If the Supreme Court rules that bump stocks aren’t machine guns later this summer, it could quickly open an unfettered marketplace of newer, more powerful rapid-fire devices. The Trump administration, in a rare break from gun rights groups, quickly banned bump stocks after the 2017 mass shooting at a Las Vegas concert that was the deadliest in U.S. history. In the ensuing years, gun rights groups challenged the underlying rationale that bump stocks are effectively machine guns — culminating...

A bipartisan group of influential senators is calling on the Biden administration to investigate Formula 1 over its decision to reject Andretti Global from racing on the grid in the coming years, suggesting the sport may be violating American antitrust law as it grows its U.S. fan base. They made the request in a letter sent Tuesday and viewed by NBC News, which was led by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., the chair of the Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust,...

A City Hall aide who was suspended for inappropriate conduct amid an FBI probe into Mayor Eric Adams’ campaign fundraising is cooperating with the feds, sources confirmed to The Post. The Adams staffer who turned on her boss has been identified by sources as Rana Abbasova, whose home was raided by the FBI as part of the federal corruption investigation into the mayor’s 2021 campaign. After Abbasova’s New Jersey house was raided in November 2023, sources have said she...

National drugstore chains, once resistant to the retail apocalypse that swept across the U.S., are finally succumbing to competition from online shopping and discount stores. About 3,000 fewer drugstores were open for business at the start of this year compared with the same period in 2019, according to analytics company RetailStat, which tracks 15 pharmacy chains.  CVS Health, Walgreens and Rite Aid have each closed hundreds of stores since the onset of the...

Cyberattacks against water utilities across the country are becoming more frequent and more severe, the Environmental Protection Agency warned Monday as it issued an enforcement alert urging water systems to take immediate actions to protect the nation's drinking water. About 70% of utilities inspected by federal officials over the last year violated standards meant to prevent breaches or other intrusions, the agency said. Officials urged even small water systems to improve protections...

I didn't know about some of these!

Meta (Facebook) gets visitors’ personal data, which in the case of mortgage brokers includes estimated credit, veteran status, occupation, co-borrowers’ names, bankruptcy, home ownership and citizenship status, interest in specific homes, as well as their addresses. Another big source of Facebook’s “bread and butter” – namely, people’s personal data – has been highlighted in a new investigative report, which identified that source as the online mortgage brokers industry. These are companies that act as intermediaries between borrowers and lenders, and when people either apply for a loan or seek refinancing, they give up highly sensitive information, trusting that it will be used by those firms alone. But The Markup reveals that this data, in an alarming number of cases (over 200 out of about 700 tested broker websites), gets “shared” with Facebook. The sites are run by both major and smaller companies – one of them being the Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation, a top US lender. And Fairway Independent is among the sites that give data to Facebook. When contacted by the publication, this company said that it has discontinued the practice and that personally identifiable information was not made available to Facebook before – but a representative stopped short of explaining what they consider to be identifiable information.URGENT! Keep Alex Jones in the fight against the NWO! Please pray & contribute at DefendJones.com today! The article mentions a number of sites involved in similar data collecting and sharing schemes, and details scenarios under which this is happening. Not all were willing to comment at all – not even to the extent of Fairway Independent’s not-overly-useful response. What reveals that a site is engaged in this practice is the presence of the Meta Pixel tracker; the JavaScript snippet is embedded in websites, and Meta promotes it as a way for those sites to optimize their targeted ad campaigns on Facebook and Instagram. In return, Meta (Facebook) gets visitors’ personal data, which in the case of mortgage brokers includes estimated credit, veteran status, occupation, co-borrowers’ names, bankruptcy, home ownership and citizenship status, interest in specific homes, as well as their addresses, writes The Markup. “At a minimum legally dubious” is how George Washington University law professor Alicia Solow-Niederman described this. Meanwhile over at Facebook – which claims it is trying to stop Meta Pixel users from sending sensitive data, but doesn’t say if it’s succeeding – not even the giant’s engineers seem certain how the system works. “The engineers wrote in a document obtained by Vice’s Motherboard in 2022 that they ‘do not have an adequate level of control and explainability over how our systems use data’,” the article noted. Globalists May Release New Bird Flu Strain In Attempt To Stop Trump, Warns Edward Dowd

Under the guise of creating bird flu vaccines, U.S. government agencies and private funders like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are bankrolling gain-of-function research to make bird flu viruses more lethal and transmissible among mammals. U.S. health officials only recently admitted to funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China — but for decades, the U.S. government has funded the same type of dangerous research on bird flu in the U.S. And that research continues today. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), theU.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) — even the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — have funded or are funding research to make bird flu more pathogenic and/or more transmissible in mammals. Appearing on the “Kim Iversen Show” on May 16, Brian Hooker, Ph.D., Children’s Health Defensechief scientific officer, said he is concerned the U.S. is “making agents of … biological destruction” that could “put us into another pandemic.” Hooker echoed warnings by former CDC Director Robert Redfield, who suggested the next pandemic would be sparked by a leak from a lab working to humanize bird flu viruses.Save 40% on Ultimate Fish Oil today and improve your supplement routine & experience the world-renowned powerhouse formula! Former CDC Director Robert Redfield:1). “I’m obviously most worried about bird flu.”2). “Right now it takes a five amino acid change to make it effectively infecting humans.”3). “That’s a pretty heavy species barrier…”4). “But in the laboratory, I could make it highly… pic.twitter.com/PYpKD2v0SN— Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH® (@P_McCulloughMD) May 13, 2024 Hooker told Iversen the CDC’s Influenza Division infected ferrets with the currently circulating H5N1 avian influenza strain, then infected human lung cells, to make the virus more infective to humans. Their justification, he said, is to be prepared for a zoonotic outbreak — where a virus from a bird or other animal jumps to humans. “The party line that you hear all the time is, ‘Well, we have to develop these pathogens because then we can develop the countermeasures,’ — the vaccines, the monoclonal antibodies, the therapeutics,” he said. Long list of gain-of-function studies on bird flu The CDC, BARDA, NIAID and the World Health Organization (WHO) have conducted or funded dangerous bird flu studies. Jessica Belser, a lead researcher with the CDC, was involved in numerous studies exploring the pathogenicity and transmissibility of bird flu viruses. She is co-author of a March 2024 study on the H5N1 strain causing fatal disease and transmitting between co-housed ferrets. In 2020, Belser studied how different strains of the H9N2 flu virus, which have genetic and antigenic differences, show varying patterns of replication and transmission in mammalian animal models. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention was a collaborator. In 2016, Belser studied how different bird flu strains, including H5N1, H7N9 and H9N2, could infecthuman pulmonary endothelial cells. Richard Webby, Ph.D., a BARDA-associated researcher and director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds, is co-author of a May 2024 paper studying the susceptibility and transmissibility in the pig population of highly pathogenic avian influenza derived from mink. In a 2017 study funded by the NIAID, Webby tested bird flu vaccines on ferrets, infecting them with the wild virus to determine the vaccines’ efficacy. Hooker told The Defender this research is dangerous because ferrets “are immunologically very close to humans. … It’s not a huge leap for them to suddenly get into the human population and start human-to-human transmission.” Christine Oshansky, chief of Pandemic Vaccines and Adjuvants at BARDA, co-authored a 2021 study ofhighly pathogenic influenza H7N9 and a vaccine formulation. In 2018, Oshansky tested H5N1 vaccines stored in the national Influenza vaccine stockpile for up to 12 years to determine if they could be effective against divergent A (H5) influenza viruses. The WHO funded the May 2020 study, “Pandemic potential of highly pathogenic avian influenza clade 2.3.4.4 A(H5) viruses.” Collaborators included the CDC, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and other organizations. Webby and Yoshihiro Kawaoka, DVM, Ph.D.of the University of Wisconson are among the listed authors. “That’s the huge danger of doing this work,” Hooker said. “Whether it’s an accidental or intentional release, you’re playing with these pathogens so that they’re basically creating variants that are infectious in humans.” The vaccine cash cow Hooker told Iversen there are “myriad patents associated with bird flu vaccines [and] bird flu pathogens.” Kawaoka, the researcher long funded by NIAID to conduct bird flu research, has 78 patents in his portfolio, many of them related to bird flu vaccination. In 2023, Kawaoka filed patents on: Mutations that confer genetic stability to additional genes in influenza viruses (US-11802273-B2).Recombinant influenza viruses with stabilized HA for replication in eggs (US-11807872 – B2).A humanized cell line (US-11851648-B2). In 2022, Kawaoka filed a patent for influenza virus replication for vaccine development (US-113906-B2). Richard Bright, former BARDA director and a bird flu researcher at the CDC from 1998-2006, has an “extensive patent portfolio on — you guessed it — bird flu vaccines,” Hooker said. “And so these prophets of doom hit the airwaves and they scare everybody.” Continued delayed / missing data, and lack of transparency by @USDA is hampering efforts to contain spread of #H5N1 virus & is putting more people at risk. Their narrative is quickly eroding trust in the government to be able to be transparent and honest. Very bad start to a long… https://t.co/81FYgzxH4C— Rick Bright (@RickABright) May 17, 2024 Hooker also noted that Moderna is developing an mRNA-based bird flu vaccine. U.S. relaxed H5N1 bird flu regulations this month The U.S. government on May 6 released a new policy to tighten oversight of federally funded research on potentially dangerous pathogens, which won’t take effect until May 2025. The policy categorizes high-risk research into two groups, requiring risk-benefit assessments and mitigation plans for both, with an additional layer of review for research involving pathogens with enhanced pandemic potential. The move aims to address concerns about lax oversight and ambiguous guidelines while ensuring that critical research on pandemic preparedness and medical advancements can continue, according to Nature. In a seemingly contradictory move, U.S. government officials on May 14 temporarily relaxed regulations on how public health laboratories and healthcare facilities handle, store and transport H5N1 bird flu samples, according to Reuters. This 180-day change comes in response to the recent spread of the virus to dairy cattle in nine U.S. states. The revised guidance, requested by the Association of Public Health Laboratories, aims to reduce bureaucratic burdens and allow lab staff to focus on testing, preparing for the possibility that the virus could acquire the ability to become easily transmitted among humans. Globalists May Release New Bird Flu Strain In Attempt To Stop Trump, Warns Edward Dowd

Investigative reports by the Daily Caller reveal a willingness by medical professionals to accept complication rates resulting from sex-change surgeries of up to 80%. (LifeSiteNews) — An explosive series of articles published by the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) include videos displaying the shocking callousness of medical professionals providing so-called “gender-affirming” interventions to young patients, some of whom are just 12 years old. At one point, a surgeon who specializes in genital mutilating “affirming” procedures – i.e., the creation of synthetic organs meant to mimic the genitalia of the opposite sex – declared that this type of surgery is an “adventure for young people.” Later, the same surgeon said of one of his young patients on whom he had committed a mastectomy, “Why wouldn’t I operate on him if he’s 14?” The investigative reports by the Daily Caller’s Megan Brock and Kate Anderson reveal a willingness by this new breed of medical professional to accept complication rates resulting from sex-change surgeries of up to 80 percent, a sky-high number normally associated with only critical surgeries meant to avoid impending death, surgeries normally reserved for heart surgery patients with no options left, not young teens and 20-somethings with healthy bodies and their whole lives ahead of them. And these complications are often of the most gruesome, horrifying kind.Save 40% on Ultimate Fish Oil today and improve your supplement routine & experience the world-renowned powerhouse formula! ‘The transgender medical industry does not have patients’ best interests at heart.’ The exclusive video footage – obtained by the DCNF via FOIA requests – shows World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) members during a series of 2022 behind-closed-doors panel presentations advocating for pushing experimental medical interventions on young people that can have devastating, irreversible complications. “The videos reveal WPATH-affiliated doctors advocating for children to undergo risky sex change procedures and even pushing for these treatments [sic] for patients struggling with severe mental health issues,” according to the DCNF. “Several sessions were dedicated exclusively to treating [sic] children and included recommendations for minors to receive puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries.” So-called “sex change” or “gender reassignment” surgery includes procedures to remove and “reconstruct” genitalia and breasts, as well as “feminizing” and “masculinizing” facial surgeries and “body contouring” procedures. For boys, transgender surgery includes breast implants, castration, and vaginoplasty – surgery to create a replica of female genitalia using penile or bowel tissue. “Gender reassignment” surgery for girls, known as “phalloplasty,” involves removing their entire reproductive system, including their uterus and ovaries, lengthening the urethra, and constructing synthetic male genitals, often out of tissue from their thigh or forearm. Girls may also have their breasts removed. The genital surgeries, of course, irreparably sterilize children and turn them into permanent medical patients who need lifelong follow-up. Research shows that people who undergo such surgeries have a 19-times higher suicide rate than the general population. Girls who undergo mastectomies will never be able to breastfeed their children, if they are even able to have any. Despite this, the medical professionals in attendance at the event chuckled in unison when a presenter insisted that post-surgical regret is “rare” and ridiculed “the haters” who disagreed. Nevertheless, “it doesn’t matter to us,” said the surgeon, dismissing with a few words those who challenge both the morality and the effectiveness of the experimental medical treatments he performs on young people. In one disturbing segment, Dr. Alex Laungani, a Mayo Clinic-trained Canadian plastic surgeon, discussed the gruesome complications from “phalloplasty” surgeries, yet simultaneously described the practice as an “adventure.” “Young individuals (are) ready to embark on the adventure. I tell them it’s going to be an adventure, we’re both together in there, because we have to get to your goals, but there’s going to be a few bumps along the way,” Laungani said. The “bumps,” however, tend to be enormous. “There could be delays because of complications – definitely there will be complications. Either it’s stenosis, fistulas, or partial necrosis, wound-healing delays and stuff like that.” Those medical terms describe horrific, unpleasant negative side effects: “Stenosis” is a narrowing of the urethra; “fistula” describes the formation of a tunnel between the urethra and an adjoining part of the body; and “necrosis” a term for tissue death. Regarding phalloplasties, Laungani admitted: It’s a lot to ask, for your body to have the vaginal cavity obliterated, the vaginal mucosa removed, the urethra lengthened, the phalloplasty done with the flap transposed, and then to do everything and then put the penile implant and all that.It would be a massive rate of infection, it would be more urinary complications, so we stage everything. We do the phallus first, then we work on the urinary tract, and then we do the implants last…The first night after phalloplasty, I still don’t really sleep well. Because if anything goes wrong, I’ve gotta be fast and act fast so we don’t lose the phallus. The “gender-affirming” surgeon does not refer to the newly formed appendage as an actual “penis,” but instead calls it a “phallus,” a representation of the male sex organ. In other words, a “fake penis.” According to the DNCF, “medical professionals from respected organizations such as Do No Harm” argued that “the comments from WPATH-affiliated doctors show that the transgender medical industry does not have patients’ best interests at heart.” Globalists May Release New Bird Flu Strain In Attempt To Stop Trump, Warns Edward Dowd

When a banana duct-taped to a wall is juxtaposed against a Monet, the absurdity of this cultural revolution is starkly apparent. In the intellectual and cultural arenas of the Western world, a counter-revolution to the burgeoning woke ideology is underway. Yet, the bastions of academic arts have entrenched themselves deep within the doctrines of intersectionality, pushing their agendas with a zeal that borders on the religious. This persistence is partially reshaping the cultural landscape, transforming the zeitgeist into a mere tool for career advancement rather than a beacon of diverse thought. Today’s cultural dialogue is one that is commodified, delivered by way of push notifications on smartphones that signal not groundbreaking ideas but adherence to the latest politically correct trends. This new norm has cultivated a generation of global philistines—individuals who, though draped in the prestige of academic achievement, are contributing to the degradation of our culture. Since the cultural revolutions of the 1960s, a progressive agenda has been simmering beneath the surface of mainstream acceptance, boldly emerging in times of societal upheaval. At the turn of the century, socialism was thought to be dead, but the financial crisis of 2008, the subsequent Occupy movements, and the continued growth of right-wing politics have only accelerated the resurgence of an intense form of socialism. Despite the general populace’s preference for smaller government and traditional values, these fringe ideologies are now back at the forefront, perverting the essence of public and private life. The woke assault on cultural institutions  These shifts have particularly marked effects on national and regional identities, leaving societies grappling with the task of navigating a revolution that seeks to remake the very fabric of culture under the pretense of promoting equality and progressive liberalism. Within the halls of Western academia, there is now a significant discord concerning the purpose of museums—a discord that mirrors a broader societal schism. Woke ideology has not just seeped into these institutions; it has seized them, leading to a definitive estrangement from hundreds of years of art history scholarship. This ideological stranglehold demands a reevaluation and dismantling of historical narratives. What is promoted as an effort to foster a more inclusive and equitable understanding of art history is clearly discrimination against European artists. The tenets of aesthetic appreciation and scholarship have been sidelined, replaced by an agenda that promotes a sanitised, revisionist version of history. The activists behind these movements, under the cover of equity and inclusion, are curiously intolerant of being judged by the rigorous standards of merit that they decry as relics of an oppressive past. They aim not just to supplement but to replace the traditional narratives with those that align with their politically motivated agendas. When a banana duct-taped to a wall is juxtaposed against a Monet, the underlying absurdity of this cultural revolution becomes starkly apparent. Proponents argue that the presence of art by white artists fails to foster sufficient dialogue. They overlook the fact that museums dedicated to contemporary, indigenous, and ‘LGBT’ art already exist. They disregard the nuanced interplay of historical and contemporary narratives that these institutions typically curate. Cultural relativism has morphed into a tool of hostility and violence, and the old guard is now expected to be admonished as we descend into the regressive Left’s hellscape of ideas. This isn’t inclusivity; it is an ideological purge masquerading as progress, aiming to dismantle the foundations of our most revered cultural institutions and the very essence of humanity. Save 40% on Ultimate Fish Oil today and improve your supplement routine & experience the world-renowned powerhouse formula! The public’s negative reaction to these changes has been well noted, but the voices of discontent are drowned out by the louder, more persistent calls of a vocal minority. The elites in charge do not care about feedback; they only care about virtue signalling. Observers like Michael Deacon of The Telegraph have pointed out that today’s modern art exhibitions often come laden with moral lecturing that bears little relevance to the art on display. This highlights the shift in cultural institutions from celebrating art to serving as platforms for political activism.  The Western world needs better culture critics The “Campaign against Renoir,” which began in 2015, is symptomatic of a broader narrative that seeks to dismantle the respect traditionally afforded to European male artists. This campaign, driven both by a narrative of disenfranchisement and by a narcissistic manifestation of hipster uprising, has been mistakenly elevated to legitimate discourse, illustrating the sway that professionally disgruntled activists now hold over cultural discussions. Furthermore, lost in the thicket is the obvious case that ‘queer histories’ are often entirely fabricated. There is no concrete evidence to suggest that Britain’s Queen Anne was romantically involved with her close friend Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough. Yet, modern narratives frequently portray their relationship as such. This reinterpretation may supercharge a Hollywood storyline, but it overlooks the historically common practice of monarchs having ’favourites’—relationships that, while occasionally romantic, were predominantly platonic and based on political alliance. In Queen Anne’s era, it was typical for rulers to have politically influential favourites like Sarah Churchill, making such relationships far from extraordinary. These depictions are a form of revisionist history catering to a minority disconnected from broader societal norms. While it is valid to assert one’s right to identify as gay, altering historical narratives to retrofit modern sexual identities where they may not historically belong distorts the past and can be viewed as a tactic of queer subculture propaganda. Critical gender theory and queer theory argue that the distinctions between male and female, masculine and feminine, as well as heterosexual and homosexual, are social constructs designed to uphold the dominance of traditional gender roles and heteronormativity. This perspective raises profoundly stupefying questions: in representing the human form in art, should we now reinterpret classical sculptures of the female body to include transgender individuals? Should we reinterpret classical sculptures of the male body so as not to upset those with smaller or larger anatomy? Should we revise ancient nude depictions to reflect the fleeting modern ideals of beauty, such as the Hollywood-inspired attributes of the 1990s with bleached blond hair and exaggerated breast implants, or the fluctuating body types popularised by online pornography? Clearly, allowing pop culture and in-vogue politics to dictate the interpretation of multi-generational aesthetics is ludicrous. No rational approach to art history would endorse redefining historical and cultural works to align with transient contemporary ideologies. Yet, this is occurring within our museums and cultural institutions, affecting the legacies of the greatest artists in history. These actions not only challenge the integrity of art historical interpretation but also risk undermining the educational role of museums as custodians of cultural heritage. By imposing modern values and political correctness on historical figures and artworks, we risk losing a true understanding of our past and, with it, the lessons that history can teach us about the complexities of human relationships and societal norms. The ideological encroachment into our cultural institutions represents a profound threat to the integrity of our artistic heritage—a threat arguably greater than many historical challenges faced by Western societies. Facilitated by a vocal minority within the arts and academia, this movement undermines the very purpose of cultural preservation, replacing it with a narrative that prioritises political correctness over artistic merit. The fundamental question remains: will we allow the ideological manipulation of art to redefine our cultural legacy, or will we preserve the integrity and richness of art history against those who seek to politicise and diminish it for their own ends? The battle for art history is not merely academic; it is a fight for the soul of our cultural identity, demanding that we defend the depth and diversity of artistic expression against those who would flatten it into a monochrome palette of political ideology. This war is about more than preserving past masterpieces—it is about ensuring that future generations can appreciate and understand the true breadth and complexity of human cultural achievement without the temporary concern of contemporary bias. As we continue to navigate the chaos, it is imperative that those who value the richness of our artistic heritage stand firm and advocate for art that transcends political and ideological boundaries. Exhibitions can clearly exhibit different styles of art, but to tear down masterpieces and uproot permanent collections to appease the protesting, unwashed masses risks destroying the very essence of human life. In this war against art history, it is not just the legacy of the past that we are fighting for but the very future of our cultural identity. Globalists May Release New Bird Flu Strain In Attempt To Stop Trump, Warns Edward Dowd