From my friends at Townhall:
Monthly Archives: July 2021
The Civil Rights Of Some Americans Are Being Ignored
On June 2nd, The World Tribune posted an article about the prisoners held in Washington, D.C., after the riot of January 6th.
The article reports:
If you listen to Democrats and anti-Trump liberal Republicans like Sen. Mitt Romney and Rep. Liz Cheney, you’d think that nothing was being done about the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Never mind the FBI’s all-out hunts and raids across 44 states. Never mind the continued detention of an unknown number of pro-Trump supporters. Never mind the more than 2,000 criminal charges brought by federal prosecutors against nearly 500 Americans arrested over the past four months.
Nope. Absolutely nothing is being done, the gaslighters insist, so these partisan opportunists are pushing forward with their witch-hunt commission to uncover the “facts.”
Republicans are right to oppose this charade and the continued weaponization of Jan. 6. It’s not about finding the truth. It’s about foisting the same old false narratives about conservatives on the public. It’s about holding every Republican and Trump supporter accountable for the violent or reckless actions of a few.
Patriots should be united in demanding answers about the murder of Jan. 6 protester Ashli Babbitt. GOP Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona is leading the way on that and has called for the feds to “release the tapes” in her case and others. American Greatness editor Julie Kelly reports there are some “14,000 hours of footage” being suppressed by Washington, D.C., prosecutors and judges. Republicans should also be united in raising the alarm over abusive treatment of detained Jan. 6 protesters held in solitary confinement, which even Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Dick Durbin have criticized.
Defense attorney Marty Tankleff, who represents two Jan. 6 detainees being held in the Washington jail and is aiding in the defense of a third, has raised the alarm over the un-American conditions of solitary confinement imposed on MAGA rally-goers. “These are individuals who are only accused of crimes,” he told me, “being held in 23-hour lockdown” and denied basic amenities.
Defense Attorney Tankleff has an interesting history:
If there is one lawyer in America who understands what it’s like to endure human rights violations in prison, it’s Tankleff. At age 17, the New York lawyer and adjunct professor at Georgetown University was himself wrongfully accused and convicted of the murder of his own parents. He spent nearly 18 years clearing his name and amassing evidence and witnesses that his father’s former business partner had orchestrated a hit on his parents. Tankleff’s conviction was overturned in 2007; he won two multimillion-dollar wrongful conviction civil suits, earned his law degree and was sworn in to practice law in New York in 2020.
The article concludes:
But for Tankleff, “the biggest issue is the inability of those who are incarcerated to aid in their own defense. There’s hundreds of hours of video, and there’s no way the Department of Corrections is going to allow either lawyers to sit there for hours after hours or those who are incarcerated and denied bail to get laptop computers (which has been done in cases throughout this country) where you can actually provide all the discovery on laptops. To me, none of the individuals should be denied.”
There is no good reason to keep these defendants locked up pending trial. “There are plenty of safeguards that could be implemented to protect the return to court of many of these individuals,” Tankleff argues. “And if they were granted bail, they would have an opportunity to go to their lawyers’ offices, aid in their own defense, review the discovery and really understand the accusations against them.”
We don’t need a Kabuki commission. We need action: Release the tapes. Free the Jan. 6 defendants. Shut down the American gulag.
Why isn’t the Biden administration protecting the civil rights of these American citizens?
One Of The Problems With Green Energy
On Wednesday, Yahoo News reported that one in five owners of electric cars have replaced their electric cars with traditional gasoline-powered cars.
The article reports:
In roughly three minutes, you can fill the gas tank of a Ford Mustang and have enough range to go about 300 miles with its V8 engine.
But on a recent 200-mile trip from Boston to New York in the Mustang’s electric Mach-E variant, Axios’ Dan Primack said he felt “panic” as his battery level dipped below 23% while searching for a compatible charger to complete his trip.
“I was assured that this might be one of the country’s easiest EV routes,” Primack wrote. “Those assurances were misplaced.”
For Bloomberg automotive analyst Kevin Tynan, an hour plugged into his household outlet gave the Mach-E just three miles of range.
“Overnight, we’re looking at 36 miles of range,” he told Insider. “Before I gave it back to Ford, because I wanted to give it back full, I drove it to the office and plugged in at the charger we have there.”
Standard home outlets generally deliver 120 volts, powering what electric vehicle aficionados call “Level 1” charging, while the higher-powered specialty connections at 240 volts are known as “Level 2.” By comparison, Tesla’s “Superchargers,” which can fully charge its cars in a little over an hour, run on 480 volts.
The article notes:
Of those who switched, over 70% lacked access to Level 2 charging at home, and slightly fewer than that lacked Level 2 connections at their workplace.
“If you don’t have a Level 2, it’s almost impossible,” said Tynan, who has tested a wide range of makes and models of PEVs over the years for his research.
Even with the faster charging, a Chevy Bolt he tested still needed nearly six hours to top its range back up to 300 miles from nearly empty – something that takes him just minutes at the pump with his family SUV.
EVs have come a long way in recent years in terms of range, safety, comfort, and tech features, but Hardman and Tal note that very little has changed in terms of how they are recharged.
The researchers warned that this trend could make it harder to achieve electric vehicle sales targets in California and other countries, and the growth of the market overall.
There are also questions as to whether or not the electrical grid could handle everyone driving electric cars. There is also the matter of where the electricity comes from–coal-generated, natural gas, solar, etc. Electric cars may or may not be a good idea, but it is an idea that will not come into fruition until the government gets out of the way.
Congress Needs To Make Some Serious Noise About This
Yesterday PJ Media posted an article about an incident at the federal lockup facility in Washington, D.C.
The article reports:
Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Louis Gohmert and Paul Gosar showed up at the federal lockup facility currently housing roughly 50 January 6 detainees in order to inspect the conditions of the political prisoners. They were looking into accusations of mistreatment, including being denied access to lawyers, beatings, and solitary confinement. They were denied.
…The same four reps attempted to meet Attorney General Merrick Garland to discuss the treatment of the January 6 detainees last Tuesday, but they were not allowed in the building. They held a brief presser, which was shut down by commies after about 20 minutes.
The GOP reps have sent a combined six letters to Garland asking to meet with him. When all letters went unanswered, they took matters into their own hands and stopped by the DOJ for a visit. Today, they decided to stop by the hoosegow.
…The GOPers and an entourage of staffers and media attempted to gain access but didn’t get past the lobby. One guard accused them of trespassing and “obstructing” the entrance, to which Gohmert replied, “We are the people that vote on whether or not to fund you, and at what level, and we are trespassing? My gosh, the government is upside down.”
He continued, “We are cleared for top secret, and we do inspect facilities and I’ve never, ever, in the years I’ve been in Congress, ever run into an issue like this, until this administration took over, and this speaker took over.”
The article notes:
Gohmert compared the treatment of BLM and Antifa to the January 6 prisoners.
“It is so egregious to think about the people that have burned looted, destroyed–being immediately released,” Gohmert stated. “Whereas here we are understanding they [January 6 detainees] aren’t being shown the evidence against them, the specific charges. We’d like to see the conditions, how people are being treated here.”
This is banana-republic stuff. People need to be removed from office for preventing Congressional oversight. If after the Congressional oversight, unacceptable conditions are found, more people need to be removed from office.
The Past Six Month In Charts
Issues & Insights posted an article today about President Biden’s first six months in office. The article included eight charts to illustrate what the first six months has brought us.
Here are the charts:
Please follow the link above to read the entire article.
The article concludes:
It is true that Biden has been in office for only six months. It’s also true things could turn around. But we don’t see that happening unless Biden changes course.
We have no doubt that Biden was very much hoping one day to tell the public how he killed COVID and saved the economy (just as he once bragged that “Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive” while he and President Barack Obama where in the White House).
The way things are going right now, Biden might one day have to admit that “the economy is dead, but COVID is alive.”
There Is Definitely Some Irony In This
Yesterday The New York Post reported that Rhode Island Democrat Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has been given an ultimatum by the Rhode Island Chapter of Black Lives Matter – resign or cut ties with Newport-based Bailey’s Beach Club (an exclusive all-white beach club) — or we will make your life miserable. The ultimatum was given by BLM Rhode Island on WLNE.
The article reports:
“We’ll go to his club, we’ll go to his office, we’ll go to his home — wherever we need to go,” one of the (BLM) chapter’s directors, Mark Fisher, vowed.
“This is an issue that’s not going to go away and Senator Whitehouse needs to address it, he needs to take it on,” Fisher said.
The threat comes more than a month after the state’s junior senator denied being a member of the controversial club, and insisted it was not his place to force family members to quit.
Bailey’s Beach Club also dismissed as “inaccurate and false” the characterization that its private membership was “all-white.”
“Over many years, Club members and their families have included people of many racial, religious, and ethnic backgrounds,” the club told the Providence Journal, saying it included a “diversity of view and background.”
The article concludes:
The activist group is also not buying the senator’s claim that the club was on “the right side of pushing for improvements.”
“It doesn’t matter, you know what type of black people he brings in,” Fisher said.
“This club is a proven racist club with exclusive ties to supremacy and exclusion, and that’s something that’s not gonna be tolerated by me, by my associates, my affiliates or my organization,” he said.
Whitehouse did not respond to requests for comment, the outlet said.
I am reminded of Maxine Waters’ instructions to her audience to get in the faces of Trump supporters and let them know they are not welcome anywhere. This is the same tactic being used against a Democrat. If this illustrates nothing else, it illustrates that bullies can easily turn on their own. If you don’t want to be bullied, don’t participate in the bullying of anyone else.
This Needs To Be Repeated Every Day Until It Ends
The Federalist posted an article today about the contrast between how the Justice Department is treating those arrested in Washington on January 6th and those arrested during the riots in America’s major cities last summer.
The article reports:
One would think a major report from a group representing America’s top law enforcement leaders analyzing the widespread riots of 2020 would have garnered significant media attention. One also would think such a report would garner widespread discussion after the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capital due to the parallels between it and the 2020 riots. Given our hyper-partisan environment, however, one would be woefully wrong.
Specifically, back in October 2020, the Major Cities Chiefs (MCC) released a comprehensive report full of data from dozens of cities that provides deep insights into the 2020 riots that plagued America after George Floyd’s death in Minnesota. The MCC’s “Report on the 2020 Protests and Civil Unrest” served as an excellent after-action report that cities, states, and the federal government could use to reform their practices and, equally importantly, to prepare for future riots.
The article notes the difference in the events of last summer and the events of January 6th:
Now here’s a prime example of dissimilar treatment for far worse actions. The January 6 riot involved no guns or fires among protesters, only makeshift weapons like flag poles, batons, and objects from the area.
In contrast, the 2020 riots involved guns, incendiary devices, lasers, paint bombs, and fireworks that were used to torch buildings and cars, hurt police officers, and destroy meaningful parts of many U.S. cities. Despite the far greater violence and destruction the 2020 rioters perpetrated, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) haven’t hunted those rioters down with anywhere near the vigor and vim used against what are in many cases at most trespassers.
…In stark contrast, the left and the media continue to falsely claim law enforcement officers were killed on January 6. While some law enforcement officers were certainly injured during that riot, the numbers and severity are far below the law enforcement injuries from the 2020 riots.
More than 2,000 law enforcement officers were injured during the 2020 riots, with numerous officers being shot and one, retired captain David Dorn, brutally murdered while protecting his friend’s shop from rioters. The 2020 rioters also shot other protestors.
In contrast, the only person violently killed on January 6 was the unarmed protester Ashli Babbitt, at the hands of a Capitol Police officer whose identity still remains unconfirmed by public officials.
The article notes:
Left-wing rioters wisely did their acts in cities controlled by Democrats and with Democrat district attorneys, who went soft on them despite their disproportionate violence. In contrast, those who rioted on January 6 had the great misfortune of being in a jurisdiction controlled by anti-Trump Democrats and zealously left-wing U.S. attorneys looking to impress their fellow leftists.
Most of the people involved in the civil unrest that took place last summer have had their charges dropped. Many of the people involved in the January 6th unrest have been refused bail. Please follow the link above to read the entire article. It is a chilling commentary on what has happened to our justice system in recent years.
Fear Is A Powerful Tool That Government Bureaucracies Use Well
On Tuesday, Townhall posted an article about the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis. At this point there have been a lot of mixed messages and a lot of confusion about the seriousness of the virus and how the treat it effectively. Actually, the information on how to treat the virus effectively has been pretty much left out of any news you hear about the virus.
The article reports:
Well, take a break from being mad and read what Johns Hopkins doctor Dr. Marty Makary wrote about new studies about natural immunity which is ignored by Fauci and company. He also rehashed an old Fauci statistic that shreds the current push for new mask protocols and possible lockdowns (via WSJ) [emphasis mine]
The news about the U.S. Covid pandemic is even better than you’ve heard. Some 80% to 85% of American adults are immune to the virus: More than 64% have received at least one vaccine dose and, of those who haven’t, roughly half have natural immunity from prior infection. There’s ample scientific evidence that natural immunity is effective and durable, and public-health leaders should pay it heed.
Only around 10% of Americans have had confirmed positive Covid tests, but four to six times as many have likely had the infection. A February study in Nature used antibody screenings in late summer 2020 to estimate there had been seven times as many actual cases as confirmed cases. A similar study, by the University of Albany and New York State Department of Health, revealed that by the end of March 2020—the first month of New York’s pandemic—23% of the city’s population had antibodies. That share necessarily increased as the pandemic spread.
[…]
Natural immunity is durable. Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis reported last month that 11 months after a mild infection immune cells were still capable of producing protective antibodies. The authors concluded that prior Covid infection induces a “robust” and “long-lived humoral immune response,” leading some scientists to suggest that natural immunity is probably lifelong. Because infection began months earlier than vaccination, we have more follow-up data on the duration of natural immunity than on vaccinated immunity.
[…]
Skeptics of natural immunity point to Manaus, capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, where reports in January suggested a wave of re-infections despite herd immunity. But the initial estimate of those infected was incorrect because it was based on antibody testing among those who donated convalescent plasma—an unrepresentative subgroup of the population. A follow-up study debunked the re-infection hypothesis and found only three confirmed re-infections in the entire state, whose population exceeds four million. Other studies have confirmed that re-infections are rare and usually asymptomatic or mild.
Some health officials warn of possible variants resistant to natural immunity. But none of the hundreds of variants observed so far have evaded either natural or vaccinated immunity with the three vaccines authorized in the U.S.
Should the previously infected be vaccinated? My clinical advice to healthy patients with natural immunity is that one shot is sufficient, and maybe not even necessary, although it could increase the long-term durability of immunity. A University of Pennsylvania study of people previously infected with Covid found that a single vaccine dose triggered a strong immune response, with no increase in that response after a second dose. A separate study from New York’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine concluded that “the antibody response to the first vaccine dose in individuals with pre-existing immunity is equal to or even exceeds the titers found in naïve”—never-infected—“individuals after the second dose.”
[…]
Dr. Fauci said last Aug. 13 that when you have fewer than 10 cases per 100,000, “you should be able to open up safely and clearly.” The U.S. reached that point in mid-May. It’s time to stop the fear mongering and level with the public about the incredible capabilities of both modern medical research and the human body’s immune system.
When was the last time you heard anyone who was pressuring people to get vaccinated talk about the natural immunity that comes from having recovered from the disease? When was the last time you heard anyone who was pressuring people to get vaccinated talk about the inexpensive treatments for the coronavirus? It’s time to have those discussions.
The Questions That Were Neither Asked Nor Answered
Yesterday Fox News posted an article about comments made by the National Police Association Spokeswoman Betsy Brantner Smith about the Congressional hearings about the events of January 6th.
The article reports:
The National Police Association on Wednesday slammed Congress’ investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot as a politically motivated “dog and pony show” that has no intention of uncovering the truth of what really happened that day.
In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, association spokeswoman Betsy Brantner Smith, a retired police sergeant who describes herself as a conservative, said Congress should hear from the thousands of police officers who were injured during the George Floyd riots last year.
…”Myself, like millions of Americans, sat there watching the testimony thinking, ‘Wait, where are the police officers who appeared – appeared – to let some of the protesters in?” she asked. “Where is the police officer who shot Ashli Babbitt? In fact, why aren’t we talking about Ashli Babbitt? I mean there’s so much more here.”
Brantner Smith’s comments came the day after four law enforcement officers who responded to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol gave testimony to a House select committee about their experience.
Brantner Smith said those officers have been “politicized by Congress,” and that while their stories are important, the American public also deserves to hear the stories of the “more than 2,000” men and women in law enforcement who were injured during last year’s violent protests.
She cited a poll last week by the NPA and Rasmussen Reports that found 66% of likely U.S. voters think Congress should investigate the riots spurred by Floyd’s murder last May.
The article concludes:
“The veracity of the defund the police movement is directly related to crime in that area,” she continued. “We’re not saving Black lives by defunding the police, by reimagining police, by vilifying the police. And that’s what I think is so disingenuous, and I think it’s confusing for people. Because I think a lot of Americans say, of course, black lives matter. I mean, who doesn’t believe that black lives matter? But yet these policies in the name of Black Lives Matter are actually killing more Black people, damaging the lives of Black people than the police ever have.”
“We’re reaching a tipping point and I think yesterday kind of woke some people up — I hope. I hope,” she said.
Show trials are not going to help the ongoing crime problem that has developed in American cities since the ‘defund the police’ movement. Residents of the cities where crime has spiraled out of control need to seriously consider who they will vote for in their next mayoral and city council elections. That decision could be the beginning of a solution to the crime problem.
Somehow The Truth Got Lost In The Drama
I watched a portion of the hearings about January 6th yesterday. It was high drama and very little truth. I am sorry that the police and the congressmen were so traumatized by unarmed citizens after the Capitol police waved those citizens into the building (there is video evidence of this). The hearings were a sad reflection of the political left trying to paint opposing views as dangerous. What happened on January 5th was inexcusable, but it wasn’t an insurrection–insurrections involve guns and violence (much like what we saw in major cities last summer). The only person killed was an unarmed civilian. That needs to be investigated, but the politically biased hearings that are taking place will never investigate that.
Yesterday Red State posted an article about the lies told in the hearings.
The article reports:
Actually, if we are going to use the broad rubric that Thompson is using, thousands of people lost their lives for a variety of different reasons across the country. Regardless, only one was a direct result of something done at the Capitol that day. That would be Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed by an unidentified police officer. No, Officer Brian Sicknick did not die of injuries he sustained in the line of duty. He died a day later of a stroke he suffered nearly 12 hours after the events of January 6th. That is not in dispute. Any connection to January 6th is purely speculative, and in no other situation do we blame the deaths of officers who die of natural causes on stress endured while on duty. That’s not how any of this works.
Thompson is also lumping in two officers who later committed suicide despite there being no direct evidence whatsoever that their decisions were based on January 6th. All the other deaths in the “seven” mentioned were of natural causes.
Then there was the claim that January 6th was the worst attack on the Capitol since 1812.
…Further, the Capitol building has been bombed numerous times throughout its history, resulting in extensive damage. The idea that the meandering trespassers of January 6th represented a greater threat than literally being shot or blown up does not pass muster. It’s the kind of claim a hysteric makes without regard for the facts.
Officer Harry Dunn also used the analogy of a hitman in an attempt to link President Trump to what happened at the Capitol. That is also a false charge.
The article also notes:
A lot of things happened on January 6th. What did not happen is a hitman directly ordering people to attack the Capitol, in this case, Donald Trump. During his speech, Trump specifically asked people to peacefully protest. That some of the protesters didn’t is ultimately on them for choosing not to listen. We have agency in this country, and people are responsible for their own actions.
The ‘peaceful protest’ at the Capitol was much more peaceful than the ‘peaceful protests’ in major cities last summer. Unfortunately the protesters from last summer are not being charged with crimes and there will be no Washington hearings on the cause of those ‘protests.’ We can expect more ‘peaceful protests’ this summer due to the defunding of the police in some of our cities and the lack of support for the police by some mayors of these cities.
America didn’t used to have show trials. This is one. It does not portend good things for the future of the country.
Everyone Needs To Be Screaming About This
The Epoch Times posted an article yesterday about a protest in Washington. This protest didn’t get a lot of news coverage because leftists were doing the protesting.
The article reports:
A small cadre of Republican lawmakers gathered outside the Department of Justice on Tuesday afternoon to air concerns about the treatment of prisoners arrested for allegedly participating in the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riots.
“We weren’t even let in the lobby,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said, standing at the DOJ’s doorstep.
They weren’t left alone outside of the lobby, either. After about 15 minutes, a group of what appeared to be leftist protestors swarmed Greene’s podium and the surrounding area.
As Greene was speaking, protestors appeared to be circling behind her and the other Republicans—much to the concern of the staffers and security.
“We have to wrap it up,” a man near Greene could be heard saying, before more urgently repeating, “We have to go. We need to break.”
“The left is interrupting the press conference,” the man then announced to the crowd.
Seconds later, the group of protestors walked through the podium area as the Republican lawmakers and others scattered.
The article notes:
According to numerous reports, Jan. 6 inmates have been beaten, held in solitary confinement, and denied access to evidence about their own cases.
The Republican lawmakers said that they have attempted to investigate these reports, but have been stonewalled by the DOJ, as well as the Washington DC Department of Corrections and Capitol Police. A joint letter from Reps Greene, Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) lists six unanswered inquiries Republicans have sent to federal authorities.
“Are we housing political prisoners?” Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said at Tuesday’s press conference. “We need to know the answers.”
A former defense attorney and Texas district judge, Gohmert said he’s spent his career fighting for due process for all defendants, including those on death row. During his time as judge, Gohmert said he would make unannounced visits to jails and prisons to make sure the conditions weren’t abusive.
“No matter whom you are in this country, you have the right to a fair trial and the right to see the evidence against you, including all potentially exculpatory or exonerating evidence. A plea agreement should not even be offered until these requirements are met,” Gohmert said.
“These are basic, fundamental requirements of our law that are ingrained in the justice system of these United States. Disregarding these procedures is a violation of any American citizen’s civil rights.”
We need to have hearings on the mistreatment of these Americans. Their civil rights are being violated, and the majority of Congress is silent.
Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch
While much of America was focused on the hearings in Washington, censorship of ideas or events that were contradictory to the ruling political class continued. Yesterday NewsMax reported that Twitter had suspended the accounts of anyone seeking to audit 2020 presidential election results. What are they afraid of? Obviously the hearings in Washington are a good distraction from various audits taking place around the country.
The article reports:
Twitter, assailed by some critics as hostile to conservative voices, has apparently imposed a ban on those seeking to audit 2020 presidential election results, including some involved in the first-of-its-kind forensic audit in Maricopa County, Arizona.
Reports first noted the banning of two accounts sharing information from the Arizona forensic audit, but accounts sharing information on audit intentions in other states were suspended by Twitter on Tuesday afternoon, according to multiple reports.
Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers tweeted the news and warned followers she might be a future victim of Big Tech censorship
…The accounts included those designed to inform about the Georgia, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Pennsylvania audits, too. Those are among the states that decided the election for President Joe Biden and the bans come on the day House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Jan. 6 Select Committee began hearing from law enforcement officers who were beaten during the storming of the Capitol.
The article notes that Project Veritas has also been banned from Twitter. It really is time for someone to start a social media platform that can compete with Twitter and will allow all points of view.
Sad, But Not Surprising
The Epoch Times is reporting today that employers can legally require their employees to get the Covid-19 vaccine despite the fact that the vaccine is approved for emergency use and not fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
The article reports:
The Department of Justice concluded in an opinion that federal law doesn’t prohibit public agencies and private businesses from requiring COVID-19 vaccines under the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorization.
On July 26, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, California, and New York City said they would require some of their government workers to get the COVID-19 shot or be tested weekly. Veterans Affairs, with the move, became the first federal agency to mandate the vaccine.
The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel on July 26 wrote (pdf) that because access to COVID-19 vaccines is more commonplace, “numerous educational institutions, employers, and other entities across the United States” have said they will require some individuals to be vaccinated against the virus as a condition of employment, participation, benefit, service, or relationship.
“For instance,” it wrote, “certain schools will require vaccination in order for students to attend class in person, and certain employers will require vaccination as a condition of employment.”
The opinion, which noted that some have questioned the legality of such mandates, concluded that federal law concerning the FDA’s emergency use authorizations (EUA) on COVID-19 vaccines made by Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson doesn’t “prohibit public or private entities from imposing vaccine requirements, even when the only vaccines available are those authorized under EUAs.”
The article notes:
White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who has given conflicting statements around whether the administration supports vaccine passports, told reporters during a briefing last week that the administration isn’t requiring officials to get vaccinated.
“No, we have not mandated it,” Psaki in response to a question about whether the White House has made COVID-19 shots mandatory. She appeared to say that the White House offered the vaccines to every employee.
Some Republican-led states, meanwhile, have passed laws that forbid the usage of vaccine passports in government agencies and offices. Florida went a step further in May after Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed a law that prohibits all private businesses from using vaccine passports in his state.
I don’t believe we have been in this place before. I don’t remember the polio vaccine being federally mandated despite the polio epidemic of the 1950’s. This is a level of government control that no one should support.
Big Brother Is Watching
On July 22nd, Forbes posted an article about one method the Federal Bureau of Investigation is using to spy on Americans. The article is technical, but very important.
The article reports:
The FBI is using a controversial technology traditionally used to locate smartphones as a car tracking surveillance tool that spies on vehicles’ on-board WiFi.
Known as a Stingray or a cell-site simulator, the tool masquerades as a cell tower in order to force all devices in a given area to connect into it. Agents can then pick the number they’re interested in and locate the device. Normally that would be a mobile phone, but a search warrant application discovered by Forbes shows it can also be used to find vehicles, as long as they have onboard Wi-Fi. That’s because car Wi-Fi systems act like a phone, in that they reach out to mobile networks to get their data. So it makes sense that police would use it to find a car, though this appears to be the first case on record of it happening.
The application to use the Stingray was filed by the FBI in Wisconsin in May, as it sought to locate a vehicle – a Dodge Durango Hellcat – it believed was being used by a man indicted for drug dealing and firearms possession crimes.
The FBI had already been given permission to use other kinds of surveillance to locate another vehicle, a “black Jeep,” associated with the suspect, according to the warrant application. Again, they were surveillance techniques traditionally used to track cellphones, the first being a pen register, which gets data from a cellphone provider to monitor connections made by the device to other phones or electronic devices. The second was a so-called “ping warrant,” which shows the locations of cell towers used by a device. That gave them the location of a car dealership, where they learned the suspect had traded in the Jeep for the Dodge, the FBI wrote in its application.
The article concludes:
The case highlights how cars are no longer just vehicles, but networks on wheels, and all that data can be useful to government agencies. As Forbes recently reported, police can and have acquired location data from a car’s airbag system or brake light module. They’ve also previously requested location data from companies that have in-car systems that track millions of vehicles’ GPS coordinates every day, including GM OnStar, and fleet management providers Geotab and Spireon.
“Many people don’t realize that modern cars aren’t just wheels and an engine anymore, they are computers and cellphones too,” says Nate Wessler, deputy director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “These features offer convenience and efficiency to drivers, but they also generate sensitive information about where we go and what we do. Strong privacy protections are important for this kind of vehicle information, just as they are for information generated by our cell phones and laptops.”
I am all for giving law enforcement all of the tools they need, but this seems to me to be a bit much. Unless I have broken a law, it is none of the government’s business where I am. I fear that this technology could easily be used to track innocent people in the future. It has the potential of being another step in the government’s efforts to limit the freedom of Americans.
Not Surprising
Yesterday Just the News posted an article about some of the surprises the Democrats have planned for their giant budget reconciliation bill.
The article reports:
Democrats might try adding amnesty for illegal immigrants to an infrastructure bill being pushed through as budget reconciliation, says John Zadrozny, a former Trump administration official.
“[U]nfortunately, there is a chance that could happen,” Zadrozny told the John Solomon Reports podcast on Monday. “And it’s difficult, in some ways, but I think it’s just something they want to do.”
Including amnesty in an infrastructure bill “is a remarkably honest move by the Democrats, because they’re using the infrastructure bill to build their future Democrat Party voter infrastructure,” he added.
“This is not about national security, this is not about building roads, this is about an amnesty,” said Zadrozny, who is the current director of the Center for Homeland Security and Immigration of the America First Policy Institute. “And so, that just means they’d like to add 20 to 30 million people to the voter rolls because they can’t convince Americans about their viewpoints.”
The Democrats are attempting to pass an infrastructure bill, while possibly including amnesty, as a budget reconciliation bill. Budget reconciliation, which Zadrozny said is supposed to be “for bills relating to spending, taxing, and the debt ceiling,” only requires a majority of votes to pass in the Senate, rather than the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster.
Zadrozny noted that Republicans will have to work together to block amnesty provisions. He compared the GOP to “an open mic night at a comedy club” where “everyone does their own thing.”
Democrats, on the other hand, “will march to death to achieve a generational objective,” Zadrozny said. He provided the example of Democrats passing Obamacare in 2010 at the cost of losing their majority in Congress during the midterm elections.
In January of this year, The Conservative Treehouse posted an article warning about the Democrats’ using the reconciliation process to pass amnesty. If that happens, America will become a one-party nation ruled by a bunch of power-hungry elitists.
Shared on Facebook by a friend. As you look at this, consider the fact that many states (and the federal government) are moving to limit the freedom of Americans again. This chart shows the results of the previous lockdowns in two states–Florida ended the lockdowns quickly; New York kept lockdowns in place:
How Much Does It Cost?
Yesterday The Daily Wire posted an article about the budget reconciliation plan that is currently working its way through Congress.
The article reports:
A group of analysts predicts that Congressional Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation plan could actually cost up to $5.5 trillion.
As The Daily Wire recently reported, lawmakers are attempting to ram spending proposals through Congress without Republican approval. Their budget incorporates portions of President Biden’s American Families Plan and American Jobs Plan.
The Committee for a Responsible Budget has stated the following:
While the actual cost of this new legislation will ultimately depend heavily on details that have yet to be revealed, we estimate the policies under consideration could cost between $5 trillion and $5.5 trillion over a decade, assuming they are made permanent. In order to fit these proposals within a $3.5 trillion budget target, lawmakers apparently intend to have some policies expire before the end of the ten-year budget window, using this oft-criticized budget gimmick to hide their true cost.
…Based on these sources, we estimate policies in the fact sheet would cost about $5 trillion over a ten-year period. Including additional policies not explicitly mentioned but rumored to be part of the package, and incorporating possible estimating differences between the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the cost could rise to $5.5 trillion.
The article concludes:
Economists from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School explain that deficit spending discourages investment in private ventures, thereby cutting innovation and business growth:
The government collects real resources via voluntary transactions with economic agents who are willing to trade real resources today for the promise of real resources in the future. Debt buyers, including U.S. households saving for retirement, view this debt as savings, which reduces their savings in private investment. This substitution is called the ‘capital crowding-out effect’ from government debt issuance.
With $1 trillion in deficit spending, capital stock would fall 0.78% by 2050; with $10 trillion in spending, capital stock would fall by 8.59%.
If you add tax increases to that picture, the future of the American economy looks even worse.
Why Many Americans Do Not Trust The Media
Yesterday PJ Media posted an article about the claim made by some Republicans that the Biden administration wants to take guns away from law-abiding citizens. Politifact claims that the charge that the Biden administration wants to ban handguns is false, but President Biden’s words do not back up that claim.
The article at PJ Media includes a Tweet and a video with the following statement:
President Biden says he wants to ban handguns.
The article details what followed:
In response to the tweet from House Republicans declaring that Biden “says he wants to ban handguns,” PolitiFact claims “the clip doesn’t back up the GOP tweet, and the full transcript goes further to sink this claim.”
PolitiFact claims that the numbers cited by Biden “apply to assault-style firearms and high-capacity magazines. As recently as June, when Biden rolled out his strategy to bring down murders, he said he wants to ban both.”
“Experts disagree over what is or isn’t an assault weapon. States set different thresholds for what qualifies as a high-capacity magazine,” PolitiFact continued, before adding, “But regardless of the definition, neither term includes all handguns.”
Did anyone say Biden wants to ban all handguns? Nope. Yet, PolitiFact unwittingly admitted in its analysis that some handguns would be affected by Biden’s gun control proposal. So, does Biden want to ban handguns? He’s publicly indicated that he wants to ban some. There’s no doubt about that.
Yet, PolitiFact rated the claim that Biden wants to ban handguns as “False.” In fairness, they could have gotten away with rating the claim “Half True” because one could argue that the House GOP’s wording wasn’t clear, but they didn’t take Biden’s words out of context. They even showed the video of Biden’s response to the question. Biden may not have said he wanted to ban all handguns, but he clearly said he wants to ban some. Yet, PolitiFact disingenuously rated the claim false, which seems to imply that Biden never said he wanted to ban any handguns at all.
Notice how Politifact changed the words slightly so that they could claim the statement was false. Unfortunately, the mainstream media does a lot of that. Whenever you read a mainstream media article, you have to read every word. Things are not always what they seem.
Which Is A More Serious Crime–Murder Or Sexual Harassment?
Recently I posted an article about the decision by the Department of Justice not to investigate the actions of some governors who sent coronavirus patients into nursing homes. The specific states whose governors did that were New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. A number of New York residents were disappointed to hear that Governor Cuomo seemingly will not be investigated for his role in sending coronavirus patients into nursing homes in New York State. However, the Governor’s legal problems are not over.
Hot Air reported the following yesterday:
There’s no federal investigation into New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, however, Attorney General Tish James isn’t quite done, yet.
James could release details of her investigation into whether Cuomo sexually harassed nine women before the end of the summer, something the governor’s office seems to believe is becoming more political by the day. Cuomo senior adviser Richard Azzopardi told The New York Times last week, “the continued leaks are more evidence of the transparent political motivation of the attorney general’s review.”
A rather curious statement since Cuomo asked James to look into the allegations while promising cooperation from all New York State employees. (One would guess this includes the governor.) There’s also no evidence of any leaks despite Azzopardi’s protestations on Twitter and in the press, including calling a union president an extortionist who supports James in the governor’s mansion. Cuomo critics like James, but it seems more along the lines of enjoying thorn-like poking in Cuomo’s side versus lobbying for her to challenge him in 2022.
What’s interesting is Republicans are the ones saying James has a better shot at Democrats staying in the governor’s mansion.
When the media reports that a Democrat is being investigated for sexual harassment, it is political–if the media is reporting it, there is an ulterior motive–Democrats don’t usually warrant media reports when they are charged with sexual harassment.
The article concludes:
Not everyone believes James’ report signals doom on Cuomo’s political future. State Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie cast doubt on whether the governor could be impeached for sexual harassment because he wanted the Judiciary Committee to review it as part of its own probe into Cuomo. That comment caused one of the attorneys representing a Cuomo accuser to suggest Heastie betrayed his duties by showing loyalty to the governor instead of the rule of law.
The amusing parts? James’ reputation had been one of a Cuomo loyalist, instead of someone seeking higher office. A source told Yahoo News back in March that the pair had a good working relationship but James would buck things when it was the right thing to do. Perhaps she’s seeing how the political winds are moving and believes she’s the better candidate.
Except no one knows if James will run for governor. The rumors are all coming from Cuomo’s camp, not anyone connected with the AG. Meaning Cuomo’s worried. It’s possible the DoJ’s decision to pass on investigating the nursing home deaths won’t matter. Still seems odd since one would think avoidable elderly deaths matter more than in the grand scheme of things than sexual harassment. This isn’t taking away from the sex misconduct allegations against Cuomo but just pointing out the strangeness of what gets the public up in arms.
And I thought Texas politics was a bloodsport.
Has it occurred to anyone that maybe Governor Cuomo needs to be investigated for sexual harassment simply because so many accusations have been made?
What Is Behind The Push To Get Everyone Vaccinated?
The Biden administration is making a genuine effort to get all Americans vaccinate. They are even planning to vaccinate children, who don’t seem to get seriously ill if they develop the coronavirus. Since the vaccines are free, I am beginning to wonder why the government is pushing them so hard.
Breitbart reported the following today:
Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said on ABC’s “This Week” that the way to get more people vaccinated against coronavirus is to make it a “reward-punishment system.”
Panelist Margaret Hoover said, “There’s a lot of things we can do without calling it a mandate. Just make it almost impossible for people to live their lives without being protected and protect us.”
Emanuel said, “I agree. I’m the son of a pediatrician…The fact is no child can show up at school without showing their immunizations, smallpox and measles. You have to make this familiar to people. Second is, I would close the space. If you want to participate in activities, you have to show you are vaccinated. So it becomes a reward-punishment system. You make your own calculation. The fact is there’s data this week that 30% of health care workers are not vaccinated. They have got to lead by example.”
This is very suspicious–we know that school children are at very low risk from the vaccine. Also, this thinking does not take into consideration those who have recovered from the coronavirus and have natural immunity. I suspect that some time in the next five or six years we will have an idea what this is all about. Right now I am not convinced anyone has any idea why the vaccine is being pushed so strongly.
Follow The Money
We are currently looking at Congress attempting to pass what they are calling an infrastructure bill that will very likely bankrupt America. So exactly what does this bill pay for?
Yesterday Trending Politics posted an article that answers some of that question.
The article reports:
Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said on Saturday that a Democratic infrastructure bill contains language and provisions that will direct the lion’s share of taxpayer funds toward blue cities and states regardless of need elsewhere.
“When we start to look at it, no one’s against roads and bridges working for them, but what they are against is the Washington, D.C., establishment actually spending their dollars on their behalf, but not necessarily their priorities,” Meadows told Newsmax TV.
“The problem is about those priorities: Most of the money that they’re talking about, actually will go to major metropolitan areas,” Meadows added.
It is quite possible that blue states and blue cities need more infrastructure money. These states have been mismanaged by the Democrats for years. However, it is the responsibility of the residents of those states and cities to elect responsible leaders–not the responsibility of the rest of the country to bail them out when their bad policies catch up to them.
The article continues:
“Some of these senators are just saying, ‘Well, we want to do it; it sounds good, but it’s really not going to hit the target,’” Meadows, who was a GOP lawmaker from North Carolina before joining the Trump White House, continued.
“So for me, it’s about making sure that we have a different priority and that we don’t spend money on the Green New Deal or some kind of human infrastructure,” he said.
“We’ve got a new definition for infrastructure that, when I was a member of Congress, we never heard.”
In addition to major cities, all Democrat-run, being infrastructure priorities for the massive spending, middle-Americans are going to be hit with even more inflation that will act as a tax, he warned.
“It is the failed policy of the Biden administration that’s actually making us pay more at the grocery store, at the gas pump, on really anything that we’re looking at,” Meadows said.
“You look at those inflation indicators, it’s all because they’re printing money. And what are the Democrats want to do? They want to print more of it,” he told Newsmax TV.
“Eventually you run out of other people’s money. We’re at that point, and it’s time to say enough is enough.”
There are a lot of reasons Republicans should do everything they can to prevent this bill from becoming law.
When Justice Disappears
Yesterday The Epoch Times posted an article about the investigation into coronavirus deaths in nursing homes in any of the states run by Democrat governors. It’s interesting that it’s the Democrat governors who sent the elderly coronavirus patients into nursing homes.
The article reports:
The U.S. Department of Justice has opted against investigating any of the Democrat governors who last year ordered nursing homes to accept residents who tested positive for COVID-19 against the recommendations of health groups.
Federal officials reviewed information they received from New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New Jersey last year regarding the orders.
Based on the review, they’re not opening Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA) investigations in the first three states, Joe Gaeta, deputy assistant attorney general, told Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) in a letter on Friday.
The act enables the attorney general to launch a case in court against a state or local government, or its employees or agents, when officials suspect or find that people in institutions owned or run by such a government have had their rights denied.
The article continues:
The CDC issued guidance in March 2020, before the orders were released, saying COVID-positive patients could be released from healthcare facilities to long-term care facilities but if that happened, the facilities should be equipped with “adequate personal protective equipment supplies and an ability to adhere to infection prevention and control recommendations for the care of COVID-19 patients.”
“Preferably, the patient would be placed at a facility that has already cared for COVID-19 cases, in a specific unit designated to care for COVID-19 residents,” the guidance stated.
The orders in question were imposed by Cuomo and the others early in the COVID-19 pandemic. They informed nursing home operators that they could not turn away residents solely on the basis of a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19.
Health groups like The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine warned against the orders, stating in a resolution in March 2020 that “admitting patients with suspected or documented COVID-19 infection represents a clear and present danger to all of the residents of a nursing home.”
Large percentages of deaths pinned to COVID-19 in the four states took place among nursing homes.
We no longer have equal justice under the law in America.
Posted by my friends at Power Line Blog:
Even CNN Is Fact-Checking President Biden
On Thursday, CNN posted an article about President Biden’s Wednesday Town Hall Meeting.
The article reports:
President Joe Biden participated Wednesday in the second CNN town hall of his presidency, taking questions from anchor Don Lemon and local residents in Cincinnati.
As he did at his February town hall, Biden made a number of false or misleading claims. We haven’t been able to look into every single thing he said Wednesday night, but here is a rundown on some of his remarks.
Here is the list of false or misleading claims. Please follow the link above to the article to see the details:
But then, during a third exchange, Biden said that since the vaccines “cover” the highly transmissible Delta variant of the virus: “You’re not going to get Covid if you have these vaccinations.”
…After he was asked by a citizen if he is concerned about higher prices, especially inflation in gasoline, automotive and food prices, Biden asserted that “the cost of an automobile, it’s kind of back to what it was before the pandemic.”
…Biden criticized the broad corporate use of “noncompete” clauses that restrict workers’ ability to leave for jobs at other companies. He said, “For example, you have over 600,000 people out there signing — 6 million people signing a — I better check the number — of — signing noncompete agreements. Not because they have … any secret, but because they were working for one fast-food restaurant, and they’re told they can’t get 10 cents more going across town, going to the other fast-food restaurant. Why? To keep wages down.”
…Talking about the ongoing Senate negotiations over a bipartisan infrastructure bill, Biden said he thinks the negotiators need only until Monday to resolve outstanding issues. He said, “You had up to 20 Republicans sign a letter saying, ‘We think we need this deal. We think we need this deal.’ “
…Touting his expansion of the child tax credit, which was part of the $1.9 trillion relief package he signed into law in March, Biden claimed, “It’s called the child tax credit. If you have a child under the age of 7, you get 300 bucks a month — 350 bucks a month. If you have a child under — between 7 and 17, you get a total of 200 bucks a month.”
…Biden said, “Now, by the way, remember when I first got elected, the issue was, well, I said I was going to do a million shots a week, and people said, ‘Biden can’t do that’ or ‘Biden team can’t do that.’ And it was 2 million.”
You know a Democrat is in trouble when CNN starts fact-checking them!
Pressuring People To Be Part Of An Experiment
One thing to remember as we continue to deal with the coronavirus is that the current vaccines all have emergency approval from the Food and Drug Administration. No one of the current vaccines has full approval for general use. That should prevent companies from requiring employees to be vaccinate, but evidently it doesn’t. One of my daughters has recently resigned a position with the New York Rangers hockey team because she refused to get one of the current coronavirus vaccines. Unfortunately, she is not alone in being put in the position of taking an experimental vaccine or losing her job.
The New York Post reported yesterday that Minnesota Vikings Assistant Coach Rick Dennison has refused to get the coronavirus vaccine and is currently ‘holding discussions’ with the team to see what can be worked out.
The article reports:
Amid reports Friday that the two sides had split over Dennison’s refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine, the Vikings released a statement saying they’re continuing to “hold discussions” with the offensive line coach and run game coordinator.
“The Vikings continue to hold discussions with Offensive Line Coach Rick Dennison regarding the NFL-NFLPA COVID-19 Protocols for training camp and preseason games,” the statement read. “At this time, Coach Dennison does not have an exemption to the vaccination requirements of those protocols. We will adhere to the requirements of the protocols and of applicable law.”
Dennison is considered a “Tier 1” employee and would be required to get the vaccine in order to work directly with players on the field, in meeting rooms, or elsewhere. The league has also said any unvaccinated Tier 1 member has to provide a religious or medical reason to not receive the vaccine. Anyone who doesn’t would be stripped of top-tier status and would face extreme protocols throughout the season.
This is the prelude to vaccine passports, a major loss of freedom for Americans. There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that says the government can require Americans to undergo a government-mandated medical procedure or be forced by the government to take a drug. The vaccine requirements being implemented in some companies need to be met with lawsuits quickly. This is not a good think for our country.