Hunger forces Afghans to sell young daughters into marriage

Issued on: 27/10/2021 - 

Video by: Nicholas RUSHWORTH

Fahima has wept many times since her husband sold their two young daughters into marriage to survive the drought gripping western Afghanistan. 

Child marriage has been practised in Afghanistan for centuries, but war and climate change-related poverty have driven many families to resort to striking deals earlier and earlier in girls' lives.

SEE

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for CHILD BRIDES 

China's three gorges dam: The environmental impact of mega dams' construction

Issued on: 27/10/2021 - 


Video by:Claire RUSH

The Three Gorges Dam is the largest power station in China and it is also considered the largest hydroelectric power station in the world. But the construction of these mega dams has taken a heavy toll on the environment and on the communities living nearby.

Standing up fro change: Meet the Indonesian activist fighting against plastic waste

Issued on: 27/10/2021 - 

Melati Wijsen, an 18-year-old from Bali, launched an NGO called "Bye Bye Plastic Bags” with her sister, five years ago, with the aim of dramatically reducing the number of single-use bags. This year, they reached their initial aim to have bags banned on their own island of Bali, and now want to take their movement forward to be a real youth movement for the future.

Mom Who Wanted To Ban ‘Beloved’ Featured In New Glenn Youngkin Ad

Kevin Robillard
Mon, October 25, 2021

Republican Glenn Youngkin, seen here campaigning in Virginia Beach, has made education a major issue in the Virginia governor’s race, putting him within striking distance of former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

 (Photo: Anna Moneymaker via Getty Images)

A GOP activist who wanted to ban the classic Toni Morrison novel “Beloved” from one of the nation’s largest school districts is featured in a new ad for Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin.

The woman, Laura Murphy, started her campaign in 2012 after her son, then a senior in Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia, had night terrors after reading the book in his Advanced Placement English class.

“Beloved,” told from the perspective of a mother forced to kill her 2-year-old daughter to protect her from being returned to slavery in the years after the Civil War, features scenes of bestiality and rape. It is one of the most frequently assigned books for high school English classes, and is on the American Library Association’s list of the most frequently banned books.


The book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1987 and was adapted into a feature film starring Oprah Winfrey in 1998.

Murphy sought a temporary ban on the book until new rules governing how schools would handle books with “objectionable material” were put in place, The Washington Post reported in 2013.

In the ad, Murphy recounts how Youngkin’s opponent, former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, vetoed legislation she pushed for that would have required schools to tell parents if books assigned to their children contained sexually explicit material.

“When my son showed me his reading assignment, my heart sunk. It was some of the most explicit material you could imagine,” Murphy says, adding: “[McAuliffe] doesn’t think parents should have a say.”

The Youngkin campaign would not directly answer an emailed question about whether he would support banning “Beloved” until new rules were in place, instead simply saying Youngkin would sign the legislation McAuliffe vetoed.

“Don’t be lame,” Youngkin campaign spokesman Matt Wolking wrote, accusing the reporter of using a question “written by Terry McAuliffe.” (McAuliffe did not write the question emailed to the Youngkin campaign.)

At the time, McAuliffe said schools had sufficient protections in place — including giving students the option to request alternative materials — and teachers feared advance notice would lead to parents dismissing the educational value of some books.

The ad never mentions the age or grade level of Murphy’s son, and never mentions the material she objected to was “Beloved.”

Murphy’s son, Brett, was later a White House intern during Donald Trump’s administration. He is now a lawyer for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Education has become a top issue in the contest, in which public polling shows McAuliffe with a consistent but razor-thin lead. Conservative activists, angry over both in-person school closures earlier in the pandemic and what they allege is the teaching of “critical race theory” in public schools, have relentlessly focused on local school boards, launching recalls of some members.

They’ve also focused on a comment from McAuliffe downplaying the role of parents in developing curricula — a comment the ad featuring Murphy is clearly designed to remind voters of.

“I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach,” McAuliffe said at a debate earlier this month.

The issue has fired up GOP voters, and Republicans insist it is helping Youngkin win back at least some of the suburban voters in Northern Virginia and outside Richmond who have trended heavily toward Democrats over the past decade.

In a statement, the McAuliffe campaign deployed their most frequently used talking point, directly comparing Youngkin to Trump.

“Glenn Youngkin’s closing message during the final week of the campaign: book banning and silencing Black authors in Virginia schools,” McAuliffe spokeswoman Christina Freundlich said. “Racist dog whistles and divisive conspiracy theories have been front and center for Glenn Youngkin’s campaign, putting students right at the center of the ugliness and bigotry led by Donald Trump himself.”

CORRECTION: This story has been amended to note that the film version of “Beloved” starring Oprah Winfrey was released in 1998, not 1988.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

JAMAICA

A pastor held in connection to suspected human sacrifices was killed in a police car crash on his way to be charged

KARMA IS A BITCH, WITH A SENSE OF IRONY

Matthew Loh
Tue, October 26, 2021, 

A pastor named Kevin Smith died in a police car crash, authorities said. Douglas Sancha/Getty Images


A pastor detained over suspected human sacrifices died in a police car crash, the police said.


Kevin Smith described himself as a prophet and was said to have made his congregants kneel for him.


His church was thought to have engaged in ritual killings as well as a shootout with the police.

A pastor in Jamaica who was accused of being involved in human sacrifices died in a police car crash, the local police said Monday.

Kevin Smith, the leader of Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries, died while being transported from Montego Bay to Kingston to face charges connected to suspected ritual killings, the local news outlet Jamaica Observer reported.

The police were said to be moving Smith and another suspect in two cars, one of which overturned - killing Smith and a police officer while seriously injuring two more officers, a police representative told the Observer.


The representative, Stephanie Lindsay, the senior superintendent of police, said authorities still weren't sure exactly what happened.

"One vehicle was the pilot, and the other vehicle was behind," she said. "The vehicle that was behind, based on the account given by the pilot vehicle, there was a crashing sound, and they realized that the vehicle overturned."
Killing rituals, shootouts, and prophetic claims

Smith's death is the latest in a recent string of violent and dramatic events surrounding Pathways International.

On October 17, the police arrived at the organization's Montego Bay church after receiving reports from a member saying she had been stabbed as part of a ritual, per the news outlet Jamaica Loop.

A deadly shootout ensued and one man was fatally shot, Jamaica Loop reported, citing authorities.

The police later entered the church building and found two bodies, per Jamaica Loop - a man with gunshot wounds and a woman whose throat had been slashed. They also found a wounded man who said he was stabbed and shot in connection to a ritual.

A camera was in the room, but it's unclear whether it was used to record the killings, Jamaica Loop reported.

The Observer interviewed an unnamed woman - identified as a church member - who said she'd witnessed the woman's throat being slashed.

"It was very intense," the woman said. "When I saw blood and the young lady fell, I said: 'This is it for me.'" She said she and several other church members fled the area after witnessing the violence.

The police arrested 42 members of the congregation, including Smith, though most were later released.

The detained pastor was later seen in a widely circulated video talking to police officers, who laughed at his religious claims.

"I am the fountain of life," he said in the clip, adding: "I came as Jonah the warner, but they mocked and they scoffed at me. They surrounded me and looked at me and said, 'Who is this man?'"

A pamphlet for Pathways International addressed Smith as "former crown Ambassador of the Throne of Nubia Sheba, globe traveler to over 100 countries worldwide and Yeshu'a Hamashiach end time Prophet to the Nations," according to The Daily Beast.

A source told The Daily Beast he made his congregants call him "Crown Bishop" and kneel before him whenever they spoke with him.

Members of the church said they were shocked by the murder claims, describing Pathways International as "a regular church," per the Observer. Soon after Smith's arrest, congregants set up a GoFundMe page for his legal fees, calling Smith "His Excellency Kevin Smith 999," though it now appears to have been taken down.

Even after official confirmation of Smith's death, some of them told the Observer they thought he's still alive.

"I do not believe anything the media publish about him, not even that he is dead," one member told the news outlet.

"But if he is, he didn't die in that car accident," she said. "He was dead before."

Read the original article on Insider

The Nazis were already shooting at US warships months before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor


Benjamin Brimelow
Tue, October 26, 2021, 

US Navy destroyer USS Reuben James on the Hudson River in New York, April 29, 1939. US Navy/Wikimedia Commons

On October 31, 1941, USS Reuben James became the first US warship sunk by enemy action in World War II.

It was the culmination of months of fighting between the US and German navies in the Atlantic.

The sinking didn't bring the US into the war, but it did solidify US leaders' support for the Allies.

Around 5:30 a.m. on October 31, 1941, an explosion ripped through the US Navy destroyer USS Reuben James as it and other destroyers escorted 42 merchant ships across the Atlantic to Britain.

The explosion, caused by a torpedo that detonated the destroyer's magazine, was so intense that the bow was completely blown off. The ship sank in about five minutes - so fast that no official order to abandon ship could be given.

It was the first US Navy warship sunk by enemy action in World War II, and the US wasn't even at war when it happened.

War closes in

President Franklin Roosevelt aboard a battleship. Bettmann/Getty Images

The situation on the Atlantic was tense by fall 1941. Despite the US's stated commitment to neutrality, President Franklin Roosevelt had taken a number of actions to help the Allies, especially Britain.

In October 1939, weeks after the war's start, the US had established a neutrality zone extending some 300 nautical miles off the coasts of the independent countries of North and South America. US Navy patrols would broadcast the position of German U-boats, exposing them to Allied warships.

The US also supplied food and military equipment to Britain through agreements like the Destroyers-for-Bases Deal and the Lend-Lease Program.

By the end of September 1941, the US had expanded the neutrality zone and the patrols within it as far as Greenland, the defense of which the US had taken over. The US also occupied Iceland, at the request of Britain, and began escorting convoys there from Canada.

There had also been low-level combat between US and German forces.

On April 10, 1941, the destroyer USS Niblack attacked a German U-boat with depth charges near Iceland, driving the sub away from a convoy. On September 4, a German U-boat fired a torpedo at the destroyer USS Greer without hitting it.

Neither incident caused casualties, but the attack on Greer led Roosevelt to issue a "shoot-on-sight" order for any German or Italian warships in waters deemed to be "necessary for American defense."

On October 17, 1941, the first US blood was spilled when the destroyer USS Kearny was hit by a German torpedo while escorting a convoy in the North Atlantic. Though the ship itself survived, 11 sailors were killed and 22 wounded.

USS Reuben James

US Navy destroyer USS Reuben James aground at Lobos Cay, Cuba, November 30, 1939. National Archives & Records Administration

A little more than a week after the Kearny attack, the U-boat U-552 was lurking off Iceland, approaching a convoy guarded by US warships. One of them was Reuben James, which was sent to investigate a suspicious signal near the convoy.

The US destroyer was between an ammunition ship and the U-boat when it was struck by a torpedo. It sank so quickly that in the early-morning darkness the commander of the escort force couldn't tell which ship had been attacked until Reuben James didn't respond to a check-in call.

Only two sailors from the front end of the ship survived the blast. During the five minutes Reuben James remained afloat after the attack, sailors jumped from the rear of the ship into the oil-covered water. Moments after the destroyer slipped beneath the waves, however, at least two of its depth charges detonated, killing or wounding even more sailors.

Four escort ships remained, one of which was USS Niblack. Niblack and another escort were sent to search for survivors, which the darkness, oil-covered water, and the threat of another U-boat attack made more difficult.

Of the ship's 144-man crew, only 44 survived. Ninety-three enlisted sailors and all seven officers were killed.

After the rescue, the escort ships went on the offensive, trying to attack U-552 with dozens of depth charges. The U-boat escaped, however, and the next day, the Americans turned the convoy over to the Royal Navy and headed for Iceland.

The convoy made it to England without any more attacks by U-552 or other U-boats. Reuben James was the only casualty.

'The shooting has started'

Crew aboard US Coast Guard cutter Spencer watch a depth charge explode, blasting a German submarine trying to break into a US convoy, April 17, 1943. (AP Photo)

The attack on the Kearny and the sinking of the Reuben James solidified Roosevelt's support of the Allies.

"We have wished to avoid shooting, but the shooting has started, and history has recorded who has fired the first shot," Roosevelt said in a Navy Day speech on October 27. "Our ships have been sunk and our sailors have been killed. I say that we do not propose to take this lying down."

Germany was unapologetic. Roosevelt denounced Germany and promised that escorts of Allied merchant ships to Iceland would continue. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox even called the incident "worse than piracy."

But Roosevelt knew most of the country was still against getting directly involved in the war in Europe, so the US took no further action in response to the sinking.

Only when the US and Germany declared war on each other on December 11, 1941, did the US fully commit to the war in Europe. The US Navy, though, had effectively been at war in the Atlantic for months.

Living with the world's oldest mummies


Jane Chambers - Arica, Chile
Mon, October 25, 2021,

The Chinchorro mummified children - in this case a boy estimated to be six or seven - as well as adults

"It may seem strange for some people to live on top of a graveyard, but we're used to it," says Ana María Nieto, who lives in the Chilean port city of Arica.

Arica, on the border with Peru, is built on the sandy dunes of the Atacama desert, the driest desert in the world.

But long before the coastal town was founded in the 16th Century, this area was home to the Chinchorro people.

Their culture hit the news in July when the United Nations' cultural organisation, Unesco, added hundreds of mummies preserved by them to its World Heritage List.

The Chinchorro mummies were first documented in 1917 by German Archaeologist Max Uhle, who had found some of the preserved bodies on a beach. But it took decades of research to determine their age.

Radiocarbon dating eventually showed that the mummies were more than 7,000 years old - more than two millennia older than the more widely known Egyptian mummies.

Chinchorro culture

Chinchorro mummy


Pre-ceramic culture that lasted from 7,000 to 1,500 BC


Sedentary fishers and hunter-gatherers


Lived in what is now northernmost Chile and southern Peru


Mummified their dead in a sophisticated and evocative manner


Mummification is believed to have started as a way to keep the memories of the dead alive

That makes the Chinchorro mummies the oldest known archaeological evidence of artificially mummified bodies.

Anthropologist Bernardo Arriaza, an expert on the Chinchorro, says they practiced intentional mummification. That means they used mortuary practices to conserve the bodies rather than leave them to naturally mummify in the dry climate - although some naturally mummified bodies have also been found at the sites.

Small incisions would be made to a body, the organs taken out and the cavities dried while the skin was ripped off, Mr Arriaza explains.

The Chinchorro people would then stuff the body with natural fibres and sticks to keep it straight before using reeds to sew the skin back on.

They would also attach thick black hair onto the mummy's head and cover its face with clay and a mask with openings for the eyes and mouth.

The Chinchorro mummified children and babies as well as adults

They covered the mummies' faces with clay masks

Thick black hair was attached onto the mummies' heads

Finally, the body was painted in a distinctive red or black colour using pigments from minerals, ochre, manganese and iron oxide.

The Chinchorro's methods and approach to mummification differed markedly from that of the Egyptians, Mr Arriaza says.

Not only did the Egyptians use oil and bandages, mummification was also reserved for deceased members of the elite whereas the Chinchorro mummified men, women, children, babies and even foetuses regardless of their status.
Living with the dead

With hundreds of mummies found in Arica and other sites over the past century, locals learned to live alongside - and often on top of - the remains.

Discovering human remains during building works or having your dog sniff out and dig up parts of a mummy is something generations of locals have experienced. But for a long time they did not realise just how significant these remains were.

"Sometimes the residents tell us stories about how the children used the skulls for footballs and took the clothing off the mummies, but now they know to report back to us when they find something, and to leave it alone," archaeologist Janinna Campos Fuentes says.

Locals Ana María Nieto and Paola Pimentel are thrilled that Unesco has recognised the significance of the Chinchorro culture.

The women lead neighbour associations near two of the excavation sites and have been working closely with a group of scientists from the local Tarapacá University to help the community understand the importance of the Chinchorro Culture and to make sure the precious sites are looked after.

There are plans for a neighbourhood museum - where rows of Chinchorro remains lie under reinforced glass for visitors to peer at - to get a new interactive extension. The idea is to train locals as guides so they can show off their heritage to others.

Currently, only a tiny part of the more than 300 or so Chinchorro mummies are on display. Most of them are housed at the San Miguel de Azapa Archaeological Museum.

The museum, which is owned and run by Tarapacá University, is a 30-minute drive from Arica and has impressive displays showing the mummification process.

A larger museum is being planned on the site to house more of the mummies but funds are also needed to ensure they are correctly preserved so they do not deteriorate.

Mr Arriaza and archaeologist Jannina Campos are also convinced that Arica and the surrounding hills still hold many treasures that have yet to be discovered. But, more resources are needed to find them.

The mayor, Gerardo Espindola Rojas, hopes the addition of the mummies to the World Heritage List will boost tourism and attract additional funds.

Gerardo Espindola Rojas wants the community to reap the benefits of increased tourism

But he is mindful that any development should be done in the right way, working with the community and safeguarding the sites.

"Unlike Rome that sits on monuments, the people of Arica are living on top of human remains and we need to protect the mummies."

Urban planning laws are in place and archaeologists are present whenever building works are carried out, he says, to make sure the precious remains are not disturbed.

Mayor Espindola is also adamant that unlike in some other parts of Chile, where tour operators and multinational companies have bought up land to reap profit from tourist sites, Arica's heritage should remain in the hands of its people and benefit the local community.

Neighbourhood association president Ana Maria Prieto is positive the newfound fame of the mummies will work in everyone's favour.

"This is a small town, but a friendly one. We want tourists and scientists from all over the world to come and learn about the incredible Chinchorro Culture that we've been living with all our life."

Astronauts Using Guns in Space Could Become a Reality


Astronauts Using Guns in Space Could Become a Reality

Kyle Mizokami
Tue, October 26, 2021, 6:26 AM·5 min read

The second season of the Apple TV+ series For All Mankind shows U.S. Marines in space using M16s.

Astronauts probably wouldn’t use real M16s in space—but they could still use guns.

Low gravity and crazy temperature swings would make traditional guns inoperable in space.

The Apple TV+ sci-fi series For All Mankind, set against the backdrop of the Cold War, just introduced a new element: space guns.

The ongoing second season of the acclaimed series, which imagines an alternate history in which the Soviets beat NASA to the moon and the global space race never ended, depicts spacefaring U.S. troops using M16s. In real life, however, a weapon like the M16 would be extremely difficult to operate in space.

Using weapons in the extremes of space, including wild temperature swings and low gravity, would present challenges for both those who design and carry the weapons.

In For All Mankind, NASA, stung by its crushing defeat in the space race, redoubles its efforts to take the lead against the Soviets. That includes sending women into the Apollo program and building a giant, sea-launched cargo rocket called “Sea Dragon.”

By the 1980s, the first American lunar colony, Jamestown, is firmly established on the moon, supplied by regular Space Shuttle missions. The seizure of an American lithium mine by Soviet cosmonauts triggers the deployment of five U.S. Marines to the Jamestown colony, all armed with space versions of the M16A2 rifle.

The M16 was obviously designed to function on Earth, in Earth gravity, within a band of temperatures normally found on Earth. The rifle can work in deserts in temperatures of 100 degrees Fahrenheit or higher and in “extreme cold weather,” the U.S. Army says. (That’s as specific as it gets.)

While those conditions seem broad by Earth standards, in space, it’s a different story.

Gravity itself will vary, from zero-gravity conditions far from planetary bodies to one-sixth of Earth’s gravity on the moon. Temperatures on the moon can swing wildly, from a high of 260 degrees Fahrenheit to minus 280 degrees.

Photo credit: Christopher Jensen - Getty Images

Gravity would affect all aspects of the M16, from how bullets are seated in the magazine to how the buffer spring would bounce the bolt carrier group back and forth inside the weapon. The internal action of the M16 is precisely timed, and a change in gravity would throw everything off.

Changing the mass of various internal parts, spring weights, and even the type and amount of gunpowder used might make a lunar M16 workable—but it would require a lot of testing under lunar conditions. One concern: The M16 uses gunpowder gases to cycle the weapon. Just how would that hot, pressurized gunpowder gas behave in low gravity?

Bullets in principle should work fine, since they use their own propellant and don’t rely on oxygen. But again, the big issue here would be gravity.

Under Earth gravity, an M16 bullet starts a slow, inexorable drop as soon as it exits the barrel, one that eventually ends up with the bullet plowing into the ground. Earth’s gravitational influence means a terrestrial M16 bullet will drop 24 inches at 400 yards. While a bullet fired under lunar gravity would still eventually plow into the lunar soil, at one-sixth gravity, the same bullet would fly a flatter, steadier trajectory for far longer.

There’s no wind in space or on the moon, so there would be no need to calculate for windage at longer ranges. At 400 yards, wind at 10 miles per hour will blow an M16 bullet 21 inches off course—enough to miss a man-sized target. A lack of wind will make it easier to hit a target, at least in the horizontal axis.

Photo credit: Historical - Getty Images

Temperatures would prove to be another challenge. Engineers could probably develop a lubricant that operates within a 500-degree band, but Space Marines would need to be careful with their rate of fire. A gun already heated to 280 degrees Fahrenheit would start to have heat issues more quickly than one on Earth, including bullet propellant igniting in the chamber before the trigger is pulled (“cooking off”) and even melting rifle parts.

And then there’s a problem totally unique to the moon: moon dust. The dust, a fine coating of lunar soil found up to 60 miles above the moon’s surface, could get into a rifle’s internals and cause it to jam. The M16 is particularly vulnerable to jamming, and is even equipped with a dust cover to prevent dust, dirt, and sand from entering the weapon before it’s fired. How would you keep moon dust out of an M16 during combat?

For All Mankind does give the space M16s some thought. On the show, the rifles are white and silver, colors that let them blend in with the moon dust, and they’re equipped with collapsing stocks and optical sights.

Real M16s in the 1980s featured fixed stocks and lacked optical sights. Collapsing stocks would be more ergonomic for shooters in large, bulky spacesuits. The raised optical sight, meanwhile, would be easier for an astronaut in a space suit to use, but a laser sight would allow the space shooter to shoot accurately without aiming.

Our reality has been spared a world with space rifles, but with the establishment of the Space Force and the increasing militarization of space, it seems inevitable that small arms will eventually make their way into space and beyond.

GRIFTER NATION 

The New Side Hustle: Helping Anti-Vaxxers Get Religious Exemptions


Adam Rawnsley
Tue, October 26, 2021

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / Photos Getty

The spike in anti-vaxxers seeking religious exemptions from the COVID-19 vaccine is creating a cottage industry of pastors, lawyers, and activists offering help with crafting letters that they say can help you dodge the jab and still keep your job.

With government and employee vaccine mandates taking hold, religious exemptions that assert a worker’s theological objection to inoculation are one of the few legal routes left for anti-vaxxers holding out on getting a COVID-19 shot.

In response to that desperation, a range of services with varying price points have cropped up: from $25 Zoom seminars with untrained activists who lack legal training, to pastors offering “concierge packages” and attestations of faith for a generous donation, to the pricier option of $1,400 consulting sessions with attorneys who specialize in anti-vaccine litigation.


And while federal courts offer contradictory guidance on who should get a religious exemption and under what conditions, the demand is only getting higher, according to one sought-after firm.

"There’s been an incredible rise in the number of people seeking exemptions from our vantage point,” said Aaron Siri, managing partner of Siri Glimstad, a law firm well-known in the anti-vaxx world because the firm specializes in vaccine-related litigation and worked in the niche field well before the pandemic.

Siri Glimstad attorneys have filed cases on behalf of the Informed Consent Action Network, a Texas-based anti-vaccine group founded and funded by former Dr. Phil Show producer Del Bigtree, against the CDC and Department of Health & Human Services, as well as on behalf of clients seeking to overturn employer mandates entirely.

When it comes to religious exemptions, Siri says employers have generally been obliging and he hasn’t had to file a suit over a request yet. “I would say, for the most part, they’re accepted, but it does vary by circumstances and employer,” Siri says. The firm advertises that “hundreds of individuals” have obtained a vaccine exemption through its services.

But those exemptions don’t come cheap. To hire Siri Glimstad’s attorneys for help on crafting a letter, their website says a consultation on religious exemptions runs around $1,400 per client.

Liberty Counsel—an evangelical nonprofit legal foundation—has been offering pro bono representation for clients in pursuit of religious exemption. The group previously focused on more traditional culture-war issues like anti-abortion suits and cases seeking to deny LGBTQ Americans their rights but Liberty’s founder, Mathew Staver, shares many of his clients conspiratorial views about vaccines and likes to air them in public. In speeches, he’s called COVID-19 shots part of a “depopulation” conspiracy to force the world to “have a tracking mechanism to determine whether or not you've had one of these particular injections.”

Just recently, one of Liberty Counsel’s most prominent cases involved health-care workers in Maine with a suit aimed at overturning the state’s vaccine mandate for hospital and nursing home employees. Last week, the Supreme Court declined to grant an emergency injunction as the case plays out in lower courts.

Anti-Vaxxers Are Already Trying to Weaponize Powell’s Death

The group did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast but Liberty Counsel has been inundated with requests for help in crafting exemption requests to employers, schools, and government agencies, according to Liberty’s website. The demand for the firm’s exemption demand-crafting services has grown so much that Liberty now advertises for attorneys to work as affiliates to help cope with the “thousands of people” reaching out to them.

“There are more people than we can help and we hope you can take some referrals in your state to send demand letters,” the firm instructs prospective affiliates.

While some who hope to avoid a vaccine have had some victory on the state level—a court recently ruled that New York’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health-care workers had to allow for religious exemptions—employer-based mandates could be harder for the vaccine resistant to crack.

Under the 1964 Civil Rights Act, “If an employee has a sincere religious objection to a workplace rule, the employee deserves reasonable accommodation unless it’s an undue burden,” explains Dorit Reiss, a professor of law at UC Hastings who has written extensively about vaccine requirements. “It has to be sincere which means employers are on decent ground if they try to evaluate sincerity although there are a lot of pitfalls in evaluating sincerity.”

“What employees are entitled to is reasonable accommodation, which means they don’t have to be given exactly what they want, such as a complete exemption,” Reiss says. “The employer may say ‘Well, I can’t have you working inside a nursing home with a vulnerable patient if you’re not taking the vaccine but I’ll give you an administrative job away from the patient.’”

Other far-right organizations have also offered free exemption template letters aimed at getting employers to excuse them from a shot. Sidney Powell’s legal advocacy nonprofit, Defending the Republic, has offered template letters (Protestants and Catholics only) and encouraged their followers to “Push back against Mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations!” with them.

America’s Frontline Doctors, the pro-Trump, anti-mask group that’s hyped bogus COVID miracle cures like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, offers its own free template letter but also directs visitors to the website of Pastor David and Peggy Hall, a California couple who offer a $175 “concierge package” that includes sample documents, private group consulting calls and a personal attestation of faith. Anita Martir Rivera, an evangelical minister based in Texas also offers “letters of religious exemption” with “no personal religious questions asked” (“a donation,” however, “will be humbly asked on behalf of the work of the ministry,” according to her website).

Neither the Halls nor Rivera responded to requests for comment from The Daily Beast.

Cait Corrigan, a graduate student who got into a public feud with Earlham College over its vaccine policy (an Earlham Spokesperson says an administrator mistakenly told her vaccines were required at graduation but that the school subsequently clarified its policy), rose to prominence in the anti-vaxx movement after an appearance on the podcast of Robert F. Kennedy Jr, one of the founding members of the modern anti-vaccine movement.

Reached by The Daily Beast, Corrigan declined to answer questions about her exemption letter business.

Ex-Politician Charged in QAnon Abduction Also Plotted to Attack Vax Clinics, Police Say

Other letters may seem free but include hidden costs. Jackson Lahmeyer, a pastor and Oklahoma Republican running for Senate, advertises a template for a religious exemption letter on his campaign website. Users hoping to download the letter have to fork over their name and phone number to Lahmeyer’s campaign site and are automatically subscribed to the candidate’s campaign list.

Not everyone is eager to help out with workers demands to continue their jobs shot-free.

“There’s certainly been an uptick in calls from people who do not want to abide a COVID vaccine mandate as a condition of continued employment,” Stephan Mashel, an employment attorney based in New Jersey, told The Daily Beast.

“I’ve been offered many times to file lawsuits and been offered to help other lawyers and I want no part of it. I think those lawsuits are baseless and that’s my position and that’s my firm’s position.”

TENNESSEE FIRED TRUTH TELLER

Emails reveal dismay, anger over vaccine chief's firing

KIMBERLEE KRUESI and JONATHAN MATTISE

Tue, October 26, 2021, 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The firing of Tennessee's former vaccination director caught the state's top health leaders off guard and sent them scrambling for answers as the health commissioner fumed over the praise coworkers heaped on the ousted employee, documents show.

Earlier this year, Tennessee's Department of Health sparked national attention after Dr. Michelle “Shelley” Fiscus was fired under pressure from Republican legislators incensed over the department's efforts to get children vaccinated against COVID-19. Fiscus accused Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey of terminating her “to appease a handful of outraged and uninformed legislators.”

The Associated Press requested a week's worth of emails among the health department's top leadership regarding Fiscus' firing in mid-July. The records, released for review after several months, paint a more complete picture of an agency in turmoil over the firing of an official who was highly regarded by those fighting to contain the pandemic.

The agency last month said it would cost the AP roughly $1,400 to review several hundred records. Ultimately, the department produced some 150 records to view in person at no cost, explaining the discrepancy by saying the initial figure had estimated “potential" costs. The state's open records law requires that all public records be made available for inspection upon request.

Emails provided to the AP show some officials were shocked at Fiscus' firing.

“I am so saddened by this news and honestly cannot comprehend it,” wrote Dr. Jill Obremskey, department medical director. “Dr. Fiscus has put forth a herculean effort to assure COVID vaccine was available to anyone who wanted it. Because of her, many lives have been saved.”

In announcing Fiscus' firing, Dr. John Dunn, state epidemiologist, acknowledged that the news was “sudden, sad and disconcerting to our team members.”

“I wish her the very best in the future. Her commitment to public health has been very evident during the COVID-19 response effort over the last 18 months,” Dunn wrote on July 12.

Two days prior, in a separate email to CDC officials, Dunn highlighted that Fiscus had helped lead “herculean efforts” to push the COVID-19 shot among the state's unvaccinated.

Dr. Tim Jones, chief medical officer, later told Dunn his kind words about Fiscus had upset Piercey.

“By the way, the commissioner is really angry that you wrote anything nice about Shelley in your traditional ‘farewell message’ and that Obremskey reiterated it. It’s been fun around here,” Jones wrote to Dunn on July 14. 

A department spokesperson declined to comment on Jones' description, saying it was a personnel issue.

The email traffic raises new questions about a letter dated July 9 — attributed to Jones — that recommended the firing of Fiscus. 

The letter said Fiscus should be removed due to complaints about her leadership approach and her handling of a letter explaining vaccination rights of minors for COVID-19 shots without notifying their parents, which helped prompt the backlash from lawmakers. 

Tennessee officials, however, didn’t release her performance reviews, which are exempted under state public records law. Fiscus’ husband Brad circulated them in rebuttal, showing she received glowing appraisals over several years. One positive review came as recently as June, when Dunn praised Fiscus for “strong leadership” while her program was under “very intense scrutiny.” 

A month prior, Republican lawmakers put Fiscus and the department in the hot seat over its childhood vaccine messaging efforts, with one lawmaker floating the possibility of shuttering the health agency as retribution.

News of Fiscus’ firing quickly resulted in a barrage of phone calls from Tennesseans and others alarmed by her dismissal and the department’s decision to pause COVID-19 vaccine outreach efforts for eligible minors. Emails show Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s communication team provided a script for the health agency to recite.

“(The department) began using the script at about 12:45 and it is not going well...the callers are really upset,” wrote agency staffer Lisa Hanner.

Piercey was on vacation in Greece when Fiscus was fired. Few of the emails provided to AP include her correspondence, but a handful indicate she was monitoring media coverage.

At least one doctor emailed Piercey to praise her for firing Fiscus, which the commissioner forwarded to Brandon Gibson, Lee's chief operating officer. There's no indication in the records that she forwarded any emails from the medical community backing Fiscus.

“I am thankful to my colleagues at the Tennessee Department of Health for coming to my defense and admonishing the department leadership’s decision to terminate me from my position," Fiscus told the AP. 

“Tennessee’s elected and appointed officials continue to put politics ahead of what is in the best interest of the health and wellbeing of the people of Tennessee and it is the people who will continue to suffer the consequences of these misguided priorities. It’s shameful,” she added.

The department did not respond to the records request until Sept. 9, informing the AP it would cost about $1,400 for attorneys to vet and potentially redact about 875 records. When the AP asked to view the records in person as allowed under Tennessee’s open records law, the department updated that the total amount of documents would be 374.

Ultimately, the agency only identified 158 documents within the AP’s records request. Asked about the reduced number, a department spokesperson said the original estimate included “potential” records, not a firm amount.