South Dakota’s governor said on April 21 that she has taken executive action to ban the use of digital or paper documentation that enables people to show proof that they’ve been vaccinated against the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19.
Vials of COVID-19 vaccine are seen in Bridgeport, Conn., on April 20, 2021. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)
Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, said the executive order she signed concerning so-called vaccine passports aligns with making sure South Dakotans are able to exercise their freedoms.
“Since the start of the COVID pandemic, we have provided the people of South Dakota with up-to-date science, facts, and data and then trusted them to exercise their personal responsibility to make the best decisions for themselves and their loved ones. We’ve resisted government mandates, and our state is stronger for it,” she said in a statement.
“I encourage all South Dakotans to get vaccinated against COVID-19, but we are not going to mandate any such activity. And we are not going to restrict South Dakotans’ exercise of their freedoms with un-American policies like vaccine passports. In our state, ‘Under God, the people rule.’ And that is how we will operate for as long as I am governor.”
Discussions are taking place on requiring such proof at various venues, which would be “discriminatory treatment” against people who haven’t gotten COVID-19 vaccines, Noem’s three-page order states.
“Any rationale for imposing public health restrictions that limit freedoms should be tailored to mitigate a verifiable, scientific risk,” it said. “Implementing a vaccine passport program could lead to unjustified, non-science-based restrictions on travel, speech, association, and other civil rights.”
A contract plant that was producing materials for Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) CCP virus vaccines failed to meet sanitary standards, according to federal health authorities.
A vial and syringe are seen in front of a displayed Johnson & Johnson logo in this illustration taken Jan. 11, 2021. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted an examination of the Emergent BioSolutions manufacturing facility after production was put on pause last Friday, according to an SEC filing.
The FDA ordered Emergent BioSolutions to pause vaccine production while they work together to address “potential quality issues.”
“The FDA cited a number of observations concerning whether the facility’s processes met our requirements and standards,” the FDA wrote in a statement.
The observations (pdf) include “cross-contamination” of vaccine substance, and found the building used for production was “not maintained in a clean and sanitary condition” and not suitable to “facilitate cleaning, maintenance, and proper operations.”
The FDA hasn’t authorized the manufacture or distribution of J&J vaccine components at the facility and none of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus vaccines produced there have been distributed in the United States so far.
The FDA will test and evaluate them before potential distribution.
#BREAKING: The Biden Admin just filed an appeal seeking to force religious doctors and hospitals to perform potentially harmful gender-transition procedures against their conscience and professional medical judgment. This is bad for patients, doctors, and religious liberty. 1/
The plaintiffs are religious doctors, hospitals, and clinics who joyfully serve ALL patients regardless of sex or gender identity. They routinely provide top-notch care to transgender patients for everything from cancer to the common cold.
The Transgender Mandate not only threatens religious doctors and hospitals. It also threatens patients, as there is ample evidence that certain gender transition procedures can be deeply harmful: https://t.co/yKVzmY1uE2
The government’s own doctors during the Obama Admin agreed: “Based on a thorough review of the clinical evidence…there is not enough evidence to determine whether gender reassignment surgery improves health outcomes for [patients] with gender dysphoria.” https://t.co/G8gn3ptZ3q
The Biden Admin shouldn't have appealed. But we look forward to another ruling that protects patients, aligns with current medical research, and ensures doctors aren’t forced to violate their religious beliefs and professional medical judgment.
A recent Stanford study released by the NCBI, which is under the National Institutes of Health, showed that masks do absolutely nothing to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and their use is even harmful.
NIH published a medical hypothesis by Dr. Baruch Vainshelboim (Cardiology Division, Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System/Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, United States).
Did you hear about the peer-reviewed study done by Stanford University that demonstrates beyond a reasonable doubt that face masks have absolutely zero chance of preventing the spread of Covid-19? No? It was posted on the the National Center for Biotechnological Information government website. The NCBI is a branch of the National Institute for Health, so one would think such a study would be widely reported by mainstream media and embraced by the “science-loving” folks in Big Tech.
Instead, a DuckDuckGo search reveals it was picked up by ZERO mainstream media outlets and Big Tech tyrants will suspend people who post it, as political strategist Steve Cortes learned the hard way when he posted a Tweet that went against the face mask narrative. The Tweet itself featured a quote and a link that prompted Twitter to suspend his account, potentially indefinitely.
The NCBI study begins with the following abstract:
Many countries across the globe utilized medical and non-medical facemasks as non-pharmaceutical intervention for reducing the transmission and infectivity of [the] coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). Although, scientific evidence supporting facemasks’ efficacy is lacking, adverse physiological, psychological and health effects are established. It has been hypothesized that facemasks have compromised safety and efficacy profile and should be avoided from use. The current article comprehensively summarizes scientific evidence[s] with respect to wearing facemasks in the COVID-19 era, providing proper information for public health and decision making.
To counter the left’s lies, conservatives have to use words that accurately reflect the truth — not words that actively mean the opposite.
“The worst thing one can do with words is to surrender them,” George Orwell wrote in his 1946 essay, “Politics and the English Language.” Orwell protested not just sloppy use of language, but intentional misuse of language for political purposes.
“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable,” he said. “Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness.”
Politicians and dishonest media propagandists today use inaccurate language to frame narratives and foster a leftist perspective. Inadvertently, even well-meaning audiences sometimes internalize this language and end up propagating the very ideas and framing they fundamentally reject. Don’t let that be you.
In every debate, it’s vital to start by defining your terms. If conservatives want to counter the radical left’s agenda, we have to begin by using words that accurately reflect what we mean — not words that actively mean the opposite. Here are just 10.
1. ‘Mainstream Media’
The public communication cartel headed by The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, CBS, and MSNBC does not represent mainstream Americans. Earlier this year, Axios (another culprit of heavy-handed political spin) reported that 56 percent of Americans believe “Journalists and reporters are purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations.”
Big Media has engaged in deception through false and misleading “reporting” on Georgia’s election laws, the trespass and unrest at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, and more. Embracing “Russiagate” and the allegations of the Steele dossier against President Trump was one indicator of crumbling credibility. The cover-up of the Hunter Biden laptop story just before the 2020 presidential election was another.
Even more recently, CBS’s “60 Minutes” invented a scandal about Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, while giving minuscule coverage to New York Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s cover-up of COVID-19 nursing home deaths his policies caused.
Leftist propaganda outlets who are running cover for Democrats and spreading inaccurate opposition research on conservatives don’t deserve to be called mainstream. Instead, use “Big Media,” “corporate media,” or — as DeSantis says — “smear merchants.”
2. ‘Gender,’ When You Mean ‘Sex’
Words have gender; people are one sex or another. For Latin and in many of the languages that have grown out of it, gender is a linguistic term indicating which word endings a term should possess. Gender is either feminine, masculine, or neuter. The phrase “la boulangerie,” for example, is French for “the bakery,” and its gender is feminine.
Male and female, on the other hand, refer to sex. Sex is a biological category that reflects a person’s physical characteristics and reproductive systems, and also manifests in certain broad behavioral differences that distinguish men and women.
3. ‘Sex-Reassignment Surgery’
Further, sex is not assigned, at birth or ever. If it is not “assigned,” it cannot be reassigned. Surgical procedures that remove or conceal the outward appearance of a woman or man’s reproductive organs, are most accurately described as genital mutilation or amputation.
4. ‘Democracy,’ When You Mean ‘Republic’
A democracy is direct rule by the supreme will of the people: the highest law is that of the loudest mob. Derived from the Greek “demos” (people) and “kratia” (power), democracy involves no higher law than popular consensus, and subjects the majority will to no checks and balances but itself.
In Book VIII of “The Republic,” Plato lists democracy as the social structure directly followed by tyranny. Democracy, Plato theorized, “comes into being when the poor, winning the victory, put to death some of the other party, drive out others, and grant the rest of the citizens an equal share in both citizenship and offices.” He continued, “that is the constitution of democracy alike whether it is established by force of arms or by terrorism.”
The American system was established as a constitutional republic. The highest law of the land is the U.S. Constitution, to which all public servants are (or should be) accountable. Additional laws are made by elected representatives of the people. Further, the American system is a federal republic, meaning power is divided between federal, state, and local governments, all of whom serve as the guarantors of the people’s sovereignty and rights.
‘I want to just… create the affirmation that this isn’t justice!’
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) addressed the guilty verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial on social media and declared that it wasn’t enough, nor was it justice in her opinion.
Ocasio-Cortez took to her Instagram account Tuesday to post a 16-minute video from outside the U.S. Capitol.
“I want to just let you all know and create the affirmation that this isn’t justice, it’s not justice!” she declared.
“It’s not justice, and I’ll explain to you why it’s not justice. It’s not justice because justice is George Floyd going home tonight to be with his family,” she added.
“Justice is Adam Toledo getting tucked in by his mom tonight,” she continued, referring to a 13-year-old who was shot and killed by a police officer in Chicago after the teen threw a gun to the ground.
“Justice is when you’re pulled over, there not being a gun that’s part of that interaction, because you have a headlight out,” she added.
The president says Floyd’s death ‘ripped the blinders off for the whole world to see the systemic racism’ in America
President Joe Biden hailed the jury’s decision Tuesday finding former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin guilty on all counts in the murder of George Floyd, but says it is just the start in fighting the “systemic racism” in America.
Following the verdict, the president promised Floyd’s family their victory was only the beginning, vowing to push for further policing reforms and “much more.”
Floyd family attorney Ben Crump took a call from Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris after the verdict was announced, and the lawyer put the phone on speaker for the family gathered around.
“Nothing is gonna make it all better, but at least…now there’s some justice,” the president began.
“I think of Gianna’s comment, ‘My daddy’s gonna change the world,’ ” Biden said, referring to Floyd’s daughter, before declaring, “He’s gonna start to change it now.”
Crump told the president he hopes “this is the momentum needed” to pass Democrats’ proposed George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.
Derek Chauvin has been found guilty by a jury on charges of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and manslaughter for his role in the death of George Floyd last May.
The jury’s verdict came in under 24 hours, signaling little disagreement by the 12 men and women on whether the former Minneapolis police officer murdered Floyd when placing him under arrest for allegedly using a counterfeit bill at a gas station.
“No family in history ever got this far. We were able to get a guilty charge on all counts … This right here is for everyone that’s been in this situation,” George Floyd’s brother, Rodney Floyd said.
Chauvin was found guilty on all charges he faced, handing a major win to prosecutors who promised the public justice in a case that fundamentally changed how the country discussed race and policing. The verdict sparked celebrations outside the courthouse.
“Painfully earned justice has arrived for George Floyd’s family and the community here in Minneapolis, but today’s verdict goes far beyond this city and has significant implications for the country and even the world. Justice for Black America is justice for all of America,” said Floyd family attorney Ben Crump in a statement.
“This case is a turning point in American history for accountability of law enforcement and sends a clear message we hope is heard clearly in every city and every state. We thank Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and his team for their fierce dedication to justice for George. But it does not end here. We have not forgotten that the other three officers who played their own roles in the death of George Floyd must still be held accountable for their actions, as well.”
Chauvin, 45, faces up to 40 years in prison. His sentencing hearing will take place in eight weeks.
“We were watching every second of this … We’re all so relieved. Not guilty on one verdict, but all three … We’re going to get a lot more done. We’re going to do a lot. We’re going to stay at it until we get it done,” President Joe iden told the Floyd family in a phone call shortly after court adjourned.
The Rev. Al Sharpton was roasted online for posting a tone-deaf video showing him strolling to a private jet for a flight to Minneapolis to join the family of George Floyd at the conclusion of ex-cop Derek Chauvin’s trial.
“Headed to Minneapolis to stand with the Floyd family as closing arguments are set to be made today,” Sharpton, founder of the National Action Network, wrote about 7:20 a.m. Monday.
During a press conference in Times Square last week, the 66-year-old civil rights activist and MSNBC host said Tyler Perry had offered him his private jet for the flight “to George Floyd’s memorial service in 2020.”
He said he asked Gwen Carr — the mother of Eric Garner, who died in police custody on Staten Island in 2014 — to join him on the trip.
But Sharpton was soon lambasted online by social media users who criticized his out-of-touch post.
