Daily Archives: December 21, 2022

AP finds most arrested in protests aren’t leftist radicals

Posted: December 21, 2022 at 3:23 am

WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump portrays the hundreds of people arrested nationwide in protests against racial injustice as violent urban left-wing radicals. But an Associated Press review of thousands of pages of court documents tells a different story.

Very few of those charged appear to be affiliated with highly organized extremist groups, and many are young suburban adults from the very neighborhoods Trump vows to protect from the violence in his reelection push to win support from the suburbs.

Attorney General William Barr has urged his prosecutors to bring federal charges on protesters who cause violence and has suggested that rarely used sedition charges could apply. And the Department of Justice has pushed for detention even as prisons across the U.S. were releasing high-risk inmates because of COVID-19 and prosecutors had been told to consider the risks of incarceration during a pandemic when seeking detention.

Defense attorneys and civil rights activists are questioning why the Department of Justice has taken on cases to begin with. They say most belong in state court, where defendants typically get much lighter sentences. And they argue federal authorities appear to be cracking down on protesters in an effort to stymie demonstrations.

It is highly unusual, and without precedent in recent American history, said Ron Kuby, a longtime attorney who isnt involved in the cases but has represented scores of clients over the years in protest-related incidents. Almost all of the conduct thats being charged is conduct that, when it occurs, is prosecuted at the state and local level.

In one case in Utah, where a police car was burned, federal prosecutors had to defend why they were bringing arson charges in federal court. They said it was appropriate because the patrol car was used in interstate commerce.

Not to say there hasnt been violence. Other police cars have been set on fire. Officers have been injured and blinded. Windows have been smashed, stores looted, businesses destroyed.

Of more than 300 arrested, there are about 286 defendants, others had charges dropped. Some live in cities like Portland and Seattle where local prosecutors declined to bring some protest-related charges.

Some of those facing charges undoubtedly share far-left and anti-government views. Far-right protesters also have been arrested and charged. Some defendants have driven to protests from out of state. Some have criminal records and were illegally carrying weapons. Others are accused of using the protests as an opportunity to steal or create havoc.

But many have had no previous run-ins with the law and no apparent ties to antifa, the umbrella term for leftist militant groups that Trump has said he wants to declare a terrorist organization.

Even though most of the demonstrations have been peaceful, Trump has made law and order a major part of his reelection campaign, casting the protests as lawless and violent in mostly Democratic cities he says have done nothing to stymie the mayhem. If the cities refuse to properly clamp down, he says, the federal government has to step in.

I know about antifa, and I know about the radical left, and I know how violent they are and how vicious they are, and I know how they are burning down cities run by Democrats, Trump said at an NBC town hall.

In dozens of cases, the government has pushed to keep the protesters behind bars while they await their trials amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 220,000 people across the U.S. There have been more than 16,000 positive cases in the federal prison system, according to a tracker compiled by the AP and The Marshall Project.

In some cases, prosecutors have gone so far as appealing judges orders to release defendants. Pre-trial detention generally is reserved only for people who are clearly dangers to the community or a risk of fleeing.

In Texas, Magistrate Judge Andrew Austin repeatedly challenged the prosecutor to explain why Cyril Lartigue, who authorities say was caught on camera making a Molotov cocktail, should be behind bars while he awaits his trial. Lartigue, of Cedar Park, described his actions that night as a flash of stupidity, prosecutors said.

The 25-year-old lives with his parents in the Austin suburb and had never been in trouble with the law before and wasnt a member of a violent group.

The judge said there are lot of people who do something stupid thats dangerous that we dont even consider detaining.

Im frustrated because I dont think this is a hard case, the judge said. I have defendants in here with significant criminal histories that the government agrees to release.

We have no evidence of him at least thats been given to me being a radical or a member of a group that advocates violence toward the police or others. Weve got no criminal history. What evidence is there that hes a danger to society? the judge asked.

The judge allowed Lartigue to stay out of jail.

While some of the defendants clearly hold radical or anti-government beliefs, prosecutors have provided little evidence of any affiliations they have with organized extremist groups.

In one arrest in Erie, Pennsylvania, community members raised more than $2,500 to help with bail for a 29-year-old Black man who was arrested after they said white people had come from out of town and spray painted a parking lot.

In thousands of pages of court documents, the only apparent mention of antifa is in a Boston case in which authorities said a FBI Gang Task Force member was investigating suspected ANTIFA activity associated with the protests when a man fired at him and other officers. Authorities have not claimed that the man accused of firing the shots is a member of antifa.

Others have social media leftist ties; a Seattle man who expressed anarchist beliefs on social media is accused of sending a message through a Portland citizen communication portal threatening to blow up a police precinct.

Several of the defendants are not from the Democratic-led cities that Trump has likened to war zones but from the suburbs the Republican president has claimed to have saved. Of the 93 people arrested on federal criminal charges in Portland, 18 defendants are from out of state, the Justice Department said.

This has contributed to a blame game that has been a subplot throughout the protests. Leaders in Minneapolis and Detroit have decried people from out of state and suburbanites for coming into their cities and causing havoc. Trump in turn has blamed the cities for not doing their part.

Dont come down to Detroit and tear the city up and then go back home. Thats putting another knee on the neck of Black folk because we got to live here, the Rev. Wendell Anthony of the NAACP said in May.

More than 40% of those facing federal charges are white. At least a third are Black, and about 6% Hispanic. More than two-thirds are under the age of 30 and most are men. More than a quarter have been charged with arson, which if convicted means a five-year minimum prison sentence. More than a dozen are accused of civil disorder, and others are charged with burglary and failing to comply with a federal order. They were arrested in cities across the U.S., from Portland, Oregon, to Minneapolis, Boston and New York.

Attorneys for those facing federal charges either declined to comment or didnt respond to messages from the AP.

Brian Bartels, a 20-year-old suburban Pittsburgh man who is described by prosecutors as a self-identified left-wing anarchist, was flanked by his parents when he turned himself in to authorities. Bartels, who lives at his parents house, spray painted an A on a police cruiser before jumping on top of it and smashing its windshield during a protest in the city, prosecutors said. He pleaded guilty in September.

One defendant who was arrested during a protest in the central Massachusetts city of Worcester told authorities he was with the anarchist group. Vincent Eovacious, 18, who is accused of possessing several Molotov cocktails, told authorities that he had been waiting for an opportunity, according to court documents.

But tucked into the protest-related cases are accusations of far-right extremism and racism as well.

John Malcolm Bareswill, angry that a local Black church held a prayer vigil for George Floyd, called the church and threatened to burn it to the ground, using racial slurs in a phone call overheard by children, prosecutors said. Bareswill, 63, of Virginia Beach, faces 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to making a telephonic threat.

Two Missouri militia members who authorities say traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin, to see Trumps visit in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake were arrested at a hotel in September with a cache of guns, according to court documents. An attorney for one of the men, Michael Karmo, said he is charged criminally for conduct that many Americans would consider patriotic, as authorities have alleged his motive was to assist overwhelmed law enforcement.

Three of the men arrested are far-right extremists, members of the Boogaloo movement plotting to overthrow the government and had been stockpiling military-grade weapons and hunting around for the right public event to unleash violence for weeks before Floyds death, according to court documents.

After aborting a mission related to reopening businesses in Nevada as the coronavirus pandemic raged, they settled on a Floyd-related protest led by Black Lives Matter. Angry it had not turned violent, they brought carloads of explosives, military-grade weapons, to a meet-up about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from the protest site and pumped gasoline into tanks. FBI agents arrested them before they could act, according to a criminal complaint.

FBI Director Christopher Wray recently told a congressional panel that extremists driven by white supremacist or anti-government ideologies have been responsible for most deadly attacks in the U.S. over the past few years. He said that antifa is more of an ideology or a movement than an organization, though the FBI has terrorism investigations of violent anarchist extremists, any number of whom self identify with the antifa movement.

But the handling of the federal protest cases is vastly different from other recent times of unrest.

Look at Travyon (Martin) verdicts, Eric Garner verdicts, Kuby said, talking about high-profile cases in which Black people were killed but no charges were filed.

There was a tremendous amount of anger and unrest and activity that was objectively unlawful, he said. There were objections about law enforcement being militarized, but you didnt see following the quelling of those demonstrations any significant federal law enforcement involvement.

____

Richer reported from Boston.

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Alexis Carrel – Wikipedia

Posted: at 3:22 am

French surgeon and biologist (18731944)

Alexis Carrel (French:[alksi kal]; 28 June 1873 5 November 1944) was a French surgeon and biologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1912 for pioneering vascular suturing techniques. He invented the first perfusion pump with Charles A. Lindbergh opening the way to organ transplantation. His positive description of a miraculous healing he witnessed during a pilgrimage earned him scorn of some of his colleagues. This prompted him to relocate to the United States, where he lived most of his life.[1] He had a leading role in implementing eugenic policies in Vichy France.[1][4]

A Nobel Prize laureate in 1912, Alexis Carrel was also elected twice, in 1924 and 1927, as an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.[5][6]

Born in Sainte-Foy-ls-Lyon, Rhne, Carrel was raised in a devout Catholic family and was educated by Jesuits, though he had become an agnostic by the time he became a university student.[citation needed] He was a pioneer in transplantology and thoracic surgery. Alexis Carrel was also a member of learned societies in the U.S., Spain, Russia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Vatican City, Germany, Italy and Greece and received honorary doctorates from Queen's University of Belfast, Princeton University, California, New York, Brown University and Columbia University.

In 1902, he was claimed to have witnessed the miraculous cure of Marie Bailly at Lourdes, made famous in part because she named Carrel as a witness of her cure.[7] After the notoriety surrounding the event, Carrel could not obtain a hospital appointment because of the pervasive anticlericalism in the French university system at the time. In 1903, he emigrated to Montreal, Canada, but soon relocated to Chicago, Illinois, to work for Hull Laboratory. While there he collaborated with American physician Charles Claude Guthrie in work on vascular suture and the transplantation of blood vessels and organs as well as the head, and Carrel was awarded the 1912 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for these efforts.[8]

In 1906, he joined the newly formed Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research in New York where he spent the rest of his career.[9] There he did significant work on tissue cultures with pathologist Montrose Thomas Burrows. In the 1930s, Carrel and Charles Lindbergh became close friends not only because of the years they worked together but also because they shared personal, political, and social views. Lindbergh initially sought out Carrel to see if his sister-in-law's heart, damaged by rheumatic fever, could be repaired. When Lindbergh saw the crudeness of Carrel's machinery, he offered to build new equipment for the scientist. Eventually they built the first perfusion pump, an invention instrumental to the development of organ transplantation and open heart surgery. Lindbergh considered Carrel his closest friend, and said he would preserve and promote Carrel's ideals after his death.[9]

Due to his close proximity with Jacques Doriot's fascist Parti Populaire Franais (PPF) during the 1930s and his role in implementing eugenics policies during Vichy France, he was accused after the Liberation of collaboration, but died before the trial.

In his later life he returned to his Catholic roots. In 1939, he met with Trappist monk Alexis Presse on a recommendation. Although Carrel was skeptical about meeting with a priest,[10] Presse ended up having a profound influence on the rest of Carrel's life.[9] In 1942, he said "I believe in the existence of God, in the immortality of the soul, in Revelation and in all the Catholic Church teaches." He summoned Presse to administer the Catholic Sacraments on his death bed in November 1944.[10]

For much of his life, Carrel and his wife spent their summers on the le Saint-Gildas[fr], which they owned. After he and Lindbergh became close friends, Carrel persuaded him to also buy a neighboring island, the Ile Illiec, where the Lindberghs often resided in the late 1930s.

Carrel was a young surgeon in 1894, when the French president Sadi Carnot was assassinated with a knife. Carnot bled to death due to severing of his portal vein, and surgeons who treated the president felt that the vein could not be successfully reconnected.[12] This left a deep impression on Carrel, and he set about developing new techniques for suturing blood vessels. The technique of "triangulation", using three stay-sutures as traction points in order to minimize damage to the vascular wall during suturing, was inspired by sewing lessons he took from an embroideress and is still used today. Julius Comroe wrote: "Between 1901 and 1910, Alexis Carrel, using experimental animals, performed every feat and developed every technique known to vascular surgery today." He had great success in reconnecting arteries and veins, and performing surgical grafts, and this led to his Nobel Prize in 1912.

During World War I (19141918), Carrel and the English chemist Henry Drysdale Dakin developed the CarrelDakin method of treating wounds based on chlorine (Dakin's solution) which, preceding the development of antibiotics, was a major medical advance in the care of traumatic wounds. For this, Carrel was awarded the Lgion d'honneur. Carrel also advocated the use of wound debridement (cutting away necrotic or otherwise damaged tissue) and irrigation of wounds. His method of wound irrigation involved flushing the tissues with a high volume of antiseptic fluid so that dirt and other contaminants would be washed away (this is known today as "mechanical irrigation.") The World War I era Rockefeller War Demonstration Hospital (United States Army Auxiliary Hospital No. 1) was created, in part, to promote the CarrelDakin method:[14]

"The war demonstration hospital of the Rockefeller Institute was planned as a school in which to teach military surgeons the principles of and art of applying the Carrel-Dakin treatment."

[14]

Carrel co-authored a book with pilot Charles A. Lindbergh, The Culture of Organs, and worked with Lindbergh in the mid-1930s to create the "perfusion pump," which allowed living organs to exist outside the body during surgery. The advance is said to have been a crucial step in the development of open-heart surgery and organ transplants, and to have laid the groundwork for the artificial heart, which became a reality decades later.[15] Some critics of Lindbergh claimed that Carrel overstated Lindbergh's role to gain media attention, but other sources say Lindbergh played an important role in developing the device.[17][18] Both Lindbergh and Carrel appeared on the cover of Time magazine on 13 June 1938.

Carrel was also interested in the phenomenon of senescence, or aging. He claimed that all cells continued to grow indefinitely, and this became a dominant view in the early 20th century.[19] Carrel started an experiment on 17 January 1912, where he placed tissue cultured from an embryonic chicken heart in a stoppered Pyrex flask of his own design.[20] He maintained the living culture for over 20 years with regular supplies of nutrient. This was longer than a chicken's normal lifespan. The experiment, which was conducted at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, attracted considerable popular and scientific attention.[21]

Carrel's experiment was never successfully replicated, and in the 1960s Leonard Hayflick and Paul Moorhead proposed that differentiated cells can undergo only a limited number of divisions before dying. This is known as the Hayflick limit, and is now a pillar of biology.[19]

It is not certain how Carrel obtained his anomalous results. Leonard Hayflick suggests that the daily feeding of nutrient was continually introducing new living cells to the alleged immortal culture.[22] J. A. Witkowski has argued that,[23] while "immortal" strains of visibly mutated cells have been obtained by other experimenters, a more likely explanation is deliberate introduction of new cells into the culture, possibly without Carrel's knowledge.[a]

In 1972, the Swedish Post Office honored Carrel with a stamp that was part of its Nobel stamp series.[24] In 1979, the lunar crater Carrel was named after him as a tribute to his scientific breakthroughs.

In February 2002, as part of celebrations of the 100th anniversary of Charles Lindbergh's birth, the Medical University of South Carolina at Charleston established the Lindbergh-Carrel Prize, given to major contributors to "development of perfusion and bioreactor technologies for organ preservation and growth".[25] Michael DeBakey and nine other scientists received the prize, a bronze statuette[26] created for the event by the Italian artist C. Zoli and named "Elisabeth"[27] after Elisabeth Morrow, sister of Lindbergh's wife Anne Morrow, who died from heart disease. It was in fact Lindbergh's disappointment that contemporary medical technology could not provide an artificial heart pump which would allow for heart surgery on her that led to Lindbergh's first contact with Carrel.

In 1902, Alexis B went from being a skeptic of the visions and miracles reported at Lourdes to being a believer in spiritual cures after experiencing a healing of Marie Bailly that he could not explain.[10] The Catholic journal Le nouvelliste reported that she named him as the prime witness of her cure. Alexis Carrel refused to discount a supernatural explanation and steadfastly reiterated his beliefs, even writing the book The Voyage to Lourdes describing his experience,[28] although it was not published until four years after his death. This was a detriment to his career and reputation among his fellow doctors, and feeling he had no future in academic medicine in France, he emigrated to Canada with the intention of farming and raising cattle. After a brief period, he accepted an appointment at the University of Chicago and, two years later, at the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research.

In 1935, Carrel published a book titled L'Homme, cet inconnu (Man, the Unknown),[pageneeded] which became a best-seller. In the book, he attempted to outline a comprehensive account of what is known and more importantly unknown of the human body and human life "in light of discoveries in biology, physics, and medicine", to elucidate problems of the modern world, and to provide possible routes to a better life for human beings.

For Carrel, the fundamental problem was that:

[M]en cannot follow modern civilization along its present course, because they are degenerating. They have been fascinated by the beauty of the sciences of inert matter. They have not understood that their body and consciousness are subjected to natural laws, more obscure than, but as inexorable as, the laws of the sidereal world. Neither have they understood that they cannot transgress these laws without being punished. They must, therefore, learn the necessary relations of the cosmic universe, of their fellow men, and of their inner selves, and also those of their tissues and their mind. Indeed, man stands above all things. Should he degenerate, the beauty of civilization, and even the grandeur of the physical universe, would vanish. ... Humanity's attention must turn from the machines of the world of inanimate matter to the body and the soul of man, to the organic and mental processes which have created the machines and the universe of Newton and Einstein.[pageneeded][30]

Carrel advocated, in part, that mankind could better itself by following the guidance of an elite group of intellectuals, and by incorporating eugenics into the social framework. He argued for an aristocracy springing from individuals of potential, writing:

We must single out the children who are endowed with high potentialities, and develop them as completely as possible. And in this manner give to the nation a non-hereditary aristocracy. Such children may be found in all classes of society, although distinguished men appear more frequently in distinguished families than in others. The descendants of the founders of American civilization may still possess the ancestral qualities. These qualities are generally hidden under the cloak of degeneration. But this degeneration is often superficial. It comes chiefly from education, idleness, lack of responsibility and moral discipline. The sons of very rich men, like those of criminals, should be removed while still infants from their natural surroundings. Thus separated from their family, they could manifest their hereditary strength. In the aristocratic families of Europe there are also individuals of great vitality. The issue of the Crusaders is by no means extinct. The laws of genetics indicate the probability that the legendary audacity and love of adventure can appear again in the lineage of the feudal lords. It is possible also that the offspring of the great criminals who had imagination, courage, and judgment, of the heroes of the French or Russian Revolutions, of the high-handed business men who live among us, might be excellent building stones for an enterprising minority. As we know, criminality is not hereditary if not united with feeble-mindedness or other mental or cerebral defects. High potentialities are rarely encountered in the sons of honest, intelligent, hard-working men who have had ill luck in their careers, who have failed in business or have muddled along all their lives in inferior positions. Or among peasants living on the same spot for centuries. However, from such people sometimes spring artists, poets, adventurers, saints. A brilliantly gifted and well-known New York family came from peasants who cultivated their farm in the south of France from the time of Charlemagne to that of Napoleon.[pageneeded]

Carrel advocated for euthanasia for criminals, and the criminally insane, specifically endorsing the use of gassing:

(t)he conditioning of petty criminals with the whip, or some more scientific procedure, followed by a short stay in hospital, would probably suffice to insure order. Those who have murdered, robbed while armed with automatic pistol or machine gun, kidnapped children, despoiled the poor of their savings, misled the public in important matters, should be humanely and economically disposed of in small euthanasic institutions supplied with proper gasses. A similar treatment could be advantageously applied to the insane, guilty of criminal acts.[pageneeded]

Otherwise he endorsed voluntary positive eugenics. He wrote:

We have mentioned that natural selection has not played its part for a long while. That many inferior individuals have been conserved through the efforts of hygiene and medicine. But we cannot prevent the reproduction of the weak when they are neither insane nor criminal. Or destroy sickly or defective children as we do the weaklings in a litter of puppies. The only way to obviate the disastrous predominance of the weak is to develop the strong. Our efforts to render normal the unfit are evidently useless. We should, then, turn our attention toward promoting the optimum growth of the fit. By making the strong still stronger, we could effectively help the weak; For the herd always profits by the ideas and inventions of the elite. Instead of leveling organic and mental inequalities, we should amplify them and construct greater men.[pageneeded]

He continued:

The progress of the strong depends on the conditions of their development and the possibility left to parents of transmitting to their offspring the qualities which they have acquired in the course of their existence. Modern society must, therefore, allow to all a certain stability of life, a home, a garden, some friends. Children must be reared in contact with things which are the expression of the mind of their parents. It is imperative to stop the transformation of the farmer, the artisan, the artist, the professor, and the man of science into manual or intellectual proletarians, possessing nothing but their hands or their brains. The development of this proletariat will be the everlasting shame of industrial civilization. It has contributed to the disappearance of the family as a social unit, and to the weakening of intelligence and moral sense. It is destroying the remains of culture. All forms of the proletariat must be suppressed. Each individual should have the security and the stability required for the foundation of a family. Marriage must cease being only a temporary union. The union of man and woman, like that of the higher anthropoids, ought to last at least until the young have no further need of protection. The laws relating to education, and especially to that of girls, to marriage, and divorce should, above all, take into account the interest of children. Women should receive a higher education, not in order to become doctors, lawyers, or professors, but to rear their offspring to be valuable human beings.The free practice of eugenics could lead not only to the development of stronger individuals, but also of strains endowed with more endurance, intelligence, and courage. These strains should constitute an aristocracy, from which great men would probably appear. Modern society must promote, by all possible means, the formation of better human stock. No financial or moral rewards should be too great for those who, through the wisdom of their marriage, would engender geniuses. The complexity of our civilization is immense. No one can master all its mechanisms. However, these mechanisms have to be mastered. There is need today of men of larger mental and moral size, capable of accomplishing such a task. The establishment of a hereditary biological aristocracy through voluntary eugenics would be an important step toward the solution of our present problems.[pageneeded]

Carrel's endorsement of euthanasia of the criminal and insane was published in the mid-1930s, prior to the implementation of death camps and gas chambers in Nazi Germany. In the 1936 German introduction of his book, at the publisher's request, he added the following praise of the Nazi regime which did not appear in the editions in other languages:

(t)he German government has taken energetic measures against the propagation of the defective, the mentally diseased, and the criminal. The ideal solution would be the suppression of each of these individuals as soon as he has proven himself to be dangerous.[31]

In 1937, Carrel joined Jean Coutrot's Centre d'Etudes des Problmes Humains - Coutrot's aim was to develop what he called an "economic humanism" through "collective thinking." In 1941, through connections to the cabinet of Vichy France president Philippe Ptain (specifically, French industrial physicians Andr Gros and Jacques Mntrier) he went on to advocate for the creation of the French Foundation for the Study of Human Problems (Fondation Franaise pour l'Etude des Problmes Humains which was created by decree of the Vichy regime in 1941, and where he served as "regent".[4]

The foundation was at the origin of the 11 October 1946, law, enacted by the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF), which institutionalized the field of occupational medicine. It worked on demographics (Robert Gessain, Paul Vincent, Jean Bourgeois-Pichat), on economics, (Franois Perroux), on nutrition (Jean Sutter), on habitation (Jean Merlet) and on the first opinion polls (Jean Stoetzel). "The foundation was chartered as a public institution under the joint supervision of the ministries of finance and public health. It was given financial autonomy and a budget of forty million francsroughly one franc per inhabitanta true luxury considering the burdens imposed by the German Occupation on the nation's resources. By way of comparison, the whole Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) was given a budget of fifty million francs."[This quote needs a citation]

The Foundation made many positive accomplishments during its time.[9] It promoted the 16 December 1942 Act which established the prenuptial certificate, which was required before marriage, and was aimed at insuring the good health of the spouses, in particular in regard to sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and "life hygiene". The institute also established the livret scolaire[fr],[b] which could be used to record students' grades in the French secondary schools, and thus classify and select them according to scholastic performance.

According to Gwen Terrenoire, writing in Eugenics in France (19131941): a review of research findings, "The foundation was a pluridisciplinary centre that employed around 300 researchers (mainly statisticians, psychologists, physicians) from the summer of 1942 to the end of the autumn of 1944. After the liberation of Paris, Carrel was suspended by the Minister of Health; he died in November 1944, but the Foundation itself was "purged", only to reappear in a short time as the Institut national d'tudes dmographiques (INED) that is still active."[33] Although Carrel himself was dead most members of his team did move to the INED, which was led by demographist Alfred Sauvy, who coined the expression "Third World". Others joined Robert Debr's "Institut national d'hygine" (National Hygiene Institute), which later became the INSERM.

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Virtual Reality inspires students to think about long-term careers – Turn to 10

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Virtual Reality inspires students to think about long-term careers  Turn to 10

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Virtual Reality inspires students to think about long-term careers - Turn to 10

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Elon Musk pushes back after AOC blasts Twitter’s "free speech," paid plan

Posted: at 3:18 am

Twitter owner Elon Musk, left, at the Met Gala in New York City on May 2, 2022; Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, right, during a press conference in Washington, D.C., on April 7, 2022. Musk pushed back on Wednesday after Ocasio-Cortez criticized him over the recent announcement of a "subscription plan" on Twitter. Left: Alexi Rosenfeld/GC Images, Right: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York has denounced Elon Musk for pushing "free speech" on Twitter while offering an $8 per month "blue check" plan, prompting the billionaire to jokingly demand she "pay $8."

Musk, who took ownership and control of Twitter last week, has faced backlash over concerns that his stance as a "free speech absolutist" will allow misinformation to run rampant on the platform. His plan to offer users a paid "verification" option, which includes "priority" for subscribers, has sparked additional concerns that the plan will enable misinformation and stifle speech for those who do not pay.

Ocasio-Cortez mocked Musk's paid plan in a tweet on Tuesday night, while suggesting that he was attempting to deceive Twitter users into believing that payment is required for free speech.

"Lmao at a billionaire earnestly trying to sell people on the idea that 'free speech' is actually a $8/mo subscription plan," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.

Musk responded to Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday, tweeting, "Your feedback is appreciated, now pay $8." Musk pinned the tweet to his Twitter profile soon after.

The new Twitter owner's response was shared and supported by figures such as Donald Trump Jr., who accused Ocasio-Cortez of being unable to "grasp the basic concept of tax breaks/incentives" and depriving New York City of over 25,000 new jobs by opposing the company's plan to build a new headquarters in the city.

"I'm certain she shouldn't be handing out financial advice to anyone let alone Elon Musk," Trump Jr. tweeted.

The Democratic congresswoman defended her opposition to the Amazon plan at the time by arguing that she had saved the city "billions" in "handouts" and "corporate giveaways."

Before Musk responded, venture capitalist and Musk associate David Sacks responded to Ocasio-Cortez's criticism of the Twitter subscription plan by asking why newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post were not "free," adding "their billionaire owners should stop being greedy and give us those products for free."

"Are you seriously equating an app where people are torrenting racial slurs at an accelerated clip with the New York Times," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted in response, alongside a "rolling on the floor laughing" emoji.

"Also fyi, legacy newspapers actually care about verifying newsworthy sources," she continued. "And they don't charge their journalists/creators for 'priority' placement."

In a subsequent tweet, Ocasio-Cortez went on to call "billionaire ownership of our news sources" a "legitimate problem."

"Hope you're using your power to stop private equity gutting of local newsrooms while supporting nonprofit and co-op modeled news outlets as well," she told Sacks.

Musk's plan for paid verification has received backlash from both ends of the political spectrum, including from some who have expressed concerns that the option could make it easier to impersonate public figures or organizations.

On Wednesday, Twitter's top trending topic was #RatVerified, which mocks the plan by encouraging people to place rat emojis next to their usernames to become "rat verified" for free.

Musk's stance on "free speech" and misinformation was the subject of mockery on Tuesday, when #TrumpIsDead trended alongside false and often absurd reports claiming that former President Donald Trump had died.

Newsweek reached out to Ocasio-Cortez's office and Twitter for comment.

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Elon Musk pushes back after AOC blasts Twitter's "free speech," paid plan

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Father of JonBent Ramsey believes cold case can be solved in his lifetime as he pushes for new DNA testing – Fox News

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Father of JonBent Ramsey believes cold case can be solved in his lifetime as he pushes for new DNA testing  Fox News

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Biden pot pardon to help with War on Drugs’ harms to Black people : NPR

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A demonstrator waves a marijuana-themed flag in front on the White House. President Biden is pardoning thousands of Americans convicted of "simple possession" of marijuana under federal law. Jose Luis Magana/AP hide caption

A demonstrator waves a marijuana-themed flag in front on the White House. President Biden is pardoning thousands of Americans convicted of "simple possession" of marijuana under federal law.

President Biden announced this month an executive order to pardon federal, simple marijuana possession charges for thousands of Americans an important first step, advocates say, to reversing decades of uneven drug enforcement policy that has historically burdened Black communities.

"Sending people to prison for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit," Biden said in a statement last week.

"And while white and Black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and brown people have been arrested, prosecuted, and convicted at disproportionate rates."

These are the long-term effects of the United States' War on Drugs, pioneered by the administration of disgraced former-President Richard Nixon, which purported to help rein in the interstate trade and use of illegal drugs.

The war's ultimate outcome, however, was the overpolicing of Black communities, leading to massive arrest rates for accused Black drug users.

"The failed policies on drug criminalization have ensnared many on nonviolent, marijuana offenses," said Patrice Willoughby, vice president of policy and legislative affairs at the NAACP.

"And this has derailed hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people for conduct which is legal and which is disproportionately applied to the African-American community."

The executive order, announced late last week, will cover more than 6,500 citizens and lawful permanent residents convicted between 1992 and 2021 of simple marijuana possession charges under federal law or D.C. statute.

There are not currently any individuals in federal prison solely for simple marijuana offenses, so the order is not expected to lead to the release of any federal prisoners.

"We've seen since the 1970s that marijuana policy was intentionally and malevolently constructed to target the African American community," Willoughby said. "And too many people have been caught up as a result of that and have been denied jobs, opportunity, housing and other benefits of this country because of a malevolent policy."

"This is a step towards restorative justice," she said.

Biden drew praise for the order, which tracks a campaign promise to seek cannabis decriminalization and seek expungements for those with prior marijuana convictions.

But the order's narrow scope left some advocates calling for more to be done to address marijuana charges on the state level, where a majority of offenses occur.

"These pardons certainly have an impact of removing some of these collateral consequences for individuals," said Eliana Green, senior policy advisor at the Hood Incubator, a nonprofit organization for cannabis justice reform. But, she continued, "we definitely, at the state levels, need to be creating more record cleaning remedies for folks and avenues for folks to be able to remove these collateral consequences that are imputed on them."

Currently, 19 states have legalized recreational marijuana use and 38 states have provisions for medical use. Five additional states have legalization measures on their midterm ballots.

Biden's new pledge, coupled with the White House's recent announcement to forgive student debt for millions of borrowers, highlight his effort to court young and Black voters two key Democratic voting blocs ahead of hotly contested midterm races.

While the move was praised by a number of Democrats, who have long sought institutional changes on the nation's marijuana policies especially as more than three dozen states have legalized weed in some capacity some Republicans decried the order as executive overreach and little more than a hollow ploy to attract voters in November.

"In the midst of a crime wave and on the brink of a recession, Joe Biden is giving blanket pardons to drug offenders many of whom pled down from more serious charges," Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican, said on Twitter.

"This is a desperate attempt to distract from failed leadership."

Despite persistent negative perceptions among Republican leadership, a November 2021 Gallup survey found that a record 68% of Americans support legalizing marijuana, including 50% of Republican respondents.

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Biden pot pardon to help with War on Drugs' harms to Black people : NPR

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Preserve local journalism by holding Big Tech accountable

Posted: at 3:10 am

Now is the time for the Senate to pass the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, requiring platforms like Facebook and Google to pay fairly for news content.

David Chavern| Opinion contributor

Microsoft pushes Congress toward new media laws

Microsoft's President Brad Smith tells Congress it endorses the Journalism Competition and Protection Act (JCPA), that would give news organizations the ability to negotiate collectively, with Microsoft and other tech giants. (March 12)

AP

Local journalism is a cornerstone of democracy and a vital source of information for communities across the country, with newsrooms covering local politics, high school sports, local business openings, cultural eventsand other matters that help a community remain vibrant and connected. But the industry is facing an existential crisis because of the unyielding power of Big Tech platforms such as Google and Facebook.

With not that much timeleft in this Congress, now is the time for the Senate to pass the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act. The JCPA was reported out of committee on Sept.22 with strong bipartisan support and now must head to the floor for a vote. The JCPA would hold tech giants accountable and provide a necessary lifeline for local newspapers, requiring Big Tech to compensate small and local outlets for the use of their content.

Big Tech benefits tremendously from journalism content, yet they refuse to pay local publishers fairly for the journalistic content that fuels their platforms. As a result, local papers are being replaced by tech platforms using black box algorithms designed to keep users inside their walled gardens, all while charging exorbitant ad fees up to 70% of every advertising dollar.

Since 2000, U.S. newspaper circulation has dropped by half, with more than 31 million fewer daily newspapers in circulation in 2020. The vast majority of U.S. counties with no regular newspaper "news deserts" are in rural areas. Despite record audiences, revenue has drastically declined since news outlets transitioned to digital.

And as local publications struggle to stay afloat, Big Tech has only doubled down, further consolidating their control over the flow of information.

Our View: Local newspapers are shrinking or disappearing. Congress must act.

This is fundamentally unfair, and the JCPA wouldbring about much-needed change.

The JCPA wouldbenefit small and local publishers exclusively and impose severe penalties if the tech platforms do not negotiate in good faith. The bill has a limited scope of four years to address a broken marketplace, while the broader competitive landscape is fixed through other legislation and the courts.

The JCPA also would incentivizepublishers to hire more journalists and protectour constitutional freedoms of speech and the press. The bills scope is limited to compensation and does not allow for negotiations around up/down ranking or display it serves only to ensure fair compensation for local news outlets. The JCPA has strict transparency requirements on the terms of each agreement reached between tech platforms and journalism providers and establishes clarity in how news outlets spend any funds they receive.

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Australia passed a similar policy to the JCPA, the news media bargaining code, for media organizations to bargain for payment, which has produced significant revenue (billions of dollars, if translated to the U.S. market) for hundreds of publications of all sizes.One Sydney journalism professor noted that she hadnt seen her industry so financially robust in decades. There are so many open positions for reporters, they cannot all be filled, a signal of the improved economic health of the industry.

The swift and clear successes of the Australian code and efforts in other countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, European Unionand more should serve to encourage the passage of the JCPA.

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Thousands of hometown newspapers from across the political spectrum, as well as both Democrats and Republicans in Congress, support the JCPA. Moreover,in these highly polarized times, polling data found that 70% of Americans support the JCPA. It has such broad support because, ultimately, it is about basic fairness.

Local newspapers cannot afford several more years of Big Techs use and abuse, and time to take action is dwindling. If Congress does not act soon, we risk allowing social media to become Americas de facto local newspaper.

The Senate must advance the JCPAfor a vote before the end of the year to rein in Big Tech and restore fairness to local journalism one of the most important checks and balances we have against corporate power and government corruption before its too late.

David Chavern ispresident and chief executive of theNews/Media Alliance.

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Preserve local journalism by holding Big Tech accountable

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Fauci testimony ‘confirms’ Big Tech collusion to censor free speech on …

Posted: at 3:10 am

Wed Dec 7, 2022 - 9:39 am EST

WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) Dr. Anthony Faucis testimony in a federal lawsuit that accuses U.S. government officials of colluding with Big Tech to censor speech, confirmed that social media companies want to control not only what you think, but especially what you say, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said on Tuesday.

Landry, along with Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, have sued numerous federal government officials for working with Big Tech to suppress speech online, including criticism of the official government position on masks, vaccines, and other COVID policies.

The attorneys general released Tuesday the results of Faucis deposition, which him saying I dont recall 174 times, according to Landrys and Schmittsnews release. The press statement also revealed that Faucis daughter worked at Twitter as a software engineer until last year.

Fauci testified that he had never personally contacted a social media company to ask for content to be taken down. However, Fauci and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had 13 different conversations during 2020, according to information obtained during the lawsuit process.

He also testified that he was aware of the concept of freedom of speech.

Do you think that there should be steps taken to curb the spread of misinformation and disinformation? an attorney asked Fauci.

You know, thats not my area. Im very well aware of the concept of freedom of speech. The area of the curtailment of that is something that is not in my area of the expertise, Fauci said. Those are legal andother things. And I really dont have any opinion on that.

READ: Fauci responsible for suppression of COVID lab-leak theory, newly revealed emails confirm

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Sign the petition to let Abp. Broglio know that you support his stance against the woke mob!

In a thrilling win against the leftist infiltrators in the Church, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) made a key electoral decision at their Fall General Assembly in Baltimore, Maryland last week.

As reported on LifeSiteNews, Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, was elected Tuesday to serve as the next president of the USCCB.

Broglio has consistently defended Catholic teaching his orthodox record has been a constant source of frustration to liberal bishops across the country. The military archbishop is one of a small number of prelates who:

Abp. Broglio has shown support for our pro-life, pro-family, and pro-freedom movement lets show our support for him!

Say THANK YOU to Abp. Broglio for standing up to left-wing bishops and defending Catholic values!

Tuesdays election was a clear rejection ofdecidedly liberal candidates, including pro-LGBT Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle and radical leftist Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Sller of San Antonio.

Left-wing Catholics are outraged about the results of the USCCB elections now more than ever, Abp. Broglio needs the support of faithful Catholics like YOU!

STAND WITH ABP. BROGLIO against the woke mob and left-wing infiltrators of the Church! Add your name to the growing list NOW.

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Both Landry and Schmitt said the transcript reveals further details on the COVID tyranny.

Missouri and Louisiana are leading the way in exposing how the federal government and the Biden Administration worked with social media to censor speech. In our deposition with Dr. Fauci, it became clear that when Dr. Fauci speaks, social media censors, Attorney General Schmitt said. I encourage everyone to read the deposition transcript and see exactly how Dr. Fauci operates, and exactly how the COVID tyranny that ruined lives and destroyed businesses was born.

WATCH: ER doctor exposes the fraud of Fauci medicine and the lies behind the COVID pandemic

Faucis recent deposition only confirmed what we already knew: federal bureaucrats in collusion with social media companies want to control not only what you think, but especially what you say, Landry said. During no time in human history was this more obvious than during the COVID-19 crisis where social engineering tactics were used against the American public, not to limit your exposure to a virus, but to limit your exposure to information that did not fit within a government sanctioned narrative.

The deposition further confirmed Faucis flip-flopping on COVID issues.

Fauci sent a colleague an email in February of 2020 instructing her not to wear a mask when traveling. Just a couple months later, he was advocating for universal mask mandates, Schmitt noted on Twitter, in a thread that included highlights from the deposition.

One of Faucis deputies joined a WHO delegation to China in February of 2020, and in talking to Fauci afterwards, was impressed with how the Chinese were handling the isolation, the contact tracing, the building of facilities to take care of people,' Schmitt wrote.

As Fauci testified, the idea for strict lockdowns came from how he perceived China handled the outbreak of COVID.

Other Biden administration officials deposed include former Press Secretary Jen Psaki.

READ: Canadian doctors facing discipline for opposing COVID regime speak out

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How big tech defeated the biggest antitrust push in decades on Capitol Hill – Los Angeles Times

Posted: at 3:10 am

How big tech defeated the biggest antitrust push in decades on Capitol Hill  Los Angeles Times

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BTC price faces 20% drop in weeks if Bitcoin avoids key level Analyst – Cointelegraph

Posted: at 3:08 am

  1. BTC price faces 20% drop in weeks if Bitcoin avoids key level Analyst  Cointelegraph
  2. Crypto outlook: $13,900 bitcoin price target, a rally is 7 months away  Markets Insider
  3. $16K retest the most likely path for Bitcoin, according to 2 derivative metrics  Cointelegraph

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BTC price faces 20% drop in weeks if Bitcoin avoids key level Analyst - Cointelegraph

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