Thursday, January 28, 2021
New Terrorism Advisory Warns of Domestic Extremists ‘Fueled by False Narratives’
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers with the Office of Field Operations stand their posts as they support security operations for the 59th Presidential Inauguration in Washington D.C, January 19, 2021. (CBP Photo by Brian Sowards)
January 27, 2021 Bridget Johnson
A heightened threat environment expected to “persist in the weeks following the successful presidential inauguration” drove the Department of Homeland Security to issue a National Terrorism Advisory System bulletin today focusing on domestic extremists.
The bulletin, which is a grade below elevated alert or imminent alert advisories under the NTAS, goes into effect today and expires April 30.
“Information suggests that some ideologically-motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives, could continue to mobilize to incite or commit violence,” the bulletin states.
Domestic violent extremists (DVEs), ranging from those motivated by issues including “anger over COVID-19 restrictions, the 2020 election results, and police use of force” have “targeted individuals with opposing views engaged in First Amendment-protected, non-violent protest activity” and “have plotted and on occasion carried out attacks against government facilities,” the bulletin notes.
“Long-standing racial and ethnic tension — including opposition to immigration — has driven DVE attacks, including a 2019 shooting in El Paso, Texas, that killed 23 people,” it continues. “DHS is concerned these same drivers to violence will remain through early 2021 and some DVEs may be emboldened by the January 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. to target elected officials and government facilities.”
The department also “remains concerned” about the threat posed by homegrown violent extremists inspired by foreign terrorist groups, who committed three attacks targeting government officials in 2020.
“Threats of violence against critical infrastructure, including the electric, telecommunications and healthcare sectors, increased in 2020 with violent extremists citing misinformation and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 for their actions,” the bulletin states.
DHS along with other federal agencies and law enforcement partners “will continue to take precautions to protect people and infrastructure across the United States” and the department “remains committed to preventing violence and threats meant to intimidate or coerce specific populations on the basis of their religion, race, ethnicity, identity or political views.”
State, local, tribal, and territorial homeland security partners are urged by DHS “to continue prioritizing physical security measures, particularly around government facilities, to protect people and critical infrastructure.”
The NTAS bulletin calls on Americans to “choose non-violent ways to make your voice heard and support friends and family in doing the same.”
“Communities are strongest when they are not divided: Strengthen your community by standing together against violence,” it adds.
People are reminded that “avoiding large crowds, including protests, is safest due to ongoing pandemic conditions. However, if taking part in protests do so peacefully, safely, and wear masks.”
Members of the public are asked to report suspicious activity and threats of violence, including online activity, to local law enforcement, FBI Field Offices, or their local Fusion Center.
The last NTAS bulletin, which expired in March, warned of the threat of terrorism from Iran or its proxies, stating that Iran “likely views terrorism as an option to deter or retaliate against its perceived adversaries” and expanding on threats posed by homegrown violent extremists.
“At this time, we have no information indicating a specific, credible threat to the Homeland; however, we remain concerned about Iran’s potential to carry out cyber attacks,” that January 2020 bulletin said. “Additionally, Iran and its partners, such as Hizballah, have demonstrated their capability to conduct various operations in the U.S.”
A heightened threat environment expected to “persist in the weeks following the successful presidential inauguration” drove the Department of Homeland Security to issue a National Terrorism Advisory System bulletin today focusing on domestic extremists.
The bulletin, which is a grade below elevated alert or imminent alert advisories under the NTAS, goes into effect today and expires April 30.
“Information suggests that some ideologically-motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives, could continue to mobilize to incite or commit violence,” the bulletin states.
Domestic violent extremists (DVEs), ranging from those motivated by issues including “anger over COVID-19 restrictions, the 2020 election results, and police use of force” have “targeted individuals with opposing views engaged in First Amendment-protected, non-violent protest activity” and “have plotted and on occasion carried out attacks against government facilities,” the bulletin notes.
“Long-standing racial and ethnic tension — including opposition to immigration — has driven DVE attacks, including a 2019 shooting in El Paso, Texas, that killed 23 people,” it continues. “DHS is concerned these same drivers to violence will remain through early 2021 and some DVEs may be emboldened by the January 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. to target elected officials and government facilities.”
The department also “remains concerned” about the threat posed by homegrown violent extremists inspired by foreign terrorist groups, who committed three attacks targeting government officials in 2020.
“Threats of violence against critical infrastructure, including the electric, telecommunications and healthcare sectors, increased in 2020 with violent extremists citing misinformation and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 for their actions,” the bulletin states.
DHS along with other federal agencies and law enforcement partners “will continue to take precautions to protect people and infrastructure across the United States” and the department “remains committed to preventing violence and threats meant to intimidate or coerce specific populations on the basis of their religion, race, ethnicity, identity or political views.”
State, local, tribal, and territorial homeland security partners are urged by DHS “to continue prioritizing physical security measures, particularly around government facilities, to protect people and critical infrastructure.”
The NTAS bulletin calls on Americans to “choose non-violent ways to make your voice heard and support friends and family in doing the same.”
“Communities are strongest when they are not divided: Strengthen your community by standing together against violence,” it adds.
People are reminded that “avoiding large crowds, including protests, is safest due to ongoing pandemic conditions. However, if taking part in protests do so peacefully, safely, and wear masks.”
Members of the public are asked to report suspicious activity and threats of violence, including online activity, to local law enforcement, FBI Field Offices, or their local Fusion Center.
The last NTAS bulletin, which expired in March, warned of the threat of terrorism from Iran or its proxies, stating that Iran “likely views terrorism as an option to deter or retaliate against its perceived adversaries” and expanding on threats posed by homegrown violent extremists.
“At this time, we have no information indicating a specific, credible threat to the Homeland; however, we remain concerned about Iran’s potential to carry out cyber attacks,” that January 2020 bulletin said. “Additionally, Iran and its partners, such as Hizballah, have demonstrated their capability to conduct various operations in the U.S.”
Blessings Upon the Watchful Ones
Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.
Luke 12:37.
God has always given men warning of coming judgments. Those who had faith in His message for their time, and who acted out their faith, in obedience to His commandments, escaped the judgments that fell upon the disobedient and unbelieving. The word came to Noah, “Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me.” Noah obeyed and was saved. The message came to Lot, “Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city.” Genesis 7:1; 19:14. Lot placed himself under the guardianship of the heavenly messengers, and was saved. So Christ's disciples were given warning of the destruction of Jerusalem. Those who watched for the sign of the coming ruin, and fled from the city, escaped the destruction. So now we are given warning of Christ's second coming and of the destruction to fall upon the world. Those who heed the warning will be saved.
Because we know not the exact time of His coming, we are commanded to watch. “Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching.” Luke 12:37. Those who watch for the Lord's coming are not waiting in idle expectancy. The expectation of Christ's coming is to make men fear the Lord, and fear His judgments upon transgression. It is to awaken them to the great sin of rejecting His offers of mercy. Those who are watching for the Lord are purifying their souls by obedience to the truth. With vigilant watching they combine earnest working. Because they know that the Lord is at the door, their zeal is quickened to co-operate with the divine intelligences in working for the salvation of souls. These are the faithful and wise servants who give to the Lord's household “their portion of meat in due season.” Luke 12:42. They are declaring the truth that is now specially applicable. As Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Moses each declared the truth for his time, so will Christ's servants now give the special warning for their generation.43The Desire of Ages, 634.
God has always given men warning of coming judgments. Those who had faith in His message for their time, and who acted out their faith, in obedience to His commandments, escaped the judgments that fell upon the disobedient and unbelieving. The word came to Noah, “Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me.” Noah obeyed and was saved. The message came to Lot, “Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city.” Genesis 7:1; 19:14. Lot placed himself under the guardianship of the heavenly messengers, and was saved. So Christ's disciples were given warning of the destruction of Jerusalem. Those who watched for the sign of the coming ruin, and fled from the city, escaped the destruction. So now we are given warning of Christ's second coming and of the destruction to fall upon the world. Those who heed the warning will be saved.
Because we know not the exact time of His coming, we are commanded to watch. “Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching.” Luke 12:37. Those who watch for the Lord's coming are not waiting in idle expectancy. The expectation of Christ's coming is to make men fear the Lord, and fear His judgments upon transgression. It is to awaken them to the great sin of rejecting His offers of mercy. Those who are watching for the Lord are purifying their souls by obedience to the truth. With vigilant watching they combine earnest working. Because they know that the Lord is at the door, their zeal is quickened to co-operate with the divine intelligences in working for the salvation of souls. These are the faithful and wise servants who give to the Lord's household “their portion of meat in due season.” Luke 12:42. They are declaring the truth that is now specially applicable. As Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Moses each declared the truth for his time, so will Christ's servants now give the special warning for their generation.43The Desire of Ages, 634.
Maranatha p.36.
Doomsday Clock says humanity remains dangerously close to apocalypse
By Natalie O'Neill
January 27, 2021 | 12:05pm
The Doomsday Clock remains set at 100 seconds until "midnight."Eva Hambach/AFP via Getty Images
The symbolic Doomsday Clock — designed by scientists to measure how close humanity is to an apocalypse — remains set dangerously close to disaster at 100 seconds until “midnight,” it was revealed Wednesday.
The annual end-of-days prediction remains the closest the clock has ever ticked toward catastrophe, based on threats including the coronavirus, climate change and nuclear catastrophe, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced.
Marking “a historic wakeup call,” its hands have remained in the same place since January 2020, the first time it ever moved closer than two minutes to midnight.
“[This year] revealed just how unprepared and unwilling countries and the international system are to handle global emergencies properly,” the group said in a press release.
“We are now expressing how close the world is to catastrophe in seconds — not hours, or even minutes. It is the closest to Doomsday we have ever been in the history of the Doomsday Clock. We now face a true emergency — an absolutely unacceptable state of world affairs that has eliminated any margin for error or further delay,” added Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the group.
In a virtual press conference, members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said nuclear calamity is still the number one threat.
“The most important thing is to make sure every one of your political reps know that nuclear weapons are a danger now,” the spokesman said.
The Doomsday Clock was launched during the Cold War in 1947, when the clock’s hands were set at seven minutes to midnight.
The symbolic Doomsday Clock — designed by scientists to measure how close humanity is to an apocalypse — remains set dangerously close to disaster at 100 seconds until “midnight,” it was revealed Wednesday.
The annual end-of-days prediction remains the closest the clock has ever ticked toward catastrophe, based on threats including the coronavirus, climate change and nuclear catastrophe, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced.
Marking “a historic wakeup call,” its hands have remained in the same place since January 2020, the first time it ever moved closer than two minutes to midnight.
“[This year] revealed just how unprepared and unwilling countries and the international system are to handle global emergencies properly,” the group said in a press release.
“We are now expressing how close the world is to catastrophe in seconds — not hours, or even minutes. It is the closest to Doomsday we have ever been in the history of the Doomsday Clock. We now face a true emergency — an absolutely unacceptable state of world affairs that has eliminated any margin for error or further delay,” added Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the group.
In a virtual press conference, members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said nuclear calamity is still the number one threat.
“The most important thing is to make sure every one of your political reps know that nuclear weapons are a danger now,” the spokesman said.
The Doomsday Clock was launched during the Cold War in 1947, when the clock’s hands were set at seven minutes to midnight.
The dramatic visual metaphor has moved closer to the end of times in three of the last four years.
Shocking new evidence proves covid-19 began with Dr. Anthony Fauci and NIAID
Fauci Virus: Shocking new evidence proves covid-19 began with Dr. Anthony Fauci and NIAID
BY LJDEVON // 2021-01-27
An investigation into the origin of covid-19 has uncovered a final trail of evidence that directly links Dr. Anthony Fauci and the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to get unethical gain-of-function research on coronaviruses. The gain-of-function research that was conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China was intended to engineer highly contagious viruses “to learn about treatments and vaccines" to understand how to respond to an actual outbreak. The team that made this research possible was America’s very own public health experts at the NIAID, led by none other than Dr. Anthony Fauci, the number one expert in infectious diseases and leader of the federal coronavirus task force.
Fauci continued gain of function coronavirus research by secretly subcontracting it
The original gain-of-function research goes back ten years, with a Netherlands study that involved ferrets. The researchers wanted to see if coronaviruses could be genetically manipulated so they could be transferred through the air. After demonstrating airborne transmission with ferrets, the researchers wanted to replicate contagion in humans. This opened up an entirely new, controversial science that involved manipulation in the genetic code of viruses. It was Dr. Fauci and the NIAID who funded the first ferret study. Ten years ago, Fauci co-wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post praising the research as “a risk worth taking.” He wrote, “Important information and insight can come from generating a potentially dangerous virus in the laboratory…" The Wuhan virologists found that they could force an influenza virus to mutate and spread via aerosol droplets by injecting the virus from one ferret to another. By engineering the most lethal viruses in a laboratory setting, researchers believed they could better understand how to invent treatments and vaccines in the case of a real outbreak. The Obama Administration put a halt on gain-of-function virology research in 2014, for fear of viruses leaking from the laboratory. This opened up an opportunity for Dr. Anthony Fauci to subcontract gain-of-function research on coronaviruses. Fauci concealed ongoing research through New York’s Eco Health Alliance. Dr. Fauci funded a project there to learn about the risk of new coronaviruses, and how they could emerge from wild animals to rapidly infect humans. Dr. Fauci used the cover of EcoHealth Alliance to subcontract the research to China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology. In order to continue receiving money, the head of the Wuhan lab, Dr. Shi Zhengli, reported back to Fauci on the progress they were making on coronaviruses.
Fauci, and the criminal network behind covid-19
Fauci commissioned Eco Health to find out what viruses could infect both animals and humans, using experimental genetic studies and virus infection experiments across a range of cell cultures from different species and humanized mice. Fauci commissioned and funded Peter Daszak, the zoologist who first discovered the bat origin of SARS ten years ago. Daszak off-shored a key part of the research to the Wuhan Institute of Virology under lab director Shi Zhengli, who was responsible for collecting bat samples. Fauci ordered the institute to collect several samples of bat feces in caves. After isolating several coronaviruses from the bat feces, the Chinese virologists analyzed and sequenced their genetic information. Finally, they built genetically engineered viruses, or chimeras, and they went on to infect human cells, showing how the man-made viruses replicated. These genetic changes unlocked a unique doorway that allowed the virus to infect human cells with ease. The virus is known to attach to human cells ten to twenty times tighter than the first SARS virus. “Until now, the only reporting of Dr. Fauci’s role in all of this has been his funding of the Wuhan lab in general,” said Steve Hilton, Fox News journalist. “But tonight we can go further thanks to this paper. We can see the specific activity that Dr. Fauci funded and it is terrifying — so terrifying that after we reached out to NIH this paper was mysteriously taken off-line on Friday for a while. But we downloaded it weeks ago.” Hilton is calling on Fauci to step down from his role as chief science advisor to the Biden administration until Americans can learn more about Fauci's role in the covid-19 pandemic. Fauci must be held to account for off-shoring and guiding unethical, banned gain-of-function virus research.
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was an FBI informant
US news
Extremist leader repeatedly worked undercover for investigators after his arrest in 2012, former prosecutor and court files reveal
Extremist leader repeatedly worked undercover for investigators after his arrest in 2012, former prosecutor and court files reveal
Aram Roston for Reuters
Wed 27 Jan 2021 11.35 EST
Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys extremist group, has a past as an informer for federal and local law enforcement, repeatedly working undercover for investigators after he was arrested in 2012, according to a former prosecutor and a transcript of a 2014 federal court proceeding obtained by Reuters.
In the Miami hearing, a federal prosecutor, a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and Tarrio’s own lawyer described his undercover work and said he had helped authorities prosecute more than a dozen people in various cases involving drugs, gambling and human smuggling.Trump's useful thugs: how the Republican party offered a home to the Proud Boys
Tarrio, in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, denied working undercover or cooperating in cases against others. “I don’t know any of this,’” he said, when asked about the transcript. “I don’t recall any of this.”
Law enforcement officials and the court transcript contradict Tarrio’s denial. In a statement to Reuters, the former federal prosecutor in Tarrio’s case, Vanessa Singh Johannes, confirmed that “he cooperated with local and federal law enforcement, to aid in the prosecution of those running other, separate criminal enterprises, ranging from running marijuana grow houses in Miami to operating pharmaceutical fraud schemes”.
Tarrio, 36, is a high-profile figure who organizes and leads the rightwing Proud Boys in their confrontations with those they believe to be antifa, short for “anti-fascism”, an amorphous leftist movement. The Proud Boys were involved in the deadly insurrection at the Capitol on 6 January.
The records uncovered by Reuters are startling because they show that a leader of a far-right group now under intense scrutiny by law enforcement was previously an active collaborator with criminal investigators.
Washington police arrested Tarrio in early January when he arrived in the city two days before the Capitol Hill riot. He was charged with possessing two high-capacity rifle magazines, and burning a Black Lives Matter banner during a December demonstration by supporters of Donald Trump. The DC superior court ordered him to leave the city pending a court date in June.
Though Tarrio did not take part in the Capitol insurrection, at least five Proud Boys members have been charged in the riot. The FBI previously said Tarrio’s earlier arrest was an effort to pre-empt the events of 6 January.
The transcript from 2014 shines a new light on Tarrio’s past connections to law enforcement. During the hearing, the prosecutor and Tarrio’s defense attorney asked a judge to reduce the prison sentence of Tarrio and two co-defendants. They had pleaded guilty in a fraud case related to the relabeling and sale of stolen diabetes test kits.
The prosecutor said Tarrio’s information had led to the prosecution of 13 people on federal charges in two separate cases, and had helped local authorities investigate a gambling ring.
Tarrio’s then lawyer Jeffrey Feiler said in court that his client had worked undercover in numerous investigations, one involving the sale of anabolic steroids, another regarding “wholesale prescription narcotics” and a third targeting human smuggling. He said Tarrio helped police uncover three marijuana grow houses, and was a “prolific” cooperator.
In the smuggling case, Tarrio, “at his own risk, in an undercover role met and negotiated to pay $11,000 to members of that ring to bring in fictitious family members of his from another country”, the lawyer said in court.
In an interview, Feiler said he did not recall details about the case but added, “The information I provided to the court was based on information provided to me by law enforcement and the prosecutor.”
An FBI agent at the hearing called Tarrio a “key component” in local police investigations involving marijuana, cocaine and MDMA, or ecstasy. The Miami FBI office declined comment.
A Proud Boy displays an ‘Enrique Tarrio Did Nothing Wrong’ shirt as Trump supporters gather for the ‘Stop The Steal’ rally that preceded the Capitol assault on 6 January Photograph: Amy Harris/Rex/Shutterstock
There is no evidence Tarrio has cooperated with authorities since then. In interviews with Reuters, however, he said that before rallies in various cities, he would let police departments know of the Proud Boys’ plans. It is unclear if this was actually the case. He said he stopped this coordination after 12 December because the DC police had cracked down on the group.
Tarrio on Tuesday acknowledged that his fraud sentence was reduced, from 30 months to 16 months, but insisted that leniency was provided only because he and his co-defendants helped investigators “clear up” questions about his own case. He said he never helped investigate others.
That comment contrasts with statements made in court by the prosecutor, his lawyer and the FBI. The judge in the case, Joan A Lenard, said Tarrio “provided substantial assistance in the investigation and prosecution of other persons involved in criminal conduct”.
As Trump supporters challenged the Republican’s election loss in often violent demonstrations, Tarrio stood out for his swagger as he led crowds of mostly white Proud Boys in a series of confrontations and street brawls in Washington DC, Portland, Oregon and elsewhere.
The Proud Boys, founded in 2016, began as a group protesting against political correctness and perceived constraints on masculinity. It grew into a group with distinctive colors of yellow and black that embraced street fighting. In September their profile soared when Trump called on them to “Stand back and stand by.”
Tarrio, based in Miami, became the national chairman of the group in 2018.
In November and December, Tarrio led the Proud Boys through the streets of DC after Trump’s loss. Video shows him on 11 December with a bullhorn in front of a large crowd. “To the parasites both in Congress, and in that stolen White House,’” he said. “You want a war, you got one!” The crowd roared. The next day Tarrio burned the BLM banner.
Former prosecutor Johannes said she was surprised that the defendant she prosecuted for fraud is now a key player in the violent movement that sought to halt the certification of President Joe Biden.
“I knew that he was a fraudster, but had no reason to know that he was also a domestic terrorist,” she said.
There is no evidence Tarrio has cooperated with authorities since then. In interviews with Reuters, however, he said that before rallies in various cities, he would let police departments know of the Proud Boys’ plans. It is unclear if this was actually the case. He said he stopped this coordination after 12 December because the DC police had cracked down on the group.
Tarrio on Tuesday acknowledged that his fraud sentence was reduced, from 30 months to 16 months, but insisted that leniency was provided only because he and his co-defendants helped investigators “clear up” questions about his own case. He said he never helped investigate others.
That comment contrasts with statements made in court by the prosecutor, his lawyer and the FBI. The judge in the case, Joan A Lenard, said Tarrio “provided substantial assistance in the investigation and prosecution of other persons involved in criminal conduct”.
As Trump supporters challenged the Republican’s election loss in often violent demonstrations, Tarrio stood out for his swagger as he led crowds of mostly white Proud Boys in a series of confrontations and street brawls in Washington DC, Portland, Oregon and elsewhere.
The Proud Boys, founded in 2016, began as a group protesting against political correctness and perceived constraints on masculinity. It grew into a group with distinctive colors of yellow and black that embraced street fighting. In September their profile soared when Trump called on them to “Stand back and stand by.”
Tarrio, based in Miami, became the national chairman of the group in 2018.
In November and December, Tarrio led the Proud Boys through the streets of DC after Trump’s loss. Video shows him on 11 December with a bullhorn in front of a large crowd. “To the parasites both in Congress, and in that stolen White House,’” he said. “You want a war, you got one!” The crowd roared. The next day Tarrio burned the BLM banner.
Former prosecutor Johannes said she was surprised that the defendant she prosecuted for fraud is now a key player in the violent movement that sought to halt the certification of President Joe Biden.
“I knew that he was a fraudster, but had no reason to know that he was also a domestic terrorist,” she said.
Davos 2021: to achieve a ‘great reset’, we can’t count on the same old globalists
Davos 2021: to achieve a ‘great reset’, we can’t count on the same old globalists to lead the way
WEF founder Klaus Schwab addressing the press conference ahead of Davos 2021. EPA
The 51st World Economic Forum starts on January 25, but with a major difference. Whereas this is famously the annual gathering at the Davos ski resort in Switzerland of global leaders from business, government and civil society, this year’s event will take place virtually because of the pandemic.
Inevitably, the event for the 1,200-plus delegates from 60 countries aims to respond to the apocalyptic events of the past 12 months. “A crucial year to rebuild trust” is the theme, built around the “great reset” that World Economic Forum (WEF) founder Klaus Schwab and Prince Charles launched last year.
The event will be accompanied by virtual events in 430 cities across the world, to emphasise the fact that we face global challenges that require global solutions and action.
This recognises that the effects of the pandemic are likely to be increasingly compounded by other major global threats, including the climate crisis, financial crises, and social and economic inequality. To give just one example, the COVID-19 mortality rate in England in December was over twice as high in the most deprived areas than the least deprived.
So how successful is the WEF’s mission likely to be?
Lessons from history
This is not the first time that global crises have required global action, but there have been mixed results in the past. After the first world war, the UK played a pivotal role in forming the League of Nations on the international stage. But this ultimately failed to deliver, with the UK’s insistence on post-war reparations undermining Germany’s economic recovery and political stability.
The 51st World Economic Forum starts on January 25, but with a major difference. Whereas this is famously the annual gathering at the Davos ski resort in Switzerland of global leaders from business, government and civil society, this year’s event will take place virtually because of the pandemic.
Inevitably, the event for the 1,200-plus delegates from 60 countries aims to respond to the apocalyptic events of the past 12 months. “A crucial year to rebuild trust” is the theme, built around the “great reset” that World Economic Forum (WEF) founder Klaus Schwab and Prince Charles launched last year.
The event will be accompanied by virtual events in 430 cities across the world, to emphasise the fact that we face global challenges that require global solutions and action.
This recognises that the effects of the pandemic are likely to be increasingly compounded by other major global threats, including the climate crisis, financial crises, and social and economic inequality. To give just one example, the COVID-19 mortality rate in England in December was over twice as high in the most deprived areas than the least deprived.
So how successful is the WEF’s mission likely to be?
Lessons from history
This is not the first time that global crises have required global action, but there have been mixed results in the past. After the first world war, the UK played a pivotal role in forming the League of Nations on the international stage. But this ultimately failed to deliver, with the UK’s insistence on post-war reparations undermining Germany’s economic recovery and political stability.
First meeting of Assembly of the League of Nations in November 1920. Wikimedia
When the world next sought to prevent future conflicts towards the end of the second world war, the lessons were to some extent learned from last time around. The allies met at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in the US in 1944 to develop policies for economic stability.
This led to a new system of interlinked exchange rates organised around a gold-backed US dollar, as well as new institutions to help manage it, including the International Monetary Fund and what later became the World Bank. This was followed in the next couple of years by the United Nations and the forerunner to the World Trade Organization. The Bretton Woods system endured until the early 1970s when the US came off the gold standard, but much of the system created in the 1940s survives in one form or another today.
The 2007-09 financial crisis, which involved the first global recession since the 1930s, led to many calls for action to prevent similar crises in future. There was some tightening of regulation, but the threat of instability remains due to excessive debts and too much speculation.
With only the 1940s seeing a really adequate response to global crises, what will make the difference this time?
The great reset
The WEF’s vision of a “great reset” recognises that what is needed to tackle these crises goes far beyond economic reforms, or climate measures, or tackling a pandemic – it is all of these combined, and more. It is the idea that global action needs to be underpinned by a mission to change society, to make it more inclusive and cohesive; to match environmental sustainability with social sustainability. It follows their call to “build back better” – one echoed by many around the world.
The WEF seeks action across seven key themes: environmental sustainability; fairer economies; “tech for good”; the future of work and the need for reskilling; better business; healthy futures with fair access for all; and “beyond geopolitics” - national governments collaborating globally.
The WEF says the key is reestablishing public trust, which is “being eroded, in part due to the perceived mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic”. But this may prove difficult, given there is little change in corporate or government leadership. The big hope is 78-year-old Joe Biden, who was US vice president for eight years during which many of these problems were mounting, not being solved.
Can Joe save us? EPA
Sadly, the main cause for optimism is the fact that today’s crises are so great that they may provoke action. Future financial crises look likely. The climate crisis is increasingly accepted to be an existential threat. And now the pandemic is a huge economic and human disaster, with further such pandemics recognised as likely because of everything from the explosion in global travel to the effects of climate change.
The neoliberal drift
A key question for this year’s conference, which is due to be followed by a second phase in Singapore in May, is whether a new form of globalisation will be developed.
There was a free-market form of globalisation leading up to the first world war, then a retreat during the inter-war period. Bretton Woods led to an era of regulated globalisation from 1945 until the 1980s. But since then, the “global elite” has pushed back regulatory restrictions on everything from speculative financial flows across borders to mergers and acquisitions.
A new era is required, building on the Paris Agreement to limit climate change now that the Americans are joining again - with more support of a Green New Deal geared towards achieving net zero emissions and making the global economy truly sustainable.
We need bold initiatives to tackle the threat of future pandemics; financial speculation, tax evasion and avoidance, and the threat of financial crises; and to reduce the unsustainable inequalities of wealth, income and power across the globe.
Will corporate and political decision-makers rise to the challenge? There needs to be sufficient popular pressure - from citizens, voters, consumers, workers, educators and activists - to push governments and business to change course fundamentally. These past few years have witnessed the Occupy movement, the Me Too Movement, Black Lives Matter and countless climate crisis groups.
Calls for action have been coming from business leaders at Davos and elsewhere for years. The hope is that this time, the scale of the emergency will finally make radical change unavoidable.
Sadly, the main cause for optimism is the fact that today’s crises are so great that they may provoke action. Future financial crises look likely. The climate crisis is increasingly accepted to be an existential threat. And now the pandemic is a huge economic and human disaster, with further such pandemics recognised as likely because of everything from the explosion in global travel to the effects of climate change.
The neoliberal drift
A key question for this year’s conference, which is due to be followed by a second phase in Singapore in May, is whether a new form of globalisation will be developed.
There was a free-market form of globalisation leading up to the first world war, then a retreat during the inter-war period. Bretton Woods led to an era of regulated globalisation from 1945 until the 1980s. But since then, the “global elite” has pushed back regulatory restrictions on everything from speculative financial flows across borders to mergers and acquisitions.
A new era is required, building on the Paris Agreement to limit climate change now that the Americans are joining again - with more support of a Green New Deal geared towards achieving net zero emissions and making the global economy truly sustainable.
We need bold initiatives to tackle the threat of future pandemics; financial speculation, tax evasion and avoidance, and the threat of financial crises; and to reduce the unsustainable inequalities of wealth, income and power across the globe.
Will corporate and political decision-makers rise to the challenge? There needs to be sufficient popular pressure - from citizens, voters, consumers, workers, educators and activists - to push governments and business to change course fundamentally. These past few years have witnessed the Occupy movement, the Me Too Movement, Black Lives Matter and countless climate crisis groups.
Calls for action have been coming from business leaders at Davos and elsewhere for years. The hope is that this time, the scale of the emergency will finally make radical change unavoidable.
Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole
| Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole, I want Thee forever to live in my soul; Break down every idol, cast out every foe; Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Whiter than snow; yes, whiter than snow; Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. 2 Lord Jesus, let nothing unholy remain, Apply Thine own blood and extract every stain; To get this blest cleansing I all things forego; Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Whiter than snow; yes, whiter than snow; Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. 3 Lord Jesus, look down from Thy throne in the skies, And help me to make a complete sacrifice; I give up myself and whatever I know; Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Whiter than snow; yes, whiter than snow; Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. 4 Lord Jesus, for this I most humbly entreat; I wait, blessed Lord, at Thy crucified feet; By faith, for my cleansing I see Thy blood flow; Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Whiter than snow; yes, whiter than snow; Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. 5 Lord Jesus, Thou seest I patiently wait; Come now, and within me a new heart create; To those who have sought Thee Thou never saidst, No; Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Whiter than snow; yes, whiter than snow; Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. |
Massive internet outage hits U.S. East Coast taking down Gmail, Slack, and Amazon AWS
Daniel Howley
January 26, 2021, 12:47 pm
Huge swaths of some of the biggest websites on the internet went down Tuesday afternoon, impacting businesses and their employees who are working from home as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The outages, which were first reported around 11:00 a.m. EST, hit companies ranging from Amazon (AMZN) and its Amazon Web Services and Yahoo Finance parent company Verizon (VZ) to at home necessities including Zoom (ZM), Google’s Gmail (GOOG, GOOGL), and Slack (WORK). People using some internet providers, however, were still able to access the services.
Photo by: John Nacion/STAR MAX/IPx 2020 10/14/20 Google offices in Chelsea, Midtown Manhattan, New York City on October 14, 2020 during the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. (NYC)
According to Downdetector, the outages were clustered along the northeast portion of the U.S., hitting states from Virginia to Massachusetts.
According to Downdetector, the outages were clustered along the northeast portion of the U.S., hitting states from Virginia to Massachusetts.
A map of the U.S. east coast showing internet service outages for Google's Gmail. (Image: Downdetector)
Despite the reports to Downdetector, Amazon’s AWS service dashboard showed that the service was functioning as normal. The company said the problem was related to an issue with an external provider. Verizon, similarly, acknowledged there was an outage and said it was working to resolve it.
The broad array of services impacted comes as a time when huge numbers of employees continue to work from home. Without the necessary internet infrastructure to enable them to connect to their employers, workers are unable to do even basic tasks including speaking with their supervisors and colleagues.
One of the last major internet outages occurred in August 2020, when internet service provider CenturyLink went down, taking a number of other businesses with it including CloudFlare and Hulu.
Clarification: While some internet users were unable to access the impacted services, those on other service providers were unaffected.
Despite the reports to Downdetector, Amazon’s AWS service dashboard showed that the service was functioning as normal. The company said the problem was related to an issue with an external provider. Verizon, similarly, acknowledged there was an outage and said it was working to resolve it.
The broad array of services impacted comes as a time when huge numbers of employees continue to work from home. Without the necessary internet infrastructure to enable them to connect to their employers, workers are unable to do even basic tasks including speaking with their supervisors and colleagues.
One of the last major internet outages occurred in August 2020, when internet service provider CenturyLink went down, taking a number of other businesses with it including CloudFlare and Hulu.
Clarification: While some internet users were unable to access the impacted services, those on other service providers were unaffected.
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Declassified U.S. intelligence bolsters Wuhan lab theory in coronavirus outbreak
In this Feb. 23, 2017, file photo, Shi Zhengli works with other researchers in a lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province. A 10-member team of international researchers from the World Health Organization ...
By Bill Gertz - The Washington Times - Tuesday, January 26, 2021
U.S. intelligence findings recently declassified by the State Department provide fresh evidence for the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic likely began at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, China’s sole high-security laboratory that has links to the country’s military.
The department, in a report made public this month by the outgoing Trump administration, disclosed for the first time that several workers at the Wuhan institute, where research on deadly viruses is conducted, were sickened in the autumn of 2019 with COVID-19-like symptoms.
The report also made public U.S. intelligence that the People’s Liberation Army conducted secret research on covert biological warfare at the institute. Chinese leaders have consistently denied any link between the lab and the outbreak of COVID-19 and have even promoted speculation that the United States or some other foreign source brought the virus to China.
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The lab illnesses were detected prior to the first publicized case of COVID-19 in Wuhan in early December 2019, but China has refused to disclose what happened to the workers.
“Accidental infections in labs have caused several previous virus outbreaks in China and elsewhere, including a 2004 SARS outbreak in Beijing that infected nine people, killing one,” the report states.
“This raises questions about the credibility of WIV senior researcher Shi Zhengli’s public claim that there was ‘zero infection’ among the WIV’s staff and students of SARS-CoV-2 or SARS-related viruses.”
“Based on my experience and understanding of the science, it’s hard to believe this is a naturally occurring phenomenon,” said Robert G. Darling, a medical doctor and expert on biological weapons formerly with the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
“I think somebody [in Wuhan] caught their experiment,” said Dr. Darling, now chief medical officer for Patronus Medical.
William Lang, a former associate chief medical officer at the Homeland Security Department, noted that the State Department report does not accuse China’s communist leadership of releasing the virus intentionally.
“But the circumstantial — and more than circumstantial — evidence of some relation to WIV is very strong,” said Dr. Lang, now with the health service WorldClinic.
Ms. Shi, the WIV scientist dubbed the “bat woman of China” for her work on bat coronaviruses similar to the one that causes COVID-19, co-authored a scientific study in 2015 that mentions the laboratory manipulation of bat viruses as part of studying how they infect humans.
The U.S. intelligence reports said Chinese authorities for more than a year have systematically prevented a thorough investigation into the origins of the pandemic and instead devoted “enormous resources to deceit and disinformation.”
A World Health Organization delegation to China was blocked from entering the country first in the spring of 2020 and again this month. Beijing then relented and permitted a team to visit. The investigators currently are in China.
Likely origins
The State Department report acknowledges that the U.S. government has been unable to determine “exactly where, when, or how the COVID-19 virus — known as SARS-CoV-2 — was transmitted initially to humans.”
The two most likely sources are contact with infected animals or “an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan, China.”
China initially said the virus began at a wild animal “wet market” in Wuhan, but Beijing authorities have been unable to identify an animal host that transmitted the pathogen to humans.
The failure to find the host has led many virus experts and intelligence analysts to examine more closely the idea that the virus leaked from the Wuhan laboratory. Skeptics of China’s official version say Beijing authorities have actively tried to keep the world from knowing what happened.
“The Chinese government has destroyed all the evidence from the outbreak because they want to avoid saying it began from a laboratory leak,” said a U.S. official familiar with intelligence reports. “China is trying to sell a story to the world that it began as a naturally occurring event from a wet market in Wuhan.”
Chinese authorities have tried to get WHO investigators to identify a credible animal source during their inquiry.
“Instead of focusing on an animal host that probably doesn’t exist, the WHO team should be focusing on the labs and biosafety,” the official said.
The official said, “It is very likely this was PLA secret work that went awry.”
U.S. intelligence analysts noted that China’s military is engaged in covert development of biological weapons and initial research on such arms would include developing vaccines. At least 2,016 Wuhan lab researchers experimented with a virus called RaTG13, a bat coronavirus similar to the SARS-CoV-2, the report said.
“The WIV has a published record of conducting ‘gain-of-function’ research to engineer chimeric viruses,” the report said, using the term for synthetic viruses.
“But the WIV has not been transparent or consistent about its record of studying viruses most similar to the COVID-19 virus, including RaTG13, which it sampled from a cave in Yunnan Province in 2013 after several miners died of SARS-like illness.”
According to the report, a laboratory accident could appear as a natural outbreak if those initially exposed were limited to a few people and spread more easily by those with a lack of initial symptoms.
“Scientists in China have researched animal-derived coronaviruses under conditions that increased the risk for accidental and potentially unwitting exposure,” the report said.
The report also revealed that the Wuhan Institute of Virology has links to the People’s Liberation Army, China’s military, and has conducted secret lab research at the institute since 2017.
American virus experts who have conducted research at the institute denied those claims as a conspiracy theory. Many private virus experts originally dismissed reports that the institute was linked to China’s covert biological weapons program.
“Despite the WIV presenting itself as a civilian institution, the United States has determined that the WIV has collaborated on publications and secret projects with China’s military,” the report said. “The WIV has engaged in classified research, including laboratory animal experiments, on behalf of the Chinese military since at least 2017.”
The report said the U.S. government “for many years” has publicly voiced concerns about China’s biological weapons work that Beijing has failed to fully document and has not shown that it had eliminated, despite the requirement to do so under the Biological Weapons Convention.
The report said the intelligence disclosures about the WIV “scratch the surface of what is still hidden about COVID-19’s origin in China.”
“Any credible investigation into the origin of COVID-19 demands complete, transparent access to the research labs in Wuhan, including their facilities, samples, personnel, and records,” the report said, as well as interviews with Wuhan researchers and access to worker health records.
China’s government blocked all efforts to interview researchers at the WIV, including those who became ill in the fall of 2019.
The detailed State Department report concluded that excessive Chinese government secrecy prevented international investigators from determining the origin of the pandemic.
Rising skepticism
Outside experts critical of China say the Trump administration findings only increase the skepticism of Beijing’s denials that the virus leaked from the laboratory through an infection of a worker or through a research animal that was sold illicitly to a wild animal market.
“That was a lie. And the Chinese government knew very early on that that was a lie,” said Jamie Metzl, a WHO adviser and a former Senate aide to President Biden.
“And so in the face of overwhelming evidence in May of last year, the Chinese government shifted its position,” he told the Toronto Sun last week.
China’s government instead sought to promote conspiracy theories. Beijing officials even floated the idea that the virus was first introduced to China by the U.S. Army. The U.S. government vehemently denied that charge.
The Chinese government later cited what it said were reports of an outbreak in southern Europe before it appeared in Wuhan at the end of 2019.
A more recent theory pushed by Chinese officials is that the virus was introduced into the country on frozen food packaging. Virus experts have dismissed that theory as highly unlikely.
Mr. Metzl, the WHO adviser, said in an email that U.S. intelligence reports “suggest the Chinese People’s Liberation Army was conducting secret animal research with highly contagious viruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, without notifying the World Health Organization even after the pandemic began.”
He said WHO investigators must be given full access to the workers and labs at WIV, including notes, a list of all viruses studied both past and present, and all records.
“If the Chinese government fails to immediately change course, however, the Biden administration should bring allies and partners around the world together to demand an impartial and unrestricted international forensic investigation into the origins of COVID-19, with full access to all necessary records, databases, biological samples and key personnel,” he said.
Yan Li-meng, an exiled Chinese virology expert who believes the coronavirus was an engineered bioweapon, said the State Department report shows the WIV has been “lying from the beginning” about the virus origin.
She said the report bolsters her contention that the “backbone” virus behind SARS-CoV-2 was discovered by China’s military in the 2015 to 2017 time frame and that “its gain-of-function process involved humanized animal experiments.”
“Intelligence here shows researchers in WIV were sick last fall, while WIV has denied it in public,” she said. “Then it is important to investigate whether the patients were infected with the same original strain of SARS-CoV-2 or similar strains from the lab,” Ms. Yan said.
WorldClinic’s Dr. Lang said the goal of the international community, including China, “should be to get to the root cause” of the pandemic.
“If it turns out that the root cause does lead to WIV, that means that the international community and [China] need to know that and then work collaboratively to make sure that nothing like this, which has had mortality and economic impact of a scale unseen outside of wartime, ever happens again.”
Source
By Bill Gertz - The Washington Times - Tuesday, January 26, 2021
U.S. intelligence findings recently declassified by the State Department provide fresh evidence for the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic likely began at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, China’s sole high-security laboratory that has links to the country’s military.
The department, in a report made public this month by the outgoing Trump administration, disclosed for the first time that several workers at the Wuhan institute, where research on deadly viruses is conducted, were sickened in the autumn of 2019 with COVID-19-like symptoms.
The report also made public U.S. intelligence that the People’s Liberation Army conducted secret research on covert biological warfare at the institute. Chinese leaders have consistently denied any link between the lab and the outbreak of COVID-19 and have even promoted speculation that the United States or some other foreign source brought the virus to China.
TOP STORIES
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'New Cold War': Chinese president issues stark warning to Biden
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The lab illnesses were detected prior to the first publicized case of COVID-19 in Wuhan in early December 2019, but China has refused to disclose what happened to the workers.
“Accidental infections in labs have caused several previous virus outbreaks in China and elsewhere, including a 2004 SARS outbreak in Beijing that infected nine people, killing one,” the report states.
“This raises questions about the credibility of WIV senior researcher Shi Zhengli’s public claim that there was ‘zero infection’ among the WIV’s staff and students of SARS-CoV-2 or SARS-related viruses.”
“Based on my experience and understanding of the science, it’s hard to believe this is a naturally occurring phenomenon,” said Robert G. Darling, a medical doctor and expert on biological weapons formerly with the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
“I think somebody [in Wuhan] caught their experiment,” said Dr. Darling, now chief medical officer for Patronus Medical.
William Lang, a former associate chief medical officer at the Homeland Security Department, noted that the State Department report does not accuse China’s communist leadership of releasing the virus intentionally.
“But the circumstantial — and more than circumstantial — evidence of some relation to WIV is very strong,” said Dr. Lang, now with the health service WorldClinic.
Ms. Shi, the WIV scientist dubbed the “bat woman of China” for her work on bat coronaviruses similar to the one that causes COVID-19, co-authored a scientific study in 2015 that mentions the laboratory manipulation of bat viruses as part of studying how they infect humans.
The U.S. intelligence reports said Chinese authorities for more than a year have systematically prevented a thorough investigation into the origins of the pandemic and instead devoted “enormous resources to deceit and disinformation.”
A World Health Organization delegation to China was blocked from entering the country first in the spring of 2020 and again this month. Beijing then relented and permitted a team to visit. The investigators currently are in China.
Likely origins
The State Department report acknowledges that the U.S. government has been unable to determine “exactly where, when, or how the COVID-19 virus — known as SARS-CoV-2 — was transmitted initially to humans.”
The two most likely sources are contact with infected animals or “an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan, China.”
China initially said the virus began at a wild animal “wet market” in Wuhan, but Beijing authorities have been unable to identify an animal host that transmitted the pathogen to humans.
The failure to find the host has led many virus experts and intelligence analysts to examine more closely the idea that the virus leaked from the Wuhan laboratory. Skeptics of China’s official version say Beijing authorities have actively tried to keep the world from knowing what happened.
“The Chinese government has destroyed all the evidence from the outbreak because they want to avoid saying it began from a laboratory leak,” said a U.S. official familiar with intelligence reports. “China is trying to sell a story to the world that it began as a naturally occurring event from a wet market in Wuhan.”
Chinese authorities have tried to get WHO investigators to identify a credible animal source during their inquiry.
“Instead of focusing on an animal host that probably doesn’t exist, the WHO team should be focusing on the labs and biosafety,” the official said.
The official said, “It is very likely this was PLA secret work that went awry.”
U.S. intelligence analysts noted that China’s military is engaged in covert development of biological weapons and initial research on such arms would include developing vaccines. At least 2,016 Wuhan lab researchers experimented with a virus called RaTG13, a bat coronavirus similar to the SARS-CoV-2, the report said.
“The WIV has a published record of conducting ‘gain-of-function’ research to engineer chimeric viruses,” the report said, using the term for synthetic viruses.
“But the WIV has not been transparent or consistent about its record of studying viruses most similar to the COVID-19 virus, including RaTG13, which it sampled from a cave in Yunnan Province in 2013 after several miners died of SARS-like illness.”
According to the report, a laboratory accident could appear as a natural outbreak if those initially exposed were limited to a few people and spread more easily by those with a lack of initial symptoms.
“Scientists in China have researched animal-derived coronaviruses under conditions that increased the risk for accidental and potentially unwitting exposure,” the report said.
The report also revealed that the Wuhan Institute of Virology has links to the People’s Liberation Army, China’s military, and has conducted secret lab research at the institute since 2017.
American virus experts who have conducted research at the institute denied those claims as a conspiracy theory. Many private virus experts originally dismissed reports that the institute was linked to China’s covert biological weapons program.
“Despite the WIV presenting itself as a civilian institution, the United States has determined that the WIV has collaborated on publications and secret projects with China’s military,” the report said. “The WIV has engaged in classified research, including laboratory animal experiments, on behalf of the Chinese military since at least 2017.”
The report said the U.S. government “for many years” has publicly voiced concerns about China’s biological weapons work that Beijing has failed to fully document and has not shown that it had eliminated, despite the requirement to do so under the Biological Weapons Convention.
The report said the intelligence disclosures about the WIV “scratch the surface of what is still hidden about COVID-19’s origin in China.”
“Any credible investigation into the origin of COVID-19 demands complete, transparent access to the research labs in Wuhan, including their facilities, samples, personnel, and records,” the report said, as well as interviews with Wuhan researchers and access to worker health records.
China’s government blocked all efforts to interview researchers at the WIV, including those who became ill in the fall of 2019.
The detailed State Department report concluded that excessive Chinese government secrecy prevented international investigators from determining the origin of the pandemic.
Rising skepticism
Outside experts critical of China say the Trump administration findings only increase the skepticism of Beijing’s denials that the virus leaked from the laboratory through an infection of a worker or through a research animal that was sold illicitly to a wild animal market.
“That was a lie. And the Chinese government knew very early on that that was a lie,” said Jamie Metzl, a WHO adviser and a former Senate aide to President Biden.
“And so in the face of overwhelming evidence in May of last year, the Chinese government shifted its position,” he told the Toronto Sun last week.
China’s government instead sought to promote conspiracy theories. Beijing officials even floated the idea that the virus was first introduced to China by the U.S. Army. The U.S. government vehemently denied that charge.
The Chinese government later cited what it said were reports of an outbreak in southern Europe before it appeared in Wuhan at the end of 2019.
A more recent theory pushed by Chinese officials is that the virus was introduced into the country on frozen food packaging. Virus experts have dismissed that theory as highly unlikely.
Mr. Metzl, the WHO adviser, said in an email that U.S. intelligence reports “suggest the Chinese People’s Liberation Army was conducting secret animal research with highly contagious viruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, without notifying the World Health Organization even after the pandemic began.”
He said WHO investigators must be given full access to the workers and labs at WIV, including notes, a list of all viruses studied both past and present, and all records.
“If the Chinese government fails to immediately change course, however, the Biden administration should bring allies and partners around the world together to demand an impartial and unrestricted international forensic investigation into the origins of COVID-19, with full access to all necessary records, databases, biological samples and key personnel,” he said.
Yan Li-meng, an exiled Chinese virology expert who believes the coronavirus was an engineered bioweapon, said the State Department report shows the WIV has been “lying from the beginning” about the virus origin.
She said the report bolsters her contention that the “backbone” virus behind SARS-CoV-2 was discovered by China’s military in the 2015 to 2017 time frame and that “its gain-of-function process involved humanized animal experiments.”
“Intelligence here shows researchers in WIV were sick last fall, while WIV has denied it in public,” she said. “Then it is important to investigate whether the patients were infected with the same original strain of SARS-CoV-2 or similar strains from the lab,” Ms. Yan said.
WorldClinic’s Dr. Lang said the goal of the international community, including China, “should be to get to the root cause” of the pandemic.
“If it turns out that the root cause does lead to WIV, that means that the international community and [China] need to know that and then work collaboratively to make sure that nothing like this, which has had mortality and economic impact of a scale unseen outside of wartime, ever happens again.”
Source
COVID-19 EXPOSED - WAKE UP TO THE TRUTH
The John Hopkins Center for Health Security in partnership with the World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation hosted Event 201 - a high-level pandemic excercise on October 18, 2019, in New York, Usa. They focused not on any virus - but specifically on CORONA VIRUS.
This is the Covid-19: EXPOSED Official Movie. This is a 30-minute film in which the world-renowned pediatrician, Dr. Lawrence B. Palevsky, reveals the scientifically-backed TRUTH regarding the coronavirus.
source
https://www.jasonshurka.com/covid-19-exposed
This is the Covid-19: EXPOSED Official Movie. This is a 30-minute film in which the world-renowned pediatrician, Dr. Lawrence B. Palevsky, reveals the scientifically-backed TRUTH regarding the coronavirus.
source
https://www.jasonshurka.com/covid-19-exposed
Man used $2M in COVID relief for a Bentley, Tesla, Las Vegas condos: feds
By Elizabeth Elizalde
January 24, 2021 | 12:04am | Updated
Two condos in Sin City are among the purchases feds accuse Jorge Abramovs of making with COVID relief funds.Shutterstock
A Las Vegas man allegedly stole about $2 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds meant for small businesses — all so he could buy luxury cars and homes, prosecutors said.
Jorge Abramovs has been charged with bank fraud after allegedly applying for Paycheck Protection Program funds between April and June 2020, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Prosecutors charged that Abramovs used a variety of company names, including National Investment Group Corporation, National Legal Advisors In Care Of and National Investment Group, when applying for the aid.
In one application, Abramovs claimed NIGC had 18 employees and an average monthly payroll of $64,797.
Another application claimed NIGC had 49 employees with a payroll of $55,235, according to a federal criminal complaint obtained by the outlet.
In total, Abramovs allegedly got away with $1,986,737.46 in fraudulent PPP loans, the complaint states.
He allegedly used those funds to purchase a 2020 Bentley Continental GT Convertible for $260,982, a 2020 Tesla, and two luxury condominiums in Las Vegas ranging in price from $225,000 to $415,000, prosecutors say.
Abramovs was ordered remanded in custody during a detention hearing on Friday.
A Las Vegas man allegedly stole about $2 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds meant for small businesses — all so he could buy luxury cars and homes, prosecutors said.
Jorge Abramovs has been charged with bank fraud after allegedly applying for Paycheck Protection Program funds between April and June 2020, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Prosecutors charged that Abramovs used a variety of company names, including National Investment Group Corporation, National Legal Advisors In Care Of and National Investment Group, when applying for the aid.
In one application, Abramovs claimed NIGC had 18 employees and an average monthly payroll of $64,797.
Another application claimed NIGC had 49 employees with a payroll of $55,235, according to a federal criminal complaint obtained by the outlet.
In total, Abramovs allegedly got away with $1,986,737.46 in fraudulent PPP loans, the complaint states.
He allegedly used those funds to purchase a 2020 Bentley Continental GT Convertible for $260,982, a 2020 Tesla, and two luxury condominiums in Las Vegas ranging in price from $225,000 to $415,000, prosecutors say.
Abramovs was ordered remanded in custody during a detention hearing on Friday.
You Can’t Legislate Through Executive Orders ‘Unless You’re a Dictator’
Biden in October 2020: You Can’t Legislate Through Executive Orders ‘Unless You’re a Dictator’
Monday, January 25, 2021
How a New Religion Could Rise From the Ashes of QAnon
OH GREAT
Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty
If the past has taught us anything it is that failed prophecies and frustrated predictions don’t always mark the beginning of the end for radical social movements.
Candida Moss
Published Jan. 21, 2021 4:57AM ET
In addition to being a historic event, one might be forgiven for thinking that the inauguration of President Biden and Vice President Harris would sound the death knell of QAnon conspiracy theories. Now that Biden is actually president and QAnon predictions about Trump’s continuing hold on power have failed to come to fruition it would seem logical that they would pack up shop and admit that they were wrong. But if history has taught us anything it is that failed prophecies and frustrated predictions don’t always mark the beginning of the end for radical social movements. With apologies to Madonna, it’s prophets who are the mothers of reinvention.
In the early 19th century, New York farmer and Baptist preacher William Miller preached that the return of Jesus Christ was imminent. His prophecy was based largely on his study of the biblical book of Daniel. His interpretation led him to conclude, initially at least, that Christ would return sometime between March 1843 and 1844. When March 1844 passed without the appearance of Christ and his angels in the sky, Miller picked another date —April 18, 1844—which also slid by without cosmic incident or divine intervention. A follower of Miller’s, Samuel Snow, proposed a third date in October, but the Day of Judgment had still not arrived. The Millerites were understandably disillusioned. One member, Henry Emmons, wrote that he had to be helped to his bedroom, where he lay “sick with disappointment.”
You would think that three false prophecies, collectively known as the Great Disappointment, would be the end of the Millerites. To be sure, some members did leave to join the Shakers, but others began to reinterpret the prophecies about the end of days. One group began to argue that they were only partly wrong. The prophecies weren’t about the Second Coming and end of the world but, rather, about the cleansing of a heavenly sanctuary. It wasn’t an earthly event, it was a heavenly one, and this explained why, to us mere humans, it might appear that nothing had happened. It was out of this group that the Seventh Day Adventist Church arose. Today the Seventh Day Adventist Church has between 20-25 million members. They are, according to Christianity Today, “the fifth largest Christian communion worldwide.”
Ironically, the prophecies in Daniel that formed the basis for the Millerite (and many other!) prophecies about the end of the world were themselves the product of dashed expectations. Though it is set in the sixth century B.C., Daniel was written during the reign of the Seleucid king Antiochus Epiphanes IV (175-164 B.C.). At the time Judeans were wrestling with the Antiochus’s attempts to eradicate Jewish customs and traditions like Sabbath observance, circumcision, and dietary laws. As a response to this crisis the book contains a series of prophecies about what would happen at the end of time. The dates are very specific and, after the first date for the restoration of the Temple given in Dan. 8:12 passed without incident, a later author was forced to add a second prophecy (Daniel 12:11-12) to account for the mistake.
Clinging to a belief despite evidence to the contrary isn’t just a religious phenomenon. On 8 June, 68 A.D. the Roman emperor Nero died a few miles outside of the city of Rome. Fearing the wrath of the Senate and concerned that a gruesome end awaited him, Nero had his secretary help him commit suicide. Even though Nero was dead, legends about his return persisted for centuries. At least three imposters emerged during the reigns of his successors. Each pretender gained followers, was captured, and killed but the Nero Redivus legend continued to gain traction with his supporters.
While it might seem that the moral of this story is ‘be vague about your prophecies,’ the book of Daniel is in our Bibles and the Seventh Day Adventist Church is a major denomination in Christianity. The initial prophecies weren’t strictly accurate, but the movements they generated pivoted and flourished.
Social psychologists call this phenomenon cognitive dissonance. In their classic treatment, When Prophecy Fails, Leon Festinger, Henry Riecken, and Stanley Schachter studied the case of the Seekers, a small UFO religion that believed that they would leave the Earth in a flyer saucer before daybreak on Dec. 21, 1954. After the non-arrival of extraterrestrials, the group’s leader, Dorothy Martin, changed her name and continued to prophesy. Festinger and his colleagues concluded that when groups are deeply convinced that they are correct and individuals have social support from other members of their group, beliefs can be maintained even in the face of overwhelming counter evidence. According to Festinger, fringe members of a movement experiencing a moment of cognitive dissonance are more likely to admit they were wrong, but devotees double-down, reinterpret, and regroup.
Though Festinger’s work has been criticized by others, the theory can explain how some people cling to their belief structures even when they have been proven wrong. In the case of QAnon this has already happened. Hilary Clinton was supposed to have been arrested three years ago. Joe Biden was never supposed to have become president. As Chine Labbe, European managing editor at NewsGuard told the Financial Times, “there’s been lots of predictions from the beginning, none of which have come to fruition… but this didn’t prevent the [QAnon] Movement from growing.”
QAnon has already claimed a seat in Congress and branched out into the wellness industry, so there’s no reason to think that the 2020 U.S. election will be the death of the movement. It certainly doesn’t help that former President Donald Trump said in his parting remarks that he “will be back in some form.” All of which suggests that even if Trump is convicted, QAnon Trump loyalists—like supporters of Nero—may be holding out hope for years to come.
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