CDC report says vast majority of Americans have actually been wearing face masks since spring

COVID-19 cases are at record levels

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report Tuesday that said, starting in the spring, most Americans have been wearing masks.

As the New York Times reported on the CDC release, "a vast majority of Americans of all ages have been wearing face coverings since April."

The CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report stated what many polls have been showing: A significant majority of Americans are wearing masks — and have been doing so since spring.

According to the CDC's survey data, which the agency said came from the months of April to June, the reported use of face masks among adults (ages 18 and older) in April was 78%. That figure jumped to 83% in May.

By June, the share of American adults wearing masks had risen to 89%.

Generally, younger adults (ages 18-29) were the group with the smallest share of respondents saying they wore masks, while older adults (ages 60 and older) were the group most likely to wears masks.

In July, National Geographic reported that 85% of Americans said they wear face masks when they leave their homes.

Three months later, even that significant figure had increased.

National Geographic reported on Oct. 5 that 92% of Americans said they were wearing face masks — and 74% said they "always" do so.

What's the status of COVID-19 infections in the U.S.?

According to the New York Times' own COVID-19 tracking data on Wednesday, the United States is seeing a record surge in COVID-19 cases, despite increased mask wearing by Americans — as reported by the Times.

On Tuesday, the country saw 74,410 new confirmed cases, with an average of 73,094 cases per day over the last seven days. According to the paper, that's a 39% increase from the average two weeks ago.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/cdc-vast-majority-americans-wearing-masks

Rudd denies knowledge of Epstein's $650k donation

It has been revealed notorious paedophile Jeffrey Epstein donated $650,000 to former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's New York based think tank.

Mr Rudd has denied knowledge of any links between Mr Epstein and his organisation and claims he was “blindsided” when he learned of the cash donated to the International Peace Institute.

The former prime minister and current chairman of the think tank said he first learned of the donations in November last year - through Norwegian media reports – and described them as “deeply disturbing”.

In August 2019 Mr Epstein was found dead in his prison cell while under arrest on sex trafficking charges.

Mr Rudd has announced the amount donated will be sent from the institute to charities benefiting sex assault victims.

https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6205339970001

There is ‘rank dishonesty’ about Hydroxychloroquine: Alan Jones

Sky News host Alan Jones says there is “rank dishonesty” about Hydroxychloroquine, a medicine which Australians are being denied access to despite it being a recommended lifesaving treatment for COVID-19.

“You have to ask whether there is an agenda here,” Mr Jones said.

Mr Jones pointed out the medical treatment had been recommended as a lifesaving treatment in a peer-reviewed paper published in The American Journal of Medicine, authored by 24 doctors including five PhD’s.

“Australians are being denied access to a medicine and denied access to a medical treatment which is recommended as a lifesaving treatment,” Mr Jones said.

Mr Jones spoke with Liberal MP Craig Kelly, who has been pushing for the medicine in parliament.

“This is not whether I think this drug is useful or not, it’s what the peer-reviewed science says,” Mr Kelly said.

“You’ve got medical experts from all around the world running studies and trials that show unambiguously that the effects of Hydroxychloroquine – when taken early and with zinc – reduces deaths by up to 63 per cent.

“We’ve got a medical treatment being denied to Australians and yet that medical treatment is published in peer-reviewed literature.

“I’m going to keep up the pressure.”

https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6205187529001

White House Lists ‘Ending the COVID-19 Pandemic’ as Trump Accomplishment

In a news release sent to reporters on Tuesday, the White House Office of Science and Technology listed “ending the COVID-19 pandemic” as one of US President Donald Trump’s first-term accomplishments, despite the fact that COVID-19 cases continue to skyrocket in the US.

According to the release, the Trump administration “has taken decisive actions to engage scientists and health professionals in academia, industry and government to understand, treat and defeat the disease."

However, the rosy outlook does not reflect the current reality plaguing the US.

As of Wednesday, more than 9 million cases of the novel coronavirus had been reported in the US, with over 232,000 deaths as a result, Worldometer’s COVID-19 data states. According to the COVID Tracking Project, there are more than 44,000 people in the US currently hospitalized due to the respiratory disease.

During Wednesday’s broadcast of “America’s Newsroom” on Fox News, White House Director of Strategic Communications Alyssa Farah admitted that the statement was poorly phrased.

"Cases are still rising, and we need the American public to remain vigilant," she explained. "This is the top priority of the president, defeating this virus and rebuilding our economy. But we are rounding the corner, because we think that we will have a vaccine by the end of the year, and because of the president's leadership, we expect that we'll be able to massively deploy that on a large scale to as many as 100 million Americans by the end of the year."

https://sputniknews.com/us/202010281080905205-white-house-lists-ending-the-covid-19-pandemic-as-trump-accomplishment/

Ex-DHS official reveals himself as 'Anonymous'

Miles Taylor, a former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official, revealed on Wednesday that he was the anonymous author behind a New York Times op-ed and subsequent book criticizing President Trump's character from the perspective of a staffer inside the administration.

"I witnessed Trump’s inability to do his job over the course of two-and-a-half years. Everyone saw it, though most were hesitant to speak up for fear of reprisals," Taylor, who left the administration last year, wrote in a Medium post.

"So when I left the Administration I wrote A Warning, a character study of the current Commander in Chief and a caution to voters that it wasn’t as bad as it looked inside the Trump Administration — it was worse," he continued.

Taylor has been public about his criticism of Trump for months, and even endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden earlier this year. He served in the Department of Homeland Security from 2017-2019, a stint that included time as chief of staff to former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

During his time in the administration, DHS oversaw the zero tolerance policy at the southern border that led to the separation of thousands of migrant children from their families. The practice prompted bipartisan outcry and was eventually halted, but advocates say hundreds of children still have not been reunited with their parents.

Taylor's criticisms on Wednesday largely focused on Trump's character and treatment of the country's institutions, however, and he urged other Republicans to join him in speaking out.

"Although former Vice President Joe Biden is likely to pursue progressive reforms that conservatives oppose (and rest assured, we will challenge them in the loyal opposition), his policy agenda cannot equal the damage done by the current President to the fabric of our Republic," Taylor wrote.

The anonymous official became something of a Washington sensation following the publication of the Times op-ed in September 2018 in which the author, identified only as a senior administration official in the Trump administration, described coordinated efforts from staff to "thwart" the president's worst instincts and bemoaned Trump's "amorality."

The White House pledged to look into the person's identity to attempt to root them out while top administration officials distanced themselves from the opinion piece. The anonymous individual faded back into obscurity until late last year, when they published a book titled "A Warning."

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/523221-ex-dhs-official-reveals-himself-as-anonymous

Clown op exposed! KEK

Journalist Who Exposed Planned Parenthood: Kamala Harris Weaponized Her Office to Punish Me on Behalf of Her Donors

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) has a history of abusing the powers of her office to target and punish Americans she disagrees with. I know firsthand that Harris is one of the biggest threats to First Amendment civil liberties that our country has ever seen because I have been on the receiving end of her unconstitutional abuses of power when she was California’s attorney general.

In 2015, after I released undercover videos of taxpayer-funded Planned Parenthood officials trafficking the body parts of live-aborted fetuses, Planned Parenthood was desperate and furious. The organization turned to Harris, its political patron in the California Attorney General’s office, for help to silence me and my message. Though local law enforcement made it clear to Planned Parenthood that the California videos were recorded in public places and were perfectly legal, the abortion provider and its allies within the state Department of Justice conspired to enforce California’s video recording law for the first time ever against newsgathering, in order to punish me for speaking out.`

On March 23, 2016, Harris met secretly with several top California Planned Parenthood executives in Los Angeles. The action items from the meeting show they discussed Planned Parenthood’s political agenda in California as well as issues in Harris’s so-called “investigation” of me and my coworkers, such as Planned Parenthood’s false claims that my videos made threats against their personnel. Two of the Planned Parenthood officials interviewed in Harris’s probe were present at the meeting.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/10/28/journalist-who-exposed-planned-parenthood-kamala-harris-weaponized-her-office-to-punish-me-on-behalf-of-her-donors/

Andrews blasted by virus victims' families

Daniel Andrews has copped even more criticism for his celebratory Twitter posts, with the families of virus victims labelling him "offensive" and a "smart arse".

Premier Daniel Andrews is facing harsh criticism in the wake of celebratory social media posts, with the families of virus victims blasting him as "offensive" and a "smart arse".

On Monday, the Victorian premier posted a photo of himself celebrating the state’s first day of zero COVID-19 cases since June and Melbourne’s harsh lockdown coming to an end by eating a doughnut and enjoying a $120 whisky.

But not everyone was impressed with Mr Andrews’ celebrations, with many pointing out the families of the 800 people who died in the state’s second wave wouldn’t didn’t have anything to celebrate.

Sebastian Agnello, whose mother died from coronavirus, told the Herald Sun that Mr Andrews was “totally responsible” for the second wave getting out of hand.

“If he is patting himself on the back with the doughnuts; that is a person who has lost the plot in the sense of what he’s actually caused and the deaths that came from it,” he said.

Melbourne businessman Frank Micallef, who lot both his parents to the virus, said the premier should be “begging for forgiveness” from Victorians and found his celebratory tweets “offensive on a number of fronts”.

Victoria recorded two new COVID-19 cases and two deaths on Wednesday.

https://www.news.com.au/world/coronavirus/australia/coronavirus-australia-live-victoria-qld-nsw-covid19-updates/live-coverage/f9515fb2a47b7bf68aac80ab719a0ac2

House To Consider Authorizing 'Mother Of All Bombs' Sale To Israel

Israeli media is reporting that defense officials plan to soon obtain the "mother of all bombs" or a MOAB from the United States.

The GBU-43/B Massive Ordinance Air Blast bomb (MOAB) is the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in the US arsenal, which over recent years has seen occasional use in Afghanistan against ISIS, Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorists. It's especially brought in as a bunker-buster when smaller conventional munitions can't dislodge enemy combatants.

Sales of the MOAB to Israel is expected to be put before the House on Friday in a bipartisan bill - part of the newly enacted policy of the US assisting Israeli in its "military edge" over Arab countries in the region. If passed it would pave the way for Israel eventually being able to obtain the massive weapon.

Last week Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz met at the Pentagon and signed a joint declaration affirming Washington’s commitment to ensure Israel’s 'Qualitative Military Edge'. This after Israeli officials expressed concern that the latest US-brokered peace deals between Tel Aviv and Arab countries - so far including UAE, Bahrain, and Sudan - would open up their countries further to obtaining high-tech American military hardware.

Friday's expected legislation is being spearheaded by Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Rep. Brian Mast (D-FL), with Gottheimer putting out a statement saying the bill will "help shore-up Israel’s QME in the region and secure both of our countries from the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran."

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/house-consider-authorizing-mother-all-bombs-sale-israel

comms?

Bermuda-Based, Democrat-Tied Dark Money Machine Aids Dems In 2020 Election

A political activist group based in Bermuda has spent millions in ‘dark money’ financing organizations in the United States to influence political demographics and elections skirting election law

A foreign-owned group based in Bermuda has been financing Progressive organization in the United States in an effort to transform red states into blueish-purple toss-ups so that they become low hanging fruit for Democrats in election cycles.

The group Atlantic Philanthropies, based in the island nation of Bermuda, is a conglomeration of private foundations that, because of loopholes in US tax law, fund 501(c)(4) advocacy activities in the United States, providing them with a steady stream of dark money.

Dark money is defined as political spending by nonprofit organizations – 501(c)(4), 501(c)(5), and 501(c)(6) organizations – that are not required to make their donor lists public.

In the 2016 General Election cycle, Atlantic Philanthropies bankrolled a 501(c)(4) organization called the Civic Participation Action Fund (CPAF), that exclusively supported Democrat candidates including then-nominee Hillary Clinton.

CPAF’s CEO is currently Stephen McConnell who is the former US chief of Atlantic Philanthropies. Prior to him, Christopher G. Oechsli was CEO. He served as counsel to former US Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI). Gara LaMarche, currently the head of the Democracy Alliance group of Progressive activist donors to include George Soros, Peter Lewis and Rob Reiner, served as CEO before Oechsli.

The CPAF’s five-year plan is to target voter registration efforts to effectively transform red states into blueish-purple toss-ups states. Their hope is that this manipulation of the voter demographics will lead to Progressives winning more seats in Congress as well as a continuous capture of the presidency.

https://nationalfile.com/bermuda-based-democrat-tied-dark-money-machine-aids-dems-in-2020-election/