Posts on Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Appeals court, in blow to Kobach,
strikes down Kansas law requiring
proof of citizenship to vote replies
strikes down Kansas law requiring
proof of citizenship to vote replies
A federal appeals court Wednesday declared unconstitutional a Kansas law that required proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote, with a rebuke for the Republican former secretary of state who had championed the requirement. "This is a huge win for voters," said Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Irvine. "It clears away a law that disenfranchised thousands but prevented no appreciable amount of voter fraud." The law, which took effect in 2013 but was later blocked by a federal trial judge, was promoted by former state Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who for years said noncitizens were voting illegally. President Donald Trump appointed him
The state of Florida does not have to come up with a new way to list candidates on the ballot, a federal appellate court ruled Wednesday, dealing a blow to Democrats who argued that Republicans have an unfair advantage because the current system automatically lists their candidates first. The high-stakes jockeying over name order on Florida’s ballot is hardly inconsequential as Republicans and Democrats grapple for every advantage they can get in elections that are often too close to call on election night. Tossing out a lower court's ruling, the appellate court found that the lawsuit filed by three Florida voters and several Democratic groups had wrongly targeted
During a meeting with President Trump at the White House Tuesday morning, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis blasted the media for reporting and speculating his state would turn out just like New York in the battle against Wuhan coronavirus.
"Governor DeSantis you did face quite a bit of criticism for not closing your state as soon as some did..." a reporter said in the Oval Office.
"What have the results been? You look at some of the most draconian orders that have been issued in some of these states and compare Florida," DeSantis responded. "Florida has done better. I'm not criticizing those states.
A fifth nun at a Greenfield convent has died from the coronavirus, according to the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Sister Bernadette Kelter died April 26 at Our Lady of the Angels Convent at the age of 88, Michael O’Loughlin, marketing and communications director at School Sisters of St. Francis, said in an email statement.
News of Kelter's death comes less than a week after the convent announced a fourth sister, 102-year-old Annelda Holtkamp, died from coronavirus. Holtkamp died April 19.
To the casual observer, it's clear that the mainstream media operate under a default assumption when it comes to women who accuse political figures of sexual assault: The ones who accuse Republicans are inherently more credible than the ones who accuse Democrats. This bias has become so obvious as the media struggle to handle Tara Reade's credible allegation of sexual assault against former vice president Joe Biden—especially compared with the hysterical coverage surrounding Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's allegation against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh—that even members of the media are beginning to notice. They are shocked—
In a lengthy Facebook post, the owner of Jackson's Blue Ribbon Pub in Wauwatosa said he won't reopen his restaurant May 1 as originally planned.
*snip*Zierath said he spoke with the Wauwatosa city attorney about the potential to open his business.
City Attorney Alan Kesner confirmed that Zierath spoke with his office, and discussions on consequences of what could occur as a result of reopening took place.
"We let him know that his various licenses might be in jeopardy if he had potentially violated the order," Kesner said.
WASHINGTON — President Trump is ending his months-long White House confinement, announcing a trip to the key battleground state of Arizona next week as he looks to reopen the economy.During a round table with business executives at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, Trump confirmed he’d “start to move around” the country and said he hoped he could hold more of his trademark rallies in the near future.“I think I’m going to Arizona next week and we look forward to that, and I’m going, I hope, to Ohio very soon,” Trump told reporters.“We’re going to start to move around and hopefully in the not too distant future we’ll have
President Donald Trump said Wednesday at the White House that he wanted to return to big campaign rallies prior to the election, despite some experts predicting social distancing regulations continue through the fall to prevent the coronavirus from spreading.“I hope that we’re going to be able to do some good old fashioned 25,000-person rallies where everyone’s going wild because they love our country,” he said.The president said he would likely travel to Arizona next week and Ohio fairly soon for smaller events and even predicted the return of his legendary campaign rallies.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is calling on the Justice Department to release all exculpatory information related to the FBI’s handling of its case against Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.
“Simply stated, after years of rampant speculation and publicly reported inconsistencies regarding how the FBI handled the case, it’s time for the public to know the full set off facts relating to Lt. Gen. Flynn, including any and all government misconduct,” Grassley wrote in a letter to DOJ Attorney General William Barr. “In the alternative, I request that you amend the protective order so that Congress can review the information in light of its constitutional oversight prerogatives.”
NOTE: Just before this was published the court has released the notes. More will follow…
It appears U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Jensen from Missouri, who was brought in to review all of the DOJ case files surrounding Michael Flynn, has provided an additional eleven pages of exculpatory FBI notes. Michael Flynn’s defense counsel Sidney Powell describes the latest notes as: “even more appalling than the Friday production“.
The Flynn defense and the DOJ (likely Jensen) have filed a joint motion with the court asking for the documents to be unsealed after a classification review. However, (Snip) it appears these notes were already in the custody of the Special Counsels Office
Handwritten FBI notes from the earliest days of the Trump administration detail a tortured debate among officials on whether to use a bureau interview of then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to get him to lie so he could be prosecuted or fired, officials tell Just the News,
The notes and other emails have been provided belatedly to Flynn's lawyers under seal and are expected to be released by court order to the public by week's end, the officials said, speaking only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
T
The Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department changed the status of a complaint against 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden from active to inactive, One America News Network reported Wednesday. The network’s Richard Pollack reported Wednesday afternoon that the D.C. police department appears to have closed its investigation into Tara Reade’s allegations of sexual assault against Biden. “The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department has suddenly, without explanation, killed its active investigation
During a press conference on Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced the Democrat members of the House’s select subcommittee on coronavirus oversight. Pelosi named House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) as the subcommittee’s chair. She added that House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters (D-CA), House Small Business Committee Chair Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL), Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), and Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ) will serve as the other Democrats on the subcommittee.Pelosi also expressed hope
Justin Amash won't seek reelection to House
as he becomes first Libertarian member
of Congress replies
as he becomes first Libertarian member
of Congress replies
Justin Amash will not seek another term in his House seat as he launches a presidential bid and becomes the first Libertarian member of Congress."My campaign is paused, but, frankly, I'm running this campaign for president, and I don't intend to return to my congressional campaign," Amash said in an interview with Reason Tuesday night. "It's been an honor to represent the 3rd District, and that was one of the hardest parts of this decision."In comments to the Detroit News, Amash said: "At the end of the day, I'm trying to think about what is best for the country
Multiple congressional committees approached Michael Flynn’s original defense counsel to raise the prospect of immunity in exchange for Flynn’s congressional testimony but were spurned, multiple sources familiar with the interactions told The Federalist.After Flynn pleaded guilty to making false statements to federal investigators, representatives of multiple congressional committees with oversight responsibility for national security matters asked Flynn’s lawyers if Flynn would testify before Congress in exchange for a congressional grant of immunity. Robert Kelner, Flynn’s attorney at the time, immediately dismissed the overtures, sources told The Federalist.
For the adults in the house, trying to do their own jobs while helping children with class work has become one of the most trying aspects of the pandemic. Daniel Levin’s son, Linus, 7, was supposed to be doing math. Instead, he pretended to take a shower in the living room, rubbing a dry eraser under his arms like a bar of soap, which upset his 5-year-old sister, distracting her from her coloring.
As much as he tried, Mr. Levin, who lives in Brooklyn, could not get Linus to finish the math. His hopes for the reading assignment were not high, either.
The Senate Intelligence Committee may hold confirmation hearings next week for Congressman John Ratcliffe to become the next director of national intelligence. Details of the potential hearing are still in flux as the committee grapples with how to hold a public hearing safely amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The confirmation hearing, which typically involves a pair of sessions — one unclassified and public, and a second held behind closed doors — comes at a fraught time for any potential representative of the intelligence community. Ratcliffe will be expected to field questions related to the origins and handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the U.S.' approach to adversaries like North Korea,
Progressive Mag CounterPunch: Sexual
Misconduct Allegations ‘Swirling Around
Biden for Many Years’ replies
Misconduct Allegations ‘Swirling Around
Biden for Many Years’ replies
A 2008 column in the far-left magazine CounterPunch accusing Joe Biden of “loutish sexual advances” in the U.S. Senate has become a lightning rod in the debate over Biden and his former staffer Tara Reade’s allegation of sexual assault in 1993.
The article, written by the late Alexander Cockburn, lamented then-presidential candidate Barack Obama’s choice of Biden as a running mate in August 2008. Biden, in Cockburn’s view, was an empty and worthless swamp creature,(Snip)
Cockburn made an aside about Biden’s character that accused him of harassing women who worked in the Senate, even while he was supposedly grieving over his wife’s death:
University of Delaware refuses to provide
agreement detailing why it can’t release
Biden’s records replies
agreement detailing why it can’t release
Biden’s records replies
The University of Delaware refused Tuesday to provide the Daily Caller News Foundation with an agreement detailing why the university cannot release 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden’s Senate records.
As Biden faces increased scrutiny for allegations of sexual assault made against him by Tara Reade, pressure is mounting for the former vice president to unseal documents related to his time in the Senate — during which period Reade alleges that Biden kissed her, touched her and penetrated her with his fingers without her consent.
These Senate documents are housed by the University of Delaware Library and cover a wide swath of Biden’s political career,
Tara Reade’s allegations that Joe Biden sexually assaulted her back in 1993 continue to heat up to a slow boil, despite the major media’s best attempts to suppress or ignore them. No doubt the media are trying to “flatten the curve” of news stories to prevent them from becoming a pandemic that fatally infects the Biden campaign. But Biden’s weak pre-existing conditions mean that it might not take much exposure to put his campaign on life support.
A few liberal writers are actually trying to maintain some basic consistency and honesty in their coverage,
Roger Stone, a long-time supporter and one-time adviser to President Donald Trump, issued a statement late Tuesday following the Justice Department’s release of dozens of search warrants used to prosecute his case.
Stone, 67, was sentenced to three years in federal prison in November after being convicted of seven counts, including witness tampering and lying to Congress. He has maintained his innocence throughout, framing the case against him as politically motivated. He became the sixth and last Trump-associated figure to be targeted by former special counsel Robert Mueller, many of whose prosecutors were found to be Democrat Party donors and supporters of Trump’s 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton.
Police open homicide probe into death of
man whose wife gave him fish tank cleaner,
blamed Trump replies
man whose wife gave him fish tank cleaner,
blamed Trump replies
The Mesa City, Ariz., Police Department has launched a homicide investigation into the death of Gary Lenius, the man whose wife gave him a drink laced with fish tank cleaner allegedly to ward off COVID-19.
The investigation, which was confirmed by the Washington Free Beacon, is being handled by Det. Teresa Van Galder, who could not provide any details at the moment because it’s an active case.
The news site also reported that it provided a recording of its interview with Wanda Lenius, 61, from March.
You may recall the story.
Gary Lenius, 68, died March 22 after ingesting a substance that is used to clean fish tanks.
Nine U.S. senators who have gotten buzz as potential picks to be presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's running mate were in the Senate in 2018 when Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation process was roiled by accusations of sexual assault.
They did not hold back in their condemnation of the court pick and in their calls for the accusers' claims to be fully investigated. Now, Biden's presidential campaign also is grappling with a developing accusation of sexual assault from the 1990s -- which aides have adamantly denied. But most of those same senators have not commented on this allegation, or have downplayed it.
A woman named Tara Reade previously had accused
As he basked in Hillary Clinton’s endorsement of his presidential campaign on Tuesday, former Vice President Joe Biden underlined his shift on the issue of abortion, describing it as “an essential health care service” during the coronavirus pandemic.“We need to ensure that women have access to all health services during this crisis,” Biden said during a virtual town hall with Clinton. “Abortion an essential health care service.”“It’s being used as a political wedge right now,” the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee continued. “And it shouldn’t be. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
Boris Johnson was pictured beaming as he arrived back at 10 Downing Street today after his fiancée Carrie Symonds gave birth, while the Queen sent the couple a 'private message of good wishes' to congratulate them on their first child together. Mr Johnson, who missed PMQs this afternoon, is said to have been by his 32-year-old fiancee's side throughout the labour in the early hours of this morning and thanked 'the fantastic NHS maternity team' who brought their son into the world. But as he scrambles to get a grip on the coronavirus crisis, the PM left Carrie in a London hospital and returned to Downing Street
A leading coronavirus treatment candidate succeeded in a critical trial, helping COVID-19 patients recover faster than those taking a placebo comparison.
The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) released preliminary results Wednesday from its study testing remdesivir. The data review includes just over 1,000 hospitalized patients, who were randomly assigned to take either Gilead's antiviral drug or placebo.
Patients taking remdesivir recovered 31% faster than those on placebo, the NIH found — knocking four days off the typical recovery time.
TUCSON, Ariz. - In a letter to Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) presents a frequently updated table of studies that report results of treating COVID-19 with the anti-malaria drugs chloroquine (CQ) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ, Plaquenil®). To date, the total number of reported patients treated with HCQ, with or without zinc and the widely used antibiotic azithromycin, is 2,333, writes AAPS, in observational data from China, France, South Korea, Algeria, and the U.S. Of these, 2,137 or 91.6 percent improved clinically. There were 63 deaths (skip) The antiviral properties of these drugs have been studied since 2003.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday will sign an executive order declaring meat processing plants critical infrastructure, he confirmed at the White House on Tuesday. “We are, we’re going to sign an executive order today,” Trump said when asked about the report from Bloomberg News about his forthcoming order.The president will use his authority under the Defense Production Act to enforce the order, a person familiar with the upcoming order confirmed to Breitbart News. Trump plans to use the Defense Production Act to order the companies to stay open but will also provide protective gear for employees as well as guidance for how to keep their companies safe to operate.
Just as his path to the Democratic nomination is clear, former Vice President Joe Biden faces questions in regards to allegations of sexual misconduct from former aide to then-Senator Biden, Tara Reade. Democrats and Biden’s allies on the cable news circuit have done their best to cover for the former vice president, but the credibility of Reade’s story continues to grow as her claims are bolstered by evidence and corroboration.
Democrats threw out their original “believe all women” standard for misconduct allegations that was spearheaded by Senate Democrats during their character assassination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the fall of 2018
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to decide on the constitutionality of a controversial New York City gun law that has since changed, ruling in an unsigned opinion that the case is now "moot" because of the changes in the law.
he court's move to even hear the gun rights case despite a perceived procedural issue previously drew veiled threats from Democratic senators who filed a brief in the case, saying "[t]he Supreme Court is not well. And the people know it. Perhaps the Court can heal itself before the public demands it be 'restructured in order to reduce the influence of politics.'"
The documents underlying his now infamous Russian dossier are long since destroyed, but Christopher Steele’s recollections of his political opposition research on President Trump nearly four years later are poised to create new heartburn for Democrats. Steele recently testified in a British court that he believed both then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and then-Obama National Security Adviser Susan Rice were aware of his dossier research as it was going on in summer 2016. The testimony makes his most direct link yet between his Russia collusion research and the top of the Clinton campaign and Obama White House.
I am actually sympathetic to Joe Biden in this instance. Whenever I start to hear Hillary Clinton’s grating voice, I desperately want to be somewhere else. But when he was on camera with Hillary Clinton finally endorsing him, sharing a screen, getting up and running away, perhaps diving naked into his swimming pool if any female Secret Service agents were present, was not an option for Joe. Instead, a retreat into the land of nod, was the best option.
Watch for yourself on this tweet from Caleb Hull:
I am actually sympathetic to Joe Biden in this instance. Whenever I start to hear Hillary Clinton’s grating voice,
The Joe Biden campaign is circulating talking points regarding the sexual assault allegations made by Tara Reade, Buzzfeed reported on Tuesday.
While Joe Biden has remained publicly silent about a sexual assault allegation made against him, his presidential campaign has sought to coordinate and unify Democratic messaging on the matter, advising surrogates earlier this month to say that the allegation “did not happen.” …
But the messaging shows that while Biden has stayed quiet on the allegations on the eve of his nomination, aides were taking the claims seriously enough behind the scenes to coordinate messaging among other Democrats to try to cast the matter as one that’s been thoroughly vetted and
For Comrade Bill De Blasio, mayor of New York City, blaming Jews for plagues, same as Medieval Europe in the past, is back.
According to the New York Post:
“Something absolutely unacceptable happened in Williamsburg tonite: a large funeral gathering in the middle of this pandemic,” de Blasio wrote on Twitter.
“When I heard, I went there myself to ensure the crowd was dispersed. And what I saw WILL NOT be tolerated so long as we are fighting the Coronavirus,” he said.
The New York Times is widely admired for owning up to its errors. In addition to the corrections it runs each day, it has a tradition of publishing extensive Editor’s Notes and even full-length investigations when it has determined that flawed reporting misled readers and botched the rough first draft of history. Since 2000, these have included lengthy reassessments of its reporting on whether a Chinese American scientist, Wen Ho Lee, had collaborated with the Chinese; the false stories filed by a troubled black reporter, Jayson Blair, and articles regarding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. During the last few years the Times has published two other sets
Sweden has been regularly cited in American media as a country that chose an approach to the Covid-19 pandemic different from that of the U.S. and the European countries. There have been pictures of Swedes crowding into outdoor restaurants, enjoying sunny early spring weather. Streets in central Stockholm have been shown looking “normal,” although the density of shoppers and pedestrians had been exaggerated through tele-lens photography. These news reports seemed to suggest social life little affected by the pandemic, as if Sweden had taken a more relaxed approach to the virus than other countries. (Snip)However, the impressions created have been largely misleading.
Sometimes a special message needs a special messenger. Today, amid the anxiety and stress created by the coronavirus pandemic, a very special messenger named Michael visited the White House and delivered a very important message to everyone:
…”At Bitty and Beaus we like to use the phrase ‘not broken’. That means me and all my important co-workers are not broken, and we have lots to offer. I know the great country of the United States isn’t broken either.”… ~ Michael
(Video)Indeed, this too shall pass.
Thank you Michael; thank you.
Someone who made the statewide average of $452 a week working in a New Hampshire clothing store in February would receive $849 a week in unemployment today. Welcome to the world of pandemic economics. Because of the supplemental $600 weekly federal payments, lower-wage workers actually are earning more on unemployment right now than they did while working, said Richard Lavers, deputy commissioner at New Hampshire Employment Security. “Obviously, that is not a dynamic that is sustainable in the long term
Remember the Hong Kong flu?
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An I’m-so-cute-and-clever reporter recently asked the president if he deserved to be re-elected given the number of deaths from coronavirus, noting that the number is greater than American fatalities from the Vietnam war.
(snip) She may have been unaware that at the height of the Vietnam war, there was something that killed more Americans than the war did, and it was a similar virus — and no one questioned whether a president should be elected or not because of the virus, known as the Hong Kong Flu.
In 1968-69, the Hong Kong flu ravaged the world; it wound up killing more than one million people worldwide
Overreactions to a crisis can come from all quarters: religious, secular, civil society, and, above all, politics. Unless the many sectors that make up society can work together with all due respect to each other’s freedom and spheres of competency, much can and will go wrong.
Consider the overreach of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio in his threat to shut down—permanently—synagogues, churches, and mosques that fail to obey his orders. Or Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s comical prohibition of the sale of vegetable seeds but not lotto tickets. Instead of earning their community leaders’ goodwill and cooperation, such arbitrariness breeds contempt for the law and abates conspiracy theories.
As it turns out, automakers giving customers the option to extend leases by a month during the coronavirus pandemic was more than a gesture of good faith—a lot of dealers don't want the cars back right now. A USA Today report found 10 people who have expired leases who, when they went to return their vehicles to the dealership, learned that the dealer wouldn’t take them or made returning the vehicle difficult. Several of the customers were told that they could return their vehicle if they leased another one. But the resounding message was that the dealer lots were full
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) didn't criticize President Trump by name on Tuesday night, but he did share his disappointment with the federal government's initial response to the coronavirus outbreak, saying the speed of it "looked slow compared to other people. That first phase will not stand out as a great moment in American leadership. We didn't look real strong, and that's kind of an understatement."
He made his remarks during a video chat with Georgetown University students, The Washington Post reports. Romney had a weak relationship with Trump prior to voting for one of the two articles of impeachment against him
I know what you're thinking. He's an animal, obviously. He threw a young staffer up against a cold marble wall in an isolated chamber of the Capitol's labyrinthine corridors and reached under her skirt. When she struggled to free herself from the senator and managed to wriggle away, he angrily pointed a finger in her face and said accusingly and with a "tight" voice, "You're nothing to me. You're nothing!" before leaving her disheveled and confused up against the wall and walking away. What a monster! What an animal!
The left’s ‘listen to the science’ mantra is
growing old. Trump listened and that’s the
problem replies
growing old. Trump listened and that’s the
problem replies
One of the left’s standard attacks on the President is that he doesn’t listen to the science! Sadly, he did listen to the so-called experts who predicted wildly hyperbolic death and destruction and he agreed to the economic shutdown.
“An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.” - Niels Bohr
The President surely realizes by now that he should have operated on his gut instincts which rarely fail him. Dr. Fauci, for example, sees no patients. He looks at computer models, all of which were wrong.
"Show me the man and I'll show you the crime." —Lavrentiy Beria
"Sentence first — verdict afterward." —The Red Queen, Alice in Wonderland
* * *
Thanks to the dogged efforts of Gen. Michael Flynn's new attorneys, we're learning that Flynn was subject to the type of justice that would be found in a courtroom in the Soviet Union or Alice's Wonderland. The Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI engaged in blatantly illegal, dishonest, and immoral conduct to railroad Flynn — and they got away with this by turning Flynn's attorneys against him.
Sidney Powell became Flynn's attorney after Flynn had already signed a plea agreement with the DOJ.
Since we’ve learned more about the virus, it’s becoming clear that, because the virus isn’t as deadly as the models claim, a complete economic shutdown is not going to save lives. Armed with that information, the logical thing to do is to re-open the economy as quickly as possible. The rising number of people protesting, committing civil disobedience, and taking advantage of any exceptions to lockdown (just look at these surfers), shows that Americans are ready and, indeed, desperate to get back to normal.
Democrats, however, are loath to do so. I posited on Tuesday that, with their draconian lockdown orders,
The original plan in Washington, D.C., was for both the Senate and the House to reconvene on May 4. News broke on Tuesday, though, that the House will not be returning to work. It turns out that so many members of the House panicked at the thought of working once more for the American people that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer was forced to announce that the House would remain closed next week (emphasis added):
We made a judgment that we will not come back next week but that we hope to come back very soon,” Hoyer told reporters on a press call.
Democrats are seizing on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) suggestion that states should be able to declare bankruptcy as the party looks to bring his Kentucky seat into play.
The GOP leader has made his outsized influence in Washington a key pillar of his campaign, positioning himself as the driving force behind Congress’s coronavirus relief bills and touting his efforts to score critical federal aid for his state.
But Democrats believe McConnell’s remarks — that states facing budget shortfalls amid the pandemic should be able to “use the bankruptcy route” — blow a hole in his reelection argument.
Republicans in the Senate are under growing pressure to take the administration to task for its response to the coronavirus.
GOP senators, with a few exceptions, have been reluctant to criticize the administration, but they are starting to re-evaluate that kid-glove treatment amid public frustration over the lack of virus testing kits and protective equipment and reports of taxpayer dollars going to questionable causes.
Former Vice President Joe Biden is looking for a running mate for the November election. He's getting plenty of suggestions. But just about anyone will improve his chances as long as the selection is more mentally capable than he is.
There's no shortage of advice for the Democrat. CNN has listed “The Top 10 women Joe Biden might pick as vice president.” A media favorite is of course Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren. At least one cable host has campaigned for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. CBS reports that Biden is "challenged to pick a black woman." Biden himself has
All my life, I have dismissed paranoids on the right (“America is headed to communism”) and the left (“It can happen here”—referring to fascism).
It’s not that I’ve ever believed liberty was guaranteed. Being familiar with history and a pessimist regarding the human condition, I never believed that.
But the ease with which police state tactics have been employed and the equal ease with which most Americans have accepted them have been breathtaking.
(Snip) But we are presently living with all four of the key hallmarks of a police state:
No. 1: Draconian laws depriving citizens of elementary civil rights.
Without a shred of evidence that Brett Kavanaugh had ever even met Christine Blasey Ford, the news media decided the then-Supreme Court nominee was guilty of an unconscionable sexual assault four decades ago. Kavanaugh went overnight from being understood to be a consummate legal star, women’s advocate, and faithful family man, to being depicted as a sleazy drunkard and would-be rapist.
Now, with the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, facing an accusation of sexual assault, the media are demanding that an accusation against a leading public figure should be supported by far more evidence.
By any objective standard, the accusation from former Senate staffer Tara Reade that Biden sexually assaulted
Democratic Missouri Rep. Lacy Clay criticized former Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams for publicly lobbying to become former Vice President Joe Biden’s running mate in the 2020 election.
Clay said in an interview Tuesday that Abrams’s lobbying campaign to become Biden’s VP is “inappropriate,” and noted that she lost the race for Georgia governor that catapulted her to national notoriety.
“Here’s what I do know. And it’s like all of the other presidential candidates, Democratic presidential primary candidates and their supporters, OK, we went through a process, Bernie Sanders has conceded, and this applies to Stacey [Abrams] too,” Clay said on the Tangazo! podcast.
The biggest mall owner in the U.S. is preparing to open a number of its properties across the country, as states such as South Carolina and Georgia start to reopen during the coronavirus pandemic, according to an internal memo that was obtained by CNBC.
Simon Property Group is reopening 49 of its malls and outlet centers Friday through Monday, the memo said, including Haywood Mall in Greenville, South Carolina, and Lenox Square in Atlanta. (A full list of all 49 locations and exact reopening dates is below.)
Democrat Kweisi Mfume easily won a special election Tuesday to finish the term of the late Elijah Cummings, retaking a Maryland congressional seat he held for five terms before leaving to lead the NAACP.
Mfume defeated Republican Kimberly Klacik in the heavily Democratic 7th Congressional District, capping a race dramatically reshaped by the coronavirus. After winning what was largely a mail-in election, Mfume told supporters many people are "struggling at this hour to fight off the terrible disease of the coronavirus."
The Media Versus Trump
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Almost the entire country is relieved that the president has shortened his daily press briefings and reduced his own role in them. Those who support the president feel that he has made the point that he is completely unintimidated by media hostility and has no significant trouble fielding their questions, no matter how nasty, baiting, and repetitive, and that he need not submit himself or the dignity of his great office to any more of the outrageous discourtesy and distortions of his media enemies. Those who oppose the president will generally be relieved not have to watch any more of these sessions of lengthy bloviation
It almost feels like May, and that means it almost feels like normal life might begin to return. In celebration, here is a virus-free Five Quick Things.
1. Joey Fingers finally begins to get his due (not really)
All of a sudden, after months and even years of completely ignoring some quite credible allegations that Joe Biden sexually assaulted her by jamming a finger where it did not belong, Tara Reade is finally getting some measure of satisfaction.
Which means so is the public, particularly the segment of it that was quite surprised at the willingness of our legacy media to believe the quite obviously fabulist
Near the end of his news conference Tuesday, Gov. Cuomo was asked a question about nursing homes. As part of his answer, he described the devilish dangers they face from the coronavirus outbreak because of their vulnerable sick and elderly residents.
“What’s really happened in nursing homes is what we’ve feared from the get-go,” Cuomo said. He called them “ground zero” for the virus and added:
“It just takes one [infected] person . . . to walk in there and then it is fire through dry grass.”
As a statement of fact, there is nothing wrong and everything right with those words.
Monday afternoon as promised, Governor Greg Abbott announced the end of the stay at home order when it expires on April 30. He presented a plan recommended by the Strike Force to Open Texas charged with coming up with a science-based, data-driven way forward for the re-opening of the state. Abbott said that Dr. Birx agrees the Texas plan is a good one. First, an announcement by the city of Galveston started Monday off on a good note for beachgoers. Its beaches are now open but with very limited hours and strict rules for behavior while enjoying a visit to a beach. In the age of the coronavirus pandemic,
FBI affidavits released Tuesday show the extent of the bureau's far-ranging surveillance of former Donald Trump confidant Roger Stone -- and confirm that while Stone spoke to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, there was no evidence that he conspired to hack or release top Democrats' private emails ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
At the same time, the dozens of documents — including FBI affidavits submitted to obtain search warrants in the criminal investigation into Stone — highlighted Stone's hard-charging tactics as he sought to obtain information relevant to Trump.
The documents were released following a court case brought by The Associated Press and other media organizations.
The coronavirus has killed nearly 70 veterans at an elder care facility in Massachusettes, in what's being described as the deadliest known outbreak at a long-term care facility in the U.S.
An additional 82 veterans and 81 employees have also tested positive for the virus at Holyoke Soldiers' Home, and federal officials are trying to determine whether residents were denied proper medical care as deaths continue to climb.
“It’s horrific,” said Edward Lapointe, whose father-in-law lives at the home and had a mild case of the virus. “These guys never had a chance.”
Governor Lockdown
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As I’ve noted before, the politicians and experts telling us to shut up, sit down and stay in our homes under virtual house arrest themselves all have jobs to go to and paychecks to collect. They are essential, we are told, as opposed to you and me and most of America, who are not. Leading the pack is Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, of which it is now being said -- if you can fake it there, you can fake it anywhere. Cuomo has been faking it as a truthful and competent leader of his state.
NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. — The Department of Defense has released in-cockpit video from the U.S. Navy Blue Angels and U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds precision flight teams as they flew over New York City Tuesday. They were conducting a tribute to the medical personnel, first responders and other essential workers involved in fighting the pandemic.The planes from the two demonstration squadrons flew in formation over New York and Newark beginning at noon. The planes later flew over Trenton, New Jersey, and Philadelphia.“We are incredibly honored to have the opportunity to salute those working on the frontline of the COVID-19 response, we are in awe of your strength and resilience,”
A special needs employee at a coffee shop stole the show at a White House event promoting the Paycheck Protection Plan on Tuesday.Michael Heup, an employee at Bitty & Beau’s Coffee Shops, joined President Trump with other small business owners to thank him for the forgivable economic rescue loan that helped the coffee shop keep employees on the payroll despite being closed during the coronavirus pandemic.“I love my job and I’m excited about going back to work,” Heup said.Bitty & Beau’s hires people with disabilities to run the coffee shop.
Newt Gingrich blasts ‘precious politicians’
who want to wimp out of their jobs
with remote proxy vote replies
who want to wimp out of their jobs
with remote proxy vote replies
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called out “precious politicians” who are avoiding getting back to Washington due to the coronavirus pandemic.Gingrich found it “bizarre” that some lawmakers would consider themselves any different from those who are working through the crisis, calling on them in tweets to get back to work or “resign.”(Photo) The comments from the Republican, who served as House Speaker from 1995 to 1999, came in the wake of the attempt to hold an unprecedented proxy vote in the House amid lawmakers’ fears of traveling to the nation’s capital during the coronavirus outbreak.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi scrapped plans on a rules change last week
Dr. Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, a military historian and a professor emeritus of classics at California State University, Fresno. He has written two articles relevant to today's society. Last October he published, "Members of Previous Generations Now Seem Like Giants," and he recently wrote, "Is America a Roaring Giant or Crying Baby?" In the first article, Hanson starts with some observations and questions regarding the greatness of previous generations compared with today's Americans. He asks:
For weeks, the American people have faced daily orders, graphs, tables, news stories, and press conferences detailing the coronavirus’s devastating impact on the country, from thousands of deaths to a 21-trillion-dollar economy brought to its knees.It seems hard to believe that just a few months ago, the world watched a Swedish teen sail across the Atlantic from Europe to New York to send a message that the threat from climate change meant society had to drastically change how it operates, including bringing planes down from the skies, plugging oil and gas wells and pipelines, getting vehicles off the roads, and halting agriculture’s life-sustaining
Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of the coronavirus task force, had previously backed funding for a controversial lab in Wuhan, China that has been studying the coronavirus in bats, reports said. Fauci’s National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases had shelled out a total of $7.4 million to the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab — which has become the center of theories about the origin of Covid-19, according to Newsweek. The NIH and the Trump administration had shut down all funding to the lab last week, Politico reported on Monday.