The CDC Says Vaccinated People Can Safely Travel, But Please Don’t


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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced that vaccinated people are extremely unlikely to spread COVID-19 to others, and thus can safely travel with minimal risk.

But also, it’s theoretically possible for the vaccinated to infect others, and people still shouldn’t travel, according to…the CDC.

Confused? Blame CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, who constantly delivers good news about the amazing efficacy of the vaccines and then undercuts this seconds later by asserting that the fully vaccinated should continue to wear masks, socially distance, and avoid travel if they can.

At a public briefing on Friday, Walensky said that vaccinated people “can resume travel at low risk to themselves.” She even conceded that the vaccinated do not need to take COVID-19 tests or quarantine after travel.

“Fully vaccinated grandparents can fly to visit their healthy grandkids without getting a COVID-19 test or self-quarantining, provided they follow the other recommended prevention measures while traveling,” she said.

But just because vaccinated folks can travel doesn’t mean they should travel.

“While we believe that fully vaccinated people can travel at low risk to themselves, CDC is not recommending travel at this time due to the rising number of cases,” said Walensky.

This may sound contradictory, but it’s standard fare for the CDC, which doesn’t want people to do anything that carries even a slight of risk of harm. Indeed, Walensky admitted earlier this week that all available evidence suggests “vaccinated people do not carry the virus” at all, meaning the risk of transmission from the vaccinated to the unvaccinated is likely quite low. Fearful that this terrific news might make people less cautious, the CDC immediately walked back the guidance.

“Dr. Walensky spoke broadly during this interview,” a panicked CDC spokesperson told The New York Times. “It’s possible that some people who are fully vaccinated could get Covid-19. The evidence isn’t clear whether they can spread the virus to others. We are continuing to evaluate the evidence.”

To close off the possibility that someone, somewhere might conclude that vaccination is good because it offers a ticket back to normality, the Times story added quotes from other alarmist health officials:

“There cannot be any daylight between what the research shows — really impressive but incomplete protection — and how it is described,” said Dr. Peter Bach, director of the Center for Health Policy and Outcomes at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

“This opens the door to the skeptics who think the government is sugarcoating the science,” Dr. Bach said, “and completely undermines any remaining argument why people should keep wearing masks after being vaccinated.”

That door is open, and it’s because of the science. There is little reason to think that people who are fully vaccinated do need to continue wearing masks in most circumstances: Given that COVID-19 does not spread easily outdoors, and it likely doesn’t spread from the vaccinated to the unvaccinated except in rare cases, health officials could just admit that post-vaccination outdoor–mask wearing is safety theater.

They never will. At best, experts will admit the science shows virtually no transmission between unmasked, vaccinated people who congregate outdoors—but still insist that everyone follows all the same mitigation protocols. It’s not the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it’s just the Center for Control.

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The Changing Faces of George Floyd Square: Dispatch from Minneapolis


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In the living room of his home 15 blocks from George Floyd Square, Zane Spang talks about something that happened to him and his 3-year-old daughter several weeks earlier.

“I had [her] on the back of my bike and we need to go through the Square, but they’ve got it barricaded off, right?” says Spang. “This white lady, I think she was from inside one of the checkpoints they got there, she’s like, ‘You can’t ride through here.’ I’m like, ‘I live here and my daughter’s school is here.’ She’s saying something about how I’m being disrespectful and I should go around on another street.”

Spang, a full-blooded Native American (half Crow, half Northern Cheyenne) rode through anyway, as he has for the four years he’s lived in the South Minneapolis neighborhood.

“There’s an influx of qualities there for [the Square] to be really peaceful,” he said. “But me and my daughter also walked through there one time and there’s ‘Fuck the Police,’ all these signs and people spray paint that, and she’s trying to read and asking, ‘What does that say?’ I’m like, ‘People don’t like the cops?’ I don’t know how to explain stuff like that.”

After work in a machine shop across the border in Wisconsin, Spang talks about what he sees as the complicated relationship the city has with the memorial set up at and around the site where George Floyd was killed by former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, whose murder trial started the day Spang and I spoke. [Disclosure: Spang and I know each other from when we both lived in Portland, Oregon, in the mid-2010s.] Comments have been edited for length and clarity.

Reason: You were saying George Floyd Square presents differently at different times.

Zane Spang: As far as the presentation, it’s kind of back and forth with a lot of people in this neighborhood. If you’re at that specific part of the square at a certain time, it feels very vibrant. But then, when it lines up differently, when some shit’s going down over there, we had a homicide a couple of months ago. And I was working on a house one time and someone got shot a half-block away and medical guys were barely able to get to the person shot.

What was the shooting about?

I don’t even know because the cops never were [allowed in]; the cops don’t go there.

A Minneapolis Police officer told me George Floyd Square has become a dumping spot for stolen vehicles, that it’s basically the final destination for anyone involved in a police chase because cops aren’t welcome in there.

The amount of traffic we get through here now, literally people will fly through all these stop signs, go 50 miles per hour on 38th Street [which bisects the Square]. I’ve seen an influx of crime and just people shooting guns out the window.

An influx of crime since George Floyd was killed?

Yeah. Our neighbor one house over, her friend was waiting for her and these three girls robbed her, right in front of her house. I leave for work at 5 a.m. Down the street, some guy tried to grab me out of my car. He was trying to pull the door open. I had a crowbar and I was like, “Get the fuck out of here!” I have the wherewithal to prepare myself in that realm, but a lot of people don’t.

You were here when George Floyd was killed. What was it like? Was it mayhem?

It still pretty much is. When it was happening it was so surreal. The first night after it happened, you could not find a parking spot in this neighborhood, it completely filled up with cars.

With people who drove from outside the neighborhood?

Yeah. And we had people just dumping signs all over everywhere, just everywhere.

Signs that said what?

“I Can’t Breathe.” “Justice for George.” All that stuff. It was pretty insane. And then that evening, when they did the protest, it was pretty peaceful. I remember watching them go down here. I wasn’t really part of it. I don’t really get too involved with protests anymore, especially when I have a kid, you know?

Going off on the tangent, I would say I agree that the way Minneapolis cops deal with a lot of people of color, it’s shitty, especially around this area. And anywhere. The only time I’ve ever gotten a gun pulled on me was by a cop, and it was because I was walking on the streets with my hands in my pockets. He told me to never walk up on a cop with your hands in your pockets. That was a few blocks away from here.

[My ex] used to joke because I drive kind of like a grandma, but I look at it differently. I’ve been stopped by cops a lot and they give me some BS reason. I said [to my ex], “You don’t understand how many people of color in the city that happens to.” I understand those dynamics. When it comes to people protesting and it’s peaceful, in that realm, I understand that, based off my own experience.

But I think what’s going on in George Floyd Square now, I think about how it’s really affecting the community. In my personal opinion, I think they should make it a roundabout or something. The city should put the money in for people to open that. It feels like it’s a clogged artery in the city. It feels like a lot of people are gasping for air. 

There’s positive days that you go down there. But I don’t know how long we can last with the dynamics of what’s going on there. I support George Floyd and all the stuff, but I think the people are kind of missing the point. People are just so reactive.

Like the woman who yelled at you when you were on the bike?

Yeah. I had gone through there every day and just some random day it’s like, “You can’t do this.” It’s just all impulsive. That’s not what I think is justice. How is that us supporting this guy that got shot? All the stuff that you see there, all that stuff is so important, you see all the names [of people killed by police] rolled out there, it makes me cry. I think how powerful walking through there actually is.

Do you see the goodness of it, or the potential goodness of it, getting hijacked?

That’s what I’m starting to realize. That’s why I think, if they let it open up and let the world in on this area, instead of it being barricaded and, “You can’t come here.” I think certain people are taking advantage of it and then other people are enabling that.

Enabling because they think they’re doing the right thing or because it helps a particular cause?

Yeah. There was a time we went down there, within the first couple of months. There’s these two young white girls, and they’re walking and [saying], “You feel the energy coming in here.” They’re being mystical about it. Then this other girl started saying [to them], “You need to feel bad about your whiteness.” The girls were really young and as a person of color, I would never…I don’t know. There’s such a weird dynamic when people approach me, as being a Native American. They bad-mouth themselves as to who they are. They feel like they need to make themselves less human to feel accepted by me, a person of color. There’s something about that I don’t enjoy. It’s like, “You don’t have anything to prove to me.” It’s great that you acknowledge stuff but, that’s where I feel the conversation needs to keep going, let’s talk about other stuff rather than, “Fuck white people.”

That kind of approach, it’s just so weird. I’ve seen it so much my whole life, when people start being really self-deprecating. I went to a school where I was the only Native, me and my sister, so I went from people constantly beating me up because I’m Native to people now that are covering their tracks, sometimes it feels like, because they feel so bad about it. I don’t know; either/or, but I think it’s just like, chill.

My daughter, who as you know is half-Native, doesn’t like that stuff either. I explained to her what BIPOC stood for, and the sort of uniqueness it implied, and she said, “Mom, I can only apologize for my generation so much.” 

People really try to put you on this pedestal. There’s no mysticism; I’m just a person that is Native. I could tell you my perspective, which is, there’s a lot of bullshit going on here.

Bullshit surrounding the Square?

The city kind of gave the reins to people where there’s no foundation. Everyone’s in these subgroups that have slightly different opinions. There’s some people that are more outraged than others, and some who want to feel accepted. I think there’s a lot of traumatized people in this world and a lot of people that take advantage of traumatized individuals. That place sometimes feels like a hub for people to just feel triggered, constantly. You’re creating a bubble at George Floyd Square. I’m about the cause, but…

What would you say “the cause” is?

Well, it’s not just always talking about all these really harsh things that have happened. As a Native, I don’t want to either be the default or the trendy thing. And I think that’s where we’re stuck.

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The Changing Faces of George Floyd Square: Dispatch from Minneapolis


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In the living room of his home 15 blocks from George Floyd Square, Zane Spang talks about something that happened to him and his 3-year-old daughter several weeks earlier.

“I had [her] on the back of my bike and we need to go through the Square, but they’ve got it barricaded off, right?” says Spang. “This white lady, I think she was from inside one of the checkpoints they got there, she’s like, ‘You can’t ride through here.’ I’m like, ‘I live here and my daughter’s school is here.’ She’s saying something about how I’m being disrespectful and I should go around on another street.”

Spang, a full-blooded Native American (half Crow, half Northern Cheyenne) rode through anyway, as he has for the four years he’s lived in the South Minneapolis neighborhood.

“There’s an influx of qualities there for [the Square] to be really peaceful,” he said. “But me and my daughter also walked through there one time and there’s ‘Fuck the Police,’ all these signs and people spray paint that, and she’s trying to read and asking, ‘What does that say?’ I’m like, ‘People don’t like the cops?’ I don’t know how to explain stuff like that.”

After work in a machine shop across the border in Wisconsin, Spang talks about what he sees as the complicated relationship the city has with the memorial set up at and around the site where George Floyd was killed by former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, whose murder trial started the day Spang and I spoke. [Disclosure: Spang and I know each other from when we both lived in Portland, Oregon, in the mid-2010s.] Comments have been edited for length and clarity.

Reason: You were saying George Floyd Square presents differently at different times.

Zane Spang: As far as the presentation, it’s kind of back and forth with a lot of people in this neighborhood. If you’re at that specific part of the square at a certain time, it feels very vibrant. But then, when it lines up differently, when some shit’s going down over there, we had a homicide a couple of months ago. And I was working on a house one time and someone got shot a half-block away and medical guys were barely able to get to the person shot.

What was the shooting about?

I don’t even know because the cops never were [allowed in]; the cops don’t go there.

A Minneapolis Police officer told me George Floyd Square has become a dumping spot for stolen vehicles, that it’s basically the final destination for anyone involved in a police chase because cops aren’t welcome in there.

The amount of traffic we get through here now, literally people will fly through all these stop signs, go 50 miles per hour on 38th Street [which bisects the Square]. I’ve seen an influx of crime and just people shooting guns out the window.

An influx of crime since George Floyd was killed?

Yeah. Our neighbor one house over, her friend was waiting for her and these three girls robbed her, right in front of her house. I leave for work at 5 a.m. Down the street, some guy tried to grab me out of my car. He was trying to pull the door open. I had a crowbar and I was like, “Get the fuck out of here!” I have the wherewithal to prepare myself in that realm, but a lot of people don’t.

You were here when George Floyd was killed. What was it like? Was it mayhem?

It still pretty much is. When it was happening it was so surreal. The first night after it happened, you could not find a parking spot in this neighborhood, it completely filled up with cars.

With people who drove from outside the neighborhood?

Yeah. And we had people just dumping signs all over everywhere, just everywhere.

Signs that said what?

“I Can’t Breathe.” “Justice for George.” All that stuff. It was pretty insane. And then that evening, when they did the protest, it was pretty peaceful. I remember watching them go down here. I wasn’t really part of it. I don’t really get too involved with protests anymore, especially when I have a kid, you know?

Going off on the tangent, I would say I agree that the way Minneapolis cops deal with a lot of people of color, it’s shitty, especially around this area. And anywhere. The only time I’ve ever gotten a gun pulled on me was by a cop, and it was because I was walking on the streets with my hands in my pockets. He told me to never walk up on a cop with your hands in your pockets. That was a few blocks away from here.

[My ex] used to joke because I drive kind of like a grandma, but I look at it differently. I’ve been stopped by cops a lot and they give me some BS reason. I said [to my ex], “You don’t understand how many people of color in the city that happens to.” I understand those dynamics. When it comes to people protesting and it’s peaceful, in that realm, I understand that, based off my own experience.

But I think what’s going on in George Floyd Square now, I think about how it’s really affecting the community. In my personal opinion, I think they should make it a roundabout or something. The city should put the money in for people to open that. It feels like it’s a clogged artery in the city. It feels like a lot of people are gasping for air. 

There’s positive days that you go down there. But I don’t know how long we can last with the dynamics of what’s going on there. I support George Floyd and all the stuff, but I think the people are kind of missing the point. People are just so reactive.

Like the woman who yelled at you when you were on the bike?

Yeah. I had gone through there every day and just some random day it’s like, “You can’t do this.” It’s just all impulsive. That’s not what I think is justice. How is that us supporting this guy that got shot? All the stuff that you see there, all that stuff is so important, you see all the names [of people killed by police] rolled out there, it makes me cry. I think how powerful walking through there actually is.

Do you see the goodness of it, or the potential goodness of it, getting hijacked?

That’s what I’m starting to realize. That’s why I think, if they let it open up and let the world in on this area, instead of it being barricaded and, “You can’t come here.” I think certain people are taking advantage of it and then other people are enabling that.

Enabling because they think they’re doing the right thing or because it helps a particular cause?

Yeah. There was a time we went down there, within the first couple of months. There’s these two young white girls, and they’re walking and [saying], “You feel the energy coming in here.” They’re being mystical about it. Then this other girl started saying [to them], “You need to feel bad about your whiteness.” The girls were really young and as a person of color, I would never…I don’t know. There’s such a weird dynamic when people approach me, as being a Native American. They bad-mouth themselves as to who they are. They feel like they need to make themselves less human to feel accepted by me, a person of color. There’s something about that I don’t enjoy. It’s like, “You don’t have anything to prove to me.” It’s great that you acknowledge stuff but, that’s where I feel the conversation needs to keep going, let’s talk about other stuff rather than, “Fuck white people.”

That kind of approach, it’s just so weird. I’ve seen it so much my whole life, when people start being really self-deprecating. I went to a school where I was the only Native, me and my sister, so I went from people constantly beating me up because I’m Native to people now that are covering their tracks, sometimes it feels like, because they feel so bad about it. I don’t know; either/or, but I think it’s just like, chill.

My daughter, who as you know is half-Native, doesn’t like that stuff either. I explained to her what BIPOC stood for, and the sort of uniqueness it implied, and she said, “Mom, I can only apologize for my generation so much.” 

People really try to put you on this pedestal. There’s no mysticism; I’m just a person that is Native. I could tell you my perspective, which is, there’s a lot of bullshit going on here.

Bullshit surrounding the Square?

The city kind of gave the reins to people where there’s no foundation. Everyone’s in these subgroups that have slightly different opinions. There’s some people that are more outraged than others, and some who want to feel accepted. I think there’s a lot of traumatized people in this world and a lot of people that take advantage of traumatized individuals. That place sometimes feels like a hub for people to just feel triggered, constantly. You’re creating a bubble at George Floyd Square. I’m about the cause, but…

What would you say “the cause” is?

Well, it’s not just always talking about all these really harsh things that have happened. As a Native, I don’t want to either be the default or the trendy thing. And I think that’s where we’re stuck.

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Did Cuomo Aides Violate Ethics Rules To Help Their Boss With His Memoir?


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On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, used office staff to work on his memoir, American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic—which garnered a $4 million dollar book deal—in potential violation of ethics rules.

The Albany Times Union reports that when the governor had communicated plans to earn outside income from publishing a book, Judith Mogul, Cuomo’s special counsel, had advised him that no “state property, personnel or other resources may be utilized” according to New York’s long-standing ethics rules, which he had agreed to. Still, top aides like Melissa DeRosa (whose name might ring a bell if you’ve followed some of the many Cuomo scandals from earlier this year) were heavily involved in editing and pitching the book, and more junior aides were involved in typing notes for the governor and transcribing things he said, since he voice-dictated many parts of the book. The New York Times also reports that “a top aide to the governor, Stephanie Benton, twice asked assistants to print portions of the draft of the book, and deliver them to Mr. Cuomo at the Executive Mansion in Albany, where he lives.”

Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi told the Times Union that the Cuomo staffers who worked on the governor’s memoir had volunteered their own time to do so, adding that there is “nothing in law or regulation that speaks to a ban on state workers volunteering for a for-profit venture — this simply is not legally a ‘thing.'” (Cuomo’s office did not respond to Reason‘s request for comment by time of publication.)

But those heading up the Cuomo impeachment investigation have decided to look into this further to discern whether state resources were improperly used for the governor to line his own pockets.

The governor has had waves of scandal washing over him in quick succession for the last few months; most recently, Cuomo got roundly lambasted when news surfaced that he had secured special treatment for his own family members and other well-connected VIPs during the early days of the pandemic. There’s the most famous scandal—the March 25, 2020, directive which required nursing homes to admit or re-admit COVID-19 patients regardless of whether they’d tested negative for the virus—and the way the administration subsequently hid the true nursing home death count, which was about 40 percent higher than they had claimed. There’s the much more underground scandal, that the governor issued an April 10 directive, in parallel to the March 25 one, which similarly prohibited residential facilities for adults with intellectual disabilities from turning away COVID-positive patients. There are the sexual harassment scandals that have emerged in recent weeks as nine women have come forward with allegations of inappropriate behavior, ranging from unwanted sexual comments all the way to groping and kissing. And, of course, the vaccine scandal where medical providers in the state were forced to throw away precious vaccine doses due to the threat of $1 million fines being levied if providers allowed anyone to hop the state-mandated vaccination line.

This guy is unsinkable. But then again, we’re talking about someone who had both the extraordinary gall and terrifyingly large ego to write a book on just how great of a pandemic leader he was and make a fat advance off of it, while his state-employee “volunteers” scurried around to do his book bidding.

Maybe the real American Crisis is the fact that, though we tally up the manifold transgressions (maybe even crimes) of Andrew Cuomo, corrupt and inept leaders like him get to remain in office—and sell some books while they’re at it.

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Did Cuomo Aides Violate Ethics Rules To Help Their Boss With His Memoir?


freeport-ny-july-30-2014andmdashnew-york-gov-andrew-cuomo-held-a-news-conference-ed38e9-1600

On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, used office staff to work on his memoir, American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic—which garnered a $4 million dollar book deal—in potential violation of ethics rules.

The Albany Times Union reports that when the governor had communicated plans to earn outside income from publishing a book, Judith Mogul, Cuomo’s special counsel, had advised him that no “state property, personnel or other resources may be utilized” according to New York’s long-standing ethics rules, which he had agreed to. Still, top aides like Melissa DeRosa (whose name might ring a bell if you’ve followed some of the many Cuomo scandals from earlier this year) were heavily involved in editing and pitching the book, and more junior aides were involved in typing notes for the governor and transcribing things he said, since he voice-dictated many parts of the book. The New York Times also reports that “a top aide to the governor, Stephanie Benton, twice asked assistants to print portions of the draft of the book, and deliver them to Mr. Cuomo at the Executive Mansion in Albany, where he lives.”

Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi told the Times Union that the Cuomo staffers who worked on the governor’s memoir had volunteered their own time to do so, adding that there is “nothing in law or regulation that speaks to a ban on state workers volunteering for a for-profit venture — this simply is not legally a ‘thing.'” (Cuomo’s office did not respond to Reason‘s request for comment by time of publication.)

But those heading up the Cuomo impeachment investigation have decided to look into this further to discern whether state resources were improperly used for the governor to line his own pockets.

The governor has had waves of scandal washing over him in quick succession for the last few months; most recently, Cuomo got roundly lambasted when news surfaced that he had secured special treatment for his own family members and other well-connected VIPs during the early days of the pandemic. There’s the most famous scandal—the March 25, 2020, directive which required nursing homes to admit or re-admit COVID-19 patients regardless of whether they’d tested negative for the virus—and the way the administration subsequently hid the true nursing home death count, which was about 40 percent higher than they had claimed. There’s the much more underground scandal, that the governor issued an April 10 directive, in parallel to the March 25 one, which similarly prohibited residential facilities for adults with intellectual disabilities from turning away COVID-positive patients. There are the sexual harassment scandals that have emerged in recent weeks as nine women have come forward with allegations of inappropriate behavior, ranging from unwanted sexual comments all the way to groping and kissing. And, of course, the vaccine scandal where medical providers in the state were forced to throw away precious vaccine doses due to the threat of $1 million fines being levied if providers allowed anyone to hop the state-mandated vaccination line.

This guy is unsinkable. But then again, we’re talking about someone who had both the extraordinary gall and terrifyingly large ego to write a book on just how great of a pandemic leader he was and make a fat advance off of it, while his state-employee “volunteers” scurried around to do his book bidding.

Maybe the real American Crisis is the fact that, though we tally up the manifold transgressions (maybe even crimes) of Andrew Cuomo, corrupt and inept leaders like him get to remain in office—and sell some books while they’re at it.

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Ninth Circuit Lets #TheyLied Suit Against Lawyer Lisa Bloom Go Forward

An interesting decision from last week, Wynn v. Bloom, decided by a Ninth Circuit panel (Richard Clifton, Jacqueline Nguyen, and Mark Bennett):

Defendants-Appellants Lisa Bloom and the Bloom Firm … appeal from the district court’s denial of their [anti-SLAPP] Special Motion to Dismiss ….

Wynn has demonstrated a genuine dispute of material fact as to whether Bloom Defendants acted with actual malice [i.e., knowledge or reckless disregard as to falsehood] in publishing the Press Release…. To constitute reckless disregard, the defendant must have published a false statement with a “high degree of awareness of [its] probable falsity,” or “entertained serious doubts as to the truth of [the] publication.”.

The Press Release suggests that Wynn instructed—personally or through a third party—female ShowStoppers performers “to strip down to bras and panties, put on heels, and apply extra makeup so as to be sexually appealing” to him and that Wynn directly or indirectly retaliated against Angelina Mullins when she refused to comply.

However, neither Mullins nor Samuel Cahn-Temes told Bloom Defendants that they heard Wynn give the instructions or had knowledge that the instructions came from Wynn. In fact, at her deposition, Mullins testified that although she assumed the instructions came from Wynn, she “made it clear” to Bloom Defendants that she had no personal knowledge that they did.

Furthermore, Mullins and Cahn-Temes gave Bloom Defendants reason to doubt that Wynn was responsible. Both Mullins’s and Cahn-Temes’s depositions highlighted the differences between New York Broadway and Los Angeles Commercial styles of performance and how performers’ styles and professional experiences may have shaped their understandings of appropriate attire and behavior. While Mullins’s style was New York Broadway, choreographer Marguerite Derricks’s style was Los Angeles Commercial.

Mullins testified that she told the Bloom Firm, before the Press Release was issued, that other dancers that worked for Derricks in the past thought that it “seemed very normal … to be asked to wear what they were wearing for [Derricks] in this context” and that those performers’ understanding of “what is acceptable for Broadway style show rehearsals and … go-go or burlesque dancing was sort of blurred.” Cahn-Temes testified that he told Bloom Defendants that Mullins and Derricks had a “clash” of personalities and style—New York versus Los Angeles—and that Mullins was pushed to the back or removed from numbers, at least in part, due to that clash. {Jordan Oslin, a Bloom Firm attorney, testified that he recalled Cahn-Temes telling him about the clash between the New York Broadway and Los Angeles Commercial styles but asserted that Cahn-Temes made it clear to him that the retaliation was a result of Mullins’s refusal to sexualize herself for Wynn. Cahn-Temes’s testimony contradicts Oslin’s.}

Bloom Defendants chose to publish the Press Release inculpating Wynn after learning that none of the witnesses could confirm that Wynn played any role in giving the instructions and without considering alternative explanations or investigating further. Under these circumstances, though the result may not be certain or perhaps even likely, a reasonable jury could find that Bloom Defendants acted with actual malice in publishing the Press Release….

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Ninth Circuit Lets #TheyLied Suit Against Lawyer Lisa Bloom Go Forward

An interesting decision from last week, Wynn v. Bloom, decided by a Ninth Circuit panel (Richard Clifton, Jacqueline Nguyen, and Mark Bennett):

Defendants-Appellants Lisa Bloom and the Bloom Firm … appeal from the district court’s denial of their [anti-SLAPP] Special Motion to Dismiss ….

Wynn has demonstrated a genuine dispute of material fact as to whether Bloom Defendants acted with actual malice [i.e., knowledge or reckless disregard as to falsehood] in publishing the Press Release…. To constitute reckless disregard, the defendant must have published a false statement with a “high degree of awareness of [its] probable falsity,” or “entertained serious doubts as to the truth of [the] publication.”.

The Press Release suggests that Wynn instructed—personally or through a third party—female ShowStoppers performers “to strip down to bras and panties, put on heels, and apply extra makeup so as to be sexually appealing” to him and that Wynn directly or indirectly retaliated against Angelina Mullins when she refused to comply.

However, neither Mullins nor Samuel Cahn-Temes told Bloom Defendants that they heard Wynn give the instructions or had knowledge that the instructions came from Wynn. In fact, at her deposition, Mullins testified that although she assumed the instructions came from Wynn, she “made it clear” to Bloom Defendants that she had no personal knowledge that they did.

Furthermore, Mullins and Cahn-Temes gave Bloom Defendants reason to doubt that Wynn was responsible. Both Mullins’s and Cahn-Temes’s depositions highlighted the differences between New York Broadway and Los Angeles Commercial styles of performance and how performers’ styles and professional experiences may have shaped their understandings of appropriate attire and behavior. While Mullins’s style was New York Broadway, choreographer Marguerite Derricks’s style was Los Angeles Commercial.

Mullins testified that she told the Bloom Firm, before the Press Release was issued, that other dancers that worked for Derricks in the past thought that it “seemed very normal … to be asked to wear what they were wearing for [Derricks] in this context” and that those performers’ understanding of “what is acceptable for Broadway style show rehearsals and … go-go or burlesque dancing was sort of blurred.” Cahn-Temes testified that he told Bloom Defendants that Mullins and Derricks had a “clash” of personalities and style—New York versus Los Angeles—and that Mullins was pushed to the back or removed from numbers, at least in part, due to that clash. {Jordan Oslin, a Bloom Firm attorney, testified that he recalled Cahn-Temes telling him about the clash between the New York Broadway and Los Angeles Commercial styles but asserted that Cahn-Temes made it clear to him that the retaliation was a result of Mullins’s refusal to sexualize herself for Wynn. Cahn-Temes’s testimony contradicts Oslin’s.}

Bloom Defendants chose to publish the Press Release inculpating Wynn after learning that none of the witnesses could confirm that Wynn played any role in giving the instructions and without considering alternative explanations or investigating further. Under these circumstances, though the result may not be certain or perhaps even likely, a reasonable jury could find that Bloom Defendants acted with actual malice in publishing the Press Release….

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Vermont Is Prioritizing ‘BIPOC’ Households for Vaccines. That’s Almost Certainly Unconstitutional.


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Vermont is prioritizing people of color for vaccine eligibility over the state’s white residents, provoking no small amount of controversy and constitutional concerns.

On Thursday, Vermont Gov. Phil Scott (R) announced on Twitter that anyone aged 16 or older who identities as black, indigenous, or a person of color (BIPOC), or lives in a household with someone who does, can get a COVID-19 vaccine.

That would seem to disadvantage the state residents who are white and don’t live with anyone identifying as BIPOC. The state currently restricts vaccine eligibility for those people to those 50 years and older, unless they qualify for a vaccine by virtue of being a health care worker, employed in public safety, having a high-risk health condition, or being a parent or caregiver of someone with a high-risk health condition.

Mark Levine, the state’s health commissioner, told VTDigger that people of color are being prioritized for the vaccine because of their higher rates of COVID-19 and lower rates of vaccination.

All Vermonters 16 or older, white or not, should be able to register for a vaccine appointment by April 19, said Levine.

Some 34 percent of Vermont’s population has received at least one vaccine dose, making it the ninth most vaccinated state in the country. It ranks middle of the pack in how many of its allocated vaccines it’s actually administered.

The prioritization of vaccine eligibility along explicitly racial lines is unconstitutional, argues Cato Institute legal expert Walter Olson in a December 2020 op-ed for The Detriot News written in response to the Department of Veterans Affairs opening up vaccines to black, Asian, Native American, and Hispanic veterans.

“This runs into the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which says citizens of all races are entitled to the equal protection of the laws. The Supreme Court has long interpreted this to mean that the government may ordinarily not dole out valuable benefits, or impose harms, based on a citizen’s race,” writes Olson.

It’s true that people of color are more likely to be frontline workers or have health conditions that make them more at risk of COVID-19 complications and death. However, directing vaccines to those higher-risk people can, and should, still be done through race-neutral categorization, says Olson.

“Many sensible priority rules do incidentally protect relatively more minority persons — and that’s fine, so long as the decision is based on the neutral grounds rather than being a pretext aimed at getting results based on race,” he writes.

All these problems identified with the V.A.’s policy would also apply to Vermont’s vaccination racial preferences.

In November, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to prioritize essential workers over the elderly for vaccine distribution, in part, on the grounds that the elderly skew white, reports The Washington Free Beacon.

The fact that we have COVID-19 vaccines that are both safe and effective is a true miracle of modern medicine. Getting them in as many arms as possible should be public policy goal number one. That is only undermined when public health officials at any level of government start creating arbitrary, likely unconstitutional categories for who can get a vaccine next.

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Vermont Is Prioritizing ‘BIPOC’ Households for Vaccines. That’s Almost Certainly Unconstitutional.


reason-vaccine3

Vermont is prioritizing people of color for vaccine eligibility over the state’s white residents, provoking no small amount of controversy and constitutional concerns.

On Thursday, Vermont Gov. Phil Scott (R) announced on Twitter that anyone aged 16 or older who identities as black, indigenous, or a person of color (BIPOC), or lives in a household with someone who does, can get a COVID-19 vaccine.

That would seem to disadvantage the state residents who are white and don’t live with anyone identifying as BIPOC. The state currently restricts vaccine eligibility for those people to those 50 years and older, unless they qualify for a vaccine by virtue of being a health care worker, employed in public safety, having a high-risk health condition, or being a parent or caregiver of someone with a high-risk health condition.

Mark Levine, the state’s health commissioner, told VTDigger that people of color are being prioritized for the vaccine because of their higher rates of COVID-19 and lower rates of vaccination.

All Vermonters 16 or older, white or not, should be able to register for a vaccine appointment by April 19, said Levine.

Some 34 percent of Vermont’s population has received at least one vaccine dose, making it the ninth most vaccinated state in the country. It ranks middle of the pack in how many of its allocated vaccines it’s actually administered.

The prioritization of vaccine eligibility along explicitly racial lines is unconstitutional, argues Cato Institute legal expert Walter Olson in a December 2020 blog post written in response to the Department of Veterans Affairs opening up vaccines to black, Asian, Native American, and Hispanic veterans.

“This runs into the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which says citizens of all races are entitled to the equal protection of the laws. The Supreme Court has long interpreted this to mean that the government may ordinarily not dole out valuable benefits, or impose harms, based on a citizen’s race,” writes Olson.

It’s true that people of color are more likely to be frontline workers or have health conditions that make them more at risk of COVID-19 complications and death. However, directing vaccines to those higher-risk people can, and should, still be done through race-neutral categorization, says Olson.

“Many sensible priority rules do incidentally protect relatively more minority persons — and that’s fine, so long as the decision is based on the neutral grounds rather than being a pretext aimed at getting results based on race,” he writes.

All these problems identified with the V.A.’s policy would also apply to Vermont’s vaccination racial preferences.

In November, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to prioritize essential workers over the elderly for vaccine distribution, in part, on the grounds that the elderly skew white, reports The Washington Free Beacon.

The fact that we have COVID-19 vaccines that are both safe and effective is a true miracle of modern medicine. Getting them in as many arms as possible should be public policy goal number one. That is only undermined when public health officials at any level of government start creating arbitrary, likely unconstitutional categories for who can get a vaccine next.

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Rebel Yells, But You’re Likely to Yawn in Response


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  • Rebel. ABC. Thursday, April 8, 10 p.m.
  • Home Economics. ABC. Wednesday, April 7, 8:30 p.m.

Disney holds monthly search-and-destroy meetings to root out the apparently endless amount of racist material in its old movies. If only the company could make a fraction of that effort to eliminate the brain-dead drivel in its captive ABC network, TV critics could all whistle while we worked instead of putting lit cigarettes out in our eyes, which I’m sure will take a major uptick in the CDC statistics after this week’s screeners get around.

Not since the U.S. Army Air Force and the RAF last visited Dresden have two such fearsome bombs exploded at the same time as ABC’s Rebel and Home Economics, and there aren’t even any Nazis around to blame it on.

Like Dresden, Rebel has an awesome mortality rate, the most tragic fatality being the career of Katey Sagal. Sagal is an astonishingly versatile actress, hopping between eccentric dramatic roles—a homicidal motorcycle hoochie in Sons of Anarchy, a 14th-century Welsh witch in The Bastard Executioner—with astounding power. And she started it all by brilliantly reworking (or maybe bitch-slapping) the smiley-faced June Cleaver/Harriet Nelson suburban housewife archetype with her gloriously deviant portrayal of the slothful (“the laziest bitch in Chicago,” as she bragged in one episode) and promiscuous Peggy Bundy in the sitcom lampoon Married…With Children.

But in Rebel, Sagal is trying to animate a character whose bellicosity and smug populism obliterate everything around her, including plot, characterization, and credibility. That’s Rebel Bello, a political activist disguised as a paralegal, who litigates not with evidence and witnesses but by unleashing mobs on the country clubs of defendants. (“She’s not a lawyer, she’s just loud,” observes another character with deadly accuracy.)

She’s fond of saying—well, shrieking—things like “I keep hoping one day I’ll wake up and the world will have saved itself!” and “I bring the CEOs of multinational corporations to their knees!” This apparently keeps the class-action plaintiffs rolling in, though it’s a little rough on Rebel’s husbands—three and counting. By the way, saving the world apparently pays pretty well: One of Rebel’s regular complaints is how her ex-husbands wind up with all her money. You’d think the Savior of the World and Slayer of Multinational CEOs could find a decent divorce lawyer. But she’s too busy drumming up class-action business for that.  At the moment, she’s seeking victims of a sleazy manufacturer’s defective heart valves, which bring on death in outlandishly lurid and jury-pleasing ways.

If the concept of a belligerently trashy blue-collar paralegal substituting emotion for evidence as she attacks a purportedly murderous corporation sounds familiar, keep an eye out as Rebel‘s credits roll for an amazing coincidence: Erin Brockovich as executive producer! If you change those heart valves for contaminated water, Rebel‘s plot is a virtual clone of the 2000 film about the real-life paralegal Brockovich. That one at least had an engaging story, even if it was almost entirely fictionRebel is merely a boorish bore.

Home Economics is also from a familiar genre, that of the dysfunctional family forced back together by hard economic times. This has produced some pretty good sitcoms, though not a one of them has survived more than a single season.  Audiences who are working in miserable pinch-penny circumstances seem not to enjoy seeing it on TV at home, too.

That won’t be a problem for Home Economics, which fails entirely on its own demerits. It’s about three siblings—one boundlessly rich (he just bought Matt Damon’s house), one grindingly poor (she can’t afford Damon’s movie tickets, much less his home) and one going down fast (his last novel sold five copies, one of them to the rich brother).  No worry—they’re all brought together by mutual peevishness, spite and jealousy. After extensive and determinedly unfunny airing of grievances, they conclude that, as the rich brother declares, that “we’re all screwed up.” And, he adds: “What a relief!” Speak for yourself, buddy.

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