Thursday, January 28, 2021

NURSE THAT TOOK THE VACCINE SHOT. TESTS POSSITIVE FOR COVID-19.

JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER. 1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)

 2020 AMERICAN ELECTION

THE COVID-19 TOTALS.
WORLD OVER ALL CASES 101,717,138 DEAD 2,191,747 AS OF THU JAN 28, 2021-1.37PM

Nurse vaccinated for COVID-19 tests positive-Social Sharing-Positive test doesn't necessarily mean nurse has contracted illness, experts say-Nicole Williams · CBC News · JAN 28,21 4 hours ago

An Ottawa nurse has tested positive for COVID-19 about two weeks after getting vaccinated, and experts say there are a number of possibilities why that might be.Santosh Baral said he was "speechless" when his results came back positive for COVID-19 last week after a routine test.The positive test comes after receiving his second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Jan. 8 and testing negative on Jan. 13.There are positive cases at the long-term care home Baral works at, but he said to his knowledge, no other person who has received both doses of the vaccine has tested positive for COVID-19 since. Baral said he feels fine, but is at home self-isolating until he is sure it is safe to return to work."I thank God I [don't] have any symptoms so far, but who knows whatever is happening in my body. So definitely I have some anxiety," Baral said.Immunized could still carry and transmit COVID-19-Clinical immunologist and allergist Dr. Zainab Abdurrahman said there are a number of possibilities why Baral could have tested positive.Why COVID-19 vaccines won't return our lives to normal overnight-It takes up to a week to ten days after getting both vaccinations before becoming fully immune, so depending on the timing, she said a person could be exposed to the virus before the doses take full effect.Abdurrahman added that while both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are 95 per cent effective, "there's a small chance that you could still catch COVID-19 after you're fully vaccinated."Health experts say even though vaccines have a 95 per cent chance of preventing you from getting COVID-19, it's possible people can still carry and transmit the disease. (Grant Hindsley/AFP/Getty Images)-"Although with the studies, we did see those who did get it in that small percentage after being fully immune had very mild disease. So they didn't have as much of the severe cases of COVID and this is not unlike any other vaccine," Abdurrahman said.What's still unclear for researchers is whether the vaccine reduces the risk of carrying and transmitting COVID-19, Abdurrahman said.Just because someone might be immune to the disease, it doesn't mean they can't carry or spread it, she said.Physicians say COVID-19 vaccines both safe, protective for elderly Canadians. Here's what seniors need to knowVaccines not a replacement of other measures-Dr. Peter Jüni, scientific director of Ontario's COVID-19 Science Advisory Table and professor of epidemiology at the University of Toronto, said without showing symptoms, it's hard to determine if Baral does in fact have COVID-19 or is just carrying the disease.But Jüni said immunized people testing positive "is nothing out of the ordinary," as more people get vaccinated across the country.General public will have to wait until August for COVID-19 vaccine-"What makes it, of course, a bit more extraordinary is the situation we're in right now with the mutations from Brazil, South Africa and the U.K.," Jüni said, which are being evaluated carefully by researchers.He said that while the vaccines are both safe and effective, it's important to continue to follow other health measures."Even if you're vaccinated, you need to continue with physical distancing. You need to continue with wearing masks, especially because you want to protect others," he said.

Why you might want to start wearing better masks — even outdoors-Spread of more infectious coronavirus variants in Canada requires renewed vigilance, experts say-Adam Miller · CBC News · Posted: Jan 28, 2021 4:00 AM ET |

The spread of more contagious coronavirus variants in Canada amid already high levels of COVID-19 makes it a critical time to think about the masks we wear. Whether that means finding better quality masks, doubling up on masks, or wearing them in settings we wouldn't normally think to, experts say it's time we step up our game.The variants first identified in South Africa and the U.K are spreading in Canada, in some cases with no known link to travel, and have already led to devastating outbreaks in long-term care homes. The variant discovered in the U.K., known as B117, is estimated to be at least 56 per cent more transmissible and potentially more deadly than the original coronavirus strain.But even as COVID-19 case numbers show early signs of slowing down in Canada, experts say it's becoming more important than ever to lower our risk of exposure as much as possible to prevent variants from taking hold here. "The floodwaters are receding right now, but it's still very, very dangerous," said Erin Bromage, a biology professor and immunologist at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth who studies infectious diseases."If [B117] does pop up as the dominant variant here, we are going to need to really up our game in regards to masks, in regards to ... how many contacts we have in a day, because it definitely appears to have an upper hand." 'Time to step it up' with masks-Canada currently recommends the use of three-layer non-medical masks with a filter layer to prevent the spread of the virus, but has not updated its recommendations since November, before the emergence of new variants. Dr. Zain Chagla, an infectious diseases physician at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton, said that while three-layer non-medical masks are a good "minimum standard," Canadians should opt for masks that offer better protection whenever possible.Those include surgical masks, which are a step below N95s and KN95s and come in three different filtration levels determined by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM).Doctors answer viewer questions about COVID-19 including why three-layer masks are now being recommended to protect against the virus."When I go to the grocery store now, I wear my very best mask," said Linsey Marr, one of the top aerosol scientists in the world and an expert on the airborne transmission of viruses at Virginia Tech. "Before I was wearing an OK mask that was comfortable and easy."She said a cloth mask can "easily filter out half of particles, maybe more, but we're at the point where we need better performance." Bromage said he changed his approach to masks several months ago when COVID-19 cases started to spike in many parts of North America. That's when he ditched common cloth masks for surgical masks, he said.Bromage said Level 3 ASTM surgical masks, those that are used at dental clinics, for example, offer both a better level of protection and a better quality fit."The most important part is you've got to make sure your breath actually goes through the material," he said."You really should see the mask expand and then collapse and expand and collapse with each breath that you take. That's a good indication that what you're breathing is actually going through the material."Double-masking and other tips-Bromage said a tight-fitting mask is more important than ever due to the emergence of variants, which is why it's becoming more common to see people wearing two masks at the same time."It's not that double-masking provides extra protection if the mask was fitting well," he said. "Double-masking helps the mask that is closest to your skin fit more snugly, meaning more air goes through that mask."If you're already wearing a high-quality mask that fits well, with air going through the material rather than out the sides, Bromage said there's really no extra benefit in throwing an extra mask on top.He recommends looking at yourself in the mirror before you go out to make sure your mask isn't too loose fitting, which could put you at heightened risk of exposure in situations such as in-store shopping. "I really want people to look at them and think, is all the air going through the material? And if it's not, work out a way to do that," he said. "And that may be putting a second mask on or finding a different mask that fits their face." Outdoors not without risk-Coronavirus variants can also change the level of risk we face in situations that are typically more safe, such as being outdoors. Places such as San Francisco and New Brunswick have mandated outdoor mask use, and Toronto recently announced it now requires face masks for outdoor activities such as skating."The risk is much lower outdoors than indoors, but with the new variants, we should be more careful outdoors as well as indoors," said Marr."The times we need to be paying attention to it is if there are a lot of people around at a sporting event, or in a crowded park, or if you're out walking or running and you're passing by several people per minute, because all those little exposures can add up over time."Coronavirus variants can also change the level of risk we face in situations that are typically more safe, such as being outdoors. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)-Bromage said he wears a cloth mask or surgical mask with a lesser filtration level when in an isolated area outdoors, but gets concerned when he sees a group of people huddling together outdoors without moving around."The closer you are outdoors, the much more risky it is," he said. While not common, there have been cases of outdoor transmission of COVID-19 in Canada. Second Opinion-How the spread of coronavirus variants could completely change the pandemic in Canada An outdoor 40-person barbecue at a park in Ottawa last summer led to 105 people being exposed and two testing positive, while a "heated conversation" in B.C. caused an infection. B.C. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry told CBC News there have been several outdoor transmission events between spectators "clustering and talking with each other" during soccer games, and during wedding receptions where groups of people crowded together under tents.Second Opinion-Canada is on the hunt for coronavirus variants — but may not be able to keep up with outbreaks"Again it comes down to being in close contact, without a mask, talking loudly or sharing food and drinks that makes it risky even outside," Henry said.  She said B.C. has not seen transmission from brief outdoor encounters, waiting in line outside or at outdoor picnics where people maintain a reasonable distance and wear masks when close for short periods of time.Chagla said standing six-feet apart while wearing masks is a responsible way to interact with others outdoors."There are ways to do things outdoors safely, even in the context of the variant," said Chagla. "You don't want outside to be a free pass, but you also want to use it for what it is, to let people see each other and have contact with humanity, too." Places such as San Francisco and New Brunswick have mandated outdoor mask use and Toronto recently announced it will require face masks for outdoor activities such as skating. (Andrew Lee/CBC)-Bromage said that while the risk of exposure outdoors is less than indoors, the risk of both is higher due to the emergence of coronavirus variants."It's really time that people think about upping their game just in general," he said."Because if we are going to get a new wave from this variant, and it's already going to build off a very high level of infection that we already have, we need to do better to keep it out of our lives."

Data error means completed Ontario COVID-19 vaccinations only half of what was reported-Revelation comes as Ontario reported another 2,093 cases of COVID-19-CBC News · Last Updated: 24 minutes ago-JAN 28,21

Ontario Premier Doug Ford watches a health-care worker prepare a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a University Health Network vaccine clinic in Toronto earlier this month. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)-Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, co-chairman of Ontario's COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, is scheduled to detail revised COVID-19 projections for the province at a news conference beginning at 3 p.m. ET.Ontario has been over reporting the number of people who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in the province, the Ministry of Health said Thursday.The error means that the number of people who have received both doses of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines is only half of what the province has been logging."Rather than provide data on the number of people who have been fully vaccinated … officials inadvertently provided data on the number of doses administered to achieve full vaccination," a spokesperson for the ministry said in a statement sent to media.Data on the total number of doses administered was not affected, the spokesperson said.Why you might want to start wearing better masks — even outdoors'It's non-stop': Ornge takes lead on moving COVID patients as Ontario ICUs fill up-The province reported yesterday that 96,549 people had received both doses of either vaccine so far. In reality, only 48,239 had. That is up to 55,286 this morning. The vaccine data page has since been updated to accurately reflect the current figures, the spokesperson said.The news comes as Ontario reported another 2,093 cases of COVID-19 and 56 more deaths of people with the illness.It's the first time since Sunday that the province recorded more than 2,000 additional infections. The seven-day average of daily cases, however, continued to steadily decline down to 2,128.The new cases in today's update include 700 in Toronto, 311 in Peel, 228 in York Region and 123 in Niagara Region. Other public health units that saw double-digit increases were:Hamilton: 94.Durham: 85.Windsor-Essex: 67.Halton Region: 64.Waterloo Region: 56.Simcoe-Muskoka: 53.Ottawa: 45.Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph: 43.Middlesex-London: 37.Eastern Ontario: 30.Chatham-Kent: 25.Huron-Perth: 18.Southwestern: 16.Lambton: 15.Thunder Bay: 14.Note: All of the figures used in this story are found on the Ministry of Health's COVID-19 dashboard or in its Daily Epidemiologic Summary. The number of cases for any region may differ from what is reported by the local public health unit, because local units report figures at different times.)-There are currently 21,478 confirmed, active infections provincewide, down from a peak of 30,632 on Jan. 11. That figure has been trending downward as resolved cases consistently outpace new ones. Ontario's labs processed 64,664 test samples for the virus and reported a test positivity rate of 3.3 per cent — the lowest in five days.According to the Ministry of Health, there were 1,338 people with COVID-19 in hospitals, down 44 from the day before. The number of people that were being treated in intensive care fell by 19 to 358, while the number that required ventilator decreased by 15, down to 276.The 56 additional deaths push Ontario's total COVID-19-linked death toll to 6,014. Public health officials are scheduled to provide an update on revised COVID-19 modelling projections this afternoon.Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, the co-chairman of Ontario's COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, will be on hand to present the update, the province said. It has been two weeks since the provincial government implemented a stay-at-home order in a bid to halt surging transmission of the virus. 1 in 3 Ontario registered practical nurses considering quitting due to pandemic, poll suggestsThe province's chief medical officer of health said earlier this week that it looks as though a provincewide "lockdown," which began on Dec. 26, 2020, has contributed to a recent reduction in daily cases.The last modelling update, outlined earlier this month, suggested that patients with COVID-19 in need of critical care could overwhelm Ontario's health-care system if community transmission of the virus continued on pace.Students in 4 more health units return to school next week-Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education said today that students in four more public health units have a green light to return to schools for in-person classes next week.That's about 280,000 students in the following health units:Middlesex-London.Ottawa.Southwestern.Eastern Ontario.Read the full list of school boards affected by the announcement.In a release, Education Minister Stephen Lecce wrote that the government agrees with the "growing consensus in the medical community" that returning to school is "essential to the wellbeing, development and mental health of children."The government has introduced some new safety measures in schools this winter — including masking for grades 1 to 3 — though debate continues about whether the measures are adequate. The next wave of students, from Toronto, Peel, York Region, Windsor-Essex and Hamilton, are currently scheduled to return on Feb. 10. Students in eleven other health units, including Halton and Durham regions and Simcoe-Muskoka, have not yet been told to expect when they'll be able to return to schools.With files from Lucas Powers, Kate McGillivray and The Canadian Press.

THE VILLAGE LOCK DOWN DAY 5-THU JAN 28,21 (IS OFFICIALLY OVER FOR THE 2ND TIME IN 2 MONTHS)
UPDATE-11.15AM-THE NURSE CAME TO TALK TO ME ABOUT TAKING THE COVID VACCINE. I TOLD HER. NO-I WILL NOT BE TAKING IT. SHE SAID DO YOU KNOW THE SYMPTOMS. I SAID YES. AND SHE SAID I COULD STILL GET COVID AFTER MOST PEOPLE GOT THEIR SHOTS. FROM WHEN WE FINALLY GET OUTSIDE TO TRAVEL. I SAID I KNOW. I STILL REFUSE THE VACCINE I SAID. SO THIS TELLS ME THE VACCINE SHOTS WILL BE COMING HERE TO THE VILLAGE ANY TIME NOW. AND ALSO EVERYBODY IN THE VILLAGE HAS A CLEAR NO COVID. THE ONLY REASON WERE STILL IN OUR ROOMS. IS BECAUSE THE HEAD OFFICE AT REVERA HAS NOT GIVIN US PERMISSION TO GET OUT YET. AND I JUST HEARD A MINUTE AGO AT 11.26AM. THAT THE LIBERAL GOVERNMENT IN OTTAWA WANTS TO TAKE OVER THE REVERA IN OTTAWA BECAUSE OF SOME TAX GRAB THEIR GETTING FOR BEING PART OF THE COMPANY. THE PEOPLE WHO ARE OWNERS IN REVERA. OUR COMPANY WHO OWNS THE VILLAGE HERE IN HANOVER. DON'T BE SURPRISED IF PEACE-LOVE-JOY-UTOPIA-BABY KILLERS JUSTIN TRUDEAU TAKES OVER ALL THE REVERA HOMES OF THE AGED IN CANADA. UNDER THE GUISE OF TAX EVASION. REVERA IS THE 2ND BIGGEST OWNERS OF AGED HOMES IN CANADA.ITS 12.59PM-AND I WAS JUST TOLD WE ARE OFFICIALLY ALL NO COVID IN HERE. AND WE CAN GO OUT OF OUR ROOMS. AND TONIGHT EAT IN THE MEAL ROOM AGAIN.


REVERA JAGMEET SINGH OCT 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7csF2hV2fKA

NDP calls for Revera care homes to be made public-November 20, 2020

During this pandemic, many families lost their loved ones in long-term care homes across the country. Some of the worst outbreaks across the country right now are happening in homes owned by Revera – a for-profit company that is run by a federal agency. The number of outbreaks coming out of long-term care homes in Winnipeg, Calgary and across Ontario is devastating.“The outbreaks are more than a statistic. They’re loved ones gone. They’re one less smile at the dinner table,” said NDP Leader, Jagmeet Singh. “This is the result of the failure of profit-driven care in long-term care and a federal government refusing to do the right thing. Justin Trudeau and the Liberal government must put an end to for-profit long-term care homes – starting with Revera. Lives count on it.”Problems in Revera homes are not new. In the first wave of the pandemic, Revera had the second-most deaths in the industry, accounting for 230 deaths and has been unable to protect loved ones from major outbreaks across the country, the NDP noted in a media release. During the second wave, Revera is again the site of significant outbreaks across the country, the statement added. But despite calls by many stakeholders to make Revera public, Justin Trudeau has stood by and now, people are in the worst scenario, party officials said.“Justin Trudeau has chosen to protect the for-profit model, instead of protecting our loved ones,” said Singh. “If the Prime Minister was able to make Trans Mountain public, he can absolutely make Revera public and save people’s lives.”

PSP Investments' Revera Disaster? By Leo Kolivakis September 17, 2020

Kevin Skerrett, a Senior Research Officer assigned to pensions for CUPE and co-editor of The Contradictions of Pension Fund Capitalism (2018), wrote a comment in The Bulltet on pension fund capitalism and the COVID-19 pandemic: the case of Revera:Of the many crises provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic across Canada, the dire situation in long-term care facilities and retirement housing may be the most widely and urgently recognized. Even Ontario Premier Doug Ford, whose own party engineered the significant shift to more privatized and ‘marketized’ long-term care (LTC) provision in the 1990s, recently declared the system to be “absolutely broken.”A scathing report prepared by Canadian military specialists sent by the Ontario government to provide emergency staff support to five (eventually six) of the province’s worst-hit homes described the conditions found as “gruesome.” A subsequent report from the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHI) found that Canada has had the highest proportion of total COVID-19 related deaths in LTC facilities (81%) among the 17 OECD countries studied. Public policies promoting the partial commodification, deregulation, and underfunding of seniors’ care in the LTC system by neoliberal governments in Ontario and across the country have now been exposed as nothing short of catastrophic.While less discussed, the media has also reported on the peculiar role being played within this “broken” system by one of Canada’s largest pension funds. The Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP) is a federal crown corporation established in 1999 to invest the pension funds of federal public service workers, along with most of military personnel and RCMP employees. Since its acquisition in 2006, PSP has owned and operated the second-largest for-profit LTC company in the country under the name ‘Revera’. PSP’s ownership of Revera is not in the familiar passive form of a pension fund buying a small packet of equity shares in the company and collecting dividends. Rather, as part of a recent wave of ‘private equity’ corporations getting more directly involved in for-profit healthcare, PSP bought an existing chain of care homes in 2006 and consolidated it under a new management structure that it fully controls. As its 100% owner, PSP is Revera.Privatization, Deregulation, and Mismanagement-The social implications of this ownership are especially troubling in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The terrible consequences of the privatization, deregulation, and mismanagement of so much of our long-term care have provoked serious questions. How could such an important system have become so broken? Who broke it, and for whose benefit? Most importantly, this crisis has generated a wave of demands for the entire LTC sector to be taken into full public ownership. These demands, which polls indicate have wide popular support, put the spotlight on the central involvement of PSP and other workers’ pension funds in this “business.”Even prior to the pandemic, long-term care was well known for its exploitative labour regime, a system imposed on a workforce that is very disproportionately comprised of women and racialized workers. The direct care work involved has been systematically deregulated and shifted from nurses to lower-paid personal support workers (PSWs) and care aides. Very low wages are often combined with part-time and precarious scheduling systems that force workers to take up multiple jobs at different facilities to get enough hours to survive. Subcontracting key functions, such as food service, laundry, and cleaning, to private for-profit companies is pervasive. (Some non-profit and public homes in Ontario are now privately contracting out the management of entire facilities.) In combination, these business practices have made owning, operating, and managing LTC homes highly profitable for their corporate owners and managers, and also unstable and under-resourced places to work and to live. It is for these reasons that LTC facilities have been left incredibly vulnerable to an outbreak of serious viral infection.In this context, PSP’s move into this sector is an especially revealing example of what has been referred to as “pension fund capitalism.” This term has been used to signify the shift that has aligned and implicated pension fund investment managers in neoliberal policy shifts – favouring deregulation, privatization, and intensified worker exploitation. The phrase also signals the fact that pension funds themselves have become key actors within sectors where longer-term ‘fixed capital’ investment, such as public infrastructure and real estate, play a central role in this reconfigured kind of capitalism.This crisis – a combination public health, social, and economic crisis sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic – offers an opportunity for the left, the labour movement, and pro-public healthcare groups to respond to these developments by building a political challenge to capitalist business-as-usual as it relates to healthcare. It seems clear that most workers do not want their retirement incomes to be derived from the worker exploitation and diminished care provision that is so central to the profit making in long-term care. If so, a serious effort to mobilize pension plan members in support of a campaign to decommodify and transform long-term care could play a role in blocking these processes of capitalist restructuring and at the same time meaningfully strengthen Canada’s public healthcare system. Achieving this would literally save lives.The COVID-19 Crisis in Long-Term Care-A review of some details of how the pandemic initially unfolded in the LTC sector is instructive. Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam reported in early May that some 81% of the country’s COVID deaths were “linked to long-term care facilities.” It is also clear that these death rates are far worse among those facilities owned and operated on a for-profit basis – including many owned by large chain operators. The Ontario Health Coalition has published data showing that these death rates are far higher among the for-profit facilities. An investigative report published by the Toronto Star showed that per capita death rates were four times higher in for-profit LTC homes compared to those publicly owned. Of those residents in Ontario LTC homes that have died of COVID-19, more than half were residents at homes owned by just six for-profit companies. (Revera had the second-highest number of resident deaths in that list as of that report, with 230; data published by journalist Nora Loreto put this figure at 261 as of July 21.A more recent study of available data on Ontario’s COVID-19 experience in LTC published by the Canadian Medical Association Journal (July 2020) confirmed that “for-profit LTC homes have larger COVID-19 outbreaks and more deaths of residents.” This study also underlined previous research that found that for-profit homes “tend to deliver inferior care,” which they summarize as including “lower levels and quality of staffing, more complaints from residents and family, higher rates of emergency department visits, more acute care hospital admissions, and higher mortality rates.”This direct relationship between for-profit ownership and death rates should surprise no one. It is fully consistent with the evidence published by a comprehensive, ground-breaking research collaboration led by York University’s Pat Armstrong. Over many years of comparing Canada’s increasingly private and under-funded system to those of several other countries (including Sweden and Norway), this research has repeatedly shown that profit-driven ownership consistently generates negative outcomes for residents and workers:“Private, for-profit services are necessarily more fragmented, more prone to closure and focused on making a profit. The research demonstrates that homes run on a for-profit basis tend to have lower staffing levels, more verified complaints, and more transfers to hospitals, as well as higher rates for both ulcers and morbidity. Moreover, managerial practices taken from the business sector are designed for just enough labour and for making a profit, rather than for providing good care.”They point out that this adoption of practices “from the business sector” exerts downward pressure on wages and working conditions – and quality of care – even in the not-for-profit and publicly-owned facilities. Among their recommendations is an end to such practices, including the extensive subcontracting of so-called “ancillary” services now recognized as crucial to both quality of care and infection control. They also confirm that the disproportionately racialized and feminized labour force has been subjected to increasingly exploitative working conditions.Crucially, such conditions translate directly into degraded care and living conditions for residents, which these researchers suggest opens up important potential for alliances between workers, residents, and family members who share an interest in transforming this system.New Calls for Public Ownership of Long-Term Care.The suffering of the pandemic’s hardest hit populations has obviously given significant new force to these recommendations. In recent weeks there has been a steady stream of new and ambitious appeals for long-term care to be treated as vital healthcare – and made fully public, following the model of the Canada Health Act. The Canadian Labour Congress, the Canadian Health Coalition, the federal NDP, and a growing number of public healthcare advocates are demanding a full-scale overhaul of the entire LTC sector so that it can be properly integrated into the public healthcare system. The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) has launched a major new campaign to this effect, calling for a “well-funded, well-staffed, public long-term care system.” More recently, CUPE was joined by two other unions (SEIU and Unifor) to launch a joint campaign to “end profit-making” in the provision of residential care.Such a transformation would obviously be no small matter. It would require not only new funding commitments from governments, but also a legal mandate to transfer existing facilities from private to public (or, at a minimum, not-for-profit and strictly regulated) ownership. But the calls for such public control are finding widespread public support. An Angus-Reid poll on the issue showed that fully two-thirds (66%) of respondents supported the full-scale “nationalization” of long-term care. An Abacus Data poll recently released by NUPGE indicates an even larger 86% majority of respondents support having long-term care facilities brought under the ‘universal, accessible’ mandate of the Canada Health Act.With such a strong mandate – galvanized by the especially catastrophic performance of the for-profit care homes throughout the COVID-19 pandemic – a genuine transformation for this sector suddenly seems achievable. The mechanics of implementation are not clear, but some measure of financial compensation for the homes’ existing private owners would likely be attached. Any such compensation should be closely scrutinized and debated, particularly given the millions of dollars in public subsidies and supports that the companies have been channelling to shareholders and owners.Of course, the for-profit industry and its extremely well funded lobby have already launched their defence. The largest companies involved – including Extendicare, PSP-Revera, and Chartwell – have been issuing statements to the media rejecting outright the suggestion that private, for-profit ownership of so many facilities has anything to do with the crisis. Industry organizations such as the Ontario Long-Term Care Association (OLTCA) have begun to mobilize such self-interested arguments against these popular pressures, taking full advantage of their links to Doug Ford’s cabinet and Ontario’s governing PC party. The battle is now on. So, what does this mean for the pension fund-LTC operator PSP-Revera? Pension Fund Capital in For-Profit Healthcare-PSP and Revera are already engaged in a fulsome defence of their ownership rights in this sector, so understanding some basics of their history may be useful. The full, legal name of PSP is Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSPIB), and it was established as a federal crown corporation in 1999 after the Liberal government of the day decided to build up a fund of financial market assets linked to federal government-sponsored pension plans. One of the largest such funds in the country, they now manage some $170-billion in assets, with about $66-billion of that amount held in private equity, infrastructure, or real estate.Among PSP’s earliest major acquisitions was a friendly $800-million takeover of an existing for-profit LTC and retirement home company (Retirement REIT) whose Board was chaired by former Tory Premier Bill Davis and also included former Ontario Finance Minister (and later premier) Ernie Eves. Once “Revera” was launched, Davis was invited to join the Board of the new company – and he is still there. These close PC-LTC industry relationships were developed even further in 2003 when former Premier Mike Harris joined the Board of Chartwell Retirement Residences shortly after leaving politics. He is still there today. This means three of the last four PC Ontario premiers have spent time on the boards of these companies – with Doug Ford the only exception.After Revera was launched as a “private” entity, PSP quickly consolidated it into a multinational operation with more than 500 LTC and retirement homes in Canada, the US, and the UK. According to one recent study, it is now the second largest corporate LTC chain in Canada.PSP’s move into this sector was rooted in the politics of privatization that marked the neoliberal turn of the 1980s and 1990s. Following the recession of 1991, the federal and most provincial governments worked to cut taxes and social transfer payments, reduce the role of public ownership in the economy, and make private ownership of various types of public infrastructure easier and more profitable. This was particularly the case in Ontario, where the hard-right governments of Mike Harris and Ernie Eves (1995-2003) showed an ideological preference for private, for-profit ownership in, among other areas, long-term care. According to Justin Panos’ brief history, regulatory and legislative changes in that period significantly shifted a sector that had previously been primarily public or not-for-profit into a far more attractive field for private capital to occupy.In Ontario, these policy changes included the elimination of a minimum-hours standard of care per resident, the de-linking of public funding flows from staffing levels, and the provision of 20-year streams of government payments to for-profit corporate operators to build new LTC facilities. When combined with serious shortages of available beds for a rapidly growing senior population, these policies greatly enhanced the sector’s profitability. Real estate and financial firms began buying up and consolidating individual homes (both private and non-profit) into larger, for-profit chains operating both publicly-supported LTC as well as what have come to be called “retirement residence” facilities or “retirement homes.” (In 2015, the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan expanded their interest in the retirement residences sector by combining the Amica chain of facilities with an existing portfolio of homes under the name Baybridge.)-As a result, investors in private LTC companies, such as Chartwell, have been rewarded with consistently high profit rates, ranging from 9.6% to 12.6% from 2007 to 2012 according to one study. While Revera’s profit rates are not disclosed – even to federal public service plan members – its tax-exempt status, bestowed as a result of its pension fund ownership, suggests that its annual profits may be even higher than this. But these profit levels are not disclosed, and most financial information is even redacted out of reporting required by requests using federal Access to Information legislation.The Contradictions of ‘Pension Fund Capitalism’The historic shift of pension fund practices, from primarily passive investment in stocks and bonds into active, direct operation of corporations such as Revera, raises challenging questions about the relationship between pension plan members and these controversial new portfolios. It has been suggested that this could have a perverse impact on the political views of plan members and their unions with respect to sensitive policy topics such as the private ownership of healthcare facilities. A columnist with the Toronto Sun recently suggested that trade union advocates of full public control over LTC facilities don’t appear to “have much to say” about care homes that are owned by “workers’ pension funds” – citing PSP’s ownership of Revera (along with the ownership of the Amica-Baybridge chain of residences noted above). When the workers who belong to such pension plans learn that “their” funds own and profit from these companies, the columnist argued, their perspective on the legitimacy of such private ownership will become more positive simply out of financial self-interest.However, there are several reasons that this columnist’s confidence about this is misplaced. First, it is quite clear that until recently, very few members of the federal government pension plans that use PSP were even aware that “their” pension fund owns and operates Revera. Pension plan members are told very little about the portfolios or investment practices of their funds, with managers generally limiting such communication to their latest annual ‘rate of return’ and some very abstract commentary about their investment ‘principles’. If the 850,000 members of PSP’s client pension plans were told about its Revera operation, and the real, brutal basis of its profitability, it seems likely that a very large number would want nothing to do with it – if they had any choice in the matter.Secondly, the membership of the pension plans that have their funds invested by PSP is composed primarily of public sector workers, most of whom are, or were, members of unions with strong commitments to public services and public ownership. It also includes over 400,000 retirees and survivors receiving benefits – at least some of whom are themselves likely to be residents of a troubled LTC facility operated by Revera or one of the other for-profit facilities. These members of the client plans of PSPIB may well be even more likely to support moving to a fully public long-term care system than the general public recently polled.Third and most significantly, the recent exposure of Revera’s ownership by PSP has prompted the largest union representing federal public service workers – the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) – to follow up on previously-expressed concerns with a public call in May for the full-scale transfer of Revera to public ownership. PSAC president Chris Aylward argues that his union has long believed that these facilities should be publicly owned and managed. He argues that the growing number of recent class action lawsuits against Revera and the grave problems exposed by the COVID-19 crisis illustrate that the PSP’s ownership of this company now poses a clear “material risk” to plan members.PSAC appears to be quite right about this risk. According to a Toronto Star investigation, some $1.5-billion in dividend-profits have been flowing into the pockets of private LTC company shareholders over the last decade – a figure that does not even include the unreported profits captured by Revera. Now, the disaster of the COVID-19 pandemic has provoked a number of multi-million dollar class action lawsuits citing negligence causing death against Revera, Sienna, and other private operators. This litigation, combined with concerns relating to both pandemic and pre-pandemic problems, has triggered a collapse in the share values of the large for-profit LTC companies. Will these companies continue to reap significant profits in the coming years? The PSAC, other unions, and plan members, have a very good reason to oppose “their” fund being invested in this risky and socially harmful profiteering. The pro-public control statements, campaign launches, and other responses to this crisis from the labour movement suggest that the private corporate operators in this sector have already lost a great deal of their legitimacy. This includes PSP-Revera.Revera and the For-Profit LTC Lobby-Whether these companies can survive financially may well be decided in the battle over public policy now being waged. Will governments bail out these troubled companies, which have for years extracted large profits by underinvesting and understaffing their facilities, while underpaying workers? In the past, it has been public policy decisions that determined the portion of public funding taken in by these private providers, and it has been government policy that protected the companies from the “costs” of minimal staffing standards – despite pressure from both resident advocates and unions. But the pandemic has provoked an intensified policy “engagement” from the for-profit LTC sector in Ontario, which is likely to have parallels across the country. It was recently reported that five of the for-profit LTC corporations (including Revera) have enlisted the services of professional lobbyists who previously worked inside the Ford cabinet to lobby their former employers on their behalf. Their agenda in doing so is no secret – they will be looking to counter the popular momentum behind moving to public ownership and management of the LTC sector.These lobbyists will press for urgent increases in the public funding that flows to them, such that their ongoing profitability will be secured. In fact, they have already scored an important victory with the Ford government’s rapid passage of quasi-bailout legislation (Bill 161) that will provide at least some measure of “immunity” to the for-profit providers, and itself, even from entirely valid COVID-19 death-related class action lawsuits. This measure was then supplemented by an announcement of a massive infusion of public funding for new and redeveloped LTC beds, much of which will flow to the for-profit entities.Of course, such lobbying may not even be necessary, as established neoliberal reflexes are reinforced by the close links between the for-profit LTC industry and Ontario’s PC party (noted above). In addition to his appointment to the Board of LTC operator Chartwell, former Premier Mike Harris has also spent time as a ‘Fellow’ of the hard-right Fraser Institute, arguing alongside former Reform Party leader Preston Manning for the further privatization of Canada’s public healthcare system. As noted above, former Tory premier Bill Davis has had a seat on the PSP-Revera Board from its inception. His presence surely continues to serve a useful purpose, even symbolically. While both former Tory premiers have presumably received generous compensation for their services over the years, their most important role may be as communications conduits for company agendas.Notwithstanding such existing linkages, these corporate-political relationships are further organized and brokered through the province’s industry lobby group mentioned above, the Ontario Long-Term Care Association (OLTCA). Alongside all of the other major for-profit firms, Revera is represented on the OLTCA Board of Directors by its Senior VP for Long Term Care, Wendy Gilmour, whose personal background is in private sector lab service companies CML and Lifelabs. The primary spokesperson for OLTCA, Donna Duncan, is yet another LTC industry player with past connections to Ontario Tory politicians, having served as policy director for then-PC leader John Tory in 2006 as well as “various” roles in the Government of Ontario in the 1996-2001 period (most of the Mike Harris years).But Revera also intervenes politically on its own accord. From the time of its formation, the company – again, a subsidiary of a federal crown corporation – has made thousands of dollars in direct donations to those provincial political parties it sees as representing its interests. (Notably, according to the National Post’s donations database, the company has not reported any donations to the NDP.) In this context, we can anticipate that Revera, alongside its fellow for-profit LTC operators in Ontario and across Canada, will be working hard in the coming weeks to defend for-profit long-term care, and to politically oppose the growing popular calls to make the entire sector public.Challenging Revera and ‘Pension Fund Capitalism’Most workers do not want their pension benefits, or their RRSP or mutual fund investments, to be built from the exploitation of other workers, or the privatization and degradation of public services such as healthcare (including long-term care). For this reason, it should not be surprising that the pension and retirement fund industry appears to limit disclosure of their most politically sensitive investments. The PSAC’s call for relinquishing PSP’s ownership of this company, and its transfer into public hands, is an exceptionally bold demand. Similar calls from other unions representing federal public service workers, and from members of the general public, may well follow.

But while the Revera case may be a particularly disturbing example of predatory pension fund investment, it is not exceptional. The PSP also holds significant private equity stakes in corporate entities that own and operate other kinds of public infrastructure, including airports, electricity generation and transmission, toll highways, child care centres, and even a US company specializing in for-profit physician outsourcing. These are among the most socially and politically sensitive types of “public infrastructure,” and include investments into functions that many people in Canada (and many pension plan members) feel should be publicly owned and managed in the public interest.These kinds of investment holdings and practices reflect an industry-wide 20-year trend among Canada’s large pension funds, including CPPIB, Ontario Teachers, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), and OMERS. Such pension fund strategies reflect the ongoing ‘financialization’ of vital public services and infrastructure. Virtually all of the largest Canada-based pension funds have channeled billions of dollars into these very same sectors, often in other countries where their controversial social impacts are less likely to be reported. As with the case of Revera and long-term care, these large pension funds have not only taken advantage of the opportunities that neoliberal policies have created, they have also collaborated and formed partnerships with other giants of global finance to maintain and extend them ever further.These powerful collaborations and agendas must be politically challenged. When institutions of private capital like PSP-Revera run into inevitable clarifying moments – such as the COVID-19 pandemic – social movements of workers and public interest advocates need to seize them to build the counterweight we need. In this case, two key strategic initiatives present themselves. First, the tragic case of Revera, and the loud new calls for long-term care to be made fully public, offer an opening for those of us arguing that this system can only be fully fixed through a combination of accountable public ownership and enough public funding to allow the care work at its centre to be fully decommodified, valued, and properly compensated. Along with trade union and social advocacy campaigns in this direction, pension plan members and their unions can insist that any pension investments involving privatization or private for-profit management of public services and infrastructure be, at bare minimum, fully disclosed. As a principle, we should know what is being done in our name, with what we are told is “our” money. From there, we can entertain the serious debates needed about how we can work to ensure that the role currently played by pension funds and other forms of private capital in the provision of healthcare, social care, and other vital public services is phased out entirely.Secondly, and over the longer term, the labour movement and the retirement security movement need to develop a strategy for reversing the expanded “financialization” of our pension system. That process has involved more than just workplace pension plans and fund managers like PSP. Through a series of public policy measures, the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and the Québec Pension Plan (QPP) were re-engineered into massive financial asset funds that now hold over $750-billion in global financial markets. As these funds were being built up, retirement security was being re-framed as an individual under-investment problem, to be solved through more private savings into individualized RRSPs and investment savings accounts – highly profitable products that channel these savings into financial markets with ecologically destructive and anti-social appetites. In that light, the Revera case and the COVID-19 pandemic have underlined the serious risks of building our vital social systems on a foundation of private financial profits. The alternative we now urgently need is a universal and adequate public pension system that is secured – like public healthcare – by our collective commitment to each other. O9h boy! I wasn't going to touch this with a ten foot pole but after reading it, I decided it definitely is Pension Pulse worthy.First, let me thank Sam Boskey for sending this comment. Sam is a proud Montrealer and an even prouder Lefty. He he has been a provincial civil servant for many decades. He represented south-eastern NDG on Montreal City Council for most of the 1980s and 1990s, first for the Montreal Citizens’ Movement and later for the Democratic Coalition of Montreal, under three different Mayors.Sam is part of an old email distribution list (called UGLYNEWWORLD) started by the late Sam Noumoff, a "radical Leftist" who taught politics at McGill University for decades (he was one of the nicest and smartest professors I ever had when I took an elective course he taught and I enjoyed many dinners with him and the rest of the Men's Club at Alep restaurant here in Montreal).My own political and economic leanings are right of center but I've learned a lot about capitalism from guys like Sam Noumoff, Tom Naylor, George Archer, Jonathan Nitzan, Robin Rowley, Sam Boskey and others.I have also openly stated on a few occasions that greatest intellectual tour de force I ever came across is professor Charles Taylor, a renowned political philosopher who is a card carrying member of the NDP. So if I used to hang around with all these Lefties and admire their intellectual prowess, why do I lean right of center? Maybe because I've worked in finance and genuinely believe in the primacy of the private sector. Without a strong, vibrant private sector, you simply can't afford to have a strong and vibrant public sector.It doesn't mean I think capitalism is perfect, far from it, and I will touch more about it tomorrow when I go over Ray Dalio's latest warning on the crisis of capitalism:Billionaire investor Ray Dalio on capitalism’s crisis: The world is going to change ‘in shocking ways’ in the next five years https://t.co/3QFYdyCljV — MarketWatch (@MarketWatch) September 17, 2020-Now, let me get back to Kevin Skerrett's comment above as it's extremely critical not just of PSP-Revera, but also of the process he has dubbed as "pension fund capitalism" which according to him, pervades all of Canada's large public pensions and is a real cause for concern as it exposes all these large public pensions to "predatory pension investments".Before I share my thoughts with you on the comment above, please note I did send it to PSP's President and CEO, Neil Cunningham, as well as to Darren Baccus, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Real Estate and Natural Resources, over the weekend. Not surprisingly, they didn't get back to me and are probably reluctant to discuss this comment publicly for legal reasons (Mr. Baccus used to head up PSP's Legal department so I'm sure he told Neil not to comment and PSP generally avoids making any public comments).That's fine, I totally understand PSP's corporate culture but I would have appreciated some feedback.I think it's fair to state Revera has been an unmitigated communications disaster for PSP Investments:From that last article:In a column on May 11, I reported that the federal government owns 100 per cent of the second largest chain of for-profit nursing homes and retirement residences in Canada, Revera Inc., which, as it happens, is also the second largest for-profit operator in the United States.That ownership is held through a Crown corporation, the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, which invests the pension contributions of federal public servants, Canadian Armed Forces and the RCMP. PSP Investments, as it known, created Revera in 2007 when it purchased retirement residences and LTC homes from the Reichmann family.Although none of the five nursing homes in the military report is owned by Revera, the company has been the focus of considerable controversy and legal activity. Its Forest Heights Long-Term Care Centre in Kitchener has been the epicentre of the COVID-19 crisis in Waterloo Region, as another Revera property, McKenzie Towne Continuing Care Centre, has been in Calgary.Dozens of lawsuits have been filed over deaths at Revera homes in Western Canada and Ontario. In the largest COVID-related class action in Canada, six representative plaintiffs are seeking $120 million in damages against Revera and Sienna Senior Living Inc., another for-profit chain.Even without the COVID-19 deaths and lawsuits, why the government would want to be in the business of squeezing profit from the care of frail, elderly citizens is a question that deserves to be asked.It was not until last Thursday, however, that the question finally got asked, by NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, and answered, after a fashion, by Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. She said federal pensions funds are managed by independent Crown corporations — in addition to the PSPIB, there is a separate Crown corporation for the Canada Pension Plan. But, she added, the “ownership structure” of LTC facilities “is something that needs on be on the table.”I am puzzled by the PSPIB. In its 2019 annual report, the investment board expresses sensitivity to environmental issues: “We strongly believe that environmental, social and governance factors — such as climate change, health and safety and ethical conduct — are material to long-term returns and that we need to integrate them into our investment decision-making processes.”But there is no indication in the report that the board has any interest in the care, or lack of care, of patients in the LTC homes it holds for the federal government.I went over PSP's 2009 Annual Report. Back then, they used to post the compensation of Revera's CEO:And they added a footnote: "Mr. Watchorn is not an employee of PSP Investments, but is employed by Revera Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of PSP Investments. His compensation is based on a contract with Revera Inc. Revera Inc.’s financial year ends on December 31."Today, Revera Inc. is run by Thomas G. Wellner, and his senior managers:I'm not sure how much Mr. Wellner earns but I'm sure it's market rate which is a few million dollars a year.Now, to be fair and completely honest, I haven't reached out to anyone at Revera, I don't know them at all and I'm sure they have been extremely busy ever since the pandemic hit Canada.It's also worth noting that this isn't the first time Revera has received bad press. In 2016, a Toronto malpractice lawyer launched an unprecedented multimillion dollar class-action lawsuit against Revera, charging that it routinely neglected or mistreated elderly residents.The multimillion-dollar suit was prompted by the case of Ross Jones, a 68-year-old man who allegedly spent the last days of his life in agony, an infected pressure sore left untreated by a Revera Inc. facility.At the time, John Beaney, a former Revera vice-president, said he could not comment on the specifics of the allegations, but argued the suit lacks merit:“We’ve been operating as an organization for more than 50 years … and have successfully cared for hundreds of thousands of people,” he said.  “We’re very proud of our dedicated employees who provide that care.”He also noted that nursing home residents have increasingly complex health issues, their deaths often a result of multiple factors.“When a resident passes away … it’s not black and white and this can understandably make it difficult for loved ones, who seek answers in those cases.”Mr. Beaney is still with Revera, SVP Retirement, and I never found out the fallout from this class action lawsuit. He is right about one thing, nursing home residents have increasingly complex health issues, and their deaths often are a result of multiple factors. It's easy to point the finger at neglect and mistreatment, sometimes it's just that there are underlying health conditions which are very complex and can make the old and frail a lot more vulnerable to death.We saw this with COVID-19. Canada's long-term care facilities (LTC) got hit very hard. We have one of the worst track records among any OECD nation, if not the worst. From Quebec to Ontario to British Columbia, public and private long-term care facilities got hit hard during this pandemic, and we lost too many people that quite honestly shouldn't have died.Importantly, we as a nation failed our most vulnerable citizens, we should all be ashamed of this.But to politicize this tragedy the way Kevin Skerrett does above and to blame it on "pension fund capitalism" and "predatory pension investments" is just ridiculous and plain wrong.I can tell you for a fact, one of the worst hit long-term care facilities in the country was Town of Mount-Royal's Vigi Home, right in my backyard.Investigators are still looking into the catastrophic outbreak that infected all residents of TMR seniors' home, killing over 70 people.

The Canadian Armed Forces were called in, I saw them in the parking lot loading up dead bodies, it was horrific.Anyway, the Army report found workers at this publicly run facility stole PPEs (personal protective equipment) and neglected patients, it was a disaster.Now, to be fair, another bigger catastrophe in Montreal was CHSLD Herron, a privately run long-term care facility run by incompetent criminal fools who were tied to the mob and where abuse and neglect was rampant.The point is there are plenty of cases of mismanagement, neglect and abuse at both private and public long-term care facilities in Canada, and I question Mr. Skerrett's biased comment which basically claims abuse and neglect was much worse at for-profit facilities.This isn't to say we don't need a commission to investigate what went wrong and how we can make sure this never happens again but to blame private long-term facilities and neoliberal deregulation is just a bunch of left-wing nonsense.I can't stomach that crap and I don't care if it comes from Mr. Skerrett, CUPE or PSAC.What else do I find ridiculous in his comment? His entire discussion on pension fund capitalism and predatory pension investments is so ill-informed and just plain ludicrous.Canada's large pensions are known to be the best pensions in the world. That's a fact.They are run like businesses and are run by professionals who have extensive experience managing public and private assets in the best long-term interests of their members. This includes adopting the best ESG standards for all their investments across public and private assets. Importantly, the cornerstone to their success is a governance model which keeps government out of their day-to-day operations.All this is totally lost on Mr. Skerrett and these public sector unions whose members benefit the most from the success of the Canada model".Is the governance at Canada's large public pensions perfect? No, it isn't, it's a work in progress, but to lambast them and accuse them of "predatory pension investments" is so wrong on so many levels.I know Neil Cunningham, PSP's President and CEO. I guarantee you he has had multiple calls with Mr. Wellner, Revera's CEO, over the past six months to discuss the pandemic and how they are treating and caring for their patients.There's no doubt in my mind Neil cares about these people, none whatsoever, and if he thought Revera was doing a lousy job, heads would have rolled. I'm convinced of this.All this to say it's easy for Mr. Skerrett and others to criticize from the outside, they have no clue what is going on in the background.And I'd rather have PSP Investments managing long-term care facilities than some bozo government agency where there's literally no accountability whatsoever.Having said all this, I do agree with Mr. Skerrett on one thing, the pandemic has exposed PSP and its members to litigation risk and this can go on for years and potentially cost cost hundreds of millions of dollars. There will also be increased regulations and much more scrutiny on all long-term care facilities.That all remains to be seen, however, so it's hard to gauge the fallout right now.The other problem for PSP and other large pensions investing in long-term care facilities is how the pandemic will impact demand in the years to come.On the one hand, more people are getting older with all sorts of health conditions and will require long-term care, on the other, I'm not so sure people will be carting their loved ones off to a long-term care facility as they have been doing pre-COVID. I wouldn't want to see my loved ones die like that, nobody would. Alright, I realize this is a long comment but I needed to cover this topic and give you my thoughts.If you have anything to add, feel free to reach out to me at LKolivakis@gmail.com.Below, Revera CEO Thomas Wellner welcomes you to Revera .He doesn't sound like an evil capitalist to me. Also, a Director of Care explains a day in her life at Revera. Remember, Revera is global now.Lastly, the Canadian military's report into Quebec's long-term care homes during the COVID-19 crisis found ongoing staff shortages and issues with the use of personal protective equipment. As I stated above, this is a national tragedy, a disgrace that needs to be thoroughly investigated and we need to learn and make sure it never happens ever again at public and private long-term care facilities.Update: Wayne Kozun, CIO at Forthlane Partners and former SVP at OTPP, shared this with me after reading this comment:I enjoyed your response to this Leo.  A couple of other things I would add.The story implies that it was just recently "revealed" that PSP owns Revera.  You showed that there was info on Revera in PSP's annual report from 11 years ago.  This was not a secret. If PSP members were not aware that the plan owned Revera then that is their own ignorance of failing to pay attention. The story talks about privatization of LTC. I am not an expert on this, but I don't think that LTC homes were ever primarily government owned institutions.  These were always privately run. You can argue that for profit is not a good model, but that is a different issuE.Amica/Baybridge is mentioned in the article.  I was part of OTPP creating Baybridge. Baybridge owns and operates independent living and assisted living homes, not LTC.  The difference is that LTC are nursing homes that are populated by very old and frail people. Independent living and assisted living are different and have much less of a healthcare component. They are more like apartment buildings for seniors with food service and some lighter nursing care.I thank Wayne for sharing his wise insights with my readers.Also, on Friday morning, James Infantino of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) shared this with me:I was obviously interested in your most recent posting on PSP Investments and Revera Inc.! I am not sure you are aware or not but on Wednesday evening the PSAC in conjunction with the Canadian Health Coalition sponsored a very successful cross-country virtual Town Hall meeting in support of the “Make Revera Public” campaign. The event is already receiving media interest (see here) and the PSAC anticipates further news coverage in the forthcoming 24 to 48 hours.I think it is important to emphasize that the PSAC does not claim that PSP Investments or Revera Inc. are a bunch of capitalistic evil-doers out to deliberately annihilate seniors in private long-term care facilities. Rather, the point is that the for-profit model does not work and is a failure in the long-term care industry. For your information, I am attaching copies of the exchange of e-mail correspondence between PSAC National President, Brother Chris Aylward and PSP Investments CEO Neil Cunningham which raises the concerns of the “material risk” Revera Inc. presents to the pension funds of our members.As for your Mr. Kozun, please advise him that the PSAC has had concerns with Revera Inc. dating back to 2012 when approximately 80 Licensed Practical Nurses, Health Care Aides and other support workers at Revera Inc. long-term care facility in Alberta (Revera Riverbend, were forced out on strike in an attempt to negotiate a first collective agreement for “salary and working conditions equivalent to industry standards”. The response of then PSP Investments CEO to a formal request from the PSAC to intervene with Revera Inc. that PSP Investments does not involve itself in the operational matters of its subsidiaries was frankly B.S.. Fortunately, the Alberta Government at the time, out of concern for the welfare of the residents of Revera Riverbend, issued a Ministerial Order which put an end to the strike and referred the outstanding issues to binding arbitration.Secondly, Mr. Kozun is right that Revera Inc. operates chains of both “long-term care facilities” as well as “retirement residences”. The latter are less problematic for the PSAC and would probably not be included in the proposal to transition the management and operation of these facilities to the provincial jurisdictions in which Revera Inc. operates.As I said during the “Make Revera Public” Town Hall meeting, PSAC is determined to pursue this matter and be on the right side of history in this debate. Are you? I thank James for sending me this message as well as the email correspondence between "Brother Chris Aylward" and Neil Cunningham, PSP's President and CEO. James allowed me to share this with the public but for brevity purposes, I am only sharing Neil's email response (added emphasis is mine):Dear Mr. Aylward, Thank you for your letter dated May 11 regarding PSP’s investment in Revera Inc. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on long-term care facilities across Canada has been devastating as we all now know and we at PSP have the deepest sympathy for those who have succumbed to COVID-19, their families, their friends and all those effected, including the staff who cared for them. PSP insists that our investment partners who operate the assets in which we invest use best industry practices in their operations, including, but certainly not limited to, health and safety concerns for the workers and all those who access our facilities. This is especially true for residents and staff of Revera operated long-term care homes and other facilities.Revera has been operating elder care facilities for close to 60 years, with dedicated and professional management and employees. At the time of our acquisition of Revera in 2007, PSP put in place a public company-style governance structure with an autonomous Board of Directors that oversees Revera’s activities and ensures it consistently applies best industry practices throughout its long-term care facilities. The Revera Board is composed of a majority of independent Directors, including two former medical professionals, with deep and relevant industry experience, expertise and skill sets to rigorously oversee the quality of care provided at Revera facilities.The structural issues in the long-term care system, many of which stem from chronic under-funding, have long been apparent to those involved in the industry. Sadly, it has taken a horrific event to bring those issues to the forefront, but we’re hopeful that, if there is a silver lining in this very dark cloud, there will be a review of the sector that leads to positive change. Revera has always worked within the long-term care system to try to improve it and they are today committed to being part of the solution going forward. For more background on Revera’s initiatives towards constantly improving care within its facilities as well as some statistics from industry studies on care levels in long-term care homes, including some broken down by ownership type, I invite you to read the recent release by Revera here.I would caution you against relying on media reports of potential litigation as a means of risk assessment of PSP’s investments or as justification for a divestiture decision. PSP has a very robust risk management process and I can assure you that this investment has been subjected to appropriate scrutiny and does not in our view represent undue risk for the Federal Public Service Pension Plan.It is unfortunate that you were not available to get together in Ottawa when I was there. I hope that we’ll find a mutually convenient time to meet at some point in the not too distant future, although obviously not possible in the very near term. In the meantime, I trust you, your family and colleagues are all safe and well.James Infantino also told me PSP Investments will be doing its annual update to stakeholders next Friday (virtually) and the PSAC plans to raise the issue of Revera directly with PSP's senior managers. I'm looking forward to getting an update on that meeting, it will be very interesting.Lastly, I did reach out to Thomas Wellner, CEO of Revera, on Friday morning to inform him of my blog comment and Susan Schutta, Vice President of Corporate Affairs, sent me back this response:Mr. Wellner shared your email with me and requested that I follow up with you. We have both read your blog and we appreciate the passion with which you raise the need to address systemic issues in Canada’s long term care sector. We agree that the sector has not received the support or funding needed from governments across Canada, and that more attention needs to be brought to the sector if we are to address longstanding issues such as labour shortages and a stable workforce. As Revera outlines in our May media release, these pre-existing systemic issues impacted operators of all ownership models.Change is needed in the long term care sector. It is important that we invest time and energy advocating for the right change.Thank you for your passion and commitment to improving the long term care sector in Canada. I thank Mr. Wellner and Ms. Schutta for sending me their response on this matter.      

MIKE LINDELL ON DEMOLIBNUT FIXED VOTER ELECTION FOR BIDEN 2020.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVYD49IoTU0   (P-1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBLf69TCcR8   (P-2)
REBUILD THIRD TEMPLE NOW-TEMPLE INSTITUTE IS TRUE (THESE ARE ALL MYTHS) - MYTH 3RD TEMPLE COMES FROM HEAVEN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HTA5H_l0P4
MYTH ONLY THE MESSIAH CAN BUILD THE 3RD TEMPLE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCeEjWqV5bM
MYTH - NOT IN HEAVEN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP4xKP1LAVA
PENNSYLVANIA LOOKS INTO VOTER FRAUD
https://www.oann.com/pa-state-legislature-examining-all-aspects-of-voting-systems/

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE FIGHTS BACK AGAINST THE DEMON POSSESSED HITLER DEMOLIBNUTJOBS.

2020 AMERICAN ELECTION

THE COVID-19 TOTALS.
WORLD OVER ALL CASES 101,513,704 DEAD 2,186,400 AS OF THU JAN 28, 2021

THE VILLAGE LOCK DOWN DAY 5-THU JAN 28,21
EITHER TODAY OR TOMORROW WE AT THE VILLAGE SHOULD GET ALL THE NO COVID-19 RESULTS. AND FINALLY GET OUTTA OUR ROOMS AGAIN. ALREADY I HEARD THE ONE WORKER HAD A NO COVID. I HEARD THE ONLY REASON WERE IN OUR ROOMS YET. ARE BECAUSE THEIR WAITING FOR ALL THE RESIDENTS RESULTS OF NO COVID. WHICH SHOULD BE TODAY SOMETIME OR TOMORROW. THEN BACK TO SO CALLED NORMAL.

MIKE LINDELL ON DEMOLIBNUT FIXED VOTER ELECTION FOR BIDEN 2020.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVYD49IoTU0   (P-1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBLf69TCcR8   (P-2)
REBUILD THIRD TEMPLE NOW-TEMPLE INSTITUTE IS TRUE (THESE ARE ALL MYTHS) - MYTH 3RD TEMPLE COMES FROM HEAVEN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HTA5H_l0P4
MYTH ONLY THE MESSIAH CAN BUILD THE 3RD TEMPLE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCeEjWqV5bM
MYTH - NOT IN HEAVEN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP4xKP1LAVA
PENNSYLVANIA LOOKS INTO VOTER FRAUD
https://www.oann.com/pa-state-legislature-examining-all-aspects-of-voting-systems/

AS HITLERS PROPAGANDA CLINTON NEWS NETWORK CNN CLAIMS. THIS 2ND POLICE OFFICERS LIBERAL GUILT SUICIDE FOR HELPING SET UP TRUMP AND HIS SUPPORTERS.WILL BE BLAMED ON THOSE BLOOD THURSTY TRUMP SUPPORTERS. CNN WILL SAY. JUST WAIT TODAY. JAN 28,21. AND NOW GAY BOY DEMON POSSESSED BURN IN THE LAKE OF FIRE FOREVER-NEVER ENDING DON LEMON AND CNN. ARE TRYING TO MAKE GREAT LADY MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE LOOK LIKE A DOMESTIC EXTREMIST TERRORIST THAT TRYED TO QUESTION DEMOLIBNUTJOB DAVID HOGG OVER LIES AND PROPAGANDA HE SPEWED AFTER THE PARKLAND SHOOTING. BUT THERES ONE THING THE HITLER CULTISTS PROPAGANDA DEMON FILLED CLINTON NETWORK NEWS CNN WON'T SAY. THAT MARJORIE IS GOT IMPEACHMENT ARTICLES AGAINST BIDEN/HARRIS BABY KILLER DEMONS FROM HELL. I JUST PRAY MARJORIE WILL IMPEACH BIDEN/HARRIS AND ALL THE DEMOLIBNUTS THAT GOT AWAY WITH ALL THEIR CRIMINAL CORRUPT SETUPS AGAINST TRUMP AND HIS 79 MILLION SUPPORTERS IN AMERICA.WITH THE RUSSIA-OBAMA-DNC-CLINTON GATE. FOR THE LAST 5 YEARS NOW. AND FOIR THE DNC-DEMOLIBNUTS FAKE FALSE FLAG RIOT AT THE CAPITAL 3 WEEKS AGO. TO ONCE AGAIN DESTROY TRUMP AND HIS LOYAL 79 MILLION VOTERS. THE JIHADI DEMOLIBS ALSO FIXED THE ELECTION AGAINST TRUMP. AND ALL THE 79 MILLION VOTERS WHO VOTED TRUMP IN AS THE 46TH PRESIDENT. SEE HOW CRIMINAL AND CORRUPT THESE PEACE-LOVE-JOY-UTOPIA-BABY KILLER-INCLUSIVE-HITLER PROPAGANDIST-RACE BAITING-SODOMITE GROUPERS WORSHIPPERS FOR VOTES. AND MUSLIM JIHADIST TERRORISTS SUCKUPS.FOR VOTES. DEMOLIBNUTJOBS REALLY ARE. ONLY GOD CAN REVEAL ALL THEIR SINS AND DESERVED JUDGEMENTS ON THESE TRUMP AND 79 MILLION TRUMP SUPPORTERS. AND ALSO JOE BIDEN HAS DEMENTIA. THE DEMOLIBNUTS HAVE THE RIGHT SAVIOR IN POWER FOR THEM.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tETOEfOaNhw - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA-GoeFGyIc

Cancel Culture Media Calls for Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to Resign Over Past Comments — Rep. Greene HITS BACK-By Jim Hoft-Published January 27, 2021 at 11:46am

CNN published a hit piece Wednesday on outspoken freshman Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia.Democrats and their media are very upset with Marjorie Taylor Greene after she introduced articles of impeachment against corrupt pervert Joe Biden last week following his virtual inauguration.According to CNN Rep. Greene “liked” Facebook comments that threatened crooked Democrats and FBI operatives.Greene, who represents Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, frequently posted far-right extremist and debunked conspiracy theories on her page, including the baseless QAnon conspiracy which casts former President Donald Trump in an imagined battle against a sinister cabal of Democrats and celebrities who abuse children.In one post, from January 2019, Greene liked a comment that said “a bullet to the head would be quicker” to remove House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In other posts, Greene liked comments about executing FBI agents who, in her eyes, were part of the “deep state” working against Trump.If Democrats had hoped Rep. Greene was your typical wilting Republican and would cower in a corner, they would be wrong.Following the report today Rep. Greene went on a tear hitting back at her liberal critics.Marjorie did NOT hold back.Responding to crooked FBI agent Peter Strzok–You and @CNN are both co-conspirators in the biggest LIE ever told to the American people! The Trump Russian Collusion Conspiracy Theory.You used Steele’s lying dossier to lie some more to FISA & spy on @carterwpage.Your politically motivated betrayal demeans the FBI. https://t.co/L66eglFpKF— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) January 27, 2021 Responding to Hillary Clinton–Actually, @HillaryClinton, you should be in jail. #LockHerUp https://t.co/K8mJFYuyUt pic.twitter.com/bGZt2spt2l— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) January 27, 2021-Responding to radical Marxist Democrat Raphael Warnock–You, of all people, that preaches abortion from the pulpit should not judge.You don’t believe the very word of God that created us male and female in His image and declares, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.”“Pastor,” being a heretic is far worse than fake news. https://t.co/dL5vcajERb— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) January 27, 2021-This pro-Trump representative is a fighter! #ImpeachBiden pic.twitter.com/m7PZUY4Qvq— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) January 27, 2021.

Marjorie Taylor Greene files articles of impeachment against Joe Biden-Lawmaker’s stunt destined to go nowhere with Democratic controlled House and Senate-Graeme Massie-Los Angeles-@graemekmass
https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/HSGAC_Finance_Report_FINAL.pdf

Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has filed articles of impeachment against Joe Biden the day after he was inaugurated as president.The lawmaker, who has ties to the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory, took to Twitter to announce her action against the new president.“I’ve just filed articles of impeachment on president Joe Biden, we will see how this goes," she said.Ms Greene, who is a pro-Trump election fraud conspiracy theorist, was able to use the social media platform after being banned from it for 12 hours last weekend.Twitter blocked her account for violating the rules it put in place following the violence at the 6 January Capitol riot."The account referenced has been temporarily locked out for multiple violations of our civic integrity policy," said a Twitter spokeperson.Ms Greene has also been accused of posting false flag conspiracy theories on Facebook about the Parkland High School shooting, according to Forbes.Seventeen students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, died in a mass shooting on 14 February 2018.Her stunt comes less than a month into her first term in Congress and is destined for quick failure as the Democrats now control the House and Senate, in addition to the White House.The congresswoman filed the articles over debunked claims of corruption against Mr Biden and his family in Ukraine, Russia and China.Mr Biden has rubbished claims he made any decisions while in office that were based on his son Hunter Biden’s overseas business interests.A Senate investigation by Republicans last year found no evidence of corruption against the president and no evidence that his son’s work for Burisma, an oil company, influenced US foreign policy.“President Joe Biden is unfit to hold the office of the presidency. His pattern of abuse of power as President Obama’s vice president is lengthy and disturbing," said Ms Greene in a statement.Earlier in the day Ms Greene attacked Mr Biden’s inauguration celebration on Twitter.“Yesterday’s inauguration looked like a one party military state takeover with 30K troops,” she tweeted."People were told not to go and flags were planted to show the fake support.“Biden calls for unity after the Dem party has attacked & continues to attack anyone that disagrees with them.”On inauguration day she also referred to the new president in a tweet as “a clueless Grandpa.”She was among the 139 representatives and eight senators who opposed Electoral College results from Arizona and Pennsylvania confirming Mr Biden’s win over Donald Trump.Ms Greene also alleged that there was voter fraud in her home state that resulted in Mr Biden’s close win in Georgia , but that her win was totally legitimate and that her vote count was accurate.Republican officials who oversaw the election in Georgia have repeatedly debunked her false claims of voter fraud and Mr Biden’s win was confirmed after a string of checks and hand recounts.Ms Greene won her house seat in November and represents Georgia's 14th Congressional District, which includes almost all of the northwestern part of the state.Donald Trump campaigned on her behalf and even called her a “future Republican star.”She then spoke out against Mr Trump’s historic second impeachment, for inciting insurrection at the Capitol."Democrats' impeachment of President Trump today has now set the standard that they should be removed for their support of violence against the American people," she said during the House hearing.GOP colleagues have gone out of their way to denounce Ms Greene and others in her conspiracy theory wing of the party.“She’ll keep making fools out of herself, her constituents, and the Republican Party,” Republican Senator Ben Sasse wrote in the Atlantic.“If the GOP is to have a future outside the fever dreams of internet trolls, we have to call out falsehoods and conspiracy theories unequivocally. We have to repudiate people who peddle those lies,” he added.

QAnon Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene files articles of impeachment against Biden arguing he is 'unfit' to be president and 'will do whatever it takes to bail out Hunter'

    Greene, 46, indicated she is accusing Biden of abusing his power as Vice President when his son served on a Ukrainian energy company's board
    The Georgia Congresswoman made her move a day after Biden's inauguration
    Greene was on Sunday temporarily suspended from Twitter; she has previously expressed racist views and support for QAnon conspiracy theories online
    Trump and his Republican allies made Hunter Biden’s business dealings in China and Ukraine a line of attack against the elder Biden during the election campaign
    Senate Republicans said last year that the appointment may have posed a conflict of interest but did not show policies were affected by Hunter work
    Donald Trump was last week impeached for the second time for his role in inciting the riot at the U.S. Capitol set up his trial in the Senate

By Lauren Fruen For Dailymail.com-: 18:54 EST, 21 January 2021

QAnon Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said Thursday she has filed articles of impeachment against Joe Biden. The Republican Congresswoman from Georgia, 46, argued the newly elected president is 'unfit' for office and 'will do whatever it takes to bail out Hunter'. In a statement Greene indicated she is accusing Biden of abusing his power as Vice President when his son served on a Ukrainian energy company's board. It comes just one day after Biden was sworn into office. Greene was on Sunday temporarily suspended from Twitter. She has previously expressed racist views and support for QAnon conspiracy theories online.She said in a statement Thursday:  'President Joe Biden is unfit to hold the office of the presidency. His pattern of abuse of power as President Obama's Vice President is lengthy and disturbing. 'President Biden has demonstrated that he will do whatever it takes to bail out his son, Hunter, and line his family's pockets with cash from corrupt foreign energy companies,' In a statement Greene indicated she is accusing Biden of abusing his power as Vice President when his son served on a Ukrainian energy company's board. It comes just one day after Biden was sworn into office, pictured Wednesday-Greene also released a video to Twitter announcing her decision. She said: 'I've just filed articles of impeachment on president Joe Biden, we will see how this goes.' Donald Trump was last week impeached for the second time for his role in inciting the riot at the U.S. Capitol set up his trial in the Senate.The former president was acquitted by the Senate in February last year on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress stemming from his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden.President Trump and his Republican allies in Congress made Hunter Biden’s business dealings in China and Ukraine a line of attack against the elder Biden during the 2020 election campaign.  Senate Republicans said in a report last year that the appointment may have posed a conflict of interest but did not provide evidence that any policies were directly affected by Hunter Biden’s work.In December it was then revealed that Hunter is under federal investigation for his taxes. Hunter Biden has denied any wrongdoing, and his father released a statement supporting his son. Joe Biden (L), flanked by is wife US First Lady Jill Biden (2nd L), Hunter Biden (R) and Ashley Biden (C), is sworn in as the 46th US President by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts-Greene had already pledged on January 13: 'On January 21st, I'm filing Articles of Impeachment on President-elect.'75 million Americans are fed up with inaction. It's time to take a stand. I'm proud to be the voice of Republican voters who have been ignored.' It is unlikely that Biden will be impeached with Democrats controlling the House.Greene's Twitter account was suspended 'without explanation,' she said in a statement over the weekend, while also condemning big tech companies for 'silencing' conservative views.The businesswoman and political newcomer was elected to represent Georgia's 14th District in November. She's gained large followings on social media in part by posting incendiary videos and comments and has also embraced QAnon.The far-right U.S. conspiracy theory is centered around the debunked belief that President Donald Trump is waging a secret campaign against enemies in the 'deep state' and a child sex trafficking ring they say is linked to Democrats.QAnon followers grappled with anger, confusion and disappointment Wednesday as President Joe Biden was sworn into office. The businesswoman and political newcomer was elected to represent Georgia's 14th District in November. She's gained large followings on social media in part by posting incendiary videos and comments and has also embraced QAnon-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks as President Donald Trump listens at a campaign rallyin Dalton, Georgia on Monday, January 4. Greene was on Sunday temporarily suspended from Twitter. She has previously expressed racist views and support for QAnon conspiracy theories.It has also emerged Greene described the Parkland high school shooting that left 17 dead as a 'false flag' event in a resurfaced Facebook post from 2018. The conspiracy theory that the shooting was an orchestrated event with an anti-gun agenda has circulated in right-wing circles. Shortly before her Twitter ban, Greene posted a clip from an interview with a local news outlet in which she condemned Georgia election officials and expressed support for debunked theories claiming that voting machines, absentee ballots and other issues led to widespread fraud in the state during the presidential election.Twitter responded to the tweet, and others, with a message that called the election fraud claim 'disputed,' and saying it posed 'a risk of violence.'A statement from Greene's team on Sunday included screenshots from Twitter which appeared to show the company informing the congresswoman she had violated its rules and would be prohibited from interacting with content on the site for 12 hours.Greene urged Congress to 'act to protect free speech' in her statement.The action comes a little more than a week after Twitter banned Trump from the platform, citing 'the risk of further incitement of violence' following the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol this month.As of January 12, Twitter had also suspended more than 70,000 accounts associated with QAnon as it attempted to rein in harmful activity ahead of the presidential inauguration. Twitter has said it is taking action against online behavior 'that has the potential to lead to offline harm' after the mob of Trump supporters violently stormed the Capitol building on Jan. 6.The company said the Republican's account had been 'temporarily locked out for multiple violations of our civic integrity policy.'

Declassified! The Russia informant transcript the FBI didn't want Americans to see-In secretly recorded talks with informer Stefan Halper, Carter Page dispelled key Russia collusion allegations before FISA warrant was even approved.-By John Solomon-Updated: January 26, 2021 - 8:37am

Four days before the FBI secured a surveillance warrant against him in fall 2016, Trump campaign adviser Carter Page repeatedly knocked down the key allegations at the heart of the Russia collusion investigation while talking to a government informant who was wearing a wire.Page's unwitting statements of innocence to informer Stefan Halper were never shared with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court before it approved four warrants authorizing a full year of surveillance of Page's communications.Page's exculpatory statements were kept from the American people for four years until President Trump declassified them on his final day in office last week. They were obtained by Just the News."The core lie is that I met with these sanctioned Russian officials, several of which I never even met in my entire life, but they said that I met them in July," an FBI transcript quotes Page as telling Halper during an Oct. 17, 2016 interaction at Halper's farm in Northern Virginia.At the time, Page was unaware Halper was informing for the FBI or recording him, and unwittingly believed his host was just a fellow academic interested in his research and campaign work.You can read the transcript here:HalperPageIntercept11-2016.pdf The memos show Halper was repeatedly coached by the FBI on how to penetrate the Trump campaign foreign policy circle starting in August 2016 and how to quiz Page about several sensational allegations of collusion made by fellow FBI informant and former MI6 operative Christopher Steele in his now infamous dossier.For instance, Halper prodded Page on whether he had played a role changing the Republican National Committee's platform in summer 2016 to make it more favorable to Russia, as Steele's dossier had alleged."I would have thought the platform committee would be a place where there would be an opportunity to clarify a relationship with the Russians or others, and you could have been very helpful," Halper said at one point.Page — referred to in the transcript by his FBI code name "CD" or "Crossfire Dragon" — responded by claiming he stayed away from the platform changes, leaving it to other members of the Trump campaign team to handle."Well again, totally off the record, but I — members of our team were working on that and you know again in retrospect it's way better off that I, you know, remained at arms length," Page explained.Similarly, Page steadfastly denied he knew anything about the Trump campaign working with WikiLeaks to release Hillary Clinton's hacked emails before the election, another key allegation in the now-debunked Russia collusion narrative."I guess what they're trying to do is work out the link between the Russians and WikiLeaks, what do we know about that?" Halper asked."You know I've made clear in a lot of, you know, subsequent discussions interviews that I've been part of  … I know nothing about that on a personal level,” Page stated. "You know no one's ever said one word to me."But perhaps most significant is Page's flat denial that he never met in July 2016 in Russia with two key sanctioned officials — oil executive Igor Sechin and Russian Federation official Igor Diveykin. Page's contact with the two men was alleged in both the Steele dossier and the FBI's FISA warrant application dated Oct. 21, 2016, just four days after Halper's interactions.Page acknowleged to Halper that he knew Sechin worked for Rosneft, but insisted he never met the Russian executive. He added he didn't even recognize Diveykin's name."There's another guy I had never even heard of, you know, he's like in the inner circle," Page is quoted in the transcript as telling Halper. "I can't even remember. It's just so outrageous."Page stated during the conversation that his lawyers told him there was nothing illegal if he had met with the two men provided he didn't take anything from them, "even a pen." Halper prodded further, only to be shut down again by Page."So they're claiming you met with these two guys and you're saying it's perfectly legal to do," Halper asked.Page answered: "Even if I had — which I didn't do by the way," Page answered.It has been known since December 2019 that Halper recorded conversations with Page that were considered exculpatory and never turned over to the FISA court. The Justice Department inspector general concluded the failure to disclose the material to the judges was a major failure of the FBI's Russia probe.But the exact details of Halper's conversations with Page have remained shrouded from public view until well after the Nov. 3, 2020 election, much to the consternation of conservatives and Republicans who wanted to make more of the Russia collusion false narrative during last year's election.Contacted Monday night about the newly declassified transcripts, Page said he believed they exonerated him and that it was unfortunate that the memos were kept hidden for four years after the Steele dossier was leaked and impugned his name unfairly as a traitor."It is truly extraordinary that over four years since the worldwide release of the deadly dodgy dossier smear document in early January 2017 we still continued to learn more about the full extent of this historic disinformation campaign," he told Just the News. "Yet nonetheless, this latest declassification stands among the most shocking revelations yet."The memo containing the partial transcript of the Halper-Page meeting was dated Nov. 16, 2017, but the inspector general's report makes clear the conversation actually took place on Oct. 17, 2016, or four days before the FISA warrant was approved by the FISC authorizing surveillance of Page on unspecified charges of Foreign Agent Registration Act violations involving Russia.Kevin Brock, the retired FBI assistant director for intelligence who helped fashion the current rules governing the bureau's use of confidential human sources, said he could not understand how the bureau proceeded with a FISA warrant against Page after the spontaneous admission of innocence,"There is certainly nothing in here that establishes probable cause for a FISA," Brock told Just the News. "And quite frankly there's really not even enough in here to keep the FARA case going." "If I'm a supervisor on a counterintelligence squad, which I once was, I'd say close this sucker down, we are wasting time," Brock continued. "It's not just the absence of probable cause for a FISA, it's also that the conversation indicates the target does not have guilty knowledge in all the paths that the confidential source was trying to lead him down."Brock added that at the very least the FBI had a legal obligation to disclose to the FISA judges the statements of innocence made by Page. "One hundred percent this conversation should have been disclosed to the FISA court," he said.The newly declassified transcripts add to an overwhelming body of evidence that the FBI knew that Page was not a legitimate target for a Russia collusion probe and instead had been working for the CIA as an asset helping the U.S. to spy on Moscow.Documents belatedly made public last year show the the CIA alerted the FBI in August 2016 that Page had been approved as an "operational contact" for the agency between 2008 and 2013. Later, an FBI lawyer named Kevin Clinesmith altered a document to hide Page's ties to the CIA from the FISA court.Despite such evidence, only one former FBI official, Clinesmith, has been prosecuted for wrongdoing in the Russia probe, though special prosecutor John Durham has an active, ongoing criminal investigation.Remarkably, the FBI documents declassified by Trump state the FBI planned to drop its interest in Page if Halper's undercover work did not get the Trump adviser to admit to collusion."If CD [Page] does not provide tangible information during the meeting of if CD explicitly states he does not know of any RF [Russian Federation] involvement in the campaign, the FBI will focus on a second target of the investigation," stated an Aug. 24, 2016 "operational plan" for Halper's interactions with Page.You can read that memo here: File-HalperOperationalPlanScenario2Memo.pdf Page did not give the tangible evidence of collusion during the October meeting and denied campaign involvement with Russia, yet still the bureau proceeded to conduct an investigation that stretched for nearly three years before coming to the conclusion there never was any collusion.

'Lawyer up, and get out': FBI first spurned Hunter Biden laptop, says Delaware tech repairman-FBI "didn't show an interest in any of the money" after seizing Hunter Biden's laptop, according to John Paul Mac Isaac, the computer shop owner who reported it to authorities.-By John Solomon-Updated: January 26, 2021 - 8:49am

John Paul Mac Isaac, the Delaware computer shop owner who unwittingly came into possession of Hunter Biden's laptop, says an FBI agent initially gave a stern warning to his family when first offered a copy of the explosive evidence about Joe Biden's son: "You better lawyer up and get out of my office."In a wide-ranging interview Monday with Just the News, Isaac described what concerned him most about the contents on the laptop, his extensive efforts to get authorities in law enforcement and Congress to pay attention to it and his anger at the news media, Democrats and even security officials who initially accused him of carrying out a Russian disinformation campaign or trying to make money off the discovery.U.S. intelligence has determined the laptop contents — now in the hands of the FBI and Congress and part of a criminal tax case — were not Russian disinformation. Isaac said he never took a dime for providing the materials to the FBI, Congress and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, not even when offered reimbursement for the hard drive equipment he used to make copies."Well, for somebody who's not very political, I assume what happened to me was the quintessential political hit job, to have that many people come out, without even talking to me, or having a conversation without doing a single background check," he told the John Solomon Reports podcast."I still feel a little bit upset about that," he added. "I have people that I've known for a long time, they're convinced that I'm a tool, or I've been a pawn or I got huge payout. And it's completely decimated my business. I had to leave town."Isaac said the efforts "tagging me to Russia" were insulting, given that his father and grandfathers served in the military dating to World War II. He said he believed the attacks were just an outgrowth of the false Russia collusion story used to vilify President Trump at the start of his presidency."I get why they [critics] did it," he said. "It's topical. Everybody's scared of Russia, Russia, Russia. And why not, you know, if it worked four or six years ago, try it again."Isaac said one of his biggest disappointments was the FBI's behavior when his family offered the contents of the hard drive to agents.Isaac said a man identifying himself as Hunter Biden dropped off the laptop and other water-damaged computer equipment in early spring 2019 and failed to pick it up, even after signing a document declaring it would become his shop's property in 90 days.After the 90 days passed, Isaac said he examined the laptop contents and was troubled by what he found: explicit sex photos and evidence of large, suspicious foreign transactions involving the Biden family and Ukraine, China and Russia. He said he asked his father, an Air Force veteran, for advice in summer 2019, and his father went to the FBI in Albuquerque, N.M., in September 2019 with a copy of the laptop contents.Isaac, who is visually impaired, said he had no doubts the laptop belonged to Hunter Biden after inspecting its contents."I have no doubt in my mind," he said. "Probably about within 30 minutes of performing the data transfer, I had been able to verify that the person that was in the shop was indeed the person that was on the computer and the owner of the computer."Asked what prompted him to approach the FBI, Isaac said he was concerned by the emails and other records on the laptop showing complex financial transactions with foreigners, especially with Ukraine and the Burisma Holdings gas company that was in the impeachment headlines in summer and fall 2019."Obviously by that time during the summer, Ukraine was in the conversation," he explained. "So I had remembered seeing some things. And there was obviously the personal data. That was a concern, but also the Ukraine stuff, some of these players that were involved, and then the amount of money that was involved. That started to throw up red flags, because people do horrible things over money."He said he was stunned by the FBI's reaction to his father when first offered the laptop contents in September 2019."He had the copy of the drive as well as the copy of the signed authorization," Isaac said of his father. "So that if there was a legal question on how this was obtained, here's a document that proves it. And the FBI agent that he spoke to refused to give his name and then said you better lawyer up and get out of my office."Isaac said a month or so later, an FBI agent from Delaware who specialized in child exploitation crimes approached him, eventually seizing the laptop with a grand jury subpoena. But even then, Isaac said, the FBI seemed disinterested in the laptop contents."They really didn't show an interest in any of the money," he said. "They were more interested in why I was afraid, and not necessarily what was on the on the drive.""We sat down," Isaac continued, "and the first thing they asked me was if I had seen any child pornography, and you know, I'm not wanting to look at another man's porn. So I generally wasn't,  it wasn't what I was looking for. When I sat down to look for stuff, I really focused in on Ukraine. What I casually saw when I was doing the data transfer, sure, there was porn.""Then they asked why I was concerned," he added. "So they never brought up money laundering at all, which that seems kind of odd. But they wanted to hear my concerns. I explained to them that there's powers foreign and domestic that are involved. There's a lot of money involved. Somebody, someday is going to look for this."Hunter Biden has long denied wrongdoing but recently acknowledged he has been informed by the U.S. attorney in Delaware that he is under criminal investigation for his "tax affairs." Federal officials have declined comment, except to acknowledge the probe began in 2018.Isaac said he has since closed down his shop in Delaware and is now taking woodworking classes for a possible change in careers. Though he acknowledged coming from a conservative family, he said the reason he is speaking out now isn't politics, but rather to dispel the censorship, cancel culture and false allegations waged against him."If I can shine a light on the bias of the media and the bias of social media ... then that's great," he said. "I think that's gone on long enough. But mainly get the truth out."

Second Police Officer Dies From Suicide After January 6 Capitol Riot-By Cristina Laila-Published January 27, 2021 at 2:16pm

A second police officer has died by suicide following the Capitol protest on January 6.According to testimony obtained by Politico, Jeffrey Smith, a DC police officer who responded to the Capitol attack took his own life.Acting Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee told House appropriators during a closed-door session on Tuesday that Jeffrey Smith, a D.C. Police officer, and Capitol Police Officer Howard Liebengood both “took their own lives in the aftermath of that battle.”Smith’s death had not been disclosed prior to Contee’s testimony.A third member of law enforcement, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, died from injuries he sustained during the Capitol attack.“We honor the service and sacrifices of Officers Brian Sicknick, Howard Liebengood, and Jeffery Smith, and offer condolences to all the grieving families,” Contee said in his testimony.A couple weeks ago it was reported that Capitol Police officer Howard Liebengood died by suicide after responding to the Capitol riot.

“[President Trump] Had About 80 Million Votes and Biden Had Much Less Than That” – Sidney Powell Continues to Speak Out on 2020 Election (VIDEO)-By Joe Hoft-Published January 27, 2021 at 7:30pm

Sidney Powell was on Skyline News on Biden’s Inauguration day and she shared her thoughts on that significant day in History.Powell like many Americans was concerned that this is a turning point for the country and the world.  She has a website defendingtherepublic.org where they are keeping track of her cases outstanding, all her pleadings and hundreds of pages of evidence show that President Trump did indeed win the election.He [Trump] had about 80 million votes and Biden had much less than that, aside from the fact that hundreds of thousands of Biden votes were fraudulent from the get-go.  There were hundreds of thousands of fraudulent ballots.  There were flipped votes in algorithms run in the various machines and not just the ones from Dominion.”Powell explained that they had to drop a couple of cases because they asked the court to review before the inauguration which the court didn’t do so these cases became mute.  When asked about what President Trump knew about the steal, Powell said the following:I think the people around him for his entire term have controlled him by controlling the flow of information that he got from the people that he could talk to.  There was a massive effort throughout his term to tamp down and limit what he could do by all means possible.”Listen to the rest below and the next actions in performing full forensic reviews of all the ballots in the swing states and across the nation.Americans must know the truth about this election.  Americans must trust elections.

WAR REPORT-Russia suggests Mideast ministerial peace conference-By Philippe RATER-United Nations (AFP) Jan 26, 2021

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday backed a Palestinian proposal for a Middle East peace conference, saying at the UN that it could be held at ministerial level in spring or summer with about 10 participants.On their side, the United States -- which had firmly sided with Israel under the administration of Donald Trump -- pledged to work at renewing ties with the Palestinians under Joe Biden.Recalling that Moscow had backed Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas' idea for international talks in early 2021 when he first proposed it in September, Lavrov offered ideas about who could be invited."We propose holding an international, ministerial-level meeting in spring-summer 2021," Lavrov told a UN Security Council meeting about the Middle East held by videoconference.Participants would include Israel, the Palestinians, the four members of the so-called Middle East diplomatic quartet (Russia, the United Nations, the United States and the European Union), along with four Arab states -- Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, Lavrov said."It would also be important to invite Saudi Arabia, which is behind the Arab peace initiative," he added, without offering a specific date or site for the eventual conference."This meeting could provide a platform for carrying out a complete analysis of the situation, and helping countries to launch a dialogue," Lavrov told the Security Council.He noted that Moscow remained ready to host a meeting between Israel and the Palestinians in the Russian capital "at the highest levels."China voiced its support for Russia's idea at the UN meeting, but most other participants did not offer an opinion on the proposal.- 'Credible US engagement' -At last year's annual meeting of the UN General Assembly, Abbas -- who had rejected a peace plan advanced by then US president Donald Trump -- said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict needed to be resolved on the basis of international law, and under conditions agreed by the international community.On Tuesday, nearly all who spoke at the Security Council meeting including the United States reaffirmed the need for a two-state solution, under which Israel and a future Palestine would coexist."The Biden administration will restore credible US engagement with Palestinians as well as Israelis," said Washington's interim UN envoy Richard Mills.The new Democratic president "has been clear in his intent to restore US assistance programs that support economic development and humanitarian aid for the Palestinian people and to take steps to re-open diplomatic missions that were closed by the last US administration," he added.Under Trump, the US had stopped supporting the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and closed the Palestinians' liaison office in Washington.The Security Council's European members -- Estonia, France and Ireland -- in a joint statement called on Israel to "show leadership" in moving towards a solution with the Palestinians, and called on both sides to engage in trust-building.For the first time in 15 years, the Palestinians are set to hold elections -- legislative polls on May 22, following by a presidential election on July 31.

Christian Zionism

Christian Zionists (LIKE ME & TRUE CHRISTIAN ISRAEL SUPPORTERS) believe in the continuing and eternal covenant between God and the Jewish people regarding the Land of Israel. Christian Zionism is further defined as the belief among Christians that the return of the Land of Israel to Jewish dominion and the physical return of the Jewish people to the Land, known as the ingathering of the exiles, are in fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.And Hashem your God will bring you to the land that your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will make you more prosperous and more numerous than your fathers. Deuteronomy 30:5-I will be at hand for you—declares Hashem—and I will restore your fortunes. And I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places to which I have banished you—declares Hashem—and I will bring you back to the place from which I have exiled you. Jeremiah 29:14-An estimated tens of thousands of Christian churches stand with Israel and bless the Jewish people, in fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham.I will bless those who bless you And curse him that curses you; And all the families of the earth Shall bless themselves by you. Genesis 12:3-The term Christian Zionism has been in use since the middle of the 20th century. However, Christian support for restoring the Land of Israel to the Jewish people goes back as far as the late 16th century and the Protestant Reformation. Among the most prominent Christian Zionists in history include Sir Isaac Newton, Lord Arthur Balfour, Winston Churchill and Martin Luther King, Jr.The Friends of Zion museum in Jerusalem highlights the connection between Christians and Zionism over the last 200 years.Today’s Christian Zionists are the core of Israel365’s audience. Israel365 News reports regularly on cooperation between Christian Zionists and Jews in the Land of Israel and the Israel365 organization offers opportunities for Christian lovers of Israel to bless the Jewish people through various targeted fundraising drives. Every day, Israel365 News interprets world events through the lens of Biblical prophecy for a predominantly Christian Zionist audience.

750 Christians Killed Defending Ethiopian Church claiming to host Ark of Covenant-by Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz | Jan 26, 2021 | Christian Zionism

When the [Israelite] troops returned to the camp, the elders of Yisrael asked, “Why did Hashem put us to rout today before the Philistines? Let us fetch the Aron Brit Hashem from Shilo; thus He will be present among us and will deliver us from the hands of our enemies.” Samuel 4:3 (The Israel BibleTM)-On Jan. 9, the Europe External Programme with Africa reported that at least 750 were reportedly killed after an attack by Ethiopian federal troops and Amhara militia on the oriental Orthodox Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Axum, Ethiopia. Since the area is sealed off from journalists, reports are just now coming to light. Up to 1,000 people had taken refuge inside the church but were dragged out and murdered.One of the church’s chapels is called the Chapel of the Tablet because it is believed by Ethiopian Christians to contain the Ark of the Covenant. Ethiopian Orthodox Christians believe the Ark was hidden in Aksum by Menelik I, the son of King Solomon of Israel. The ark is hidden from the view of everyone, apart from a single priest who never leaves the compound. The Guardian, as his title implies, must protect the Ark and is prohibited from leaving the grounds.It is thought the ark had been hidden and was undamaged in the attack. The theory that the ark in the Ethiopian church is in fact the Ark of the Covenant from Solomon’s Temple was advanced by Bob Cornuke, a former police investigator who is a Christian non-archaeologist.The Ethiopian Church places a heavier emphasis on Old Testament teachings than is usually found in Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic or Protestant churches, and its followers adhere to certain practices that one finds in Judaism. Ethiopian Christians traditionally follow dietary rules that are similar to Jewish Kashrut, specifically with regard to the slaughter of animals. Similarly, pork is prohibited. They also perform male circumcision.Tigray has been the site of the Tigray War since November of last year.

SUPERPOWERS-NATO chief calls for greater global outlook, readiness for any challenge-by Ed Adamczyk-Washington DC (UPI) Jan 27, 2021

NATO must take a global approach and work more closely with Asia-Pacific region democracies, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday.Citing the COVID-19 pandemic, he told the military bloc's one-day meeting of its Allied Chiefs of Defense to ensure that NATO will "remain fit to face any challenge the future may bring.""Our armed forces have ensured that this health crisis has not become a security crisis, but COVID-19 has not made other challenges go away," Stoltenberg added.Stoltenberg's interest in working with democracies outside of NATO's North American and European spheres is in part because of concerns that China is emerging as a global, instead of regional, threat.The 60-page "NATO Document 2020," released in November 2020, explains strategic plans through 2030, and prominently mentions "the China threat" to NATO security and the security of its members."The main characteristic of the current security environment is the re-emergence of geopolitical competition," the document says."Return of geopolitical competition has brought about a proliferation of hybrid attacks. This 'grey zone' activity has eroded the traditional boundaries of conflict. Domestic and international security bleed across each other," it says.NATO's external presence is most notable in Afghanistan.A revolving group of NATO troops, under a United Nations mandate, has been deployed since 2003 present to "prevent the country from ever becoming again a safe haven for terrorism," a NATO position paper says.On Jan. 7, Stoltenberg called 2021 a "pivotal year" in terms of NATO's continued presence in Afghanistan."Next month, NATO's defense ministers will meet, and they need to decide whether to remain, whether to stay in Afghanistan with our military presence, and then risk being engaged in a prolonged military presence in Afghanistan, or whether to leave, but then risk that Afghanistan once again becomes a safe haven for international terrorists," he said.He added that NATO defense ministers will assess the future of NATO's mission in Afghanistan at a February meeting in Brussels.U.S. President Joe Biden has been invited and has expressed interest in attending the meeting.

'Doomsday Clock' stuck at 100 seconds to midnight-Washington, Jan 27 (AFP) Jan 27, 2021

The "Doomsday Clock" illustrating the perils facing the planet and mankind will remain at 100 seconds to midnight this year amid the threats of the coronavirus pandemic, nuclear war and climate change."The hands of the Doomsday Clock remain at 100 seconds to midnight, as close to midnight as ever," Rachel Bronson, president of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said in a statement."The lethal and fear-inspiring Covid-19 pandemic serves as a historic 'wake-up call,' a vivid illustration that national governments and international organizations are unprepared to manage the truly civilization-ending threats of nuclear weapons and climate change," Bronson said.The decision on setting the hands of the clock is taken by board members from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which was founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein and University of Chicago scientists who helped develop the world's first atomic weapons.The board members include 13 Nobel laureates.Created in 1947, the clock moved to 100 seconds to midnight in January of last year -- the closest to midnight it has been in its history.It was originally set at seven minutes to midnight. The furthest it has ever been from midnight is 17 minutes, following the end of the Cold War in 1991.Former California governor Jerry Brown, executive chair of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said it's "time to eliminate nuclear weapons, not build more of them."Likewise, with climate change: the US, China and other big countries must get serious about cutting lethal carbon emissions -- now," Brown said.Susan Solomon, professor of environmental studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), said "the pandemic-related economic slowdown temporarily reduced the carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming."But over the coming decade fossil fuel use needs to decline precipitously if the worst effects of climate change are to be avoided," Solomon said.Former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said the Covid-19 pandemic "is a terrible warning against complacency in the face of global threats to all human life."It is only through collective action and responsible leadership that we can secure a peaceful and habitable planet for future generations," she said.The Bulletin members recommended that the United States and Russia extend the New START nuclear treaty and that the US return to the nuclear deal with Iran.They also urged governments, technology giants and media organizations to cooperate on finding "practical and ethical ways to combat internet-enabled misinformation and disinformation."

NUKEWARS-Iran says Israel waging 'psychological war'-by AFP Staff Writers-Tehran (AFP) Jan 27, 2021

A top Iranian official Wednesday said arch-foe Israel was waging a "psychological war" after the Jewish state's army said new "offensive options" were being drawn up in case they were needed against the Islamic republic.Mahmoud Vaezi, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's chief of staff, also vowed his country was ready and willing to defend itself."We have no intention of going to war, but we are serious about defending the country," he said.Israel, a close US ally, accuses Iran of seeking to build a nuclear bomb, a charge Tehran denies. The Jewish state also frequently targets Iran-backed militant groups in Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip.Israel's military chief General Aviv Kochavi said Tuesday he had ordered new plans be drawn up this year to counter Iran's nuclear capabilities, in case political leaders decided to target the country."The power to initiate them lies with the political echelon," Kochavi said. "However, the offensive options need to be prepared, ready and on the table."Iran's Vaezi shot back on Wednesday that "they are conducting a psychological war."Responding to a question on the sidelines of a council of ministers meeting, he charged that Israel has "practically no plans, no capacity".Iran's recent military manoeuvres, testing missiles and drones, Vaezi added, showed that "our armed forces are trained" to defend Iran.Iran's military spokesman Abdolfazl Shekarchi warned against Israeli "threats towards Iranian nuclear installations and missile bases," which he said were based on "illusions" conjured by the Jewish state, in an interview published on state TV's website.Kochavi's remarks came nearly a week after the inauguration of US President Joe Biden, who has signalled he wants to return to dialogue with Iran.His predecessor Donald Trump had unilaterally withdrawn Washington in 2018 from a nuclear deal Tehran had struck with major world powers.Biden's team has argued Iran must first return to strict compliance with its nuclear commitments under the 2015 deal with world powers.Tehran has demanded an "unconditional" lifting of punishing sanctions first, and called on Washington to stop seeking to "extract concessions".Israel rejects the original nuclear deal, and Kochavi reiterated its view that "any agreement that resembles the 2015 agreement is a bad thing, both strategically and operationally"."Pressure on Iran must continue -- Iran must not have the capacity to develop a nuclear bomb."

NUKEWARS-Israel army chief orders plans to counter Iran-by AFP Staff Writers-Jerusalem (AFP) Jan 26, 2021

Israel's army chief said Tuesday he had ordered that plans be drawn up to counter Iran's nuclear capabilities, in the event of a political decision to target the Islamic republic.Chief of Staff General Aviv Kochavi said he had instructed the military "to prepare several operational plans in addition to existing ones... throughout the coming year"."The power to initiate them lies with the political echelon," he noted, referring to Israel's government."However, the offensive options need to be prepared, ready and on the table," he added.Iran, Israel's arch foe, agreed in 2015 a deal on its nuclear programme with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.The accord offered sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on Tehran's nuclear ambitions and guarantees it would not seek an atomic bomb. Iran maintains it has only pursued a civilian nuclear energy programme.Israel always opposed the deal and in 2018 then US president Donald Trump unilaterally pulled Washington out of it and reimposed crippling sanctions in a "maximum pressure" campaign against Tehran.In response, Iran has stepped back from key nuclear commitments, leaving the deal hanging by a thread, even as new US President Joe Biden's administration has signalled it wants to salvage the agreement.Israeli authorities openly fear this eventuality."Any agreement that resembles the 2015 agreement is a bad thing, both strategically and operationally," Kochavi said, addressing a meeting organised by the Institute of National Security Studies."Pressure on Iran must continue -- Iran must not have the capacity to develop a nuclear bomb," he added.The army chief also said Israel had hit 500 targets in the Middle East last year.The Jewish state has undertaken air and missile strikes against Syria since the latter's civil war began in 2011, targeting Iranian forces and troops from the Lebanese movement Hezbollah deployed in support of Damascus."Regarding the northern front, Iran is not displaying any intention of withdrawing," said Kochavi, referring to Lebanese and Syrian territory."Our operations are destined to continue to prevent this (Iran's) deployment from continuing," he added.

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