Saturday, April 30, 2022
Demetrius HolemanVoter ID
Britain Makes Voter ID Compulsory – But Mail-In Voting Still a Weakness
Britain’s new Elections Act, which has just received Royal Assent, has finally made voter ID compulsory at polling stations — but questions remain about mail-in voting fraud.
The new legislation was widely opposed by left-wing political parties, including the Labour opposition, and activists, with allegations that the poor, ethnic minorities, and “trans and non-binary people” would be disenfranchised being widespread.
Toeing the party line is what matters most...
April 30, 2022
Snitch U: Survey shows 56% of colleges encourage students to rat on one another
Now that the wokesters have taken over universities and school administrators now outnumber professors, how's life in academia these days? How are things now that diversity staff outnumber history professors?
The Daily Caller has a report:
Over half of the U.S.’s private and public colleges encourage students to snitch on each other, according to a report released Monday by a free speech non-profit.
Of the 821 higher education institutions surveyed, 56% of them are reported to have some form of a “Bias Reporting System” (BRS), according to the report from Speech First (SF), a free speech member organization. The report surveyed 441 private schools, or 23% of all private four year colleges in the U.S. and 380 public schools, or 49% of the country’s four-year public universities.
BRSs are university teams or procedures that aim to solicit, receive, investigate and respond to reports of “bias incidents,” which are used to “silence dissenters,” “stifle open dialogue” and “encourage students to turn informant on speech they seem unacceptable,” according to SF. The BRSs typically invite students and faculty to report “biased” speech on the basis of protected characteristics such as race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age disability or someone’s “political affiliation.”
Living in Chicago
Wealthy Chicago homeowners hire armed off-duty cops to stamp out carjackings and robberies as out of control crime spikes by up to 86%
- Wealthy neighborhoods in northern Chicago have begun hiring private security contractors to patrol their streets and act as a deterrent to soaring crime
- The contractors consist of off-duty police who carry guns, and surveil the neighborhoods in marked cars equipped with cameras and flashing lights
- Crime has continued to spike across Chicago, with even some of its wealthiest neighborhoods seeing surges as high as 86% in 2022 from this time last year
- One section of the leafy Lincoln Park neighborhood asked residents to donate $100 to in an effort to raise $175,000 for a years' worth of security services
Biden's pick for Federal District judge will lie for a cause
""Senator, I said it in my role as an advocate," Choudhury responded."
That answer alone should disqualify her. The mindset that justifies misrepresentation or lying in the name of a cause is immoral. It represents a way of life practiced in the Middle East and China not America.
Friday, April 29, 2022
Surely this will cure inflation
California To Hike Gas Tax Despite Record High Prices At Pump
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is set to raise the state's gasoline tax despite record-high prices at the pump and sinking poll numbers of President Biden ahead of the midterm elections.
Newsom's office said earlier this week that California lawmakers are unlikely to stop the annual summer increase in the state's gasoline tax ahead of a May 1 deadline. This means California motorists will be hit with a 5.6% gas tax hike scheduled to take effect on July 1.
"But lawmakers will almost certainly fail to stop the gas tax increase from taking place because they would need to pass legislation by Sunday in order to do so – and have yet to introduce a bill on the matter," Fox News said.
Newsom's spokesperson Alex Stack said the governor could offer gas relief to Californians via direct payments (stimulus checks).
"It is clear now that the Legislature will not act in time to provide that immediate, limited relief, but we look forward to working with lawmakers on the Governor's proposal for direct payments to Californians wrestling with rising prices," Stack said.
California leads the nation with the highest gas tax at 51 cents per gallon. The gas tax after July 1 will stand at 53.9 cents per gallon, an increase of 3 cents.
Marine reptiles in the Alps...holy climate change
Giant tooth of ancient marine reptile discovered in Alps
It's the largest such tooth found from the extinct ichthyosaur. Scientists had previously speculated that some of the larger reptiles in the group had gone toothless.
The reptiles went extinct way before dinosaurs, leaving scientists mystified about their apppearance and behaviour
The giant tooth of a prehistoric sea monster has been found high up in the Swiss alps, a new study said on Thursday.
The tooth was discovered along with two skeletal remains believed to come from ichthyosaurs — massive marine reptiles with small heads and elongated bodies that ruled the oceans in the early Triassic Period.
Published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the report analyzed one skeleton containing 10 rib fragments and a vertebra, suggesting a huge animal about 20 meters (66 feet) long, about the size of a large sperm whale. The second fossil suggested an ichthyosaur about 15 meters long.
But "the tooth is particularly exciting," said lead author Martin Sander, of the University of Bonn, seeing as larger ichthyosaurs so far discovered had appeared to be toothless.
With its root at 60 millimeters (2.4 inches) in diameter, it's the largest-ever tooth found for the extinct reptiles.
Mysterious giant 'fish lizard' predating the dinosaurs
The ichthyosaur — which literally translates from ancient Greek to "fish lizard" — was one of the largest animals to have ever lived, growing up to 20 meters and weighing up to 80 metric tons, heavier than the largest sperm whale ever recorded.
The beasts are thought to have first appeared roughly 250 million years ago after the Permian-Triassic extinction event, sometimes called "the great dying," which saw over 95% of sea life wiped out.
Ichthyosaurs died off 100 million years ago and left behind a scant trail of fossil remains, mystifying researchers. Dinosaurs, which went extinct much later, have better-preserved remains.
Imperialist Islam
Dozens injured in fresh violence at Al-Aqsa Mosque
Israeli police used "riot dispersal means" in clashes at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The officers said people in the crowd had been throwing stones and fireworks toward a Jewish holy site.
political interference in science
APRIL 29, 2022
"Respondents from CDC and FDA told us they did not report potential political interference in scientific decision-making because they feared retaliation." While these words from a brand-new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report are not earth-shattering to anyone paying attention over the past two years, they are a bombshell coming from a government agency.
The GAO just released a report on political interference in scientific decisions, based on interviews with employees of the four HHS agencies most responsible for the coronavirus response. The findings were derived from personal interviews as well as tips offered to a confidential hotline set up for the investigation. The investigators’ conclusion, which they conveyed in a letter to leaders of the House and Senate judiciary committees and committees overseeing HHS, was that these agencies “do not have procedures that define political interference in scientific decision-making or describe how it should be reported and addressed.”
The four agencies subject to the GAO investigation were the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR).
The GAO investigators revealed to Congress that "a few respondents from CDC and FDA stated they felt that the potential political interference they observed resulted in the alteration or suppression of scientific findings." What were the consequences? "Some of these respondents believed that this potential political interference may have resulted in the politically motivated alteration of public health guidance or delayed publication of COVID-19-related scientific findings."
Thursday, April 28, 2022
What tyranny looks like -- living in China
QR codes, health passports: China's tech arsenal against a pandemic
Daily life in China follows a rhythm of digital check-ins, with the QR code—at offices, malls and transport hubs—an integral defence against COVID-19 that helps to track, trace and isolate patients.
Now the country where the coronavirus was first detected is launching a digital "health passport" for its 1.4 billion population which it hopes will eventually re-start international travel.
Concerns over privacy and data harvesting have for now been overshadowed by China's relative success in bringing the virus to heel. Here's how technology has spearheaded the fight against the pandemic.
Health codes
China has established a nationwide system of digital "health codes", scoring citizens on whether they pose a potential coronavirus threat based around their travel history and proximity to people with the virus.
Users have to scan a QR code to get a "green" pass in the health app, a common practice at most offices, restaurants, shopping malls, sports centres and transport stations.
The system is linked with the user's ID and phone number, and is used to track their contacts, assess their health risk, and display the results of any recent COVID-19 tests or vaccines.
The nationwide app gathers geolocation data provided by phone operators, while other regional ones link to train and plane tickets, identity checks or screening tests.
The digital health certificate extends that system by showing the holder's vaccine status and virus test results.
Is it obligatory?
Technically, the tracking app is not mandatory. But in reality, it has become impossible to move around China without it.
Airlines require it before boarding a domestic flight and a clean health code is needed to enter a train station. In Beijing, taxis ask passengers to "check in" using the app before making a journey.
Last spring, local media reported the case of a criminal who had been on the run for two decades, but ended up surrendering himself to the authorities after the health app had made it impossible for him to enter a store, get employment or move around without being detected.
Privacy concerns
In China, vast amounts of Chinese economic activity and payments are handled through digital apps such as WeChat.
Consumers surrender data on their buying habits, travel, and other personal information for digital convenience.
But worries over privacy and data security have been heightened by the health codes and fears it marks a rush of government surveillance into hundreds of millions of lives.
Last year, a law professor successfully sued a wildlife park for asking him to scan his face using facial recognition technology. The case was seen as a landmark challenge in the collection of personal data.
Chinese people "are extremely attentive to" the privacy debate, Jean-Dominique Seval, a digital economy expert and a director at Soon Consulting told AFP.
"There are discussions between lawyers and users on social networks. We can't say that [the system of app tracing] is completely 'Big Brother'... but it's not absolute data freedom either.
"It's somewhere in between and it's constantly evolving."
A Chinese model?
With its experience in managing the epidemic, Beijing is pushing for the adoption of a universal health code at the global level: a health passport to open borders.
The initiative was also proposed in November at the G20 summit by President Xi Jinping.
But although the new certificate is meant for travel in and out of China, it is currently only available for use by Chinese citizens and it is not yet mandatory.
There is also no indication authorities in other countries will use it when Chinese travellers go abroad.
"To make possible a border crossing instantly with this passport... will require discussions between many countries that are likely to be complicated and lengthy," Seval added.
The Putin wing of the German government is how they got into the energy pickle they find themselves in.
Gerhard Schröder comes under increasing pressure over Putin ties
Gerhard Schröder is facing growing criticism in Germany for his ongoing support of Russia, as some politicians call for sanctions against him. He recently gave an inflammatory interview in which he defended his role.
Wednesday, April 27, 2022
Securities fraud
Bill Hwang Arrested: Archegos Owner Charged With Racketeering, Securities And Wire Fraud
After the spectacular collapse of Archegos Capital Management, the SEC announced last October that they were investigating whether the firm engaged in market manipulation.
Exhibit A for why the public doesn't trust media
Washington Post Editorial Board Hails Biden As 'Tremendous Upgrade' From Trump
The Washington Post on Tuesday praised President Joe Biden for restoring what it described as “a sense of dignity” to the process of the presidential pardon.
In an editorial, the newspaper’s board offered a damning contrast between Biden’s “care in determining who should benefit from clemency” to former President Donald Trump’s pardons of “personal associates convicted of or on trial for serious offenses,” those with White House connections or who had been advocated for by celebrities.
It shows “what a tremendous upgrade” Biden is from Trump, it said.
The headline riffed on the “upgrade” theme too, titled “Biden shows once again why he is a huge upgrade from Trump.”
On Tuesday, Biden pardoned a former Secret Service agent and two people convicted on drug-related charges and commuted the sentences of 75 others for nonviolent, drug-related convictions.
Trump “made the presidential pardon power seem arbitrary and unchecked,” the Post’s board concluded, saying Biden “is right to restore a sense of dignity and fairness to its exercise.”
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.