We will talk about Romania, its coronavirus statistics, and what we have to learn from the Romanians. Romania Worldmeter Chart shared that covid-19 cases and deaths have flatlined since May, and maybe you will think that there’s no corona in Romania!
Well, there is, and it isn’t over, the virus is still present, but the numbers have been drastically lowered.
If we follow the MSM narrative, we should believe that the vaccines caused this situation. Well, no. Only 26% of Romanians are fully vaccinated. It takes the second least vaccinated country out of 33.
The narration is getting even better. Because they were firm in their decision not to take the vaccine, the government shut down the vaccination centers and now sells the vaccines.
How do we explain this situation in Romania?
25% of population vaccinated.
Cases & deaths plummeting.
Government closing down vaccinating centres and selling vaccines to the West.
In Romania the people have won victory, 👊💢 70% have refused the jabs and the gov are closing down vaccination centres , got this from a group This is AMAZING we must try harder https://t.co/xggRO5vfbH
The last of the four vaccination centers opened here in Brașov has also been closed, announces Bună Ziua Brașov . The people of Brasov also have at their disposal for the anti-COVID vaccination the family doctors’ offices and the vaccination points from the Military Hospital and from several private clinics.
Brasov City Hall announced on Monday, August 16, that the last center, the one for the Home for the Elderly, was closed on August 15. Also, the vaccination point in Piata Sfatului, which operated only on weekends, ceased its activity. In total, 310 people – nurses, doctors, registrars – worked at the four centers opened by the Public Health Directorate and Brasov City Hall.
According to DSP Brasov data, the total number of SARS-COV2 virus vaccine doses administered in Brasov is 201,868. In Brasov County, there are 320,390 doses administered.
The inhabitants of Brasov can also be vaccinated at 53 family doctors, at several private clinics and at the “Regina Maria” Military Emergency Hospital.
Romania has halted the import of most Covid-19 vaccines after a slowdown in its inoculation drive prompted the government to sell more than a million doses to Denmark and seek an extension to the validity of tens of thousands of expired shots.
Many states in central and eastern Europe have similar concerns over falling inoculation rates, which could leave large sections of the population vulnerable to the highly contagious Delta variant of Covid-19 and future strains of the virus.
About 24 per cent of Romania’s 19 million residents have been fully inoculated, but the rollout has faltered in the provinces of the largely rural country due to poor infrastructure, wariness of the state and the spread of conspiracy theories through communities where health education is often poor.
At the same time, a slowing infection rate has weakened the impetus for some in Romania to get vaccinated: only 31 new cases of Covid-19 and five deaths were reported on Thursday, adding to a national total of 1.08 million infections and 33,786 fatalities.
Regardless of the multiple COVID-19 variants, Romanians decided to stay firm on their ground and refused to get the vaccine! We have to learn from these people.
U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Leroy Byrd opened fire on Babbitt as she climbed through a broken windowpane inside the Capitol.
(Zenger) For more than seven months, the U.S. Capitol Police officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt, an unarmed protester climbing through a broken window in a hallway of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, has remained anonymous.
Though his name was known to U.S. Capitol Police, congressional staffers and federal investigations, no one would divulge it. The secrecy fueled months of online speculation.
Babbitt’s family alleged a coverup.
“The U.S. Congress wants to protect this man. He’s got friends in high places and they want to protect him,” said Maryland attorney Terry Roberts, who represents the family. “And they’ve done a pretty good job of it. … I don’t think it’s a proud moment for the U.S. Capitol Police or the U.S. Congress.”
Roberts told Zenger Wednesday night that the shooter was “Lieutenant Michael Leroy Byrd.”
Byrd’s attorney, Mark Schamel, did not dispute the positive identification. It adds to information from other sources who told Zenger in recent months that Byrd was the January 6 shooter. None of them would say so on the record.
This screen capture from amateur video shows the moment when Lt. Michael Leroy Byrd reached his arm out from a side room in the Speaker’s Lobby at the U.S. Capitol and fired his pistol at Ashli Babbitt, fatally wounding her. (YouTube/JaydenX)A protester holds a sign claiming Ashli Babbitt was “murdered by Capitol Police,” during a July 25, 2021 rally in New York City. Demonstrators were demanding the release of people arrested in connection with rioting at the U.S. Capitol building. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
Byrd is a controversial figure with a record of mishandling firearms, including once leaving a loaded pistol in a Congressional Visitor Center bathroom. Roberts said Byrd’s decision to fire his weapon on January 6 indicated his unfitness for duty.
“If I was a congressman, I’d be very concerned about him carrying a gun around me,” he said.
Typically, police officers who shoot civilians are named publicly. But the January 6 riot and the riots that erupted after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer, divided the country along political, class, and racial lines—making officials cautious about revealing the name of a Black police officer who killed a white protester.
Roberts said race was “clearly a factor” in the decision to shield Byrd from public scrutiny.
“It’s something that has to be considered, because it’s just a clear pattern in the United States,” he said. “A white cop kills a Black individual? Their name is out there within a day. It’s all public. And look, a police officer is a public official. There should not be any exception for this.”
U.S. Capitol Police officials, police union representatives and government officials had repeatedly claimed that disclosing the officer’s identity would put his life and his wife’s in danger—and subject them to racial slurs. Lt. Byrd’s family roots are in Jamaica, according to one of his neighbors.
After not naming Byrd publicly for months, Babbitt’s lawyer said he became skeptical when he learned Wednesday that the officer was set to appear with Lester Holt in an NBC News broadcast the following day—and that NBC had already taped the interview.
“They put out there that his [Byrd’s] life would be in danger if he came forward, and we know now that that can’t be true because he’s coming forward on his own,” Roberts said. “So, you know, he used that as an excuse.”
U.S. Capitol police officers were photographed pointing weapons at a door as rioters tried to enter the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Leroy Byrd is pictured at top center. (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg/Getty Images)Federal law enforcement was ill-prepared for the January 6, 2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol. Protesters breached security and entered the Capitol’s most secure corridors, setting the stage for violent scuffles — and one shot fired from a police lieutenant’s gun. (Brent Stirton/Getty Images)
Roberts, the Babbitt family’s lawyer, is planning a wrongful death lawsuit naming both Byrd and the U.S. Capitol Police as defendants. The suit has yet to be filed due to a federal law requiring a months-long notice period before such actions can be brought against government agencies.
The family is crowdfunding their lawsuit. The effort has raised more than $76,000 of their $500,000 goal.
Byrd was not justified in killing Babbitt, Roberts said, because he had no reason to believe the unarmed Babbitt posed a threat to himself or others. Byrd fired the only shot at the Capitol on January 6, and Babbitt was the only person there killed by gunfire that day.
Byrd’s own lawyer, Mark Schamel, insisted on his client’s anonymity since April, loudly, and always citing the officer’s physical security. He parried Zenger’s questions about his unnamed client for nearly four months.
“Running the name of a hero who has the need for 24-hour protection is disgusting and indefensible,” Schamel said July 9 in a text message. He was responding directly to a question that mentioned Byrd by name.
“Is Byrd’s decision to grant a public interview an indication that fears for his safety were unfounded?” Zenger asked him during a phone call Wednesday night.
“Not in any way, shape or form,” Schamel replied, before declining any further comment. Minutes later he texted: “I can confirm that my client is a hero. My client justifiably used force to protect members of Congress from an imminent threat posed by violent rioters and that he shot the first rioter who breached the inner sanctum of the House of Representatives and … there is no basis in law or fact for a civil case against him or the Capitol Police.”
“If the violent insurrectionist who died [Babbitt] had survived,” Schamel wrote, “she would have been indicted on felony charges and would have been on her way to prison with her fellow insurrectionists.”
Most of the hundreds of January 6 protesters who have been formally indicted are charged with trespassing, vandalism or similar minor offenses. Convictions for these offenses seldom draw jail terms.
Protesters supporting then-president Donald Trump broke into the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 as Congress held a joint session to ratify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. The resulting riots left police officers severely injured and one protester dead, shot by a U.S. Capitol Police lieutenant named Michael Leroy Byrd. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)Ashli Babbitt (pictured), age 35, was shot and killed on January 6, 2021 when U.S. Capitol Police Lieutenant Michael Leroy Byrd fired his service weapon at her. She was illegally entering the Speaker’s Lobby of the U.S. Capitol through a smashed windowpane.
Byrd shot Babbitt, a decorated U.S. Air Force veteran who served in the Gulf War, while she attempted to climb through a smashed windowpane and illegally enter the Speaker’s Lobby, an area adjacent to the House floor. Amateur video shows Byrd’s arm stretching out and holding still before he fired a single shot across the doorway at the 35-year-old woman.
It appears from footage that Babbitt, wearing a backpack, may not have seen Byrd before a round from his semiautomatic weapon struck her. The coming civil suit may hinge on whether or not Byrd warned Babbitt before he fired. Publicly available videos don’t include any audio of Byrd issuing a warning or announcing that he has his gun drawn.
Little is known publicly about Byrd, age 53. The U.S. Department of Justice and Capitol Police have remained tight-lipped about him, even as both agencies issued press releases, short on details, announcing his exoneration. Many who live near the longtime Capitol Hill police officer in Brandywine, Md. have hunkered down, not answering their doorbells when Zenger reporters visited to ask about their personable neighbor who became a sudden recluse after the shooting.
A January 6 news photograph of the House floor, where Byrd was in command of security, shows him with a pistol in his right hand. In the photo, Byrd is rushing to help other officers and special agents as they defend a barricaded doorway from angry protesters—the same doorway many presidents have walked through to address Joint Sessions of Congress.
The photo, captured by Bloomberg News and distributed by Getty Images, shows a distinctive bracelet — a pattern of white beads interrupted by solitary black beads — worn on the wrist of his shooting hand. That same bracelet is visible in amateur video, on Byrd’s right hand, the moment he opened fire.
Byrd’s identity has surfaced occasionally, in most cases on Twitter where partisans have vented about his ability to sidestep public attention after killing a civilian in the line of duty. A July report from Real Clear Investigations briefly noted an unguarded moment during a Feb. 25 House hearing when Timothy Blodgett, the acting House sergeant at arms, let Byrd’s name slip.
Explaining why his staff didn’t participate in radio traffic with U.S. Capitol Police during crisis incidents, Blodgett told lawmakers: “We communicate with our staff via cellphone, text message. We were in close contact. The situation you discussed where Officer Byrd was at the door, when Ms. Babbitt was shot, it was our sergeant-at-arms employee who rendered the aid to her at that site.”
C-SPAN’s transcript of that House Appropriations subcommittee hearing omits Byrd’s name. A transcript available from CQ Transcripts, a unit of the news organization CQ-Roll Call—formerly known as Congressional Quarterly—includes it.
At least four Americans were injured, a dozen people reportedly killed, and many more wounded after two explosions rocked the Abbey Gate of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan and a hotel near the gate.
The first explosion, which U.S. officials said was perpetrated by a suicide bomber improvised explosive device, or “complex SBIED attack,” was reported to be “large” in size. The U.S. Embassy sent out an alert regarding the threat at around 5:18 p.m. local time.
The explosion follows several Defense Department officials warning about an “imminent” threat at the airport, where evacuations have been underway for Afghan refugees and U.S. citizens following the Taliban’s rapid takeover of Kabul on Aug. 15. The attack carried out at the Kabul airport is “definitely believed to be” carried out by the Islamic State group, U.S. officials told the Associated Press. The ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan, known as ISIS-K, has clashed with the Taliban in the past. A source briefed on the situation near the airport said “hundreds of ISIS-K in the vicinity, attacks likely to continue,” according to Fox News.
“We can confirm an explosion outside Kabul airport. Casualties are unclear at this time. We will provide additional details when we can,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Thursday at 9:44 a.m. EDT (5:44 p.m. Kabul time).
Kirby later confirmed at 10:57 a.m. EDT that a second explosion occurred outside the Baron Hotel near Abbey Gate. The hotel is the site where 169 U.S. citizens were rescued last week by three Army Chinook helicopters.
“We can confirm that the explosion at the Abbey Gate was the result of a complex attack that resulted in a number of US & civilian casualties. We can also confirm at least one other explosion at or near the Baron Hotel, a short distance from Abbey Gate. We will continue to update,” Kirby wrote.
“Initial reports suggest four or more U.S. service personnel may have been injured or killed in the explosion,” according to Foreign Policy, citing the State Department Ops Center. Fox News earlier reported three U.S. marines were injured.
At an emergency medical facility in Kabul, there were reportedly 60 wounded people who arrived following the explosion and at least six dead on arrival, a Wall Street Journal correspondent reported.
Local media in Afghanistan reported at least 11 people were killed and dozens more injured following the initial explosion near the airport gate, although there were differing reports on the number of casualties. Russian officials told the Associated Press that at least 13 were killed and 15 were wounded. A witness to the bombing said one Afghan infant died in the explosion, a National Journal reporter tweeted .
Images emerged online showing several Afghans bloodied and some being carried in wheelbarrows following the attack.
The Taliban released a statement condemning the bombing attacks on Thursday, according to a tweet from the militant groups’ spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
“The Islamic Emirate strongly condemns the bombing of civilians at Kabul airport, which took place in an area where security is in the hands of US forces,” Mujahid said, according to a translation of the tweet. “The Islamic Emirate is paying close attention to the security and protection of its people, and evil circles will be strictly stopped.”
The White House and President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have been briefed about the explosion, officials told the Washington Examiner.
The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense said there have been no reports that its military or government personnel sustained casualties from the blasts, while French President Emmanuel Macron announced the country’s ambassador to Afghanistan would be leaving the country, adding that the “coming hours will remain extremely dangerous in Kabul and at the airport.”
The Taliban have reportedly stopped letting all Afghans through to the airport, adding that they are “Mostly” letting U.S. citizens through, according to Fox News. Still, U.S. citizens have been avoiding the airport since the blasts.
Military are also continuing to retrograde and depart the airport.
“Almost a certainty that Americans will be left behind,” a source told the outlet. “They will have to be extracted after-the-fact through either Taliban negotiation or unconventional means.”
This evening's attack on KBL occurred just outside Abbey Gate near the Baron Hotel. This particular area of the facility has a strong British presence. pic.twitter.com/aN4F5DrLiG
Last Friday, Biden said any attack “or disruption of our operations at the airport” would compel “a swift and forceful response.”
Biden told reporters that his decision not to extend the withdrawal deadline was made in part because “the longer we stay” creates a “growing risk of an attack by a terrorist group known as ISIS-K, an ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan.”
It is not immediately clear how the two explosions will impact the U.S. military’s noncombatant evacuation operation, though Biden has previously held firm to his self-imposed August 31 deadline. U.S. and coalition forces have worked to evacuate more than 100,000 people from the airport, which was the location of the bombings on Thursday.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that 4,500 American citizens in Afghanistan had been among those evacuees on Wednesday, adding there were approximately 1,500 remaining in the Taliban-controlled country. Biden and various administration officials have said all Americans who want to leave will be able to, but it’s unclear if the explosion will change the military’s mission.
Up to 100 evacuees have been flagged for further scrutiny during the more comprehensive screening they received at their first stop after Afghanistan: reports.
QUICK FACTS:
Security screeners at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar have detected that at least one of the Afghans who was evacuated from Kabul Airport has potential ties to ISIS, a U.S. official confirmed to Defense One.
The evacuee “looks like a potential member of ISIS,” said one official. “They’re still working that through.”
The Defense Departments Automated Biometric Identification System has also flagged up to 100 of the 7,000 Afghans evacuated as prospective recipients of Special Immigration Visas as potential matches to intelligence agency watch lists, another official said.
At least 6,000 fleeing Afghans have been evacuated to Al Udeid and thousands more have been flown to other temporary staging bases throughout the Middle East and Europe by U.S. military aircraft, notes Defense One.
Customs and Border Patrol screeners at those bases check evacuees’ IDs and biometric data against law enforcement databases.
Thousands of those Afghans will come to the United States, where they will be initially housed at several military bases, such as Fort Bliss in Texas, Fort McCoy in Wisconsin, and Fort Lee in Virginia.
“.5% OR MORE” AFGHAN REFUGEES TIED TO TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS:
A Pentagon official told The Daily Caller the number of Afghan refugees flagged for questionable connections, such as connections to attacks against U.S. or coalition forces, is “0.5% or more.”
Joe Biden estimated during an interview published Aug 19 that between 50,000 to 65,000 Afghans must be evacuated.
This means that roughly 250-325 of these could be flagged.
“With large numbers of people coming from Afghanistan, where we know there is significant Al-Qaida and ISIS-K presence, it’s highly likely that in some cases, these really sophisticated terrorists may attempt to enter the country as infiltrators,” the Pentagon official said. “Within that population of half a percent, some are likely to be tied to Al-Qaida or ISIS-K, and those are designated terrorist organizations,” the official added.
EXCLUSIVE: Small Percentage Of Afghan Refugees Flagged Through Security Screenings For Possible Ties To Terrorismhttps://t.co/wxq2DIT6HT
🚨 Given the surge in Afghan refugees, @RepJamesComer is concerned terrorists may take advantage of any weaknesses in America’s vetting processes in order to gain entry into the U.S. and is requesting a briefing on steps being taken to protect Americans. https://t.co/pQ38yDzdLR
— Oversight Committee Republicans (@GOPoversight) August 25, 2021
On the “RFK, Jr. The Defender Podcast,” Dr. Peter McCullough discussed a new study by the Oxford University Clinical Research Group and how the Pfizer’s vaccine, at 17% to 42% efficacy, doesn’t meet the regulatory standard of 50% efficacy for vaccines.
Why is the world experiencing such a “prominent outbreak” of the Delta variant when so many people have been vaccinated?
Dr. Peter McCullough, a consultant, cardiologist and vice chief of medicine at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, addressed those questions and more on the “RFK Jr. The Defender Podcast.”
New research shows people who are vaccinated against COVID are more susceptible to the Delta variant, said McCullough, pointing to a pre-print study by the prestigious Oxford University Clinical Research Group published Aug. 10 in The Lancet.
A preprint paper by the prestigious Oxford University Clinical Research Group, published Aug. 10 in The Lancet, found vaccinated individuals carry 251 times the load of COVID-19 viruses in their nostrils compared to the unvaccinated.https://t.co/8FMkRKlT0x
The paper’s authors demonstrated widespread vaccine failure and transmission under tightly controlled circumstances in a hospital lockdown in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. The study found vaccinated people carry 251 times the load of COVID-19 viruses in their nostrils compared to the unvaccinated, the study found.
“They had an outbreak and they locked down the hospital where the workers could not get out,” said McCullough. “They were assiduously checking the workers and testing them for COVID, as well as doing sequencing.”
The researchers found workers were still getting COVID during the lockdown period, said McCullough, and they were passing it to one another.
The study’s big finding is their calculation of viral load, McCullough said:
“This group had actually calculated viral load from oral and nasal secretions in the past. The viral load was 251 times that of the previous unvaccinated era where they had used the same methodology. So, they had previous workers and patients who had COVID-19 before any exposure to the vaccines. And now the vaccinated were carrying a massive viral load and passing it to one another.”
The efficacy for the Pfizer vaccine is measured as being anywhere from 17% to 42% effective.
“These levels are far below the 50% regulatory standard to even have a vaccine on the market,” said McCullough.
Regardless of the variant or the vaccine, McCullough said the bottom line is that “the vaccines are failing.”
“Has there ever been a clearer window into the society they’re trying to build?”
Fox News host Tucker Carlson issued a stark warning Tuesday, emphasising that “we’re seeing now what happens when countries tolerate authoritarians, even for a moment” as people worldwide are being told to submit to increasingly draconian “rules” in the wake of the pandemic.
Carlson noted “Has there ever been a clearer window into the society they’re trying to build? Our formerly middle-class nation now has a serf class. They’re the ones wearing the masks, being forced to take drugs they don’t want, being told not to communicate with one another, except through digital channels the Democratic Party controls.”
He continued, “We now have two groups of Americans, not a broad middle. The favored and the unfavored. The saved and the damned. The vaccinated and the unvaccinated. That’s how the architects of all this see the country.”
Carlson also pointed to former NSA head Michael Hayden’s assertion that Trump supporters should be sent to Afghanistan to die.
“That’s how contemptuous they feel about you,” Carlson noted, adding “Shut up and fetch another glass of Riesling, serf. And be sure not to breathe on me, or you’ll be deported.”
“These are bad attitudes and are accelerating. How far can this go, you wonder?” he questioned.
Carlson also described some of the insane policies being put into place in Australia and New Zealand, describing them as akin to North Korea.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Senator Lindsey Graham both agree that President Biden deserves to be impeached over the botched Afghanistan withdrawal.
Greene (R-GA) introduced three impeachment resolutions against Biden last week, one focusing on his dereliction of duty in Afghanistan.
The fiery congresswoman issued a blistering statement along with the articles of impeachment.
“In seven short months, Joe Biden has caused America to lose the respect of the entire world,” she said. “The evidence is clear and his actions are so egregious that he must be impeached.”
Greene went on to accuse the President’s “woke generals” of having “tucked their tail and (run)” and said Biden “dishonored the sacrifices made by every American soldier who fought in the 20-year war.”
Many want to impeach Biden but are hesitant bc they fear a Kamala presidency.
There’s nothing to fear. She’s worse in every way than Biden & Dems don’t like her. Expose her & expose the entire Democrat party for who they are.
Lindsey Graham: Biden Deserves to Be Impeached Over Afghanistan
It isn’t just a far-right supporter of former President Trump calling for impeachment either.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), in an interview with Newsmax Tuesday, said he believes Biden “deserves” to be impeached.
“I think he should be impeached,” he said.
“I think Joe Biden deserves to be impeached because he’s abandoned thousands of Afghans who fought with us and he’s going to abandon some American citizens because he capitulated to the Taliban to a 31 August deadline,” added Graham.
If we leave any Americans behind, or if we leave thousands of Afghans who fought bravely alongside us behind, President Joe Biden deserves to be impeached for a High Crime and Misdemeanor of Dereliction of Duty.https://t.co/nGZrAHm2p5
On the border crisis, Greene accused Biden of having “violated our immigration laws, deprived our Border Patrol of manpower and resources, and created a national security crisis by allowing unknown foreign nationals into our country who wish to do harm to Americans.”
In May, a federal judge ruled that an eviction suspension at the behest of the CDC was an illegal exercise of the agency’s authority.
A federal appeals court in July found the eviction moratorium unlawful.
The Biden administration is currently appealing that ruling with the Supreme Court.
I introduced Articles of Impeachment last Friday.
Republican voters & some Democrats all over the country want Biden impeached for his betrayal & absolute dereliction of duty.
President Trump was impeached over a phone call to Ukraine and a so-called ‘insurrection.’
An insurrection that officials familiar with an FBI investigation into the events of January 6th have admitted to having little to no evidence of a coordinated plot to overturn the election.
Each of the three resolutions introduced by Greene is far more egregious and represents a dereliction of duty by President Biden far worse than anything Trump ever did.
Being outraged over outrageously outrageous sports mascots has been the thing the last few years.
Americans have witnessed woke activists demanding that teams jettison allegedly offensive but beloved team symbols — and not just those with Native American origins — and in many instances, they’ve seen people with power cede naming rights to the screaming scolds. Here’s a taste of some of the mascot fights:
Everyone knows about Washington’s NFL team formerly known as the Redskins, which is now known as the Washington Football Team after owner Danny Snyder caved to the mob — despite the fact that even a Washington Post poll showed a vast majority of Native Americans didn’t have a problem with the old mascot.
A high school in Portland, Oregon, voted to change its mascot from the Trojans to the Evergreens — but there was suddenly a problem: Evergreen trees could connote lynching. So name change was put on hold.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers received criticism in the pages of the Washington Post for “romanticizing ruthless cutthroats.”
The Cleveland Indians announced they would change their name over concerns that it was “racist.”
The Kansas City Chiefs have been hit over their supposedly “dehumanizing” mascot.
Maine and Washington both issued statewide bans on Native American mascots at public schools and colleges.
LIU Brooklyn ditched its Blackbirds mascot because it was “an offensive racist mascot.”
Left-wing University of Miami students were happy to sign a petition — which was fake — to change the school’s Hurricanes mascot since it is “offensive” to people hurt by hurricanes.
George Washington University students voted to replace their mascot, George the Colonial, which some found to be “a little white supremacisty.”
And now we can add the Notre Dame Fighting Irish leprechaun to the list of offensive mascots. But the school isn’t backing down in the face of criticism.
What happened?
A new survey from Quality Logo Products found that the leprechaun was the fourth most offensive college football mascot in the U.S., the Indianapolis Star reported this week.
The dukes-up Irish mythical character ranked just behind Florida State University’s Osceola and Renegade, San Diego State’s Aztec Warrior, and University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Vili the Warrior — all of which are considered insensitive to Native American communities.
But the school has no intention of changing the name that has had a long history with the institution’s sports programs.
In an email to the Star, the Notre Dame officials said, “It is worth noting … that there is no comparison between Notre Dame’s nickname and mascot and the Indian and warrior names (and) mascots used by other institutions such as the NFL team formerly known as the Redskins.”
“None of these institutions were founded or named by Native Americans who sought to highlight their heritage by using names and symbols associated with their people,” the school continued.
“Our symbols stand as celebratory representations of a genuine Irish heritage at Notre Dame, a heritage that we regard with respect, loyalty and affection,” Notre Dame told the paper.
The school also offered the Star a history lesson behind the Fighting Irish mascot. From the Star:
Notre Dame said its nickname, Fighting Irish, began as a term used by other schools to mock its athletic teams.
At the time, anti-Catholicism and anti-immigrant sentiments were strong. Because Notre Dame was largely populated by ethnic Catholics – mostly Irish, but also Germans, Italians and Poles – the university was a natural target for ethnic slurs, it said.
At one football game in 1899, Northwestern students chanted “Kill the fighting Irish,” Notre Dame said.
As the school’s football team gained national prominence in the early 1900s, journalists began to use the “fighting Irish” phrase in their stories.
“Soon, Notre Dame supporters took it up, turning what once was an epithet into an ‘in-your-face’ expression of triumph,” the university said.
The Fighting Irish nickname was made official in 1927 when university president Father Matthew Walsh, of Irish descent, adopted the name.
The leprechaun, the school said, is “symbolic of the Fighting Irish and intentionally a caricature,” noting that the character began as English dig at the Irish people, which Irish-Americans chose to use as a way to “recognize the determination of the Irish people and, symbolically, the university’s athletes.”
Liberal author Naomi Wolf’s DailyClout channel was abruptly deleted by YouTube after she posted an interview with a prominent critic of mandatory masking policies in schools.
“This censorship highlights the extreme clampdown on free speech and public discourse prevailing in the United States,” Wolf said in an Aug. 24 statement after the channel was eliminated.
Wolf, a co-founder of the DailyClout website, is a widely published journalist and bestselling author of books such as “The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women” (1990) and “The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot” (2007). She was an adviser to then-President Bill Clinton’s 1996 reelection campaign and to then-Vice President Al Gore, both Democrats.
Twitter banned Wolf, who has been critical of vaccine passports and media coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, earlier this summer, as The Epoch Times reported at the time. Twitter said Wolf had disseminated vaccine misinformation in violation of the microblogging website’s policies, a claim she denies.
Wolf said she can’t state with certainty why YouTube suppressed the DailyClout channel.
“I can’t possibly know what YouTube’s motives are. There’s no appeal, as with Twitter, there’s no appeal process. There’s no one I can call,” she told The Epoch Times in a follow-up interview.
The DailyClout website’s mission “couldn’t be more pure and altruistic—to explain democracy,” Wolf said.
“We’re not partisan. We don’t support one side or the other. We literally exist to explain legislation and the legislative process and what’s in a bill. We read the stimulus bill and point out what’s in it. We read the health care bill and bullet point what’s in it,” Wolf said.
“We do the hard work of making civic engagement easy and accessible for everybody.”
YouTube sent DailyClout an email that advised a video titled “Dr Naomi Wolf and Leslie Manookian speak about her award-winning documentary ‘The Greater Good,’” had been removed for violating YouTube’s “medical misinformation policy.”
“YouTube doesn’t allow claims about COVID-19 vaccinations that contradict expert consensus from local health authorities or the World Health Organization (WHO),” stated the email dated Aug. 21, which The Epoch Times obtained.
The video featured an interview Wolf conducted with Manookian, who is president and founder of Health Freedom Defense Fund Inc. (HFDF). In the video, the two discussed apparent conflicts of interest at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is run by Dr. Anthony Fauci. NIAID is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which, in turn, is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The NIAID holds patents on COVID-19 vaccines, which has been documented by Public Citizen and Axios.
Manookian noted that NIH allows employees who hold patents to receive up to $150,000 a year per patent and Wolf said there was a need for an open public discussion of this issue.
Wolf was deplatformed by Twitter after sharing with 146,000 followers a reading of UNC senior researcher Dr. Ralph Baric’s resume, which shows his work on gain-of-function research had been funded by NIAID under Fauci. Vanity Fair also reported on the funding.
“I can’t stress enough … [that] I was reporting … on primary source public documents … reporting matters of public record,” as opposed to breaking actual news, Wolf said in the interview.
Wolf said both the Twitter and YouTube bans came as she was merely “reporting on successful legal efforts or legislative efforts to ban vaccine passports, to ban vaccine discrimination or to change policy around mask mandates.”
“I don’t know why a successful channel that was bringing matters of public importance to viewers was deplatformed,” Wolf said.
“Many, many, many credible important voices are being deplatformed, a good proportion on the right—I happen to be on the left … and I am part of a lawsuit against big tech.”
Wolf said she is concerned about governmental collaboration with big tech.
“I believe that government is not allowed to use private industry to go around the First Amendment … and so if there’s any coordination there, that is unlawful and that’s what [the legal process of] discovery is for.”
Wolf said she was disturbed when President Joe Biden and his aides have raged against what they called misinformation.
“In a democracy, when a head of state … [engages in that] kind of finger-pointing [such a thing] has no place in an open democracy with a First Amendment. It’s very dangerous,” she said.
“I think something very serious indeed is happening if a channel devoted to educating people from all walks of life, all political persuasions, every age, about democracy in America is closed down. That’s really serious.”
Officials at YouTube, which is owned by Google, didn’t immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.
President Joe Biden hopes people will soon forget the unfolding disaster he created in Afghanistan so he can turn back to issues such as COVID, the economy, and climate change. But he and his White House don’t realize just how damaging Afghanistan has been to the president’s credibility, undermining his ability to govern on every other issue.
The fundamental problem for Biden is that his claims about the situation in Afghanistan are clearly untrue, indeed, frankly incredible.
On Friday, Biden claimed during a White House press conference that al Qaeda had been completely driven out of Afghanistan. Hours later, Defense Department press secretary John Kirby could do nothing but admit that this was false. Al Qaeda is not only operating throughout Afghanistan, but according to a Pentagon inspector general report released earlier in the week, the Taliban continue to maintain their “relationship with Al Qaeda, providing safe haven for the terrorist group in Afghanistan.”
Biden also claimed during that same press conference that there was “no indication” that Americans stuck in Kabul “haven’t been able to get” to the airport. The press conference hadn’t been over for more than half an hour before CNN’s Clarrisa Ward made clear the exact opposite. “It is extremely difficult, and it is dangerous,” she reported on American efforts to reach the airport in Kabul.
Biden even claimed that he had “seen no question of our credibility from our allies around the world.” Either Biden is forgetting what he reads or else his briefers left out the leader of Germany’s conservative party calling Biden’s handling of Afghanistan “the greatest debacle that NATO has seen.” Biden also must have missed British Member of Parliament Tom Tugendhat saying it was “the biggest foreign policy disaster since Suez.”
The average American doesn’t know who Tom Tugendhat is, but he does know our allies are not happy with Biden’s handling of Afghanistan. And anyone can see on television that the situation is much more chaotic and violent than Biden promised it would be just a month ago.
Biden’s false statements and empty promises are undermining him on every other issue. A recent CBS poll found Biden’s overall approval rating had fallen 8 points since April to an even 50%-50% split. But the percentage of respondents who described Biden as “competent” fell from 56% to 49%, the percentage who described him as “focused” fell from 56% to 48%, and the percentage who described their leader as “effective” fell from 55% to 47%.
An Echelon Insights poll found that Biden’s approval rating had also fallen on every issue tested, including COVID, the economy, foreign policy, and immigration. Worse for Biden, the latest Reuters poll found he had the first negative overall approval rating (46% approve/49% disapprove) of his presidency. Meanwhile, the share who believe the country is heading in the wrong direction rose to 59%.
It is no coincidence that centrist House Democrats are refusing to go along with Biden’s radical $3.5 trillion spending plan now that he has been weakened by Afghanistan. Voters don’t trust Biden on any issue other than COVID, so why should centrist Democrats tie themselves to Biden’s far-left legislative agenda?
Biden has only himself to blame for the political disaster that is enveloping him. If he always knew pulling out of Afghanistan was going to be chaotic, then he shouldn’t have said just a month earlier that it was going to go smoothly. He can’t fix that now. What he can do, however, is change the bragging, blustering, dishonest habits of a lifetime, learn some humility, take criticism seriously, and stop talking nonsense about everything being OK in Kabul.
Police Lieutenant Who Killed January 6 Capitol Rioter Ashli Babbitt Finally Identified
U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Leroy Byrd opened fire on Babbitt as she climbed through a broken windowpane inside the Capitol.
(Zenger) For more than seven months, the U.S. Capitol Police officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt, an unarmed protester climbing through a broken window in a hallway of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, has remained anonymous.
Though his name was known to U.S. Capitol Police, congressional staffers and federal investigations, no one would divulge it. The secrecy fueled months of online speculation.
Babbitt’s family alleged a coverup.
“The U.S. Congress wants to protect this man. He’s got friends in high places and they want to protect him,” said Maryland attorney Terry Roberts, who represents the family. “And they’ve done a pretty good job of it. … I don’t think it’s a proud moment for the U.S. Capitol Police or the U.S. Congress.”
Roberts told Zenger Wednesday night that the shooter was “Lieutenant Michael Leroy Byrd.”
Byrd’s attorney, Mark Schamel, did not dispute the positive identification. It adds to information from other sources who told Zenger in recent months that Byrd was the January 6 shooter. None of them would say so on the record.
Byrd is a controversial figure with a record of mishandling firearms, including once leaving a loaded pistol in a Congressional Visitor Center bathroom. Roberts said Byrd’s decision to fire his weapon on January 6 indicated his unfitness for duty.
“If I was a congressman, I’d be very concerned about him carrying a gun around me,” he said.
Typically, police officers who shoot civilians are named publicly. But the January 6 riot and the riots that erupted after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer, divided the country along political, class, and racial lines—making officials cautious about revealing the name of a Black police officer who killed a white protester.
Roberts said race was “clearly a factor” in the decision to shield Byrd from public scrutiny.
“It’s something that has to be considered, because it’s just a clear pattern in the United States,” he said. “A white cop kills a Black individual? Their name is out there within a day. It’s all public. And look, a police officer is a public official. There should not be any exception for this.”
U.S. Capitol Police officials, police union representatives and government officials had repeatedly claimed that disclosing the officer’s identity would put his life and his wife’s in danger—and subject them to racial slurs. Lt. Byrd’s family roots are in Jamaica, according to one of his neighbors.
After not naming Byrd publicly for months, Babbitt’s lawyer said he became skeptical when he learned Wednesday that the officer was set to appear with Lester Holt in an NBC News broadcast the following day—and that NBC had already taped the interview.
“They put out there that his [Byrd’s] life would be in danger if he came forward, and we know now that that can’t be true because he’s coming forward on his own,” Roberts said. “So, you know, he used that as an excuse.”
Roberts, the Babbitt family’s lawyer, is planning a wrongful death lawsuit naming both Byrd and the U.S. Capitol Police as defendants. The suit has yet to be filed due to a federal law requiring a months-long notice period before such actions can be brought against government agencies.
The family is crowdfunding their lawsuit. The effort has raised more than $76,000 of their $500,000 goal.
Byrd was not justified in killing Babbitt, Roberts said, because he had no reason to believe the unarmed Babbitt posed a threat to himself or others. Byrd fired the only shot at the Capitol on January 6, and Babbitt was the only person there killed by gunfire that day.
Byrd’s own lawyer, Mark Schamel, insisted on his client’s anonymity since April, loudly, and always citing the officer’s physical security. He parried Zenger’s questions about his unnamed client for nearly four months.
“Running the name of a hero who has the need for 24-hour protection is disgusting and indefensible,” Schamel said July 9 in a text message. He was responding directly to a question that mentioned Byrd by name.
“Is Byrd’s decision to grant a public interview an indication that fears for his safety were unfounded?” Zenger asked him during a phone call Wednesday night.
“Not in any way, shape or form,” Schamel replied, before declining any further comment. Minutes later he texted: “I can confirm that my client is a hero. My client justifiably used force to protect members of Congress from an imminent threat posed by violent rioters and that he shot the first rioter who breached the inner sanctum of the House of Representatives and … there is no basis in law or fact for a civil case against him or the Capitol Police.”
“If the violent insurrectionist who died [Babbitt] had survived,” Schamel wrote, “she would have been indicted on felony charges and would have been on her way to prison with her fellow insurrectionists.”
Most of the hundreds of January 6 protesters who have been formally indicted are charged with trespassing, vandalism or similar minor offenses. Convictions for these offenses seldom draw jail terms.
Byrd shot Babbitt, a decorated U.S. Air Force veteran who served in the Gulf War, while she attempted to climb through a smashed windowpane and illegally enter the Speaker’s Lobby, an area adjacent to the House floor. Amateur video shows Byrd’s arm stretching out and holding still before he fired a single shot across the doorway at the 35-year-old woman.
It appears from footage that Babbitt, wearing a backpack, may not have seen Byrd before a round from his semiautomatic weapon struck her. The coming civil suit may hinge on whether or not Byrd warned Babbitt before he fired. Publicly available videos don’t include any audio of Byrd issuing a warning or announcing that he has his gun drawn.
Little is known publicly about Byrd, age 53. The U.S. Department of Justice and Capitol Police have remained tight-lipped about him, even as both agencies issued press releases, short on details, announcing his exoneration. Many who live near the longtime Capitol Hill police officer in Brandywine, Md. have hunkered down, not answering their doorbells when Zenger reporters visited to ask about their personable neighbor who became a sudden recluse after the shooting.
A January 6 news photograph of the House floor, where Byrd was in command of security, shows him with a pistol in his right hand. In the photo, Byrd is rushing to help other officers and special agents as they defend a barricaded doorway from angry protesters—the same doorway many presidents have walked through to address Joint Sessions of Congress.
The photo, captured by Bloomberg News and distributed by Getty Images, shows a distinctive bracelet — a pattern of white beads interrupted by solitary black beads — worn on the wrist of his shooting hand. That same bracelet is visible in amateur video, on Byrd’s right hand, the moment he opened fire.
Byrd’s identity has surfaced occasionally, in most cases on Twitter where partisans have vented about his ability to sidestep public attention after killing a civilian in the line of duty. A July report from Real Clear Investigations briefly noted an unguarded moment during a Feb. 25 House hearing when Timothy Blodgett, the acting House sergeant at arms, let Byrd’s name slip.
Explaining why his staff didn’t participate in radio traffic with U.S. Capitol Police during crisis incidents, Blodgett told lawmakers: “We communicate with our staff via cellphone, text message. We were in close contact. The situation you discussed where Officer Byrd was at the door, when Ms. Babbitt was shot, it was our sergeant-at-arms employee who rendered the aid to her at that site.”
C-SPAN’s transcript of that House Appropriations subcommittee hearing omits Byrd’s name. A transcript available from CQ Transcripts, a unit of the news organization CQ-Roll Call—formerly known as Congressional Quarterly—includes it.