ANONYMOUS - OUR VOICE

Why Johnson & Johnson shots were paused — and why that’s so confusing

<div><img class="ff-og-image-inserted" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PrcD2drgv8sUTQbUleeNdEX0xE0=/0x201:6000x3342/fit-in/1200x630/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22441720/GettyImages_1232273810.jpeg" /></div>
The US rollout of <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/1/29/22238591/johnson-and-johnson-jnj-vaccine-effective-safety-one-dose-fda">Johnson & Johnson’s</a> single-dose Covid-19 vaccine was halted Tuesday as regulators race to investigate rare blood-clotting complications linked to the shot. The move may force thousands of people scheduled to receive the shot this week to scramble for an alternative.
Both the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended a pause in distributing the vaccine after six reported cases of <a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/cerebral-venous-sinus-thrombosis">cerebral venous sinus thrombosis</a> (CVST). These clots block blood flowing out of the brain and can quickly turn deadly.
The complications were found in women between the ages of 18 and 48, and they arose between six and 13 days after receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. “Of the clots seen in the United States, one case was fatal, and one patient is in critical condition,” said Peter Marks, the head of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, during a Tuesday <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ELXnGYgsJY&t=1s">press conference</a>.
However, the fact that so few cases led to a nationwide pause of the vaccine has <a href="https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1381925025964515330">raised questions</a> about a possible overreaction.
Speaking at the White House on Tuesday, Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, argued that the CDC and FDA were acting “out of an abundance of caution” and emphasized that their Tuesday decision was a “pause,” implying that it is meant to be temporary.
“I don’t think that they were pulling the trigger too quickly,” Fauci said.
But the move has nonetheless created confusion for people slated to receive the Johnson & Johnson shot and raised <a href="https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/1382004214180634634">fears that it could fuel hesitancy</a> around Covid-19 vaccines.
Johnson & Johnson itself was already reeling from a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/4/22366728/15-million-ruined-vaccine-doses-johnson-johnson-baltimore-plant">manufacturing error at one of its suppliers</a> that ruined 15 million doses. And in Colorado, <a href="https://www.cpr.org/2021/04/10/centura-health-pulls-johnson-johnson-vaccine-from-three-mass-vaccination-sites/">three mass vaccination sites</a> stopped administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine last week after 11 people reported feelings of nausea and dizziness.
For regulators, the episode highlights the tricky challenge of balancing caution against an urgent need for a vaccine in a still-raging pandemic. And as they investigate the problem, they also have to try to maintain public confidence in the vaccination program. The pause helps show that regulators are taking potential problems seriously, but if they botch the messaging, that could make people less likely to get vaccinated.
Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis is a condition that blocks blood from leaving the brain. In the general population, it occurs in about <a href="https://www.cedars-sinai.org/health-library/diseases-and-conditions/c/cerebral-venous-sinus-thrombosis-cvst.html">five out of a million people</a>. Symptoms of CVST include headache, blurred vision, seizures, and a loss of control of the body.
However, there are several factors that made regulators pay close attention to the recent cases following vaccinations with the Johnson & Johnson shot. Marks explained that patients with these clots also had <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/thrombocytopenia/symptoms-causes/syc-20378293">thrombocytopenia</a>, a condition where platelets in the blood drop to very low levels, leading to bleeding and bruising. The combination of blood clots and low platelets means that patients cannot receive conventional blood clot therapies like heparin, a blood thinner. That’s why health officials want to wait to resume vaccinations with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine until they can investigate the concern and come up with new guidelines if necessary.
Another factor is that these cases occurred in younger women, who normally don’t face a high risk of these types of clots.
The pause of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine mirrors a similar halt in Europe of another Covid-19 vaccine, one developed by the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22334719/astrazeneca-vaccine-blood-clot-numbers-covid-19-europe-eu-germany">University of Oxford and AstraZeneca</a>, because of concerns about blood clots. In March, the European Union’s pharmaceutical regulator halted the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine before allowing distribution to resume. Regulators concluded the vaccine didn’t cause an increase in overall risk of blood clots.
“This is a safe and effective vaccine. Its benefits in protecting people from Covid-19 with the associated risks of deaths and hospitalizations outweigh the possible risks,” said <a href="https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/emer-cooke-takes-office-head-ema">Emer Cooke</a>, executive director of the European Medicines Agency, during a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYmP02SIQNI">press conference</a> last month.
Both the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are based on a modified <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/8/13/21359025/coronavirus-vaccine-covid-19-moderna-oxford-mrna-adenovirus">adenovirus vector</a>. The adenovirus is a separate virus engineered to deliver DNA instructions to cells for making the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. Nearly 7 million people in the US have already received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine is still under review and has not begun distribution in the US, although the US government has already purchased millions of doses.
The mechanism connecting these vaccines to CVST isn’t clear just yet, but there are some hypotheses.
<a href="https://professorships.jhu.edu/chair/robert-a-brodsky/">Robert Brodsky</a>, director of the hematology division at Johns Hopkins University, said last month that the spike proteins built using the instructions from these vaccines could, in rare cases, trigger an immune system response that interferes with the regulation of blood clots. That immune response could also damage platelets, accounting for the symptoms presented. More evidence is needed to verify that is causing the problem, but it could help scientists develop ways to treat or prevent the issue.
But if a spike protein can trigger this reaction, then it’s likely that a whole intact virus could also trigger CVST in people who are vulnerable. The question is how best to protect those individuals from infection while also mitigating the risks of complications.
It’s always tricky to communicate risk, but having to study and explain uncommon problems with vaccines was foreseeable. The Covid-19 vaccines were tested in tens of thousands of people in clinical trials, and all three that have begun distribution in the US — from Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, and Johnson & Johnson — were shown to be safe, with mild to moderate side effects.
But when vaccines make the jump from thousands of carefully screened trial participants to millions of people in the general population, rare problems — the one-in-a-million complications — start to emerge.
That already happened with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine after it started to roll out. Several recipients suffered <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7002e1.htm">severe allergic reactions</a> to the vaccine. Similar problems emerged with the Moderna vaccine. The CDC estimated in January that the rate of allergic reactions to the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine was 11.1 per million vaccinations, while the rate was 2.5 per million for Moderna. Both the Pfizer/BioNTech and the Moderna vaccine use mRNA as their means to deliver instructions to cells for making viral spike proteins. That mRNA is encased in a lipid nanoparticle, which may be what’s triggering the allergic reactions.
While researchers are still <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/07/covid-vaccine-us-begins-study-assessing-allergic-reactions-to-pfizer-and-moderna-shots.html">investigating the connection</a>, the mRNA vaccines have continued distribution. Health officials modified the vaccine protocol to screen people with a history of severe allergies. They also added a 15-minute waiting period for recipients post-vaccination, since most allergic reactions arose in that window.
Regulators could, then, take a similar approach with the Johnson & Johnson shot to the one they used for allergies and the mRNA vaccines, adding a screening criterion for people at highest risk of these blood clots before they receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
It’s too soon to say whether regulators did everything right when it comes to handling the pause and the public messaging around the vaccine. The willingness to wait and study potential problems may boost overall confidence in vaccinations, or the confusion and fears around complications could make more people wary. Or it may end up as a minor bump in the vaccine rollout.
And what about people who have already received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine?
Fauci said that for people who received the vaccine more than a month ago, they’re out of the woods. But people who have had the shot more recently and start to experience symptoms associated with CVST should alert their physician about their vaccination record.
“If you look at the time frame where this occurs, it’s pretty tight, from six to 13 days from the time of the vaccination,” Fauci said.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/13/22381844/johnson-vaccine-pause-covid-19-clot-cerebral-venous-thrombosis">https://www.vox.com/2021/4/13/22381844/johnson-vaccine-pause-covid-19-clot-cerebral-venous-thrombosis</a>

vox Why Johnson & Johnson shots were paused — and why that’s so confusing

The US rollout of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose Covid-19 vaccine was halted Tuesday as regulators race to investigate rare blood-clo...

Tech billionaires are staying “very, very quiet” on proposals to tax their wealth

<div><img class="ff-og-image-inserted" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/faYf_BQ-PjFzTGThJVVvyGpxb4k=/0x315:3000x1886/fit-in/1200x630/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/16217486/1057592778.jpg.jpg" /></div>
Billionaires like Bill Gates have <a href="https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Year-in-Review-2019">long said</a> that they, theoretically, would be in favor of paying much more money in personal taxes.
And yet Gates and some of the wealthiest people in the world are staying silent on a series of active proposals that would do just that, sidestepping a legislative package in their home state of Washington that targets them specifically.
Washington is home to four of the richest people on the planet: Gates, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Bezos’s ex-wife novelist MacKenzie Scott, and longtime Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. And the state in 2021 is also home to <a href="https://news.bloombergtax.com/daily-tax-report/mega-rich-and-plans-to-tax-them-abound-in-washington-state">some of the most aggressive proposals</a> to tax the ultra-rich, including a first-of-its-kind proposal to tax the wealth of billionaires at the state level.
All four of them have declined to campaign for the tax increase proposals, spurning requests to back the measures and staying on the sidelines.
“They have stayed very, very quiet during this conversation — and it’s not for a lack of trying,” said Noel Frame, the state legislator behind the wealth tax. “I talked to folks who talk to them, and they have chosen not to engage.”
Frame has approached her contacts with ties to the Gates, Ballmer, and Bezos families to see if the billionaires would be interested in publicly supporting her proposal. But she hasn’t even secured a meeting. Other pro-tax activists in Washington state say they have recently spoken with some of those families in recent months about the need, in general, for rate increases.
Asked about the wealth tax, Gates spokespeople didn’t return repeated requests for comment. A spokesperson for Bezos said his boss had no comment on the measure. And aides to Ballmer and the publicity-shy Scott didn’t return a request for comment.
Their silence and inaction bother some activists because Gates and Ballmer, at least, claim to support paying more in taxes. And yet it is relatively easy for a billionaire to say in a television studio or in a blog post that they, in theory, support a far-away, unlikely-to-ever-happen tax increase. Far more is on the line if they are asked to spend their social capital and proactively back a measure that is tangible and alive, working its way through the legislative chambers that they routinely prod on other matters they care about.
So in some ways, the measures in Washington state are a test of whether their rhetoric was just rhetoric — or whether they are prepared to back their beliefs up with muscle.
“Silence is consent,” said Chuck Collins, an inequality critic who collaborated with Gates’s father to push for higher taxes. “Here’s the proposal that your state legislature is considering. Yes or no? Where do you stand?”
These proposals are not all loony legislative long shots that are patently unworthy of their attention, either. The state Senate just <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/after-fierce-debate-washington-senate-approves-new-tax-on-capital-gains-by-one-vote/">narrowly passed the capital gains tax</a>, a priority for Gov. Jay Inslee. And although the wealth tax proposal is seen as unlikely to become law this session, the measure was voted out of committee late last month, a sign that there is some momentum behind it, or at least credibility.
Both measures face their fates this month in the final days of the legislative session. Washington is one of the only states in the country without a state income tax, and progressives there have spent the last decade exploring ways to add new revenue streams, all of which would probably trigger legal fights.
More of the advocacy and energy in Olympia has revolved around the likelier-to-pass capital gains tax proposal, which takes a 7 percent cut off of sales of stocks or bonds in excess of $250,000. While it does not as narrowly target billionaires, it still effectively taxes the well-to-do. Anti-tax activists say it would make Washington, which does not have any capital gains tax right now, a less hospitable place for business.
The wealth tax proposal would levy a 1 percent fee on all assets over $1 billion, an attempt — <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/24/18196275/elizabeth-warren-wealth-tax">like its national inspirations</a> — to increase the tax burden that the ultra-rich pay. But critics charge that, unlike the national proposals, Washington state billionaires can easily move out of state and could do so if it passes, sapping Washington of any tax revenue from them at all.
“Why are you going to give these people a reason to make their economic domicile a different state?” said Matt McIlwain, who has helped organize the tech community against tax proposals and runs a venture capital firm that invested early in Amazon. “Come on, Bezos grew up in Texas and Florida. He’s got a bunch of operations and projects in his own life — not to mention different aspects of what’s going on in Amazon — in other states. He doesn’t need Washington state to be his home state.”
The state is the latest battleground in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/05/nyregion/taxes-rich-budget-new-york.html">simmering fight</a> over how much America should tax its richest citizens. The mega-wealthy are facing calls for higher taxes in part due to the pandemic, which has <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22356742/billionaires-amazon-jeff-bezos-rich-philanthropy-coronavirus-election">widened inequality</a>. And so while passing a wealth tax through Congress is quite difficult, tax advocates are capitalizing on a vulnerability for the rich: They tend to live near one another, <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/6/8/21282130/elizabeth-warren-wealth-tax-palo-alto-tech-billionaires">making state and local proposals a side door</a> of sorts into achieving a similar outcome.
Gates, Ballmer, Bezos, and Scott have all gotten much wealthier over the last year when Big Tech stocks surged as the world relied more on tech companies. The foursome has about $500 billion in assets, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/">according to tracking by Bloomberg</a>. At the beginning of 2020, they controlled about $320 billion.
While recruiting billionaire endorsements is not a priority for either the pro-tax or anti-tax activists, Frame said she reached out precisely because it would rebut her critics’ arguments.
“Any time you have the affected taxpayer coming to the table and saying, ‘I’m okay with this change. I’m okay with this increase. Yes, please tax me,’ that’s always a coup,” she said.
Guided by his father, Bill Gates Sr., who <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-WHB-2968">served as the public face of a failed push</a> 10 years ago for a state income tax, the younger Gates has been the most consistently vocal about wanting to pay substantially more in taxes. That’s been especially so in his home state of Washington, which he has said has “the most regressive tax system in the country.”
Gates has <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-19/bill-gates-says-some-tax-proposals-go-too-far?sref=Wg6QzS2e">expressed concern</a> that taxes could go “too far” — including, at times, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/07/us/politics/bill-gates-elizabeth-warren-wealth-tax.html">wealth taxes</a>. But, in general, he has said he supports substantially higher rates, including higher federal estate taxes and capital gains taxes, along with an institution of a state income tax in Washington, which it currently lacks.
“I think the rich should pay more than they currently do, and that includes Melinda and me,” Gates said in <a href="https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Year-in-Review-2019">a year-end 2019 blog post about his views</a>.
Ballmer’s tax views are more of a moving target, but he has in recent years voiced more and more comfort with increases. An avowed deficit hawk, Ballmer has stressed the need for a closer look at federal spending patterns. But he has also increasingly sounded more fiscally liberal in recent interviews, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/former-microsoft-ceo-steve-ballmer-we-over-spend-our-tax-revenue">saying in 2019, for instance</a>, “I certainly know that there are things I believe in that might require more” in tax revenue.
“Because I’ve been very fortunate, I can say to you I’d be happy personally to pay more taxes,” Ballmer <a href="https://twitter.com/teddyschleifer/status/1363963694837690371?s=20">said at a conference earlier this year</a>.
Bezos, whose politics have been <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/11/9/20956153/mike-bloomberg-president-2020-jeff-bezos-phone-call-amazon-hq2">described as libertarian</a>, has displayed an anti-tax streak: He, along with Ballmer, <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/wealthy-contribute-to-defeat-income-tax/">donated to a group a decade ago</a> that opposed a measure trying to create a state income tax in Washington. And when Bezos <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-06/amazon-s-bezos-supports-infrastructure-bill-corporate-tax-hike">said last week</a> that he supported Amazon paying more in corporate income taxes to finance Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan, he didn’t offer anything about whether he backed paying more in personal income taxes — another part of the Biden economic package — to finance that same policy goal.
And then there’s Scott, who has the most limited paper trail on these policy questions. She has said nothing to date explicitly about taxes. She has, however, repeatedly expressed deep concerns about wealth inequality — <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/12/15/22176710/mackenzie-scott-bezos-philanthropy-speed-four-billion">reflecting recently</a> on how the pandemic functioned as a “wrecking ball” for the poor while enriching billionaires, stirring a speculative belief from progressives that she may agree with them,
Activists on both sides aren’t necessarily surprised these billionaires have taken a pass right now. Some Washington political observers think billionaire non-engagement is only sustainable because the wealth tax currently faces long odds this legislative session. The capital gains tax on the cusp of becoming law took years of advocacy before it became a front-burner debate in the state.
And yet John Burbank, a longtime Washington tax activist who has met with Ballmer aides in recent months to discuss progressive state tax policy more generally, said he actually saw the billionaires’ inactivity and neutrality as a win for his side.
Why? Well, he said, at least the billionaires weren’t actively speaking out against the bill — as they might have in the past.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22372857/washington-state-wealth-tax-bill-gates-steve-ballmer-mackenzie-scott-jeff-bezos">https://www.vox.com/recode/22372857/washington-state-wealth-tax-bill-gates-steve-ballmer-mackenzie-scott-jeff-bezos</a>

vox Tech billionaires are staying “very, very quiet” on proposals to tax their wealth

Billionaires like Bill Gates have long said that they, theoretically, would be in favor of paying much more money in personal taxes. And ...

It’s not just Big Oil. Big Meat also spends millions to crush good climate policy.

<div><img class="ff-og-image-inserted" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3NXDbxKF5G6Frf4u57yXuyEqXP4=/0x866:6016x4016/fit-in/1200x630/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22441422/cows_climate_GettyImages_1227408588.jpg" /></div>
You probably already know that the fossil fuel industry has spent many millions of dollars trying to <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/merchants-of-doubt-9781596916104/">sow doubt</a> about climate change and the industry’s role in it.
But did you know that big meat and dairy companies do the same thing?
According to a <a href="https://voxcom.cmail20.com/t/d-i-qjhjkhy-l-u/">new study</a> out of NYU, these companies have spent millions of dollars lobbying against climate policies and funding dubious research that tries to blur <a href="https://voxcom.cmail20.com/t/d-i-qjhjkhy-l-t/">the links</a> between <a href="https://voxcom.cmail20.com/t/d-i-qjhjkhy-l-h/">animal agriculture</a> and our <a href="https://voxcom.cmail20.com/t/d-i-qjhjkhy-l-k/">climate emergency</a>. The biggest link is that <a href="http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/197608/icode/">about 14 percent</a> of global greenhouse gas emissions come from meat and dairy.
<div class="c-float-right">
<div>
<div class="c-entry-sidebar">
Twice a week, we’ll send you a roundup of the best ideas and solutions for tackling the world’s biggest challenges — and how to get better at doing good. <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect-newsletter" data-analytics-viewport="related-story" data-analytics-link="related-story">Sign up here.</a>
</div>
</div>
</div>
“US beef and dairy companies appear to act collectively in ways similar to the fossil fuel industry, which built an extensive climate change countermovement,” write the authors of the study, published in the journal Climatic Change.
One of the authors, Jennifer Jacquet, says the paper should spur a vigorous public response. “People should be mad,” she said. “And we should build a system where we can prevent this kind of influence.”
Comparing the meat and dairy industry with the fossil fuel industry is not a facile analogy. These industries have worked in tandem for years to undercut climate policy.
For example, in 2009, Tyson and other meat companies got nervous about the <a href="https://www.c2es.org/document/waxman-markey-short-summary/">American Clean Energy and Security Act</a>, also known as Waxman-Markey, which would have established a cap-and-trade system. They worked alongside the fossil fuel industry to stop the bill. Had it passed, it would’ve been the first congressional bill to directly tackle greenhouse gas emissions. But it never made it past the House.
Now, more information is coming to light about how big meat and dairy companies work against climate policies: through lobbying, through political campaigns, and through academic research.
Let’s start with lobbying.
It’s not a surprise that meat and dairy trade associations would lobby for things like access to federally owned public lands for cattle-grazing or industry-friendly manure management regulations. That’s more or less their raison d’être, and it’s what they’ve done for decades. But as the authors determined, “more recently they have been involved in blocking climate policy that would limit production.”
Six of the big US groups — the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the National Pork Producers Council, the North American Meat Institute, the National Chicken Council, the International Dairy Foods Association, and the American Farm Bureau Federation — have together spent about $200 million in lobbying since 2000. And they’ve been lobbying annually against climate policies like cap-and-trade, the Clean Air Act, and regulations that would require farms to report emissions.
Individual meat companies likewise spend millions on lobbying. Tyson, for example, has spent $25 million since 2000. Now, that may not sound like much if we compare it to what individual companies in the fossil fuel industry spend — Exxon alone spent over $240 million during the same period. But the study notes that we have to look at these amounts in proportion to each company’s bottom line. Taken as a share of total revenue over the past two decades, Tyson has spent 33 percent more on lobbying than Exxon has.
“The relative spending is very much an indicator of political engagement,” Jacquet said.
These figures refer to meat companies’ total spending on lobbying, not only climate-specific lobbying. That said, even policies that are not explicitly about climate — like crop incentives or land-use decisions — can also drive harmful emissions.
The study also found that the big US meat companies have spent millions on political campaigns, typically to support Republican candidates.
Again, these companies are big spenders in this arena relative to their bottom line. Since 2000, Exxon spent about $17 million on US federal political campaigns, while Tyson spent $3.2 million. “But taken as a share of each company’s total revenue over that period, Tyson has spent double what Exxon has on political campaigns,” the study notes.
Meat and dairy companies bankroll candidates because it pays off. Members of Congress they’ve funded, like Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), and Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), have backed pro-agriculture bills and frequently voted against climate change legislation, including cap-and-trade.
According to the study, in some cases funding from Big Meat is the biggest contributor to a politician’s financial resources: “Hormel Foods was the largest contributor to Rep. Gutknecht (R-MN) over the course of his career — a former Congressman who has regularly questioned climate science.”
Sometimes, Big Meat has also funded Democratic candidates. During the 1992 presidential campaign, Tyson was known to be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/31/magazine/the-president-s-past.html">one of Bill Clinton’s main backers</a> — to the point that Clinton was actually <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-06-12-mn-3410-story.html">nicknamed</a> the “Chicken Man.” Tyson, which is headquartered in Clinton’s home state of Arkansas, did not respond to a request for comment.
The meat and dairy industries also fund their own academic experts, who then publish research that minimizes or denies the causal link between animal agriculture and climate change.
Industry-funded research isn’t always necessarily flawed. But it’s certainly fair to wonder about the integrity of industry-funded research that happens to advance that industry’s goals. <a href="https://voxcom.cmail20.com/t/d-i-qjhjkhy-l-o/">As Undark has reported</a>, you might read a white paper that paints a hopeful picture of the cattle industry’s emissions, only to then realize that the co-authors run dairy groups or received livestock industry funding.
This happens in adjacent industries, too: You might hear a scientist denying that overfishing is a major problem, say, only to then find out that they’ve received <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/05/12/477827180/fisheries-scientist-becomes-latest-target-of-activist-s-records-requests">funding from fisheries and seafood industry groups</a>. (To be fair, we should note that plant-based meat companies have also commissioned <a href="http://css.umich.edu/publication/beyond-meats-beyond-burger-life-cycle-assessment-detailed-comparison-between-plant-based">analyses</a> from outside researchers, though much less extensively.)
The new study out of NYU provides other examples of how meat-industry-funded research seeks to downplay the industry’s environmental costs — like emphasizing that its emissions are small relative to those of other sectors, like transportation, instead of acknowledging that animal agriculture causes almost 15 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, which means it’s still a big driver of climate change.
In fact, the NYU paper notes that if the Food and Agriculture Organization is right in projecting that meat consumption will rise 73 percent by 2050, emissions by some meat and dairy companies could exceed the emissions of several fossil fuel companies.
That means people who care about the climate need to get serious about holding Big Meat and Big Dairy accountable, just as they’ve been trying to do for years with Big Oil.
“There has to be a big reimagining of meat and dairy,” Jacquet said. Whether that will entail a reduction in meat consumption or a total switch to plant-based or lab-grown meat and dairy, one thing is for sure: “Given what we know about climate change,” Jacquet said, “it seems clear that business as usual is not the answer.”
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22379909/big-meat-companies-spend-millions-lobbying-climate">https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22379909/big-meat-companies-spend-millions-lobbying-climate</a>

vox It’s not just Big Oil. Big Meat also spends millions to crush good climate policy.

You probably already know that the fossil fuel industry has spent many millions of dollars trying to sow doubt about climate change and th...

America’s forever war may be ending

President Joe Biden plans to withdraw all 3,500 US troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, finally bringing an end to America’s longest war 20 years to the day after the terror attacks that prompted it.
Biden is expected to announce the decision, which was first reported by the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/biden-us-troop-withdrawal-afghanistan/2021/04/13/918c3cae-9beb-11eb-8a83-3bc1fa69c2e8_story.html">Washington Post</a> and confirmed by Vox, on Wednesday. A senior administration official told reporters on Tuesday that US forces “will begin an orderly drawdown of the remaining forces before May 1 and plan to have all US troops out of the country” by the 9/11 anniversary.
The decision is momentous. Biden is the fourth president to oversee the war, but, if all goes to plan, he will be the first to end it. It will mean the end of trillions spent, the American end of a conflict that took roughly 2,400 US lives (not including the thousands of Afghans) and that has plagued US foreign policy for two decades.
Biden didn’t come to this decision lightly, though. It is the result of a months-long policy review that began when he got into office. As part of that review, Biden was presented with three broad options for how to proceed in Afghanistan.
The first was to adhere to former <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/2/21/21147020/us-afghanistan-taliban-peace-deal-pompeo">President Donald Trump’s deal with the Taliban</a>, which would require Biden to withdraw all US forces in Afghanistan by May 1. The second was to negotiate an extension with the insurgent group, allowing American forces to remain in the country beyond early May. And third was to defy the Trump-Taliban pact altogether and keep fighting in Afghanistan with no stated end date.
Biden is sort of choosing the second option: extending America’s presence a few months beyond the deadline, but without the <a href="https://www.aninews.in/news/world/asia/afghanistan-taliban-rejects-us-peace-plan-six-month-extension-on-troops-withdrawal-deadline20210413201653">Taliban’s explicit approval</a>.
That could be a problem, as the Taliban had previously warned that if the US didn’t abide by the May 1 deadline, it would end its months-long ceasefire with the US and resume attacking American troops. The senior administration official told reporters on Tuesday that the US would respond if the Taliban targeted Americans, raising the possibility of <a href="https://twitter.com/John_Hudson/status/1382009083318792195?s=20">tit-for-tat retaliations</a> in the months ahead.
But with Biden making clear there’s a firm withdrawal date, the Taliban may decide to hold off on attacking the US, some experts say, so as not to risk making the Americans change their minds. The senior administration official said that the withdrawal timeline wasn’t conditions-based, meaning the US will leave no matter what happens over the next few months.
Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ), who advised top US generals in Afghanistan and was a national security adviser in the Obama administration, likes that plan. “I’ve seen what conditions-based gets you,” he told me in an interview after the news broke. “It gets you 20 years in a war in Afghanistan.”
There’s also another factor here: The president launched a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/3/8/22319420/afghanistan-blinken-letter-leak-peace-plan">Hail Mary effort</a> to broker a peace deal between the Afghan government and the Taliban before US troops left. But that plan hit a major stumbling block on Monday when the insurgents <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/taliban-backs-afghan-peace-conference-172801684.html">rejected an offer to attend a meeting in Istanbul</a> with Kabul officials later this week.
Perhaps knowing that achieving peace on a shortened timeline wasn’t going to work, Biden is opting to announce a withdrawal and get US troops out of harm’s way. “What we won’t do is use our troops as a bargaining chip in that process,” an unnamed official told the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/biden-us-troop-withdrawal-afghanistan/2021/04/13/918c3cae-9beb-11eb-8a83-3bc1fa69c2e8_story.html">Washington Post</a>.
Most experts, though, think Biden realized there’s little more the US can achieve in the country militarily after nearly 20 years of war.
“Biden’s decision to finalize a troop withdrawal, not tied to improved conditions on the battlefield or the peace table, signals a sense of resignation with the long US intervention there,” said Andrew Watkins, the senior analyst for Afghanistan at the International Crisis Group.
But, he warned, “this may just be the start of a whole new chapter in Afghanistan’s conflict.”
Biden pledged during the presidential campaign to <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/21439556/2020-election-trump-biden-peace-war">bring all US “combat troops” back from Afghanistan</a> by the end of his first term. By using the squishy term “combat troops,” he was essentially leaving the door open to maintaining a small number of troops in the country whose mission would focus solely on counterterrorism operations <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/international/536694-recalibrating-us-strategy-for-peace-in-afghanistan">against ISIS and al-Qaeda</a>, not fighting the Taliban.
It seems Biden has abandoned that approach. “We’re going to zero troops by September,” the unnamed senior official told the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/biden-us-troop-withdrawal-afghanistan/2021/04/13/918c3cae-9beb-11eb-8a83-3bc1fa69c2e8_story.html">Post</a>.
<figure class="e-image"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1618358680_328_104057" data-cdata='{"asset_id":22441370,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8JA0ycGJJDmNmucpECCW7cAKeRM=/0x0:4000x2507/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2507):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22441370/1232002429.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/gUtlYHloMVU0mbAVvwVWNUSfPRk=/0x0:4000x2507/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2507):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22441370/1232002429.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/X4b_YgXNRc9ZFV3DOMoab9Ex4TI=/0x0:4000x2507/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2507):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22441370/1232002429.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/cJk_cbB1pOa6UoRbHg2lrGTkJTI=/0x0:4000x2507/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2507):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22441370/1232002429.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5kDiBAlqSkSvIGPI1eneLRCbQXM=/0x0:4000x2507/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2507):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22441370/1232002429.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/WGR89tZGanMRSJQfaKRMQnRJMxw=/0x0:4000x2507/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2507):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22441370/1232002429.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Sy4wkWPy-XyM_pJ3-nE6O3BhELU=/0x0:4000x2507/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2507):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22441370/1232002429.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/sTK_y723eCXGSW5jmBb399rk6_k=/0x0:4000x2507/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2507):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22441370/1232002429.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/VA0tb4yTCtKkRNpnhVsUDDcmfmw=/0x0:4000x2507/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2507):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22441370/1232002429.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="" data-upload-width="4000" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8B8RySXIa1P9N3qwFkK3EKJBzZQ=/0x0:4000x2507/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2507):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22441370/1232002429.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/nXn-w5cNa8YynKGMtY0E7edMhCo=/0x0:4000x2507/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2507):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22441370/1232002429.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jzOYrh5B1PmJRUT1rVb4yrbuqn4=/0x0:4000x2507/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2507):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22441370/1232002429.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/q1cKJRQRxT-EX26FJs0Z9NwJ3to=/0x0:4000x2507/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2507):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22441370/1232002429.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lHAqAxog33x0Eue4rhqirsdcoOg=/0x0:4000x2507/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2507):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22441370/1232002429.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/DkCcALe9VbukeVauMuiTA6697oQ=/0x0:4000x2507/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2507):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22441370/1232002429.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/WfdIG7PRVW_QjIWxedztYICF69E=/0x0:4000x2507/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2507):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22441370/1232002429.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Y35TqQ6gDlGt8fkC_VNe94UANU8=/0x0:4000x2507/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2507):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22441370/1232002429.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/qov1wuajuHBOH2B-Y0irpkCoTd4=/0x0:4000x2507/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2507):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22441370/1232002429.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Ld0kuvI3bytRBjePztOTREtc-wc=/0x0:4000x2507/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4000x2507):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22441370/1232002429.jpg 1920w" /></picture>
<figcaption>Afghan women, youths, activists, and elders gather at a rally to support peace talks and in Kabul, Afghanistan, on March 29, 2021.</figcaption>
<cite>Haroon Sabawoon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</cite></figure>
The administration is still concerned with ensuring groups like al-Qaeda don’t use the country to plan attacks against America or its allies, though, a senior administration official told reporters. However, the plan is to “reposition” America’s “counterterrorism capabilities, retaining significant assets in the region to counter the potential reemergence of the terrorist threat to the homeland from Afghanistan.”
In other words, there will still be US forces in the region keeping an eye on the terrorist threat in Afghanistan, but those troops won’t be in Afghanistan itself.
The US won’t completely abandon Afghanistan, though. “We are ending our military operations while we focus our efforts on supporting diplomatically,” the official said.
Three other key questions remain unanswered ahead of Biden’s Wednesday address.
The first is when all NATO troops will leave the country. The senior administration official said that “we will coordinate with NATO allies and partners about a drawdown of their forces in the same time frame” — meaning they also will leave Afghanistan before September 11.
That makes sense, as NATO can’t really do much without American firepower in the country. What’s more, those troops only really joined the US-led war effort in Afghanistan because the US asked them to, calling on NATO allies to come to America’s aid after it was attacked on 9/11. So if the US isn’t going to be fighting the war anymore, there’s little reason for its allies to stay, either.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin are currently in Brussels, home to NATO headquarters, explaining Biden’s decision to the allies.
The second question is what will happen to the peace process between the Taliban and the Afghan government in Kabul. The US wants to remain as a key player in diplomacy, but some analysts say the Taliban will have far less incentive to make concessions to the government once US troops are no longer there backing it up. Some experts, then, say the withdrawal will undermine any leverage America had left in the war.
Others disagree. “Ultimately the future of Afghanistan is something Afghans have to come to collective terms on, and the US military presence is preventing that from occurring, said Jonathan Schroden, an expert on the war at the CNA research organization in Arlington, Virginia.
That leads to the third, and most important, question: What’s going to happen to the country after America leaves?
The Taliban currently controls most of the land in the country — and that’s with the US military still there. With the US gone, the Afghan military and security forces will be a lot weaker. That’s why many experts warn that a US troop withdrawal could very well be followed swiftly by a complete Taliban takeover of the country, including the capital city of Kabul.
If that were to happen, it would spell doom for millions of Afghans, not least <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/essay/the-fate-of-womens-rights-in-afghanistan/">women</a> and children. When the Taliban last ruled the country, from 1996 to 2001, it imposed an extreme, and extremely brutal, form of Islamic government on the country that saw women banned not only from working but even from appearing in public without a male chaperone, and girls banned from attending school.
Though the Taliban of today is not quite the same organization it was when it ruled the country from 1996 to 2001, it still aims to establish its version of an Islamic government — and if <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/essay/the-fate-of-womens-rights-in-afghanistan/">the way it governs in the areas already under its control</a> is any indication of what that might look like, the future is likely to be bleak for women.
Afghans will also suffer as the Afghan government, trained for years by the US military, tries to fight back against any Taliban advances. A worsening civil war will only exacerbate the nation’s many problems.
Biden’s decision to withdraw isn’t without its perils, then. Republicans, for example, are already blasting the move. “A full withdrawal from Afghanistan is dumber than dirt and devilishly dangerous,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). “President Biden will have, in essence, cancelled an insurance policy against another 9/11.”
But after two decades of fighting in Afghanistan, with very little to show for it except <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/09/world/middleeast/afghanistan-war-cost.html">trillions</a> spent and <a href="https://www.defense.gov/casualty.pdf">2,400</a> Americans dead, many say it was time for the US to leave.
“This is the right decision,” Rep. Kim told me. “We need to end the war this year.”
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/13/22381893/biden-afghanistan-war-withdraw-september-11-taliban">https://www.vox.com/2021/4/13/22381893/biden-afghanistan-war-withdraw-september-11-taliban</a>

vox America’s forever war may be ending

President Joe Biden plans to withdraw all 3,500 US troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, finally bringing an end to America’s longe...

Exclusive: Mike Lindell reveals perfect timestamp correlation between late night vote ‘drops’ and Chinese cyberattacks

<table><tbody> <tr> <td style="font-size: 6px; line-height: 10px; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px;"> <table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td colspan="2"><a href="http://li.blogtrottr.com/click?s=124190&layout=marquee&li=99999&m=670188bd2036903d9bf4fa56715e64af&p=607a860943eefe067543f3f28200cd274b0ac14a" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://li.blogtrottr.com/imp?s=124190&layout=marquee&li=99999&m=670188bd2036903d9bf4fa56715e64af&p=607a860943eefe067543f3f28200cd274b0ac14a" style="display: block; height: auto; width: 100%;" width="600" /></a></td></tr><tr style="display: block; height: 1px; line-height: 1px;"><td><img height="1" src="http://li.blogtrottr.com/imp?s=124191&sz=1x1&li=99999&m=670188bd2036903d9bf4fa56715e64af&p=607a860943eefe067543f3f28200cd274b0ac14a" width="10" /></td><td><img height="1" src="http://li.blogtrottr.com/imp?s=124192&sz=1x1&li=99999&m=670188bd2036903d9bf4fa56715e64af&p=607a860943eefe067543f3f28200cd274b0ac14a" width="10" /></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><a href="http://li.blogtrottr.com/click?s=124193&sz=116x15&li=99999&m=670188bd2036903d9bf4fa56715e64af&p=607a860943eefe067543f3f28200cd274b0ac14a" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://li.blogtrottr.com/imp?s=124193&sz=116x15&li=99999&m=670188bd2036903d9bf4fa56715e64af&p=607a860943eefe067543f3f28200cd274b0ac14a" /></a></td><td align="right"><a href="http://li.blogtrottr.com/click?s=124194&sz=69x15&li=99999&m=670188bd2036903d9bf4fa56715e64af&p=607a860943eefe067543f3f28200cd274b0ac14a" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://li.blogtrottr.com/imp?s=124194&sz=69x15&li=99999&m=670188bd2036903d9bf4fa56715e64af&p=607a860943eefe067543f3f28200cd274b0ac14a" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <a name="item_0"></a> <table cellpadding="3" class="btrcontent" style="-moz-border-radius: 4px; -webkit-border-radius: 4px; background-color: white; border-radius: 4px; border: 1px solid rgb(173, 173, 173); font: 13px Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 6px; padding: 8px;"> <tbody><tr> <td><div style="color: #999999; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;">Apr 13th 2021, 16:15, by JD Rucker </div> <div style="color: #494949; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"> As a nation, we are faced with multiple major threats. Voter fraud, Covid-19 vaccines, mainstream media censorship, and Big Tech tyranny are just a few of the things challenging the nation and the Constitution. They all happen to be associated with someone I had the pleasure of speaking with for nearly an hour. <a href="https://www.mypillow.com/">MyPillow</a> founder and CEO Mike Lindell has lived an amazing life. His story is one that has been told many times, so with our limited time on the latest episode of <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/exclusive-mike-lindell-reveals-perfect-timestamp-correlation/id1509059063?i=1000516891243">NOQ Report</a> we bypassed the intro and went straight into the meat of the subject. For a great introduction and history of Lindell, check out this show from <a href="https://jamieglazov.com/2021/04/09/mike-lindell-frankspeechs-bonus-for-those-kicked-off-youtube/">Glasov Gang</a>. He's been in the news lately for multiple reasons. One of the biggest is his upcoming social site, <a href="https://frankspeech.com/">Frank Speech</a>, which officially launches next week. He described it as a combination of YouTube and Twitter with a focus on free speech. "They've attacked our First Amendment rights like nothing we've seen in our history," he said. Users can go to the website today and sign up early. There were far too many bombshells dropped in this episode of <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/exclusive-mike-lindell-reveals-perfect-timestamp-correlation/id1509059063?i=1000516891243">NOQ Report</a> to detail in a single article. He discussed his theory about David Hogg, the short-lived "competitor" in the pillow industry who Lindell believes never really intended to sell pillows. We discussed vaccines, his upcoming plans, and even more about Frank Speech. But there was one announcement he made on the show that must be discussed. "I'll announce it on your show right now," he said. "It's coming on Absolute Interference next week. We're launching to the world April 20th, but in that show, we're going to show something." That "something" turned out to be arguably the most important bombshell he's dropped regarding 2020 election fraud. The forensic evidence of technological voter fraud has been widely discussed but never fully sourced, nor has it been attributed directly to irregularities in vote counts. Now, the truth is finally starting to come out. He talked about the teams he put together for Absolute Interference and how he wanted to dig deeper into certain topics. "I said, 'You know what? I want you to take some [cyberattacks] specifically where it came out of China… take like 20 of them… I want those attacks that came direct out of China, I want a team on the ground, a separate cyber-team.'" What were they looking for? "They checked out physically where the attacks came from, the longitude-latitude, the IP addresses of the machines, the IDs of the computers, who did it?" he said. His team cross-referenced the timestamps of the cyberattacks with the "flips" of votes that he and others have documented before. They were a perfect match. He had the results audited by a third-party who confirmed the findings. Folks, this is huge. It tells us what many have speculated about over the last five months. There was a literal hack (not to be confused with the fake news "Russia Russia Russia" hacks of 2016) on our elections in which vote totals were changed to reflect a Biden victory. His team was able to duplicate this same process in a total of five states—Wisconsin, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Michigan. Those electoral college votes tally to more than enough for China and the Democrats to flip the election from a Trump victory to a stolen win for Joe Biden. With various audits in the works and others being pushed by many groups across the country, the data that Lindell and his team are revealing to the world will be crucial. It's one thing to find evidence of tampering. It's another thing altogether to compile the data in a way that demonstrates not only undeniable voter fraud but vote-switching sufficient enough to have an impact on the election results. Nobody, not the Supreme Court nor anyone in DC, would be willing to lift a finger regardless what the audits say unless the fraud can be shown to have changed the outcome. With what Lindell's team has found, we may have the proof. Timestamp data with sources and attribution gives us a smoking gun. The judiciary has been able to sidestep every previous attempt, but if the people are made aware of the data found in audits combined with the connections Lindell's teams have made on the cyberattack front, even a feckless Supreme Court will be unable to ignore it. This is why Frank Speech will play a crucial role in disseminating the information. We will cover other items discussed in this jam-packed show at a future date, but it behooves everyone to <a href="https://ffn.locals.com/post/579663/exclusive-mike-lindell-reveals-perfect-timestamp-correlation-between-late-night-vote-drops-and-ch">watch</a> or <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/exclusive-mike-lindell-reveals-perfect-timestamp-correlation/id1509059063?i=1000516891243">listen to</a> the episode now. It will take a day or two to unpack all that Lindell revealed and combine it with other information that's already coming out, but the raw explanations are ready to see or hear. Bringing the truth about the 2020 election to the forefront has been a major challenge for many patriots. But it's coming out nevertheless and with Frank Speech, the censors will not able hide these bombshells. <div></div> <hr /> <hr /> <h2>'The Purge' by Big Tech targets conservatives, including us</h2> <h4>Just when we thought the Covid-19 lockdowns were ending and our ability to stay afloat was improving, censorship reared its ugly head.</h4> For the last few months, NOQ Report has appealed to our readers for assistance in staying afloat through Covid-19 lockdowns. The downturn in the economy has limited our ability to generate proper ad revenue just as our traffic was skyrocketing. We had our first sustained stretch of three months with over a million visitors in November, December, and January, but February saw a dip. It wasn't just the shortened month. We expected that. We also expected the continuation of dropping traffic from "woke" Big Tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter, but it has actually been much worse than anticipated. Our Twitter account was banned. One of our YouTube accounts was banned and another has been suspended. Facebook "fact-checks" everything we post. Spotify canceled us. Why? Because we believe in the truth prevailing, and that means we will continue to discuss "taboo" topics. The 2020 presidential election was stolen. You can't say that on Big Tech platforms without risking cancelation, but we'd rather get cancelled for telling the truth rather than staying around to repeat mainstream media's lies. They have been covering it up since before the election and they've convinced the vast majority of conservative news outlets that they will be harmed if they continue to discuss voter fraud. We refuse to back down. The truth is the truth. The lies associated with Covid-19 are only slightly more prevalent than the suppression of valid scientific information that runs counter to the prescribed narrative. We should be allowed to ask questions about the vaccines, for example, as there is ample evidence for concern. One does not have to be an "anti-vaxxer" in order to want answers about vaccines that are still considered experimental and that have a track record in a short period of time of having side-effects. These questions are not allowed on Big Tech which is just another reason we are getting cancelled. There are more topics that they refuse to allow. In turn, we refuse to stop discussing them. This is why we desperately need your help. The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our <a href="https://noqreport.givingfuel.com/noq-report">Giving Fuel page</a> makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BJBTSXXH3MLUN&source=url">donate through PayPal</a> as well. We are on track to be short by about $5300 per month in order to maintain operations. The second way to help is to become a partner. We've strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn't seem necessary. Now, we're struggling to pay the bills. We had 5,657,724 sessions on our website from November, 2020, through February, 2021. Our intention is to elevate that to higher levels this year by focusing on a strategy that relies on free speech rather than being beholden to progressive Big Tech companies. During that four-month stretch, Twitter and Facebook accounted for about 20% of our traffic. We are actively working on operating as if that traffic is zero, replacing it with platforms that operate more freely such as Gab, Parler, and others. While we were never as dependent on Big Tech as most conservative sites, we'd like to be completely free from them. That doesn't mean we will block them, but we refuse to be beholden to companies that absolutely despise us simply because of our political ideology. We're heading in the right direction and we believe we're ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only "get in on the action" but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above. As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. <a href="https://noqreport.givingfuel.com/noq-report">Please help keep NOQ Report going</a>. Bitcoin: 32SeW2Ajn86g4dATWtWreABhEkiqxsKUGn <img alt="Bitcoin" data-recalc-dims="1" src="https://i1.wp.com/noqreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Bitcoin.png?ssl=1" /> <h3> </h3><hr /> <hr /> <div class="emotesBoxDiv"></div> The post <a href="https://noqreport.com/2021/04/13/exclusive-mike-lindell-reveals-perfect-timestamp-correlation-between-late-night-vote-drops-and-chinese-cyberattacks/" rel="nofollow">Exclusive: Mike Lindell reveals perfect timestamp correlation between late night vote 'drops' and Chinese cyberattacks</a> appeared first on <a href="https://noqreport.com" rel="nofollow">NOQ Report - Conservative Christian News, Opinions, and Quotes</a>. <img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NoqReport/~4/5INxxtZNPcc" width="1" /></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr><td></td></tr><tr><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

news noq Exclusive: Mike Lindell reveals perfect timestamp correlation between late night vote ‘drops’ and Chinese cyberattacks

...

To those pushing the J&J Covid vaccine: How many people have you hurt or killed?

<table><tbody><tr><td></td></tr><tr><td style="font-size: 6px; line-height: 10px; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px;"></td></tr><tr><td><table cellpadding="3" class="btrcontent" style="-moz-border-radius: 4px; -webkit-border-radius: 4px; background-color: white; border-radius: 4px; border: 1px solid rgb(173, 173, 173); font: 13px Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 6px; padding: 8px;"><tbody><tr><td><div style="color: #494949; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">There's a reason the government pushes for FDA approval 99.9% of the time before allowing a drug to be administered to the masses. They must be thoroughly tested with long-term studies, including exhaustive animal and tissue tests before they should be considered safe for humans. Now, Americans are learning this the hard way following the "pause" of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine. According to The Blaze: The federal government is recommending the immediate suspension of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine over blood clotting problems that medical experts believe were caused by the vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said administration of the only one-shot vaccine given emergency authorization should be immediately halted "out of an abundance of caution." <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-dnt="true" data-width="500"> Today FDA and <a href="https://twitter.com/CDCgov?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CDCgov</a> issued a statement regarding the Johnson & Johnson <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#COVID19</a> vaccine. We are recommending a pause in the use of this vaccine out of an abundance of caution. — U.S. FDA (@US_FDA) <a href="https://twitter.com/US_FDA/status/1381925612743499778?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 13, 2021</a> </blockquote> According to the New York Times, government scientists believe the vaccine may be the culprit behind six women developing serious blood clotting conditions — known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis — within two weeks of receiving the vaccine. One of those women has died, and another remains hospitalized in serious condition, according to the Times. In a joint statement, Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, and Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the CDC, called the condition "extremely rare." "We are recommending a pause in the use of this vaccine out of an abundance of caution," they said. "Right now, these adverse events appear to be extremely rare." This isn't necessarily an issue facing one side or the other; President Trump pushed just as hard as anyone on the left to get the vaccines out to the people. But the pharmaceutical companies used an artificial timeline to reveal their "successful" vaccines after the 2020 election but before Joe Biden was inaugurated in an effort to first sway the election and then to start printing gobs of money. Meanwhile, mainstream media, Big Tech, nearly the entirety of the Democratic Party, and many in the Republican Party have been hounding skeptics to get the jab. They've been relentless, even pushing for "vaccine passports" to pressure everyone into getting the vaccine or face the consequences. At least one woman is dead, but there is almost certainly countless others. We have tried to report on as many deaths as possible, particularly celebrities who seem to have mysteriously died following their vaccinations. <blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="E9ynTqx9Xd"><a href="https://noqreport.com/2021/04/10/family-member-confirms-dmx-given-covid-vaccine-days-before-lethal-heart-attack/">Family member confirms DMX given Covid vaccine days before lethal heart attack</a></blockquote> A single death, tragic as it is, would not prompt the government to shut down delivery of one of the vaccines. It could have easily been unrelated. How many do they suspect have actually died from their push? Will vaccine-nannies keep pushing? Of course. <hr /> <hr /> <h2>'The Purge' by Big Tech targets conservatives, including us</h2> <h4>Just when we thought the Covid-19 lockdowns were ending and our ability to stay afloat was improving, censorship reared its ugly head.</h4> For the last few months, NOQ Report has appealed to our readers for assistance in staying afloat through Covid-19 lockdowns. The downturn in the economy has limited our ability to generate proper ad revenue just as our traffic was skyrocketing. We had our first sustained stretch of three months with over a million visitors in November, December, and January, but February saw a dip. It wasn't just the shortened month. We expected that. We also expected the continuation of dropping traffic from "woke" Big Tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter, but it has actually been much worse than anticipated. Our Twitter account was banned. One of our YouTube accounts was banned and another has been suspended. Facebook "fact-checks" everything we post. Spotify canceled us. Why? Because we believe in the truth prevailing, and that means we will continue to discuss "taboo" topics. The 2020 presidential election was stolen. You can't say that on Big Tech platforms without risking cancelation, but we'd rather get cancelled for telling the truth rather than staying around to repeat mainstream media's lies. They have been covering it up since before the election and they've convinced the vast majority of conservative news outlets that they will be harmed if they continue to discuss voter fraud. We refuse to back down. The truth is the truth. The lies associated with Covid-19 are only slightly more prevalent than the suppression of valid scientific information that runs counter to the prescribed narrative. We should be allowed to ask questions about the vaccines, for example, as there is ample evidence for concern. One does not have to be an "anti-vaxxer" in order to want answers about vaccines that are still considered experimental and that have a track record in a short period of time of having side-effects. These questions are not allowed on Big Tech which is just another reason we are getting cancelled. There are more topics that they refuse to allow. In turn, we refuse to stop discussing them. This is why we desperately need your help. The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our <a href="https://noqreport.givingfuel.com/noq-report">Giving Fuel page</a> makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BJBTSXXH3MLUN&source=url">donate through PayPal</a> as well. We are on track to be short by about $5300 per month in order to maintain operations. The second way to help is to become a partner. We've strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn't seem necessary. Now, we're struggling to pay the bills. We had 5,657,724 sessions on our website from November, 2020, through February, 2021. Our intention is to elevate that to higher levels this year by focusing on a strategy that relies on free speech rather than being beholden to progressive Big Tech companies. During that four-month stretch, Twitter and Facebook accounted for about 20% of our traffic. We are actively working on operating as if that traffic is zero, replacing it with platforms that operate more freely such as Gab, Parler, and others. While we were never as dependent on Big Tech as most conservative sites, we'd like to be completely free from them. That doesn't mean we will block them, but we refuse to be beholden to companies that absolutely despise us simply because of our political ideology. We're heading in the right direction and we believe we're ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only "get in on the action" but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above. As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. <a href="https://noqreport.givingfuel.com/noq-report">Please help keep NOQ Report going</a>. Bitcoin: 32SeW2Ajn86g4dATWtWreABhEkiqxsKUGn <img alt="Bitcoin" data-recalc-dims="1" src="https://i1.wp.com/noqreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Bitcoin.png?ssl=1" /> <hr /> <div></div> <div></div> <hr /> <hr /> <div class="emotesBoxDiv"></div> The post <a href="https://noqreport.com/2021/04/13/to-those-pushing-the-jj-covid-vaccine-how-many-people-have-you-hurt-or-killed/" rel="nofollow">To those pushing the J&J Covid vaccine: How many people have you hurt or killed?</a> appeared first on <a href="https://noqreport.com" rel="nofollow">NOQ Report - Conservative Christian News, Opinions, and Quotes</a>.</div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr><td></td></tr><tr><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

news noq To those pushing the J&J Covid vaccine: How many people have you hurt or killed?

There's a reason the government pushes for FDA approval 99.9% of the time before allowing a drug to be administered to the masses. They ...