Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum (WEF), the organization behind the Great Reset, is promoting an artificial sun called “Urban Sun.”
A Dutch artist has launched an installation he says “aims to make public spaces safe by using UV light to kill the virus causing COVID-19,” according to ABC Eyewitness News.
Video shows artist Daan Roosegaarde’s installation, dubbed “Urban Sun,” on display in Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
NEW – Klaus Schwab's World Economic Forum has released another dystopian video promoting an "artificial sun," so it is "easier for people to gather again."pic.twitter.com/isf8irieTm
The studio said the project was based on “multiple peer-reviewed journal articles authored by scientists from Columbia University and Hiroshima University” which found coronavirus airborne droplets were killed when exposed to a particular wavelength of ultraviolet-C (UV-C) light.
“Research shows that though traditional 254nm UV light is harmful, the new far-UV-C light with a wavelength of 222 nanometers can actually sanitize viruses safely,” the studio said.
Roosegaarde hopes to install the lights at festivals in the summer as COVID-19 restrictions ease but said it was not a replacement for a vaccine or government rules, Reuters reported. The actors involved in the project, who are seen in this footage, were tested for the coronavirus before filming and were only exposed to the light for a few minutes at a time, the agency reported.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said UV-C radiation may be effective in inactivating SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, but there is “limited published data about the wavelength, dose, and duration of UV-C radiation required” to do so.
The administration also warned that there have been “reports of skin and eye burns resulting from improper installation of UV-C lamps.”
The WEF has been eyeing sun-replacement technology for years now. A June 2017 WEF publication praised German scientists for their creation of “the world’s largest artificial sun.”
The WEF is now showcasing the Urban Sun on their website as means of destroying “up to 99.9% of virus particles.”
As Joe Biden constructs his new administration, individuals from the Obama administration are quietly resurfacing in positions of power. Some of these people are well known, others lesser so. But they all played critical roles at various times during the Obama administration.
Susan Rice, Obama’s national security adviser and now the “top adviser to the president on domestic policy and related decisions,” has admitted to participating in the unmasking of members of the Trump transition team. Unmasking is the process whereby a U.S. citizen’s identity is revealed from collected surveillance.
Initially, Rice publicly denied the allegations, claiming that “I know nothing about this. I was surprised to see reports from Chairman Nunes on that count today.” Two weeks later Rice stated that she had not done so for “for any political purposes.” It was later reported that Rice told House investigators that “she unmasked the identities of senior Trump officials to understand why the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates was in New York.”
Rice was also a participant in an early January 2017 meeting with President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, FBI Director James Comey, and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates where President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming national security adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn’s call with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak was discussed.
According to a filing in the Flynn legal case, notes from FBI Agent Peter Strzok revealed that “former President Obama, James Comey, Sally Yates, Joe Biden, and apparently Susan Rice discussed the transcripts of Flynn’s calls and how to proceed against him. Mr. Obama himself directed that ‘the right people’ investigate General Flynn.” According to Strzok’s notes, it also appears that “Biden personally raised the idea of the Logan Act” that would initially be used to pursue Flynn.
Rice, whose level of participation in the spying on the Trump 2016 campaign is still not fully known, sent herself an email on Obama’s last day in office detailing events that took place during this meeting. In addition to Flynn, Rice also noted that Obama asked his team to be “mindful to ascertain if there is any reason that we cannot share information fully [with the incoming Trump team] as it relates to Russia.”
Samantha Power, President Obama’s choice to replace Susan Rice as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, at a confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on July 17, 2013. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Samantha Power has been named as administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development. Her position has not yet been confirmed. Power was the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the Obama administration. According to a July 27, 2017, letter to then-Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) noted that “one official, whose position had no apparent intelligence related function, made hundreds of unmasking requests during the final year of the Obama administration.” That official was later identified in the media as Power. For her part, Power has denied that she was the person making the unmasking requests.
In addition to the better-known names from the Obama administration, there are other lesser-known members of the new Biden administration who had played roles, sometimes crucial ones, in the surveillance of the Trump transition team.
Then-National Security Division Assistant Attorney General John Carlin speaks during a conference between The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)and the Justice Department at the CSIS building in Washington, on Sept. 14, 2016. (Zach Gibson/AFP via Getty Images)
Acting Deputy AG John Carlin
John Carlin, currently the acting deputy attorney general, is involved in the DOJ’s investigation into the events of Jan. 6 at the U.S. capital. Carlin recently confirmed that more than three hundred people have been charged in relation to the events on Jan. 6 and more than two hundred and eighty have been arrested. Carlin told reporters on Feb. 26 that the investigation is “moving at a speed and scale that is unprecedented.” Earlier in his career, Carlin was the deputy chief of staff and counselor to then-FBI Director Robert Mueller, who would later be appointed as special counsel during the Trump administration.
During the Obama administration, Carlin was the assistant attorney general for national security and head of the DOJ’s National Security Division (NSD) from April 2014 through October 2016 and was involved in the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation of the Trump campaign.
According to testimony by FBI lawyer Lisa Page, Carlin was receiving briefings on both the Clinton and the Trump investigations directly from FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. Page testified that Carlin “was kept abreast of the sort of investigative activity that was going on” and said that “Carlin might call over to Andy McCabe, and sort of make his team’s pitch.” As part of this process, Carlin was receiving briefings on the progress of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) application on Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
This likely wasn’t the first time Carlin heard about Page. In March 11, 2016, Carlin and Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the southern district of New York, released a joint statement noting the guilty plea of Evgeny Buryakov, a Russian Intelligence officer convicted of spying. Page had assisted in this investigation and had met with the FBI on the matter on March 2, 2016. Carlin’s knowledge of Page’s previous assistance to the FBI suggests he would have known Page was not a Russian agent. This, however, did not impede the FBI’s efforts to obtain a FISA warrant on Page on Oct. 21, 2016.
Despite Carlin’s involvement in the Page FISA and the earlier espionage case in which Page had assisted, Carlin stated that his recollection of Carter Page and the FBI’s FISA application on Page was limited when he was interviewed in July 2017 by the House Select Committee on Intelligence.
When asked by then-Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) if he had participated in any FISA application related to Page, Carlin stated “I believe—I believe I did. There’s been so much public reporting since I left, but I remember being involved in the preparation of the FISA application for an individual that was related to the Trump campaign.” Carlin told Gowdy that “I remember there was one application. I don’t remember whether or not I actually signed it.”
As head of the DOJ’s NSD, Carlin also maintained oversight of the intelligence agencies’ use of Section 702 authority. The NSD and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) jointly conduct reviews of the intelligence agencies’ Section 702 activities every 60 days and the NSD is required to report any incidents of agency noncompliance or misconduct to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC).
Additionally, the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) are required by Section 702 to provide the FISC with annual certifications and show that Intelligence Community agencies are following targeting and minimization procedures that are approved by the FISC. These annual certifications are filed by the NSD.
A Jan. 7, 2016, report by National Security Agency (NSA) Inspector General George Ellard disclosed a fundamental issue that appeared to cause issues with oversight of Section 702 data. Ellard noted that the methodology that the DOJ and NSD “have agreed on does not include providing all records of queries performed.” Furthermore, the IG report also found that “controls for monitoring query compliance have not been completely developed” and there was “no process to reliably identify queries” being performed.
The Jan. 7, 2016, IG report notes that the “NSA’s Office of General Counsel (OGC) notified DOJ NSD of the FISA incidents.” However, it does not appear that the NSD ever disclosed the IG report to the FISC.
In addition to the IG findings, on March 9, 2016, “DOJ oversight personnel conducting a minimization review at the FBI’s [redacted] learned that the FBI had disclosed raw FISA information” to an undisclosed entity. In an April 2017 ruling, the FISC noted that this unknown division or center was “largely staffed by private contractors” and that these contractors “had access to raw FISA information on FBI storage systems.”
The Court also stated that the contractor’s access to raw FISA data appears to have been the “result of deliberate decision making” and the access to FBI systems “was the subject of an interagency memorandum of understanding” that had been “prepared or reviewed by FBI lawyers.” Despite this pre-existing multi-agency agreement, “no notice of this practice was given to the FISC until 2016.”
The NSA’s IG report combined with the discoveries on March 9, 2016, prompted an internal compliance review instigated by then-NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers. On Oct. 24, 2016, Rogers verbally informed the FISA court of the findings from his investigation, which the FISC found to include “significant noncompliance with the NSA’s minimization procedures involving queries of data acquired under Section 702 using U.S. person identifiers.”
The court noted that the “full scope of non-compliant querying practices had not been previously disclosed to the Court” and that preliminary results from additional reviews suggested that “the problem was widespread during all periods under review.”
Carlin had filed the government’s proposed 2016 Section 702 certifications on Sept. 26, 2016, but did not disclose the Jan. 7, 2016, IG report to the FISA court. Additionally, it appears that the court was again not notified of the IG report during an Oct. 4, 2016, follow-up hearing.
In its April 2017 ruling, the “the Court ascribed the government’s failure to disclose those IG and OCO reviews at the October 4, 2016 hearing to an institutional ‘lack of candor.’”
On Sept. 27, 2016, the day after he filed the annual certifications, Carlin announced his resignation from the DOJ, which would become effective on Oct. 15, 2016. At this time, the FBI’s application of the Page FISA was nearing completion. On Oct. 21, 2016, the DOJ and FBI obtained a FISA warrant on Page. At this point, the FISA court still was unaware of the Section 702 violations.
Former US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland on June 20, 2018. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)
Victoria Nuland
Biden recently announced that he nominated Victoria Nuland as “undersecretary of state for political affairs”—the third-highest ranking post at the State Department. Nuland has a lengthy history in the State Department and played several roles during the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign.
Sometime in the latter half of 2014, Christopher Steele, author of the infamous dossier at the center of the Russia probe, began to informally provide reports he had prepared for a private client to the State Department. One of the recipients of the reports was Victoria Nuland, who was then the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.
On July 5, 2016, FBI agent Michael Gaeta traveled to London and met with Steele at the offices of Steele’s firm, Orbis. At some point in early July, Steele’s early dossier reports were passed to Nuland and the State Department—possibly through Jonathan Winer, then a State Department official who was friends with Steele, perhaps through Gaeta or possibly through Steele himself.
During an interview, Nuland said that “in the middle of July, when he [Steele] was doing this other work and became concerned…he passed two to four pages of short points of what he was finding and our immediate reaction to that was, this is not in our purview. This needs to go to the FBI if there is any concern here that one candidate or the election as a whole might be influenced by the Russian Federation.” Nuland later said these documents were passed on at some point to both the FBI and Secretary of State John Kerry.
Nuland was later briefed on the larger Steele dossier during a meeting with an associate of Sen. John McCain, David Kramer, in December 2016. Kramer said that McCain instructed him to meet with Nuland and Russian Affairs Director Celeste Wallander. The purpose of the meeting was to verify whether the dossier “was being taken seriously.” Kramer said he didn’t physically share the dossier with them at this point, but met again with Wallander, a National Security Council member, “around New Years” and “gave her a copy of the document.”
The mayor pro tem of a Northern California city resigned after he pleaded guilty to election fraud, according to local reports last week.
Crescent City Mayor Pro Tem Alex Campbell entered the plea to making a false declaration of candidacy in Del Norte County’s Superior Court, according to the city’s clerk’s office, as reported by local news outlet Wild Rivers Outpost.
According to local news outlets, Campbell submitted a form to the Del Norte County Clerk on Aug. 6 of last year saying his current address was within the city limits of Crescent City when his actual residence was outside the city’s boundaries, deputy District Attorney Eric Bryant told Del Norte County Superior Court Judge Bob Cochran.
He had faced two felony counts of perjury and one count of false declaration of his candidacy, reported KIEM-TV and Wild Rivers, but the Del Norte County District Attorney agreed to dismiss the perjury charges.
Campbell faces two years of felony probation and fines of up to $20,000 and a restitution fine of up to $10,000, said Cochran, according to the reports.
Campbell was elected to the City Council on Nov. 3 before he eventually became mayor pro tempore in December. Campbell is scheduled to appear in court for sentencing on April 15.
“So in filing the vacancy the council has two basic options for them, one is to hold a special election, which can be pretty expensive, or the other, is to appoint someone into the position,” City Manager Eric Weir said to KIEM-TV, while confirming that Campbell formally resigned last week. “Which that position would then appointed up until the next general municipal election municipal which would be November of 2022.”
Alex Campbell (Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office)
Campbell did not comment following his court appearance last week, as reported by Wild Rivers. He provided a sticker that says “Free Alex Campbell” that appeared to be designed like Monopoly money.
Campbell previously stated that he does indeed have a house in the county, but he claimed he’s renting a room in city limits from a friend of his, adding he’s currently living there. “I’m currently at that house right now,” Campbell told Wild Rivers. “I do have a house (in the county). I stay there occasionally, but my main official residence is on I Street.”
Other details about his cause were not provided. Crescent City is located in Del Norte County, located near the Oregon-California border in the northwestern party of the state.
And last week, in Aberdeen, Mississippi, a judge ordered a new runoff election after more than three-quarters of absentee ballots cast in the June Democratic runoff election were found to be invalid, while a notary involved in the election was arrested.
Judge Jeff Weill, in a 64-page order, said that there is evidence of fraud and criminal activity in how absentee ballots were handled, how they were counted, and actions from individuals at polling places during the runoff election held in Aberdeen, Mississippi. As a result, a new runoff election for the Ward 1 alderman seat is necessary, reported WCBI.
Ravi Zacharias International Ministries intends to change the name of the organization following the release of an investigative report last month indicating that the Christian apologist was accused of “sexting, unwanted touching, spiritual abuse, and rape.”
In a statement Saturday, RZIM CEO and Zacharias’ daughter, Sarah Davis, provided what she described as the first of periodic updates highlighting the “steps we are taking as we seek to walk a path of repentance, restitution, learning, and serving.”
“We are in the process of taking down Ravi’s content from our website and social media platforms, including publications, videos, and other forms of content, and we intend to change the name of the organization,” Davis stated. “Effective immediately, we are also discontinuing the use of ‘The Zacharias Institute’ brand.”
Davis said the organization will offer anyone who resigned from RZIM for “reasons of conscience” during the monthslong investigation by the Atlanta law firm Miller & Martin the “same severance that we are currently offering to those who take voluntary redundancy.”
Davis reiterated that the organization’s “top priority” is to provide “care, justice and restitution” for all of Zacharias’ victims. The organization had previously announced that Rachael Denhollander is serving as a confidential liaison for Zacharias’ victims.
“We continue to grieve deeply for the victims who have been treated in ways that are completely antithetical to the gospel,” Davis stressed. “We also painfully and increasingly recognize organizational failures that have occurred and the repentance that needs to take place in both heart and action.”
According to Davis, RZIM will undergo a “thorough and fully independent assessment” from consulting firm Guidepost Solutions.
“We want to understand all areas of unhealth in our organization so that we can take that learning and do everything we can to prevent any kind of abuse in the future,” Davis wrote.
“Guidepost will be evaluating our structures, culture, policies, processes, finances, and practices, including the handling of any former abuse allegations. This process with Guidepost has now begun and we expect it to last for several months. In order to respect the process, we do not plan to comment on any recommendations being made until the process has been completed.”
RZIM expects to be in a position to provide an additional update in the “near future,” Davis assured.
“For now, we anticipate that significant lessons will be learned in all areas of the ministry and are grateful for all who have helped us to begin this process,” she added. “We are praying for the courage to pursue repentance and to have learners’ hearts, and we are trusting in God’s guidance in the days ahead.”
The in-depth report conducted by Miller & Martin details shocking allegations against the late Christian apologist, who died last May at 74, after losing his battle with cancer.
The report includes interviews with over a dozen massage therapists who treated Zacharias over the years. Zacharias is said to have asked therapists to touch his genitals. He was also accused of touching them inappropriately.
One massage therapist “reported details of many encounters over a period of years that she described as rape,” the report relayed.
“Only one of the witnesses we interviewed said that Mr. Zacharias engaged in sexual intercourse,” the report states. “This witness reported details of many encounters over a period of years that she described as rape. To protect her identity, this report does not disclose many of the details she shared with us.”
The investigation also uncovered a collection of explicit photos — many of them of much younger women — found in Zacharias’ possession.
The report sent shockwaves throughout the evangelical community, drawing responses from prominent Christian leaders, including Southern Baptist ethicist Russel Moore.
An analysis of U.S. health insurance claims data reveals that in March and April 2020, mental health claims among teens increased as a percentage of all medical claims by 97% and 103.5% compared with the same months in 2019.
A new analysis of U.S. health insurance claims by the independent nonprofit FAIR Health reveals a sharp increase in mental health-related illnesses among teenagers since the onset of the pandemic.
The data analyzed by Fair Health show that while overall medical claims for teens decreased since March 2020, the need for mental healthcare skyrocketed — making it safe to say that America’s teens are not OK.
During the height of the pandemic in March – April 2020, mental health claims among teens increased as a percentage of all medical claims by 97% and 103.5% over the same months the previous year.
Medical claims not related to mental health decreased 53.3% and 53.4% during the same months.
This pattern of increased mental health claims continued through November 2020, though the extent of change in late 2020 compared with late 2019 was lower than in March and April, according to FAIR Health’s new white paper, “The Impact of COVID-19 on Pediatric Mental Health: A Study of Private Healthcare Claims.”
FAIR Health studied the effects of the pandemic on U.S. pediatric health, focusing specifically on age groups 13-18 and 19-22. Researchers analyzed data from the nonprofit’s database of more than 32 billion private healthcare claim records. They tracked month-by-month changes from January 2020 to November 2020 and compared the numbers to the same months in 2019.
Researchers explored overall mental health, intentional self-harm, overdoses and substance use disorders, top mental health diagnoses, reasons for emergency room visits and state-by-state variations.
“We see [increased] depression and anxiety in all age groups, but in adolescence it’s on steroids,” Robin Gurwitch, psychologist and professor at Duke University Medical Center told TIME: “When kids look into the future now, they’re looking at one that wasn’t what they envisioned before.”
Here are the key findings, as reported in the white paper:
Before the pandemic began, females accounted for 66% of total mental health claims in ages 13-18. From March onward, the percentage climbed to 71% in females compared to 29% in males. The results were consistent with established research that females are almost twice as likely as males to be diagnosed with mental illness.
Claim lines for intentional self-harm as a percentage of all medical claim lines in the 13-18 age group increased 90.71% in March 2020 compared to March 2019 and nearly doubled to 99.83% in April 2020 as compared to 2019.
Month-by-month gender analysis of intentional self-harm claims from January to November 2020 showed that females in the 13-18 age group were 2.5 to 5 times as likely to be treated for intentional self-harm as males and at the height of disparity in August, were 84% of the distribution compared to males at 16%.
Claim lines for overdoses in the 13-18 age group increased 94.91% as a percentage of all medical claim lines in March 2020 and 119.31% in April 2020 over the same months the year before. Claim lines for substance use disorders also increased as a percentage in March (64.64%) and April (62.69%) 2020 as compared to their corresponding months in 2019.
Anxiety disorder among ages 13-18 increased in April 2020 to 93.6% of all medical claim lines compared to April 2019, major depressive disorder increased 83.9% and adjustment disorder increased 89.7%.
The 19-22 age group had similar mental health trends, though less pronounced than the 13-18 group.
Fair Health also separated mental health claims into regions. For the 13-18 age group in the Northeast, there was a 333.93% increase in intentional self-harm claim lines as a percentage of all medical claim lines –– a rate higher than any other region.
According to the analysis, the decrease in all medical claim lines was likely due to widespread restrictions on non-emergency medical care in spring 2020 and continued avoidance of care after restrictions were lifted.
The significant increase in mental healthcare while overall medical care was falling suggests the increase in mental health issues was brought on by the pandemic in the 13-18 age group.
A growing number of studies support FAIR Health’s findings:
A study published March 1 in the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics showed a significantly higher rate of suicide ideation in March and July 2020 and higher rates of suicide attempts in February, March, April and July of 2020 as compared with the same months in 2019. These months correspond to times when COVID-19 stressors and community responses were heightened.
A Danish study in BMC Psychiatry found that children and adolescents showed a worsening of obsessive compulsive disorder symptoms, as well as anxiety and depressive symptoms during the pandemic.
An Italian study published in Frontiers of Psychiatry found a worsening of symptoms, including tics, in children and adolescents with Tourette syndrome during the pandemic.
Since the COVID pandemic began in March 2020 and schools closed their doors, reports of suicidal thoughts, attempts and cries for help among children have increased significantly across the nation, according to numerous studies and media reports, The Defender reported in February.
This is the seventh in a series of studies released by FAIR Health on the COVID-19 pandemic, but the first to focus entirely on the mental health of teens.
RNC wants to continue using Trump’s name to raise campaign funds
Former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee fired up a feud over the use of his name and likeness, and neither are backing down.POLL: What scares you the most?
The former president had his lawyers send the RNC a “cease and desist” letter demanding that it stop using his likeness in its fundraising efforts.
On Monday, RNC chief counsel Justin Riemer sent off a fiery response to Trump attorney Alex Cannon, saying that the committee had “every right to refer to public figures as it engages in core, First Amendment-protected political speech, and it will continue to do so in pursuit of these common goals.”
Trump’s lawyers had sent the letter to the RNC on Friday, with similar letters sent to the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee.
That letter demanded those organizations “immediately cease and desist the unauthorized use of President Donald J. Trump’s name, image, and/or likeness in all fundraising, persuasion, and/or issue speech.”
Fundraising letters and campaigns using Trump’s name are reportedly the most effective ways to raise money for Republicans who are allied to his persona.
Politico reported that an NRCC spokesperson declined to comment on how it would respond to the demand from Trump’s lawyers, while the NRSC did not respond to a request for a comment.
Despite refusing the demand from Trump’s lawyers, Riemer went on to thank Trump for his support.
“The RNC is grateful for the past and continued support President Trump has given to the committee and it looks forward to working with him to elect Republicans across the country,” Riemer added.
Some saw the effort by Trump as part of a revenge plot against the Republicans who voted to impeach him in the House and Senate. He has vowed to support pro-Trump Republicans who are challenging in primary elections the Republicans who were disloyal to him.
Twelve states filed a lawsuit Monday against President Biden challenging his day-one climate-change executive order, saying he lacked the authority to enact what they decried as a massive regulatory expansion that would kill jobs, jack up prices and cripple the economy.
Led by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, the 12 Republican attorneys general zeroed in on the section in the Jan. 20 order in which Mr. Biden reestablishes the Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases and directs it to attach a value to emissions reductions.
The group gave an initial estimate of $9.5 trillion for the cost of U.S. carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide emissions using figures from 2019-20, according to the lawsuit, but the prosecutors argued that the administration “did not have the authority to issue binding numbers.”
“In practice, President Biden’s order directs federal agencies to use this enormous figure to justify an equally enormous expansion of federal regulatory power that will intrude into every aspect of Americans’ lives — from their cars, to their refrigerators and homes, to their grocery and electric bills,” said the 46-page document.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. The other states on the filing were Arkansas, Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah.
“If the Executive Order stands, it will inflict hundreds of billions or trillions of dollars of damage to the U.S. economy for decades to come,” the lawsuit said. “It will destroy jobs, stifle energy production, strangle America’s energy independence, suppress agriculture, deter innovation, and impoverish working families.”
Mr. Biden has made combating climate change a priority of his administration, directing agencies in the executive order “to immediately commence work to confront the climate crisis” by proposing new regulations and reversing the Trump administration’s actions.
Mr. Schmitt said the order would take a toll on “nearly every aspect of the economy and Missouri households.”
“Under President Biden’s executive order, which he didn’t have the authority to enact, these hard-working Missourians who have lived and worked this land for generations could be left in the dust,” said Mr. Schmitt. “From higher energy bills to lost jobs, this massive expansion of federal regulatory power has the potential to impact nearly every household in this state.”
The lawsuit argues that the order lacked the statutory authorization to form the working group, and that only Congress may assign monetary values to emissions.
🚨 TODAY, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt led a 12 state coalition in filing suit against President Biden's administration over the massive expansion of federal regulations through executive order.
— Attorney General Eric Schmitt (@AGEricSchmitt) March 8, 2021
The creation of a working group without public notice or comment also violated the Administrative Procedure Act, the attorneys general said, adding that proper weight was not given to the benefits of “affordable and reliable domestic energy and agricultural production.”
“The potential regulatory impact of such numbers is enormous,” said the filing. “These numbers are high enough to justify massive increases in regulatory restrictions on agricultural practices, energy production, energy use, or any other economic activity that results in the emission of such gases.”
Mr. Biden also signed orders on his first day to rejoin the Paris climate accord and cancel the Keystone XL pipeline cross-border permit, drawing cheers from environmental groups.
“What an incredible breath of fresh air that President Biden is already delivering on his promise to prioritize immediate executive action to tackle the climate crisis on day one,” said Sierra Club legislative director Melinda Pierce in a Jan. 20 statement.
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon announced an end to numerous lockdown measures on Monday, including a state-wide mask mandate.
Gordon, a Republican, said that the mask mandate would be lifted and businesses such as restaurants, movie theaters, bars, and gyms would be allowed to open at full capacity on March 16. Gordon’s announcement follows similar moves made by Texas and Mississippi almost a year after such measures were put in place.
Notably, Gordon is still leaving some pandemic measures in place, such as a mask mandate on all elementary through high schools, according to CNN. Gordon touted the state’s vaccination efforts for his decision to lift regulations.
“I thank the people of Wyoming for their commitment to keeping one another safe throughout this pandemic,” Gordon said in a press release. “It is through their efforts that we have kept our schools and businesses operating and our economy moving forward. I ask all Wyoming citizens to continue to take personal responsibility for their actions and stay diligent as we look ahead to the warmer months and to the safe resumption of our traditional spring and summer activities.”
Gordon urged “Wyomingites to wear face coverings in indoor public spaces and to follow the best practices adopted by any business they visit to slow the spread of the virus.”
“Wyoming is one of the few states in the country that kept students learning in the classroom for the entire school year. We made sacrifices, but the earlier orders saved lives. We persevered,” Gordon continued. “With this approach we can have graduations, proms and a great end to the school year by keeping schools open. Especially since our children will not have the chance to be vaccinated this spring.”
A handful of states have begun substantial rollbacks of heavy-handed lockdown regulations. A number of other states, such as Florida and South Dakota, never had statewide mask mandates in the first place.
President Joe Biden recently mocked states that are lifting lockdown measures and mask mandates as exhibiting “Neanderthal thinking.”
“I think it’s a big mistake. Look, I hope everybody has realized by now these masks make a difference,” Biden said last week when asked about states reopening. “We are on the cusp of being able to fundamentally change the nature of this disease because of the way … we are able to get vaccines in people’s arms. We’ve been able to move that all the way up to the end of May to have enough for every adult American to get a shot.”
“The last thing, the last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking that in the meantime everything is fine, take off your mask, forget it. It still matters,” he continued. “As of yesterday, we have lost 511,874 Americans. We’re going to lose thousands more.”
“We will not have everybody vaccinated until sometime in the summer. We have the vaccine to do it; getting a shot in someone’s arm and [giving] them a second shot,” he concluded. “It’s critical – critical, critical, critical – that they follow the science. Wash your hands, hot water, do it frequently. Wear a mask and stay socially distanced. And I know you all know that. I wish the heck, some of our elected officials knew it.”
Republicans in the New York State Assembly plan to introduce an impeachment resolution against embattled Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday.
“We’re going to introduce this resolution because we believe the time has come,” New York State Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay said during a press briefing Monday. “In order to lead this great state as governor, you need to have credibility and trust.
“And unfortunately, we feel the governor has lost that and now has an inability to lead,” Barclay added.
“There is been one bombshell after another,” he continued, citing the nursing home scandal and allegations from five women that Cuomo sexually harassed them.
“During the Watergate years, a bipartisan group of legislators went to see President {Richard] Nixon, and told him if he didn’t resign, they’d commence impeachment proceedings,” Barclay said, noting Sunday, “Gov. Cuomo, said I’m not resigning, and if you want to get rid of me, impeach me.
“We think now is the time to act, now is the time to commence impeachment.”
The New York Times, citing documents and interviews with six people with direct knowledge of the discussions who requested anonymity, reported that some of Cuomo’s senior aides were involved in rewriting the report to lower the death toll in nursing homes. The final report said 6,432 nursing home residents died of the virus, compared with nearly 10,000 in the initial unpublished report.
Cuomo is facing calls for his resignation over the nursing home scandal and sexual harassment allegations. New York Attorney General Letitia James is leading investigations into both issues.
Many people have been asking for a basic, anti-big tech guide. So we’re putting this together as a starting point for information on what services you should use, and what you really shouldn’t. We will be constantly updating this page, so make sure to favorite/bookmark it and check back often.
Social Media.
Gab launched in 2017 as a free speech alternative to both Facebook and Twitter. Since recent Big Tech purges, the platform has seen an enormous surge. The website has similar layout to Twitter, a dedicated posting section, a timeline, and a news section. The platform introduces new additions such as GabTV—allowing the user to view all the latest content from their favorite channel/user. You can even sign up for “PRO” services, which allow you to support the network as well as take advantage of rich text, scheduling, and other features (we do).
Platforms to avoid: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch.
Another platform which advocates for free speech and is open source is Minds.
This social network not only stands firm to its core principles but also introduced the concept of cryptocurrency for its content creators and users, making it a unique and attractive place for people to monetize their social media usage.
Avoid: Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, iMessage, Google Hangouts/Duo/Meet.
Browsers.
Braveand/or Dissenter should be go-to browsers for everyone who is willing to stop supporting Big Tech companies. They are both privacy-oriented, do not feed upon user tracking, and have built-in, exclusive features.
Brave supports their own cryptocurrency (token)—allowing users to mine them while browsing the web and use those coins to support favorite content creators. Don’t let this feature discourage you if all you want to do is browse the web. It’s totally optional, and you aren’t required to go anywhere near it unless you really want to.
Dissenter introduces a universal comment section for every website—meaning every user who has Dissenter can basically comment on each page, and other users with Dissenter can follow up comments and reply them. This occurs whether or not the website offers a comments section.
The idea is to decentralize commentary and create an alternative social platform. Both are based upon the Chromium engine, are lightning fast, and have fully up-to-date capabilities.
While Firefox might once have made this list, they also recently joined Big Tech efforts against free speech. Drop Google, Yahoo, or Bing as your primary search engine. DuckDuckGo is still sort-of okay, but we prefer StartPage.Avoid: Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox.
All the recommended changes above can be implemented by any user who is already familiar with mainstream social networks. The given list is by no means complete, but is the first line of defense against Big Tech.
VPN.
While VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) are great services to protect yourself from your internet service providers (ISP), there are a lot of misconceptions about their capabilities. In general, the main advantages of using VPNs are masking your IP address by the address of your VPN provider, bypassing censorship, prohibiting your ISPs from seeing which websites you visit, protecting your location, and providing encryption throughout your browsing session—especially if you are connected to open WiFi networks. It is a good practice to use VPNs while browsing the internet; however, they do not provide full anonymity or full privacy. They also don’t prohibit Big Tech from tracking you (unless you improve your chosen browser with add-ons such as PrivacyBadgerand many more), nor do they protect from viruses.
Keep in mind that your media access control (MAC) address and accounts that you are logged into can still uncover your anonymity. For that reason, VPN work best when combined with secure browsers and ad blockers. Some of the great VPN services are Mullvador NordVPN, both highly rated by privacy advocates.
Advanced.
For advanced users, the following list of recommendations can provide further decoupling from Big Tech:
Instead of Windows10 and MacOS, explore Linux (Ubuntu) or any other flavor as main operating system;
Instead of stock Android and iOS, try custom Android roms likeLineageOS or GrapheneOS;
