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China’s ‘Zero COVID’ not so Different to U.S., Some Say Amid Protests
As protesters in China risk incarceration and possibly worse to demonstrate against the Communist Party’s “Zero COVID” policy, some in the United States are wondering how the lockdowns, compulsory masking, suppression of critical opinions, surveillance, forced vaccinations and closures of businesses differ from America’s recent experience — minus the extraordinarily harsh punishments the Chinese demonstrators may face.
“There’s a direct correlation,” Louisiana pastor Tony Spell told Newsweek. “The only difference is the confrontations are more physical in China, where with us it’s been lawsuits, time, intimidation and false imprisonment.”
Others say authorities in the U.S. were also guilty of “unprecedented censorship“, “trampling rights” and “bullying” during the pandemic.
Pastor Spell was arrested for the first time on March 13, 2020, when COVID was tearing through the United States, for refusing to close his Life Tabernacle Church in Baton Rouge. He was ordered to wear an ankle bracelet and confined to his house, while authorities installed nine cameras, some at his church, some at his home — including one at his bedroom window to monitor the whereabouts of him and his parishioners.
Former Global Head of Trust and Safety at Twitter Reveals Widespead Scientific Censorship
After Elon Musk‘s buyout and the ongoing release of the “Twitter files,” the cat is out of the bag, as it were, when it comes to Twitter’s extreme leftist political agenda and their collusion with the federal government and the DNC. And, it appears that some of the people deeply involved in the platform’s censorship model are willing to discuss their tactics and motives. One might expect them to take a more apologetic position in light of their exposed lies and trespasses against their customers and site users, but this is definitely not the case.
Former Twitter employees, most especially former moderators and Trust and Safety employees, are unrepentant for their censorship efforts tainted with political bias and seem to loath Elon Musk for opening the door to fair debate on the social media site.
The trust and safety elites within Big Tech companies have no doubts about the validity and righteousness of their cause, and that’s the biggest problem. The monstrous nature of the ideology of scientifically precise censorship is on full display in the following interview with Yoel Roth, the former Global Head of Trust And Safety, at the Knight Foundation. Roth has no qualms about the notion of crushing free speech.
The former trust and safety exec goes on to admonish the removal of COVID censorship, calling it “bad and damaging” without explaining how. One can only suggest that the leftists at Twitter were also in collusion with government officials to silence any and all facts and evidence that ran contrary to the mainstream pandemic narrative. Much of this information, like the Biden Laptop, was labeled “conspiracy theory” and banned, only to later be revealed as absolutely true.
Keep COVID Military Vaccine Mandate, Defense Chief Says
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he wants to keep the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate in place to protect the health of the troops, as Republican governors and lawmakers press to rescind it.
This past week more than 20 Republican governors sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking that the administration remove the mandate, saying it has hurt the U.S. National Guard’s ability to recruit troops. Those troops are activated by governors to respond to natural disasters or unrest.
Congress may consider legislation this coming week to end the mandate as a requirement to gather enough support to pass this years’ defense budget, which is already two months late.
“I’m the guy” who ordered the military to require the vaccine, Austin added. “I support continuation of vaccinating the troops.” Last year Austin directed that all troops get the vaccine or face potential expulsion from the military; thousands of active duty forces have been discharged since then for their refusal to get the shots.
Censorship by Surrogate: Why Musk’s Document Dump Could Be a Game Changer
“Handled.” That one word, responding to a 2020 demand to censor a list of Twitter users, speaks volumes about the thousands of documents released by Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, on Friday night.
As many of us have long suspected, there were back channels between Twitter and the Biden 2020 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to ban critics or remove negative stories. Those seeking to discuss the scandal were simply “handled,” and nothing else had to be said.
Musk’s dumped Twitter documents not only confirm the worst expectations of some of us but feature many of the usual suspects for Twitter critics. The documents do not show a clear role or knowledge by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Instead, the censor in chief appears to be Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s former chief legal officer who has been criticized as a leading anti-free speech figure in social media.
State Appeals Court Revives Lawsuit Challenging University’s COVID Vaccine Mandate
A state appeals court has kept alive a lawsuit challenging Miami University’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate, which the plaintiffs claim led to discrimination against them.
The court’s decision could influence the outcomes of similar lawsuits against other universities in Ohio, including Ohio University.
While the Miami lawsuit can now continue to move forward, the plaintiffs have just one legal claim left to pursue, involving discrimination. Multiple other claims made by the plaintiffs were dismissed.
And the court did not decide whether there was any discrimination against the plaintiffs. The only issue before the court was whether the lawsuit could continue.
Empty Pews: How COVID Changed the Way the Bay Area Worships
Empty pews. Taking communion at home. Zooming into Shabbat services in pajamas.
It’s been nearly three years since COVID-19 shut down the world, but the Bay Area’s places of worship have yet to return to their pre-pandemic normal — and experts wonder if they ever will. More than one in three local residents say they still aren’t going to their spiritual centers as often as they did before COVID struck, according to an exclusive poll by the Bay Area News Group and Joint Venture Silicon Valley. That’s despite the fact that nearly everything has opened back up, vaccines are widespread and hospitalizations and deaths from the virus have plummeted.
This massive shift — which has seen some congregants get comfortable with worshipping online while others have stopped attending altogether — is forcing the Bay Area’s religious institutions to reevaluate their roles as they struggle to adapt to the new needs of their congregations and try to stay relevant at a time when faith already is in the midst of a years-long decline.
The change is clearly visible in some half-empty sanctuaries, and it comes as religion’s prevalence continues to drop. About three in 10 U.S. adults said they identified with no religion in 2021, up 10 percentage points from a decade prior, according to the Pew Research Center.
COVID Is Weakening, China State Media Claims, as Major Cities Lift Lockdowns
Coronavirus is weakening and management protocols could be downgraded, an expert on China’s state media has claimed, after unprecedented protests last week led to a major shift in Beijing’s commitment to its zero-COVID policy.
Since January 2020, China has classified COVID-19 as a Category B infectious disease but has managed it under Category A protocols, which give local authorities the power to put patients and their close contacts into quarantine and lock down affected regions.
Category A diseases in China include bubonic plague and cholera, while SARS, Aids and anthrax fall under Category B. Category C diseases include influenza, leprosy and mumps. Infectious diseases that can be easily spread and have a high fatality rate are classified as Class A or Class B but managed as Class A.
But an unnamed infectious disease expert told Chinese media outlet Yicai that more than 95% of China’s cases are now asymptomatic and mild, and the fatality rate is very low. Under such circumstances, adhering to Class A management is not in line with science, Yicai reported on Sunday. COVID-19 could be downgraded to Category B management or even Category C, the expert was quoted as saying.
Meta Faces Record EU Privacy Fines
This Christmas is bound to be an expensive one for U.S. tech giant Meta.
The Big Tech firm looks set to soon face a huge regulatory bill for all three of its social networks, Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. Europe’s privacy regulator body, the European Data Protection Board, is expected to issue decisions on Monday that target the three platforms, after which Meta’s lead regulator in Ireland will issue a final decision within a month.
The detail and possible value of the monetary penalty will remain under wraps until then, but the triplet of fines could add up to over €2 billion, financial statements by Meta indicate — setting a new record for the highest fines under the European Union’s feared General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) received by a single company in one go.
What Is AI Chatbot Phenomenon ChatGPT and Could It Replace Humans?
ChatGPT is a prototype dialogue-based AI chatbot capable of understanding natural human language and generating impressively detailed human-like written text. It is the latest evolution of the GPT — or Generative Pre-Trained Transformer — family of text-generating AIs.
The new AI is the latest chatbot from the Elon Musk-founded independent research body OpenAI foundation. Trained by AI and machine learning, the system is designed to provide information and answer questions through a conversational interface.
Early users have described the technology as an alternative to Google because it is capable of providing descriptions, answers and solutions to complex questions including ways to write code, and solve layout problems and optimization queries.
There has been speculation that professions dependent upon content production could be rendered obsolete, including everything from playwrights and professors to programmers and journalists.
