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Senate Passes Amendment to Ban Federal Mask Mandates on Commercial Flights and Public Transit
The Senate passed an amendment banning federal mask mandates on commercial airlines and public transportation in an appropriations bill Wednesday.
In a 59-38 vote, senators — including several Democrats — voted in favor of the amendment brought forth by Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, which restricts any federal funds from being used to enforce mask mandates on passenger flights, trains, transit buses, and other publicly funded transportation through the next fiscal year.
Vance called the passage “a massive victory for personal freedom” in a statement Wednesday. “We saw countless abuses of authority throughout the COVID pandemic, and the American people were justifiably enraged by unscientific mask mandates,” he said.
Last month, Vance introduced the Freedom to Breathe Act, legislation that would prevent the government from reinstating mask mandates in response to COVID-19. It would prevent the enforcement of mask-wearing on public transit, airplanes, elementary schools and other institutions.
Is Social Media Addictive? Here’s What the Science Says.
A group of 41 states and the District of Columbia filed suit on Tuesday against Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, contending that the company knowingly used features on its platforms to cause children to use them compulsively, even as the company said that its social media sites were safe for young people.
The accusations in the lawsuit raise a deeper question about behavior: Are young people becoming addicted to social media and the internet? Here’s what the research has found. Experts who study internet use say that the magnetic allure of social media arises from the way the content plays to our neurological impulses and wiring, such that consumers find it hard to turn away from the incoming stream of information.
David Greenfield, a psychologist and founder of the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction in West Hartford, Conn., said the devices lure users with some powerful tactics. One is “intermittent reinforcement,” which creates the idea that a user could get a reward at any time. But when the reward comes is unpredictable.
Adults are susceptible, he noted, but young people are particularly at risk because the brain regions that are involved in resisting temptation and reward are not nearly as developed in children and teenagers as in adults. “They’re all about impulse and not a lot about the control of that impulse,” Dr. Greenfield said of young consumers.
George Soros and Bill Gates-Funded Aspen Institute Is Hit With Censorship Collusion Lawsuit
America First Legal (AFL), a law firm notable for its commitment to American constitutional principles and free speech rights, has magnified its legal fight against alleged collaborated censorship by big government and tech giants.
It recently incorporated the recognized Aspen Institute into its lawsuit. Previously, the lawsuit was directed exclusively towards the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP) and Virality Project (VP), two entities implicated in the systematic suppression of digital free speech during electoral seasons.
It’s alleged that the Aspen Institute, EIP, and VP have worked in concert with various tech powerhouses and governmental bodies, launching a concerted attack on free online expression during both the 2020 and 2022 electoral periods. The Aspen Institute, famous for its philanthropic endeavors, has been controversially funded by billionaire heavyweights George Soros, and Microsoft founder, Bill Gates.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation reportedly donated over $101 million to the Aspen Institute between 2003 and 2020. Simultaneously, George Soros’s Open Society Network funded the Institute with upwards of $3 million during the same period.
Texas House Approves Ban on COVID Vaccine Mandates by Private Employers
After several attempts by Republicans to rein in COVID-19 vaccine mandates by Texas employers, lawmakers are edging closer to a statewide ban on the practice after legislation won House approval early Thursday.
Violators would be subject to a whopping $50,000 fine under an amendment adopted by the Texas House. The bill’s sponsor called it the strongest such ban in the country.
After debating the bill on Wednesday, the Texas House gave final approval to Senate Bill 7 on a 91-54 vote in the early hours of Thursday morning, with all Republicans in favor and most Democrats opposed, after a passionate debate on the merits and safety of the vaccine, the impact of employer mandates on Texas workers, the rights of private business owners vs. private individuals, whether to allow stronger exceptions for hospitals and doctors, and the bill’s impact on medically vulnerable populations.
SB 7 would ban private businesses from requiring employees and contractors to get the COVID vaccine. Healthcare facilities would be allowed to require unvaccinated employees and contractors to wear protective gear, such as masks, or enact other “reasonable” measures to protect medically vulnerable patients.
Poilievre-Backed Anti-COVID Vaccine Mandate Bill Fails to Pass House
A Pierre Poilievre-backed bill pushing to prohibit the federal government from imposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates on public servants or restricting unvaccinated Canadian travelers from boarding has died in the House of Commons after failing to pass a key first vote.
The proposed five-page piece of legislation was defeated at the second reading by a vote of 205 to 114 on Wednesday, with the Conservatives the only party to support it. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cast his virtually: “nay.”
The private members’ bill — C-278, the Prevention of Government-imposed Vaccination Mandates Act — was first presented by Poilievre when he was running for Conservative leader. Due to overlap with an initiative of his own, anti-mandate, “Freedom Convoy” advocate and Ontario Conservative MP Dean Allison picked up Poilievre’s proposal and became its sponsor.
Poilievre spoke to the bill when it came up for debate on Tuesday night, imploring his colleagues to pass the bill. Now more than a year into his role at the helm of the Conservative party, Poilievre revived the anti-mandate messaging that he kicked off his leadership bid championing.
Visitors to the EU Will Soon Face Fingerprinting and Facial Scans
A significant shift is looming in the way American citizens will be allowed to enter a large majority of European nations. The European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS), an arm of the European Union, has unveiled its plans to implement a system in Spring 2025, requiring Americans to secure prior approval for travels up to 90 days in any of the 30 EU countries.
This is a departure from the current practice where U.S. travelers enjoy effortless entry into these countries without a visa requirement. However, the new regulation will insist on individuals proceeding with their travels only after registering their intent via the official ETIAS website or mobile application, both of which currently do not process such requests.
In a radical departure from the norm, from 2025 onwards, American passport holders will no longer receive passport stamps. Alarmingly, the planned regulatory changes involve intense intrusions into personal privacy. The new rules state that visitors will be subjected to both face and fingerprint scans aside from surrendering other biometric data. It’s disconcerting that this data will be reserved within the European Commission’s Common Identity Repository (CIR), a database accessed by numerous agencies, including law enforcement.
These regulations reflect a worrying escalation towards a surveillance state that doesn’t differentiate between law-abiding citizens and potential threats but treats them both as data sets to be tagged, traced, and retained.
Google Reportedly Pays $18 Billion a Year to Be Apple’s Default Search Engine
Google pays Apple billions of dollars every year to be the default search engine in Safari on Macs, iPads, and iPhones. That, we’ve known for a long time. But exactly how many billions Google pays, what strings are attached to that money, and what might happen if it went away?
Those have been the questions raised repeatedly in the ongoing U.S. v. Google trial, and most of the numbers have been reserved for a closed courtroom.
But now, a New York Times report offers a specific figure: it says Google paid Apple “around $18 billion” in 2021. We’ve been hearing educated guesses and rumors during the trial as low as $10 billion and as high as $20 billion, so this number isn’t totally shocking. But it’s at the high end of expectations.
