Monopoly
In the United States, many legislators and public health officials are busy trying to make vaccines de facto compulsory—either by removing parental/personal choice given by existing vaccine exemptions or by imposing undue quarantines and fines on those who do not comply with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) vaccine edicts.
Officials in California are seeking to override medical opinion about fitness for vaccination, while those in New York are mandating the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine for 6-12-month-old infants for whom its safety and effectiveness “have not been established.”
American children would be better served if these officials—before imposing questionable and draconian measures—studied child health outcomes in Japan. With a population of 127 million, Japan has the healthiest children and the very highest “healthy life expectancy” in the world—and the least vaccinated children of any developed country. The U.S., in contrast, has the developed world’s most aggressive vaccination schedule in number and timing, starting at pregnancy, at birth and in the first two years of life. Does this make U.S. children healthier? The clear answer is no. The U.S. has the very highest infant mortality rate of all industrialized countries, with more American children dying at birth and in their first year than in any other comparable nation—and more than half of those who survive develop at least one chronic illness. Analysis of real-world infant mortality and health results shows that U.S. vaccine policy does not add up to a win for American children.
Alex exposes the globalist agenda to use government agencies to cover up their crimes against the population.
Japan and the U.S.; Two Different Vaccine Policies
In 1994, Japan transitioned away from mandated vaccination in public health centers to voluntary vaccination in doctors’ offices, guided by “the concept that it is better that vaccinations are performed by children’s family doctors who are familiar with their health conditions.” The country created two categories of non-compulsory vaccines: “routine” vaccines that the government covers and “strongly recommends” but does not mandate, and additional “voluntary” vaccines, generally paid for out-of-pocket. Unlike in the U.S., Japan has no vaccine requirements for children entering preschool or elementary school.
Japan also banned the MMR vaccine in the same time frame, due to thousands of serious injuries over a four-year period—producing an injury rate of one in 900 children that was “over 2,000 times higher than the expected rate.” It initially offered separate measles and rubella vaccines following its abandonment of the MMR vaccine; Japan now recommends a combined measles-rubella (MR) vaccine for routine use but still shuns the MMR. The mumps vaccine is in the “voluntary” category.
Here are key differences between the Japanese and U.S. vaccine programs:
- Japan has no vaccine mandates, instead recommending vaccines that (as discussed above) are either “routine” (covered by insurance) or “voluntary” (self-pay).
- Japan does not vaccinate newborns with the hepatitis B (HepB) vaccine, unless the mother is hepatitis B positive.
- Japan does not vaccinate pregnant mothers with the tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccine.
- Japan does not give flu shots to pregnant mothers or to six-month-old infants.
- Japan does not give the MMR vaccine, instead recommending an MR vaccine.
- Japan does not require the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine.
In contrast, the U.S. vaccine schedule (see Table 1) prescribes routine vaccination during pregnancy, calls for the first HepB vaccine dose within 24 hours of birth—even though 99.9% of pregnant women, upon testing, are hepatitis B negative, and follows up with 20 to 22 vaccine doses in the first year alone. No other developed country administers as many vaccine doses in the first two years of life.
The HepB vaccine injects a newborn with a 250-microgram load of aluminum, a neurotoxic and immune-toxic adjuvant used to provoke an immune response. There are no studies to back up the safety of exposing infants to such high levels of the injected metal. In fact, the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) upper limit for aluminum in intravenous (IV) fluids for newborns is far lower at five micrograms per kilogram per day (mcg/kg/day)—and even at these levels, researchers have documented the potential for impaired neurologic development. For an average newborn weighing 7.5 pounds, the HepB vaccine has over 15 times more aluminum than the FDA’s upper limit for IV solutions.
Unlike Japan, the U.S. administers flu and Tdap vaccines to pregnant women (during any trimester) and babies receive flu shots at six months of age, continuing every single year thereafter. Manufacturers have never tested the safety of flu shots administered during pregnancy, and the FDA has never formally licensed any vaccines “specifically for use during pregnancy to protect the infant.”
U.S. vaccine proponents claim the U.S. vaccine schedule is similar to schedules in other developed countries, but this claim is inaccurate upon scrutiny. Most other countries do not recommend vaccination during pregnancy, and very few vaccinate on the first day of life. This is important because the number, type and timing of exposure to vaccines can greatly influence their adverse impact on developing fetuses and newborns, who are particularly vulnerable to toxic exposures and early immune activation. Studies show that activation of pregnant women’s immune systems can cause developmental problems in their offspring. Why are pregnant women in the U.S. advised to protect their developing fetuses by avoiding alcohol and mercury-containing tuna fish, but actively prompted to receive immune-activating Tdap and flu vaccines, which still contain mercury (in multi-dose vials) and other untested substances?
Japan initially recommended the HPV vaccine but stopped doing so in 2013 after serious health problems prompted numerous lawsuits. Japanese researchers have since confirmed a temporal relationship between HPV vaccination and recipients’ development of symptoms. U.S. regulators have ignored these and similar reports and not only continue to aggressively promote and even mandate the formerly optional HPV vaccine beginning in preadolescence but are now pushing it in adulthood. The Merck-manufactured HPV vaccine received fast-tracked approval from the FDA despite half of all clinical trial subjects reporting serious medical conditions within seven months.
Best and Worst: Two Different Infant Mortality Results
The CDC views infant mortality as one of the most important indicators of a society’s overall health. The agency should take note of Japan’s rate, which, at 2 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, is the second lowest in the world, second only to the Principality of Monaco. In comparison, almost three times as many American infants die (5.8 per 1,000 live births), despite massive per capita spending on health care for children (see Table 2). U.S. infant mortality ranks behind 55 other countries and is worse than the rate in Latvia, Slovakia or Cuba.
To reiterate, the U.S. has the most aggressive vaccine schedule of developed countries (administering the most vaccines the earliest). If vaccines save lives, why are American children “dying at a faster rate, and…dying younger” compared to children in 19 other wealthy countries—translating into a “57 percent greater risk of death before reaching adulthood”? Japanese children, who receive the fewest vaccines—with no government mandates for vaccination—grow up to enjoy “long and vigorous” lives. International infant mortality and health statistics and their correlation to vaccination protocols show results that government and health officials are ignoring at our children’s great peril.
Among the 20 countries with the world’s best infant mortality outcomes, only three countries (Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore) automatically administer the HepB vaccine to all newborns—governed by the rationale that hepatitis B infection is highly endemic in these countries. Most of the other 17 top-ranking countries—including Japan—give the HepB vaccine at birth only if the mother is hepatitis B positive (Table 1). The U.S., with its disgraceful #56 infant mortality ranking, gives the HepB vaccine to all four million babies born annually despite a low incidence of hepatitis B.
Is the U.S. Sacrificing Children’s Health for Profits?
Merck, the MMR vaccine’s manufacturer, is in court over MMR-related fraud. Whistleblowers allege the pharmaceutical giant rigged its efficacy data for the vaccine’s mumps component to ensure its continued market monopoly. The whistleblower evidence has given rise to two separate court cases. In addition, a CDC whistleblower has alleged the MMR vaccine increases autism risks in some children. Others have reported that the potential risk of permanent injury from the MMR vaccine dwarfs the risks of getting measles.
Why do the FDA and CDC continue to endorse the problematic MMR vaccine despite Merck’s implication in fraud over the vaccine’s safety and efficacy? Why do U.S. legislators and government officials not demand a better alternative, as Japan did over two decades ago? Why are U.S. cities and states forcing Merck’s MMR vaccine on American children? Is the U.S. government protecting children, or Merck? Why are U.S. officials ignoring Japan’s exemplary model, which proves that the most measured vaccination program in the industrialized world and “first-class sanitation and levels of nutrition” can produce optimal child health outcomes that are leading the world?
A central tenet of a free and democratic society is the freedom to make informed decisions about medical interventions that carry serious potential risks. This includes the right to be apprised of benefits and risks—and the ability to say no. The Nuremberg Code of ethics established the necessity of informed consent without “any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, over-reaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion.” Forcing the MMR vaccine, or any other vaccine, on those who are uninformed or who do not consent represents nothing less than medical tyranny.
The viewpoints expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Infowars.
Alex Jones breaks down how vaccines are used to trigger deadly amounts of fluoride and glyphosate already present inside your body, from tap water and agricultural produce, and weaken the blood brain barrier’s blockade of these killer chemicals.
Source: InfoWars
FILE PHOTO: A Monopoly board game by Hasbro Gaming is seen in this illustration photo August 13, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo
April 23, 2019
(Reuters) – Toymaker Hasbro Inc reported a surprise rise in quarterly revenue on Tuesday as it sold more of its Transformers toys and “Magic:The Gathering” collectible card game.
The company reported net earnings of $26.7 million, or 21 cents per share, in the first quarter ended March 31, compared with a loss of $112.5 million, or 90 cents per share, a year earlier.
Net revenues rose to 2.3 percent to $732.5 million, while analysts were expecting $661.3 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
(Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Silhouette of mobile user is seen next to a screen projection of Apple logo in this picture illustration taken March 28, 2018. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
April 17, 2019
By Stephen Nellis
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple Inc and Qualcomm Inc on Tuesday settled an acrimonious two-year legal dispute. Shortly afterward, Intel Corp said it will exit the smartphone modem chip business.
The entire drama played out as the mobile phone industry prepares to shift to a technology called 5G.
Echoing complaints from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Apple had alleged that Qualcomm used its patent licensing business to keep a monopoly on modem chips that connect devices like the iPhone to wireless data networks. Qualcomm insisted that Apple was using its valuable technology with proper payment, and Apple later dropped Qualcomm’s chips in favor of those from Intel.
In the end, Apple and Qualcomm ceased all litigation, with Apple signing a six-year licensing deal with Qualcomm and also agreeing to buy Qualcomm chips. Hours later, Intel said it was getting out of the modem chip business.
WHAT IS 5G?
5G is a new network technology for wireless communications that could be up to 100 times faster than current 4G networks. The networks are coming on line in the United States, China, South Korea and other places this year, but probably will not be widespread until 2020. Modem chips connect devices like phones to these networks.
WHO ARE THE PLAYERS IN 5G?
Prior to Tuesday, five companies had disclosed 5G modem chips or plans to make them: Qualcomm, Intel, MediaTek Inc, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. Samsung and Huawei, however, only make chips for their own mobile phones.
WHY DOES APPLE CARE ABOUT 5G?
Some of Apple’s rivals in the smartphone market – notably Samsung – plan to release 5G devices this year, which could put pressure on Apple to match the feature. Many carriers that are investing heavily to build 5G networks are also likely to put their marketing efforts behind 5G phones.
WILL APPLE HAVE A 5G PHONE THIS YEAR?
It would require an extraordinary effort from both companies. New modems take months of testing to ensure phones will work on carrier networks. Under traditional time lines, Apple would have needed to start testing a 5G iPhone last year, but its supplier Intel did not have a chip ready.
WILL APPLE LOSE MARKET SHARE WITHOUT A 5G PHONE?
Apple was slow to 4G too and did not pay a price. Samsung and others released 4G phones in 2011 as the networks were rolling out. Apple waited until 2012, when 4G networks become widely accessible. Many analysts believe Apple is making the same bet with 5G.
WHY DOES APPLE NEED QUALCOMM’S CHIPS?
Apple’s only current modem supplier, Intel, said that it would not have a 5G chip ready until 2020, which could have pushed Apple’s launch of a 5G iPhone into 2021 – a long enough delay that it could hurt sales. Qualcomm, on the other hand, is preparing to ship its second generation 5G chip and can meet Apple’s needs with its current products.
WILL APPLE EXCLUSIVELY USE QUALCOMM’S CHIPS?
Not necessarily. While Apple and Qualcomm signed a supply agreement, Apple is working on developing its own modems and disclosed in court earlier this year that it has held talks with MediaTek and Samsung around modems.
WHY DID INTEL SHARE RISE AFTER IT EXITED THE MODEM BUSINESS?
Intel Chief Executive Bob Swan has told investors in the past that modem chips are not likely to fetch the same high margins as its CPU chips. Intel has plenty of other ways to make money from 5G, like selling CPUs to makers of base stations and so-called programmable chips to makers of networking gear.
(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Greg Mithcell and Lisa Shumaker)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Apple company is seen outside an Apple store in Paris, France, April 10, 2019. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
April 16, 2019
(Reuters) – Apple Inc and Qualcomm Inc on Tuesday decided to drop all ongoing litigations and settle their royalty dispute, reaching an agreement on global patent license and chipset supply.
The settlement also includes a payment from Apple to Qualcomm, whose size the two companies did not disclose.
Shares of Qualcomm jumped 22 percent in late afternoon trading, while Apple share were up marginally.
Apple filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Qualcomm in January of 2017, accusing the chipmaker of overcharging for chips and refusing to pay some $1 billion in promised rebates.
Later Qualcomm hit back with its own lawsuit, alleging that Apple used its heft in the electronics business to wrongly order contract factories such as Hon Hai Precision Co Ltd’s Foxconn to withhold royalty payments from Qualcomm that Apple had historically reimbursed to the factories.
As part of the settlement, Qualcomm will also end litigation with Apple’s contract manufacturers.
Apple had alleged that Qualcomm’s patent practices were an illegal move to maintain a monopoly on the market for premium modem chips that connect smart phones to wireless data networks.
Apple’s iPhones earlier used to sport only Qualcomm’s modem chips, which help a device connect to wireless data networks. With the launch of iPhone 7 in 2016, Apple started using Intel modem chips in some models instead.
Qualcomm told investors in July it believed its modem chips were completely removed from the newest generation of iPhones released in September, leaving Intel as the sole supplier.
Teardowns of the new devices have confirmed that Intel is supplying the modem chips.
Shares of Intel, Qualcomm’s main competitor for supplying modem chips to Apple, trimmed gains to be up marginally at $56.42.
Intel did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.
CNBC had earlier reported about the settlement.
(Reporting by Vibhuti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: A surveillance camera is seen outside an Apple store in Beijing, China December 12, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo
April 16, 2019
By Stephen Nellis
SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Reuters) – A trial opened Tuesday in a complex contract and anti-trust dispute between Apple Inc and Qualcomm Inc with the iPhone maker using a fried chicken analogy to explain its claim that the chip company is abusing its market power.
Tens of billions of dollars and the fate of Qualcomm’s business model are at stake in the case. Apple alleges that Qualcomm engaged in illegal patent licensing practices to maintain a monopoly on the market for premium modem chips that connect smart phones to wireless data networks.
Qualcomm in turn says Apple uses innovations that Qualcomm spent billions to develop without proper compensation and that Apple has interfered in Qualcomm’s longstanding business relationships.
A jury of three women and six men will hear the case over five weeks in the San Diego federal courtroom of Judge Gonzalo Curiel. On Tuesday, attorneys sought to cut through the technological complexity and frame key elements of the case in terms the jury could understand.
Apple has objected to a practice that it calls “no license, no chips” under which Qualcomm will not sell chips to a company that has not signed a patent license agreement.
Apple attorney Ruffin Cordell likened Qualcomm’s policy to a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant that refuses to sell a bucket of chicken to customers.
“You first have to go over to this different counter, KFL – Kentucky Fried Licensing,” Cordell said. “You have to go pay that ‘eating license’ fee before they’ll sell you any chicken.”
Qualcomm had not yet given its arguments as of mid-morning, but the company has argued in court papers that its portfolio of 130,000 patents contains technologies used by virtually all mobile devices.
The company’s position is that mobile phone makers need a license to its patents regardless of whether they choose its chips and that it has followed longstanding industry practices by charging a license fee as a percentage of a device’s adjusted selling price.
(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Diego; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Source: OANN
A golf patron carries two shopping bags full of Masters products during first round play of the 2019 Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, U.S., April 11, 2019. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
April 13, 2019
By Steve Keating
AUGUSTA, Ga. (Reuters) – There was a time when getting your hands on Masters merchandise was nearly as difficult and rewarding as winning a Green Jacket.
There is still only one place in the world to purchase official Masters souvenirs and that is inside Augusta National at their Harrods-like merchandise store which is only open during Masters week, the 64 cash registers manned by a smiling, uniformed staff from dawn to dusk.
There’s just one catch. To get in the store means having to first secure a Masters badge, one of the most coveted and hardest tickets to land in all of sport. For Thursday’s opening round, asking prices were as high as $7500 on resale sites.
Yet there is no longer a need to stand in that long line with hundreds of other souvenir hunters as the queue snakes its way through a maze of lanes that would rival any major airport security screening area.
Now with a cell phone (forbidden to spectators at Augusta National) and a no-price-is-too-high attitude, you too can be the owner of a Masters green polo shirt with its iconic yellow silhouette logo — and you won’t even have to leave your couch.
A Masters coffee mug, dog bowl or crystal glasses are all just a click or two away as enterprising websites skirt Augusta National’s monopoly by offering everything you can get inside the merchandise store at hugely inflated prices.
Sites like www.mmogolf.com and www.golfshopplus.com will take your order and have people on site at Augusta National fill it, guaranteeing your purchase is official merchandise complete with tags.
Aaron Behar, an owner of http://www.mmogolf.com, describes the operation as a “professional shopping service”.
The intensely protective membership at Augusta National may call it something different but for more than 10 years, the two have peacefully co-exsisted, unlike the club’s ongoing issues with ticket scalpers and resale sites.
“We are a shopping service and I want to make clear we are in no way affliated with Augusta Natioinal,” Behar told Reuters. “We only provide a service and obtain merchandise for personal and corporate clients.
“We do this for a number of tournaments but the Masters is a very exclusive product, one you can only get if you are there.
“We are simply a shopping service.”
Not surprisingly, there is a considerable mark up attached to muling merchandise out of Augusta National.
Bahr, like most patrons, gets his tickets off resale sites and as his costs go up, as they have this year, so do his prices.
A golf shirt that cost $95 in the store goes for $230 on the resale shopping sites while $35 T-shirts go for $60 and a green coffee mug that sells for $15 inside Augusta will fetch $60 outside the walls.
While Bahr has turned Masters merchandise resales into a business, there are no shortage of freelancers out there looking to cash in on the iconic brand.
On Kijiji and eBay, you can find everything from Masters golf balls to frosted plastic beer cups retrieved from garbage bins going for $3.99.
If you are having a Masters party, Goldbelly.com will ship the famous Augusta Pimento Cheese sandwich to your door with a two-pound pack costing $59.
Like everything at Augusta National, the club does not discuss money. That would be unseemly for one of the world’s most exclusive organisations but some golf industry experts estimate the merchandise store generates between $35-45 million in sales.
Everyone who passes through the Augusta gates must saunter past the store on way to the first tee and few can make the journey without pulling out a credit card.
While there is a growing secondary market for Masters merchandise, the vast majority of purchases are still made by golf fans who simply want a memento of their bucket list achievement.
Bill Henberson waited 30 years in the Masters lottery for a chance to attend golf’s first major, and marked the occasion by schlepping home three shirts, hats for grandchildren, a flag and a puzzle.
A group of four men said between them they had dropped roughly $2,100 on gifts for kids, friends — and themselves. Of course, with the 20 hats they had tucked into their shopping bags, there was more than enough gear to go around.
Another visitor walked away with T-shirts, hats, flags, magnets and cups, not bothering to look at the final cost.
“It’s the only time my husband doesn’t complain about spending,” Henberson’s daughter Jaima noted wryly.
(Additional reporting Amy Tennery. Editing by Ian Chadband)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde speaks at the Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and IMF in Washington, U.S., April 11, 2019. REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan/File Photo
April 11, 2019
By Jason Lange
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The head of the International Monetary Fund on Thursday panned an idea gaining currency in U.S. left-wing circles that Washington could borrow much more aggressively without harming the economy.
Prominent politicians including Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, and Democratic U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez see the idea as a possible way to ramp up spending on social programs.
The theory, known as modern monetary theory, has drawn rebukes from fiscal conservatives and many Democrats as well.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, whose institution is tasked with rescuing countries stricken by economic crises, appears to be aligned with critics who consider the theory naive.
“We do not think that the modern monetary theory is actually the panacea,” Lagarde said at a news conference during the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington.
Lagarde said there might be a few situations in which vastly expanding debt would make sense, such as when a country gets stuck in a deflationary spiral.
“We do not think that any country is, you know, currently in a position where that theory could actually deliver good value in a sustainable way,” she said.
Conventional economists across America’s political spectrum argue the country is already on an unsustainable fiscal path with $22 trillion in outstanding federal debt and chronic deficits driven by social welfare programs.
Proponents of modern monetary theory hold that the U.S. government’s monopoly over dollar issuance – the printing press – gives it the power to spend as much as needed to meet the full employment and inflation mandates currently tasked to the country’s central bank.
IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath said the U.S. dollar’s dominant role in global finance might make it possible for Washington to ramp up spending without immediately driving interest rates higher.
But she said America’s growing spending commitments could eventually cause credit problems and that printing gobs of money to finance deficits could be disastrous.
“Very large amounts of it tend to be inflationary and they typically land countries into a crisis situation,” Gopinath said in an interview with Reuters.
(Reporting by Jason Lange; Additional reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Paul Simao)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Facebook, Google and Twitter logos are seen in this combination photo from Reuters files. REUTERS//File Photo
April 10, 2019
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican senators on Wednesday said Alphabet Inc’s Google, Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc discriminate against conservative viewpoints and suppress free speech, suggesting anti-trust action could be a solution.
Senator Ted Cruz, who chairs the Senate Judiciary subcommittee, said many Americans believe big tech firms are biased against conservatives and pointed to some anecdotal examples. While no one wants “government speech police,” he said there are other remedies.
“If we have tech companies using the powers of monopoly to censor political speech, I think that raises real antitrust issues,” Cruz said at a U.S. Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing.
Facebook, Twitter and Google denied their platforms are politically biased, and Democratic lawmakers said there was no evidence to back Republican bias claims although Democrats have criticized the firms on other grounds.
The Senate hearing was a sign that Republicans do not intend to relent in their year-old campaign against the tech companies. Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump again accused social media firms of favoring Democratic opponents without offering evidence.
“We do have a political bias issue here,” Republican Senator Mike Lee said.
Senators also raised the prospect that Congress could remove protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act that give online platforms broad immunity for what users post.
Senator Mazie Hirono, the top Democrat on the panel, said Republicans claims are based on “nothing more than a mix of anecdotal evidence… and a failure to understand the companies algorithms and content moderation practices.”
Democratic presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren said Facebook last month removed ads her campaign placed calling for Facebook’s breakup. “I want a social media marketplace that isn’t dominated by a single censor,” she said.
Carlos Monje, Twitter’s public policy director, said the site “does not use political viewpoints, perspectives or party affiliation to make any decisions, whether related to automatically ranking content on our service or how we develop or enforce our rules.”
Facebook public policy director Neil Potts said the company “does not favor one political viewpoint over another, nor does Facebook suppress conservative speech.”
Senator Josh Hawley told the firms they are not being transparent in how they make decisions. “This is a huge, huge problem,” he said.
Hirono said, “We cannot allow the Republican party to harass tech companies into weakening content moderation policies that already fail to remove hateful, dangerous and misleading content.”
Google was disinvited over a dispute about whether it offered an executive senior enough to testify. The panel left an empty chair for Google. Cruz said he plans a future hearing to address what he called “Google’s censorship of free speech.”
Google said in a written statement submitted to the committee that it works to ensure “our products serve users of all viewpoints and remain politically neutral” but it acknowledged that “sometimes our content moderation systems do make mistakes.”
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: A man walks past the logo of Deutsche Telekom AG at the headquarters of German telecommunications giant in Bonn, Germany, February 19, 2019. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo
April 10, 2019
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s Federal Network Agency on Wednesday said Deutsche Telekom could raise fees it charges rivals for accessing its “last mile” infrastructure, the last bit of cable connecting customers to the internet.
The agency in a statement said it proposed Deutsche Telekom to increase charges for accessing subscriber lines at the main distributors to 11.19 euros ($12.62) per month from currently 10.02 euros, starting from July 2019.
Former monopoly Deutsche Telekom often owns the last part of telecommunication cables into consumers’ homes, the “last mile”, making rivals reliant on it to offer their own services.
In the end of last year, Telekom leased 5.2 million last mile connections to rivals such as United Internet and Vodafone, less than in previous years.
The hike is due to increasing prices of underground construction and installation works, the agency said, adding that the proposal was valid for three years.
The proposal is not yet binding and subject to the approval of the European Commission, national and EU regulators.
Competitors can also express their views on the price hike.
(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa; Editing by Tassilo Hummel and David Evans)
Source: OANN
Conservative activist Candace Owens derailed Jerry Nadler’s House Judiciary Committee hearing on “Hate Crimes and White Nationalism” by calling it out as a farce to scare minorities into supporting censorship and the Democratic Party.
CANDACE OWENS, TURNING POINT USA: Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Mr. Collins thank you for having me here today. I received word on my way in that many of the journalist were confused as to why I was invited and none of them knew that I am myself was a victim of a hate crime when I was in high school. That is something that very few people know about me because the media and the journalists on the left are not interested in telling the truth about me because I don’t fit the stereotype of what they like to see in black people. I am a Democrat. I support the President of the United States and I advocate for things that are actually affecting the black community.
I am honored to be here today in front of you all because the person sitting behind me is my 75-year-old grandfather. I have always considered myself to be my grandfather’s child and I mean to say that my sense of humor, my passion and my work ethic all comes from the man that is sitting behind me.
My grandfather grew up on a sharecropping farm in the segregated South. He grew up in an America where words like racism and white nationalism held real meaning under the Democratic Party’s Jim Crow laws. My grandfather’s first job was given to him at the age of five years old and his job was to lay tobacco out to dry in an addict in the South. My grandfather has picked cotton and he has also had experiences with the Democrat terrorist organization of that time, the Ku Klux Klan. They would regularly visit his home and they would shoot bullets into it. They had an issue with his father, my great-grandfather.
During my formative years I have the privilege of growing up in my grandfather’s home. It is going to shock the committee but not once, not in a single breath of a conversation did my grandfather and tell me that I could not do something because of my skin color. Not once did my grandfather hold a gripe against the white man. I was simply never taught to view myself as a victim because of my heritage. I–I learned about faith in God, family and hard work. Those were the only lessons of my childhood.
There isn’t a single adult today that in good conscience would make the argument that America is a more racist, more white nationalist society than it was when my grandfather was growing up and yet we are hearing these terms center around today because what they want to say is that brown people need to be scared which seems to be the narrative that we hear every four years right ahead of a presidential election.
Here are some things we never hear. 75 percent of the black boys in California don’t meet state reading standards. In inner cities like Baltimore within five high schools and one middle school not a single student was found to be proficient in math or reading in 2016. The singlehood–these single motherhood rate in the black community which is at 23 percent in the 1960s when my grandfather was coming out is at a staggering 74 percent today. I am guessing there will be no committee hearings about that. There are more black babies born–there are more black babies aborted than born alive in cities like New York and you have Democrat governor Andrew Cuomo lighting of buildings to celebrate late-term abortions. I could go on and on. My point is that white nationalist–white nationalism does not do any of those things that I just brought up. Democrat policies did. Let me be clear the hearing today is not about white nationalism or hate crimes, it is about fear mongering, power and control. It is a preview of a Democrat 20/20 election strategy the same as the Democrat 2016 election strategy. They blame Facebook. They blame Google. They blame Twitter. Really, they blame the birth of social media which has disrupted their monopoly on minds. They called this hearing because they believe that if it wasn’t for social media voices like mine would never exist, that my movement Blexit which is inspiring lack of Americans to lead–to leave the Democrat party would have never come about and they certainly believe that Donald Trump would not be in office today.
Looking on the next thing to focus on now that the Russian collusion hoax has fallen apart. What they won’t tell you about the statistics and the rise of white nationalism is that they have simply change the data set points by widening the definition of hate crimes and upping the number of reporting agencies that are able to report on them. What I mean to say is that they are manipulating statistics.
The goal here is to scare Blacks, Hispanics, gays and Muslims into helping them censor dissenting opinions ultimately to helping them regain control of our countries narrative which they feel that they lost. They feel that President Donald Trump should not have beat Hillary. If they actually were concerned about white nationalism, they would be holding hearings on Antifa, a far left, violent, white gang who determined one day in Philadelphia in August that I, a black woman, was not fit to sit in a restaurant. They chased me out, they yield race traitor to a group of black and Hispanic police officers who formed a line to protect me from their ongoing assaults. They threw water at me. They threw eggs at me and the leftist media remained silent on it.
If they were serious about the rise of hate crimes they may perhaps be examining themselves and the hate they have drummed up in this country. Bottom line is that white supremacy, racism, national–white nationalism, words that once held real meaning have now become nothing more than election strategies. Every four years the black communities offered handouts and fear, handouts and fear. Reparations and white nationalism. This is the Democrat preview. Of course society is not perfectible. We have heard testimony of that today. There are pockets of evil that exist in those things are horrible and they should be condemned. But I believe the legacy of the ancestry of black Americans is being insulted every single day. I will not pretend to be a victim in this country. I know that that makes many country on the left uncomfortable. I want to talk about real issues in black America theater want to talk about real issues in this country, real concerns.
The biggest scandal–this is my last sentence–in American politics is that Democrats have been conning minorities into the belief that we are perpetual victims all but ensuring our failure. Racial division and class warfare are central to the Democrat party platform. They need Blacks to hate whites, the rich to hate the poor. Soon enough it will be the tall hating the short.
The whole hearing was a farce but Owens managed to successfully flip the script and stole the show!
Source: InfoWars
MAGA One Radio