Source: New York Times (No Paywall)

Three University of Florida professors have been barred from assisting plaintiffs in a lawsuit to overturn the state’s new law restricting voting rights, lawyers said in a federal court filing on Friday. The ban is an extraordinary limit on speech that raises questions of academic freedom and First Amendment rights.

University officials told the three that because the school was a state institution, participating in a lawsuit against the state “is adverse to U.F.’s interests” and could not be permitted. In their filing, the lawyers sought to question Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, on whether he was involved in the decision.

Mr. DeSantis has resisted questioning, arguing that all of his communications about the law are protected from disclosure because discussions about legislation are privileged. In their filing on Friday, lawyers for the plaintiffs said the federal questions in the case — including whether the law discriminates against minority groups — override any state protections.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/29/us/florida-professors-voting-rights-lawsuit.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqohlSFUZCibIRp8pqhqchPTGhaQmgXHzNzOSUy0H0eMJAo6Pvl3Maqp_fJ431iuAWd5ddr8zQfg4hsluA3tQcSj66J2VhMZCZCwvtYO4Wm5xgcLHAe5loGGvNjfnJqIinOTl-kLdOzL1CPbbgnQhLV4z9cNlZkjqjSJTvtrNG-9_2NN73PczVNstFXpbOn7877S_AA5-Od6Fchne9gM0PulZUjrQltWYgKkSJEQQURmVCSMivhtvrY9UK9gVP67gLxY_eMCYgb4ZCWRgL4nBFITIytJpyrkAcBFsh7_YoQMR&smid=url-share

The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday published a lengthy letter to the editor from Trump charging, inaccurately, that the 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden was “rigged.”

The nearly 600-word letter is replete with loosely sourced and largely debunked claims of fraud in Pennsylvania, a state that President Biden won by 81,660 votes, handing him 20 electoral college votes that helped secure his victory.

Trump took issue with an Oct. 24 piece from the Journal’s reliably conservative editorial board, which argued that the statewide margin between Trump and Biden was too vast for a debate over the status of approximately 10,000 mail-in ballots that arrived after the Election Day deadline to be germane to the outcome. “The country is lucky the election wasn’t closer,” the board wrote. “If the election had hung on a few thousand Pennsylvanians, the outcome might have been picked by the U.S. Supreme Court.”

“Well actually, the election was rigged, which you, unfortunately, still haven’t figured out,” Trump retorted baselessly in his letter, before listing “a few examples of how determinative the voter fraud in Pennsylvania was.” Trump cited talking points from “Audit the Vote PA,” a little-known organization that has promoted unsubstantiated claims of election fraud, which he described as “highly respected.”

https://wapo.st/3blhrWN WaPo, No Pay Wall

The 14 things you need to know about Trump’s letter in the Wall Street Journal

https://wapo.st/3byQn6R WaPo, No Paywall

Source: Washington Post (No Paywall)

President Biden plans to announce Thursday a revised framework for his social spending plan that he expects will gain the support of all Democrats, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation, marking a potential breakthrough moment after months of lengthy negotiations and stalled talks.

The specifics of what the president would announce were not immediately clear, nor was it clear whether he would be prepared to announce the support of key Democratic holdouts. But Biden recently told congressional Democrats that he thought he could secure a deal for a spending plan between $1.75 trillion and $1.9 trillion.

Read more: https://wapo.st/3Eq4d7G

Where Facts Were No Match for Fear, NYT No Paywall

Civic boosters in central Montana hoped for some federal money to promote tourism. A disinformation campaign got in the way.

Ms. Grulkowski set about blowing up that effort with everything she had.

She collected addresses from a list of voters and spent $1,300 sending a packet denouncing the proposed heritage area to 1,498 farmers and ranchers. She told them the designation would forbid landowners to build sheds, drill wells or use fertilizers and pesticides. It would alter water rights, give tourists access to private property, create a new taxation district and prohibit new septic systems and burials on private land, she said.

None of this was true.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/23/health/aromatherapy-melioidosis-mystery/index.html



It was a mystery by any definition of the word -- a rare tropical infection that had sickened people in the decidedly non-tropical states of Minnesota and Kansas, as well as Texas. The first patient to get sick, in Kansas in March, died.

Using PCR -- polymerase chain reaction -- the same type of lab test used to amplify genetic material for coronavirus tests and crime scene investigations they found genetic material from the bacterial crime suspect: "Better Homes & Gardens Lavender & Chamomile Essential Oil Infused Aromatherapy Room Spray with Gemstones." The product had been manufactured in India and sold at Walmart.

It's not clear which ingredient in the spray may be the contaminant. It might the "gemstones," however.

"Rocks are collected from the environment and there's bacteria in the environment, so if the rocks weren't sterilized before they went in, that's a possibility. The other thing is the possibility that another component was contaminated and the rocks made a little micro-environment in that bottle for the bacteria to grow in. So the significance of the rocks we don't really know yet, but having rocks in a fragrance bottle is definitely unusual. So that's something I think we're interested in looking at."

Source: New York Times, No Paywall

President Trump’s defense secretary thought the idea was outrageous.

In the spring of 2020, Mark T. Esper, the defense secretary, was alarmed to learn of an idea under discussion at a top military command and at the Department of Homeland Security to send as many as 250,000 troops — more than half the active U.S. Army, and a sixth of all American forces — to the southern border in what would have been the largest use of the military inside the United States since the Civil War.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/19/us/politics/trump-border.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqohlSFUaCibIRp8_qRmHmfnE2_sgnGL7NG2fTixOwv5TA5SF_w2FQ5tfUOYJ_mbRQs5dYvhoTeZuz-RbMgtgEAX5-5GKydEPc3hp7N_rVzJzjp-dUPViqTLmZGTmIbkmn-T19wiLPzmRLa_V2HwgJghnqYI0Ng35nCxVmdqWV7J9ydJ83v8-BpllRj5mZSGCvfPgCR4WK8zRJ1iHqVFwA7cFLGmVyd2M6LsAcBFRCUbETh594WU96tBdOrAHLaVt9zINTxvLwkMEKKhdk0s&smid=url-share

Source: Washington Post (No Paywall)

In April, a Miami private school made national headlines for barring teachers who got a coronavirus vaccine from interacting with students. Last week, the school made another startling declaration, but this time to the parents: If you vaccinate your child, they’ll have to stay home for 30 days after each shot.

The email from Centner Academy leadership, first reported by WSVN, repeated misleading and false claims that vaccinated people could pass on so-called harmful effects of the shot and have a “potential impact” on unvaccinated students and staff.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has debunked claims that the coronavirus vaccine can “shed or release any of their components” through the air or skin contact. The coronavirus vaccines do not contain a live virus, so their components can’t be transmitted to others.

David Centner, one of the school’s co-founders, repeated the debunked claims in a statement to The Washington Post, saying the policy is a “precautionary measure” based on “numerous anecdotal cases that have been in circulation.”

Read more: https://wapo.st/3G0kHoA

https://wapo.st/3BRKi0R (WaPo, No Paywall)

In the part of the United States that relies on traditional media, rumors that the cancellations were the result of a pilot protest over coronavirus vaccine mandates were dismissed because, well, there was no evidence. Official entities, such as the airline, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Southwest pilots union, all issued statements saying the rumors were false.

But in a parallel universe of right-wing social media and television, the rumors were treated as true. Lawmakers such as Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) tweeted in support of airline employees who supposedly were fighting vaccine mandates.

https://wapo.st/3BRKi0R

Found on Facebook (TST is the satanic temple)

Source: Politico

The U.S. government's investigation into the mysterious illnesses impacting American personnel overseas and at home is turning up new evidence that the symptoms are the result of directed-energy attacks, according to five lawmakers and officials briefed on the matter.

....some officials remain skeptical of the prevailing theory, and some prominent neurologists have described that explanation as implausible.... In a recent op-ed, for example, neurologist Robert Baloh contended that the symptoms stem from a psychosomatic illness -- one caused by stress or emotional issues. Baloh said the more likely explanation is "mass hysteria," or mass psychogenic illness....

(Rubio suggested they) are "influence agents that are being paid and or encouraged to write these on behalf of those -- foreign government or whatever -- that don't want this to be discussed out there and want to cast doubt about it. I mean, they're echoing the lines that we heard from the Cuban regime and others,"

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/08/us-investigators-increasingly-confident-directed-energy-attacks-behind-havana-syndrome-515693

---

I don't know what the CIA knows, but I am very skeptical. A directed energy attack should be very easy to detect, since it is RF energy. And the equipment would be hard to set up and conceal. And for the GRU to do this around the world in many different countries does not seem plausible.

Here is an explanatory article about the microwave auditory effect:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_auditory_effect

The op-ed cited in the politico article arguing for a psychological cause:

https://theconversation.com/havana-syndrome-fits-the-pattern-of-psychosomatic-illness-but-that-doesnt-mean-the-symptoms-arent-real-167275