RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
July 10 to July 16, 2022
Featured Investigation:
The Feds Pile Up
Vaccine 'Adverse Event' Reports
as They Decry Scaremongering Elsewhere
The Biden administration and major media have insisted that the hurriedly developed COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective as they dismiss doubters as scaremongers. But as Clayton Fox reports for RealClearInvestigations, the feds themselves have an online database that has compiled more than 1.3 million unproven reports of vaccine-implicated “adverse events” running the gamut from mild to severe, including 29,000 deaths.
Some medical experts are alarmed, Fox reports:
- These reports are not anecdotes from “anti-vaxxers” on the dark web. They come from the FDA and CDC’s open-source log, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
- Some health experts attribute the high number of adverse events to publicity surrounding COVID vaccines. They advise caution before causality is established.
- Others see big red flags in the numbers and strong indications in certain symptom categories.
- Top researchers Peter McCullough and Jessica Rose raised the alarm, but their peer-reviewed study based on the VAERS reports was quashed after acceptance by Current Problems in Cardiology, with no reason given.
- Dr. McCullough in April 2021 called for pulling the COVID vaccines off the market. That same month, Fox News host Tucker Carlson also voiced doubts about the vaccines, and Dr. Anthony Fauci blasted him for pushing "a typical crazy conspiracy theory."
- Rose says VAERS is putting out “an enormous number and range of safety signals.”
- Asked which of those might be most readily proven, Rose replied: “myocarditis [heart inflammation], Bell’s palsy, and anything related to clotting.”
Featured Investigation:
A Visit to U.S. Immigration Court,
Where the Action Is … Not
In RealClearInvestigations, James Varney visits federal immigration court in New Orleans over two weeks, and finds it a surprisingly placid eye in the middle of the storm over President Biden’s border policy. There the court's public business incongruously knocks off at 11 A.M. despite a 40,000-case backlog. Varney reports:
- The lack of urgency seems puzzling for an immigration system that all agree has been overwhelmed by a growing national backlog of 1.8 million cases.
- One sign of the backlog: immigrants with “notice to appear” forms dating to March 2021.
- Few immigrants speak much English, so sessions begin like a dubbed movie, as a translator delivers in Spanish the judge’s English legalese – only much more loudly.
- Next, the accused concedes illegal entry. The judge then rules: “removable.”
- But not really. Most migrants have no lawyer, meaning a reprieve - usually four months.
- Another cause of the backlog: “prosecutorial discretion” under the administration’s “Doyle Memorandum,” which it has increasingly used to drop cases, flouting court injunctions.
- Judge: “You are free to go and live your life, and the government has no interest in removing you from the country.”
- Veteran attorney: “When I started practicing immigration law in Baton Rouge in 2007, there was only one immigration judge in New Orleans and at that time, from initial hearing to final decision, was typically four to six months. Now it’s more like four to five years.”
Biden, Trump and the Beltway
Outcry Over DoJ’s Alleged Abuse of Biden Foes Just the News
Liberal Group to Pay Doxxers for Locations of Conservative Justices Just the News
Arizona: Inside a Busted Democrat Ballot-Harvesting Operation Epoch Times
Durham Seeks Subpoenas for Dossier-Tied Trial Washington Examiner
Biden Admin-Funded Clinic Gives Crack Pipes to Addicts Daily Caller
IRS Says Right-Wing Think Tank Is a Church ProPublica
Other Noteworthy Articles and Series
Leaked Files Suggest Uber Broke Laws, Duped Cops
Guardian
A leaked trove of more than 124,000 confidential files from 2013-2017 has revealed the inside story of how the tech giant Uber flouted laws, duped police, exploited violence against drivers and secretly lobbied governments during its aggressive global expansion. Quote:
'The leak spans a five-year period when Uber was run by its co-founder Travis Kalanick, who tried to force the cab-hailing service into cities around the world, even if that meant breaching laws and taxi regulations. During the fierce global backlash, the data shows how Uber tried to shore up support by discreetly courting prime ministers, presidents, billionaires, oligarchs and media barons. Leaked messages suggest Uber executives were at the same time under no illusions about the company’s law-breaking, with one executive joking they had become “pirates” and another conceding: “We’re just fucking illegal.”
'
The article reports that in one exchange, Kalanick dismissed concerns from other executives that sending Uber drivers to a protest in France put them at risk of violence from angry opponents in the taxi industry. “I think it’s worth it,” he shot back. “Violence guarantee[s] success.” In a separate article, the Guardian identifies the whistleblower who released the files as Mark MacGann, a career lobbyist who led Uber’s efforts to win over governments across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
'“I am partly responsible,” he said. “I was the one talking to governments, I was the one pushing this with the media, I was the one telling people that they should change the rules because drivers were going to benefit and people were going to get so much economic opportunity. When that turned out not to be the case – we had actually sold people a lie – how can you have a clear conscience if you don’t stand up and own your contribution to how people are being treated today?”
'
In a separate article, the Washington Post, which also has access to files provided by MacGann, summarizes the major takeaways.
'Uber’s then-chief executive Travis Kalanick texts fellow executives “violence guarantee success” as clashes with taxi drivers break out in Paris, a key market for the company. The company’s computers in Amsterdam abruptly go dark during a police raid after executives order the activation of a remote “kill switch.” Emmanuel Macron, as France’s economy minister, forges an alliance with Kalanick amid political unrest over Uber’s expansion there. Russian oligarchs, meanwhile, are recruited as “strategic partners” to help the company enter markets with entrenched political obstacles. These are among the key findings of the Uber Files.
'
Intel: Iran May Try to Kill
U.S. Officials to Avenge Soleimani
Yahoo
As President Biden began his trip to the Middle East, this article reported that the U.S. government believes Iran may try to assassinate current or former senior American officials to avenge the death of its top military and intelligence commander more than two years ago. According to an intelligence report obtained by Yahoo News:
'“Since January 2021, Tehran has publicly expressed a willingness to conduct lethal operations inside the United States and has consistently identified former President Donald Trump, former Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, and former CENTCOM Commander General Kenneth McKenzie as among its priority targets for retribution [for the assassination of Major General Qassem] Soleimani in January 2020,” the report says. “Iran would probably view the killing or prosecution of a US official it considers equivalent in rank and stature to Soleimani or responsible for his death as successful retaliatory actions.”
'
Meanwhile, the Biden administration continues its effort to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal established under President Barack Obama, which Trump dismantled.
California: Rooftop Solar Panels
Creating Environmental Danger
Los Angeles Times
Solar panels may offer the hope of cheap, clean energy from the sky, but when they reach the end of their roughly 25-year life cycle, they can become toxic pollutants of the earth. This article reports that California is facing environmental hazards as some of the 1.3 million rooftop solar installations funded in part by government programs are beginning their journey to landfills, where components that contain toxic heavy metals such as selenium and cadmium can contaminate groundwater:
'Sam Vanderhoof, a solar industry expert, says that only 1 in 10 panels are actually recycled, according to estimates drawn from International Renewable Energy Agency data on decommissioned panels and from industry leaders. The looming challenge over how to handle truckloads of contaminated waste illustrates how cutting-edge environmental policy can create unforeseen hazards down the road. “The industry is supposed to be green,” Vanderhoof said. “But in reality, it’s all about the money.”
'
Meet the Man Orchestrating
Migrant Caravans
Daily Caller
A Mexican man who has helped some 40,000 migrants cross into the United States through caravans he’s led since September 2021 says he is on a mission from God. “We are Evangelical Christians,” said Luis Rey Garcia Villagran. “We try to help people least protected, especially women and child migrants. Simply, we apply what is in the law.” Villagran said that he doesn’t receive any financing from anyone for the caravans or have any connection to the organized crime groups that also traffic people across the border. This article reports that he does have a controversial past:
'Judicial police in the Mexican state of Chiapas arrested Villagran in 1997 for alleged kidnapping and conspiracy, according to the University of Minnesota Human Rights Library. In 1998, the judge found Villagran guilty, sentencing him to 40 years in prison. “They falsified evidence, falsified signatures of public ministries,” [said Villagran, who was released from jail in 2010].
'
Coronavirus Investigations
COVID Learning Loss
Has Been a Global Disaster
Editors, The Economist
New data suggest that shutting down classrooms around the world in response to COVID-19 did more damage than almost anyone expected, this article reports. Before the pandemic, 57% of 10-year-olds in low and middle-income countries could not read a simple story, says the World Bank. That figure may have risen to 70%, it now estimates. The share of 10-year-olds who cannot read in Latin America, probably the worst-affected region, could rocket from around 50% to 80%.
'Children who never master the basics will grow up to be less productive and to earn less. McKinsey, a consultancy, estimates that by 2040 education lost to school closures could cause global gdp to be 0.9% lower than it would otherwise have been—an annual loss of $1.6trn. The World Bank thinks the disruption could cost children $21trn in earnings over their lifetimes—a sum equivalent to 17% of global gdp today. That is much more than the $10trn it had estimated in 2020, and also an increase on the $17trn it was predicting last year.
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In a separate article, the New York Times reports that COVID may be running rampant through the Big Apple, but city leaders and residents – who once delighted in lecturing red state Americans about the necessity of lockdowns and masks – are shrugging it off:
'Earlier in the pandemic, such news might have been met with a mix of foreboding and fear. Now, New York is meeting the moment with more of a "meh." As New York City enters its sixth wave of the virus, few seem inclined to get themselves into high alert mode again.
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