FOX NEWS SAYS STUDY PROVES TRUMP WAS POWERLESS Coronavirus was even more contagious at beginning of pandemic than experts thought, study finds

World leaders had an even narrower window in controlling virus spread

By Madeline Farber | Fox News

Dr. Nicole Saphier, author of 'Make America Healthy Again;' Dr. Dyan Hes, pediatrician; and Dr. Kathleen Berchelmann, pediatrician, join 'Fox and Friends.'

The novel coronavirus was more than twice as contagious at the start of the pandemic than first thought, according to a new study from Duke University.

Researchers in the peer-reviewed study, which was published last week in the journal PLOSOne, found that the average number of new COVID-19 cases caused by an infected patient — known as the reproduction number (R0) — was 4.5, “or more than twice as many as the initial 2.2 rate estimated by the World Health Organization at the time,” per a news release.

The novel coronavirus was more than twice as contagious at the start of the pandemic than first thought, according to a new study from Duke University. (iStock)

The researchers in the study — which analyzed 57 countries, including the U.S., U.K., and Canada, among others — argue their findings demonstrate that world leaders had an even narrower window in controlling virus spread, with just 20 days from the first reported cases “to implement non-pharmaceutical interventions stringent enough to reduce the transmission rate to below 1.1 and prevent widespread infections and deaths,” per the release.

Any interventions not made within this time were “unlikely to be effective,” they said, noting this was the case for many of the countries studied because the reproduction number remained above 2.7 for at least 44 days.

For the study, researchers used a conventional mathematical model — “susceptible-infectious-removed” (SIR) — to look at confirmed cases of the virus in 57 countries between January and March.

“They also used the model to analyze mortalities based on the so-called Infection Fatality Rate that accommodates both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases,” according to the release, noting that the model includes people considered susceptible to the virus, meaning they have not yet contracted it, as well as those infected with it, or recovered from it “and thus removed from the general pool,” because of assumed immunity, researchers said.

The model helped the scientists to “chart the disease’s early-phase transmission rate under different conditions and intervention scenarios; identify changes in those rates over time; and project how many cases and deaths ultimately might occur under different intervention scenarios until herd immunity is achieved.”

So-called super spreaders, or infected individuals who subsequently infect many others, did cause short-term spikes, but their impact was “found to even out over time,” the researchers said.

“Despite some short-term spikes caused by super-spreaders or other factors such as ramp-ups in testing, inferred local rates of transmissions all converged over time to a global average of about 4.5 new cases per infected individual where early-phase intervention was insufficient or nonexistent,” per the release.

The model also helped researchers to understand how certain intervention methods could have been better applied to stop the spread of the virus earlier on, findings that could be useful during a second wave of the virus or in a future pandemic.

“Being able to estimate transmission rates at different phases of a disease’s spread and under different conditions helps identify the timing and type of interventions that may work best, the hospital capacity we’ll need, and other critical considerations,” said lead study author Gabriel Katul, in a statement.

“In the end, it all comes down to timely, effective intervention,” he added. “The best defense against uncontrolled future outbreaks is to put stringent safety protocols in place at the first sign of an outbreak and make use of the tools science has provided us.”

Madeline Farber is a Reporter for Fox News. You can follow her on Twitter @MaddieFarberUDK.

Gas explosions keep killing people, and the US government won’t step in

IS IT INFRATRUCTURE WEEK YET?

OH WAIT THIS IS A TALE OF WOE; DEREGULATION-CUTTING RED TAPE

A decade ago, Congress set out to make pipelines safer. But regulators are still seeing dozens of accidents in homes each year, with little recourse for utility companies.

By Jeremy Deaton/Nexus Media 

A home destroyed by the Merrimack Valley gas explosions in northern Massachusetts. National Transportation Safety Board

Pipelines exploded with the force of bombs, setting homes ablaze in Merrimack Valley, Massachusetts, on the evening of September 13, 2018. Columbia Gas, the local gas utility, had allowed too much pressure to build up in its aging cast-iron pipes until finally, they erupted in a series of blasts that injured more than 20 people and killed one, Leonol Rondon, an 18-year-old who had just passed his driving test. He had pulled up to a friend’s driveway to share the good news when an explosion under the house toppled the chimney, which crushed him in the driver’s seat.

“It looked like a war zone,” says Walter Mena, a Merrimack Valley resident. “I come from El Salvador, where we were at war in the 1980s. It reminded me of that.”

For weeks after, homeowners living near the blasts were relegated to hotels or camping trailers paid for by Columbia Gas. Others, including Mena, were able to stay in their homes, but without gas. Mena had to boil a pot of water on an electric stove every time he wanted to bathe. Even today, some locals are still recovering from the explosions, anxious at the smell of gas or the gurgle of a water heater.

The Merrimack Valley disaster is remarkable, not just for its scale, but its timing. It came near the end of a decade in which officials set out to make natural gas pipelines safer. But incidents like the one in Merrimack Valley have actually grown more numerous since 2010, according to data from pipeline regulators. While the number of accidents on transmission lines — those that carry gas from region to region — has declined, the number of accidents on distribution lines — those that carry gas to residential neighborhoods — has crept upwards. The trend was outlined in a recent report from the Pipeline Safety Trust, a pipeline watchdog group.

“We haven’t made big advances in making us safer from pipeline accidents,” says Bill Caram, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, which was created by order of a federal judge after a 1999 pipeline explosion killed two 10-year-olds in Bellingham, Washington.

Over the last decade, firms have built new pipelines while continuing to make use of older ones. This added infrastructure creates more opportunities for accidents, and aging pipes are at greater risk of failure. At the same time, pipeline operators, regulators and lawmakers have failed to apply lessons from past mistakes, Caram says.


 

The number of significant incidents on gas distribution pipelines has trended up over the last decade. That includes explosions where a person is hospitalized or killed, of the cost of damage is $50,000 or more, measured in 1984 dollars.Pipeline Safety Trust


2010 was supposed to mark a turning point in the regulation of pipelines, as lawmakers sought to improve pipeline safety after several major disasters. That summer, ruptured oil pipelines emptied thousands of barrels of murky goo into Red Butte Creek in Utah, Yellowstone River in Montana and Kalamazoo River in Michigan. Then, in September, a gas pipeline in San Bruno, California exploded. The blast destroyed dozens of homes and left a crater the size of a tennis court. It also killed eight people, among them Jacqueline Greig, an advocate for utility customers, and her 13-year-old daughter, Janessa, who was student body president at St. Cecilia School.

The National Transportation Safety Board investigated these failures and made a series of recommendations, like pressure tests for older gas pipelines and automatic shutoff valves on pipelines running through populated areas. In 2011, Congress wrote a number of these recommendations into law. But, while the “Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty, and Job Creation Act of 2011” required new rules on pipelines, it left in place legal hurdles that would make it nearly impossible for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to enact those rules.

“The intention of all those recommendations and mandates was to make sure that an incident like San Bruno would never happen again. I don’t think that’s the case,” Caram says. “It’s not PHMSA’s fault. It’s their authority. They have not been able to implement these changes.”

The challenge, Caram adds, is that PHMSA is limited in its ability to regulate existing pipelines, which means that older pipelines, which carry a higher risk of failure, aren’t covered by new regulations.

PHMSA is also required to undertake a stringent cost-benefit analysis on every proposed rule. Should regulators determine that the cost of compliance exceeds the value of protecting nature or saving a human life, the rule is effectively dead — even if the public disagrees, say, with the value the agency places on human life, Caram says. While some rules eventually pass this test, the process is time-intensive and only one step in a very long road.

In 2011, Congress directed PHMSA to mandate automatic shutoff valves. In 2013, Jeffrey Wiese, then head of PHMSA, complained of how agonizingly long it took to craft new pipeline regulations, telling compliance officers, “Getting any change through regulation, which used to be a viable tool, is no longer viable.” It wasn’t until February 2020 that PHMSA finally proposed a new rule requiring automatic shutoff valves. Natural gas trade groups were quick to argue that the measure would prove too costly as written.

“PHMSA has been very slow to address those recommendations and these mandates,” Caram says. “Here we are 10 years later, and they have not even gotten to all of them, and the ones they have gotten to, the industry has fought tooth and nail.”
 

Wreckage from the 2010 San Bruno gas explosion.Brocken Inaglory via Wikimedia


Congress is currently considering several bills that would reauthorize the pipeline safety program, including one bill championed by Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) that is named for Leonol Rondon, the sole death in the Merrimack Valley disaster. But none of these bills deal with the grandfather clause, which limits regulations on existing pipelines, and only one would eliminate the cost-benefit requirement. That bill is unlikely to survive in its current form, Caram says.

Faced with the persistent dangers of natural gas and the federal government’s glacial pace in tackling those dangers, some Americans are taking matters into their own hands by going all-electric.

Last year, Jackson Wilkinson lost his father to a gas explosion at his home in Warrington, Pennsylvania. Wilkinson says his father, Mike, was tough, an Army veteran and onetime amateur boxer who had helmed a company that made airplane-refueling trucks. His father was also a skilled mechanic and rigidly disciplined about safety — the kind of dad who would never forget to turn off a propane BBQ. He was, by any measure, an unlikely victim of a gas accident.

Wilkinson says that his dad was mowing the lawn when his basement door exploded outward, killing the 73-year-old. The fire inspectors did not officially determine the exact cause of the explosion, but they sad it was most likely an issue with the gas infrastructure inside his home.

Shaken by his father’s death, Wilkinson has been retrofitting his house in Newton, Massachusetts, replacing his water heater and furnace with an electric heat pump powered by rooftop solar panels. He is aiming to replace his dryer and stove next. Wilkinson’s mother, who has been living in a temporary home since the accident, is now moving to a newly built townhouse where the heat, hot water, dryer, and stove will be all-electric. Wilkinson says that while his father might have been skeptical of electric appliances when he was alive, he would probably feel different today.

“I think my dad would say, ‘Why do you want pipes of this stuff running through your house? Look at what it did to me,’” he says. “He never wanted to make the same mistake twice.”

'Blue Planet II' may not have caused a change in plastic preference

by Hayley Dunning, Imperial College London

Plastic pollution in Ghana. Credit: Muntaka Chasant/Wikimedia Commons

The BBC documentary "Blue Planet II" raised environmental awareness, but may not have discouraged people from choosing plastic, says new research.


Blue Planet II, broadcast in 2017, included messages about the human impact on the oceans, including the growing problem of plastic pollution. This was credited with creating a "Blue Planet effect," which included people choosing to consume less plastic, for example by opting for reusable items like water bottles instead of single-use versions.

Now, an experiment by Imperial College London and the University of Oxford shows that while watching the documentary increased environmental awareness in a group of volunteers, this did not translate into choosing to use fewer single-use plastics. The results are published in Conservation Science and Practice.

First author Matilda Dunn, from the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial, said: "The findings from our experiment are counter to the popular idea that 'Blue Planet II' reduced viewers' preference for plastic, instead demonstrating that human behaviors are complex and determined by more than just knowledge.

"However, 'Blue Planet II' may have had a wider impact by increasing conversations around ocean plastic pollution, allowing the topic to become more politically palatable."

Choice experiment

To find out whether "Blue Planet II" changed people's plastic-choice behavior, the team conducted an experiment with 150 people split into two groups. Both groups completed a questionnaire that measured their understanding of and attitudes towards marine conservation issues.

One group was then shown the original The Blue Planet documentary, which aired in 2001 and contained no plastic or ocean conservation messages. The other group was shown "Blue Planet II." After the viewings, both groups filled in the same questionnaire.

Before and after both showings, participants were also offered a choice of drinks and snacks, either in paper or plastic packaging, and noted which participants chose. The team controlled for any other differences between the options, such as flavors or sizes of the snacks, for example by offering the same soft drinks in both plastic and paper cups.

Increased understanding, same choice

While watching "Blue Planet II" greatly increased understanding of marine conservations issues as revealed by the questionnaires, there was no significant difference in the choices people made between plastic and paper-packaged snacks.

Co-author Dr. Morena Mills, from the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial, said: "Many previous studies of people's preference for plastic rely on individuals reporting their own preference, which can be unreliable. We are the first to use this type of experimental design along with measuring observed behaviors to test the hypothesis."

The researchers are planning to use this evaluation method to test the effectiveness of other conservation-related mass media interventions on changing individual behaviors.

"Evaluating the impact of the documentary series Blue Planet II on viewers' plastic consumption behaviors," by Matilda Eve Dunn, Morena Mills and Diogo Veríssimo, is published in Conservation Science and Practice.


Explore further British public doesn't know what microplastics are

More information: Matilda Eve Dunn et al. Evaluating the impact of the documentary series Blue Planet II on viewers' plastic consumption behaviors, Conservation Science and Practice (2020). DOI: 10.1111/csp2.280

Provided by Imperial College London

Trump’s $73M tax refund stuck with 

little-known panel

By Mike Dorning September 29, 2020, 9




The details published about Donald Trump’s tax returns were a revelation to the public but not to a small group of attorneys who work for a little-known congressional panel.

Trump has been in the middle of a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service over a 2010 claim of a $72.9 million tax refund, according to the New York Times, which obtained more than 20 years of the president’s tax data. The size of the refund claim brought it before the Joint Committee on Taxation.

Whenever there is a proposed refund of more than $2 million for individuals and $5 million for corporations proposed, the committee staff reviews it before payment by the IRS. Part of the rationale for such reviews is to make sure tax laws are working the way Congress intended.

In Trump’s case, the IRS initially sent an audit of the refund to the joint committee in 2011 and an agreement was reached in 2014. But an expanding audit meant that the IRS resubmitted the refund documentation for review in 2016, where it has sat unresolved since then, the Times reported.

Trump received what tax professionals refer to as a “quickie refund,” a check processed in 90 days on a tentative basis, pending an audit by the IRS, the Times reported.

The committee staff reviewed between 470 and 370 proposed refunds per year from 2015 to 2018, according to a congressional aide.

Most of the proposed refunds involved net operating loss carry-back provisions, in which a business uses losses in one year to offset profits in another, sometimes resulting in refunds of “hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Kenneth Kies, who was chief of staff for the panel from 1994 to 1998.

Thomas A. Barthold, current chief of staff for the joint committee, said the staff “does not comment on the receipt of any review case, nor comment on when any review case’s review has been completed.”

Occasionally, the staff disagrees with the IRS and the tax agency usually wouldn’t proceed with a refund over the objections of the committee, Kies said, though the law doesn’t compel the IRS to accept the panel’s determination.

Much of the review work is done by lawyers from the committee who work onsite at the IRS, added Kies, now managing director of the Federal Policy Group, which provides advice to clients on tax policy matters.

The joint committee’s role reviewing tax refunds goes back to 1927, one year after the committee was formed, said George Yin, another former chief of staff and a retired University of Virginia law professor. The panel took up the task after there were accusations of favoritism over large refunds made during the 1920s under Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon.

Differences over the proposed amount of a refund were usually worked out between committee staff and IRS personnel, Yin said. Yin said lower-level staff only “very infrequently” were unable to resolve differences with the IRS during his tenure from 2003-2005.

There are 10 members of Congress, five from the House and five from the Senate with bipartisan representation on the joint committee. Their role is largely symbolic, and they aren’t involved in reviewing confidential taxpayer returns.

No member of Congress ever became involved in a refund review or saw tax documents from such a review while he was chief of staff, Yin said.

David Noren, a partner at law firm McDermott Will & Emery who worked for the panel from 2001-2006, said it generally took the committee about three weeks to complete a refund review, but it wasn’t unusual for the process to last much longer if there were complex issues identified to review with the IRS.

“Any case involving a sitting president would not be run of the mill,” Noren said. “This situation with a sitting president is a completely extraordinary set of circumstances.”

If the IRS formally denies the refund, the disappointed taxpayer can sue in U.S. District Court where he or she lives or in the Federal Court of Claims.

— With assistance from Bob Van Voris and Laura Davison

Mike Dorning

Bloomberg News

The accounting firm behind Trump's tax returns that the president's father started using in the 1950s and who he stuck with despite misconduct claims against its 'tax god' boss and after one of the partners stabbed his own wife

Trump has used the accounting firm Mazars for decades to file his taxes 

The firm is at the center of his ongoing court battle to keep tax returns secret
They say they will do whatever the court tells them to 

Mazars was first used by Trump's father Fred and its former boss allegedly masterminded a scheme to dodge inheritance tax for his kids

Jack Mitnick, the boss, was reportedly ousted by partners amid misconduct claims in 1996
In 2016, another partner - Jules Reich - 'snapped' and stabbed his wife to death

He was sentenced to 20 years behind bars for the killing in August 2018 

In 2018, the New York Times claimed Trump and his siblings evaded gift and inheritance tax
Now, the Times has gone after 18 years of tax returns which claim Trump paid only $750 in federal income tax in 2016 and 2017 

He says that he did nothing wrong and his attorneys say the Times' reporting is 'inaccurate'

By JENNIFER SMITH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 29 September 2020

The New York Times' bombshell report into Trump's tax returns makes little mention of the accountants who prepared them despite the firm having a long and colorful history that involves claims of misconduct and the stabbing death of one of the partner's wives.

For decades, Trump has used accountants connected to Mazars to prepare his tax returns.

Originally Spahr Lacher & Berk, it was folded in to Mazars and is now a branch of its worldwide company but it originated with small offices in Queens and Long Island and, according to a May ProPublica piece, was favored by Trump's father Fred in the 1950s.

Fred started using the firm in 1951 and was its biggest client.

Donald Trump started working with the firm in 1987. Both worked with Jack Mitnick, the former head of the company, until 1996, when Mitnick stepped down amid claims of fraud and malpractice, according to ProPublica's report.

Trump with his father in 1987, the year he started using Spahr Lacher & Berk, which later folded into Mazars and is the firm he still uses today

Mitnick had led the company for 30 years. ProPublica describes him as the mastermind of an alleged plot by Trump's late father Fred that allowed his children to inherit more than $1billion from him without having to pay heavy inheritance tax.

The New York Times wrote about the apparent plot in 2018. He and his family denied any wrongdoing.

Documents that were revealed at the time suggest the family only paid $52.2 million in gift and inheritance taxes - a tenth of what the bill ought to have been.

Mitnick previously said the president was 'no tax genius'. He said that Trump did not understand tax codes when he was preparing his documents in the 1980s and 1990s. 

Mazars was once headed by Jack Mitnick who once worked with Trump's father Fred and allegedly masterminded a scheme to have the Trump kids avoid paying large gift and inheritance tax. Mitnick left the firm in 1996

He was to thank, according to former employees, for constructing a smoke and mirrors illusion that Trump had more cash than he actually did.

Mitchell Zachary, who worked on Trump's accounts, told ProPublica that Mitnick was revered as a 'tax god' in the firm for his 'aggressive' but legal approach.

After Mitnick stepped down, Trump carried on using the firm despite it being cited by the SEC for 'willfully aiding and abetting misconduct'.

The CEO, who was an accountant at the time, was described as exercising 'highly unreasonable' conduct. Mazars defended him.

They are who stand now in the middle of a fight between the president and the state of New York, which has subpoenaed the firm for eight years of his personal and business financial records.

They are also the firm involved in tax returns filed by the now defunct Trump Foundation which was shut down and ordered to pay $2million in damages by the state of New York for its own misconduct.

Mazars has said it will side with the courts in the case of sharing Trump's tax returns, giving over whatever is required of them.

Trump is fighting it relentlessly. So far, judges have ruled against him.

His attorneys say prosecutors are hell-bent on a fishing expedition to thwart the election and that they are driven by a left-leaning political biased rather than any apparent thirst for justice.

Mazars' position in the court fight and its relevance to the new claims by the Times that Trump only paid $750 in income taxes in 2016 and 2017 thrust it back into the spotlight four years after one of its most senior partners was embroiled in a grisly murder scandal.


Mazars office in midtown Manhattan. The accounting company has offices all over the world

In 2016, Jules Reich - a financial adviser and attorney who worked at the firm - killed his wife by stabbing her in the shower of their home in Scarsdale. 

In 2016, Mazars partner Jules Reich (UP) stabbed his wife Dr Robin Goldman (DOWN) in the shower of their home. They were going through a divorce and he was taking medication which he said made him violent and 'snap'

The pair were going through a divorce and he claimed he was also under stress from work.
He claimed in court that he was taking medication at the time that made him violent, but it's unclear what that was.

Reich was sentenced to 20 years behind bars in August 2018.

Mitnick has spoken unfavorably of the president.

In 2016, he told CNN of Trump's early tax returns: 'As far as I know, and this only goes through 1996, he didn't understand the [tax] code, nor would he have had the time or patience to learn the provisions.

'I did all the tax preparation. He never saw the product until it was presented to him for signature.

'Those returns were entirely created by us.' It came after Trump's boasts that he was 'smart' because he'd dodged taxes.

He also aided the Times in its 2016 reporting into Trump's tax returns from the 1990s by confirming the authenticity of the returns and by explaining some of what was contained in them.

Reporter Susanne Craig said she received the tax returns in a package in her mailbox and that she went to Mitnick afterwards to have him stand up her reporting.

Trump's attorneys threatened to sue the Times for publishing the contents of them, saying they had no permission to publish them.

But when he worked on Trump's accounts, Mitnick sought to reduce his tax bill as much as he could.
'As far as I know, and this only goes through 1996, he didn't understand the [tax] code, nor would he have had the time or patience to learn the provisions
Jack Mitnick speaking of Trump's early 1990s tax returns

In the 1980s, he went to court to try to get Trump out of an $80,000 tax bill on a Trump Tower condo that he'd flipped.

Trump bought the unit at cost for some $600,000 and sold it for more than $3million, 19 days later.

It falls into Trump's long history for trying to keep his tax returns hidden, something no other president has fought to do.

He responded to the Times' latest reporting on his tax returns first through his lawyers, who said it was largely inaccurate, and then on Twitter on Monday where he said he had done nothing wrong.

Mitnick, in the years since he left the firm, has been hit with tax liens, thrown out of his homes and had his possessions lined up in the street. He now lives in Florida and is in his mid 80s.

UPDATED

More surprises about Paleolithic humans
Our ancestors traversed Europe earlier than thought.

The excavation of the early modern human (foreground) and Neanderthal layers (background) of Lapa do Picareiro. Credit: Jonathan Haws

29 September 2020Natalie Parletta

New clues continue to unravel the compelling Palaeolithic mystery of modern human movements and the Neanderthal transition, suggesting the two groups overlapped by several thousand years and may have even interacted.

Archaeological evidence points to modern human settlement in westernmost Eurasia around 5000 years earlier than previous estimates, toppling suggestions that Neanderthals prevented our ancestors’ dispersal throughout Europe.

The discovery “shows that modern humans moved rapidly across highly diverse landscapes and adapted to different climates and environments,” explains Jonathan Haws from the University of Louisville, US, lead author of a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Neanderthal populations were probably not very dense and therefore unable to prevent moderns from invading their territory,” he adds.

“It also raises the possibility that the two groups were contemporary and interacted with one another, ultimately leading to the assimilation of the Neanderthals.”

The international team, including researchers across Europe, unearthed stone tools used by our anatomical ancestors 41,000 to 38,000 years ago in the Lapa do Picareiro cave in central Portugal, an area Neanderthals are thought to have occupied 45,000 to 42,000 years ago.

Tools discovered in Lapa do Picareiro in central Portugal. Credit: Jonathan Haws

The tools were Aurignacian period artifacts, technology associated with early modern humans in Europe. The team found them when working through 50,000 years’ worth of well-preserved remains at the site.

Other rich deposits associated with the tools include thousands of bones left from animals that were hunted, butchered and cooked, analysed by Sahra Talamo from Germany’s Max Planck Institute using modern radiocarbon dating techniques.

Similar artifacts have been found in layers of comparable age from northern Spain and southern France. Further south, the oldest evidence for modern humans came from Bajondillo Cave on Spain’s southern coast.

“Bajondillo offered tantalising but controversial evidence that modern humans were in the area earlier than we thought,” says Haws. “The evidence in our report definitively supports the Bajondillo implications for an early modern human arrival.”

How they got there is still unclear, he adds. It’s likely they followed east-west flowing rivers, but they could also have migrated along the coast.

A nearby cave contains evidence of Neanderthal survival until 37,000 years ago. As yet there’s no evidence of interaction with modern humans. The tools used by our ancestors, featuring flint and small blades probably used for hunting with arrows, differ markedly to the stone-tool technology used by Neanderthals.

Harsh cold, dry conditions evidenced by paleoclimatic cave sediments would have been challenging to contend with, says co-author Michael Benedetti from Portugal’s Universidade do Algarve, possibly disrupting Neanderthal habitats and opening them up for modern humans.

The discovery certainly opens a goldmine of material for further exploration – and after 25 years of excavating, they have yet to reach the bottom.

“We’re still digging,” says Haws, “and hope to find even more surprises.”

COSMOS

Natalie Parletta is a freelance science writer based in Adelaide and an adjunct senior research fellow with the University of South Australia.

Modern humans reached westernmost Europe 5,000 years earlier than previously known

Discovery may indicate that modern humans and Neanderthals lived in the area concurrently

View of excavation of Lapa do Picareiro, looking in from the cave's entrance.

• Credit and Larger Version

September 29, 2020

Modern humans arrived in westernmost Europe 38,000 - 41,000 years ago, about 5,000 years earlier than previously known, according to Jonathan Haws of the University of Louisville and an international team of researchers. In a report published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team reveals the discovery of stone tools used by modern humans that indicate the earlier arrival.

The tools, discovered in a cave near the Atlantic coast of central Portugal, link the site with similar finds from across Eurasia to the Russian plain and indicate a rapid westward dispersal of modern humans across Eurasia within a few thousand years of their first appearance in southeastern Europe. The tools provide evidence of the presence of modern humans in westernmost Europe at a time when Neanderthals were thought to be present in the region. The discovery has important ramifications for understanding the possible interaction between the two human groups and the ultimate disappearance of the Neanderthals.

"The question whether the last surviving Neanderthals in Europe have been replaced or assimilated by incoming modern humans is a long-standing, unsolved issue in paleoanthropology," said project co-leader Lukas Friedl. Freidl said that the early dating of stone tools associated with modern humans would "likely rule out the possibility that modern humans arrived into the land long devoid of Neanderthals, and that by itself is exciting."

Until now, the oldest evidence for modern humans south of the Ebro River in Spain came from Bajondillo, a cave site on the southern coast.

"The spread of anatomically modern humans across Europe many thousands of years ago is central to our understanding of where we came from as a now-global species," said John Yellen, program director for archaeology and archaeometry at the U.S. National Science Foundation, which supported the work through multiple research awards. "This discovery offers significant new evidence that will help shape future research investigating when and where anatomically modern humans arrived in Europe and what interactions they may have had with Neanderthals."

The cave sediments also contain a well-preserved paleoclimatic record that helps reconstruct environmental conditions at the time of the last Neanderthals and arrival of modern humans.

Said Michael Benedetti of the University of North Carolina Wilmington, "Our analysis shows that the arrival of modern humans corresponds with, or slightly predates, a bitterly cold and extremely dry phase. Harsh environmental conditions during this period posed challenges that both modern human and Neanderthal populations had to contend with."

The cave itself has an enormous amount of sediment remaining for future work, and the excavation still hasn't reached the bottom.

"I've been excavating at Picareiro for 25 years and, just when you start to think it might be done giving up its secrets, a new surprise gets unearthed," Haws said. "Every few years something remarkable turns up, and we keep digging."

--  NSF Public Affairs, researchnews@nsf.gov

All aboard … for Reparations!
March 3, 2020
  

At a huge campaign rally in Richmond, California, on Feb. 17, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Mary Jane O’Meara Sanders, his wife, wave to the crowd. He’s way ahead in the polls. – Photo: Jahahara Alkebulan-Ma’at  AH REMEMBER THAT



by Baba Jahahara Amen-RA Alkebulan-Ma’at


6260 AAAK/March 2020 JC-PG

Commemorating the Contributions of Women and HERstory Month

Africans Deserve Reparations! Cause, Black Lives Truly Matter!


Greetings of IMANI (FAITH) Esteemed G-o-ds and Elder, Sister and Brother Leaders,


May our Divine Mother-Father Creator of and in All – and beloved Ancients and Ancestors from yesteryears and yesterdays – find you and (y)our extended Family thriving in healing Spirit. WE know you were further enlightened during the many timely events and activities highlighted throughout our Alkebulan-African OurStory and Futures Month.


On a very personal level, i am honoring the long life and contributions of my first Pastor (Emeritus), Rev. WALLACE S. HARTSFIELD, SR., who for many decades led the Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church helping build affordable housing, community businesses, grocery stores, a credit union, senior center as well as a child care center and other enterprises in Kansas City, Missouri. Amen. Asé


WE pay our deepest respect and gratitude for our beloved Queen Mother, supreme educator and Bay Area business owner, the great Dr. RAYE RICHARDSON. She, along with her husband Dr. JULIAN “RICH” RICHARDSON – and their gifted two Suns and two Daughters, Grands and Greats – founded what is now the oldest African-owned bookstore in the U.S., MARCUS (GARVEY) Books. Dr. Raye also chaired the famed Black Studies Department at San Francisco State University for many years. Amen. Asé.


Also making her sacred transformation to the Spiritual realm was another inspiration to so many young and talented women (and male) actors, the brilliant and beautiful Queen Mother NISA BEY; the founder and lead singer of Azania’s (South Africa’s) Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Baba JOSEPH SHABALALA; and, the amazing 101 year-old KATHERINE JOHNSON, the far-sighted mathematician who played a key role along with other Black women in engineering the NASA program.


WE are grateful for the life, work and many contributions of these new and All our incredible Ancestors. Long Live Their Spirits! Asé. Asé. Asé-O!

Destination REPARATIONS!

Carol Fife of ACCE, the fiery face of the victorious Moms 4 Housing fightback campaign, speaks for the campaign for Bernie Sanders for President. – Photo: Jahahara Alkebulan-Ma’at

WE hope that each of you has registered to vote, educated yourself on the issues, adopted a group or personal agenda and had the opportunity to challenge the candidates for the upcoming Primary Election, on March Third. My leading mantra has always been, it is not which man, woman or political Party that WE support that matters most. For me, what is most significant is our People’s Agenda and do the candidates or political parties support us. Or, in short, it ain’t the man or the woman. It’s our Plan that is key! Asé.


WE are calling on all Africans, as well as our true friends and allies, in San Francisco to immediately call up Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as well as Rep. Zoe Lofgren. Tell them to endorse “The Commission to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans Act,” H.R. 40, right now!

Our thanks to Rep. Anna Eshoo – who represents portions of the northern California peninsula counties of San Mateo and Santa Clara – for signing on to H.R. 40, “The Commission to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans Act,” in February. This is a critical moment in this important legislation, first introduced by Congressman and Ancestor JOHN CONYERS, JR. (and most recently by Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee of Houston). With appreciation to many of you and your networks, WE now have more endorsers in the U.S. House of Representatives than ever before. But, WE need an additional 28 to reach the 150 to force full hearings beginning this June(teenth). So, WE are calling on all Africans, as well as our true friends and allies, in San Francisco to immediately call up Speaker Nancy Pelosi (at both (415) 556-4862 and (202) 225-4965); as well as Rep. Zoe Lofgren (at (408) 271-8700 and (202) 225-3072), one of the designated Trump Impeachment Managers, representing parts of the South Bay including San Jose. Tell them to endorse H.R. 40 right now!


In addition, WE continue to encourage every registered voter in California to immediately call up Senator Diane Feinstein who – as the ranking Democratic Party member on the Senate Judiciary Committee with a net worth of close to $80 million – has not yet apologized for disrespecting African people. She has said in regards to our desperate needs and righteous demands for Reparatory Justice, that we “need to get over it” (Meaning 500 plus years of European “white” terrorism, torturous enslavement, robbery, lynchings and murder, mass imprisonment, gang rape and continuing crimes against our humanity, JAA-M). Feinstein was quoted as stating “some things are just better left alone … and I think that (Reparations, JAA-M) is one of those things.”


What say you, African Family and true allies? Will you call Sen. Feinstein’s office to voice your opinion at (415) 393-0707 in San Francisco, or (202) 224-3841 in Washington? Will you tell her to immediately apologize for those statements? And endorse S.1083, “The Commission to STUDY AND DEVELOP REPARATIONS PROPOSALS FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS Act”? Also, i ask again, very respectfully. If two white dudes in Vermont, by the name of Ben and Jerry, can endorse and advocate for our Reparations H.R. 40/S. 1083 legislation and hearings, shouldn’t that be the least that WE can do as organizations and individuals? And, shouldn’t WE demand the same of every elected official and candidate as they flood our area over the coming March to November 2020 election period?

A young Sis-Star sporting a HARRIET TUBMAN shirt visits the N’COBRA and Bay View table hosted by Baba Jahahara, noting their matching shirts, at Oakland’s Black Joy Parade on Feb. 23. – Photo: Jahahara Alkebulan-Ma’at

Also, in February, Assembly member Shirley Weber of San Diego – and chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus – has introduced AB 3121. The bill calls for, in the spirit of the national H.R. 40/S.1083, a commission to study and develop proposals for Reparations. While WE haven’t seen the legislation in full yet, WE support all forward energy that propels us towards our Destination of Reparations.


Gratitude to those who visited our National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA) and San Francisco Bay View newspaper table at events like the Black Joy Parade in Oakland. WE are working diligently to make the west side one of the best sides in expanding our righteous inter-generational movements for self-determination, justice and healing of Africans. Go to www.ncobraonline.org or reach us locally at support@africansdeservereparations.com

Hundreds of strong, smart Oakland women march in the third annual Black Joy Parade on Feb. 17. – Photo: Jahahara Alkebulan-Ma’at

WE again thank those generous souls who became a member of N’COBRA, made a contribution to the Bay View, purchased one of our books, a beautiful REPARATIONS poster by Baba Emory Douglas and/or a Red, Black and Green liberation flag. Every purchase helps us raise funds in support of our unjustly-imprisoned and exiled political leaders, as well as our Jericho Amnesty Movement.


With our collective actions and contributions, WE will soon reach our Goal and Destination of REPARATIONS RIGHT NOW! Asé.

6260 AAAK/ April 2020 JC-PG

WE CONDEMN CAPITALISM!

Respectfully, i have a few questions for our readers. So, grab some paper and a pen. Sorry, i forgot. As our youthful organizers constantly remind me, i’m the only one who still uses those “stone-age” forms of communication. Please pick-up your i-pads, computers and fancy cellies. Are you ready? Here WE go. 

Question #1. What has proven more devastating than the asteroid(s) that, allegedly, wiped out the dinosaurs? OK?

Question #2. Can you name something more destructive than the ever intensifying corporate-induced hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoons, wildfires and earthquakes that happen each year around our planet? Got it? All right, here’s your final,

Question, #3. Tell me the one thing more deadly than this current COVID-19 coronavirus that is sickening and killing off millions of people worldwide, thus far?

If you answered CAPITALISM for all three questions, you are absolutely correct. You see, widespread illnesses, regional epidemics, even global pandemics have occurred in the past and will probably happen in the future. Likewise, natural disasters are inevitable. 

gimc is a system that has its origins in the European genocidal wars of enslavement and robbery of our African and Indigenous nations, which has continued for nearly five plus centuries.

However, it is the global imperialist monopoly capitalist (gimc) system – based on the super-exploitation of humanity’s working class majority as well as the squeezing of nature’s resources for the most profit$, which benefit the tiniest and wealthiest classes – that exacerbates and makes every problem worse. And, magnifies each disaster. 

Headquartered on Wall Street and in London, Brussels, Moscow, Tokyo etc., gimc gives rise to and accelerates these murderous catastrophes. Why, you ask? Simply put, because its main motives are not the needs and well-being of the people. 

Quality healthcare, nutritional food, safe and affordable housing, clean water, education, public transportation and anything that benefits and uplifts the majority of people is not a priority. On the contrary, the goal of gimc is achieving HIGHER RATES OF PROFIT! AND STOCK OPTIONS FOR THE RICH BENEFICIARIES! AT ALL COSTS (pun-intended). And to destroy whatever and whoever gets in its way. To the detriment of WE masses.

gimc is a system that has its origins in the European genocidal wars of enslavement and robbery of our African and Indigenous nations, which has continued for nearly five plus centuries. gimc’s quest for super-profits has led us to a planet constantly at war: Over fossil fuels, like oil, in Iraq, Amazonas and Afghanistan. 

Certainly, over valuable natural resources, as in Congo. Wars over cheap labor, as in Asia. Over control over lucrative markets to sell commodities. 

And foremost, unjust sanctions and wars carried out by the bloated gimc military forces to put down righteous movements for independence, self-determination, true democracy, land reform, workers’ power and strides toward a more humane socialistic order … from Africa to Cuba to Ayiti (Haiti) to Zimbabwe to Iran to Venezuela to Palestine. 

It is this gimc system that over hundreds of years has shown the people the world over – especially the formerly colonized in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, the Caribbean and so-called central and south Americas – that they are expendable. 

So, please OVERstand. This worldwide pandemic, looming economic depression and expected fascistic repression in response to the assured resistance of the people most affected and denied relief … are not simply about the policies and/or complete ignorance of one administration, like that of gimc’s current Agent #45, or one political party. 

This is a systematic failure of gimc. And there, unfortunately, will be many more. Unless, WE collectively develop our agendas and take the power! Asé.

Neena Joiner, owner of the FEELMORE sex shop in downtown Oakland (at 1703 Telegraph), now has opened a second store in downtown Berkeley at 2270 Shattuck Ave. They are open for basic essential items, like condoms and gloves. www.feelmore.com. Cause, after all, life will go on. Asé. – Photo: Baba Jahahara

In the meantime, please stay safe, help each other and continue to get organized wherever you are … ByAnyMeans Necessary! WE hope, if it is in Divine Order, that WE can continue this analysis and dialogue next month, on May First: International Workers’ Day and later around our African Liberation Day. Asé.

Destination REPARATIONS!

As WE expressed in our last few columns, our H.R. 40, “The Commission to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans Act,” is at a critical moment. First introduced by Congressman and new Ancestor JOHN CONYERS JR., the bill was introduced most recently by Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee of Houston in January 2019. 

With appreciation to our National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA), and many of you and your networks, WE now have more endorsers in the U.S. House of Representatives than ever before. But WE need an additional 25 to reach our goal of 150 to force full hearings beginning this June(teenth). So, WE are calling on all Africans, as well as our true friends and allies, in San Francisco and the south bay to immediately call up Speaker Nancy Pelosi (at 415-556-4862 and 202-225-4965); as well as Rep. Zoe Lofgren (at 408-271-8700 and 202-225-3072), one of the designated Trump Impeachment Managers, representing parts of the south bay including San Jose. Tell them to endorse H.R. 40 right now!

In addition, WE continue to encourage every registered voter in California to immediately call up Sen. Diane Feinstein who – as the ranking Democratic Party member on the Senate Judiciary Committee with a net worth of close to $80 million – has not yet apologized for disrespecting African people and not endorsed the S.1083 Reparations legislation in the U.S. Senate. Please call Sen. Feinstein’s offices at 415-393-0707 in San Francisco, or 202-224-3841 in Washington? 

Also, i ask again, very respectfully: If two white dudes in Vermont, by the name of Ben and Jerry, can endorse and advocate for our Reparations H.R. 40/S. 1083 legislation and hearings, shouldn’t that be the least that WE can do as organizations and individuals? And, shouldn’t WE demand the same of every elected official and candidate as they flood our mailboxes and airwaves over the coming months towards the November 2020 election?

As always, WE invite your membership and leadership in helping expand our National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA). Go to www.ncobraonline.org or reach us locally at support@africansdeservereparations.com. With our collective actions and contributions, WE will soon reach our Goal and Destination of REPARATIONS RIGHT NOW! Asé.

Please Support Our Bay View

Please Support Our Bay View


WE urge you to make a desperately-needed contribution to our San Francisco Bay View newspaper, place an ad, or take out a subscription for yourself or an incarcerated family member. As expressed many times before, WE are struggling mightily to keep this voice of liberation in print and distributed FOR FREE throughout the Bay Area and around the united capitalist prison terrorist states of america (including to numerous penitentiaries where our Bay View is not currently banned due to our radical political stances and giving a voice to the voiceless).

Please, please make a tax-deductible donation ASAP by calling us at 415-671-0789. Or, go to our website at www.sfbayview.com. You can also send contributions of any amount the old-fashioned way by mailing a check or money order to 4917 Third St., San Francisco, CA 94124. Asante Sana (Many Thanks)! Asé.

#BlackLivesMatter #AfricansDeserveReparations #BringOurEldersHomeNow #AbolishPrisons #LoveandDefendMotherEarth

Jahahara Amen-RA Alkebulan-Ma’at is a Baba (Father), a “FREE-tired” community-labor-environmental and justice organizer, writer, musician and author of several books, including “Many Paths to Kujichagulia (Self-Determination)”; a Life Member and former National Co-Chair of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA) and recently-assigned Acting Western Regional Representative. Take a listen to a few songs from his musical catalog, including his newest release “BAMN: ByAnyMeansNecessary!” (featuring the great Archbishop Franzo King of the Saint John Coltrane Church, on saxophone) at https://soundcloud.com/search?q=jahahara Invite Jahahara to present at your group, school, church or event c/o support@africansdeservereparations.com or FONAMI, P.O. Box 10963, Oakland, CA 94610.

#QANON

“It’s just garbage,” Gov. Mike DeWine denies FEMA camps

Updated Sep 10, 2020

Gov. Mike DeWine on Tuesday addressed fringe rumors on internet that the state intends to create ‘FEMA camps,’ saying that is not the case and he has no intention of separating families. (Ohio Channel)

By Laura Hancock, cleveland.com


Note: This story has been updated to reflect Jack Windsor’s story mentioning FEMA camps. While not the first on the Internet, his story was the first, and thus far only, mention of FEMA camps among reporters who attend the governor’s coronavirus briefings.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Gov. Mike DeWine on Tuesday denied Internet rumors that the state intends to create “FEMA camps,” and that he has no intention of separating families.

“There’s just absolutely no truth in this," he said during his Tuesday coronavirus briefing. "There’s no substance behind it. It’s just garbage.”

DeWine acknowledged that it’s rare for him to address internet rumors during his coronavirus briefings. Normally he packs in information about the virus, the state’s response, interviews with experts, his non-coronavirus policy goals such as gun bills and folksy stories behind the different college mascot ties he wears each day. But he said rumors about one of his latest public health orders got out of control, and he needed to address it.

An Aug. 31 public health order, titled “Director’s Second Amended Order for Non-Congregant Sheltering to be utilized throughout Ohio,” was the source of the rumor, said DeWine, a Republican.

DeWine said the order, although new, has history dating back to the beginning of the outbreak in Ohio. It is necessary to obtain federal funding for shelters for people who cannot be a home for risk of infecting others, he said.

He said the Federal Emergency Management Agency money has reimbursed the costs of putting up in hotels a handful of hospital workers when they couldn’t go home and put vulnerable family members at risk.

“Ohio FEMA Camps – Still More Questions Than Answers,” was the headline of a story written by Jack Windsor for the right-leaning Ohio Star.

Windsor was the first, and thus far, only reporter who attends the governor’s briefings to describe the sheltering as FEMA camps, saying in an interview with Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer that he made the conclusion after reading the order several times and questioning the governor at Thursday’s briefing about the matter. He also asked questions of DeWine’s spokesman, and a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Health in an attempt to better understand the order. At the time, he didn’t get the clarity he sought, he said.

Rep. Nino Vitale

about 3 weeks ago

If you have been following me, you know that almost 4 months ago ,I reported that if you have one bathroom in your home and you, or worse your child tests positive for COVID, they will remove your child from your home. I got this information from a Ventura County California health director who let is slip back in early May and I happened to catch it and post both the video and transcript on May 12. I have included that post and the short 3-minute video for your review below.

From there, people online began to make their own conclusions.

“There were two or three stories I saw floating around online that weren’t mine," Windsor said.

Specifically, state Rep. Nino Vitale, a Republican from Urbana, who has been a vocal critic of DeWine’s public health orders and wants to impeach him, wrote on his Facebook page that “concentration camps” are coming to the state.

Vitale wrote they will be for people who have just one home bathroom or when a child tests positive for COVID-19, “they will remove your child from your home,” he said.

Ohio Senate President Larry Obhof responded to Vitale’s claim of “concentration camps" in Ohio.

“To suggest otherwise is fear mongering at its worst,” Obhof said in a statement. “This is one of the most patently offensive claims I have ever seen, and any public official who spreads this rumor is unfit for the office that he holds."

DeWine was adamant that families are not going to be separated because of the virus in Ohio.

“Let me just say this is absolutely ridiculous,” he said. “It is not true. There is no intention to separate children.”

DeWine said on March 13, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency because of the pandemic. On March 20, Ohio and FEMA entered into an agreement in which Ohio could apply for emergency protective measures, including “non-congregate sheltering.”

“In other words, the federal government would help us pay for that, if that was needed,” DeWine said.

On March 31, President Donald Trump approved a major disaster declaration for Ohio, which the state asked for a day before.

Also on March 31, the Ohio Department of Health issued an order to comply with federal request requirements, including for non-congregate sheltering. That order was renewed April 29 and again on Aug. 31, DeWine said.

“So, the bottom line: Neither President Trump’s FEMA nor the Ohio Department of Health are going to set up FEMA camps for anyone to quarantine against their will,” he said. “What we are doing is making available a safe place for people to stay when they have loved ones they’re trying to protect and they have no other place to go.”

Art-based Super PAC posts anti-Trump billboards and street posters around Cleveland in run-up to first presidential debate

Updated Sep 24, 2020


A picture of the anti-Donald Trump billboard on the corner of Carnegie Avenue and East 40th Street sponsored by Artists United for Change. The Super PAC is posting billboards and street posters from noted street artists around the city in the run-up to the first presidential debate on Sept. 29. (Artists United for Change/photo provided)

By Seth A. Richardson, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio – A political group is weaponizing their art in Cleveland as the first presidential debate approaches, posting billboards and street art posters around Northeast Ohio critical of Republican President Donald Trump.

Part of the Super PAC Artists United for Change’s RememberWhatTheyDid and #VoteThemOut campaign, the billboards feature artwork from several notable street artists adorned with quotes from Trump highlighting his response to the coronavirus pandemic, immigration detention and police brutality.

The Cleveland campaign was the brainchild of local political strategist Jeff Rusnak, who sits on the group’s board, and Scott Goodstein, co-founder of the group and a Cleveland native, who said the idea was to use the art as a get-out-the-vote strategy for Black, Hispanic and young voters outside the typical strategy of digital advertising.

“We’re going with billboards and posters in neighborhood communities and streets,” Goodstein said in an interview. “You’re going to see these popping up all over Coventry and Tremont and other neighborhoods to make sure people get out the vote.”

Part of the plan for the program, which includes nine billboards around the city, is to play off Cleveland’s role in electing Trump president. In 2016, the city hosted the Republican National Convention, where Trump formally accepted the nomination en route to a surprise victory.

“We are reminding voters of the harm Donald Trump has caused the Buckeye state through his words and actions,” Rusnak said. “Think about what Donald Trump said. Think about what he did and ask yourself is this your America?”

The billboards and posters feature some high-profile artist names, most notably Shepard Fairey, a street artist famed for his guerrilla “OBEY” campaign featuring wrestler Andre the Giant and his “Hope” poster, a stylized portrait of then-Sen. Barack Obama from the 2008 election.

Another artist, Justin Hampton, has created concert posters for musicians such as Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam and the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago.

Other artists include Nate Lewis, an ICU nurse whose contribution included an illustration featuring Trump’s comment that the coronavirus would “just disappear,” and Claudio Martinez, whose billboard includes an artist depiction of a migrant child being separated from her mother at the border.

Billboard locations include along Interstate 71 from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport to Downtown, West 25th Street in Ohio City and along Carnegie Avenue on the way to the Sheila and Eric Samson Pavilion, the site of the debate.

The first presidential debate between Trump and Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden will start 9 p.m. Tuesday. Fox News anchor Chris Wallace will moderate the 90-minute forum co-hosted by the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University.

Letters to the Editor
Message of anti-Trump billboard in Cleveland could be misconstrued

 Posted Sep 26, 2020

By Other Voices

The anti-Trump billboard at Carnegie Avenue and East 40th Street is a well-intentioned attempt to hurt President Donald Trump, but I think a lot of people will miss the point (“Anti-Trump posters, billboards pop up,” Sept. 25). The message could give Trump’s law-and-order campaign slogan an unintended boost. The smaller phrase, “Vote Them Out!,” should have been enlarged and placed at the top of the billboard to better zero in on the intended message.

Frank Sobolewski,
North Royalton

TikTok argues user content has “no economic value at all”

WAIT, WHAT?

Chris Burns - Sep 29, 2020


A legal document released this week showed TikTok argue in court that “a wide swath” of the content on their platform has “no economic value at all.” This was part of a request for injunction VS Donald Trump and the US government’s order to stop TikTok operations in the United States. The executive order signed by Trump called upon IEEPA – which they pointed out cannot regulate or prohibit (directly or indirectly) any personal communication “which does not involve a transfer of anything of value.”

In the legal document released this week, TikTok’s lawyers note that the Secretary’s prohibitions* will ‘have the effect of preventing Americans from sharing personal communications on TikTok.” The argument is that IEEPA has the authority to stop many things, including communications services UNLESS they can be considered personal communication AND they do not transfer any element of value.

SEE TOO: Trump TikTok ban: will my app stop working?

Per the document, the government “counters by arguing that some communications on TikTok do have economic value.” TikTok notes the following: “Fair enough. But ‘A wide swath of TikTok videos, public comments…, and private messages between friends about TikTok videos’ are ‘personal communications with no economic value at all.'”

This might come as some surprise to TikTok users, especially those TikTok users that utilize the platform for economic gain. But it is important, at this key moment in history, that the court sitting in judgement of this case make absolutely clear an as-modern-as-possible defining of the term “anything of value.”

What do you think? Do you believe TikTok communications transfer “anything of value” between users? Do you believe that TikTok content has “no economic value at all?”

*The Secretary’s prohibitions are part of this process in which D.Trump signed an executive order which summoned the Secretary of Commerce to create a list of prohibitions that’d effectively stop TikTok from operating. See TikTok is not banned in America yet, but November is near for more information on what comes next.

The document noted can be found with code Case 1:20-cv-02658-CJN (Civil Action No. 1:20-cv-02658 (CJN)) Document 30 Filed 09/27/20. This document was filed with the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.