Monthly Archives: August 2020

Hopefully The Cover-Up Is Unraveling

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Yesterday Paul Mirengoff at Power Line Blog posted an article about the investigation into the nursing home deaths in New York State that were the result of placing elderly people who had tested positive for the coronavirus in nursing homes.

The article reports:

Janice Dean reports on the weather for Fox News. She lost both of her in-laws to the Wuhan coronavirus. Both contracted the disease at long-term care facilities, but her mother in-law died at a hospital.

New York apparently does not include cases like the mother-in-law’s in totaling up the nursing home death count. Thus, New York is under counting the number of deaths that arose at such facilities.

Dean has long wanted to testify about New York state’s disastrous response to the coronavirus in nursing homes. However, she was removed from the witness list for a hearing by the legislature on this subject.

Dean says a Republican New York Senator told her the Democrat majority was “uncomfortable having [her] as a witness.” Dean believes the majority was responding to pressure from Governor Cuomo or his associates. Cuomo’s office denies the charge.

The article continues:

Because of the way New York counts coronavirus deaths (see above), no one knows how many people died from the virus after contracting it at such facilities. The Cuomo administration refuses to provide such information even though it has been requested by both Republicans and Democrats in the state legislature. Clearly, Cuomo is trying to prevent a full assessment of the carnage that resulted from his policies.

Fortunately, as I discussed here, the Trump Justice Department has sent a letter to Governor Cuomo (among other governors) seeking this information. The letter asks for:

The number of Public Nursing Home residents, employees, other staff, guests, and visitors who died of COVID-19 including those who died in a Public Nursing Home or after being transferred to a hospital or other medical facility, hospice, home care, or any other location.

(Emphasis added)

The article concludes:

The DOJ requested this information, along with three other categories of information, in order to evaluate whether to initiate investigations under the federal Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA), which protects the civil rights of persons in state-run nursing homes, among others. I hope the DOJ will succeed where Janice Dean and New York state legislators from both parties have failed in prying loose information that should have made public months ago.

The Cuomo administration’s handling of the pandemic at long-term care facilities was scandalous. So are its efforts to cover up the consequences of the bungling. So are the efforts of the mainstream media — successful so far — to depict Cuomo as a hero of the pandemic.

The truth needs to come out. Hopefully it will.

The Real Numbers On The Coronavirus

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The following information is from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated on August 26th.

I realize the chart is blurry, but if you follow the link above, there is a larger, clearer version.

The report also includes the following:

Table 3 shows the types of health conditions and contributing causes mentioned in conjunction with deaths involving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death. The number of deaths with each condition or cause is shown for all deaths and by age groups. For data on comorbidities download this.

Yesterday The Western Journal posted an article that includes more information about the CDC report.

The article reports:

The report showed that in 18,116 of 42,587 deaths in the 75-84 age group, the individual who died also had the flu or pneumonia, while in 15,100 cases the underlying condition was respiratory failure.

Overall, of the 161, 392 deaths covered by the report, 42 percent (68,004) of those who died also had the flu or pneumonia while 34 percent (54,803) had an underlying condition of respiratory failure.

…Diabetes was an underlying condition in 16 percent of the deaths (25,936 people) while various heart-related conditions including cardiac arrest, ischemic heart disease (also known as hardening of the arteries), cardiac arrhythmia and heart disease (58,687 people) were found in 36 percent of those who died.

In June, the CDC listed as high-risk individuals for COVID-19 those who had chronic kidney disease; COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease); obesity (BMI of 30 or higher); immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from solid organ transplant; serious heart conditions, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, or cardiomyopathies; sickle cell disease; Type 2 diabetes.

It’s time to treat the coronavirus like the seasonal flu. Practice good health habits–exercise, healthy diet, wash your hands frequently, etc. There is no reason to stay locked up at home unless you have one of the underlying conditions that puts you at risk.

Combating The Leaks

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Yesterday The Epoch Times posted an article about Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe‘s recent decision to scale back election security briefings in person to Congress because of leaks.

The article reports:

Over the weekend, reports said Ratcliffe and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) told the House and Senate intelligence committees that it will still provide written briefings on election security matters. Ratcliffe, in letters to the panels, said that leaks from members of Congress were a primary reason for the change.

Ratcliffe said on Fox News that he had been frequently briefing “not just the oversight committees but every member of Congress.”

But, he said, “within minutes of one of those briefings ending, a number of members of Congress went to a number of different outlets and leaked classified information for political purposes.”

He said that it was designed “to create a narrative that simply isn’t true, that somehow Russia is a greater national security threat than China.”

“I don’t mean to minimize Russia. They are a serious national security threat, but day in, day out, the threats that we face from China are significantly greater,” Ratcliffe said. “Anyone who says otherwise is just politicizing intelligence for their own narrative.”

Obviously Democrats are complaining about the move, but until the leaking stops, I think it is a good idea. The Democrats are still being briefed, but I suspect leaks may be easier to trace. Leaking classified information is punishable by law.

The List

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Yesterday The Washington Free Beacon posted a list of some of the violence and intimidation engaged in by the political left this week. The article included the following picture:

I have a problem with the phrase ‘fiery but mostly peaceful,’ but here is the list of noteworthy events:

7. Activist Shaun King Threatens to Dox Random Police Officers | Washington Free Beacon

6. Left-Wing Protesters Bring Back the Guillotine | The Independent

5. BLM Protesters Vandalize Dinosaur Museum | The Post Millennial

4. Portland Protesters Vandalize City Hall, Light Fires Outside Police Union Headquarters | OregonLive

3. ‘Fiery But Mostly Peaceful Protests’ in Kenosha | CNN

2. BLM Heckles DC Diners, Demanding Solidarity | The Washington Post

1. Seattle Rioters Use Rebar and Quick-Drying Concrete to Try to Trap and Burn Cops | KING5 News

It is past time to deal with this foolishness. I need someone to explain to me what a dinosaur museum has to do with any protest. Please follow the link to the article to read the details of these incidents.

Is This Really The Most Important Thing They Had To Investigate?

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Yesterday Newsbusters posted an article about something the media was concerned about that was mentioned at the Republican National Convention. Ivanka Trump related a story about her son building the White House out of Legos. The article features a number of tweets that illustrate how insane the American media has become.

Here are a few of the tweets:

There are riots in the streets. Why are you wondering about a child’s Legos. This is a new dimension of Trump Derangement Syndrome. It does illustrate that there wasn’t much to criticize about the Republican Convention if this is all they can find.

 

I Can’t Figures Out If This Is Good News Or Bad News

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Yesterday Townhall posted the following headline, “Oops: It Looks Like the Vast Majority of Positive COVID Results Should Have Been Negative.” It seems very likely that we have been snookered!

The article reports:

According to The New York Times, potentially 90 percent of those who have tested positive for COVID-19 have such insignificant amounts of the virus present in their bodies that such individuals do not need to isolate nor are they candidates for contact tracing. Leading public health experts are now concerned that overtesting is responsible for misdiagnosing a huge number of people with harmless amounts of the virus in their systems.

“Most of these people are not likely to be contagious, and identifying them may contribute to bottlenecks that prevent those who are contagious from being found in time,” warns The Times.

So, if overtesting is causing “bottlenecks” that keep us from identifying contagious people in time, what does The New York Times believe the solution should be? More testing!

The article concludes:

It looks like the CDC was right, and not The Times, when the CDC issued guidance saying not everybody and their mother should get tested for COVID-19. 

If the coronavirus has made one thing clear, it’s that so-called “scientists” and “experts” are wrong all the time. They can’t accurately forecast a virus, they tell us different things about the effectiveness of a face mask, they insist the virus can’t spread at leftwing protests, and there’s a myriad of other examples too long to document here showing us the “experts” are really just making it all up as they go along, with their political biases on display for everyone with eyes to see.

There are some serious questions currently arising as to the necessity and wisdom of locking down our economy at all, much less continuing lockdowns. It may be time to take a another look at what we have done and what we should do in the future in dealing with the coronavirus.

American Energy Policy

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Alex Epstein has a website where he lists talking points on American energy policy.

Here are a few of his comments on American energy policy:

    1. America’s future depends on America’s energy industry. Energy is the industry that powers every other industry. The lower cost and more reliable our energy is, the more competitive every American company is and the lower the cost of living is for every American.
    2. In the last 15 years America has become a world energy leader largely through enormous growth in producing the #1 and #3 forms of energy in the world: oil and natural gas. This was only possible because of our unrivaled freedom to develop and innovate.1,2
    3. America can only remain an energy leader if we continue producing fossil fuels–the world’s largest and fastest-growing source of energy. Fossil fuels are by far the lowest cost source of energy for billions of people. Unreliable solar and wind can’t come close.3,4
    4. Contrary to the myth that CO2 emissions from fossil fuels are causing a climate crisis, the climate death rate is actually lower than ever thanks to human adaptation. Rising CO2 levels will continue to cause manageable warming as well as significant global greening–not a crisis.5,6,7
    5. The only way to lower CO2 emissions and benefit America is to promote innovation that makes low-carbon energy truly reliable and low-cost. Are China and India going to stop using fossil fuels so long as they are the lowest-cost option? They won’t and they shouldn’t.
    • America can lower emissions and energy costs by decriminalizing nuclear energy. Nuclear is actually the safest source of energy and the only way to provide reliable non-carbon electricity anywhere in the world. Yet politicians are overregulating it to death.8
    • If America tries to rapidly eliminate fossil fuel use through a Green New Deal or Biden Climate Plan we will not prevent a crisis, we will cause a crisis by making energy completely unreliable and unaffordable for American industry and American consumers.

America needs more energy freedom across the board, including in nuclear energy, fracking, development of federal lands, development offshore, pipelines, and export terminals–all of which can be done safely and responsibly.

Energy independence is an economic and security issue. One of the things that will draw manufacturing back to America is cheap, reliable, and available energy. Energy independence also protects us from such things as the oil embargoes of the 1970’s. We are free to support Israel, the only free country in the Middle East because of our energy independence. Energy independence is an important part of the road to a more peaceful road.

 

The Reasons Portland Has Suddenly Gone Quiet

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Portland has suddenly gone quiet. According to BizPacReview, Thursday evening marked “the first time in 93 days” that downtown Portland didn’t succumb to rioting. Somehow I doubt that was because the rioters were home watching President Trump speak.

Andy Ngo, who has been covering the riots for the past three months, tweeted early Friday morning, he speculated that the silence may be a result of reports that the FBI’s Portland branch has begun actively investigating the Black Lives Matter and Antifa extremists responsible for the rioting.

The article reports:

“Portland, Oregon’s FBI chief said Wednesday he is shifting the agency’s resources to focus more heavily on the nightly [extremist riots] in Oregon’s largest city that often end in vandalism, clashes with local police and dozens of arrests,” the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

“Special Agent in Charge Renn Cannon said he is pulling agents from fraud and organized crime teams to focus on ‘acts of violence and federal crimes’ committed during nearly three months of unrest.”

“We do investigate major threats of violence and federal crimes. And sometimes a major threat of violence is a cumulative threat that happens over a period of time. It starts to have a really negative impact on the community,” Cannon said to the AP.

“Here in Portland, we’re … making the assessment that we should be trying to do a little more than we have, because the cumulative effects and the nature of the problem indicate that the community needs help.”

The article includes a tweet from the FBI Portland showing pictures of rioters and asking for information.

There is, however, another aspect of this. The article includes the following tweet:

I realize the tweet is blurry. What it essentially says is that approval for Black Lives Matter is rapidly dropping (probably because of the riots). Keep in mind that the Democrat Party has managed to link themselves with Black Lives Matter by claiming the riots are simply valid protests. At one point a member of the mainstream media described a protest as a mostly peaceful but fiery protest as the fires burned behind him. I think most Americans want to feel safe in their homes, and the violence they are seeing undermines that feeling. The Democrats reluctance to condemn those perpetuating the violence is undermining the support for the Democrat party.

Who Is Paying The Bills?

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The American Thinker posted an article yesterday about a ‘food truck’ supplying rioters’ needs in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The article is based on an article in The Washington Post on Thursday.

The Washington Post reports:

A Seattle-based nonprofit group that serves food to protesters said Thursday that several of its members were still in police custody in Kenosha, Wis., after law enforcement officers sprang from unmarked cars and arrested them ahead of Wednesday night’s demonstrations in the city.

The arrests were recorded by a bystander and shared widely on social media, renewing concerns that unidentified officers could be shielded in crackdowns on demonstrators. The organization, known as Riot Kitchen, was a fixture at protests in Seattle this summer.

Cellphone footage of the incident showed officers rushing out of black SUVs and surrounding a silver Toyota minivan belonging to the nonprofit near a Speedway gas station. One officer aimed a gun at the van while another bashed through the passenger-side window. Officers could be seen pulling two people out of the vehicle and handcuffing them.

Sounds pretty radical until you hear the rest of the story.

The American Thinker reports:

Turns out the “Riot Kitchen” — yes, it’s really called that — may have had some unusual cuisine on its menu:  

Police said they recovered helmets, gas masks, protective vests, illegal fireworks and suspected controlled substances from the vehicles. Nine people were arrested on disorderly conduct charges. Police did not immediately release their names.

…Now, it’s unclear from the report whether the bus used to slop the rioters was transporting incendiary devices or these items were found in the Riot Kitchen’s second vehicle, or there were yet other vehicles, which the Post didn’t go into, given that it was just covering the supposedly dreadful police treatment of this “non-profit” with its underserved clientele.  Most likely, based on the report, the “vehicles” described were the Riot Kitchen’s two vehicles, having raised lots of money (but not quite their goals) on GoFundMe, which is turning out to be quite a useful means of getting cash from anonymous and small fry donors, under the banner of “mental health support” with this pitch to the gullible and maybe not so gullible:

Hey everyone!! We’re RIOT KITCHEN, and we are a no charge kitchen serving protestors, activists, movements and those in need in Seattle WA.

We were founded by Maehem, a queer black woman who started out by wanting to help feed the protestors at The George Floyd protests in Seattle, WA

During CHOP we built a full functioning kitchen in Cal Anderson, with a experienced kitchen staff and a array of vegan, gluten free, vegetarian and other dishes

These include:

Vegan and meat kebabs, a plethora of hot and cold sandwiches, vegan sloppy joes, vegan chili Mac, vegetarian chili Mac, vegan and meat breakfast sandwiches, vegan/vegetarian/meat burritos and much more!

We want to continue RIOT KITCHEN on and into the future to keep serving our community!

To do that, we need a food truck and licensing. We need about $40,000 to make this happen!

This fundraiser is run by direct supporters of Maehem and her work, namely Maehem’s right hand “Grandpa” as well as Jennifer Scheurle.

Please support us in enabling this wonderful project and its caring people to enrich Seattle’s community now and in the future.

The article at The American Thinker concludes:

The project is a signal of the vast logistical network of these rioters, something that shows they’re organized, and as their aim is to support criminals, part of a conspiracy.  An army marches on its stomach, as Napoleon once said, and Antifa itself is the army; RiotKitchen206 is the food.  Update: Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit has more here.

This “non-profit” got its start, not surprisingly, in Seattle’s CHOP zone.  They have a history of going to Portland for assorted projects, and now they claim they were on their way to feed the rioters in Washington, D.C. when the Kenosha riots happened, and by coincidence, they just happened to be right there.

It’s gaslighting.

Their YouTube is an entire collection of gaslightings, trying to tell Americans that they just want to feed people, they’re all about peace, just a Summer of Love, really, persecuted by the Seattle cops, too (putrid language warning), and pay no attention to their name, those knives and fist in their logo, or what the Kenosha cops found in their trucks.

It’s time to investigate totally the funding of the riot bus and bring the people funding the chaos up on RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) charges. What is happening in our cities is not spontaneous. It is planned for a purpose.

Not A Surprise

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The Conservative Treehouse posted an article today about the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It is a long, involved article, so I suggest you follow the link and read the entire article. The Conservative Treehouse does extensive research and reports on that research in detail, so it is very difficult to summarize their articles.

The article reports:

A fifteen year argument is finally over…. We win.  Most CTH readers probably don’t even remember the reason for the name: “The Last Refuge” upon this little corner of the internet.  However, for well over a decade we have tried to share the truth behind the financial mechanisms that run Washington DC; and the primary machine has always been a completely corrupt, deceptive and anti-American U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Against the entirety of the conservative media; and against the entirety of every organized group that ever attended CPAC; this website has attempted to educate people about the genuinely fraudulent purposes of the U.S. CoC and their President Tom Donohue.  I have written hundreds of articles over the years outlining “there are trillions at stake” and the elements of importance behind that statement.   Every single mainstream conservative voice has denied the truth; and likely most of them are probably on the CoC payroll.

The article explains the difference between an economy that enriches Wall Street and an economy that enriches Main Street. It points out the various trade deals that the Chamber of Commerce has supported enrich Wall Street at the expense of Main Street. It also notes that the economic policies of the Trump administration tend to enrich Main Street and not Wall Street (which is one reason he is hated by the Washington establishment of both parties).

The article concludes:

The U.S. stock markets’ overall value can increase with Main Street policy, and yet the investment class can simultaneously decrease in value even though the company(ies) in the stock market is/are doing better. This detachment is critical to understand because the ‘real economy’ is based on the company, the ‘paper economy’ is based on the financial investment instruments betting on the company.

Trillions can be lost in investment instruments, and yet the overall stock market -as valued by company operations/profits- can increase.

Conversely, there are now classes of companies on the U.S. stock exchange that never make a dime in profit, yet the value of the company increases. This dynamic is possible because the financial investment bets are not connected to the bottom line profit. (Examples include Tesla Motors, Amazon and a host of internet stocks like Facebook and Twitter.) It is this investment group of companies that stands to lose the most if/when the underlying system of betting on them stops or slows.

Specifically due to most recent U.S. fiscal policy, modern multinational banks, including all of the investment products therein, are more closely attached to this investment system on Wall Street. It stands to reason they are at greater risk of financial losses overall with a shift in fiscal policy.

That financial and economic risk is the basic reason behind Trump and Mnuchin putting a protective, secondary and parallel, banking system in place for Main Street.

Big multinational banks can suffer big losses from their investments, and yet the Main Street economy can continue growing, and have access to capital, uninterrupted.

Bottom Line: U.S. companies who have actual connection to a growing U.S. economy can succeed; based on the advantages of the new economic environment and MAGA policy, specifically in the areas of manufacturing, trade and the ancillary benefactors.

Meanwhile U.S. investment assets (multinational investment portfolios) that are disconnected from the actual results of those benefiting U.S. companies, and as a consequence also disconnected from the U.S. economic expansion, can simultaneously drop in value even though the U.S. economy is thriving.

Amazing.

Unfortunately I Don’t Think This Is An Isolated Incident

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Just the News is reporting today that Dennis Williams, the former president of the United Auto Workers, has been charged with conspiring to embezzle money from the union for personal luxury items and travel expenses.

The article reports:

Williams, who was charged Thursday, becomes the 15th person accused of corruption in a years-long investigation into the union.

Williams, 67, served as the union’s president from 2014-2018, during which time he used union money to fund private villas in Palm Springs, top-grade cigars, golfing attire and course fees, as well as luxury dinners.

The article concludes:

Matthew Schneider, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, called the case “disheartening.” He said it is the largest investigation of its kind into the misdeeds of a labor union. Schneider says he does not want the federal government to seek or gain control of the U.A.W., but that “all options are on the table.”

U.A.W.’s current union president, Rory Gamble, said in a statement, “Today’s development is a sad day for U.A.W. members.”

“Any violation of Mr. Williams’s oath of office and his responsibility to oversee our members and their sacred dues money should rightfully face criminal penalty,” continued Gamble.

Schneider said the current union leadership has been cooperative and has made positive changes that have assisted his office in the investigation.

Unfortunately, too many union members have no idea where their union dues are going. Much of the money paid as union dues goes to supporting candidates that the members of the union may not support. It is truly time to reevaluate the role of unions in our society. There was a time when they were sorely needed. This may be a time when they have gotten out of control.

Common Sense Rears Its Head In Washington

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On Wednesday, The Epoch Times reported the following:

President Donald Trump issued on Aug. 24 an executive order to direct federal agencies to prioritize moving their facilities to distressed areas, including opportunity zones, in an effort to lower costs and uplift poor communities.

The new order could help support investments in any of the 8,766 distressed areas designated as opportunity zones, a bipartisan incentive created by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

In the past, federal agencies were encouraged to consider locating facilities in central business districts, which were often the most expensive areas, according to a White House statement.

But the new order will change that policy and “invest Federal resources in distressed areas and save taxpayer dollars.”

There is another aspect of this. The move will put federal employees in contact with real people who live with the policies the bureaucracies create. It will get federal employees out of the ‘Washington bubble’ and into communities where people have different ideas than the political elite.

The article concludes:

There has been a bipartisan push to move some federal agencies outside the Beltway to help distressed communities.

Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) introduced in 2019 the HIRE Act that proposed moving most federal agencies out of Washington and into the heart of America.

Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang also proposed moving agencies to support distressed communities.

“Federal agencies that aren’t directly tied to general government activities (e.g., the NIH) should be relocated to different areas throughout the country to provide a boost to local economies,” he stated on his campaign website in 2019.

 

Who Took The Emails?

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On Tuesday The Epoch Times posted an article titled, “900-Page Senate Russia Report Includes No Evidence for How Emails Were Taken From DNC.” The article provides a detailed account of the Senate investigation and what was NOT concluded. Please follow the link to read the entire article–it is very detailed.

The most important point in the article is the conclusion:

While details about what happened with the DNC emails have been scant, details about what didn’t happen have recently emerged. On May 7, the HPSCI released the transcripts of the interviews it conducted as part of the investigation for the Russian active measures report. The transcript of the interview of Shawn Henry showed that CrowdStrike “did not have concrete evidence that data was exfiltrated from the DNC.”

“We have indicators that data was exfiltrated. We did not have concrete evidence that data was exfiltrated from the DNC, but we have indicators that it was exfiltrated,” Henry told lawmakers on Dec. 5, 2017.

When asked about the date on which the indicators occurred, Henry referred to the separate exfiltration event on April 22, 2016, which occurred a month before the emails were allegedly stolen.

Later in the interview, when asked specifically about the emails, Henry said it was possible for the alleged hackers to view and copy the content of the emails in addition to taking screenshots. The monitoring activity he described is unlikely to have yielded the raw email files published by WikiLeaks and was different from the allegation by the special counsel, who claimed that the emails were taken during a separate breach.

A source with the HPSCI told The Epoch Times that the committee relied on sources other than CrowdStrike to conclude that Russians stole the DNC emails, but couldn’t provide further details because they were classified. The evidence for the theft of the emails was as strong as the evidence of the attribution of the overall hacking campaign to Russia, the source said.

The release of Henry’s transcript prompted CrowdStrike to issue on June 5 the fourth significant update in as many years to its DNC incident response blog post. The update, running at more than 2,400 words, consisted of a Q&A and a timeline of events surrounding CrowdStrike’s remediation work.

The CrowdStrike timeline extensively references the Mueller report, but doesn’t include the crucial May 25 to June 1, 2016, time frame the special counsel provided for the alleged hacking of the DNC mail server.

The Q&A features an apparent misinterpretation of Henry’s testimony, claiming, contrary to what Henry told lawmakers, that CrowdStrike has evidence that data was exfiltrated from the DNC but omitting Henry’s qualification that the evidence was circumstantial. Regardless, the statement, as expected, included no dates and didn’t use the word “emails.”

I still believe, and will continue to believe unless shown proof that I am wrong, that the hacking of the DNC emails is connected to the death of Seth Rich. I don’t know whether that is being looked into or not, but it should be.

 

This Is Not A Surprise To Anyone Who Has Been Paying Attention

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I wonder if Las Vegas is taking bets on whether or not Joe Biden will debate President Trump. Biden is not out on the campaign trail. The rebuttal speech to the President’s acceptance speech tonight will be given by Kamala Harris. What is happening to Joe
Biden is sad. If you look at videos from him five years ago and contrast them with videos of him today, it is obvious that he is not the same person. He will not be out on the campaign trail, and I seriously doubt he will debate President Trump.

Today Just the News posted an article that may be the beginning of the spin to avoid a presidential debate between Joe Biden and President Trump.

The article reports:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden shouldn’t debate President Trump.

“I don’t think there should be any debates. I do not think the president of the United States has comported himself in a way that anybody has any association with truth, evidence, data and facts. I wouldn’t legitimize a conversation with him nor a debate in terms of the presidency of the United States,” Pelosi said.

“I know the Biden campaign thinks in a different way about this. But I just thought what [Trump] he did in 2016 was disgraceful, stalking Hillary Clinton like that. I was disappointed the press didn’t say, ‘Go back to your station. You don’t own this stage. You have your own podium. She has hers,’ ” she also said.

The less Americans know about the Democrat platform, what Joe Biden stands for, and the general health condition of Joe Biden, the better chance Joe Biden has of winning. The goal is to keep him hidden until the election.

Political Impact

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In May, George Floyd died, allegedly at the hands of a police officer who used excessive force. The nation agreed that his death was due to over zealousness on the part of the police. Recently, the full videos came out of the incident which cast doubt on what was initially reported. The coroner’s report also casts doubt on what was initially reported. Nevertheless, the death of George Floyd set off riots almost instantly in a number of cities in America. Oddly enough, the cities most affected were controlled by Democrats and in many cases minorities. The rioting made no sense. More than that, the fact that you had large groups suddenly appear almost out of nowhere in these cities was also troubling. Well, we have had three months of rioting in many cities. It’s not protesting when people are throwing bricks and setting things on fire. I am not sure why the media is still calling these events protests. So what is the political impact of this chaos?

Breitbart posted an article today that provides some interesting information.

The article notes:

In a statewide poll conducted between June 14 and June 18, the Marquette Law School Poll showed 61 percent of Wisconsin voters approved of the Black Lives Matter protests, while 36 percent disapproved of those protest. By a margin of 25 points, more Wisconsin voters approved of BLM than disapproved of BLM.

That same Marquette Law School poll conducted in Jun showed Joe Biden leading Donald Trump by 6 points in the state, 50 percent to 44 percent.

In a subsequent statewide poll conducted between August 4 and August 9, the Marquette Law School Poll saw approval drop 13 points, from 61 percent to 48 percent, while disapproval jumped by 12 points, from 36 percent to 48 percent. Stunningly, the net margin of approval versus disapproval among Wisconsin voters of BLM has dropped from plus 25 to zero in just two months.

That same Marquette Law School Poll conducted in August showed that Joe Biden leads Donald Trump by 5 points in the state, 49 percent to 44 percent.

The article concludes with the following:

In June, 59 percent of white voters approved of the Black Lives Matter protest, while 38 percent disapproved. In August, approval among white voters dropped precipitously to 45 percent, while disapproval increased to 51 percent.

In contrast, there was virtually no change of approval for Black Lives Matter among black or Hispanic voters between the June poll and the August poll.

In June, 77 percent of black or Hispanic voters approved of the Black Lives Matter protests, while 19 percent disapproved. In August, 78 percent of black or Hispanic voters approved of the Black Lives Matter protests, while 20 percent disapproved.

There was also a significant disparity of voter attitudes by geographic region within the state.

If black lives matter to Black Lives Matter, why are they burning down black businesses and the businesses of people who claim to support them?

This Raises More Questions Than Answers

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Yesterday Real Clear Investigations posted the following:

Jonathan Winer, a former top aide to Secretary of State John Kerry who was a key conduit for disseminating the discredited Steele dossier in the U.S. government, worked as a lobbyist for Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in years preceding the Russiagate affair. This revelation raises new questions about Russian efforts to influence American foreign policy — far afield from any Kremlin efforts to favor Donald Trump.

Winer’s connection to Deripaska came to light through last week’s release of the fifth and final volume of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. The Senate report also found that at different times ex-British spy Christopher Steele had worked for the powerful oligarch with ties to President Vladimir Putin, and sent scores of reports from his intelligence firm on to Winer, who admitted to the panel destroying many of them before leaving the State Department. Further, the Senate developed evidence that Glenn Simpson – whose company Fusion GPS contracted with Steele for the dossier – also did work for Deripaska. Simpson denied that, telling senators, “I don’t think I’ve knowingly had any contact with his organization.”

In his initial interview with the Senate committee, Winer claimed never to have met the oligarch. In a second interview Winer revised this answer. He conceded that, beginning in 2003, Deripaska had hired the law firm Alston & Bird, where Winer was a partner. He worked on the Deripaska account but, asserting attorney-client privilege, refused to say what exactly he had done on Deripaska’s behalf. RealClearInvestigations sent questions to Alston & Bird’s spokesman but received no reply.

The article notes:

While at the State Department during President Barack Obama’s second term, Winer disseminated to his colleagues over 100 memos written by Steele’s company, Orbis Business Intelligence. Among them were memos apparently intended to help influence U.S. foreign policy in favor of Steele’s Russian client, billionaire Putin loyalist Deripaska.

The Senate revelations establish that Winer was a key but little-known figure in Russiagate. He, along with former Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr – whose wife worked for Fusion GPS – have emerged as prime vehicles for the dissemination of the Steele dossier to the highest reaches of the U.S. government.

It gets worse. The article concludes:

During his first stint, Winer worked with Namsrai representing a Russian nuclear power company called Techsnabexport. Or at least they did their best to make it appear they were primarily working for that company when they were actually working for the Russian government.

APCO’s 2011 Foreign Agents Representation Act filing names Techsnabexport as the “foreign principal” for which it was working. The firm described their client as “an open joint stock company wholly owned by the JSC Atomenergoprom.” In the fine print one discovers that that company in turn is “wholly owned by State corporation for Atomic Energy, ‘Rosatom,’ which is wholly owned by the Russian government.”

A “Contract for Lobbying Services and Consulting Services” was drawn up by APCO in April 2010, a copy of which was attached as a secondary appendix to the FARA filing. The “Scope of Work” includes “Creating and promoting a new image of State Atomic Energy corporation ‘Rosatom,” supporting “the interests of Rosatom in the USA,” and overcoming “existing political and trade barriers.

In October 2010, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States approved Rosatom’s controversial acquisition of Uranium One, a Canadian company with extensive mining projects in the US.

Namsrai did not respond to emails from RealClearInvestigations asking why APCO listed Techsnabexport as its “foreign principal” client and not the official Russian state nuclear power enterprise, Rosatom, and whether Steele performed any work for the company.

As Winer’s connections with Russia and the Steele dossier emerge, Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson says he wants to hear more from him. But, Johnson said, the committee’s ranking Democratic member, Gary Peters, is trying to derail his efforts to enforce the committee’s subpoena and interview Winer under oath. Peters’ spokesperson did not respond to questions from RealClearInvestigations.

“Among other issues, Mr. Winer’s admitted destruction of his records related to his contacts with Christopher Steele is concerning and deserves an explanation,” Johnson said. “I am looking forward to learning more from Mr. Winer in spite of Democrat attempts to further delay our investigation.”

Please follow the link and read the entire article. The fact that someone who obviously did not have America’s best interests at heart was in such a high government position is frightening.

And The Games Continue

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The Democrats are quietly trying to blunt the impact of the Republican National Convention on voters. Unfortunately, the people who put the Republic convention together had a better understanding of television production than the people who put the Democrat convention together. The latest effort by the Democrats was putting out a list of Republicans voting for Joe Biden. That was almost impressive until you looked at the list.

The Daily Caller posted the following today:

Nothing says “authentic” like a list of “Republican” supporters who aren’t Republicans.
That’s the sleight of hand Joe Biden just tried to pull. On Monday afternoon, his presidential campaign blasted out a “[h]uge list of Arizona Republicans … endorsing @JoeBiden today,” in an attempt to paint the Democratic ticket as bipartisan. We in Arizona were a little confused, though, because most of the endorsees on the list aren’t exactly what you’d call Republicans.
Right at the top of the list (you guessed it) is former senator Jeff Flake, who suddenly dropped out of his reelection race in 2017 after realizing that Republican primary voters didn’t like him — and neither did anybody else. Most of the time, the former senator is out of sight (and out of mind). But every now and then he’ll pop his head above ground to remind the media how woke he is and get a sniff of that “Strange New Respect.”
This week’s endorsement is just another example of that. In 2016, Flake announced that he wasn’t voting for President Trump. In 2019, he bragged that “I would support a Democrat” for president, adding: “… obviously Joe Biden comes to mind.” Finally, in early 2020, he reiterated that November “won’t be the first time I’ve voted for a Democrat.”

…Following Flake on Biden’s list is Jim Kolbe, who left Congress while George W. Bush was still in office. The former congressman soon after became an Obama appointee and subsequently crossed “Republican” off of his voter registration.
Following him is Grant Woods. You might be asking: “Who is that?” So are we.
Woods, a politician from the 1990s, gained a reputation as a liberal Republican before disappearing from the political world for a decade while working as a trial lawyer. He came out of the woodwork in 2010 to endorse Felecia Rotellini (now the Arizona Democratic Party’s chairwoman) for state attorney general and again in 2014 to endorse Democrat Fred DuVal for governor. Woods then endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton for president in 2016 — he called her “one of the most qualified nominees to ever run” — and endorsed Democrats Hiral Tipirneni and Kyrsten Sinema in 2018 before formally changing his own voter registration to Democrat.
But, yes, definitely a Republican.

You get the picture. After a while you begin to wonder why President Trump is such a threat to the Washington establishment. Remember the statement by Hillary Clinton, “If That F-ing B*stard Trump Wins, We All Hang From Nooses.”

A video of the incident is posted at YouTube. Also here.

People who lose elections in America do not generally hang from nooses. This statement has always made me wonder what she was guilty of that put that thought in her mind.

As we continue through the political silly season, be aware that most of what you read from the mainstream media is simply not true or simply incomplete information. Be your own best fact-checker.

It’s Only Okay When They Do It

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Night two of the Republican National Convention was good television. It moved quickly and changed the subject often enough to keep the audience interested. Some of it was very touching. Therefore it is no surprise that the mainstream media and the political left (actually they are the same people) are very upset. They are looking for any way to counter the message that is getting out–that America is good and America is open to anyone who wants to come here legally and succeed.

Breitbart posted an article about some of the reaction yesterday. I sense desperation.

The article reports:

The left fumed over a naturalization ceremony aired during the Republican National Convention’s (RNC) second night that featured President Trump and Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf welcoming five new citizens to America.

Former Obama administration official Wendy Sherman tweeted that the ceremony was a “horror”:

These are two of the tweets:

I can honestly say that I do not understand their gripe. The people involved told their stories and took their oath. New legal citizens should be something celebrated by all Americans under any circumstances.

The article continues and concludes:

However, Washington Post columnist Karen Tumulty — a critic of Trump — wrote that Trump would not be the first president to partake in political activities in the White House, citing former Presidents Jimmy Carter and President Ronald Reagan. She wrote:

With the Republican convention all but canceled because of the covid-19 pandemic, President Trump has been toying with the idea of formally accepting his party’s nomination from the White House — a prospect that has brought howls of outrage from Democrats.

…

But while Trump has shown little respect for norms, he would not be the first president to use the White House — or even the Oval Office — as the backdrop for a signature campaign event.
In December 1979, Jimmy Carter deemed that a more lavish announcement would not be appropriate amid a crisis in which 50 Americans were being held hostage in Tehran — so he declared that he was running for reelection in a somber nine-minute ceremony in the East Room. ‘As president and as a candidate, I will continue to ask you to join me in looking squarely at the truth,’ he said. ‘Only by facing up to the world as it is can we lift ourselves towards a better future.’

Carter’s campaign even made ads from the Oval Office. In the fall of 1980, during an intense race against former California governor Ronald Reagan, Carter’s campaign broadcast a four-minute spot that showed him in a darkened presidential office. A beam of overhead light angled onto Carter’s face as he warned about the dangers of nuclear war. “In this office, I’ve worked in the arms-control tradition of seven presidents, Democrat and Republican,” he said. “Before you vote, please look carefully into this deep chasm that divides Governor Reagan and myself on this issue.”

Tumulty also wrote that Reagan also used the Oval Office as a backdrop for his reelection announcement on January 29, 1984.

“So would it be all that much of a break with precedent for Trump to accept his party’s nomination somewhere on the White House grounds? I, for one, think the White House makes more sense than anywhere else and would nod to the fact that caution should be keeping everyone at home during the covid-19 pandemic,” she added.

I know this is the silly season in politics, but sometimes the pettiness amazes me.

This Is Over The Top

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The New York Post reported today on some recent remarks by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

The article reports:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went off on President Trump and Republican lawmakers, describing them as “enemies of the state” who are trying to interfere with the election by hindering Americans’ ability to vote by mail this November.

“We take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. And sadly, the domestic enemies to our voting system and honoring our Constitution are right at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with their allies in the Congress of the United States,” Pelosi said on MSNBC in an interview Monday.

The article includes the White House response:

“Her bizarre, baseless conspiracy theories are harmful to our democracy. President Trump is focused on ensuring a fair election as he continues to lead this Nation safely out of this global pandemic, bringing the country together with a message focused on American greatness and a safe and prosperous future for all,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement.

Democrats have seized on a series of cost-cutting measures by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy as proof that he is trying to hobble the agency, leaving it unprepared for the expected onslaught of mail-in ballots from voters who fear catching the coronavirus if they go to the polls in person.

Trump, in a speech to delegates at the Republican National Convention following a roll call vote giving him the presidential nomination, turned the tables on Democrats and alleged that they trying to steal the election by encouraging voters to mail in their ballots.

The words of Speaker Pelosi are not helpful. I believe that she owes the President, the Republicans, and Trump voters an apology. Trying to prevent voter fraud does not make you an enemy of the state.

Every Voter Needs To Read The Democrat Platform

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Yesterday The Daily Wire posted an article reporting on the vote for the Democrat party platform,

The article reports:

Democrats are more divided than they appear according to numbers released by the Democratic National Committee following their nominating convention last week.

Fox News reports that of the 5,000 delegates that voted on the party’s platform, widely recognized as the most progressive Democratic Party platform in years, more than a thousand delegates — around 25% of all attendees — voted against the decision to approve the party’s official policies.

You can read the Democrat platform here.

Some of the items in the platform are making Washington, D.C., the 51st state (which is unconstitutional and would require a constitutional amendment), and fighting voter ID laws (which they regard as disenfranchising voters, although statistics say otherwise). Democrats will fight to pass a Constitutional amendment that will go beyond merely overturning​ Citizens United ​and related decisions like ​Buckley v. Valeo ​by eliminating all private financing from federal elections. Citizens United was the decision that leveled the playing field in campaign donations–it allowed corporate donations. Those donations were the answer to union donations which had been allowed for years.

The Democrat platform includes the following:

Democrats will ban the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high capacity magazines. We will incentivize states to enact licensing requirements for owning firearms and extreme risk protection order laws that allow courts to temporarily remove guns from the possession of those who are a danger to themselves or others. We will pass legislation requiring that guns be safely stored in homes. And Democrats believe that gun companies should be held responsible for their products, just like any other business, and will prioritize repealing the law that shields gun manufacturers from civil liability.

These are the first steps to ignoring a number of rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. Who is going to go into homes to see if the guns are safely stored? Who is going to decide if a person can be denied his Second Amendment rights without due process?

This is not a platform for a free people.

Rules For The Little People

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Yesterday The Gateway Pundit reported the following:

Hollywood Stars Attending Video Music Awards From Out of State will Not be Subject to New York’s 14-Day Quarantine Mandate

This infuriates me. I live in North Carolina and can’t visit my grandchildren without a two-week quarantine, but Hollywood stars are not subject to quarantine. So the coronavirus only attacks people that don’t have a lot of influence?

The article notes:

Hollywood stars traveling to New York City from out of state for the MTV Video Music Awards will have the special privilege of skipping the state’s 14-day quarantine mandate.

Under Governor Andrew Cuomo’s mandate, anyone who travels to New York from any of the 34 ‘high risk’ states must quarantine for 14 days. Violators may be fined up to $10,000 or jailed for 15 days.

The article quotes The New York Post:

But unlike other travelers, the VMA musicians, singers and dancers won’t have to follow a state rule to quarantine for 14 days if they come to New York from any of 34 states, including California and Florida, with average COVID infection rates exceeding 10 percent.

Under an executive order by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, anyone who violates the quarantine order is subject to a fine up to $10,000 or up to 15 days in jail.

But the state Department of Health has granted the VMAs a semi-exemption to the quarantine rule.

To receive the exemption, the VMAs agreed to police itself with “rigorous safety protocols including testing and screening and compliance checks by a special compliance officer.”

The article also reminds us of another recent privileged class that was except from coronavirus rules:

Democrat Mayor of DC Muriel Bowser exempted Democrat lawmakers returning from Rep. John Lewis’s funeral from the mandatory 14-day quarantine.

I live in a section of North Carolina that has a low rate of the virus. Why am I not allowed to visit my grandchildren?

Some Background On A Story Getting Twisted

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Yesterday Hot Air posted an article about Melania Trump’s renovations to the Rose Garden. One might think that we could at least agree on a renovation to something that is more than fifty years old. I guess not.

The article notes all of the criticism of the renovation, but it also explains some of the reasoning behind the renovation.

The article reports:

Granted, I’m no gardening expert but I think the rose garden looks nice. Last month Melania announced that she was taking on the project. The renovations were long overdue, as it turns out, because of drainage problems and inaccessibility to disabled people. By adding technical updates, future presidents will be able to better use the space to broadcast events and presidential addresses.

I thought we were all in favor of making areas more accessible to disabled people. I would also like to note that the renovations were paid for by private donations–taxpayer money was not used.

The article notes:

The flowers in the garden are largely pastels, which are favored by the first lady, including taller white roses, which were in honor of the first papal visit to the White House by Pope John Paul II in 1979. A diamond-like shape of boxwoods was also added, while about a dozen crabapple trees were removed and will be replanted elsewhere on the grounds.

Moreover, a seating area on the east side of the garden — used at times by presidents for lunch and other meetings — has been removed and will be replaced by a yet-to-be-announced art installation.

The most visually striking change to the garden was the addition of a 3-foot-wide limestone walking path bordering the central lawn. Less noticeable changes include improved drainage and infrastructure and making the garden more accessible for people with disabilities. Audiovisual, broadcasting and other technical fixes are part of the plan, too.

“Protecting the historic integrity of the White House landscape is a considerable responsibility, and we will fulfill our duty as custodians of the public trust,” Melania Trump wrote in a report released when the renovations were announced.

Please note that the crabapple trees will be replanted on the White House grounds.

The criticism falls a bit flat when you understand the need to fix the drainage and the accessibility of the Rose Garden, but I guess Trump Derangement Syndrome also applies to Melania Trump. That’s sad.

The Part Of The Story Rarely Told

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Issues & Insights posted an article today detailing the environmental problems with green energy. Yes, you read that right.

The article reports:

Left out of the often mistaken, never in doubt assertions of renewables’ unalloyed goodness is the fact that the hardware used is hardly renewable. It wears out and needs to be replaced. Then what?

“The problem of solar panel disposal ‘will explode with full force in two or three decades and wreck the environment’ because it ‘is a huge amount of waste and they are not easy to recycle,’” writes energy analyst Michael Shellenberger, quoting a Chinese recycling official.

In his 2018 Forbes column headlined “If Solar Panels Are So Clean, Why Do They Produce So Much Toxic Waste?” Shellenberger also quotes a four-decade veteran of America’s solar industry, who said “the reality is that there is a problem now, and it’s only going to get larger, expanding as rapidly as the PV industry expanded 10 years ago”; and researchers from the Institute for Photovoltaics in Stuttgart, Germany, who found that “contrary to previous assumptions, pollutants such as lead or carcinogenic cadmium can be almost completely washed out of the fragments of solar modules over a period of several months, for example by rainwater.”

More recently, Hazardous Waste Experts reported worn-out solar panels are “a potent source of hazardous waste,” producing a “dilemma” that “is especially virulent in California, Oregon, and Washington, as those states started adopting solar energy earliest in the game – suggesting that eco-virtue mightn’t necessarily be its own reward.”

And just as solar and wind chew up immense tracts of real estate, so, too, will the retirement of solar energy’s constituent parts.

I was not the world’s greatest student of physics (that is an understatement), but I do remember learning that it is impossible to make a perpetual motion machine because of friction. The quest for clean energy reminds me of the search for a perpetual motion machine. America has cut its carbon emissions in recent years by using more natural gas, which is a relatively clean source of energy. That change makes much more sense and is much less disruptive than some of the radical ideas being proposed by the political left in America.

When Facts Get In The Way

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Just the News posted an article yesterday dealing with presidential candidate Joe Biden’s claims about President Trump’s response to the coronavirus.

The article reports:

As Democrats and their presidential nominee Joe Biden gear up to attack the president’s response to COVID-19, they must grapple with a harsh reality: a third of all U.S. coronavirus deaths occurred in just three states controlled exclusively by Democrats.

Biden has sharply criticized Trump’s handling of the pandemic since the first case was confirmed in the U.S. in late January. The Democratic presidential candidate claimed last week that Trump has allowed the disease to ravage the country and kill more than 170,000 citizens.

“Just judge this president on the facts,” Biden said during his acceptance speech during the Democratic National Convention. “Five million Americans infected with COVID-19. More than 170,000 Americans have died. By far the worst performance of any nation on Earth.”

The article notes two important aspects of that number:

Biden’s assessment is only partly factual. The U.S. has indeed recorded the highest total number of COVID-19 deaths in the world, but adjusted for population the nation falls to number 10, behind numerous countries in Europe and South America, including the United Kingdsom and Spain.

Perhaps more notably, more than a third of the American deaths Biden cited have occurred in the Democrat-run states of New York, New Jersey and California.

The article concludes:

A range of policies appear to have had varied effects elsewhere. California, another Democratic stronghold, has also been under strict lockdown measures for months, and its adjusted death rate is comparatively low at number 28 in the nation. South Dakota, whose Republican governor has famously refused to institute the lockdown measures of most other states, is even better at number 39.

As November approaches, Biden may continue to criticize the U.S. as having “the worst performance” of any country worldwide, with the blame laid at the feet of the current Republican administration. Democratic-run New Jersey and New York’s respective adjusted death tolls, meanwhile, both remain roughly three times the national average.

One things the article does not mention is the fact that Governor Cuomo of New York sent infected patients into nursing homes. That fact alone resulted in huge numbers of virus deaths. I am hopeful that many Americans will see through the false claims of Joe Biden. Our future depends on it.