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Ruth King

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Cuomo Rejects Independent Investigation of N.Y. Nursing Home Deaths, Saying It Would Be ‘Political’ By Zachary Evans

By on August 11th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/cuomo-rejects-independent-investigation-of-n-y-nursing-home-deaths-saying-it-would-be-political/

New York governor Andrew Cuomo rejected calls for an independent investigation into deaths of coronavirus patients in state nursing homes, saying such an investigation would be “political.”

The state has seen over 32,000 deaths from coronavirus, with at least 6,500 of those deaths among residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities. However, if a nursing home resident dies of coronavirus after having been transferred to a hospital, the fatality is not listed in state records as a “nursing home” death. This practice has led to speculation that the death count among nursing home residents is higher than reported.

“I wouldn’t do an investigation [into nursing home deaths] whether or not it’s political,” Cuomo said at a press conference. “I think you’d have to be blind to realize it’s not political.”

The governor dismissed allegations that the state had not adequately protected nursing home residents from coronavirus.

“Just look at where it comes from and look at the sources and look at their political affiliations…and look at what publications raise it and what media outward networks raise it,” Cuomo said.

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Lebanon’s Government Is to Blame for the Beirut Explosion By Carine Hajjar

By on August 11th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/08/lebanons-government-is-to-blame-for-the-beirut-explosion/

It was the country’s own government that brought Beirut to its knees.

The political and economic decline in Lebanon was eating away at the public’s confidence in its government. On Tuesday, however, any hope was dashed as physical destruction and death were added to a list of Lebanon’s troubles. Symbolic, in a way, the explosion in Beirut marked the end of Lebanon’s spiral. The once abundant, vibrant country is officially approaching rock bottom.

The Lebanese people have been protesting their government for months. The perfect storm of economic mismanagement, political corruption, and the mounting COVID crisis have empowered the Lebanese to join across sectarian lines to call for reform. Last Tuesday, any lingering hope in the government’s ability to uphold its most vital duty — safety and security — was blown up. The corruption and mismanagement of the Lebanese government allowed years of oversight in maintaining essential safety protocols.

After spending six years at the Beirut port, 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate ignited. It was unloaded in 2014, and then stored next to one of the most important sources of food and GDP for the import-dependent country. The ensuing blast has killed at least 163 people and left thousands injured. Property within a six-mile radius suffered damage, and the port and surrounding neighborhoods were decimated. From miles away, a relative of mine felt the blast as her bed moved across the room. A friend told me, “We felt the ground move . . . then we heard a huge explosion.” The explosion was so powerful that he thought it was nearby, only to realize he lives almost 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) away. The aftermath is shocking. My relative lamented: “I can’t even describe how painful the situation is . . . they’re still looking for the dead . . . mothers are crying in the streets.” Part of Beirut is “on the floor,” she told me.

How did this devastating explosion occur? The government, my friend told me: “They let this happen.”

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Donald Trump shows grace under pressure By Andrea Widburg

By on August 11th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/08/donald_trump_shows_grace_under_pressure.html

On Monday, immediately after President Trump started his press briefing, Secret Service agents suddenly appeared and hustled him away. It turned out that there had been a shooting so near the White House that the Secret Service believed the president to be at risk. After the danger had passed, President Trump went right back to the press conference, dismissing even the possibility that he might be shaken. By comparison, his opponent in the presidential race refuses to come out of the basement even to accept his nomination.

As every parent knows, if something bad happens, the last thing you want to do is panic in front of young children. After all, they are looking to you for emotional guidance. The same is true for a nation’s leader. As our children do with us, we look to him (or her) to know whether we should be worried.

Additionally, when there’s a crisis, we grade a leader’s performance – can this leader handle the heat? When the going gets tough and scary, will this person be there for the nation? Will the leader show grace under pressure?

We’ve seen examples of that grace under pressure over the years, especially from Ronald Reagan. In 1981, while John Hinckley thankfully failed to assassinate Reagan, he did give Reagan a collapsed lung and a bullet less than an inch from his heart. Arriving at the hospital, Reagan ignored his extreme pain and smiled as he walked into the emergency room, only to collapse once the doors closed behind him.

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POLITICS, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Only Joe Biden can save the mullahs running Iran By Sam Faddis

By on August 11th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/08/only_joe_biden_can_save_the_mullahs_running_iran.html

The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) is the Iran lobby in the United States.  It operates in the open and with astonishing audacity in pushing the agenda of Iran’s radical theocracy.  During the months preceding the signing of the Iran nuclear deal, representatives of the NIAC made a total of 33 visits to the Obama White House to discuss the topic.  During that time frame, Sahar Nowrouzzadeh, a former member of NIAC, served as the Iran director for President Obama’s National Security Council (NSC).  If you have ever wondered why the deal seemed almost as if it had been written by the Iranians themselves, in large measure, it was.

NIAC loves the new draft Democratic Party platform.  In fact, only days ago, it sent a letter to the Democratic National Committee applauding the party’s call for a return to the Iran deal and an end to the “Muslim ban.”  The letter also castigated the Trump administration for its policies toward Iran.  NIAC no doubt also rejoiced in the fact that the platform specifically opposes American involvement in “regime change.”

Why?  Why is the lobbying arm of a hostile foreign government applauding the political platform of an American political party and interjecting itself into our internal electoral politics?

The answer is that the Trump administration’s policies toward Iran are working.  In fact, the hard line that Trump has taken against the ayatollahs in Tehran has had an unprecedented economic, political, and military impact.  The Iranian revolutionary regime that has terrorized the Middle East for decades may not survive another four years.  If Iran’s leaders cannot find a way to relieve the pressure, their days are certainly numbered.

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How Fauci’s Stubborness Costs Lives By Daniel John Sobieski

By on August 11th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/08/how_faucis_stubborness_costs_lives.html

Dr. Anthony Fauci, between magazine photo shoots and throwing the first pitch at baseball games, seems to have forgotten the cardinal rule of medicine – first, do no harm. By downplaying the effectiveness and highlighting the alleged dangers of  hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), it can be argued he has cost American lives, and will cost more, coming as he has between real doctors and real patients and real world experience with a drug that has been safely used to treat conditions like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis for six decades without any serious side effects.

Fauci is in love with clinical studies, which are fine to determine effectiveness and risk of vaccines, but pale in comparison to the results of actual use.

One can understand the opposition of Big Pharma and Democrats in Congress to HCQ use against the Wuhan Chinese virus. There’s no money in a commonly available drug that costs something like 50 cents a pill. And if its widespread use were as effective here as it has been worldwide, it destroys a key rationale for the lockdowns which give liberals unconstitutional power to control every aspect of our lives  Worse yet, for some people, it might indeed save a great many American lives and that would improve public perception of President Donald J. Trump’s handling of the crisis and boost Trump’s reelection chances. Can’t have that, even if it costs American lives.

Dr. Fauci, who has not wasted this crisis and parlayed it into a media career, recently opined on one of the main HCQ opponents, telling the doctors at MSNBC:

White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that all the “valid” scientific data shows malaria drug hydroxychloroquine isn’t effective in treating the coronavirus, contradicting President Donald Trump’s opinion of the drug.

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Police shooting of Englewood man reignites political debate and looting as Mag Mile trashed, 13 cops injured, 2 people shot

By on August 11th, 2020

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-chicago-downtown-looting-20200810-3zwa3b7zzrc5vdyb4qjqywrjvu-story.html

Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday decried “a false rumor on social media” that police officers killed a 15-year-old boy. That led residents to clash with police officers in Englewood and prompted calls to head toward downtown.

Hundreds of people swept through the Magnificent Mile and other parts of downtown Chicago early Monday, smashing windows, looting stores and confronting police after officers shot a suspect in Englewood hours earlier.

The mayhem marked the second time since late May that the city’s upscale shopping district has been targeted by looters amid unrest, reigniting the debate over policing as city leaders continued to point fingers and downtown again was shut down overnight heading to Tuesday.

As businesses owners boarded up shops and braced for the possibility of additional looting, some cautioned against simplifying the situation or blaming any single issue.

“It’s not just people looting,” said Patsy Mullins, whose Gold Coast store, Accessorize, was completely emptied. “Let’s dig to the root of the problem, let’s not look at the surface. … We need to get to the bottom of this. Otherwise, well, this problem will never be solved and it will continue again and again.”

City officials said the seeds for the crime spree were sown on social media Sunday afternoon, after officers shot and wounded a 20-year-old man who allegedly had fled and fired shots at them.

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Wealth Tax On Billionaires? Great … If You Want Stagnation, Fewer Jobs, More Poverty

By on August 10th, 2020

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/08/10/wealth-tax-on-billionaires-great-if-you-want-stagnation-fewer-jobs-more-poverty/

Senator and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has another bright socialist idea: A 60% wealth tax on billionaires to pay for nationalized health care for a year. Such nuttiness would be easy to ignore were it not for the fact he’s now the driving intellectual force behind Joe Biden’s basement-based presidential campaign.

As any economist worth his salt will tell you, a wealth tax is perhaps the most pernicious tax, since it punishes people retroactively for their hard work, thrift and smart investments.

Not only does it dissuade people from accumulating wealth, but it also dramatically reduces the amount of capital in our economy. Everyone will be poorer, with lower incomes for all and fewer jobs as the inevitable result.

We already had this debate, if you recall, last year. Both Sanders and his socialist pal Sen. Elizabeth Warren both brought it up. It was one of the many reasons why voters rejected both Sanders and Warren, favoring instead the mentally challenged Biden.

Yet, the wealth tax keeps getting burped up like a bad meal. Maybe with COVID-19 lockdowns and the public’s very real economic worries, the Sanders-led left (and, by extension, Biden) thinks it can take advantage and finally get a wealth tax passed. Or maybe it’s just political theatrics.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Jimmy Lai’s Chilling Warning About China By Claudia Rosett Feb 28, 2020

By on August 10th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/claudiarosett/claudia-rosett/2020/02/28/jimmy-lais-warning-about-china-n378733

Surely China’s Communist Party henchmen have enough on their hands, as they hustle to disappear outspoken bloggers, kick out Wall Street Journal reporters, and repurpose parts of the CCP’s vast machinery of surveillance and coercion to police President Xi Jinping’s “People’s War” on the deadly new coronavirus — which achieved ruinous breakout in Wuhan early last month, while China’s authorities were busy detaining and silencing the honest local doctors who tried to sound a warning. But when it comes to ramping up repression, there’s always time for more. On Friday, China’s satrap administration in Hong Kong arrested one of the city’s longtime leading advocates of democracy, 71-year-old newspaper owner Jimmy Lai.

Let’s be clear: Jimmy Lai is one of the world’s most clarion voices for freedom. In Hong Kong these days, that takes tremendous courage. Born in China, he came to Hong Kong at the age of 12, made his fortune in the garment industry, and in 1995 founded a pro-democracy newspaper, Apple Daily. Under British colonial rule, and under China’s increasingly heavy boot since the 1997 handover, Lai has argued the case for democracy, in person and in print, and turned out, again and again, to take part in peaceful protests. Earlier this month, Jimmy Lai published a superb op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, under the headline “China’s Facade of Stability,” spelling out that “the spread of the coronavirus has revealed a truth that poses a much greater risk to Mr. Xi: There is no cure for Chinese communism except the collapse of the party.” Noting that “Deception is China’s true rule of law,” and citing the silencing at a critical moment of the Wuhan doctors who tried to warn of the virus, Lai spelled out, “This is the problem now before the world: the rise of a Goliath-like China no one trusts.”

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Hong Kong Crackdown: 200 Police Raid Newspaper, Arrest Beijing Critic Jimmy Lai By Stephen Green,

By on August 10th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2020/08/10/hong-kong-crackdown-200-police-raid-newspaper-arrest-beijing-critic-jimmy-lai-n770499

Hong Kong Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai was taken from his paper’s offices in handcuffs Monday morning in a raid involving more than 200 police.

Police reportedly took box after box of “evidence,” although it’s unclear what crime Lai might have committed aside from being in favor of democracy and speaking out against the authoritarian Communist government in Beijing.

Reuters reports:

Apple Daily’s Editor-in-Chief Ryan Law, who was helping film and comment on the Facebook live feed, could be seen rushing about the building as he tried to report on events breaking in his own newsroom.

“This is, I believe, the first time in Hong Kong that police have initiated a mass search on a media outlet like this,” he said, panting, as he scaled a back staircase with a colleague to get around the mass of police officers.

And:

Staffers said they asked police what legal grounds they had for entering. But these questions were largely ignored as more than 200 police streamed in, according to a live feed of the unfolding drama.

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HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Security Failures at USG Media Agency Prove Need to Hire Americans First Ben Weingarten

By on August 10th, 2020

tps://mailchi.mp/a569a5374206/tune-in-ill-be-speaking-on-american-ingrate-tuesday-night-2463557?e=a0fa704ef6

President Donald Trump recently issued an executive order aimed at aligning federal contracting and hiring with the interests of American workers. Just days after its issuance, we are now learning of disturbing news demonstrating how urgently needed the order was. Bombshell revelations emerging from the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) show that President Trump’s predecessor not only undermined the interests of American workers, but in so doing imperiled our national security—raising questions about the hiring practices and security procedures of other federal agencies, when it comes to non-Americans.

As detailed previously, USAGM is a little-known agency, yet one of great importance. It is the federal government’s broadcasting arm for global audiences, tasked with overseeing several networks charged with “inform[ing], engag[ing] and connect[ing] people around the world in support of freedom and democracy,” and doing so “consistent with the broad foreign policy objectives of the United States.” To achieve its mission, it directs entities such as Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia and, perhaps most notably, its flagship Voice of America (VOA), to represent America in broadcasting authoritative, uncensored news to peoples across the world. Among its most noble efforts are those USAGM undertakes to evade the firewalls of tyrannical regimes, providing those laboring under them with the free and open flow of information and ideas their leaders loathe.

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