died and several more were injured during the Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue shooting, carried out by a white supremacist, Robert Bowers, in 2018. The tragedy has often been portrayed as one of the worst anti-Semitic crimes in the history of America.
US President Joe Biden has been proven wrong once again.
The White House admitted on Friday that the president didn’t visit the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in the wake of 2018 mass shooting that left 11 congregants dead.
Biden made the claim on Thursday, as he was speaking to Jewish leaders in a virtual event ahead of the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur holidays.
“I remember spending time at the, you know, going to the, you know, the Tree of Life synagogue, speaking with them,” the president said during a 16-minute address as he was decrying acts of anti-Semitism.
However, Tree of Life executive director Barb Feige told the New York Post shortly after the event that Biden hadn’t made a personal visit to the tragedy-struck synagogue, neither before nor after taking office.
Biden's brain snaps as he tries to remember his *own* daughter's wedding & pander to rabbis:
"My mind is going blank now, what is the song that is played, with everybody around the chairs, up? I can't remember— anyways I'm taking too much of your time."
The synagogue’s rabbi Jeffrey Myers, however, told CNN that Biden called him almost a year after the tragedy:
“President Biden kindly called me on my cell phone as I was sitting in Dulles Airport awaiting a return flight to Pittsburgh after I testified before Congress in July 2019,” Myers said in a statement, adding that the conversation “meant a great deal” to him.
After Biden’s faulty claims got scrutinised by the media, the White House admitted to the New York Post that the president was referring to “a call he had with the Tree of Life rabbi in 2019.”
Former President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania meanwhile paid a personal visit to the Pittsburgh synagogue three days after the shooting that took lives of 11 people, including Holocaust survivors, and left six more injured. The first family’s procession to the crime scene included Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and then- Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnuchin.
Joe Biden has visibly struggled with his memory during the Thursday speech. The president had trouble recalling the names of the hymn “On Eagle’s Wings” and “Hava Nagilia” – a traditional Jewish song – as he was reminiscing about his daughter’s wedding to a Jewish doctor, which he joked was “the dream of every Catholic father”.
“My mind is going blank now, what’s the song that is played where everybody is on the chair? I can’t remember it,” the president told rabbis during the address.
Joe Biden’s mental soundness has long been a matter of public scrutiny due to his old age and a string of public gaffes and dubious statements in the past. Just last month Biden raised many eyebrows in the wake of the chaotic US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, when he claimed that al-Qaeda* was “gone” from the country after 20 years of America’s military presence. The statement was later debunked by his own officials.
As Australian sporting fans continue to endure Covid-19 lockdowns, a viral video of a football stadium in the US packed with spectators has shown exactly what we’re missing out on.
With Australia’s domestic football and competitions tiptoeing their way around the country in biosecure bubbles and games often being held in front of no crowd at all, Aussie fanatics are desperate to get back to attending live sporting events.
Fans around the world were left stunned at footage of the capacity crowd at the American football college game between Virginia Tech University and the University of North Carolina on Saturday (AEST).
Last year’s college football season was heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in the US and crowds were either significantly reduced or banned altogether as the country dealt with rising case numbers. Even the popular tailgating gatherings were not allowed by several colleges.
But with the new college football season getting underway this week, full capacity crowds have been permitted for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
Virginia Tech’s fans made the most of the chance and came out in force to support their team in the first home game of the season, sparking wild scenes at Lane Stadium.
The arena has a capacity of 66,000 and it’s safe to say every square metre of the grandstands was full and absolutely rocking.
In wild scenes usually only seen in movies, swathes of local fans decked out in orange were jumping up and down like crazy, cheering on the Hokies.
Both teams ran out onto the field with Metallica’s hit song “Enter Sandman” blaring through the Stadium’s sound system, adding to the electric atmosphere.
The insane crowd must have helped as well, since Virginia claimed an upset win over North Caroline 17-10.
Footage of the raucous crowd quickly went viral on social media and was shared by many Australian athletes and fans lamenting the fact such huge crowds are not impossible here.
Richmond Tigers coach Damien Hardwick tweeted: “Can’t wait to get the Tiger Army Back in 2022”, while retired Australian fast bowler Chadd Sayers described the vision as “spine-tingling”.
“This has been on my bucket list for a while, for obvious reasons,” cricket journalist Melinda Farrell wrote.
“Looking forward to the day when travel becomes easier.”
NRL.com senior reporter Brad Walter added: “If you miss the atmosphere of big events and being part of a heaving mass of humanity, this has to be our ambition for the start of next season.”
However, Australian basketball great Andrew Bogut was skeptical of the huge crowd, pointing out the US state of Virginia continues to record very high numbers of Covid-19 cases.
4244 Cases yesterday
Oh and BTW
In Virginia, 5,590,853 people or 65% of the state has received at least one dose.
Overall, 4,903,533 people or 57% of Virginia's population has been fully vaccinated. https://t.co/L4zmpvWzIm
Interestingly, fans at the football game were required to wear masks in Lane Stadium but not at their seats.
The scenes are a far cry from crowds are allowed at sporting events in Australia at the moment.
Fans are allowed to attend matches in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and Tasmania, but crowds are not possible in NSW and Victoria as those states deal with the outbreak and rising case numbers.
This year’s Australian F1 Grand Prix was cancelled, while both the AFL and NRL grand finals have been moved from their usual venues due to the Covid-19 outbreaks in Sydney in Melbourne.
AFL viewers were bemused by the sight of the goalposts at Optus Stadium in Perth being sprayed with disinfectant after Friday night’s AFL semi-final between Geelong and GWS.
…after the players have touched the footy all night & kicked it into the crowd
If this kind of risk prevention is truly appropriate, there shouldn’t be any spectators in the lower bowl or the two levels behind the goals. https://t.co/hIZ8l2lVqk
When it comes to taking advice on coronavirus mitigation, the American people would do far better to listen to comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan than National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Why? Rogan has common sense. Fauci is a power-monger and media whore whose flip-flopping scientific advisements are a) hardly scientific at all and b) oddly targeted toward clamping freedoms on those of conservative persuasion but not liberal. In other words: more non-science.
“If someone has an ideological or physiological reason for not getting vaccinated,” Rogansaid, on the heels of refunding ticket costs to fans who didn’t want to obey New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s command to get vaccinated as a condition of entering places of entertainment, “I don’t want to force them to get vaccinated to see a [f—-ing] stupid comedy show. And now they say that everybody has to be vaccinated, and I want everybody to know that you can get your money back.”
Fauci, meanwhile, is out and about insisting on the need — surprise! — for a third shot and oh, yeah, by the way, guess what, little kids going to school should get vaccinated, too. Should? Wait — make that “must.”
His words, on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday: “I believe that mandating vaccines for children to appear in school is a good idea. We’ve done this for decades and decades, requiring polio, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis. So this would not be something new requiring vaccinations for children to come to school.”
That’s a different song than Fauci was singing in May when the good doctor’s view was this: “I’m not so sure we should be requiring children at all. We should be encouraging them.” He also at the time assured hesitant parents — don’t worry about it, the vaccine’s been around for almost a year and has presented “no long-term effects that anyone could notice.”
What a hoot.
How could anyone notice long-term effects when the vaccine’s only been around — at the time Fauci made those remarks — for only about a year? Shh.
This is the same Fauci that at one time said not to wear a face mask, only later to advise wearing a face mask, only later to advise wearing two face masks, only later to advise goggles and eye shields, only later to change his tone and verbiage from that of advisory to one of mandatory.
“Theoretically,” Fauci said in July 2020, “you should protect all the mucosal surfaces. So if you have goggles or an eye shield, you should use it.”
Theoretically — Fauci’s not an elected official, sworn by office to protect and uphold the limits government provisions of the Constitution, along with the concept of individualism, not collectivism, that marks American politics and culture. But on that, it’s theory, schmeory. Fauci says — so Americans must do. So go the messages in the media and from Big Government mouths.
Rogan, on the other hand, has been pretty consistent with his calls for self-determination.
“I am not an anti-vac person,” hesaid, earlier this year. “In fact, I said I believe [the vaccines] are safe, and I encourage many people to take them. I just said that if you’re a young, healthy person, you don’t need it.”
Rogan’s also criticized the government-pharmaceutical industrial complex for “moving one step closer to dictatorship” on the whole coronavirus clamp-down, vaccine mandate, vaccine passport, technological contact tracing movement that’s sweeping the nation, nay, the globe.
“You can’t enter New York City unless you have your papers,” Roganrailed earlier this month. “You can’t go here unless you have that. You can’t get on a plane unless you do what I say.”
And in Fauci’s world, the response to that is: So? Which is to say, in Fauci’s world, the underlying but prevailing attitude is: We know best.
These are dangerous times for America because the face-off is coming — individualism versus collectivism. Truly, the face-off is here. In one corner stands Rogan, waving a banner emblazoned with the words “Independent Thinking;” in the other stands Fauci, flapping a flag that blares the single word, “Obey.”
If the vaccines work, if the face masks work, if the science is what the scientists have been saying for the past year-plus, what do the face-mask wearing and vaccinated have to fear? And if they don’t work, meaning, if they don’t put a stop to the spread of the coronavirus and the variants, which truly is what the data show, then the bureaucrats need to stop lying. Americans aren’t lab rats. American children aren’t guinea pigs. American citizens are thinking, rational, independent individuals with the God-given right to guide their own health care choices, as well as those for their own children.
Rogan is right. Following Fauci, especially blindly, is folly. Time for more American citizens to stand up and say enough’s enough. Freedom and individualism are far too precious to let go to life-long bureaucrats and their friends in the global community.
The knockout round for “God-given” cannot come from the likes of a coronavirus.
NYC Teachers Union Ready to Take Legal Action Against Call for Taking Off Unvaccinated Staff From Payroll
The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) is resisting full compliance with New York City’s vaccine mandate for public school teachers and staffers.
Michael Mulgrew, president of UFT, said city hall has asserted that unvaccinated staffers will be taken off the payroll without exception, that is, including those with religious and medical exemptions.
“The city, however, announced during our negotiations its intentions to refuse to honor medical and religious exemptions for Department of Education (DOE) staff from COVID-19 vaccination,” Mulgrew said in a statement directed to UFT members.
The union is going to try to arbitrate the impasse together with other labor groups.
“Its proposed policy states that staff with medical issues can stay on the payroll until their sick days are exhausted and then go on unpaid leave, while staff with religious objections would immediately go on unpaid leave. In both cases, those on leave would lose not only their pay but also their health insurance,” he said.
He further noted that the “no exceptions mandate” for all the members of the Department of Education violates federal and state law, as well as their contract.
The UFT has declared an impasse in negotiations, and at the same time, the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC) has recommended to its general members that the MLC take legal action to challenge the city Department of Health’s power to mandate the shots.
“With the first day of school fast approaching, we are as frustrated as you are with the mayor’s perpetually last-minute announcements and late planning. We assure you that we are working to get as many answers for you about this upcoming school year as soon as possible. We will be keeping you informed via email about the latest developments and updates on safety, instructional plans, and more,” Mulgrew said.
Custodians’ union President Robert Troeller said he was concerned that the city had announced the requirement without bargaining. He said he believed about 60 percent of the 850 members of Local 891 of the International Union of Operating Engineers had gotten at least a first shot, but some others “are dead-set against this.”
About 70 percent of adults have gotten at least one dose of vaccine in the city.
Some other unions have favored mandating all staff and teachers to get vaccinated.
“The health and safety of New York City children and the protection of our employees is at the core of the vaccine mandate,” said the press secretary at NYC DOE, according to the New York Post. “We will continue to negotiate with the UFT to reach a successful agreement because that is what’s best for our school communities.”
The new requirement came as federal regulators gave full approval to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, one of three vaccines available in the United States. All already have authorization for emergency use, but officials hope the full approval will increase public confidence in the vaccines.
The Epoch Times reached out to City Hall for comment.