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Gov. DeSantis: Proof of vaccination not required to live your lives as free people in Florida

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.”

Classic Board Game Monopoly Alters Community Chest Cards for ‘Woke’ Times​

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.”

FULL ARTICLE

24 More Charged in Voter-Fraud Probe, Prosecutors Say

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.”

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Biden’s hand appears to move through these microphones like a ghost, media manipulation

Watch the first 20 seconds of this interview with Joe Biden and pay careful attention to his hands:

If you missed it, here are a few photos of what happened:

And that’s not the only camera angle where this happened. The first video is from The Hill. This second is from WaPo:

Here is a still from this angle:

What the actual heck is happening here?

WATCH: Mike Lindell interviewed by Oliver North

Myanmar Military Seizes George Soros Organization’s Bank Accounts, Announces Arrest Warrants

The military government in Myanmar, in place after a coup provoked by widespread accusations of voter fraud plagued the country’s recent election, has now seized the bank accounts of George Soros’ Open Society Foundations.

After taking control of the country in a military coup provoked by allegations of voter fraud earlier this year, the Myanmar military government has seized several bank accounts belonging or affiliated with George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, and has announced arrest warrants for 11 members of the organization in the country “on suspicion of giving financial support to the civil disobedience movement against the military junta.”

The government will also take legal action against the Open Society Foundations, which they allege violated “restrictions on the activities of such organizations” and did not receive approval from Myanmar’s authorities for the deposit of $5 million into their Myanmar bank accounts. It is also alleged to have illegally withdrawn $1.4 million from its bank accounts.

A website that tracks Myanmar political developments from Thailand wrote, “Military-aligned groups including the Union Solidarity and Development Party have accused Soros of manipulating Myanmar’s politics by supporting civil society organizations in the country.”

National File reported extensively on the ties between Soros, failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and recently ousted State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi:

Clinton advised Aung San Suu Kyi to contest a parliamentary seat in the 2012 Burmese elections, which Aung San Suu Kyi ultimately did, kickstarting the latter’s formal political career in Burma, also known as Myanmar.

Aung San Suu Kyi also received strong support from then-President Barack Obama, who routinely advocated for her release from house arrest. Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested repeatedly during the 1990s and 2000s for “subversive acts”, following her involvement in riots against the Myanmar government.

Obama awarded her the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal in 2012, which she described as “one of the most moving days of my life”. Ultimately, the Obama administration engineered Aung San Suu Kyi’s rise to power in 2015, by placing sanctions on Myanmar and insisting on only removing them if Aung San Suu Kyi was given a political role in the country.

Another important ally of Aung San Suu Kyi was progressive billionaire George Soros and his global NGO network, which strongly supported her activities.

Myanmar also recently banned Facebook and Twitter in the country after they alleged the platforms used their algorithms to promote anti-military protests following the military takeover.

Read the full article here

House votes to avert deep spending cuts, including to Medicare, resulting from $1.9T relief package

The Democratic-led House voted Friday to avert deep spending cuts, including an estimated $36 billion in Medicare cuts next year, that would be triggered by President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package absent action from Congress.

The House voted 246-175 to get around a 2010 law that would trigger the cuts.

More than two dozen Republicans joined with Democrats to pass the bill and neither party wants to see the cuts happen.

But it’s unclear whether the bill as passed will win enough support in the 50-50 Senate to avert a possible filibuster.

The bill lawmakers passed on Friday exempts the relief package from being counted against a budget scorecard that triggers “sequestration” cuts to offset projected increases in the federal deficit from new legislation.

The bill also extends a temporary freeze on separate Medicare sequester cuts until the end of the year. That exemption, which was extended in earlier COVID relief bills, is due to expire at the end of the month.

Democrats said they couldn’t include a waiver for the broader cuts in the $1.9 trillion package itself because of the fast-track budget rules they used to muscle the bill through Congress without support from Republicans.

Read the full article here

Biggest Casualty of COVID? Personal Freedoms.

The psychological devastation caused by teaching children to fear their own hands, other people, the air they breathe and that their very presence poses a lethal threat to others is but one of the many casualties of COVID.

Story at-a-glance:

  • While the casualties of government-imposed COVID-19 countermeasures are manifold, the biggest and most tragic of them all is the loss of individual freedoms.
  • We either choose freedom, or we choose to live under authoritarian rule. Even if restrictions are lifted, public attitude can place freedom on shaky ground, as public acceptance of overreach will allow for the same to occur again and again at a moment’s notice.
  • The freedom to interact with other human beings is a crucial, most basic human need.
  • The inevitabilities of life — which include uncertainty, moment-to-moment risk and the surety of death — demand that we not require people to cease living in order to “save” others from the ramifications of ill health.
  • The answer, if we really want to protect the masses, is to educate and promote healthy living at all stages of life. Improving your health through a healthy lifestyle, sunshine, fresh air and real food, is the best way to protect the most people.

While the casualties of government-imposed COVID-19 countermeasures are manifold, the biggest and most tragic of them all is the loss of individual freedoms. As noted by Jonathan Sumption in his February 15, 2021, Telegraph commentary:

“What makes us a free society is that, although the state has vast powers, there are conventional limits on what it can do with them. The limits are conventional because they do not depend on our laws but on our attitudes.

“There are islands of human life which are our own, a personal space into which the state should not intrude without some altogether exceptional justification.

“Liberal democracy breaks down when frightened majorities demand mass coercion of their fellow citizens, and call for our personal spaces to be invaded. These demands are invariably based on what people conceive to be the public good. They all assert that despotism is in the public interest.”

A fragile freedom

As Sumption points out, “We cannot switch in and out of totalitarianism at will.” We either choose freedom, or we choose to live under authoritarian rule. Even if (and that’s a big if, at this point) restrictions are lifted, public attitude can place freedom on shaky ground, as public acceptance of overreach will allow for the same to occur again and again at a moment’s notice.

This is a serious problem, as there will always be other epidemics and pandemics. There is always the threat of terrorism and climate change. There will always be a public health calamity, be it obesity or diabetes, that can be used as justification for government intrusion into our private lives.

“A threshold has now been crossed,” Sumption writes. “A big taboo has gone. Other governments will say that the only question that matters is whether it works and whether they can ‘get away with it’ … We already have a striking example. The vaccine, which was supposed to make the lockdown unnecessary, has become a reason for keeping it in force …

“Infections, hospitalizations and deaths are plunging, but millions who are at virtually no risk are being kept in house imprisonment. This is being done mainly because a selective regime of controls would be too difficult for the state to enforce. Coercion quickly becomes an object in itself.”

Read the full story here

Explosive German child abuse investigation reveals 200+ perpetrators, 300+ victims in Catholic Diocese of Cologne

After five months of investigation, hundreds of alleged child abusers and victims have been identified in an 800-page independent report on abuse in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cologne, Germany, spanning decades.

According to the investigation, as many as 243 members of the clergy and laity were identified as abusers of minors, with around 50% of the incidents – between 1946 and 2018 – involving sexual violence and 55% involving children under the age of 14. Over 300 victims – the majority male and abused before 1975 – were also identified.

At least two clergymen will be dismissed from their positions following the report and several “high-up church figures” are accused of breaching their duty and attempting to cover up the allegations.

The Archdiocese of Cologne commissioned German law firm Gercke Wollschläger for the report, which was compiled over 5 months through interviews with those involved, after being accused of suppressing previous reports on historical child abuse.

Cardinal Rainer Woelki said the incidents reported “affect” him “deeply,” and added, “Clergymen are guilty of inflicting violence on people entrusted to them, and in many cases without being punished for it.”

He said that it was “even worse” that many of “those affected by this violence” had struggled to be “taken seriously and protected,” before calling the initial handling of allegations a “cover-up.”

The first results and official “consequences of the report” will be formally presented on March 23rd.

Back in February, German nuns belonging apparently to the same Catholic Archdiocese of Cologne were accused of having “rented” orphan boys to businessmen and clergymen in the ’60s and ’70s for “gang bangs and orgies”, according to a report seen by media that was withheld from the public.

WATCH: News anchor resigns: “I don’t like the direction the media is going”

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