Posts on Thursday, May 7, 2020
The Minnesota Senate on Wednesday passed a bill that would outlaw child marriages in the state, sending it to Gov. Tim Walz. (snip) According to 2014 Census data, 1,142 children ages 15 to 17 in Minnesota reported having been married, and advocates estimated that statistic is lower than the actual number.
A member of the military serving as one of President Donald Trump’s valets has tested positive for the coronavirus, the White House said Thursday. It said Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have since tested negative for the virus and “remain in good health.” It marked the latest coronavirus scare for the president, and the first known instance where a person who has come in close proximity to the president has tested positive since several people present at his private Florida club were diagnosed with COVID-19 in early March. The person tested positive on Wednesday, the White House said. White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said in a statement,
Majority of New Yorkers arrested
for social distancing violations
are black, public advocate says replies
for social distancing violations
are black, public advocate says replies
New York—The majority of New Yorkers arrested for social distancing violations in New York are black. Data shows 68 percent of arrests for social distancing violations were of black New Yorkers, 24 percent Hispanic and 7 percent white, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said. "The administration stalled to deliver this data, and now we know why," he said. "This virus has disproportionately claimed thousands of black and brown bodies, and now, in response, it is black and brown bodies facing the kind of over-policing never seen in other communities."(Snip) Between March 17 and May 4, 40 people were arrested and 35
In late January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning travel from China to the United States after it became clear to him and his national security team that the COVID-19 outbreak was likely to worsen and become a major health threat.
Shortly thereafter, the president also restricted travel from Europe after several countries there became coronavirus hotspots.
But as turns out, according to a new study, it’s New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo who should have acted to restrict travel from his state.
The New York Times, surprisingly, reported Thursday that researchers believe people who traveled from the state to other parts of the country
ODNI LINK 53 HPSCI Transcripts
replies
53 HPSCI Transcripts
The United States Intelligence Community (IC), at the bipartisan request of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), reviewed 53 transcripts for classification. The IC made appropriate redactions, lowering the classification level of all 53 transcripts to UNCLASSIFIED. Each transcript can be accessed by clicking on the names below.
Chuck Schumer said Thursday that Democrats are looking to pass a relief package as massive and far-reaching as those implemented during the Great Depression under then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt.'We need Franklin Rooseveltian-type action,' the Senate Minority Leader told MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle during a three-hour coronavirus special Thursday. 'And we hope to take that in the House and Senate in a very big and bold way.'House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said during her weekly press briefing Thursday morning that the next COVID-19 relief package will include an expansion of SNAP, the federal food stamp program.
The Case For The Prosecution: If yesterday’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was a forum to put the Federal Communications Commission on trial for its unanimous decision to allow Ligado Networks to build a low-power 5G network, then we only heard the case for the prosecution. Top Pentagon officials — including Dana Deasy, DOD chief information officer; Michael Griffin, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering; Chief of Space Operations Gen. Jay Raymond; (snip) — all excoriated the FCC for dismissing the military’s assertion the mobile broadband network will interfere with GPS signals vital to national security. “Ligado and 5G simply do not go together.
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper admitted to the House Intelligence Committee in July 2017 that he was not aware of any direct evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.In a closed-door session on July 17, 2017, Clapper told the committee: “I never saw any direct empirical evidence that the Trump campaign or someone in it was plotting/conspiring with the Russians to meddle with the election.”Those comments reflect what Clapper told NBC’s Chuck Todd on Meet the Press on March 5, 2017, when he said that the Intelligence Community assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 election did not include evidence of collusion with the Trump campaign.
Former Vice President Joe Biden in a video interview on Wednesday with Human Right Campaign President Alphonso David recalled how President Barack Obama reacted when Biden endorsed same-sex marriage in a 2012 interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”On May 6, 2012 on “Meet the Press,” Biden said: “I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying are entitled to the same exact rights—all the civil rights, all the civil liberties—and quite frankly I don’t see much of a distinction beyond that.”
At a time when Americans may be turning to prayer more than ever, President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will honor the National Day of Prayer Thursday in the Rose Garden.The annual observance, first marked by President Harry Truman and codified by Congress in 1952, “exists to mobilize unified public prayer for America,” according to its mission statement. Today, the event features prayers from members of many different religions.This 2020 National Day of Prayer comes amid an ongoing global health crisis resulting in the death of more than 73,000 Americans and record unemployment claims, with houses of worship
Appearing Thursday on Fox News Radio’s The Brian Kilmeade Show, President Donald Trump’s former attorney, John Dowd, said former special counsel Robert Mueller “badly misled” the White House during the Russia investigation and ridiculed House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) as a “liar” for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).A partial transcript is as follows: BRIAN KILMEADE: You feel like you were misled on where this probe was going, what do you think now that the scope memos are out there? JOHN DOWD: It’s interesting. In the last few days, I’ve been going back through
New study spotlights devastating toll
coronavirus shutdown will have on
America’s small business replies
coronavirus shutdown will have on
America’s small business replies
A survey by the 72-year-old Society for Human Resource Management has found that 52 percent of American small businesses expect to permanently shut down within six months thanks to the economic repercussions of the government’s coronavirus response.
A smaller but still notable 12 percent believe their businesses won’t even last another month.
“SHRM has tracked Covid-19’s impact on work, workers, and the workplace for months, but these might be the most alarming findings to date,” the association’s CEO, Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., said in a statement.
“Small business is truly the backbone of our economy, so when half say they’re worried about being wiped out,
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has extended the state's stay-home order through May 28 in a Thursday executive order that also lifted some restrictions on manufacturing facilities. The announcement came as the governor unveiled the MI Safe Start Plan, a guide for the gradual reopening of the state. Under the extended stay-home order, residents must continue to stay home unless they're running "critical errands" or going to specified jobs.
Uproar when Bill de Blasio, NYPD commissioner
declare protests won’t be tolerated amid
shutdown replies
declare protests won’t be tolerated amid
shutdown replies
New York City’s mayor and police commissioner think social distancing and coronavirus guidelines during the pandemic trump the constitutional rights of Americans.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea claimed this week that the First Amendment rights of free speech and assembly have to take a back seat to the executive orders issued in the efforts to stem the spread of COVID-19.
The officials made it clear that no public protests or demonstrations would be allowed in New York City during a news briefing when the question came up about a news conference held by LGBTQ activists the day before.
Democratic strategist James Carville delivered an eyebrow-raising appeal for his party to behave like a “pirate ship” in their effort to take back the White House.
The Democratic operative declared on MSNBC Wednesday that President Donald Trump will not win a second term and called for ending the “scourge of Trumpism” in the country by becoming more aggressive in campaigning against him. [Video]
Carville delivered his rant, insulting half of the country who voted for Trump, after a smug and dishonest introduction by MSNBC host Brian Williams, who accused the president of a “daily diversion” of blaming the coronavirus pandemic on China,
The Dallas County Sheriff’s Office released the Texas hair salon owner who spent two days in jail for re-opening her business and ignoring Coronavirus lockdown orders.
Subsequent to an order from the Supreme Court of Texas, the Dallas sheriff released Shelley Luther on Thursday afternoon. During a brief appearance before news cameras gathered outside the jail, Luther broke down in tears. (Tweet/Video) Supporters gathered outside the Dallas County jail shouted “Shellie’s Free, Shellie’s Free” while Luther tried to gather her composure.Choking back tears, Luther told the gathered crowd, “Thank you guys, so much.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, exploded in outrage at the decision by the Department of Justice to drop its case against former Trump administration National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn on Thursday, vowing to hold a hearing “ASAP” to demand answers from Attorney General William Barr. (Photo) “This is outrageous! Flynn PLEADED GUILTY to lying to investigators. The evidence against him is overwhelming. Now, a politicized DOJ is dropping the case. The decision to overrule the special counsel is without precedent
The top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday demanded Chairman Adam Schiff release the transcripts of interviews conducted by the panel during its Russia probe in 2017 and 2018, now that they have been cleared by the intelligence community. “Schiff himself voted to release these transcripts and claims he wants them out,” Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., told Fox News Thursday. “There’s no reason he can’t publish them all today—except that he really doesn’t want the American people to see how little evidence there ever was for the Russian collusion hoax he advocated and continues to advocate.”
Key GOP allies implored President Trump on Thursday to expand his immigration pause to include temporary guest-workers, saying those foreigners who come for only a short period of time are the “critical” threat to out-of-work Americans looking for jobs. Sens. Charles E. Grassley, Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley signed a letter urging suspension of the H-1B visa, which is heavily used by tech companies, and the H-2B visa, which is used by landscaping and resort businesses. They also urged Mr. Trump to suspend the Optional Practical Training program, which allows foreign students to extend their stay
Prosecutor of ex-Trump aide
Michael Flynn withdraws from case
amid controversy over documents replies
Michael Flynn withdraws from case
amid controversy over documents replies
A top prosecutor removed himself Thursday from the criminal case against former national security advisor Michael Flynn, as well as from at least two other court cases involving Flynn. The Justice Department prosecutor, Brandon Van Grack, did not say in a court filing why he is withdrawing from Flynn’s case. He heads a unit responsible for prosecuting violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Van Grack also withdrew from at least two other active cases Thursday, court filings show.
New York residents struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic can’t be evicted by their landlords until at least Aug. 20, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday. Cuomo’s announcement extends the state’s previous moratorium on evictions, which lasted only through June. “I don’t want to see people and their children evicted at this time, through no fault of their own,” Cuomo said. Landlords are also prohibited from charging tenants late fees during the public health crisis, and renters will be allowed to apply their security deposits to their rent, the governor said. New York has been the hardest hit by the public health
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer further eased her stay-at-home order today, while extending it through May 28 amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Whitmer says auto and other manufacturing workers can return to the job next week.
A recently released poll shows Joe Biden’s favorability rating is not only much lower than President Trump’s; it’s lower than Hillary Clinton’s was at this same point in 2016.
The poll conducted by Civiqs/Daily Kos and released Wednesday tells us the following…
Favorable/unfavorable/difference
Trump: 43/55/-12
Biden: 34/56/-22
Biden is facing a double-digit, ten-point deficit against Trump, and what PJ Media’s Tyler O’Neil found is that Biden’s favorability rating in this poll is even worse than Hillary’s was at this same time in 2016.
A polar vortex is sweeping into the Northeast this weekend, and it could bring the Albany region its first measurable May snowfall in 18 years—and potentially record low temperatures to the Big Apple, forecasters predict. The wintry air mass is expected to send a chill through the region beginning on Friday, according to the Albany branch of the National Weather Service.
“We continue to closely watch a storm for Friday afternoon into Friday night that may bring a period of snow to most of eastern NY and western New England,” the weather service posted to Facebook. Albany itself may not see more than an inch,
The Department of Justice is reportedly dropping its prosecution of former National Security Adviser General Michael Flynn (Ret.), according to the Associated Press.
(Snip)
The news comes a week after new evidence released to Flynn’s lawyers showed FBI agents apparently attempting to trap Flynn into lying to them, hoping he would be prosecuted or fired. The evidence also suggested they knew he had not committed a separate crime.
Earlier Thursday, prosecutor Brandon Van Grack withdrew from the case.
Flynn had been director of the Defense Intelligence Agency under President Barack Obama but was fired. He then joined Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, shaping its foreign policy and introducing Trump at rallies.
The Justice Department on Thursday dropped its prosecution of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who had pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about his conversations with a Russian diplomat in the weeks before President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The bombshell move, which was granted promptly by the federal judge in the case, comes more than two years after Flynn’s guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the then-ongoing investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department on Thursday said it is dropping the criminal case against President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, abandoning a prosecution that became a rallying cry for Trump and his supporters in attacking the FBI’s Russia investigation. (Snip) The Justice Department said it had concluded that Flynn’s interview by the FBI was “untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn” and that the interview on January 24, 2017 was “conducted without any legitimate investigative basis.”
Get ready for the corona coup
replies
House Democrats, flummoxed by their failed attempt to remove President Trump earlier this year, are gearing up for another round of quasi-impeachment with their coronavirus oversight committee.
It’s been just a few months, believe it or not, since the House impeached the President for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, but the moment was quickly overshadowed by the global pandemic. The coronavirus committee thus could be the Democrats’ last ditch effort to dig up dirt on the President before the election in November.
The wife of Baltimore Ravens safety Earl Thomas allegedly pointed a loaded gun at his head before chasing him with a knife after finding out he had been having an affair and then catching him in the act, according to court documents obtained by TMZ.
During the alleged incident on April 13, Nina Thomas tracked her husband down using social media after he left their Texas home following an argument over his drinking.
Upon finding Earl Thomas at an Airbnb rental “naked in bed” with another woman, Nina Thomas pulled out his 9mm Berreta and pointed the gun at his head
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Trump administration shelved a document created by the nation’s top disease investigators with step-by-step advice to local authorities on how and when to reopen restaurants and other public places during the still-raging coronavirus outbreak.
The 17-page report by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention team, titled “Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework,” was researched and written to help faith leaders, business owners, educators and state and local officials as they begin to reopen.
It was supposed to be published last Friday, but agency scientists were told the guidance “would never see the light of day,” according to a CDC official.
China gets top score as citizens rank their governments’ response to the coronavirus outbreak
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As countries across the globe are left grappling with the coronavirus crisis, most people are not satisfied with their leaders’ response to the outbreak, according to a new report. Citizens from just seven out of 23 countries rate their governments’ coronavirus containment measures as broadly positive, based on the “Global Crisis Perceptions” index released Wednesday by insights agencies Blackbox Research and Toluna. (Snip) China-#1; U.S.-#14.
WH Press Sec Kayleigh McEnany enrages
reporters when she beats them
brutally at their own game replies
reporters when she beats them
brutally at their own game replies
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany triggered rage among the media class Wednesday by exposing their known duplicity and hypocrisy.Hit with a gotcha’ question from Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason, she replied by swinging a gotcha’ question right back at him.“Kayleigh, in a previous life, before you were press secretary, you worked for the campaign. And you made a comment, I believe on Fox, in which you said President Trump will not allow the coronavirus to come to this country. Given what has happened since then, obviously, would you like to take that back?” Mason asked during a briefing.
Update: Rare, historic WWII planes taking
to Houston skies Sunday instead
of Friday due to weather replies
to Houston skies Sunday instead
of Friday due to weather replies
HOUSTON — Rare and historic airplanes will take to the Houston skies on Sunday to honor those who served in World War II.The 30 warbirds will make a 125-mile trip across Greater Houston beginning at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 10. The flight was earlier planned for Friday, May 8 but has been postponed because of the poor weather expected on that day.Everything else is expected to be held as previously planned, reports KHOU 11's Shern-Min Chow.The event is part of the Lone Star Flight Museum's Fight to the Finish Flyover."We encourage everyone to step outside and enjoy a moment of patriotic distraction
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Republican lawmakers frustrated with Ohio’s aggressive stay-at-home orders voted Wednesday in the GOP-controlled House to limit the authority of the state’s health director. The move seeks to restrict mandatory closure and stay-at-home orders issued by the health department to 14 days. After that, the orders would need approval from a legislative rule-making body. (Snip) Republican backers said the measure was an appropriate legislative check on the power of DeWine, and his health director, Dr. Amy Acton, who issued Ohio’s orders.
Texas Gov. Abbott drops jail time
for violating stay-at-home orders
after furor over salon owner replies
for violating stay-at-home orders
after furor over salon owner replies
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a new order Thursday eliminating jail time as punishment for violating stay-at-home orders, effectively allowing jailed salon owner Shelley Luther to be released.
“Throwing Texans in jail whose biz’s shut down through no fault of their own is wrong,” Mr. Abbott tweeted. “I am eliminating jail for violating an order, retroactive to April 2, superseding local orders.”
He added, “Criminals shouldn’t be released to prevent COVID-19 just to put business owners in their place.”
EXCLUSIVE: Transcripts of House Intelligence Committee interviews that have been cleared for release show top law enforcement and intelligence officials affirming they had no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election, senior administration and intelligence community officials told Fox News on Wednesday.
This would align with the results of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation — which found no evidence of illegal or criminal coordination between President Trump, the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016 — but the numerous transcribed interviews could raise further questions about committee Chairman Adam Schiff’s past statements saying that there was “direct evidence” of collusion.
“Schiff is in panic mode,”
It's almost as if he likes it like this.
California's Gov. Gavin Newsom vows to make the coronavirus emergency measures in California its "new normal" unless --- and it's a big if --- a vaccine for the virus is ready. (snip) President Trump has stated that a vaccine may be in place by the end of the year and the press has screamed that the president's projection is overly optimistic.
(snip) Newsom, remember, is the guy who first stated that the coronavirus was an opportunity to fundamentally transform the state.
Adam Schiff, the fanatic who from the begining launched probe after probe of President Trump, is about to see the 2017-2018 Russia collusion transcripts he's been sitting on all these months released to the public, all 6,000 pages, with 73 witnesses stating there was no Russian collusion in 53 transcripts. National Intelligence Director Richard Grenell did the job Schiff wouldn't do, releasing the transcripts, and now Schiff is expected to be looking more bug-eyed than usual.
The fatal shooting of a Chinese-born coronavirus researcher on US soil has fuelled conspiracy theories around the world.
Bing Liu, a 37-year-old assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, was found dead in his house on Saturday.
Colleagues said he was close to making "significant findings" on his studies of Covid-19, sparking online speculation it was an assassination. But police say it was a murder-suicide.
House Republicans appointed top defenders of President Trump to a newly formed coronavirus committee they believe will be weaponized against the president.Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy announced Minority Whip Steve Scalise would lead the GOP side of the panel, alongside Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, who has led the effort to defend the president against impeachment and other investigations into the president.McCarthy also appointed Reps. Blaine Luetkemeyer of Missouri, Jackie Walorski of Indiana, and Mark Green of Tennessee to serve on the panel.Democrats passed a resolution in April forming the special panel,
As reported weeks ago — in mid April Dr. Fauci admitted that it was he and Dr. Birx who persuaded President Trump to lock down the US economy knowing the massive destruction this would cause in jobs, lives and commerce. President admitted that during a press conference in April that “two very smart people” came into his office and urged him to lock down the economy or 2.2 million Americans would die from the China virus.
But President Trump did not say who those “two very smart people” were. President Trump: The big projection being that 2.2 million people would die if
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has thrown out the convictions of two people involved in New Jersey’s “Bridgegate” scandal. The court said in a unanimous decision Thursday that the government had overreached in prosecuting Bridget Kelly and Bill Baroni for their roles in creating a massive traffic jam to punish a New Jersey mayor who refused to endorse the reelection of then-Republican Gov. Chris Christie.Kelly and Baroni were convicted of fraud and conspiracy for scheming in 2013 to change the traffic flow
WASHINGTON — President Trump says Washington, DC, won’t ever be a state because Republicans aren’t “stupid” enough to add guaranteed Democratic seats in Congress.“DC will never be a state,” Trump told The Post on Monday during an exclusive interview in the Oval Office. “You mean District of Columbia, a state? Why? So we can have two more Democratic — Democrat senators and five more congressmen? No thank you. That’ll never happen.”The capital city is home to roughly 700,000 people
Jennifer Kreidler-Moss has no shortage of concerns to occupy her.
When schools hosting Peninsula Community Health Services sites shut down, her organization lost touch points to schoolchildren, including some struggling with mental health or at risk of suicide.
“I’m beside myself with worry,” said Kreidler-Moss, the nonprofit’s CEO.
And since COVID-19 began, 17% of the staff has been laid off or furloughed and March revenues fell $884,000 short of expectations. (snip) But now, as rates of new COVID-19 cases and deaths trend lower, some experts and health administrators say the measures that helped avoid the pandemic’s deluge are barreling health systems toward a second crisis: a flood of red ink.
While Democrat states attempt to use the China coronavirus crisis to pay off their massive debts after years of corruption and mismanagement, states like Florida maintain budget surpluses and are opening their states up for business again.Florida governor Ron DeSantis met with President Trump in the White House this past week and discussed his state’s actions related to the coronavirus. DeSantis said at the 23:30 mark in the following interview:
New York City’s coronavirus outbreak grew so large by early March that the city became the primary source of new infections in the United States, new research reveals, as thousands of infected people traveled from the city and seeded outbreaks around the country. The research indicates that a wave of infections swept from New York City through much of the country before the city began setting social distancing limits to stop the growth. That helped to fuel outbreaks in Louisiana, Texas, Arizona and as far away as the West Coast. The findings are drawn from geneticists’ tracking signature mutations of
Joe Biden said sex-change surgery is medically necessary for transgender people while pushing for changes that would require insurers to cover such procedures.The former vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee made the assertion during a Wednesday virtual event with the Human Rights Campaign. He received a question on how he would ensure gay and transgender people have access to affordable healthcare."As president, I'm going to protect and build on Obamacare with a public option.
It sounds like great tabloid fare: A leading disease expert in the United Kingdom is discovered to have violated the country’s stay-at-home order during the COVID-19 pandemic so he could canoodle with a married woman. And, yes, the British tabloids ate it up.
But the scientist in this case was the highly respected Neil Ferguson, the person who more than anyone on the planet is responsible for the lockdown that has cost the U.S. economy trillions of dollars.
It was Ferguson’s modeling that predicted massive deaths from the coronavirus unless drastic actions were taken. In the U.S. alone, he predicted
Big Tech is Strangling Us
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How ironic that the 1984 iconic advertisement that Apple used to introduce the Macintosh computer "played on imagery from George Orwell's 1984 novella [sic] presenting Apple as rebels fighting a technocratic elite." (snip) the tech giants have morphed into near-totalitarian giants controlling far too much of our lives. Like serfs, we bend to their will or are punished. Thus, Candace Owens is suspended from Twitter for challenging Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer while Facebook flags the Declaration of Independence as '"hate speech."
Wednesday on CNN’s “OutFront,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) accused President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers of helping only the wealthy while telling the rest of America “let’s fiddle” as the country is burning.Schumer said, “We need a big, bold answer to this. I am just appalled that Leader McConnell, Leader McCarthy, and the president himself say let’s wait back and see what’s happening, maybe we don’t have to do anything. We have the biggest economic and health crisis we have had in decades, as you have mentioned. We need big, bold action, and we need it soon.
If there were ever a time that the American people needed credible national journalism, it is now, during this awful coronavirus pandemic.
Now tens of millions of Americans are out of work, tens of thousands have died, the people are overwhelmed by conflicting and dueling scientific models of the virus, tribal politics shapes coverage.
Two stories out of Washington, the narratives shaped by the Washington Beltway media establishment, illustrate the break. They sit there as the coronavirus consumes the news cycle.
One is the incredible double standard in the treatment of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden over claims of sexual assault.
As the housing market collapsed in 2008 and 2009, millions of people stopped paying their mortgages. The ensuing disaster — the secondary mortgage market imploded — is something no rational person should want to repeat.
It is thus astonishing that some members of Congress want a reprise. In their ignorance of how the world works and their desire to pander to voters, they advocate compounding the economic disaster brought on by the global COVID-19 pandemic.
This began when Rep. Ilhan Omar, in her typically short-sighted and economically illiterate way, called for “canceling” rent payments during the plague. This would be as disastrous now as it was a decade ago.
Biden says he'll reverse DeVos
rule bolstering protections for those
accused of campus sexual assault replies
rule bolstering protections for those
accused of campus sexual assault replies
Former Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday that if he’s elected president, he will reverse a rule issued by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos aimed at bolstering protections for students who are accused of sexual assault on university campuses.
In a statement, Biden said the new rule was an effort by the Trump administration to “shame and silence” survivors of sexual assault.
“It’s wrong,” Biden said. “And, it will be put to a quick end in January 2021, because as president, I’ll be right where I always have been throughout my career — on the side of survivors, who deserve to have their voices heard,
Michelle Obama’s Tall Tales
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The cult of Michelle Obama is a puzzler. Thousands of strong, smart, independent women flock to every public appearance of, and hang on every platitude of, a woman whose sole notable accomplishment is her marriage. Lucking into marrying a celebrity is not usually posited to be the aim of feminism. No one can name a single other exceptional, or even unusual, achievement.
The adulation is real, though. Hillary Clinton’s book tour meant sad, clenched-jaw appearances at Barnes & Noble. Mrs. Obama’s took her to the Barclays Center and other arenas big enough for pro basketball games. There’s now a documentary about the book tour on Netflix. Guess who made it?
In 1665, François Duc de la Rochefoucauld famously opined “Hypocrisy is a tribute that vice pays to virtue.”
That definition may have been witty at the time, but seems a bit feeble in our era when Nancy Pelosi states she absolutely believes Joe Biden did not sexually assault Tara Reade and she will not “answer this question again.”
As we know, this contrasts with the Pelosi who until recently was repeatedly reciting the “believe all women” mantra, as was Biden himself.
As I reported at PJMedia, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday he was raising up an “army” of contact tracers – as many as 20,000 people – to track down everyone with COVID-19 and quarantine them.(Snip)On Wednesday, the soft voice of Ventura County Health Director Robert Levin confirmed that the forcible quarantines are underway. He announced a “pilot program that will grow into a larger program” and “we will find everyone with COVID-19 and we will isolate every one of them and we will make sure that they stay quarantined and we will check in with them every day. In other words, what this program means
Ever since President Trump was elected, conservatives have nervously watched the poll numbers to see whether constant attacks from Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) were damaging the president’s popularity among his core constituency. Of course, Trump has sometimes suffered from self-inflicted damage — at times, he is his own worst enemy — but never in recent history has any president faced such unrelenting opposition from the moment of his election.
Trump’s shocking 2016 upset of Hillary Clinton, which contradicted nearly every expert forecast, triggered a series of events that included the “Russiagate” investigation, the Democrats’ takeover of the House in the 2018 midterm election, and Nancy Pelosi’s impeachment
Across the nation, protesters are taking to the streets and business owners are filing lawsuits objecting to the shutdown rules. As the shutdown drags on, it’s causing job losses, bankruptcies and a sense that people are being robbed of their rights.
The liberal media label the protesters virus deniers. But the protesters have science and the US Constitution on their side.
Not to mention common sense. As Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday, “This is not a sustainable situation. Close down everything, close down the economy, lock yourself in the house.”
The defense of Joe Biden on the allegations that have disrupted his campaign has gone through some fascinating twists and turns.
At first, in the wake of Tara Reade’s accusation that he sexually assaulted her in 1993, the reaction in media and political circles was largely silence. Reade seemed to come out of nowhere, so there was little need to acknowledge her story.
Many media outlets stuck with silence after the New York Times and Washington Post published their accounts 19 days later. In other outlets, the second reaction was that she was probably not telling the truth -- after all, no Biden Senate staffer could recall her making the charge
DOJ releases long-awaited Mueller
scope memo, revealing the probe
went beyond previously known mandate replies
scope memo, revealing the probe
went beyond previously known mandate replies
The Justice Department on Wednesday released a mostly unredacted version of then-Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's August 2017 "scope memo" outlining the authority of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller -- and the document reveals for the first time that Mueller's authority went significantly beyond what was known previously.
Rosenstein, who later left the Justice Department for a law firm, oversaw Mueller's probe and played a central role in its still-unfolding drama. He was the subject of a two-page memo written by then-Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe that outlined how Rosenstein allegedly proposed wearing a wire in the White House "to collect additional evidence on the president’s true intentions,"
A new coronavirus oversight panel assembled by House Democrats is being dismissed as the same old attempt to get President Trump, following the failure of impeachment or the Trump-Russia investigation to end his presidency.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently appointed a select committee on the coronavirus, to be chaired by Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, a key ally of presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden. The membership was stacked with early advocates of impeaching Trump, including California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters.
Did the animated Nostradamus predict the present yet again?
In its 30 years on air, “The Simpsons” has proved to be a modern prophet, seemingly anticipating everything from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the “Game of Thrones” finale to Donald Trump’s presidency and Greece defaulting on an IMF loan repayment.
Now, fans believe the show deserves credit for calling the coronavirus decades ahead of time as well as the recent sightings of Asia’s “murder hornets” in the US — all in one episode.
The DOJ has finally released a less redacted version of the second special counsel scope memo, written August 2, 2017 by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.The second scope memo (full pdf here) authorized Robert Mueller to target Carter Page, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos, Michael Flynn, and an unknown entity (Richard Gates, Michael Cohen, Michael Flynn Jr. likely possibilities). (Copy of Memo) The DOJ has been hiding the second scope memo behind redactions for almost three years. A heavily redacted version was released April 2018. They are finally releasing a less redaction version today
It’s now part of the daily routine, sticking my head out the window at 7 p.m. and pounding a frying pan with a spoon. My neighbors in the Bronx are banging and clapping from their windows and balconies, and someone a few blocks away is sending up fireworks every evening. It feels good to join the tribute to our health-care workers, but when the noise ends, I worry where this feeling is leading us.We’re all reveling in the joy of “encompassment,” as the economist Daniel Klein terms this primal yearning to share an emotion that involves everyone around us. When we sing in church or cheer at a football game,
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: President Donald Trump is unraveling. Oh, you’ve heard it eleventy billion times from the same half dozen “NeverTrump” pundits? Yeah, so has everyone. It’s the same column from the same people published with alarming frequency.It’s not the pundits’ fault, necessarily. They are who they are, and clearly Trump has broken the part of their brains that used to be able to synthesize new information and develop interesting and compelling arguments. It is, however, the media outlets’ fault for publishing the same dreck over and over.Media outlets treat conservative Americans as second-class citizens
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco reaffirmed his stance on not enforcing stringent stay-at-home orders, telling the Riverside County Board of Supervisors this week that he refuses to “make criminals out of business owners, single moms, and otherwise healthy individuals for exercising their constitutional rights.”Eight weeks ago, officials, including Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) “participated in something never done before in our nation’s history,” Bianco began.Government “ordered residents into their homes, closed their businesses, made them wear masks, forbid them from going to church, and eliminated constitutional freedoms put in place over 200 years ago,” he explained.“In the name of a public health crisis,
GoFundMe amount soars for new American
hero, salon owner Shelley Luther after
7k in fines and jail replies
hero, salon owner Shelley Luther after
7k in fines and jail replies
A Texas salon owner who was fined and sentenced to seven days in jail for defying a state order to close her business has found a lot of support for her brave decision.A GoFundMe page set up for Dallas salon owner Shelley Luther has raised over $273,000 in funds from supporters who want to help her with the $7,000 fine and other costs she has incurred after she “decided to resist tyranny” by defying county orders and opening her salon for business in order to feed her family.(Photo) The fundraising page reported Wednesday that the salon owner “is in JAIL as of yesterday” and that,