(FREE) PAINE IN THE MORNING: 10 things you need to know this Thursday – October 7, 2021

There is also a full, ad-free video podcast of this broadcast available to Paine.TV members HERE.

Learn more about joining our community HERE.

Mitch McConnell Caves, Offers Democrats Short-Term Debt Fix amid Standoff – Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday told Democrats he would allow an emergency debt limit extension into December, edging back from a perilous standoff by offering a potential path to avoid a federal default.

A procedural vote on legislation that would suspend the debt limit for two years was abruptly delayed, and the Senate recessed so lawmakers could discuss next steps. – READ MORE

AP: Flush with COVID-19 aid, schools steer funding to sports – One Wisconsin school district built a new football field. In Iowa, a high school weight room is getting a renovation. Another in Kentucky is replacing two outdoor tracks — all of this funded by the billions of dollars in federal pandemic relief Congress sent to schools this year.

The money is part of a $123 billion infusion intended to help schools reopen and recover from the pandemic. But with few limits on how the funding can be spent, The Associated Press found that some districts have used large portions to cover athletics projects they couldn’t previously afford. – READ MORE

Hospital system says it will deny transplants to the unvaccinated in ‘almost all situations’ – A Colorado-based health system says it is denying organ transplants to patients not vaccinated against the coronavirus in “almost all situations,” citing studies that show these patients are much more likely to die if they get covid-19

UCHealth’s rules for transplants entered the spotlight Tuesday when Colorado state Rep. Tim Geitner (R) said it denied a kidney transplant to a Colorado Springs woman because she was not vaccinated against the coronavirus. Calling the decision “disgusting” and discriminatory, Geitner shared a letter that he said the patient received last week from UCHealth’s transplant center at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus in the city of Aurora. – READ MORE

Australians Being Mandated To Provide Police With Geo-Trackable Selfies To Prove They’re Quarantining – In a move that again highlights how far toward a complete tyranny Australia has become in the wake of COVID, citizens are being mandated to provide geo-trackable selfies to police to prove they are staying at home.

A report from 9 News in Australia details how people in Victoria are now required to respond to the authorities within 5 minutes of them randomly calling by sending a selfie of themselves at home. If they fail to respond, health goons are sent to their address to dish out punishments. – READ MORE

Merck Charging US 40 Times What It Costs To Make Govt-Financed COVID Pill – Merck’s new ‘not Ivermectin’ Covid-19 treatment, molnupiravir, costs $17.74 to produce – yet the company is charging the US government $712 for the treatment – a 40x markup, according to The Intercept, citing a report issued last week by the Harvard School of Public Health and King’s College Hospital in London.

The pill, originally developed using US government funds as a possible treatment for Venezuelan equine encephalitis, cut the risk of hospitalization and death in half in a randomized trial of 775 adults with mild/moderate Covid who were considered at high risk for disease due to comorbidities such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease. The trial was stopped early so the company could apply for and emergency use authorization (EUA). The drug did not benefit patients who were already hospitalized with severe disease. – READ MORE

All Defense Dept. personnel now subject to ‘continuous vetting’ designed to spot extremists – All Department of Defense personnel will now have to go through “continuous vetting” and may soon be subject to surveillance of their social media posts in an attempt to spot extremists.

“Whether it’s an event-driven look at social media, whether it’s a regular continuous look at some social media or whether it’s a one-time — when they’re investigated — look at social media, there’s different ways you could use some of the social media, search capabilities that are out there,” William K. Lietzau, who leads the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, told Defense One. “We’re still right now analyzing how much value we think there is.” – READ MORE

“Keyword Warrants” – Feds Secretly Ordered Google To Identify Anyone Searching Certain Information – An accidentally unsealed court document reveals that the federal government secretly ordered Google to provide data on people searching specific search words or phrases, otherwise known as “keyword warrants,” according to Forbes.

According to the report, the Justice Department inadvertently unsealed the documents in September (which were promptly re-sealed), which were reviewed by Forbes. In several instances, law enforcement investigators asked Google to identify anyone searching for specific keywords. – READ MORE

Facebook Calls for ‘Standard Rules’ Across Internet – Following the testimony of far-left Facebook “whistleblower” Frances Haugen before Congress, the social media giant has called for lawmakers to impose “standard rules” across the internet.

The Daily Mail reports that following the testimony of the far-left Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen before Congress this week, the tech giant has admitted that the “internet needs regulating” and has called on lawmakers to develop a set of “standard rules” to be applied across the internet. – READ MORE

John Kerry goes viral after saying Biden ‘literally had not been aware’ of what led to US-France dustup – White House Climate Envoy John Kerry went viral on Tuesday after telling French television that President Biden was unaware of the spat between the U.S. and France as it fueled last month.

During a Monday interview with BFMTV, Kerry attempted to smooth over the international dustup after France expressed it was blindsided by the Biden administration’s tri-lateral agreement between the U.S., U.K, and Australia over the exchange of submarine technology so much so that it prompted French President Emmanuel Macron to briefly pull his ambassador to the U.S. out of the country. – READ MORE

Will The Holiday Season Be Ruined By The Global Supply Chain Crisis? – Is this going to be the worst holiday season in modern American history? Some mainstream news outlets are insisting that the upcoming holidays are going to be “ruined” because of the widespread shortages that are being caused by the global supply chain crisis. Of course we should have never allowed any of our holidays to be defined by material goods in the first place. I think that the fact that a “holiday season” can be “ruined” by a lack of goods on the shelves says an enormous amount about where we are as a society.

And if we can’t handle some limited shortages during the waning months of 2021, how in the world are we going to handle the severe economic pain that is coming in the future? – READ MORE