Daily Archives: September 4, 2021

Trump loyalists team up with anti-vax doctors for health and freedom tour – The Guardian

Posted: September 4, 2021 at 6:12 am

Top loyalists to Donald Trump, who frequently push lies about election fraud, have joined forces with conservative doctors touting unproven Covid curesand vaccine skepticism, and like-minded evangelical ministers at a series of events across the US this summer.

The conservative ReAwaken America tour featuring ex-general Michael Flynn and top Donald Trump loyalist donors has held events in Florida, Michigan and other states.

It underscores how Trumps allies, anti-vaccine doctors and conservative preachers are amplifying baseless claims that are hurting the nations public health and its democracy with potentially far-reaching impacts, say pandemic and election experts.

The tour comes as Covid cases soar and as Republican drives to pass state laws weakening voting rights increase. While the tour has touted Flynns key role, a Tulsa Oklahoma media figure and Christian entrepreneur named Clay Clark has been instrumental in orchestrating the gatherings also dubbed health and freedom conferences using his ThriveTime podcast and radio show and Charisma News coverage.

The ReAwaken events have featured talks by vaccine skeptics such as Simone Gold, who was charged for taking part in the Capitol riot and leads Americas Frontline Doctors, a rightist group that garnered attention for touting dubious Covid-19 cures such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.

Stella Immanuel, a Houston doctor who is part of Golds group and who spoke at a Michigan ReAwaken rally on 20 August, gained notoriety last year for public remarks at a Washington rally near the supreme court, suggesting Americas health problems were linked to alien DNA and sperm from demons.

Another doctor listed as a speaker at the rallies is Scott Jensen, a former state senator and Fox News favorite who is running for governor in Minnesota. Last year, Jensen was a candidate for Politifacts lie of the year for claiming baselessly that doctors were overcounting Covid cases for their own financial gain.

Further, the conservative tour has provided new audiences for rich Trump donors such as Mike Lindell, the chief executive of MyPillow, who has stated falsely that Trump would be reinstalled as president by 13 August, and Patrick Byrne, the former chief of Overstock, who bankrolled with millions of dollars a spurious audit in Arizonas largest county that has drawn bipartisan fire for lacking merit.

The ReAwaken meetings, which each appear to have drawn audiences in the hundreds or more, have also taken place this year in Oklahoma and California, with more slated for Colorado and Texas in coming months. Promotional materials indicate that attendees are asked to pay $250 for general admission or $500 for VIP tickets, with pastors eligible for half-price tickets.

Voting rights lawyers and pandemic experts are troubled by the volume of election and pandemic disinformation that the ReAwaken tour seems to be spreading.

Many Americans believe the 2020 election was stolen, despite numerous failed court cases alleging it and recounts that verified the results, said Gerry Hebert, who spent over two decades as a senior lawyer at the justice department handling voting rights.

Hebert added: People have refused to wear masks and get vaccinated because of Covid disinformation campaigns. Lies and disinformation campaigns can kill, both our fellow Americans and our democracy, and this ReAwaken America tour seems designed to accentuate these problems.

Similarly, Covid experts say that the ReAwaken America tour is exacerbating medical disinformation.

These events are stark reminders of how Trump was elected in 2016 and remains popular to this day, with many now vying to assume his mantle in campaigning for elected office at all levels of governments, said Irwin Redlener, who leads Columbia Universitys Pandemic Resource and Recovery Initiative.

Im actually embarrassed by the fact that there are doctors fully into this craziness.

Flynn, who was pardoned by Trump late last year after twice pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador in the federal investigation into Kremlin meddling in the 2016 elections, has become a fixture at conspiracy-heavy gatherings this year, including one in Texas in May that was backed by QAnon advocates who have falsely claimed Trump will become president again this year.

Other Trump loyalists have popped up at the ReAwaken events, including Roger Stone, a longtime Trump adviser who also was pardoned by Trump after he was convicted of lying to Congress and other felonies as part of the federal inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 elections, and Charlie Kirk who runs the pro-Trump youth group Turning Point USA.

Anne Nelson, the author of Shadow Network, a book about the rightwing Council for National Policy, which boasts some key evangelicals, said Clarks ReAwaken tour has echoes of earlier religious political entrepreneurs but said Clark has modernized their techniques with religious rallies and media platforms promoting Trump surrogates like Michael Flynn and medical misinformation peddlers like Simone Gold, to build momentum for the radical right, leading up to next years midterms and 2024.

The ReAwaken gatherings have dovetailed with more drives by conservative doctors and Trump loyalists spreading pandemic and election disinformation.

For instance, Golds Americas Frontline Doctors, which was formed with the help of Tea Party Patriots early last year, filed a motion this July aimed at the health department seeking to halt vaccinations. The motion contained some widely debunked assertions about Covid-19.

The discredited claims included that CDC data reveals that the two-shot Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine are not effective in treating or preventing Covid-19, and that the pandemic is not a public health emergency.

Further, Golds group announced in May that it was launching a national RV Uncensored Truth Tour with an initial focus on several states including Arizona, Texas and Florida.

Critics see the RV tour as another vehicle for Gold to spread disinformation, as in her comments in Washington at a rally the day before the Capitol attack, when she labeled FDA approved vaccines an experimental biological agent deceptively named a vaccine and urged people to avoid being coerced.

More broadly, Redlener is dismayed by the abundance of disinformation at the ReAwaken America rallies, and via similar avenues. The increasingly flagrant promotion of anti- science ignorance and bizarre political extremism is worrisome, he said.

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Trump loyalists team up with anti-vax doctors for health and freedom tour - The Guardian

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Heart of Dixie remains Donald Trump Country – The Troy Messenger – Troy Messenger

Posted: at 6:12 am

Former President Donald Trump paid a visit to the Heart of Dixie last week. Obviously, this is Trump country.

Alabama was one of Trumps best states in the 2020 Election. He got an amazing 65 percent of the vote in our state. If the turnout for his August 21 rally in rural Cullman County is any indication, he would get that same margin of victory this year if the election were held again. Many of those in attendance were insistent that Trump won last years presidential contest and that it was stolen from him.

The event was held on a desolate rural north Alabama farm. It was reminiscent of the 1969 Woodstock event in rural New York. In fact, our newly minted U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville referred to it as Trumpstock. Tuberville nor I either one attended Woodstock, but we are old enough to know about the legendary music and imbibing event. It was also reminiscent of some of the old George Wallace rallies in the 1960s only much larger.

The rally drew an enormous crowd. Estimates said there were 45,000 Trumpites in attendance and I am not an expert on estimating crowds, but I do not disagree with that number. It took me 30 minutes to walk through the crowd to get to my car.

Trump is truly an entertainer and Alabama is truly Trump Country, although there were quite a few folks in attendance from neighboring states. I was very appreciative to be given a VIP front row private reception invitation to the event. Allow me to share some of my observations.

Coach/Senator Tommy Tuberville won his seat in the U.S. Senate because Trump endorsed him. It is obvious that Trump and Tuberville like each other and have bonded. Tuberville ran for and is in the Senate for the right reason. He wants to spend some of his retirement years giving back to this country. Tuberville was not groomed to be a politician. He is a football coach, but he is doing a good job representing Alabama in Washington. He has put together a good staff headed by veteran Stephen Boyd. They are doing a good job with constituent service. Tuberville looked jovial, relaxed, and dapper when he spoke prior to Trump.

Lt. Governor Will Ainsworth gave a great speech. It was fiery and almost George Wallace level. He is a true conservative. He has two young sons who accompanied him to the rally. They are very gentlemanly young men, who are always courteous and mannerly.

Attorney General Steve Marshall gave an excellent speech. It was conversational, sincere and well received.

Congressman Robert Aderholt was spectacular and gave a great speech and welcome. He represents Cullman in congress. His 4th Congressional District gave Trump the largest percentage votes of any congressional district in the country. Aderholt looks like a congressman. He is polished and erudite, but has a grassroots appeal. His people in North Alabama love him.

Mo Brooks spoke and was fiery as ever. Trump has endorsed him in the senate race. However, Trump only endorsed him once on this night.

There is a lot of internal discord among the Republican Party membership. It appears that the Mo Brooks supporters have taken over the Republican Party hierarchy and that this Trump event was a Mo Brooks rally. Trump probably was asked to temper his Brooks endorsement. Indeed, Mo Brookss opponents, Katie Britt, Lynda Blanchard and Jessica Taylor were all in attendance.

Several state senators were there, along with the aforementioned state constitutional officers. I saw Greg Reed from Jasper, Tom Whatley from Auburn, along with hometown Cullman Senator Garlan Gudger, and PSC Commissioner Jeremy Oden also from Cullman County. In addition, Secretary of State John Merrill and Jefferson/Shelby Congressman Gary Palmer were in attendance.

It was good to see some of the old, longtime, 50 year Republican Party faithful founders there Elbert Peters from Huntsville, Joan and Paul Reynolds from Shelby County, and Vicki and Mike Drummond from Jasper. They were laboring in the Republican vineyards before it was cool to be a Republican, and still are.

I had a chance to see Trump closeup. He looks amazing for 75. People age differently. He is a lot more cognizant and alert than 78-year-old Joe Biden. If you made me bet, I would say that Trump is running for President in 2024 and that he will carry Alabama.

Happy Labor Day.

See you next week.

Steve Flowers is Alabamas leading political columnist. His weekly column is seen in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at: http://www.steveflowers.us.

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Heart of Dixie remains Donald Trump Country - The Troy Messenger - Troy Messenger

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Rex Murphy: I miss Donald Trump and the hypnotic hold he had on his enemies – National Post

Posted: at 6:12 am

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Biden is a stumbling, unready leader, visibly in a state of intellectual entropy

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I miss Donald Trump.

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Not so much in any personal sense, but in the sense that while his lively demeanour and super energetic style inhabited the White House all the world was fed a daily diary of his doings and sayings.

Some say Mr. Trump leveraged his years on The Apprentice ( a show I could not stand, it was worse than the Dragons Den, another 30 minutes offering a preview of Purgatory without the escape clause) to earn the fame that brought him to the Presidency.

This is an error. It is not so much that reality television brought Donald Trump to the White House, as that Donald Trump brought the White House to reality television. Whether the White House or reality TV suffered the more from this interesting collision will require history to determine.

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I miss Mr. Trump as well because of the fascination he exerted on almost everybody, and particularly the hypnotic power over those who radically despised him. His gift for disconcerting his enemies was something beyond biology: he had something like a Draculean hold over their spirits. He exhaled; they fretted madly.

The feral hosts of cable TV, the Lemons, the Cuomos, the Maddows not the stoutest spars on the vessel of public enlightenment could speak of no one else. They were enthralled.

During his tenure, here in Canada, even with Justin Trudeau as our prime minister, a charismatic magnet though of far less field strength than Mr. Trump, the CBC drank as fervidly and fulsomely at the Trump waterhole, as any of the mastodons in his own country, CBS, NBC, ABC and The New York Times.

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Trump news was evidently very Canadian news. We were deluged by reports of the most trivial and most serious aspects of the Trump presidency. As if it were crucial to know in Red Deer or Twillingate that Donald Trump was most likely a Russian plant in the service of Vladimir Putin. When Trump was president, American news was very much our news. Why, was never detailed.

What I find odd, is how with a Biden presidency our news networks have fully lost interest in the guy that won against him, the hapless, hopeless somnambulistic, Im not supposed to take questions, Joseph Biden. Biden is a disaster as president. As feeble and confused a leader as can be imagined.

Mr. Biden just committed the most bumbling, tragic and incompetent major actions of an American president since the Bay of Pigs. The mangled, bungled, tragic, unspeakably incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan is a massive humiliation of the worlds preeminent power.

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Under Bidens tottering leadership, the U.S. has left its armaments, its high tech helicopters, its base in Bagram $70 billion of weaponry by some cited estimates to a ragtag militia of fundamentalist Islamists. Worse, it has abandoned some of its citizens, shamed its own military, and left Afghan allies and the women and girls of that sad country to the fierce and revenge-hungry Taliban.

Yet, Mr. Biden, does not get the headlines, does not get the fire-breathing panel shows, the incessant condemnations, the high paid mockery of the late night comics not a fraction that Trump received during his tenure when he so much as walked somewhere with a Bible in his hand.

Biden is a stumbling, unready leader, visibly in a state of intellectual entropy. And that is a world story. It has far more meaning for us than did all the fake drama of Russian collusion. And yet the Canadian news media which were bloated in their coverage of Trump, by comparison, only nibble, and reluctantly so, at Bidens devastatingly inept and world-historical mis-exercise of American power.

On very many issues the media are blatantly activist, not really different from the many pressure groups, politicized NGOs, and various campaigners that they should be reporting on.The difference between how Trump was reported on and how Joe Biden is, is merely the largest illustration of this very unhappy decline.

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Rex Murphy: I miss Donald Trump and the hypnotic hold he had on his enemies - National Post

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Donald Trump takes another swipe at crypto – Yahoo Finance

Posted: at 6:12 am

The former President of the United States, Donald Trump, has branded cryptocurrencies a potential disaster waiting to happen.

The ex leader also expressed his doubts and worries about digital money saying that it could be fake.

Trump told Fox Business that he hasnt and never would invest in cryptocurrencies because he likes the currency of the United States.

He went on to claim the others were potentially a disaster waiting to happen.

I feel that it [cryptocurrency] hurts the United States currency, he said.

I think we should strengthen, we should be invested in our currency, not in [cryptocurrencies]. They may be fake, who knows what they are?

Trump also warned it was dangerous to invest in crypto assets since they are certainly something that people dont know much about, adding that he never was a big fan.

The former president has often criticised Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general. In June this year, he said Bitcoin seemed like a scam.

I dont like it because its another currency competing against the dollar, he complained.

I want the dollar to be the currency of the world.

I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated crypto-assets can facilitate unlawful behaviour, including drug trade and other illegal activity.

On the other hand, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler recently said he supports digital currencies, but he argued that the field is not going to reach any of its potentials if it tries to stay outside of our laws.

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Donald Trump takes another swipe at crypto - Yahoo Finance

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Former NYT reporter describes secretive ‘industry’ of ‘corporate investigations’ that targeted pharma, Trump – Fox News

Posted: at 6:12 am

Barry Meier, a retired New York Times reporter and author of "Spooked: The Trump Dossier, Black Cube, and the Rise of Private Spies," discussed with Fox Nation's "Tucker Carlson Today" some of the topics of the book including how corporate investigation firms have sprung up over the past few decades and have had tangible effects on politics and business.

Host Tucker Carlson asked Meier about his research into the effect on investigational firms and the Trump campaign, specifically how Fusion GPS an opposition research firm founded by former Wall Street Journal reporters became involved in looking into then-private citizen Donald Trump.

"What I'm trying to tell in the book is, this a story about an industry. It's about a business that most of your viewers and certainly, I didn't know much about when I started researching the book and that was the business of what's known as corporate investigations private spying companies who are hired by lawyers, corporations, litigants often, to dig up dirt on their adversaries, or to dig up information that will embarrass them publicly," Meier said.

"In the past decade, there's been a huge boom in this industry, and demand for these services and the growth of the number of firms conducting these types of activities."

Meier said the business model evolved from the mid-20th century covert private investigators that may have surveilled an allegedly cheating spouse or as Carlson described, someone who might stake out "outside a motel on the other side of town take pictures and get paid."

"Essentially, they were all digging up dirt of one type or another. So for example, if I have a beef with you, and you know, I think you've done something unfair or whatever that case happens to be, I would go to one of these corporate intelligence firms. And I'd say, find out everything you can about Tucker, and tell me-- and dig into his past," Meier explained. "[G]o talk to his friends and find out whatever you want to find out, and tell me about it, and maybe I'll use it in a lawsuit about him. Maybe I'll use it through some publicity to embarrass him."

That, he said, was the business model used by various entities like Fusion GPS to undermine Trump's candidacy in 2015 and 2016.

"In the case of the Steele dossier, it was information about Donald Trump and any business activities that he and his associates might have had in Russia," he said.

He called the corporate investigations into Trump "historically significant," adding that it "changed the presidency and therefore the country."

While opposition research has been eternal in U.S. politics, Meier said the advent of the Steele dossier was a new level in that.

Meier claimed Fusion GPS had initially been hired by people who were interested in helping Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in the Republican primary.

"Fusion's assignment was basically to go through Donald Trump's business personal history, whatever, and dig up whatever information that would be detrimental, unflattering to Donald Trump. And obviously, Donald Trump's had a long, checkered business career, so there's of plenty stuff in business records with his bankruptcies and various business problems there to dig up," he explained.

He noted that by early 2016, Trump was viewed as all but a lock in the GOP primary, with remaining candidates like former Ohio Gov. John Kasich polling exponentially lower and lacking delegates.

At that point, Meier reported that attorneys for the DNC and Hillary Clinton's campaign then sought for Fusion GPS to continue their work, albeit for them.

"But they say at that point, well, we'd like to start looking at his activities in Russia, because we haven't really looked at that closely before. They get the go-ahead and the money to do that. And that's when they hire Christopher Steele, a person has become sort of notorious in the aftermath of all this," he said.

Steele, a former MI6 agent on the United Kingdom's spy agency's Russia desk, became one of the previously-described "corporate investigators" and started a firm specializing in cases relevant to Eastern Europe, the journalist said.

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"So Fusion GPS was hired by people who didn't like Trump on the Republican side, switched, and now is employed by the Hillary Clinton campaign, contracts with Christopher Steele's firm in London to learn more about Trump's involvement with Russia," he said.

Meier claimed that Steele, as a former British agent, cannot go to Russia, so an intermediary was hired to "write up a series of memos, of which there were something like 17 or 18."

"And those memos, which were then passed back to Fusion GPS, became known as the dossier," Meier said.

New episodes of "Tucker Carlson Today" are available every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday exclusively on Fox Nation.

Fox Nationprograms are viewable on-demand and from your mobile device app, but only for Fox Nation subscribers.Go to Fox Nationto start a free trial and watch the extensive library from your favorite Fox News personalities.

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Former NYT reporter describes secretive 'industry' of 'corporate investigations' that targeted pharma, Trump - Fox News

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The eagle on Donald Trumps official card seems to be a free stock photo from Shutterstock – indy100

Posted: at 6:12 am

Former U.S. President Donald Trumps PAC unveiled the official Trump card this week via campaign email, and the token emblem a golden eagle seems to be a free stock image.

In an email sent on September 2, Trumps PAC said, the card you select will be carried by Patriots all around the Country, as reported by Business Insider. They will be a sign of your dedicated support to our movement to SAVE AMERICA, and Im putting my full trust in you. In a second email, they added: Were about to launch our Official Trump Cards, which will be reserved for President Trumps STRONGEST supporters.

The piece of plastic had already been repeatedly compared to Nazi paraphernalia, and one of the designs contained a typo, mispelling official. And now, Insider has revealed that the creators of the official cards, which cost $45, seemingly obtained their eagle imagery from Shutterstock, free of charge.

Titled Golden Eagle with wings spread, the file is available for free download by signing up for a Shutterstock trial. Its one of the most popular eagle options on the site, and the graphic designer who hosts the image is David Randall Peters. Its also the third option to come up when you search golden eagle illustration on the site, so it doesnt take a particularly deep dive to uncover its origins.

Below is an image of the stock photo, which can be downloaded as a high-resolution file for free, if you feel so inclined.

The third option when you search golden eagle illustration on Shutterstock.

This is Trumps official card, which again, will cost $45.

The purpose of the cards, as well as who is eligible to receive them, remains unclear.

Our thoughts are with the graphic designers behind the eagle and official cards at this time.

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The eagle on Donald Trumps official card seems to be a free stock photo from Shutterstock - indy100

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How Trumps Supreme Court Picks Ruled on the Abortion Ban – The Atlantic

Posted: at 6:12 am

Updated at 10:35 p.m. ET on September 2, 2021

Last night, the Supreme Court quietly green-lit the most extreme abortion ban the United States has seen in half a century: a Texas law that prohibits abortions at six weeks from a womans last period, even in cases of rape or incest, and that deputizes citizens to spy on women and sue anyone who helps someone obtain a prohibited abortion.

The rest of the states now have a road map to ban abortion almost entirely and put bounties on women and doctors without court intervention. The constitutional right to abortion until viability is no longer being enforced. Republicans have been looking forward to this moment for decades. But some have mysteriously gone quiet. Even the loudest of the anti-abortion senators, Ted Cruz, who happens to hail from Texas, had managed, as of this writing, to refrain from gloating about the victory on Twitter.

Mary Ziegler: The deviousness of Texass new abortion law

Perhaps they dont want the big headlines, because overturning Roe v. Wade is consistently unpopular with American voters. But another motivation could explain the silence: For half a decade, Republicansespecially self-described moderate members of the partyhave been gaslighting America on the issue of abortion rights, pretending they didnt know that Donald Trumps Supreme Court picks were always planning to overturn Roe. A central goal of the conservative judicial movement that these justices came out of is overturning Roe. The Federalist Society handpicked them for that reason. Its a transparently phony act, one thats now been exposed as such.

Senator Susan Collins of Maine, for example, tried to convince everyone that she genuinely believed Brett Kavanaugh would let Roe stand, despite all evidence to the contrary. Protecting [the right to an abortion] is important to me, Collins told The New York Times after a two-hour, face-to-face session with Kavanaugh during which, she said, he convinced her that he would not overturn Roe. His views on honoring precedent would preclude attempts to do by stealth that which one has committed not to do overtly. Collins said that Kavanaugh assured her Roe was settled law, and that his answer on Roe was very strong, though he had openly criticized the decision in a speech, used the anti-abortion lingo abortion on demand, and voted more than once as a federal judge against reproductive rights.

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, an outspoken abortion opponent, also said on Fox News before Kavanaughs confirmation that the justice will give great deference to Roe v. Wade. Women, in particular, protested loudly about Kavanaughs nominationless than a third of them supported itnot only because he clearly threatened Roe, but also because he had been credibly accused of attempted rape. Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, a Republican, in turn called women hysterical for sounding the alarm about Roe.

Read: Trump, Kavanaugh, and the limits of male power

People are going to pretend that Americans have no historical memory, and supposedly there havent been screaming protesters saying Women are going to die at every hearing for decades, Sasse told Kavanaugh at his confirmation hearing. So the fact that the hysteria has nothing to do with you means that we should ask: Whats the hysteria coming from?

Kavanaugh was then confirmed, tipping the Supreme Court toward an anti-abortion majority.

The same charade repeated itself when Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett, a religious conservative and formerly outspoken abortion opponent, to replace the liberal lion Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Barrett very carefully answered a question about Roe during her confirmation hearings. All nominees are united in their belief that what they think about a precedent should not bear on how they decide cases, she told senators.

Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a supposed pro-abortion-rights moderate Republican in the same vein as Collins, told reporters that she did not believe Barrett would ever overturn Roe. She voted to confirm Barrett in the middle of Trumps reelection campaign. And then Trump himselfdespite having promised in 2016 to nominate only anti-abortion judgesflatly denied in a debate with then-candidate Joe Biden that Roe was on the ballot.

You dont know whats on the ballot. Why is it on the ballot? Trump asked Biden in an exchange about Roe.

Its on the ballot in the Court, Biden said, to which Trump replied, You dont know [Barretts] view on Roe v. Wade.

Of course, now that Chief Justice John Roberts has sided with the liberal justices on the Texas case, its clear that Kavanaugh and Barrett were the votes that effectively ended abortion rights for women in Texas. That was always the plan. It was exactly why they were chosen. Women werent being hysterical about the threat to RoeRepublicans were simply lying about it. And now they hope we wont notice.

An earlier version of this article said that women who obtain abortions could be sued under the new law. In fact, only people suspected of performing illegal abortions or helping someone obtain one are subject to lawsuits under the law. This article originally stated that Senator Susan Collins voted to confirm Justice Amy Coney Barrett. In fact, Collins opposed Barrett's confirmation.

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How Trumps Supreme Court Picks Ruled on the Abortion Ban - The Atlantic

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Med-tech giants Baxter and Hillrom consolidate in $12M deal that could shake up the connected health space – eMarketer

Posted: at 6:11 am

The news: Medtech giant Baxter is acquiring fellow medtech company Hillrom in a $12.4 billion deal thats expected to close by early 2022.

Why it matters: Together, Baxter-Hillrom will be able to offer a strong portfolio of digital health solutions to its hospital and health system customers.

Whats next? Baxters acquisition of Hillrom makes it a stronger competitor against younger, tech-driven digital health companies clawing at the same share of the growing hospital-at-home market.

The senior population is swelling and older adults want to age in their homes.

And the hospital-at-home movement is gaining traction on the government stage, making it all the more enticing to dive into:

Even though Baxter and Hillrom are not traditionally digitally-driven healthcare companies, their massive existing footprint in hospitals and health systems could give the combined entity a leg up.

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Opinion | Requiring tech giants to share revenues with Canadian news outlets could be a much-needed lifeline – ThePeterboroughExaminer.com

Posted: at 6:11 am

As reliably as Canadian winters bring snow, elections bring promises. And with the Canadian federal election now but a couple of weeks away, the promises are coming fast and furious.

This is ostensibly what democracy is supposed to look like: parties vying for office put forth a set of proposed policies and voters go to the polls and pick both what they want and what they think is best.

Democracy, however, has more to it that just governments and voters. There are other parts to it: the judiciary for one, and also the press. And that latter group has long been waiting for something tucked within the Liberal partys newly released platform. Now called the Australian Model, the Grits policy would require digital platforms that generate revenues from the publication of news content to share a portion of their revenues with Canadian news outlets.

It is, in short, a financial lifeline to an industry that has been decimated over the past two and a half decades since the arrival of the internet. And in that sense, the Liberal proposal should, if nothing else, elicit cries of relief; finally, someone is doing something about the sorry state of the news business. In a democratic society, saving news can only be a good thing.

Of course, there are always those who argue that when it comes to privately-run business like a news site, no one but the company in question should do anything at all; leave it to the free market and let God sort things out.

There is a certain sort of logic to that perspective. The news business is, after all, not blameless in its current situation. After being slow to react to the web, and even slower to shift to more sustainable business models like paywalls, its initially antagonistic relationship with the newness of the web has had catastrophic effects.

But the thing with news is that if there is a disaster in the industry, then there is much more than the news business that suffers. Just as governments form a core part of democracy, so too does the press. At its best it holds power to account, uncovers corruption and wrongdoing, and ideally, produces a better informed, more culturally literate populace.

But this week, as but one example, anti-vaxxer protests across the country actually blocked traffic to hospitals in some cities. The rise of those sort of flatly false conspiracy theories has happened because the information landscape has shifted in the era of the web, and the reduced capacity of the news business is one reason for it.

In short, tech giants, Facebook and Google in particular, now control about 90 per cent of the advertising business. They are also the conduits through which the publics attention is directed. That combination has shifted the locus of power from the media to tech, and far from a democratization of our public sphere, it has instead turned it into a cacophonic mess.

Hence the Australian model. What it, and the Liberal policy modelled on it, proposes is twofold: first, that the tech companies will have to pay news organizations to link to their content; and secondly, that news organizations can collectively bargain that price with the tech companies, with binding arbitration if necessary.

The proposal isnt perfect. By linking the financial future of news to Facebook and Google, the policy runs the risk of entrenching their power; it is harder to unseat large corporations once they have become the bedrock of certain parts of society. There is also some confusion about why the tech companies should pay; they do not publish news content but, rather, link to it though given that a significant portion of discussion online is based on media output, this seems more a question of clarification than a fatal flaw.

But as a solution to social ills, the proposal is a clear step in the right direction. Wherever we might lay the blame for the current state of media whether on a predatory and profit-obsessed tech sector, media itself, or a polarized and increasingly fractious political climate what is clear is that the news business is necessary.

During the pandemic, for example, the media has been a key component of informing the public of public health measures, where and why to get a vaccine, as well as being the site of vigorous debate over how to best balance political freedoms and epidemiology.

Yet that capacity of media to inform and create a culturally fluent audience is these days forever hamstrung by its massively reduced revenue. Reporters are harried, fact-checkers are expensive and increasingly rare, and new technological and business ventures become harder and harder to implement when companies are barely keeping their heads above water.

While it once seemed sure, polling suggests it is no longer certain that the Liberals will win. For the news business at least, that will be a shame, because the other two parties plans for the tech giants seem more diffuse. More importantly, for all of us, sustaining news is an idea that has been too long coming and regardless of who wins, if news isnt saved, we will all lose.

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Opinion | Requiring tech giants to share revenues with Canadian news outlets could be a much-needed lifeline - ThePeterboroughExaminer.com

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Auto Shows Are Back and CEOs Have Wheeling-and-Dealing to Do – Yahoo Finance

Posted: at 6:11 am

(Bloomberg) --

When automotive chieftains gather in Munich this upcoming week for Europes first major car show in two years, theyll do more than just lift the veil on shiny sheet metal. These are occasions where big deals tend to get done.

Consider one of the last times the auto world descended on a European city for such a forum in March 2019. Just before the action got underway in Geneva, the CEOs of Peugeot maker PSA and Fiat Chrysler met to sow the seeds of what blossomed into a mega merger, vaulting Stellantis NV into the same league as Toyota Motor Corp. and Volkswagen AG.

Theres no telling whether executives will mask-up and elbow-bump their way to another blockbuster transaction in Munich. Toyota, Stellantis and Nissan Motor Co. arent even attending, and carmakers that are will send smaller contingents due to the surging delta variant. If that werent enough, many who want to get to Bavaria have had their travel plans disrupted by a Germany-wide rail strike.

Still, this much is certain: the same forces that drove PSA and Fiat into one anothers arms are only more relevant two years after their initial huddle off the 2019 Geneva show floor.

Youve got to be innovative, and for that you need to have significant firepower and a global footprint, said Peter Fuss, a partner at EY. Otherwise, the dependence on certain markets is too great and theres the issue of scaling technologies.

Carmakers have earmarked a whopping $330 billion in spending to electrify their lineups by 2025, according to consultants at AlixPartners. Revenue is being constrained by the global semiconductor shortage that is showing no signs of letting up anytime soon. Charging infrastructure must be built out to ensure EVs will appeal to the masses. And while sales of battery-powered cars are starting to take off, catching up with tech giants in the race to bring autonomous driving and connectivity to cars will be a herculean task.

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VW CEO Herbert Diess in June called driverless vehicles the most sophisticated internet device you can imagine, predicting autonomy will bring about even greater change to the industry than the rise of EVs. Carmakers accustomed to competing on zero-to-60 times and other specs are now battling for valuable in-car data with deep-pocketed tech firms. At stake is control over what could become a $400 billion market by 2030, according to McKinsey & Co.

Pursuing tie-ups and M&A will be essential, EYs Fuss said, because carmakers rightly sense theyre moving too slowly. While VW is plotting a more than $30 billion software-related investment binge, even Diess has said there are old, encrusted structures the company must dismantle in order to be more agile.

He and his peers better hurry. Amazon.com Inc. has demonstrated its mobility ambitions by backing electric-vehicle maker Rivian Automotive Inc. and snapping up self-driving startup Zoox. Google has had its struggles scaling its autonomy efforts, but it remains widely viewed as the leader in the space. Speculation was rampant early this year that Apple Inc.s car activities are picking back up.

Plenty Activity

Europes carmakers are already doing plenty of wheeling-and-dealing to combat the threats. Just this year, VW has kicked the tires on a potential listing of Porsche and handed off majority control of Bugatti. Daimler is breaking itself up into separately listed truck and car companies, its biggest shake-up since the sale of Chrysler.

Outside Germany, Renault SA is working to fill what its CEO has described as an unacceptable void in China by joining forces with Geely Holding Group. Geely, meanwhile, is exploring a listing of Volvo Cars later this year, and their EV-making offshoot Polestar is said to have discussed going public through a blank-check firm merger that could value the company at $25 billion.

The car-parts sector also has been plenty active. Frances Faurecia SE just prevailed in a bidding battle with peers for Germanys Hella GmbH in an $8 billion deal that was one of the biggest among European auto suppliers in years. Swedens Veoneer Inc. is poised to end up in the hands of Qualcomm Inc. or Magna International Inc. And Vitesco Technologies, the powertrain and sensor unit due to be spun off from Continental AG this month, has already flagged its appetite for M&A.

Terrifying Trend

While auto shows have been ideal forums for deal-making, prospects may be better for shows after Munich. Business travel remains in pandemic-induced doldrums, and in Germany -- where six-in-10 people are fully vaccinated -- the infection rate has managed to surge fivefold in the past month.

While organizers for the show this upcoming week are banking on outdoor spaces and inner-city events helping to open up space for participants to spread out, some executives remain concerned. Audi is staffing the show with a small team and reducing its trade-fair presence to a single outdoor stand, according to CEO Markus Duesmann.

Its terrifying -- for us all, I believe -- how the incidence rates are developing, and we know that hospitalizations and rising deaths normally follow, he told reporters last week. I like the concept, but I see the timing critically because of the incidences.

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Auto Shows Are Back and CEOs Have Wheeling-and-Dealing to Do - Yahoo Finance

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