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Dem Senator Navarrete arrested

A Democratic state senator charged with multiple counts of sexual conduct with a minor will make his first court appearance Friday at 2 p.m. 

Sen. Otoniel “Tony” Navarrete was arrested Thursday evening and booked into jail. Police received a report that Navarrete had engaged in sexual conduct with a minor, a felony described as knowingly engaging in intercourse or oral sex with a minor. 

It’s a class 6 felony, punishable by one year in prison, if that minor is at least 15, and a class 2 felony, with a presumptive prison sentence of five years, if the child is younger than 15 or if the person charged was in a position of trust, such as a teacher or parent.  

Phoenix police said the alleged crime occurred in 2019, and they received a report on Aug. 4. After interviewing a young victim and witnesses, they arrested Navarrete near his home on Thursday.  

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Heart disorders after Covid-19 vaccines more common than CDC reported

The potentially serious heart disorders of pericarditis, inflammation of the heart’s surrounding membrane; and myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle, are happening after Covid-19 vaccination substantially more often than previously reported.

That’s according to new research led by Dr. George Diaz, Section of Infectious Diseases, Providence Regional Medical Center Everett, Everett, Washington; published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Diaz and his co-authors reviewed electronic medical hospital records of more than 2 million people who received at least one Covid-19 vaccination. They found 37 cases of vaccine-related pericarditis and 20 cases of vaccine-related myocarditis. That’s still “rare,” but far more than what was expected had Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC’s) numbers from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) been accurate.

According to CDC, myocarditis was reported to the VAERSS at a rate of about 4.8 cases per million, or less than 1/2 per 100,000 (.48 per 100,000). The disorder was reportedly lumped in together with pericarditis in the VAERS reporting analyzed by CDC.

But the new analysis unearthed a rate of 1.8 per 100,000 people for pericarditis and 1 in 100,000 for myocarditis. That’s a combined rate that’s more five times higher than thought: 2.8 people per 100,000 rather than 1/2 per 100,000.

The information seems to confirm what scientists have long said has long been well-established: there is a significant underreporting of adverse event reports to the federal VAERS system. Therefore, each report of an illness is presumed to be more prevalent than what’s documented through VAERS.

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Fauci Oversaw Dangerous, Torturous Experiments On Dogs

In addition to overseeing funding of gain of function coronavirus experiments in Wuhan, and then lying about it, it has now emerged that Dr Fauci was in charge of funding horrid experimental research on dogs, including purposefully infecting the animals with parasites known to be contagious to humans.

The report from the White Coat Waste Project draws on information gleaned from a FOIA request which revealed that $400,000 was pumped into National Institutes of Allergy & Infectious Disease experiments to infect beagles with parasites from biting flies.

The report outlines how the dogs “endured months of pain, and once researchers were done with them, they were killed.”

The NIAID task order states that “28 beagles were to be allowed to develop infections for three months before being euthanized for blood collection.”

The records obtained under the FOIA request show the dogs “vocalized pain” during the experiments.

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Apple’s Plan to “Think Different” About Encryption Opens a Backdoor to Your Private Life

Apple has announced impending changes to its operating systems that include new “protections for children” features in iCloud and iMessage. If you’ve spent any time following the Crypto Wars, you know what this means: Apple is planning to build a backdoor into its data storage system and its messaging system.

Child exploitation is a serious problem, and Apple isn’t the first tech company to bend its privacy-protective stance in an attempt to combat it. But that choice will come at a high price for overall user privacy. Apple can explain at length how its technical implementation will preserve privacy and security in its proposed backdoor, but at the end of the day, even a thoroughly documented, carefully thought-out, and narrowly-scoped backdoor is still a backdoor.

To say that we are disappointed by Apple’s plans is an understatement. Apple has historically been a champion of end-to-end encryption, for all of the same reasons that EFF has articulated time and time again. Apple’s compromise on end-to-end encryption may appease government agencies in the U.S. and abroad, but it is a shocking about-face for users who have relied on the company’s leadership in privacy and security.

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9/11 families to President Biden: Don’t come to our memorial events

Nearly 1,800 Americans directly affected by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks are opposing President Joe Biden’s participation in any memorial events this year unless he upholds his pledge to declassify U.S. government evidence that they believe may show a link between Saudi Arabian leaders and the attacks.

The victims’ family members, first responders and survivors will release a statement Friday calling on Biden to skip 20th-anniversary events in New York and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon unless he releases the documents, which they believe implicate Saudi officials in supporting the acts of terrorism. The group says that as a candidate Biden pledged to be more transparent and release as much information as possible but that his administration has since then ignored their letters and requests.

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LA City Council members propose requiring at least one vaccine dose in order to enter indoor establishments

Two members of the Los Angeles City Council are pushing for a requirement that people get at least one vaccine dose in order to enter indoor establishments.

LA City Council President Nury Martinez and Council Member Mitch O’Farrell introduced the motion on Wednesday.

A portion of the motion that Martinez shared on social media declares: “I THEREFORE MOVE, that the City Council instruct the City Attorney to prepare and present an ordinance that would require eligible individuals to have received at least one dose of vaccination to enter indoor spaces, including but not limited to, restaurants, bars, retail establishments, fitness centers, spas, and entertainment centers such as stadiums, concert venues, and movie theaters.”

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Meet Your New Feudal Overlords

Classic feudalism was a system where a wealthy land-owning nobility (the 1%) controlled the peasant class of workers known as serfs (everyone else). The elites provided serfs with a small piece of land on which to live. Although they paid taxes, generally, serfs owned no property, had no economic power or upward mobility. During the Middle Ages, as much as 90% of Europe’s population fell into this category.

Sound familiar?

I admit it’s not a perfect comparison, but it’s something worth considering — especially given what’s happening not just with housing but with land ownership in general. In our system, owning real estate is the most common vehicle for wealth accumulation. So what happens when only the wealthiest Americans can afford to own property?

Before you answer, you should know that billionaires are buying up land like it’s going out of style. Do you know who owns the most farmland in the United States? Bill Gates and his soon-to-be ex-wife Melinda, that’s who. With 242,000 acres of cropland plus nearly 30,000 additional acres of land in their real estate portfolio, they’re playing real-life monopoly.

According to The Land Report, 100 families own 42 million acres across the country.

The Gates family barely breaks the top 50. Former TCI chief John Malone is at the top of the list with 2.2 million acres.

While billionaires snatch up the country’s ranches and farmland, Wall Street is buying up all the houses they can get their hands on.

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New study further debunks “far-right” rabbit hole YouTube narrative

YouTube uses algorithms to suggest videos depending on what you watch. There have been many stories about how YouTube’s recommendation algorithms have “radicalized” people by populating their viewings with a specific subject, particularly when the subjects are “conspiracy theories.”

Yet, these accusations have been accused of being a “conspiracy theory” themselves as several studies have debunked such claims.

A new study published Monday further suggests that video recommendations on YouTube do not radicalize people.

The study focused on whether the alleged radicalization is anecdotal or represented an undeniable trend. The results of the study do not rule out the existence of radicalization through social media. However, it does strongly suggest that this radicalization is not at all common.

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