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Joe Rogan to the Media: ‘The Answer Is Not to Silence Me,’ It’s for ‘You to Do Better’

Fox News reported:

Podcast giant Joe Rogan offered advice to the legacy media as efforts to get him deplatformed from Spotify continue.

On Thursday’s installment of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Rogan spoke about the “problem” various news sources have with him that “more people believe me or trust me or want to listen to me talk.”

“The answer is not to silence me, the answer is [for] you to do better,” Rogan said. “The answer is for you to have better arguments. When you’re on television talking about how I’m taking horse paste, and you know that’s not true. ‘He’s taking horse dewormer.'”

“What you should have said, ‘How did Joe Rogan get better so quick? How come he got COVID that’s killing everybody and he was better in five days, negative in five days, working out in six days?’ How come that’s never discussed?” Rogan asked.

Amazon Is Taking Away Paid COVID Leave for Unvaccinated Workers

Business Insider reported:

Amazon workers who catch COVID-19 and are not fully vaccinated against the virus will not be eligible for paid leave after Mar. 18, according to a staff memo shared with Insider by Amazon.

Thursday’s memo also told workers they will no longer have to wear masks inside warehouses from Friday if they have been fully vaccinated and local regulations allow.

Outrage as Security Forcibly Removes Maskless Dad From School Board Meeting

Newsweek reported:

A video showing a maskless man being dragged out of a school board meeting in upstate New York has been widely shared online as the state’s governor prepares to reassess her classroom mask requirement.

The video shows security guards grabbing and forcibly removing local parent, Dave Calus, from the Webster School Board meeting on Tuesday. Posted on Facebook by the ROC for Educational Freedom Public Page, the video has been shared over a thousand times, sparking renewed outrage over COVID-19 school measures as New York Governor Kathy Hochul said Wednesday that she’ll re-evaluate the masking requirement in early March.

Biden COVID Vaccine Mandate for Federal Workers Blocked by Second Federal Court

CNBC reported:

A federal appeals court has declined, for now, to allow the Biden administration to require COVID-19 vaccinations for federal employees.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled 2-1 Wednesday to maintain a block on the mandate that a Texas-based federal judge had issued on Jan. 21. The administration had asked the New Orleans court for an injunction allowing the federal worker mandate to move forward pending appeal.

U.S. Urges Canada to Use Federal Powers to End Bridge Blockade

Associated Press reported:

The Biden administration urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government Thursday to use its federal powers to end the truck blockade by Canadians protesting the country’s COVID-19 restrictions, as the bumper-to-bumper demonstration forced auto plants on both sides of the border to shut down or scale back production.

For the fourth straight day, scores of truckers taking part in what they dubbed the Freedom Convoy blocked the Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit, disrupting the flow of auto parts and other products between the two countries.

Ontario Premier Declares State of Emergency, Threatens Fines, Prison Time for Blocking Highways and Bridges

The Washington Post reported:

Ontario Premier Doug Ford declared a state of emergency Friday as Canada headed into the third weekend of “Freedom Convoy” truck protests that have paralyzed Ottawa and blockaded several U.S.-Canada border crossings. He said he would seek to impose steep fines and prison time for people blocking highways and bridges.

He said he would convene his cabinet and “urgently enact orders that will make crystal clear it is illegal and punishable to block and impede the movement of goods, people and services along critical infrastructure.”

Fines would be “severe,” he warned, with penalties up to $78,000 and a year in prison. Ford said he would consider taking away the personal and commercial licenses of anyone who doesn’t comply with these orders.

Declassified Documents Reveal CIA Has Been Sweeping up Information on Americans

The Guardian reported:

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been secretly collecting Americans’ private information in bulk, according to newly declassified documents that prompted condemnation from civil liberties watchdogs.

The surveillance program was exposed on Thursday by two Democrats on the Senate intelligence committee. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico alleged that the CIA has long concealed it from the public and Congress.

The two senators, frequent critics of the CIA, said they are not allowed to reveal specifics about what type of data has been subject to bulk collection and called for more details about the program to be declassified.

Medical Company CEO Suggests No Public Health Care for Unvaccinated

The Epoch Times reported:

The CEO of a major medical equipment maker said that those who refused to get a COVID-19 vaccine should be “automatically considered” to have forfeited the right to obtain COVID-19 treatment in a public hospital.

Stefan Dräger, the CEO of major German medical manufacturer Dräger, told Die Welt that those who reject getting a shot for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus should not be able to get publicly funded hospital treatment for the disease. Dräger is considered one of the largest makers of ventilators in the world.

New York’s Unvaccinated City Workers Face Firing Deadline

Bloomberg reported:

About 4,000 unvaccinated New York City employees, including police officers, teachers and firefighters, face termination Friday.

Jobs are at risk for about 3,000 workers who took unpaid leave instead of getting vaccinated when the city’s mandate took effect in October, as well as about 1,000 recent hires who haven’t submitted documentation of their second shots. About 95% of the 370,000 city workers have received at least one dose.

In a press conference Thursday, Mayor Eric Adams characterized the employees’ termination as “quitting,” saying that they’re choosing to leave their jobs by not following the rules.

Twin Cities Lift Restaurant, Bar Vaccine-or-Test Mandates

Associated Press reported:

The mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul have rescinded vaccine-or-test mandates for restaurants, bars and entertainment venues as COVID-19 cases decline rapidly.

The regulations required anyone entering a restaurant, bar or other venue that serves food or drinks to show proof of full vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test taken within the last three days.

Mask mandates for public areas in Minneapolis and St. Paul’s city-licensed businesses will remain in place for now.

French ‘Freedom Convoy’ Opposing COVID Mandates Head to Paris

Global News reported:

Hundreds of participants to the French ‘Freedom Convoys‘ and supporters gathered on Friday (February 11) near the Vimy Canadian war memorial, in Northern France, as convoys hailing from Valenciennes, Lille and Arras were merging on their way to Paris.

France will deploy thousands of police in and around Paris on Friday and over the weekend and set up checkpoints at toll stations on major roads leading into the capital to keep “Freedom Convoy” motorists out, the city’s police force said.

Despite an order not to enter Paris, motorists protesting against COVID-19 restrictions are converging on the French capital from multiple cities across France, like in Vimy, inspired by the horn-blaring demonstrations taking place in Canada.

German Court Rejects Petitions Against Targeted Vaccine Mandate

Reuters reported:

Germany’s top court said on Friday it had rejected emergency petitions filed against a targeted vaccine mandate obliging healthcare staff to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Compulsory vaccination for staff in hospitals and care facilities is due to come into force in Germany on Mar. 15. Numerous people who will be affected had filed the emergency petitions with the constitutional court in Karlsruhe.

Government Researchers Want to Create a Digital Fingerprint for Your Text Messages

Gizmodo reported:

Though bot proliferation, in particular, is difficult to measure, a 2020 report from cyber security firm Imperva found over a quarter, (37.2%) of all internet users weren’t human. That’s a lot.

Mix that with everyone else operating under aliases and you start to realize that much of the modern internet, to some degree, is fake. But what if there was a tool that could cut against that fakery and identify the author of any given post based solely on the linguistic stylings of their text?

Experts at the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, the research wing of the intelligence community, are using artificial intelligence and heaps of online text data to create just such an identity verification marker, NextGov notes in a recent report.

The researchers hope one day this text “fingerprint,” could play a significant role in identifying individuals behind disinformation campaigns and fighting back against human trafficking.