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Only 9% of Democrat-led coronavirus stimulus bill goes to COVID relief, redistributes U.S. wealth

Most of the $1.9 trillion House bill has little to do with the virus and is being called “little more than a wishlist for the radical left masquerading as a COVID relief package.”

Fox News reports:

House Democrats’ $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill is a socialist “wish list” that will also subsidize blue states that have mismanaged their budgets for years, Sean Hannity told viewers Monday.

“No Democrat spending bill is complete without subsidies for illegal immigrants, federal money for abortions. If [ths bill is] passed … Planned Parenthood will now qualify for PPP small business loans, which then become grants and bridges to Canada and environmental justice equity commissions for farmers, health care in other countries,” the “Hannity” host said.

“[It’s] also a budget bailout … for New York, for Andrew Cuomo, and Gavin Newsom in California. This is not a serious, thoughtful COVID relief package. What this really is, is a massive federal payout to everyone and every state who donated to and supported Democrat candidates in 2020.”

“Even during a global crisis,” Hannity added, “the left is constantly playing political games.”

The host added that Democrats have shown that are not taking coronavirus relief as seriously as they should be, pointing to a bill from Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., that would ban former President Donald Trump from being buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

“In the middle of a pandemic, when over 100,000 Americans [have] died during Joe Biden’s time in the White House, raging against President Trump is still the Democratic Party and the media mob’s top priority,” he said.

“Clearly the same Democrats have been in no particular rush to pass a COVID relief package and get money into the hands of Americans who actually need it,” Hannity concluded. “The bulk of spending [in the COVID bill] is unrelated to getting immediate assistance to our fellow Americans in need through no fault of their own. In fact, nearly $700 billion won’t be spent until after 2022, including billions not spent until after 2024.”

“So we must ask ourselves tonight, how is that COVID relief?”

Forbes reports:

Over the weekend, the U.S. House posted a first draft version of the “American Rescue Plan Act of 2021” – a $1.9 trillion emergency aid package to help America recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

Previous legislation has already provided at least $4 trillion in funds for testing, paid family leave, small business relief, direct payments to individuals and families, the Kennedy Center, and a plethora of non-related COVID “relief.”

Since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s leadership team essentially wrote the bill, our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com found what House Democrats consider coronavirus-recovery “essential” spending:

  • $1.5 million earmarked for the Seaway International Bridge, which connects New York to Canada. Senate Leader Chuck Schumer hails from New York.
  • $50 million for “family planning” – going to non-profits, i.e. Planned Parenthood, or public entities, including for “services for adolescents[.]”
  • $852 million for AmeriCorps, AmeriCorps Vista, and the National Senior Service Corps – the Corporation for National and Community Service – civic volunteer agencies. This includes $9 million for the AmeriCorp inspector general to conduct oversight and audits of the largess. AmeriCorps received a $1.1 billion FY2020 appropriation.

People of goodwill can debate each of these goals, but is it truly emergency spending or funding related to COVID?

For example, what is the public purpose for a hike in the minimum wage to $15 per hour – which the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says will cost the economy 1.4 million jobs?

Certainly, the coronavirus stimulus bill does provide $473 billion in payments to individuals, $75 billion in cash for vaccines, $26 billion to restaurants, $15 billion to help fund airline payrolls, and another $7.2 billion in Paycheck Protection Program funding for small businesses.

However, The Wall Street Journal editorial board estimated that only $825 billion was directly related to COVID-relief and $1 trillion was “expansions of progressive programs, pork, and unrelated policy changes.”

For example, separately, our auditors found that $470 million in the bill doubles the budgets of The Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Endowment of the Arts and the Humanities.

  • $200 million in the bill to The Institute of Museum and Library Services (FY2019 budget: $230 million). This agency is so small that it doesn’t even employ an inspector general.
  • $270 million funds the National Endowment of the Arts and the Humanities (FY2019 budget: $253 million) – In 2017, our study showed eighty-percent of all non-profit grant making flowed to well-heeled organizations with over $1 million in assets.

A quick spotlight on agencies and entities receiving “coronavirus recovery” money in the bill includes:

  • $350 billion to bailout the 50 States and the District of Columbia. The allocation formula uses the unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2020. Therefore, states like New York and California –who had strict economic lockdown policies and high unemployment – will get bailout money. States like Florida and South Dakota – who were open for business – will get less.
  • $128.5 billion to fund K-12 education. The CBO determined that most of the money in education will be distributed in 2022 through 2028, when the pandemic is over.
  • $86 billion to save nearly 200 pension plans insured by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. There are no reforms mandated while these badly managed pensions are bailed-out. Many of these pension plans are co-managed by unions.
  • $50 billion goes to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). A portion of these funds is earmarked to reimburse up to $7,000 for funeral and burial costs related to COVID deaths.
  • $39.6 billion to higher education. This amount is three times the money – $12.5 billion – that higher ed received with the massive CARES Act funding from last March.
  • $1.5 billion for Amtrak – the National Railroad Passenger Corporation. In FY2020, Congress appropriated $3 billion for Amtrak ($2 billion in annual appropriations, plus an additional $1 billion in the CARES Act COVID relief bill). In the three years before the pandemic, AMTRAK lost $392 million – even after a $5 billion taxpayer subsidy (FY2017-FY2019).

We reached out to Speaker Pelosi for comment and will update the piece if there is a response.

During the past three years, Republicans and Democrats have helped drain the U.S. Treasury from the left and the right. Our national debt increased from $10 trillion (2008) to $19.6 trillion (2016) to $23.6 trillion (2020) and stands at $28 trillion today.

Continuing coronavirus responses and bloated legislation will drive the national debt much higher.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

The Biden White House is pointing to polls showing that its $1.9 trillion spending bill is popular, and the press corps is cheering. Yet we wonder how much public support there’d be if Americans understood that most of the blowout is a list of longtime Democratic spending priorities flying under the false flag of Covid-19 relief.

Let’s dig into the various House committee bills to separate the Covid from the chaff. The Covid cash includes some $75 billion for vaccinations, treatments, testing and medical supplies. There’s also $19 billion for “public health,” primarily for state health departments and community health centers. One might even count the $6 billion to the Indian Health Service, or $4 billion for mental health.

The package also hands more to businesses and individuals most hit by lockdowns. That includes $7.2 billion more for the Paycheck Protection Program, $15 billion for economic injury disaster loans, $26 billion for restaurants, bars and live venues, and $15 billion in payroll support for airlines. The recipients of this taxpayer money will at least be required to prove economic harm, and in some cases repay loans.

Not so the recipients of the $413 billion in checks Democrats intend to send to households far and wide, at $1,400 per man, woman and dependent, that begins phasing out at $75,000 of individual income. The Congressional Budget Office says the bill’s unemployment provisions will increase deficits by $246 billion, and that its $400 a week in federal “enhanced” unemployment benefits through August “could increase the unemployment rate as well as decrease labor force participation.” So much for economic stimulus.

All told, this generous definition of Covid-related provisions tallies some $825 billion. The rest of the bill—more than $1 trillion—is a combination of bailouts for Democratic constituencies, expansions of progressive programs, pork, and unrelated policy changes.

McDonald’s executives will lose bonuses if they hire too many white people to ‘senior leadership roles’

McDonald’s Corp on Thursday said it will tie executive bonuses to new goals for diversifying the company and for the first time publicly release demographic details of its workforce (Reuters).

Reuters reports:

Under the new rules, CEO Chris Kempczinski stands to lose 15% of his approximately $2.25 million annual bonus if he fails to meet goals to increase the portion of women and Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and other minorities in senior leadership roles.

More organizations are seeking to increase opportunities for Black workers, women and other disenfranchised and underpaid groups, after a nationwide reckoning with racism sparked by the May killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by Minneapolis police.

As activists have called for more transparency, companies are increasingly reporting demographic data for their workforces and tying executive pay to diversification goals.

Coffee seller Starbucks Corp in October linked compensation to diversity goals but did not provide details of how those goals would be weighted in performance reviews.

McDonald’s said in July that it would launch initiatives to increase diversity, but it had not yet developed exact mechanisms to do that.

The BL reports:

McDonald’s announced that hiring too many white men would cause senior executives who did so to lose bonuses and instead they should prioritize women and “historically underrepresented groups” for top corporate positions.

For her part, HumanEvents.com writer Celine Ryan questioned this system and called it “McQuotas,” according to her Feb. 19 article.

“But even those who place value in the concepts of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ have repeatedly pointed out that these types of hiring quotas are misguided at best, and empty performances at worst, with unintended negative consequences,” Ryan wrote.

This well-known multinational company increased the percentages of employees it now prioritizes when hiring, without parameters such as demographic proportionality in each country, for example.

Likewise, the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, Jim Hoft, maintains that “the company will focus on hiring women and minorities for top positions, regardless of their talent and abilities.”

Coca-Cola also generated a strong reaction when it was discovered that in its employee training instructions, it included a rule that participants “try to be less white” in their behavior, according to alternative media outlet The Scoop.

The Twitter user identified as @DrKarlynB denounced these indications in one of her tweets.

“Coca-Cola is forcing employees to complete online training telling them to “try to be less white. These images are from an internal whistleblower,” she wrote.

After this tweet, Coca-Cola denied the fact, but @DrKarlynB replied in another of her messages that the company’s institutional icon could be seen in the didactic material used for the training.

“For people asking to verify this, the course is publicly available on @LinkedIn,” the netizen confirmed.

She added: “You can see for yourself. The Coca-Cola icon is in the top right-hand corner on some of the images because they’re using LinkedIn content for their internal platform.”

The True Reporter reports:

McDonald’s has a perfect strategy for financial success and human resources management. They are based upon strict rules, turning the back towards the American First standards.

McDonald’s company executives’ bonuses will be shortened if they hire white people for better places.

The company’s politics allows them to include every type of person and have employees from minority groups and immigrants. This company will have employees from all races and types in the future.

Besides. they will eliminate all the stereotypes.

“From 2021, the Company incorporates quantitative human capital management-related metrics to annual incentive compensation for its Executive Vice Presidents.”

When 2025 ends, 35% of the workers in higher positions will include minority groups. This metric in 2020 was 29%.

In a Washington Examiner report for this theme, the company said they would add up to a 15% bonus for applying and reaching this goal.

“Inclusion Index” is the metric for these targets! McDonald promotes EQUALITY!

Of course, haters are around. Some people don’t agree with this decision.

Some people doubt in this program. For example, Celine Ryan suggested renaming the company in “McQuotas.”, other people also commented.

On Twitter she wrote:

“But even those who place value in the concepts of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ have repeatedly pointed out that these types of hiring quotas are misguided at best, and empty performances at worst, with unintended negative consequences.”

I am asking myself:

Promoting diversity and starting discrimination to the home nation, can you see the difference?

Babies Were Aborted Alive, Placed in Fridge To Harvest Cell Lines Used in Some Vaccines: Researcher

‘These babies were literally placed into the fridge alive and then stored between one and 24 hours until they could be dismembered.’

LifeSiteNews reports:

Cell lines derived from aborted babies used in the production or testing of various vaccines, including a number of COVID vaccines, most likely came from babies who were aborted alive, and according to the general practice as outlined in medical literature, may have been placed in a fridge while still living where they awaited dismemberment before having their organs harvested, a researcher has found. 

Biologist Pamela Acker, who has a master’s degree in Biology from the Catholic University of America and who recently authored a book titled Vaccination: A Catholic Perspective, related what the literature says about how babies were aborted to obtain cell lines used in a number of vaccines.

“A number of these abortions that were done in that way were termed ‘abdominal hysterectomies’ in the medical literature. So in some cases, the women were actually being sterilized in the process as well,” she said. 

“They had to maintain a sterile environment because you don’t want any contamination of the tissue with any kind of foreign agents, any bacteria, or viruses, or anything like that. The babies were — and, in some cases, the uterus as well — removed from the woman and, without even puncturing the amniotic sac, placed directly into the refrigerator where it was kept for no more than 24 hours.”

“So these babies were literally placed into the fridge alive and then stored between one and 24 hours until they could be dismembered, basically. And this is right there in the scientific literature,” she said.

Acker made these comments during her Feb. 19 presentation at an online conference hosted by LifeSiteNews titled “Unmasking COVID-19: Vaccines, Mandates, and Global Health.”

Moral conflict

Acker spent about nine months in a lab a decade ago working on a project to develop an HIV vaccine with a grant provided by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It was when her team decided to use HEK-293 cells for the project that she began to question her involvement.

“At this point, most people have heard of these (cell lines) because they are connected with the COVID vaccines, but at that time I hadn’t. So I asked (my colleague) what ‘HEK’ stands for, and she told me, ‘Human Embryonic Kidney,”’ Acker said in an interview last month with LifeSite Editor-in-chief John-Henry Westen.

Acker said that it was after reading Dr. Alvin Wong’s paper titled “The Ethics of HEK 293” that appeared in the 2006 autumn issue of The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly that she was able to arrive at some moral clarity on the issue.

Wong, an oncologist and senior consultant at Singapore’s National University Cancer Institute who has an interest in bioethics, wrote in his paper that due to evidence that the cells were “obtained from the embryo of a willfully induced abortion,” there is “a moral duty on the part of any researcher to discontinue using this cell line.”

“That moral duty should be particularly clear to Catholic researchers and institutions. Even if it may be extremely difficult to stop or modify the experiments in progress, an immediate cessation of the use of the cell line is the correct and just action to take,” Wong added.

Acker said that when she “expressed my concerns to my primary investigator, it ended up being the end of my career in his lab.”

The baby girl behind HEK-293

Acker explained to Westen during her January 12 interview the meaning behind the letters and numbers HEK 293, the cell line developed by Dr. Frank Graham in the Netherlands in 1973.

“HEK stands for Human Embryonic Kidney. But 293 stands for the 293rd experiment that this particular researcher did to develop the cell lines.”

The kidney was taken from a “completely normal” preborn girl aborted in 1972 who, according to Alex van der Eb, the doctor leading the team to develop the cell line, had “nothing wrong” with her.

Acker said at the time to Westen that there were likely more abortions behind the final development of the cell line since “for 293 experiments you need far more than one abortion.”

“We’re talking probably 100s of abortions,” she said at that time.

Graham, however, recently told Ian Jackson, who was conducting research in the HEK-293 cell line, that only one fetus was involved. 

“On my arrival at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands I kept lab books in which I numbered my experiments in the order in which I carried them out starting in 1970. None of these experiments used human embryo kidney cells (HEK) until very late in my studies in Leiden (1973) when I carried out 2 (two!) experiments that utilized kidney cells from 1 (one!) human fetus.” 

“Since abortion was illegal in the Netherlands at that time except to save the life of the mother I have always assumed that that fetus resulted from a therapeutic abortion. However, the kidney cells I used had been prepared and frozen away before I even arrived in Leiden. Consequently, I do not have first hand knowledge of the circumstances relating to that single abortion. The second of the two experiments I carried out with these HEK cells was experiment 293 and resulted in the cell line of the same name. The bottom line is that the 293 cell line resulted from cells obtained from a single fetus,” Graham told Jackson, who forwarded the doctor’s statement to LifeSite.

Acker told LifeSite for this report that Graham’s statement is “misleading at best.” 

“Dr. Plotkin tried to say something similar, that the cell lines involved in the creation of vaccines only came from two abortions. But that ignores the other 74 babies that were a part of the research he was doing. It’s published in the literature that other HEK and HER (human embryonic retina) cell lines are attributed to Frank Graham. So his research definitely involved more than one abortion.”  

“When a cell line is developed, it is usually produced using a sample of tissue from a single individual unless it’s a hybrid cell line. So on the one hand, it is technically correct to say that the cell line was developed using one aborted baby. However, this is not an accurate representation of how many lives were actually sacrificed in the whole process of developing an aborted fetal cell line,” she continued. 

“If Graham wasn’t just working on fetal cell lines during his time at the University of Leiden, it may not have been hundreds of abortions,” she added, “but we would need to see his notebooks to know.”

Acker pointed out that there is every indication that the cells were derived from an “electively aborted” baby. 

“In particular, the fact that the cells were stored in the freezer lends further credence to the conclusion that HEK-293 was derived from an electively aborted fetus,” she said.

“The success and longevity of HEK-293 suggests that the specimen was remarkably well-suited for culturing, and anyone who has studied cell theory should know that you cannot derive a living cell culture from tissue that is already dead.  Because of the biological impossibility of creating a live cell line from dead tissue, and the practical and biological implausibility of obtaining live tissue from a spontaneously miscarried fetus, it is far more likely that the baby from whom HEK-293 was derived was electively aborted and alive at the time of tissue extraction,” she added.

Acker quoted Dr. C. Ward Kischer, an embryologist and emeritus professor of anatomy from the University of Arizona College of Medicine, who stated the following regarding the cells obtained for aborted fetal cell lines: “In order to sustain 95% of the cells, the live tissue would need to be preserved within 5 minutes of the abortion […] within an hour the cells would continue to deteriorate, rendering the specimen useless.”

Acker said that if the baby used in the production of HEK-293 “had already been dead (through a natural miscarriage), the tissue would certainly have been of no use to Mr. Graham in making a cell line after it had been stored in a freezer.”

She speculated that the tissue from the baby used for the production of HEK-293 was likely procured by the surgical method of whole-fetus extraction, often referred to as a C-section abortion, which can include the removal of the uterus along with the living baby still inside.

Acker quoted a 1952 study from Dr. Thomas Weller and Dr. John Enders (among others), who were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1954 for their polio research involving growing cultures in various types of tissue, where they explained how “human embryonic tissues” were obtained for their experiments.

“This material was employed in most of the experiments. It was obtained under sterile precautions at the time of abdominal hysterotomy for therapeutic indications. Embryos of between 12 and 18 weeks’ gestation have been utilized. Rarely tissues were obtained from stillborn fetuses, or from premature infants at autopsy … In the experiments on prolonged propagation of virus, three sorts of embryonic materials were used: elements of skin, connective tissue, and muscle; intestinal tissue; brain tissue,” the researchers stated.

“Embryonic tissues were prepared in the following manner. Whenever possible the embryo was removed from the amniotic sac under sterile precautions, transferred to a sterile towel and kept at 5 C until dissected,” (bold added) they added.

Acker then quoted from Dr. Gonzalo Herranz, Professor of Histology and General Embryology at the University of Navarra, Spain, who described how abortions must be done to obtain uncontaminated fetal material in Italian scientist Pietro Croce’s book Vivisection or Science? first published in English in 1991.

“To obtain embryo cells, embryos from spontaneous abortions cannot be used, nor can those obtained by means of abortions performed via the vagina: in both cases, the embryo will be contaminated by micro-organisms,” wrote Herranz.

“The correct way consists in having recourse to Caesarian section or to the removal of the uterus. Only in this way can bacteriological sterility be guaranteed. In either case, then, to obtain embryo cells for culture, a programmed abortion must be adopted, choosing the age of the embryo and dissecting it while still alive to remove tissues to be placed in culture media,” (bold added) he added.

Commented Acker: “Because of the necessity of maintaining a sterile culture of tissue for developing a cell line, it seems reasonable to conclude that there would — at minimum — had to have been some pre-arrangement to obtain sterile, unmacerated tissue from the fetus used for HEK-293.  The easiest and surest way to do this is by the surgical method of whole-fetus extraction.”

Acker’s findings relate to the findings of U.S. pro-life investigator David Daleiden, who performed an undercover investigation of Planned Parenthood’s involvement in the illegal harvesting and trafficking of aborted baby body parts. Daleiden, who began to release videos of his sting operation in 2015, uncovered that biotech companies in the United States harvested numerous organs, including “live beating” hearts from aborted babies for research (see here, here, and here).

Multiple abortions behind various aborted fetal cell lines

Acker told LifeSite for this report that the formation of other cell lines derived from aborted babies and used for research purposes and in the development of numerous vaccines involved hundreds of abortions.

“Many aborted fetal cell lines and all the aborted fetal cell lines used in currently licensed vaccines are the culmination of a series of experiments that include multiple abortions,” she said. Acker listed the following examples:

  • The WI-38 cell line (used in MMR and shingles vaccines) came from the 32nd aborted baby that was used in a series of experiments. Other cell lines that came out of the Wistar Institute include WI-26 (from the 20th aborted baby) and WI-44 cell (from the 38th aborted baby).
  • The MRC-5 line (used in hepatitis A, measles, and shingles vaccines) required five abortions to develop.
  • WALVAX2, the most recent aborted fetal cell line, came from the ninth aborted baby in a series.
  • RA273, which is the virus used in the rubella vaccine, originated in the 27th baby that was aborted in search of the virus. Mothers who were infected with the rubella virus during pregnancy were actively encouraged to abort their children. Forty more elective abortions for rubella virus were performed after this, though RA273 was the strain that ended up in the final vaccine preparation.

Acker said that the use of aborted fetal cell lines in medical research, at any level, “fuels a growing acceptance of using aborted babies in other types of medical research.”

“This problem is irrespective of the original number of abortions performed to obtain a cell line, and will only be exacerbated by the acceptance of HEK-293-derived COVID vaccines,” she added.

‘New pro-life movement’

Kazakhstan Bishop Athanasius Schneider, during his presentation at today’s vaccine conference, called for the formation of a “new pro-life movement” that refuses to have anything to do with medicines or vaccines derived in one way or another from aborted babies.

Schneider said that until now, the pro-life movement has been “very meritorious” in raising a united voice against abortion. “But I think there now comes a new time, a new phase, a new period of all pro-life movements to protest, clearly and unambiguously, against abortion-tainted medicines, against the abuse of the body parts of the unborn.”

While the Catholic Church’s 2020 guidelines permit Catholics to receive abortion-tainted vaccines, the Bishop said that Christians cannot “simply resign” themselves to the fact that the production of various medicines is tied to the slaughter of preborn babies who are utilized for their body parts.

“The voice of the unborn children’s blood is crying to God from the abortion tainted vaccines, from the abortion tainted medicines,” he said. “This voice is crying all over the world, and we have to awaken.”

“No one who is really deeply concerned about the defense of life and the moral law can be silent or can be quiet and can resign to this situation,” he added.

Click HERE to register for access to replays of LifeSite’s Unmasking COVID-19 conference.

China Biblical Prophecy Part 2

NY Principal Mark Federman Asks Parents to “Reflect” on Their “Whiteness”

Charlie Kirk reports:

Mark Federman from East Side Community High School passed out literature to parents asking them to “reflect” on their “whiteness”.

One part of the literature shows a chart labeled “The 8 White Identities,” which ranges from “White Supremacist’’ to “White Abolitionist.”

NY Post reports:

The curriculum, written by Barnor Hesse, an associate professor of African American studies at Northwestern University in Illinois, claims, “There is a regime of whiteness, and there are action-oriented white identities.

“People who identify with whiteness are one of these,’’ Hesse writes above the eight-point list.

“It’s about time we build an ethnography of whiteness, since white people have been the ones writing about and governing Others,’’ Hesse adds.

In between the two extreme “identities” of supremacist and abolitionist are such categories as “White Voyeurism’’ — defined as “wouldn’t challenge a white supremacist, desires non-whiteness because it’s interesting’’ — and “White Privilege,’’ or “sympathetic to a set of issues but only privately; won’t speak/act in solidarity publicly because benefitting through whiteness in public (some POC are in this category as well).”

“The 8 White Identities” according to Barnor Hesse are listed below.

image

These documents were passed out as part of an ongoing anti-racist work in the school community. It used to be that putting people into categories strictly based on the color of their skin was the definition of racism.

As Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said, “I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Coca-Cola accused of telling employees to ‘be LESS WHITE’ in training course by critical race theory peddler DiAngelo

RT reports:

Coca-Cola is facing a major backlash for allegedly joining a series of American corporations that indoctrinate their white employees with critical race theory – including demands that they “try to be less white.”

Organizational psychologist Karlyn Borysenko, an activist against so-called critical race theory indoctrination, said on Friday that she obtained copies of the training materials from a whistleblower at Coca-Cola who received an email from management announcing the course. The class is administered online, through the LinkedIn Learning platform, and is entitled “Confronting Racism, with Robin DiAngelo,” a top proponent of critical race theory who offers high-dollar corporate seminars on “whiteness, white fragility” and “racial justice.” She is known to charge up to $40,000 for a half-day talk.

A spokesperson from Coca-Cola responded to the images later on Friday, all but confirming they were from a company-endorsed seminar to Blaze journalist Chris Pandolfo, though said it was not the main “focus” of its educational program.

“The video circulating on social media is from a publicly available LinkedIn Learning series and is not a focus of our company’s curriculum,” the spokesperson said, but added that the course is “part of a learning plan to help build an inclusive workplace.”

The heading for the course indicates that it will cover “understanding what it means to be white,” and “challenging what it means to be racist.” Students are told that “to be less white is to: be less oppressive; be less arrogant; be less certain; be less defensive; be less ignorant; be more humble; listen; believe; break with apathy;” and “break with white solidarity.”

It stands to reason that white people inherently have all those undesirable traits, such as being oppressive, arrogant and defensive. The underlying point of the mandatory training is made all by itself on another slide: “Try to be less white.”

“Your job at Coca-Cola should not depend on whether or not you buy into the idea of being less white,” Borysenko said. “It should depend on whether or not you can go in and do your job.”

The anti-racism training course also includes a slide advising that “one-time workshops on racism are not enough.” Employees are told to take such steps as creating “monthly affinity groups, cross-racial discussions, ongoing professional development, and revamped interview questions.”

Borysenko said that advice is all about keeping the money flowing to so-called “diversity trainers” like DiAngelo.

Conservative author and Blexit founder Candace Owens pointed out that if the course endeavored to teach employees how to “be less black, the world would implode and lawsuits would follow. I genuinely hope these employees sue Coca-Cola for blatant racism and discrimination.”

Netizens roasted the company over the leaked images, some even calling on the Department of Justice to investigate how Coca-Cola allegedly “discriminated against” its employees, while one self-avowed business owner said she’d remove a company vending machine from her establishment. The controversy also prompted Donald Trump Jr., the son of the former president, to weigh in.

Some users pushed back and hailed Coca-Cola for its efforts, suggesting “only bigots are mad” about the training course. While one commenter suggested the seminar should have focused on “whiteness” itself rather than how employees must be “less white,” he nonetheless added “good on Coca-Cola for doing this work.”

One of the leading peddlers of the critical race doctrine, DiAngelo is perhaps best known for her book ‘White Fragility’, which impugns white people for becoming angry, defensive or hostile when “confronted with the idea that they are complicit in systemic racism.” Former President Donald Trump last September banned federal agencies from subjecting their employees to training based on critical race theory after finding that it was “divisive, anti-American propaganda.” President Joe Biden rescinded that ban last month, on his first day in office.

Coca-Cola previously produced an ‘Allyship Guidebook’ for employees amid last summer’s wave of US race riots. Borysenko believes the latest racial wokeness effort by the company won’t be helpful to employees of any skin color. “You are not creating a healthier work environment,” she said. “You’re doing nothing but creating more division and teaching… a large portion of your staff to hate themselves.”

Antifa Could Be Branded as Domestic Terrorists Under Bill Being Discussed in Montana

The Epoch Times reports:

Lawmakers in Montana are in discussions regarding a bill that would classify the anarcho-communist group Antifa as a domestic terror organization.

Antifa networks and ideologically affiliated groups have conducted violent street protests and riots in a number of cities over the past several years, including in Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, Olympia, and elsewhere.

Montana state Rep. Braxton Mitchell, a Republican representing Columbia Falls, told the Montana House Judiciary Committee during a Tuesday hearing that the bill is being considered.

The move would “send a message that we as a state won’t tolerate a group like this coming into our state,” he said, reported The Associated Press.

Opponents of the measure said that such a bill should be opposed if it does not also classify other groups accused of violent acts, including groups that partook in the U.S. Capitol breach in January.

The Epoch Times has reached out to Mitchell’s office for comment.

Some officials, including FBI Director Chris Wray, have said that Antifa is more of an ideology rather than a group. He described Antifa as a decentralized movement.

However, independent journalist Andy Ngo—who has been chronicling Antifa and other black bloc-style groups—told The Epoch Times it is “more than an idea” and is “also a movement” that appears to be organized.

Antifa is short for “anti-fascist,” but Ngo noted that “fascist” doesn’t necessarily refer to the Nazis or white supremacists, adding that the group often calls people fascists that are “in opposition to the far-left political agenda.” The United States itself, according to Ngo, is defined as “fascist” by most Antifa adherents, Ngo added.

And black bloc attacks in Portland appeared to be indiscriminate and didn’t target alleged white supremacists, Ngo added.

“What I was witnessing on the ground in my home city—Portland, the epicenter of American Antifa—that they were carrying out indiscriminate acts of violence, not just against property but against people. And they kept continuing to escalate and escalate,” he told NTD.

The ultimate agenda of Antifa is to abolish nation-states all around the world and to create anarchist, communist communes, Ngo remarked.

“They believe that they can actually organize society without a government,” he said, adding that adherents often believe that nobody should own private property.

Elaborating further, Ngo dispelled the idea that far-left groups would stop rioting and demonstrating after President Joe Biden took office.

“They rioted in Portland, for example, on the fourth of November. There’s been around a dozen riots in Portland and Seattle since then,” he said. “On the day that Biden was inaugurated, importantly, they actually destroyed the headquarters of the Oregon Democratic Party. And in Seattle there were some riots as well.”

WATCH: Mike Lindell’s voting fraud documentary ‘ABSOLUTE PROOF’

My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell releases a 3-hour long movie laying out “evidence” of fraud in the 2020 US presidential election.

See original video on Bitchute.

Business Insider reports:

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell appeared on the Christian YouTube channel The Revival Channel to announce that he’s releasing a three-hour film Friday in support of his claims of issues in the 2020 election.

“Absolute Proof” was made, he said, over a five-day period “holed up with people guarding me.”

Lindell, a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, said the documentary proved “100%, the theft by China and these different international locations, this cyberattack on our nation right here, that took, that flipped votes.”

Lindell said his film would prove there was “a communist coup.”

“We prayed over every word that was in this piece,” he told The Revival Channel’s host. “The last four days, 12 people, three hours of sleep a night, A lot of stuff was done in one take because the Holy Spirit was just speaking it out.”

Lindell is among several Trump surrogates and supporters who were threatened with litigation by Dominion Voting Systems after repeatedly making baseless claims about election fraud involving its machines.

Lindell appeared on the conservative cable channel Newsmax early this week, ostensibly to talk about “cancel culture” but instead reviving his claims of election interference. The anchor Bob Sellers grew visibly irritated when Lindell instead began rattling off his Dominion Voting Systems election-fraud claims and cut in to remind viewers that Lindell’s claims were unsubstantiated. Sellers then appeared to walk off set in frustration.

Newsweek reports:

Lindell describes the film as “the most important documentary ever,” saying: “I think God has been waiting to make this movie… That miracle is coming, and coming, and I’m telling you, Friday is the beginning. “

“Everyone needs to share it with everyone you know, because anyone that sees it, even if it’s nine Supreme Court justices, everyone will say ‘Wow, this is an attack on our country,'” Lindell explained.

“Once you guys see what I’ve seen you’re gonna be so excited,” he said.

Lindell claimed the movie would run on cable TV on Friday, and be available online. He said OAN may “run it in a loop” on their cable channel, adding: “It’s gonna be everywhere.”

The Epoch Times reports:

YouTube and Vimeo have removed from their platforms a video from MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell that alleged election fraud during the Nov. 3, 2020, election.

The two video-hosting platforms took down copies of the video, called “Absolute Proof,” and Facebook placed labels on posts made by Lindell, a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump.

“Per our presidential election integrity policy, we remove content uploaded after the safe-harbor deadline” that includes claims that “fraud, errors or glitches changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election,” YouTube spokesperson Alex Joseph told The Washington Times and other news outlets on Feb. 6. “We removed this video and its reuploads in accordance with this policy.”

In early December, the Google-owned platform announced that it would remove content about election fraud after the Dec. 8, 2020, “safe harbor” deadline regarding states’ Electoral College votes.

Vimeo also told the paper that Lindell’s video was removed “for violating Vimeo’s policies on posting content that claims that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent or stolen or otherwise illegitimate.”

Lindell’s personal website currently showcases the video, which is being hosted by StreamHoster.

“Watch this video and stay focused,” Lindell told the Washington Times in an email. Lindell didn’t immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

He also paid for hours-long advertising spots on cable channel One America News Network (OAN), according to the company. The network featured a disclaimer before airing Lindell’s film.

“Mr. Lindell is the sole author and executive producer of this program and is solely and exclusively responsible for its content,” the narrator says. “This program is not the product of OAN’s reporting.”

The disclaimer adds, “Further, the statements and claims expressed in this program are presented at this time as opinions only and are not intended to be taken or interpreted by the viewer as established facts.”

Previously, Twitter suspended the MyPillow account about a week after suspending Lindell’s account. Twitter said that it suspended his company account for alleged violations of the company’s ban-evasion policy.

“I can’t believe they’re doing this to my company,” Lindell said in an interview with USA Today last week. “They’re out to destroy me.”

“Thank you to everyone who has supported MyPillow during this time. … Jack Dorsey is trying to cancel me (Mike Lindell) out!” he previously wrote. “We are extremely busy and hiring as fast as we can to handle all the shipping! Jack will be found out and should be put in prison when all is revealed!”

Kohl’s, Bed Bath & Beyond, and J.C. Penney have confirmed that they’ll discontinue selling MyPillow products; Lindell suggested the retailers are engaging in a politically motivated cancel campaign.

Facebook CEO Zuckerberg expresses concern about COVID-19 vaccines in leaked footage

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made comments last year about COVID-19 vaccines that clash with policies that his platform has implemented, leaked video shows.

The Epoch Times reports:

Zuckerberg said in July 2020: “I do just want to make sure that I share some caution on this [vaccine] because we just don’t know the long-term side effects of basically modifying people’s DNA and RNA … basically the ability to produce those antibodies and whether that causes other mutations or other risks downstream. So, there’s work on both paths of vaccine development.”

Zuckerberg took a different stance when appearing in a virtual forum in November 2020 with Dr. Anthony Fauci, a leading government scientist.

“Just to clear up one point, my understanding is that these vaccines do not modify your DNA or RNA. So that’s just an important point to clarify,” Zuckerberg said, prompting Fauci to say: “No, first of all, DNA is inherent in your own nuclear cell. Sticking in anything foreign will ultimately get cleared.”

Facebook didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The footage was published by Project Veritas, a journalism watchdog. It was allegedly from Facebook’s internal weekly question-and-answer session.

Zuckerberg’s Facebook has imposed harsh guidelines on what people can post about COVID-19, and banned or restricted a number of users for violating the policies.

Facebook earlier in February said it would take down any posts with claims about vaccines deemed false by health groups or its so-called fact-checkers.

Facebook stated in a blog post, “Today, following consultations with leading health organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), we are expanding the list of false claims we will remove to include additional debunked claims about the coronavirus and vaccines.”

The list includes “claims that the COVID-19 vaccine changes people’s DNA.”

Administrators for some groups will be required to greenlight all posts if the groups have been labeled problematic in terms of posts that have been made.

“Claims about COVID-19 or vaccines that do not violate these policies will still be eligible for review by our third-party fact-checkers, and if they are rated false, they will be labeled and demoted,” the company stated.

Footage showing Zuckerberg commenting privately on various issues has been made public before by Project Veritas. In one clip, he praised President Joe Biden’s early executive orders “on areas that we as a company care quite deeply about and have for some time.”

“Areas like immigration, preserving DACA, ending restrictions on travel from Muslim-majority countries, as well as other executive orders on climate and advancing racial justice and equity. I think these were all important and positive steps,” he said.

Facebook banned former President Donald Trump in January while Trump was still in office. Trump remains blocked from the platform.

Talk Radio Legend Rush Limbaugh Dies at 70

Conservative radio legend Rush Limbaugh died Wednesday morning at the age of 70 following a battle with advanced lung cancer, his wife Kathryn Limbaugh announced at the beginning of his Wednesday radio program.

“It is with profound sadness I must share with you directly that our beloved Rush, my wonderful husband, passed away this morning due to complications from lung cancer,” Kathryn announced.

“Rush will forever be the greatest of all time, she added.

Limbaugh, host of The Rush Limbaugh Show for 32 years, had been battling Stage 4 lung cancer since January 2020. Just days after announcing his diagnosis, Limbaugh was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Donald Trump during the State of the Union on February 4, 2020 “Rush Limbaugh: Thank you for your decades of tireless devotion to our country,” Trump told the radio host during the address.

Limbaugh periodically updated his audience on his health condition, telling listeners during his final radio broadcast of 2020 that he outlived his prognosis and thanked them for their outpour of support.

“I wasn’t expected to be alive today,” Limbaugh said. “I wasn’t expected to make it to October, and then to November, and then to December. And yet, here I am, and today, got some problems, but I’m feeling pretty good today.”

Praise for Limbaugh from conservative lawmakers and media figures poured in moments after Limbaugh’s passing.

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