When Fauci agreed to an interview with Eugenio Derbez, he may have assumed the Mexican actor, director and producer would treat him with kid gloves. That didn’t happen.
Dr. Anthony Fauci is no stranger to media interviews. Since the pandemic made him a household name, he’s even been called a media darling.
So when Fauci agreed to an interview with Eugenio Derbez, he may have assumed the famed Mexican actor, director and producer would treat him the way the U.S. mainstream media usually does — with kid gloves.
That didn’t happen. Instead, Derbez lobbed one pointed question after another — and didn’t settle for non-answers.
A full year western Media has had the chance to make the right questions. It took a Mexican comedian to do it. And not just any comedian: hats off to the great Eugenio Derbez! Is there a chance that Bill Gates gives him an interview? 🤨 4/4 pic.twitter.com/JFKhPv0slt
The privilege of living in the US affords poor people more material resources than the averages for most of the world’s richest nations.
A groundbreaking study by Just Facts has discovered that after accounting for all income, charity, and non-cash welfare benefits like subsidized housing and food stamps, the poorest 20 percent of Americans consume more goods and services than the national averages for all people in most affluent countries. This includes the majority of countries in the prestigious Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), including its European members. In other words, if the US “poor” were a nation, it would be one of the world’s richest.
Notably, this study was reviewed by Dr. Henrique Schneider, professor of economics at Nordakademie University in Germany and the chief economist of the Swiss Federation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. After examining the source data and Just Facts’ methodology, he concluded: “This study is sound and conforms with academic standards. I personally think it provides valuable insight into poverty measures and adds considerably to this field of research.”
The “Poorest” Rich Nation?
In a July 1 New York Timesvideo op-ed that decries “fake news” and calls for “a more truthful approach” to “the myth of America as the greatest nation on earth,” Times producers Taige Jensen and Nayeema Raza claim the US has “fallen well behind Europe” in many respects and has “more in common with ‘developing countries’ than we’d like to admit.”
“One good test” of this, they say, is how the US ranks in the OECD, a group of “36 countries, predominantly wealthy, Western, and Democratic.” While examining these rankings, they corrupt the truth in ways that violate the Times’op-ed standards, which declare that “you can have any opinion you would like,” but “the facts in a piece must be supported and validated,” and “you can’t say that a certain battle began on a certain day if it did not.”
The Times is not merely wrong about this issue but is also reporting the polar opposite of reality.
A prime example is their claim that “America is the richest country” in the OECD, “but we’re also the poorest, with a whopping 18% poverty rate—closer to Mexico than Western Europe.” That assertion prompted Just Facts to conduct a rigorous, original study of this issue with data from the OECD, the World Bank, and the US government’s Bureau of Economic Analysis. It found that the Times is not merely wrong about this issue but is also reporting the polar opposite of reality.
Poor Compared to Whom?
The most glaring evidence against the Times’ rhetoric is a note located just above the OECD’s data for poverty rates. It explains that these rates measure relative poverty within nations, not between nations. As the note states, the figures represent portions of people with less than “half the median household income” in their own nations and thus “two countries with the same poverty rates may differ in terms of the relative income-level of the poor.”
The OECD’s poverty rates say nothing about which nation is “the poorest.” Nonetheless, this is exactly how the Times misrepresented them.
The upshot is laid bare by the fact that this OECD measure assigns a higher poverty rate to the US (17.8 percent) than to Mexico (16.6 percent). Yet World Bank data show that 35 percent of Mexico’s population lives on less than $5.50 per day, compared to only 2 percent of people in the United States.
Hence, the OECD’s poverty rates say nothing about which nation is “the poorest.” Nonetheless, this is exactly how the Times misrepresented them.
The same point applies to broader discussions about poverty, which can be measured in two very different ways: (1) relative poverty or (2) absolute poverty. Relative measures of poverty, like the one cited by the Times, can be misleading if the presenter does not answer the question: Poor compared to who? Absolute measures, like the number of people with income below a certain level, are more straightforward and enlightening.
Influential people in public health, government and the media failed to rise to the moment
The Covid-19 pandemic represented a test of elites in the U.S., from public-health experts to the corporate media. The results have been disappointing. Policy makers who bucked the elites and challenged the narrative have been proven right to do so.
To begin with, highly publicized epidemiological models were as consequential as they were wrong. The model produced by Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London—which forecast millions of Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. without mitigation efforts—sparked panic among public-health elites and served as the pretext for lockdowns throughout the U.S. and Great Britain. The lockdowns failed to stop the virus but did a great deal of societal damage along the way—damage that a more targeted approach, seeking to reduce total harms, would have been able to avoid (and did, in places like Sweden and Florida).
Similarly, models predicting massive shortages of hospital beds helped to precipitate the disastrous policy—enacted by states like New York, New Jersey and Michigan—to send contagious, Covid-positive hospital patients back to nursing homes. States like Florida that rejected the models and adopted policies to protect nursing-home residents had comparatively lower nursing-home mortality rates as a result.
The reliance on faulty models was matched by poor public messaging. Elites sent conflicting messages about the efficacy of cloth masks, the uniformity of risk across age brackets, the danger of outdoor transmission and the practical benefit of taking a Covid vaccine.
Perhaps most damaging to public trust was the public-health campaign urging “15 Days to Slow the Spread.” This short-term mitigation, we were told, was necessary to buy time to prepare hospitals for any patient surges. But that reasonable aim was soon transformed into a lockdown-until-eradication approach that left no end in sight for most Americans. Going from “save the hospitals” to “zero Covid” represents one of the greatest instances in history of moving the goal post.
Lockdowns proved a huge boon to America’s corporate media, which primed its captive audience with fear and partisanship. Everything the corporate press did regarding Covid coverage was inseparable from its yearslong obsession with attacking Donald Trump. Weaponizing Covid in an election year superseded any obligation to present the facts with needed context and perspective.
While it was abundantly clear by May that schools represented low-risk environments for the spread of Covid and that the consequences of prolonged school closures were potentially catastrophic, the corporate media did its best to obscure the data and stoke fear and panic among parents and teachers. After all, the media had to take the position opposite Donald Trump.
Had the media presented the data on schools in a rational fashion with proper context and perspective, it is quite possible that the extended school closures we’ve seen in lockdown states would have been untenable and millions of students would be in markedly better shape academically and socially.
For months we were told to “trust the experts,” but far too often over the past year those who were most influential in our society—in public health, government and media—proved incapable of rising to the moment.
Florida cut against the grain of elite opinion and bucked the media narrative. The result is open schools, comparatively low unemployment and per capita Covid mortality below the national average. We cannot simply undo the harm caused by flawed policies advocated by our elites, but we can resolve that we never let this happen to our country again.
(China In Focus) Top U.S. and Chinese officials clash in their first in-person meeting. The Chinese side responded to American comments on human rights violations with a 15-minute monologue.
The Chinese regime is blaming the U.S. government for alleged #antiAsian crimes, but a China analyst says it’s actually the Chinese Communist Party’s fault.
Joe Biden’s administration has granted an $86 million contract for hotel rooms to hold about 1,200 illegal migrants, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed.
As the migrant crisis has been overwhelming the U.S.-Mexico border in recent weeks, Biden has been mulling different strategies to mitigate the surge he started.
“It’s a sign of growing numbers of migrant families trying to come to the U.S. — in addition to already overwhelming numbers of kids crossing the border without their parents or legal guardians. Both trends appear to be straining government resources,” Axios reported Saturday.
The six-month hotel contract is through a Texas-based nonprofit called Endeavors, but the contract could reportedly be extended and expanded.
The hotels will be near border areas, including in Arizona and Texas, though it’s not known which hotels would hold the migrants.
Axios noted that “hotel rooms are likely a safer option than border patrol stations”, they don’t have to follow the same “safety protocols that official government detention spaces do,” presumably including COVID-19 screening.
“To suggest that someone like [Bongino] would replace a God-fearing Christian behind the golden EIB microphone is totally absurd, and completely incomprehensible.”
Stew Peters, host of the “Patriotically Correct” radio show, slammed a “misleading headline” from Fox News this week that claimed former Obama administration Secret Service agent and current Parler shareholder Dan Bongino is “replacing” the late talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh in the 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST time slot.
“I saw a headline yesterday that was a little disturbing to me,” Peters said. “Actually, ‘a little disturbing’ is quite the understatement, I’m gonna go full-blown B.S. on this one. I’m actually extremely insulted by the three sentences they struggled to put together at FoxNews.com, and I’m blown away by the misleading and completely inaccurate article.”
The article in question, titled “Dan Bongino to take over Rush Limbaugh’s radio time slot,” states that Fox News contributor Bongino “will be launching a new radio show during the time slot left vacant by conservative talk radio icon,” and goes on to draw parallels between a health scare Bongino had in 2020 and the invasive lung cancer that took Limbaugh’s life.
“Now, I don’t know if this was just some regurgitated story that was published by Fox after receiving a press release from the Bongino camp, or if this was a real story that Fox may have manufactured on a slow day in the cycle of media, but this is complete garbage,” Peters noted.
The governor flat-out rejected the idea of so-called ‘vaccination passports’
As vaccine distribution reaches the 100 million mark in the United States and Americans yearn to return to their normal lives, some state governments and private industries are considering adopting a “vaccine passport” program.
But not Florida.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Thursday that under no circumstances would Florida impose a state mandate requiring people to show documented proof of their vaccination before traveling or attending large public gatherings like concerts or sporting events, at least not while he is governor.
“I just want to make very clear in Florida, we are not doing any vaccine passports. All those experts said that it was a bad idea. I think it’s a bad idea, and so that will not happen. And so folks should get vaccinated, if they want to, we’ll obviously provide that, but under no circumstances will the state be asking you to show proof of vaccination, and I don’t think private companies should be doing that either,” DeSantis said Thursday.
The governor believes it’s all Floridians’ individual responsibility to decide whether they get the vaccine and what kind of places they go or activities they do.
“To start going down the road of vaccine passports, I mean, you have some of these states saying to go to a sporting event, you have to show either a negative test or a vaccine proof. I think you just got to make decisions. If you want to go to an event, go to an event. If you don’t, don’t. But to be requiring people to provide all this proof, that’s not how you get society back to normal, so we’re rejecting any vaccine passports here in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said.
The idea of showing proof of vaccination before being permitted to travel places is gaining traction worldwide. On Feb. 21, Israel introduced the “green pass,” an app Israelis can download to display proof that someone has recovered from COVID-19. Advertising for the green pass promoted the idea that anyone with the pass could return to life as normal, going where they please without social distancing or masks.
Currently, the Biden administration requires international travelers who want to fly to the United States to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test before they can travel. The international airline industry is considering taking the next step by requiring travelers to present a digital certificate showing proof of vaccination.
In the European Union, a proposal to create a Digital Green Certificate to facilitate travel across its 27 member countries will be discussed at the next summit of EU leaders. The certificate would “serve as proof that a person has either been vaccinated against COVID-19, received a negative test result or recovered from COVID-19,” according to NPR.
Several health experts have criticized the idea, warning that free Americans who decline to receive a vaccine could be relegated to second-class status.
“The vaccine hesitancy data show that the people who are hesitant to take vaccines actually tend to be the working class people, poor, poor people, minority populations. We’re going to then turn around and say, ‘You have to have a vaccine passport to participate in American life,’ it’s going to be a new vaccine Jim Crow. It’s a huge, huge mistake that will undermine trust in public health, and I think it’s just morally, it’s just morally wrong,” Dr. Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University said, speaking at a roundtable discussion with DeSantis and other health experts Thursday.
The federal government has explored the idea of some kind of vaccination passport. President Biden signed an executive order in January directing government agencies to “assess the feasibility” of linking coronavirus vaccine certificates with other vaccination records and providing digital copies for international travelers to use.
The White House has since rejected the idea of a federal mandate for domestic vaccination passports, which would require a database of who has been vaccinated and who has not.
“It’s not the role of the government to hold that data and to do that,” White House senior adviser for COVID-19 response Andy Slavitt said during a briefing Monday.
He added that whatever system Americans eventually adopt to demonstrate they’ve been vaccinated “should be private. The data should be secure. Access to it should be free. It should be available both digitally and in paper and in multiple languages. And it should be open source.”
Toy maker Hasbro is changing the time-honored classic board game Monopoly by altering the Community Chest cards, saying they ”are long overdue for a refresh.”
Without specifying which events, Hasbro pointed to the ”tumultuous year of 2020” as the inspiration for dropping ”You’ve won second place in a beauty contest,” ”a tax refund,” and ”bank error in your favor.” Fans of the game will get to vote on new options.
”Coming out of the tumultuous year of 2020, the term ‘community’ has taken on a whole new meaning,” the company said on its website. ”Hasbro is counting on their fans to help reflect what community means in their real lives, into the Monopoly game, by voting for new cards like ‘Shop Local,’ ‘Rescue A Puppy,’ or ‘Help Your Neighbors.”’
All 16 Community Chest cards will be replaced by the fall.
”The world has changed a lot since Monopoly became a household name more than 85 years ago, and clearly today community is more important than ever,” said Eric Nyman, Chief Consumer Officer at Hasbro. ”We felt like 2021 was the perfect time to give fans the opportunity to show the world what community means to them through voting on new Community Chest cards. We’re really excited to see what new cards get voted in!”
Options for voting on the Monopoly website will include voting between ”You rescue a puppy — and you feel rescued, too! Get out of jail free” and ”Your friends video chat after a tough day. Get out of jail free.” Other voting options include ”Just when you think you can’t go another step, you finish that foot race — and raise money for your local hospital. Advance to Go. Collect $200,” or ”You shopped local ALL week. Advance to go. Collect $200.”
Federal prosecutors in North Carolina said Friday that 24 additional people have been charged in an ongoing probe into voter fraud, including two who are accused of illegally voting in the 2016 presidential election.
Gabriela Guzman-Miguel, 26, and Jose Abraham Navarro, 42, both of Mexico, are accused to have voted despite lacking the legal status to do so, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina said in a list of defendants obtained by The Epoch Times. The list described both as aliens or immigrants.
A slew of other defendants were charged with falsely claiming U.S. citizenship in order to register to vote. Some also engaged in naturalization fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and other documents relating to voter registration, officials said.
Defendants hailed from 15 countries, including Honduras, Iraq, and Canada. The charges date back to the fall of 2019, though the cases were just unsealed.
Those charged face jail time and fines of up to $350,000 if convicted.
Each defendant was charged separately and there are no charges of conspiracy, the prosecutor’s office said.
Robert Higdon, who headed the office until recently, had aggressively pursued illegal voting cases, subpoenaing records from the state board of elections, and 44 county boards in 2018.
The state board called the subpoena “overly broad, unreasonable, vague.” It advised North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat, to quash the subpoenas.
Stein eventually directed the board to acquire records associated with approximately 789 people who had registered to vote—far less than Higdon, a Trump appointee, had sought.
Higdon in 2018 announced charges against 19 foreign nationals for voting in the 2016 election and last year another U.S. attorney in the state unveiled voter fraud charges against 19 others.
“The right to vote is a precious privilege available only to citizens of the United States. When a non-citizen votes in a federal election it serves to dilute and devalue the vote of American citizens and places the decision making authority of the American electorate in the hands of those who have no right to make those choices,” Higdon said in a previous statement.
An audit by the state board of elections after the 2016 election found 41 individuals had acknowledged voting despite not being U.S. citizens. Sixty-one others who may have voted illegally did not respond while another 34, identified in the audit, provided proof of citizenship.
“Information obtained from those who are not citizens illustrates the complexity of this work. A number of non-citizens said they were not aware that they were prohibited from voting. Interviews and evidence show that some non-citizens were misinformed about the law by individuals conducting voter registration drives or, in at least one documented case, by a local precinct official,” the audit stated.
“One registrant in her 70s has lived in the United States for more than 50 years and believed that she was a citizen because she had been married to a U.S. citizen.”
