Category Archives: REALLY!!!

From “Activist” to Actress

Posted on by

Climate Pawn Greta Thunberg Slammed For Staged German Protest Arrest

January 20, 2023 NewsWars

The globalists’ climate puppet Greta Thunberg was caught lying after she claimed police “kettled” her and others protesting at a German coal mine and video showed her being carried off by police. However, another video at the scene emerged that showed Thunberg and others smile and have a laugh while a pair of officers pose for photographers as if they’re set to take the activist in. The video got millions of views and she was widely mocked online.

 

 

.

The globalists’ autistic climate puppet Greta Thunberg was caught lying after she claimed police “kettled” her and others protesting at a German coal mine.

“Yesterday I was part of a group that peacefully protested the expansion of a coal mine in Germany,” she posted on Twitter Tuesday. “We were kettled by police and then detained but were let go later that evening. Climate protection is not a crime.”

An image of Thunberg smiling while being carried by police officers went viral on Tuesday with liberal Twitter users sharing it widely.

 

However, video of the “arrest” soon emerged and proved Thunberg’s claim of being arrested after being “kettled” by law enforcement to be completely false.

In the footage, Thunberg and others smile and have a laugh while a pair of officers pose for photographers as if they’re set to take the activist in.

Read full article here…

from:    https://needtoknow.news/2023/01/climate-pawn-greta-thunberg-slammed-for-staged-german-protest-arrest/

It Must be Cool ‘Celebrities’ are DoingIT

Posted on by

(Not sure whether all the images came through.  Linkson the bottom)

Celebrities Paid to Endorse Pfizer Booster: Martha Stewart, Pink, Michael Phelps, and More!

January 19, 2023 Newsweek, NewsWars and Twitter 4

The Pfizer BioNTech bivalent booster is currently under investigation by the CDC as there was a ‘safety signal’ linking the shot to strokes after vaccination. Yet Martha Stewart appears in an bizarre 30-second ad recommending the booster. Pink, Questlove, Michael Phelps and Jean Smart made Instagram posts showing that they were paid by Pfizer to promote Pfizer’s Know, Plan, Go Initiave and claim that they can suffer from “severe” COVID because they have conditions that include asthma, overweight, depression, diabetes and old age. Jamie Lee Curtis supported Questlove’s pro-vaccine ad.

.Summary by JW Williams

The Pfizer BioNTech bivalent booster is currently under investigation by the CDC as there was a ‘safety signal’ linking the shot to strokes after vaccination. Yet Martha Stewart appears in an bizarre 30-second ad recommending the booster.

.

Musicians Pink and Questlove, swimmer Michael Phelps, and actress Jean Smart were paid to promote Pfizer’s “Know, Plan, Go” initiative to plan ahead for testing and treatment of COVID-19 on Instagram. Each of the celebrities cited their membership in ‘high risk’ groups that could suffer “severe” illness from COVID: Pink says she has asthma, Questlove cites being overweight, Michael Phelps says he has depression, and Jean Smart wrote about her diabetes and age. Musician Charlie Puth also shared a paid partnership with Pfizer over the last few days and said that he had taken an updated COVID booster shot.

It is unknown whether actress Jamie Lee Curtis was paid to post Questlove’s Pfizer vaccine ad on Instagram. Curtis claims she tested positive for COVID following the Golden Globes Awards and she will not attend the Critics Choice Awards. It is unknown whether Curtis has taken any COVID shots. She is facing harsh criticism right now for posting a photo of her office that features strange picture of a child in a bath. She deleted the post.

.

 

  • Save

 

.

 

.

Remember the video from a few years ago that appears to show Anthony Hopkins taking a “Hollywood vaccine” with the contents of the syringe emptied out before he was injected?

.

 

  • Save

 

Link for video:   https://www.bitchute.com/video/4T8e9GbduIi4/

.

Newsweek via MSN:   https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/celebrity-paid-partnerships-with-pfizer-raises-questions/ar-AA16rft3

NewsWars:   https://www.newswars.com/pfizer-enlists-martha-stewart-to-shill-for-booster-jab/

Twitter:   https://twitter.com/DC_Draino/status/1615411623103008768

from:    https://needtoknow.news/2023/01/celebrities-paid-to-endorse-pfizer-booster-martha-stewart-pink-michael-phelps-and-more/

And Now, Genetically Engineering Fruit Flies

Posted on by

Company genetically engineers fruit flies to be “biofactories” for fake meat production

 

Drosophila melanogaster fruit fly

Future Fields’ EntoEngine insects have serious environmental and ethical downsides. Report by Claire Robinson; technical advice by Dr Michael Antoniou

The biotech company Future Fields has notified the Canadian authorities of its intention to commercialise EntoEngine, a genetically modified fly. The flies are engineered to produce foreign proteins – in this case, growth factors, which are cell signalling molecules that play important roles in cell proliferation and development, for use in what Future Fields calls “cellular agriculture” – what we call lab-grown or fake meat.

The public can comment on the application until 28 January 2023 and we encourage them to do so. In our view, EntoEngine flies poses serious environmental risks in the likely event that they will escape contained conditions.

The details

The company says, “The EntoEngine fly line has been genetically engineered to express a growth factor isolated from cows…. The gene sequence poses no known risks to either humans or animals. Expression of the gene encoding the growth factor is under the control of a gene expression regulator isolated from yeast.”

Future Fields argues that the GM fly is needed to replace the usual way of producing growth factors – in bioreactors. The company confirms what GMWatch has long said – that bioreactor technology is expensive, resource and energy hungry and produces vast quantities of problematic waste. The company concludes, reasonably, that growth factors cannot be produced cost-effectively using bioreactor technology – so they aim to produce them in GM drosophila, or fruit flies.

The company makes grand claims for the fly’s sustainability and environmental friendliness, compared with bioreactor protein production, based on lower input use and less greenhouse emissions. Drosophila, Future Fields says, “do not have these large operation costs and require only modest environmental controls to ensure optimal rearing… Drosophila can feed on organic side streams and byproducts from other processes (i.e. organic waste). In fact, insects are some of the most efficient organisms at converting nutrients into biomass.”

However, the problem with this “solution” is that even with a cheaper source of cell growth factors in the shape of the flies, lab grown meat will still need to be produced in huge bioreactors, with the consequent vast running costs and environmental impacts.

Patent

Future Fields describes the status of the patent on EntoEngine as “pending”. Our patent search on the Espacenet and USPTO databases only found one patent on a GM insect with Future Fields as an applicant. The patent, titled “Method for producing recombinant proteins in insects”, describes the general concept patent but lacks the experimental data to prove that the system actually works. It’s unclear whether other patents exist, but the details of this patent illustrate the types of process that would be used for EntoEngine protein production.

The patent focuses on heat stress (taking the temperature up to 35-40 degrees C) as the trigger that will activate expression of the transgenes in the flies to produce the desired growth factors.

The expression of the transgenes encoding for the desired protein (in this case, mammalian cell growth factors) is under the control of a “gene expression regulator” derived from yeast. So these flies would appear to contain two foreign transgenes: One encoding the desired protein to be expressed and isolated from the flies; and the other encoding the yeast gene expression regulator.

In all likelihood, the yeast-derived gene expression regulator is a member of the heat shock factor family of proteins. The function of these proteins is elevated upon heat stress and their role is to increase expression of genes that will help the organism protect itself from external stresses (e.g. heat, cold, UV light).

Torturing fruit flies

Regarding the heat stress trigger, the patent describes a gruesome and torturous process of gradually getting the flies used to the higher temperature of the heat stressor so that they don’t die from the shock of a sudden rise, by applying the stressor interspersed with “rest” periods.

When the insects have exhausted their ability to produce growth factor, they are killed and “harvested”, in the words of the Future Fields patent, then ground up into a mass, and the desired protein is extracted and purified out. It is unclear how well the purification process will work and GMWatch warns that native fly proteins could end up contaminating the final product.

Doubtful ethics

The company’s patent and publicity make a big deal out of the supposedly superior ethics of using fruit flies to manufacture growth factors for “cellular agriculture”, as opposed to extracting them from fetal bovine serum (FBS) taken “from fetuses of pregnant cows prior to slaughter”. The patent says that cattle-derived FBS gives rise to “ethical concerns regarding the production of cultured meat products”.

But the point on ethics is disingenuous and contradictory, as Future Fields itself justifies its GM flies approach as replacing growth factors produced in bioreactors and not as replacing FBS, because FBS is not used by the lab grown meat industry.

Along the same lines, Future Fields’ use of language in its patent seems manipulative. While the cattle from which FBS is derived are subject to “slaughter”, the GM fruit flies are merely “harvested”, just like the crop plants that even vegans would be happy to eat.

But anyone concerned with the ethics around animal use in agriculture is unlikely to be impressed by Future Fields’ description of its GM fly as “a standalone biofactory” – the ultimate reduction of a living creature to a machine.

At a time when prominent environmentalists, from Sussex University’s Prof Dave Goulson to TV’s David Attenborough, are trying to persuade the public to give insects the respect they deserve as key regulators of ecosystems, genetically engineering fruit flies and then characterising them as “biofactories” or as non-sentient beings on a par with a wheat or maize crop seems distasteful in the extreme.

By timely coincidence, recently published EU-funded research shows that fruit flies, though “tiny”, are ” amazingly smart”. They are capable of attention, working memory and conscious awareness – abilities we usually only associate with mammals.

Environmental risks

The main risk posed by the GM flies is environmental. Containment facilities for GM animals are notoriously insecure – GM glofish have escaped from tanks and are breeding in the wild in Brazil and a whistleblower report paints a damning picture of lax attitudes and neglect of protocols at AquaBounty’s GM salmon-producing facilities. The risk with GM flies is that they could escape and breed in the environment or cross-breed with natural flies, leading to the escape of growth factor-producing genes into wild populations.

This wouldn’t pose a human health risk, as most of us don’t eat living fruit flies and the proteins in dead flies would quickly degrade. But plenty of animals, including mammals, fish, amphibians, and birds, do eat living flies. Because the growth factors in the GM flies are mammalian, they will to some degree be active in any animal that ingests them. This could cause uncontrolled cell division in the animal consumer – potentially leading to cancer.

In evaluating environmental risk in the case of an escape, much depends on what triggers are used to make the growth factor-producing genes express. The heat stress triggers discussed in the patent are worrying because they are designed to spring into action at 35-40 degrees C – temperatures regularly reached in the climate conditions of many parts of the world. And this raises the question: What happens at 31 or 32 degrees? Nothing, or something? And if something, then what?

Conclusion

Future Fields’ GM fly appears to be an invention of dubious utility that will do little to improve the sustainability of the environmental catastrophe-in-the-making that is lab grown meat. It poses unacceptable environmental risks in the event of an escape and the ethics around the GM fly’s grim life and grimmer death are dubious, to say the least.

from:    https://gmwatch.org/en/106-news/latest-news/20155-company-genetically-engineers-fruit-flies-to-be-biofactories-for-fake-meat-production

So, Joe, Where IS The Best Place to Store Classified Documents?

Posted on by

A timeline of how the Biden classified documents scandal unfolded

By   and
January 12, 2023 6:31pm

WASHINGTON – President Biden, a fierce critic of former President Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of hundreds of classified documents after leaving the White House in 2021, now finds himself accused in a similar situation.

After it was revealed late Monday that Biden’s personal attorneys found classified documents from his time as vice president improperly stored in an office closet at his DC think-tank, the president himself stunned reporters Thursday by admitting that other sensitive papers were found in the garage of his Wilmington, Del. home — where he also keeps his classic Corvette.

Hours later, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced for the second time that he was appointing a special counsel to investigate a current or former president for potential misconduct related to classified information.

Here’s how the scandal has unfolded:

Biden found one set in a DC think tank, the other in his Delaware garage.
Biden announced that two sets of classified documents of his were found.
Bloomberg via Getty Images
  • Sept. 18, 2022 – Biden calls Trump “totally irresponsible” for storing top-secret documents at Mar-a-Lago

In an interview with “60 Minutes,” Biden chastises Trump for having classified papers at his private estate.

“When you saw the photograph of the top-secret documents laid out on the floor at Mar-a-Lago, what did you think to yourself?” asks CBS News’ Scott Pelley. “Looking at that image.”

“How that could possibly happen. How one– anyone could be that irresponsible,” Biden answers. “And I thought, ‘What data was in there that may compromise sources and methods?’ By that I mean names of people who helped or th — et cetera. And it just — totally irresponsible.

  • Nov. 2, 2022 – Biden’s attorneys find classified documents stashed at the Penn Biden Center in Washington

Six days before the midterm elections, Biden’s personal lawyers discover 10 documents with classified markings — some of them labeled “top secret” — in a locked closet while clearing out his office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement.

The documents are dated from between 2013 and 2016 and included intelligence memos and other material concerning Iran, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. According to CNN, the documents are mixed in with Biden family papers, including details of the funeral arrangements for the president’s late son Beau, who died of a brain tumor in 2015.

  • Nov. 4, 2022 — The National Archives contacts the Justice Department, saying the documents have been found and secured in an Archives facility
  • Nov. 8, 2022 — Democrats perform better than expected in the midterm elections, losing a net of just nine seats in the House of Representatives and gaining a seat in the Senate
  • Nov. 9, 2022 — The FBI begins an “assessment” of whether the classified material was mishandled in violation of federal law
  • Nov. 14, 2022 –Garland assigns Chicago US Attorney John Lausch to lead an initial investigation to determine whether Garland should appoint a special counsel
  • Nov. 18, 2022 – Garland announces special counsel in Trump case
These document were found in the Penn Biden Center.
Six days before the midterm elections, Biden’s personal lawyers discover 10 documents with classified markings.
AFP via Getty Images

Garland appoints veteran federal prosecutor Jack Smith as special counsel to determine whether former President Donald Trump will face federal charges in connection with his retention of the sensitive government documents in Florida.

Smith, a former federal prosecutor in the Brooklyn and Nashville, Tenn., US Attorney’s offices — as well as a former Manhattan assistant district attorney — remains in charge of the ongoing case to date, but no charges have been filed.

  • Dec. 20, 2022 — Biden’s personal attorney tells Lausch more classified documents have been found in the garage of Biden’s Wilmington, Del. home
  • Jan. 5, 2022 — Lausch advises Garland to appoint a special counsel
  • Jan. 9, 2023 – The public is first told of the mishandled Biden documents
The agency collected the papers the next day.
Biden’s attorneys notified the National Archives about the documents the same day they were found.
Joe Biden

CBS News reports on the documents found at the Penn Biden Center, the FBI and DOJ involvement, and the appointment of Lausch.

That evening, the White House releases a statement by Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, saying that Biden’s attorneys notified the National Archives about the documents the same day they were found, and the agency took possession of the materials the next day.

with Archives and the Department of Justice in a process to ensure that any Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately in the possession of the Archives.”

  • Jan. 10, 2023 – Biden makes first public statement about Penn documents

At a news conference in Mexico City, the president reads a prepared statement claiming that “I take classified documents, or classified information seriously.”

“I was briefed about this discovery and surprised to learn that there were any government records that were taken there to that office,” Biden says. “But I don’t know what’s in the documents. My lawyers have not suggested I ask what documents they were. I’ve turned over the boxes, they’ve turned over the boxes to the Archives, and we’re cooperating fully, cooperating fully with the review, which I hope will be finished soon and there’ll be more detail at that time.”

  • Jan. 11, 2023 — Classified documents reported found at second location

NBC News reports that Biden aides have found more classified documents at a second location, but does not specify where

Trump denied all wrongdoing when the documents were found.
Biden previously blasted the classified documents found in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
REUTERS
  • Morning of Jan. 12, 2023 — Biden attorney tells Lausch one additional classified document found at the Wilmington home
  • Morning of Jan. 12, 2023 — White House, Biden confirm documents found in garage

Sauber confirms additional documents were found “in storage space in the President’s Wilmington residence garage,” leading to a memorable back-and-forth between Biden and Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy.

“Classified materials next to your Corvette? What were you thinking?” Doocy asks.

“My Corvette is in a locked garage, OK? So it’s not like they’re sitting out on the street,” Biden replies.

“So it was in a locked garage?” Doocy follows up.

“Yes, as well as my Corvette,” Biden admits.

  • Afternoon of Jan. 12, 2023 – Garland appoints special counsel to investigate Biden documents

Garland taps former Maryland US Attorney Robert Hur as special counsel to investigate how the classified documents ended up in Biden’s private possession.

“Under the regulations, the extraordinary circumstances here require the appointment of a special counsel for this matter,” Garland tells reporters at the Justice Department.

“This appointment underscores for the public the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters and to make decisions indisputably guided only by the facts, and the law.”

from:    https://nypost.com/2023/01/12/a-timeline-of-the-biden-classified-documents-scandal/

AH, Klaus(WEF), You’ve Done It Again!!!

Posted on by

World Economic Forum Behind Sudden Push to Ban Gas Stoves

Frank Bergman14 Comments

Details have emerged to suggest that Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum is behind the recent sudden push from the Democrats and President Joe Biden’s administration to ban gas stoves from American homes.

As Slay News reported earlier, the Biden admin is considering a nationwide ban on gas stoves over claims they emit “harmful pollutants.”

According to a report by Bloomberg, Biden officials claim that a ban on the appliances being used in American homes “is on the table.”

The far-reaching admission was made by U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) commissioner Richard Trumka Jr.

Trumka reportedly told Bloomberg that gas stove appliances are a “hidden hazard” that “can be banned.”

“Any option is on the table,” Trumka told the outlet during an interview.

Reports on the possible ban quickly spread on social media, causing outrage and confusion among baffled citizens.

Several Democrats and “woke” media figures were quick to voice their support for the ban.

Radical Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) responded by taking to social media to speak out in support of banning gas stoves.

Ocasio-Cortez argues, without evidence, that gas stoves cause brain damage.

“Did you know that ongoing exposure to NO2 from gas stoves is linked to reduced cognitive performance?” AOC wrote in a post on Twitter.

 

Controversial California Democrat State Senator Scott Weiner also put out a statement on Twitter saying he is in favor of the ban, as Slay News reported.

“Gas stoves are toxic to people’s health,” he alleged.

“They cause asthma in children, cardiac problems & other disease,” Weiner claimed, without evidence.

“They need to be phased out.”

The sudden push for banning the household appliances, which have been used in American homes without issue for decades, has left many questioning the true motivation.

Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis fired back by arguing that the Biden admin is considering the ban to meet the “green agenda” goals of Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum (WEF).

“You see, the Biden administration wants to nix gas stoves,” Gov. DeSantis said during a press conference in Bonita Springs, Florida.

“Are you kidding me?”

DeSantis may be right, however.

A new report by Red State points out that prominent Democrats and liberals never demonstrated an iota of concern over gas stoves before.

Despite claiming that gas stoves cause brain damage, AOC had never even mentioned it before this week.

As Slay News highlights in a previous report, the statements put out by AOC, Wiener, and other leftists, eerily echo an article published by the WEF in February last year.

The article argues that gas stoves are a “climate threat” that should be “phased out.”

The WEF claims that “gas stoves have been found to be a bigger contributor to the climate crisis than previously believed.”

A major Twitter leftist named Max Kennerly also got in on the act, pushing the supposed dangers of cooking with gas.

Like AOC, he had never tweeted about gas stoves before this week.

Aside from never mentioning this supposed “threat,” several high-profile Democrats have been pictured using gas stoves before.

A tweet from Libs of TikTok shows images of Kamala Harris, Jill Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and AOC all cooking on gas stoves.

Yet, none of them appear concerned over the potential impact on their health.

 

So why the manufactured outrage over gas stoves?

Where did this study AOC cited come from?

Red State says it’s uncovered the answer:

“Regardless, it’s worth asking where this is all coming from, right?

“Why did Democrats all start moving in lockstep to ban gas stoves, seemingly with no prior concern at all?

“And sure enough, with a little digging, it’s been revealed that this isn’t just idle science taking place.”

“The company behind the study is called ‘Carbon-Free Buildings.’

“That company is a partner of the World Economic Forum and has a true-believer CEO who wants to rid the world of all carbon emissions (which is impossible and would lead to mass extinction).”

 

It appears that all of this sudden, manufactured hysteria about gas stoves may have been orchestrated by the WEF.

The WEF and the Democrats both share a common goal of eliminating fossil fuels for the public while they fly gas-guzzling private jets across the globe.

The elimination of gas stoves qualifies as another step toward meeting the goals of the organization’s “green agenda.”

from:    https://slaynews.com/news/world-economic-forum-behind-sudden-push-ban-gas-stoves/

The Pharmaceutical Mafia Exposed

Posted on by

The pharmaceutical industry is dangerous to health. Further proof with COVID-19

Fabien Deruelle 1

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 period highlights a huge problem that has been developing for decades, the control of science by industry. In the 1950s, the tobacco industry set the example, which the pharmaceutical industry followed. Since then, the latter has been regularly condemned for illegal marketing, misrepresentation of experimental results, dissimulation of information about the dangers of drugs, and considered as criminal. Therefore, this study was conducted to show that knowledge is powerfully manipulated by harmful corporations, whose goals are: 1/financial; 2/to suppress our ability to make choices to acquire global control of public health.

Methods: Pharmaceutical industry techniques for manipulating science and COVID-19 reporting were reviewed. Several sources of official documents were used: PubMed; National Institutes of Health resources; pharmaceutical companies; policy documents; national newspapers and news agencies; and books by prominent professionals (scientific and legal). A few studies have not been published in peer-reviewed journals; however, they have been conducted by reputable scientists in their respective fields.

Results: Since the beginning of COVID-19, we can list the following methods of information manipulation which have been used: falsified clinical trials and inaccessible data; fake or conflict-of-interest studies; concealment of vaccines’ short-term side effects and total lack of knowledge of the long-term effects of COVID-19 vaccination; doubtful composition of vaccines; inadequate testing methods; governments and international organizations under conflicts of interest; bribed physicians; the denigration of renowned scientists; the banning of all alternative effective treatments; unscientific and liberticidal social methods; government use of behavior modification and social engineering techniques to impose confinements, masks, and vaccine acceptance; scientific censorship by the media.

Conclusion: By supporting and selecting only the one side of science information while suppressing alternative viewpoints, and with obvious conflicts of interest revealed by this study, governments and the media constantly disinform the public. Consequently, the unscientifically validated vaccination laws, originating from industry-controlled medical science, led to the adoption of social measures for the supposed protection of the public but which became serious threats to the health and freedoms of the population.

Keywords: Behavior modification; COVID-19; Conflicts of interest; Scientific censorship; Side effects; Vaccination.

Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1:

Similar articles

from:    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36324959/

Where Did My Tax Dollar Go?

Posted on by

Rand Paul’s Annual ‘Festivus’ Report: $482,276,543,907 in Government Waste

US Republican Senator from Kentucky Rand Paul speaks as US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions hearings to examine school reopening during Covid-19, focusing on supporting students, educators, and families, on Capitol Hill in Washington, …
SHAWN THEW/AFP via Getty Images
HANNAH BLEAU

2,165

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Friday continued the annual tradition of celebrating “Festivus,” airing out his many grievances as it relates to government waste.

Paul’s 2022 Festivus report highlights $482,276,543,907 in government waste and includes $2.3 million used by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for an experiment involving injecting puppies with cocaine, $202,000 used by the Department of Defense (DOD) on Starbucks espresso machines, and $3 million for the construction of a Gandhi museum.

“This will be the 10th year in a row that I’ve celebrated #Festivus with you. By celebrated I mean have a little fun at the expense of Washington. If we don’t laugh we might cry,” Paul wrote before sharing some of the highlights of the report to his social media page and invoking the infamous Seinfeld quote from Frank Costanza, “I’ve got a lot of problems with you people!”

“I would air my grievance at Fauci again but I am trying to be festive — and also I’m trying to get home for Christmas. If I listed all of the things Fauci was wrong on…wow that guy is wrong a LOT,” Paul began:

According to Paul, the DOD wasted millions this year, including $28 million on “camouflage” uniforms that did not work.

Per the Festivus report:

A Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) report revealed that the Department of Defense (DOD) spent roughly $28 million on forest-patterned, “camouflage” uniforms to use in the deserts of Afghanistan. It was later found that the camouflage uniforms were “not based on an evaluation of its appropriateness for the Afghan environment.”

The DOD also spent $192,952 on what the report describes as “top-of-the-line” Starbucks espresso machines:

The NIH also wasted a significant amount of money. That includes $2.1 million on encouraging Ethiopians to wear shoes, $2.3 million injecting beagle puppies with cocaine, $1.1 million on “training mice to binge drink alcohol,” over $519,000 using mice to study racial aggression, and $187,500 on “verifying that kids love their pets.”

According to the report, the pet grant went to Kent State University, which used the funds to apparently “verify that the relationship between pets and children is beneficial to mental health.”

Other highlights directly from the report include:

  • Maintaining 77,000 empty Federal buildings (GSA)………………..………….$1,700,000,000
  • Helping illegal immigrants avoid deportation (DHS)……………………….…. $168,000,000
  • Overpaying government contractors for a terminated contract (GSA)…………..$69,000,000
  • Using COVID relief funds to construct an 11,000 square foot spa……….……. $140,000,000
  • Watching hamsters fight on steroids (NIH)………………………..………….…..$3,000,000
  • Studying the romance between parrots (NSF)……………..………………………….…$689,222
  • A radio campaign telling drivers to stop at railroad crossings (DOT)………………..$200,000

Read the full Festivus report here.

from:    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/12/26/rand-pauls-annual-festivus-report-482276543907-government-waste/

It Seems Clean Trucks = No Trucks

Posted on by

The EPA’s Latest Regulation Could Devastate The Trucking Industry

Strengthening Economy And Increase In Ground Shipping In U.S. Has Led To Truck ShortagePhoto by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
JACK MCEVOYENERGY & ENVIRONMENT REPORTER

  • The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule Tuesday that will impose stricter emissions standards on new heavy-duty vehicles, a regulation that will significantly raise operating costs for truckers, experts and industry representatives told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
  •  “The costs associated with this are also a concern because these are costs that not only the industry will bear … prices will go up for everybody,” Texas Trucking Association President John Esparza told the DCNF.
  • “It’s an overreach that is indicative of this administration’s tendency to set aside balance to achieve the goals of activists that they are politically aligned with,” Mandy Gunasekara, a senior policy analyst for the Independent Women’s Forum and former EPA Chief of Staff during the Trump administration, told the DCNF.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rule Tuesday that will impose stricter nitrogen dioxide emissions standards on new heavy-duty trucks, a move that will substantially hike operating costs for truckers, experts and industry representatives told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The EPA’s rule, which is more than 80% stricter than the previous regulation, will require large trucks, delivery vans and buses manufactured after 2027 to cut nitrogen dioxide emissions by nearly 50% by 2045, according to an agency press release. The agency’s rule is intended to push truckers to phase out diesel-powered vehicles and use electric vehicles (EV) instead; however, the compliance costs associated with such rules could suffocate an industry that is not ready to transition to EVs, experts told the DCNF

“It’s an overreach that is indicative of this administration’s tendency to set aside balance to achieve the goals of activists that they are politically aligned with,” Mandy Gunasekara, a senior policy analyst for the Independent Women’s Forum and former EPA Chief of Staff during the Trump administration, told the DCNF. “It’s going to squeeze out the mid-sized and smaller trucking companies because they’re not going to be able to afford to purchase the new, extremely expensive equipment required to continue to do what they do.”

The new rules are intended to phase out older trucks that emit more nitrogen dioxide and will push drivers to purchase electric trucks or newer models of diesel trucks that do not produce as much nitrogen dioxide when they burn fuel, according to the EPA.

“If small business truckers can’t afford the new, compliant trucks, they’re going to stay with older, less efficient trucks or leave the industry entirely,” Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association President Todd Spencer told trade publication Freight Waves. “Once again, EPA has largely ignored the warnings and concerns raised by truckers in this latest rule.”

EPA Administrator Michael Regan said that the rule would protect “historically overburdened communities,” that are disproportionately affected by trucking emissions as truck freight routes are often located near “vulnerable populations,” according to the press release. Nitrogen dioxide gas can exacerbate respiratory diseases like asthma and form acid rain in the atmosphere which can damage lakes and forests, according to the EPA.

“The EPA is happy to go easy on big trucking since they support regulations that will harm their smaller competitors far more,” Steve Milloy, Energy and Environmental Legal Institute senior legal fellow and former Trump administration EPA transition team member, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Regan announced the new rule in front of an electric garbage truck produced by Mack Trucks and following his remarks, Mack spokesman John Mies stated that his company supports the administration’s zero emissions targets for trucks and is working to cut “dangerous” emissions produced by diesel trucks, according to CNN.

“Companies have taken the initiative to electrify a certain percentage of their fleet by a certain year and have made plans to build the necessary infrastructure, but they are then told that there isn’t enough power to achieve what they’re seeking,” Texas Trucking Association President John Esparza told the DCNF. “The costs associated with this are also a concern because these are costs that not only the industry will bear … prices will go up for everybody.”

The EPA’s final rule is the first step in its “Clean Trucks Plan” which seeks to heavily regulate trucks’ emissions to push drivers to adopt electric trucks.

Gunesakara echoed Esparza’s comments and said that such targets were a “technological fantasy” that could cost truckers their jobs due to the high price of electric trucks. Gunesakara added that the EPA’s rules would force truck drivers to drive older, more polluting and less efficient vehicles for longer as diesel trucks will be rapidly phased out long before EVs can become a more viable alternative.

The EPA touted its new rule and said that it will result in up to 2,900 fewer premature deaths, 18,000 fewer cases of childhood asthma and 6,700 fewer hospital admissions as well as an overall annual net economic benefit of $29 billion due to fewer missed work days. The agency’s trucking rules are less strict than California’s regulations as heavy vehicles in the state must cut nitrogen oxide emissions by 75% starting in 2024, and 90% starting in 2027, according to a California Air Resource Board rule.

The EPA did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

from:    https://dailycaller.com/2022/12/25/epas-regulation-imperil-trucking-industry/

 

Sperm Count Going Down

Posted on by

Study: Male Fertility Plummets 62% Worldwide, Is Accelerating

fertility
iLexx / iStock / Getty Images Plus
BRECCAN F. THIES

The collapse in male fertility rates around the world is accelerating, according to journal Human Reproduction Update.

Sperm counts dropped by 62 percent in under 50 years — a decades-long trend that is picking up pace.

A low sperm count can contribute to adverse men’s health outcomes, including “testicular cancer, hormonal disruption and genital birth defects, as well as declines in female reproductive health.”

Hagai Levine, lead author of the study, called the issue a “crisis,” warning the steep decline could get to an irreversible point.

“We have a serious problem on our hands that, if not mitigated, could threaten humankind’s survival,” he added.

Since 2000, there has been a yearly 2.64 percent decline in the number of sperm per milliliter of semen, more than doubling the number found since 1978.

While this study does not address potential causes, other studies have linked low sperm counts to obesity, sedentary lifestyles, smoking, and exposure to certain chemicals and pesticides.

Many such chemicals are found in widely used, everyday items ranging from personal care products to food packaging, according to study co-author Shanna Swan.

Such endocrine-disrupting chemicals are found commonly as linings in water bottles and food takeout containers. Bisphenol A (BPA) is another chemical added to food packaging linked to fertility issues.

While the world population recently hit eight billion, birth rates across the world are consistently declining.

from:    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/11/21/study-male-fertility-plummets-62-worldwide-is-accelerating/

Virtual Avatars, Beware!!!

Posted on by

Palmer Luckey Made a VR Headset That Kills the User If They Die in the Game

The man who created the Oculus Rift has invented a virtual reality headset that will explode the forebrain of a user who dies in a video game.
Matthew Gault

SAOday
PALMER LUCKEY PHOTO.

Palmer Luckey, defense contractor and the father of modern virtual reality, has created a VR headset that will kill the user if they die in the game they’re playing. He did this to commemorate the anime, Sword Art Online. Luckey is the founder of Oculus, a company he sold to Facebook in 2014 for $2 billion. This is the technology that Mark Zuckerberg rebranded as the foundation for Meta.

Luckey’s killer headset looks like a Meta Quest Pro hooked up with three explosive charge modules that sit above the screen. The charges are aimed directly at the user’s forebrain and, should they go off, would obliterate the head of the user.

“The idea of tying your real life to your virtual avatar has always fascinated me—you instantly raise the stakes to the maximum level and force people to fundamentally rethink how they interact with the virtual world and the players inside it,” Luckey wrote in a blog post explaining the project. “Pumped up graphics might make a game look more real, but only the threat of serious consequences can make a game feel real to you and every other person in the game.”

According to Luckey, the anime and light novel series Sword Art Online made people interested in virtual reality, especially in Japan. In SAO, players put on a NeveGear virtual reality headset and log into a new game called Sword Art Online only to discover a mad scientist has trapped them in a virtual world. The players have to fight their way through a 100 floor dungeon to escape. If they die in the game, they die in real life. Luckey published his post about the killer headset on November 6, the day that Sword Art Online went live in the world of the game’s fiction.

“The good news is that we are halfway to making a true NerveGear. The bad news is that so far, I have only figured out the half that kills you,” Luckey said. In SAO, the NerveGear kills players with a microwave emitter. According to Luckey, the device’s creator  “was able to hide from his employees, regulators, and contract manufacturing partners. I am a pretty smart guy, but I couldn’t come up with any way to make anything like this work, not without attaching the headset to gigantic pieces of equipment.”

Unable to make the perfect recreation, Luckey opted for explosive modular charges. He tied them to a narrow-band photo sensor that detects the headset views a specific red screen that flashes at a specific frequency. “When an appropriate game-over screen is displayed, the charges fire, instantly destroying the brain of the user,” Luckey said.

Luckey said that he used three explosive charges he usually uses for a “different project.” Luckey didn’t specify which project, but he is also the founder of Anduril, a weapons and defense contractor which has won massive contracts with the government, and that is already developing loitering munitions, anti-drone tech for U.S. special forces, and underwater drones.

Luckey wrote that he wants to keep tinkering. “I have plans for an anti-tamper mechanism that, like the NerveGear, will make it impossible to remove or destroy the headset,” he said. “Even so, there are a huge variety of failures that could occur and kill the user at the wrong time. This is why I have not worked up the balls to actually use it myself.”

Despite betting big on defense contracts, a piece of Luckey will always belong to virtual reality. “At this point, it is just a piece of office art, a thought-provoking reminder of unexplored avenues in game design,” he said of his killer headset. “It is also, as far as I know, the first non-fiction example of a VR device that can actually kill the user. It won’t be the last.”

from:  https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy7kbq/palmer-luckey-made-a-vr-headset-that-kills-the-user-if-they-die-in-the-game