Category: Opinion

Approximately 60 people, including 40 children, who are part of a migrant caravan traveling through Mexico are exhibiting symptoms of either Dengue Fever or COVID-19 as of Wednesday night.

Despite the potential for the spread of serious disease, the group plans to continue traveling north from Pijijiapan, Mexico. According to the CDC, symptoms of Dengue Fever include fevers, aches, and rashes, and is commonly spread by mosquitoes.

MX: #MigrantCaravan relocated to Pijijiapan’s central square last night.
They are in close quarters…
At least 60 people (40 kids) are very sick w/COVID or Dengue Fever (mosquito-borne illness)

A journalist still in the camp says they will walk again tmw AM.
Video: Juan Blanco pic.twitter.com/S78tEPshrQ

— Ali Bradley (@AliBradleyTV) November 3, 2021

The Mexican Institute of Migration rendered aid to many migrants traveling with the caravan, among them was a Honduran father and son with blisters on their feet and a Nicaraguan minor that was taken to the hospital for a fever, cough, vomiting, and headache. Several other migrants were treated for flu-like symptoms and dehydration.

Mexican law enforcement officials, including members of the National Guard, encountered the caravan outside of Pijijiapan, Mexico, the group’s leader, Luis Villagran, said on Thursday. Villagran said a few of the migrants were detained and taken to a crowded women’s facility.

Mexican officials said they are prepared to stop the caravan when they reach Arriaga, Mexico, about 60 miles from their current location. Mexican law enforcement in riot gear recently stopped a migrant caravan moving through the southern part of the country and assaulted people who tried to push past the officials.

Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, opened up about the allegations that he strangled and recorded women during sex without their consent, it was wild. Portnoy was interviewed on Fox News Monday night by anchor Tucker Carlson. The sports media tycoon chastised Business Insider for publishing an article last week documenting many allegations of sexual misconduct against Portnoy.

“They won’t even discuss it. They print and run. They print and run. It’s disgusting and it’s character assassination,” Portnoy said. “My lawyers have said just let it go, it’ll go away. I’m not going to let it go because this is, this behavior, I’ve never been attacked like this. I’ve been attacked for two decades, but never escalated to this length and, frankly, it’s scary. I didn’t know that you could do this.”

Reminder I will go on any show that invites me on. I want to scream from the rooftops about what is happening here. This shouldn’t be political. Everybody should be outraged pic.twitter.com/MbGIk0SZGA

— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) November 9, 2021

Last week, Business Insider published an article revealing two women’s claims that Portnoy strangled and harmed them during a consensual hook-up. Portnoy, who claims to have recognized the ladies included in the story, rebutted the charges in an internet video.

The ladies who made the charges, both college-aged, refused to give their true identities to Business Insider, stating they feared retaliation from Portnoy.

According to the first claim, made by a lady named Madison, Portnoy flew her to his place for a brief stay. She said they had intercourse once during her time with the Barstool founder, and the event left her feeling like a “human sex doll.” Two days after the event, she texted a friend, describing Portnoy as rough and comparing the sensation of sex that night to rape. She claimed she yelled in agony, pleading with Portnoy to stop, but he refused. She stated that she slept on the couch for the remainder of her trip.

“I can say this unequivocally, she came, she flew, we did have pizza, hung out, hooked up. At no point during it, at no point was it not 100% consensual. At no point did she ask me to stop. At no point did either of us think something unseemly happened. There was no weirdness after. It was totally fine, normal interaction. Sexual, 100% consensual,” Portnoy said.

A protest in Boston Sunday opposing vaccine and mask mandates turned violent when Antifa groups showed up. The anti-mandate demonstration was organized by A group called “Super Happy Fun America.” People were gathered at the Boston Commons in protest of vaccine and mask mandates when Antifa groups showed up and confronted the protesters.

The Antifa group used Twitter to organize. A group known as “Solidarity Against Hate – Boston” tweeted on Oct. 19 asking people to come out and “tell the Capitol rioters to get out of Boston.”

The fighting broke out around 11:30 before the protest was scheduled to begin at noon. Antifa protesters breached police barricades and confronted anti-mandate protesters.

“We came here to peacefully protest when we were violently attacked by a mob that pepper-sprayed us, attacked us and refused to allow our van to leave,” said Super Happy Fun America organizer Brandon Navom.

“We don’t want that in our city: Anti-vaxxers, people who don’t believe that COVID is real, people that put other people in danger, racist transphobes and people that hate other people for the way they are — that’s not OK,” counter-protester Rifka Handelman, an Emerson College student, said.

Local media outlets covered the violent confrontation and tweeted about it.

Fight just broke out between groups, police broke it up @NBC10Boston @NECN pic.twitter.com/zC4MBnbVLb

— Monica Madeja NBC10 Boston (@MonicaNBCBoston) November 7, 2021

NOW: Clashing rallies on Boston Common; one group here to protest mask/vaccine mandates with speeches, the other protesting the protesters with a brass band. @NBC10Boston @NECN pic.twitter.com/cuSavwE6WI

— Monica Madeja NBC10 Boston (@MonicaNBCBoston) November 7, 2021

McNulty, a Boston Police Officer, said that two people were arrested when “opposing sides clashed at today’s scheduled event and planned a counter-protest on the Boston Common. BPD assets included officers in protective equipment.”

William Turbitt, 39, of Providence, Rhode Island, was arrested on charges of disturbing the peace and interfering with police. Turbitt crashed a van through a barrier. Ronald McCarron, 68, of Wakefield, was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace.

Both men are to be arraigned Monday at Boston Municipal Court.

Former Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley suggested that older politicians should be required to take a cognitive test. When asked about the mental health of President Joe Biden, who at the age of 78, is the oldest person to ever be elected president, Haley answered by saying that there needs to be a conversation about “anyone above a certain age in a position of power,” as opposed to just one person.

“Whether it’s the House, whether it’s the Senate, whether it’s vice president, whether it’s president — you should have some sort of cognitive test,” Haley said. “Like, just like you have to show your tax returns … so that people have faith in what you’re doing.”

“And right now, let’s face it, we’ve got a lot of people in leadership positions that are old. And that’s not being disrespectful. That’s a fact,” she added. “And when it comes to that, this shouldn’t be partisan. We should seriously be looking at the ages of the people that are running our country and understand if that’s what we want.”

Haley cited examples of when Biden did not seem to fully understand what was going on, such as the consequence of the U.S. negotiating a nuclear submarine deal with Australia without France’s knowledge. Climate envoy John Kerry said Biden “literally had not been aware of what had transpired” in an interview in early October.

“He can’t act like he doesn’t know something,” Haley said. “Because every time he acts like he doesn’t know something from ‘okay, they tell me to call on these reporters,’ you know, he keeps giving signals that he’s not with it. So, it’s not people hating on Biden, it’s Biden really showing the country that he’s not totally in charge, and that makes everyone nervous.”

The Democrats’ $1.75 trillion social spending bill would profoundly increase fines imposed on employers for occupational hazards, which would include President Biden’s vaccine mandate.

Businesses with over 100 employees must require their workers to be either fully vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing by Jan. 4, according to the mandate, which was finalized Thursday. Fines, enforced through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), could be as high as $14,000 per violation.

The Democrats’ Build Back Better legislation would increase OSHA penalties tenfold from their initial levels – up to $70,000 for “serious violations” and $700,000 for willful or repeated violations.

This would be the first amendment made to the Occupational Safety and Health Act in almost 20 years, when Congress expanded research related to bioterrorist threats to workers in the wake of 9/11. Other legislation is already in place that requires OSHA’s existing fines to adjust with inflation.

Under the current law, the maximum penalty for “serious violations” is 7,000 but rises to nearly $14,000 after being adjusted for inflation. The Build Back Better plan would replace the $7,000 maximum to $70,000. The current penalty for willful or repeated violations allows for a $70,000 maximum (before adjusting for inflation), but would jump to $700,000, according to the bill.

The Build Back Better legislation would also provide OSHA with $707 million to enforce its penalties.

The House is expected to vote on the Build Back Better legislation Friday.

Vaccine rules under the Biden administration affect approximately 100 million employees, encompassing about two-thirds of the workforce, according to the White House. OSHA estimates that the vaccine mandate will lead to nearly 23 million employees getting vaccinated.

Under the rule, employers are required to pay for time missed getting the vaccine and recovering from potential side effects, however companies are not required to pay for or provide testing.

Labor Secretary Marty Walsh claims that the vaccine mandate will ensure “safe and healthy workplaces for millions of Americans,” arguing that COVID-19 spread “presents a grave danger of illness or death to unvaccinated workers,” adding that the rule would help boost the economy.

Republicans have voiced concerns that the mandate will affect an already tight labor market. In a Kaiser Family Foundation survey, nearly 40% of unvaccinated workers claim they would quit if their employer required them to get vaccinated or tested.

Republicans pushed back against the mandate with at least 24 attorneys general threatening to sue since Biden made the announcement in September.

Responses from trade groups were mixed. The National Retail Federation called the vaccine requirement “burdensome,” while the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union said it was “critical.”

For months Democrats have been trying to pass the Build Back Better plan, a massive piece of legislation which includes paid family leave and universal pre-K. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, both Democrats, have stalled the progressive agenda, based on the cost and specific line items, furthermore infighting between progressives and moderates have stalled the legislation.

In a strong vote Tuesday an expert panel recommended the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should authorize the Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE COVID-19 vaccines for children ages 5 to 11, saying the benefits of getting the vaccine outweigh the risk.

The authorization would be an important regulatory step toward vaccinating 28 million children who are, for the most part back in school for in-person learning.

The vaccine could be available to primary school-aged children as soon as next week. The FDA is not obligated to follow the advice of outside experts but typically does.

If the FDA authorizes the shots for this age group, an advisory panel to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet next week to make a recommendation on administering the vaccine. The CDC director will make the final decision.

The companies claim their vaccines showed 90.7% efficacy against the coronavirus in a clinical trial of children aged 5 to 11.

While cases of serious illness and death from COVID-19 in children are fewer than in adults, there have been complications and deaths among the age group. Infections in unvaccinated kids have been on the rise due to the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus.

“To me, the question is pretty clear,” said Dr. Amanda Cohn, a pediatric vaccine expert at the CDC and a voting member of the panel. “We don’t want children to be dying of COVID, even if it is far fewer children than adults, and we don’t want them in the ICU.”

Pfizer and BioNTech are seeking clearance for a lower, 10-microgram dose of the vaccine for younger children, compared to 30 micrograms for those age 12 and older. The vaccine was authorized for ages 12-15 in May after being cleared for those age 16 and older in December.

The advisory panel paid close attention to the rate of a heart inflammation called myocarditis that has been linked to both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, particularly in young men.

The Biden administration is getting ready to hire a left-wing activist and current New York University researcher.

Meredith Whittaker, a former Google employee and outspoken activist on issues of race, sexuality, and gender in the tech industry, is in the process of undergoing a background check for an artificial intelligence advisor position at the Federal Trade Commission.

At this time Whittaker works as the faculty director of the AI Now Institute at New York University, where she researches “rights and liberties, labor and automation, bias and inclusion, and safety and critical infrastructure,” according to the institute’s website.

Whittaker led a walkout in protest of Google’s handling of sexual misconduct. She has been an active activist working to combat “structural racism” in the tech industry, as well as misogyny and sexual harassment.

She also called for tech workers to “unionize” and “build solidarity” in an internal message sent to her Google coworkers. In 2019, she successfully pushed for the removal of Kay James Cole, then-president of the Heritage Foundation, from Google’s AI advisory panel on the grounds that her positions on homosexuality made her ethically unfit for the position.

Whittaker continues to be outspoken in her views on social media. She referred to cryptocurrency executives as “racist” and “ignorant” in a tweet in relation to a New York Times piece about allegations that crypto firm Coinbase discriminated against black employees.

“White supremacy pays — it’s the scaffolding of their ‘success.’ At some level, they certainly know that, and are optimizing for it,” she tweeted.

One tweet condemned Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s embrace of “frat culture” and bemoaned his “maniacal white boy cackle.”

On Jan. 9, three days after the Jan. 6 riots, Whittaker announced her support for censorship of “fascists” on social media.

It’s “good [social media companies] they’re banning fascists,” Whittaker tweeted, though she did not clarify who the tweet was referring to.

If hired, Whittaker would join the FTC under the tenure of Lina Khan, who wants to expand the agency’s power, drawing accusations of partisanship from Republican Commissioners as well as GOP lawmakers.

There have also been reports that the FTC under Khan has begun considering non-competition-related information when deciding whether mergers are lawful. Democratic Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter has pushed for antitrust enforcement to be a device for “anti-racism.”

A Breathalyzer-type test that can detect COVID-19 within seconds is currently being tested and could become a noninvasive, rapid alternative to nasal swab tests, according to researchers.

COVID-19 infection causes a distinct breath print from the interaction of oxygen, nitric oxide, and ammonia in the body. An initial study of the breath test found that it gave accurate results for COVID-19 infections in almost 90% of critically ill patients with the disease.

The breathalyzer test can detect COVID-19 in exhaled breath within 15 seconds, according to researchers who have applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization.

The study included 46 intensive care patients with acute respiratory failure who required mechanical ventilation. All of the patients had a PCR COVID-19 (nasal swab) test upon admission to the ICU, half were found to have COVID-19.

The researchers collected exhaled breath bags from all of the patients on days 1, 3, 7, and 10 of their hospitalization, the samples were tested within four hours after collection.

The testing proved to be 88% accurate in detecting the breath print of COVID-19, according to the study published Oct. 28 in the journal PLOS ONE.

“The gold standard for diagnosis of COVID-19 is a PCR test that requires an uncomfortable nasal swab and time in a lab to process the sample and obtain the results,” said lead researcher Dr. Matthew Exline, director of critical care at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

“This novel [Breathalyzer-type] technology uses nanosensors to identify and measure specific biomarkers in the breath,” said test co-developer Pelagia-Irene Gouma, a professor in Ohio State’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

“This is the first study to demonstrate the use of a nanosensor [Breathalyzer-type] system to detect a viral infection from exhaled breath prints,” Gouma said in an Ohio State news release.

“PCR tests often miss early COVID-19 infections and results can be positive after the infection has resolved,” Exline said in the release. “However, this noninvasive breath test technology can pick up early COVID-19 infection within 72 hours of the onset of respiratory failure, allowing us to rapidly screen patients in a single step and exclude those without COVID-19 on mechanical ventilation.”

The researchers plan to further assess the use of the technology to detect less severe COVID-19, as well as other infections and diseases.

Gabby Petito’s father is not wasting time thinking about what is inside Brian Laundrie’s notebook. Instead, he wants to bring awareness to the domestic violence issues plaguing the nation.

Joe Petito knows nothing in Brian’s notebook is going to bring Gabby back, and he is coming to terms with the reality that all of the answers to his questions her tragic death may have died with her.

As you know, Brian’s remains were found last week in an area that was previously underwater, and law enforcement found some of his belongings, including a notebook, nearby.

Joe says he is never going to get closure from the notebook — even if cops can recover any info from it — and it’s not going to help him get over losing a child. He says the only reason he would want to know what Brian wrote would be for his own selfish gratification.

Gabby’s father also says the notebook won’t do much for Brian’s parents either, because they lost a child too, and the book won’t bring their son back either.

According to the family’s lawyer, Laundrie’s parents don’t know what secrets are inside the journal but a lot of their actions have been suspicious and questionable.

Instead of focusing on the notebook, Joe says he would rather put meaning behind Gabby’s death … and for him, that means making a difference with domestic violence issues.

Joe now wants the focus to be on how to avoid another tragic incident like his daughter’s. He says it’s “insane” to see research showing over 1 in 3 women in the United States have experienced domestic violence. He adds society needs to figure out how to shift the shame from the victim to the abuser … and maybe that starts by having conversations that reassure victims it’s not their fault.

All Joe wants now is to see more support made available for victims of domestic violence and hopes Gabby’s tragic case will shine a light on other women or men who were victims of domestic violence and are reported missing.

People around the globe stood together Wednesday to protest vaccine mandates in a worldwide “walkout.”

According to the Children’s Health Defense (CHD), a “Worldwide Walkout” event was organized for Nov. 3. The CHD said they had partnered with other organizations and individuals to stage a global “walk out” by calling in sick, taking a personal day, and keeping children home from school to participate in the protests.

The live broadcast event in New York City was sponsored by several organizations including the NY Freedom Rally and Teachers For Choice. The event featured noted speakers such as Michael Kane of Teacher’s For Choice, President Mary Holland Esq. from CHD, CHD NY President John Gilmore, and Progressive Action TV’s Tramell Thompson.

“People have to be able to exercise free power of choice. Without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, overreaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion,” one protester in New York said. Adding, “In other words, everything that is happening now violates the most basic principles of law and ethics.”

There are images from Marin County in California of people coming out to participate in the walkout as well.

In Ukraine, more than 1,000 people gathered to protest vaccine certificates and state-imposed restrictions. Wednesday, demonstrators blocked the streets to the center of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

Organized protests against vaccine mandates had already erupted across the country. New York City firefighters and police officers organized a massive protest in late October against the vaccine requirement imposed onto municipal workers by Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio.