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Showing posts from February, 2021

Amanda Gorman Captures the Moment, in Verse - By Alexandra Alter

  Amanda Gorman Captures the Moment, in Verse By Alexandra Alter The youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history read “The Hill We Climb,” which she finished after the riot at the Capitol. “I’m not going to in any way gloss over what we’ve seen,” she says. Two weeks ago, the poet Amanda Gorman was struggling to finish a new work titled “The Hill We Climb.” She was feeling exhausted, and she worried she wasn’t up to the monumental task she faced: composing a poem about national unity to recite at President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s inauguration. “I had this huge thing, probably one of the most important things I’ll ever do in my career,” she said in an interview. “It was like, if I try to climb this mountain all at once, I’m just going to pass out.” Gorman managed to write a few lines a day and was about halfway through the poem on Jan. 6, when pro-Trump rioters stormed into the halls of Congress, some bearing weapons and Confederate flags. She stayed awake late into the night and finishe

Masking America’s Greatest Natural Monuments -By James Bovard

  President Biden photos Masking America’s Greatest Natural Monuments by aletho By James Bovard | AIER | February 6, 2021 The Biden administration just issued an edict that will spur endless pointless conflicts for Americans seeking to peacefully enjoy hundreds of national parks. On Groundhog Day, the National Park Service (NPS) mandated wearing face masks on all National Park Service lands “when physical distancing cannot be maintained, including “narrow or busy trails, overlooks and historic homes.” Probably 95% of the Park Service’s 800+ million acres is uncrowded 95% of the time. But the new mandate is an entitlement program for anyone who wants to harass anyone on federal land who is not wearing a mask, regardless of social distancing, wide open spaces, or trails wide enough for 18-wheel trucks. As the Idaho Statesman noted, “It’s unclear how park officials will enforce Biden’s federal mask mandate.” The Outdoor Society hailed the new regulation: “It is straight forward and very s

Mets’ Jackie Bradley Jr. pursuit may not be over: Sherman -By Joel ShermanFebruary

  Mets’ Jackie Bradley Jr. pursuit may not be over: Sherman By Joel ShermanFebruary  The Mets have reached agreement with Albert Almora pending a physical, and it is possible that settles how they will approach center field this season, with the former Cub serving as a caddy for Brandon Nimmo. But they have done so much background work on Jackie Bradley Jr. that I will continue to believe that if the designated hitter is adopted by the NL and Bradley remains a free agent at that time, the Mets will at least consider him. In the last week, the Mets had an extended Zoom meeting with Bradley that included team president Sandy Alderson, acting GM Zack Scott, hitting coach Chili Davis and first base/outfield coach Tony Tarasco. Scott, in particular, knows Bradley well from their shared time working with the Red Sox. The problem has been that Bradley never fully fit the Mets, as they are constructed without them being able to use a DH. His presence would have forced the Mets to decide every

'You're Not Allowed Here': Soldiers Remove Arabs From West Bank Site at Settlers' Request- Hagar Shezaf

 'You're Not Allowed Here': Soldiers Remove Arabs From West Bank Site at Settlers' Request Hagar Shezaf The Arab family, all Israeli citizens, was picnicking at a site near Ramallah, not far from an outpost, when settlers harassed them and called the army Israeli soldiers ejected an Israeli Arab family from a site near Kafr Jibiya in the Ramallah area of the West Bank on Saturday, where the family was having a picnic. The soldiers arrived on the scene after Israelis from a nearby Jewish settlement outpost, called them to the site. In two video clips of the incident, the settlers are first seen approaching the family and telling them to leave, although though the site is not within the confines of any West Bank Jewish settlement. When the family refused, one of the settlers took their belongings and threw beverages from their cups onto their campfire. The settler then called the army. The family filmed a soldier who arrived on the scene, who told them that they had to le

Biden to Remove Iran-Backed Houthis from Foreign Terrorist Organization List - By Hana Levi Julian

  Photo Credit: Henry Ridgwell (VOA) via Wikimedia Biden to Remove Iran-Backed Houthis from Foreign Terrorist Organization List By Hana Levi Julian The US State Department on Friday confirmed to reporters that President Joe Biden has directed his administration to remove Yemen’s Iranian-backed militia, the Houthis, from the list of foreign terrorist organizations. “Secretary (Antony) Blinken has been clear about undertaking an expeditious review of the designations of Ansarallah (Houthis – ed.) given the profound implications for the people of Yemen, home to the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe,” said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity since he was not authorized to speak publicly. He added that the “decision has nothing to do with our view of the Houthis and their reprehensible conduct, including attacks against civilians and the kidnapping of American citizens. We are committed to helping Saudi Arabia defend its territory against further such attacks,” the official

‘Genie’s out of the bottle’: German FM pledges €21 million to help Belarusian opposition in fight to remove embattled Lukashenko

https://on.rt.com/b18t  (L) German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas © Reuters / John Thys; (R) Belarusian protesters rally in Minsk, Belarus, on December 13, 2020. © Reuters   ‘Genie’s out of the bottle’: German FM pledges €21 million to help Belarusian opposition in fight to remove embattled Lukashenko Germany has set aside €21 million ($25.3 million) as part of its new “action plan” aimed at supporting opponents of the Belarusian government, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has told an improvised pro-opposition online conference. Seemingly in an effort to cement an image of Berlin as the leader among European nations sponsoring anti-government movements in the post-Soviet space, Maas on Saturday addressed the so-called Belarus Solidarity Conference. This was a virtual event organized by the World Belarus Congress, a forum of Belarusian expatriate diasporas and opposition-supporting groups. “The Genie of democracy is out of the bottle. There is no way to put it back,” Berlin's chief diploma

Pentagon goes rooting for ‘extremists’ among its 3.6mn trained killers - Helen Buyniskiis

  Pentagon goes rooting for ‘extremists’ among its 3.6mn trained killers Helen Buyniskiis an American journalist and political commentator  The US military is making a big show of cleansing its ranks of ‘extremism’ – because nothing says tolerance like raining fiery death on innocent strangers at the command of a guy who just stepped down from Raytheon’s board. With “domestic extremists” now officially the enemy du jour in Washington, the top order of business has become finding some. On Wednesday, newly-anointed secretary of defense (and former Raytheon board member) Lloyd Austin ordered a two-month stand-down so that commanders could engage in “needed discussions” with their subordinates on the issue. Did we mention they have a lot of subordinates? There are 3.6 million service members in the most expensive military in the world, and evaluating every single one of them for a characteristic that lacks even a universally-agreed-upon definition is certain to be both time-consuming and f

Republicans Slam Pelosi's Latest Move That Show She's a Total Hypocrite Beth BaumannBeth Baumann|

  Republicans Slam Pelosi's Latest Move That Show She's a Total Hypocrite Beth BaumannBeth Baumann| Three House Republicans on Friday sent a letter to the Acting Sergeant at Arms, Timothy Blodgett, asking him to impost a $5,000 fine on Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for failing to undergo a security screening prior to entering the House floor. The letter's authors – Congressman Rodney Davis, Barry Loudermilk and Bryan Stiel – cite House Resolution 73, which imposes a $5,000 fine the first time a member fails to undergo a security screening. If a second offense occurs, the fine is $10,000. The resolution passed in the chamber on Tuesday. "The resolution, which went into effect upon passage of the House on February 2nd, imposes a fine for $5,000 for the first offense. It also directs you to notify in writing of fines being imposed of violations for House Resolution 73," the letter stated. "Yesterday, at approximately 9:59 am, multiple members observed the Speaker

Scientists Ominously Warn COVID Is Reducing Fertility-By Steve Watson

  Figure 1 Change in birth-rate in months after the start of three recent epidemics, namely SARS, Zika, and Ebola (Source: The Economist; Institute for Family Studies). Scientists Ominously Warn COVID Is Reducing Fertility by aletho By Steve Watson | Summit News | February 3, 2021 Just when you thought the future couldn’t get much more dystopian, scientists have issued more stark warnings that COVID-19 is reducing fertility in men, and could contribute to depopulation of the planet. Scientists say that there is increasing evidence in patients of testicular damage and lower sperm counts and mobility, with initial studies revealing the presence of the virus in semen samples. Researchers at the Justus-Liebig-University in Germany. along with scientists from Allameh Tabataba’i University in Iran have reported  significant inflammation markers in samples of testicular tissue from 84 Covid-19 patients. They discovered that the inflammation and cellular stress were twice as severe in the Covi

Who Is in Control? The Need to Rein in Big Tech -Allum Bokhari

  Who Is in Control? The Need to Rein in Big Tech January 2021 • Volume 50, Number 1 • Allum Bokhari Allum Bokhari Breitbart News Allum BokhariAllum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is a graduate of the University of Oxford and was a 2020 Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy. In 2018, he obtained and published “The Google Tape,” a recording of Google’s top executives reacting to the 2016 Trump election and declaring their intention to make the American populist movement a “blip” in history. He is the author of #Deleted: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal the Election. The following is adapted from a speech delivered at Hillsdale College on November 8, 2020, during a Center for Constructive Alternatives conference on Big Tech. In January, when every major Silicon Valley tech company permanently banned the President of the United States from its platform, there was a back