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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION

50 STATES AND DC, CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT

Save California, Ban Environmentalists Hold the straws, legalize the rats. Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274841/save-california-ban-environmentalists-daniel-greenfield

The 6-foot-tall man dressed as a giant receipt stood on a stool next to the emblem of the State Capitol in Sacramento. He was there because Assemblyman Phil Ting of San Fran wanted to ban receipts.

California had a great ban streak going. It had already banned plastic bags, straws and dog breeders. Assemblyman Ting, who had only been known for wearing bow ties, had declared war on receipts.

And Ting had his aide wear a giant receipt to show how bad receipts were for the environment. And how better to crusade for the environment than by printing up a receipt 100,000 times normal size?

According to Ting’s people, receipts not only wasted trees and water, but were actually toxic. The San Francisco Democrat explained that receipts were coated in chemicals that weren’t allowed in baby bottles. It’s probably a good thing then that receipts don’t go inside baby bottles. Or inside babies.

There was even a hashtag, #SkiptheSlip.

In an extraordinary setback for stupid bans, Ting’s receipt ban bill never made it to the floor. But Ting tweeted that he was “glad to have raised awareness about the health & environmental harm receipts can cause. Change often takes time.” Next time around, the receipt bill ban will succeed.

Perhaps Ting ought to consider raising awareness about the 16,000 complaints of filth and waste in his own city. The human waste spread by his constituents is a lot more toxic than paper receipts.

The same Democrats who shrug at a hepatitis outbreak gasp at the toxicity of store receipts.

Illinois Paid Millions in Medicaid for People Who Are Already Dead By John Ellis

https://pjmedia.com/trending/illinois-paid-millions-in-medicaid-for-people-who-are-already-dead/

The proof is in the pudding, as they say. In other words, if you want to see the “competency” and “efficiency” of leftists at work, look to Illinois. Among a myriad of state-wide problems created by leftist ideology, a new report from the U.S. Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General uncovered that Illinois spent at least $4.6 million between 2015 and 2017 on people who are already dead.

Those uninitiated in the utter lack of competency among leftists may wonder how this could ever happen. How does the state spend money on dead people? Well, ABC 20 out of Springfield, Ill., explains it this way:

Here’s how it works: managed care organizations provide health care to Medicaid patients in exchange for monthly “capitation” payments from the state. “This means they pay a specific amount at a regular interval for that person, depending on their age, gender, and disease states,” Petersburg Pharmacy owner Dave Bagot said. “And what happened was they continued making these payments for these folks after they had passed away.”

ABC 20’s article makes the obvious point that “Some believe now other areas of Illinois Medicaid need to be looked into.”

Robert Mueller helped Saudi Arabia cover up its role in 9/11 attacks: By Paul Sperry

https://nypost.com/2019/09/07/robert-mueller-helped-saudi-arabia-cover-up-its-role-in-9-11-attacks-suit/

After a lengthy investigation, special counsel Robert Mueller charged Russia made “multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election” and said the incursion “deserves the attention of every American.”

But former FBI investigators say their old boss didn’t feel the same concern when they uncovered multiple, systemic efforts by the Saudi government to assist the hijackers in the lead-up to the 9/11 attacks — a far more consequential, to say nothing of deadly, foreign influence operation on America.

As the head of the FBI at the time, they say Mueller was not nearly as interested in investigating that espionage conspiracy, which also involved foreign intelligence officers. Far from it, the record shows he covered up evidence pointing back to the Saudi Embassy and Riyadh — and may have even misled Congress about what he knew.

9/11 victims agree. “He was the master when it came to covering up the kingdom’s role in 9/11,” said survivor Sharon Premoli, who was pulled from the rubble of the World Trade Center 18 years ago.

“In October of 2001, Mueller shut down the government’s investigation after only three weeks, and then took part in the Bush [administration’s] campaign to block, obfuscate and generally stop anything about Saudi Arabia from being released,” added Premoli, now a plaintiff in the 9/11 lawsuit against Saudi Arabia.

Lies the Left Tells About Guns For starters, the “assault weapons” ban of 1994 had no meaningful effect on the homicide rate. Rachel Bovard

https://amgreatness.com/2019/09/07/lies-the-left-tells-about-guns/

Congress reconvenes this week after a summer fraught with multiple mass shootings. Reportedly, legislation implementing tighter gun control is on the table, with rumored support by some in the White House. The rhetoric surrounding guns continues to escalate.

Here’s the thing about guns. The Constitution—that handy little document—guarantees our rights to them, and that guarantee is a profound reflection of the nature and character of our freedoms. As Ben Domenech of The Federalist wrote recently, “the right to bear arms is not about hunting.” Rather:

It is a natural right of the deepest significance to the relationship between the citizen and the state. It is in the Constitution because the men who defeated the greatest empire in the world wanted us to be able to defend our freedom.

The simple fact that we have a right to own guns doesn’t mean individuals must own them, use them, or even like them. But what it does mean is that people advocating further regulation of firearms at least should have a baseline understanding of how firearms actually work, as well as the current statutory environment that regulates their purchase, handling, and use.

Unfortunately, the current rhetoric coming from Democrats betrays a deep misunderstanding about all of those things.

Here are some of the worst offenses.

Corporate America Wants to Be Woke By Matthew Continetti

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/09/corporate-america-wants-to-be-woke/

The politicization of firms is a double-edged sword.

Time was, CEOs of mighty enterprises shied away from politics, especially hot-button social and cultural issues. They focused instead on the bottom line. They maximized shareholder value by delivering goods and services to customers. Some businessmen still operate by this principle. In doing so they provide not only for their employees and CEOs and board members but also for the institutions — pensions, individual retirement plans, index funds, hospitals, philanthropies — that have invested in their companies.

That is no longer enough for many of America’s richest and most powerful. Suddenly, corporate America has a conscience. Every week brings new examples of CEOs intervening in political, cultural, and social debate. In every instance, the prominent spokesmen for American business situate themselves comfortably on the left side of the political spectrum. Shareholder capitalism finds itself under attack. Not just from socialism but also from woke capitalism.

These outbursts are not just virtue signaling. Nor is the left-wing tilt of corporate America merely a response to the “rising American electorate” of Millennial, Gen Z, and minority consumers. What is taking place is not a business story but a political one. What is known as “stakeholder capitalism” is another means by which elites circumvent democratic accountability.

Econ Students Debunk Study Showing Drastic Rise in Hate Crimes Following Trump Rallies By Jack Crowe

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/students-debunk-study-showing-226-percent-rise-hate-crimes-following-trump-rallies/

A study purporting to show area hate crimes tended to spike following Trump rallies, which went viral earlier this year, is fatally flawed in its methodology, according to a new analysis by two economics P.h.D. students at Harvard University.

The study, which found a 226 percent increase in white-nationalist propaganda and hate crimes in counties that hosted Trump campaign rallies, failed to account for political campaigns’ preference for hosting rallies in highly populated areas that naturally tend to experience more hate crimes, according to the analysis conducted by Harvard P.h.D. candidates Matthew Lilley and Brian Wheaton.

Lilley and Wheaton were able to replicate the initial study’s findings with respect to Trump rallies, but found an even greater increase in hate crimes in counties that hosted Clinton campaign rallies during the same period.

Once the researchers controlled for population size, the effect of Trump rallies on hate crimes became “statistically indistinguishable from zero.”

Red-Flag Laws Should Trigger Treatment, Not Just Gun Confiscation By D. J. Jaffe

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/09/red-flag-laws-should-mandate-treatment-not-just-gun-confiscation/

To seriously tackle the problem of mass shootings, we must get serious about tackling the problem of severe mental illness.

In the wake of recent mass shootings by Americans alleged to be mentally ill, President Trump has called for a national red-flag law that would preclude certain mentally ill individuals from owning or buying firearms. It’s a good idea, but for the seriously mentally ill, red-flag laws should also trigger treatment, not just gun confiscation.

It makes no sense to let people who are known to be seriously mentally ill and believed to be dangerous go without treatment, even if they have had their weapons taken away. It’s not compassionate. And it can be dangerous.

Forty percent of the seriously mentally ill have anosognosia, meaning they are unaware they are ill. Because they are unaware they are ill, they sometimes refuse treatment. Many become homeless, arrested, incarcerated, and needlessly hospitalized. Some, responding to their delusions, resort to violence that doesn’t involve guns. All of these outcomes could be avoided if they received treatment.

The red-flag law previously proposed by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.), the Extreme Risk Protection Order Act of 2019, which is now being taken up by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.), Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), Joe Manchin (D., W.V.), and others, should be amended to provide a path to treatment for those who are identified as being too mentally ill to own guns.

New York provides a roadmap for how to do this. In 2013, it passed the New York SAFE Act. Among other provisions, the law required therapists to report to the county mental-health director the names of mentally ill people under their care who they believe to be dangerous and to possess guns. It then charged the county mental-health director with investigating the therapists’ reports and, if appropriate, instructing law enforcement to seize the guns from the individuals in question and enter their names into the federal NICS database, which would preclude them from making gun purchases. It further allowed for an appeals process through which the mental-health director’s determination could be challenged.

Anti-ICE Protesters in Boston Block Rush-Hour Traffic Eric Lendrum

https://amgreatness.com/2019/09/06/anti-ice-protesters-in-boston-block-rush-hour-traffic/

A far-left group protesting ICE took to the streets of Boston on Thursday, marching throughout the city and blocking rush-hour traffic for hours, as Fox News reports.

The group, “Never Again Action,” marched in protest of ICE without announcing the route they would be taking. As a result, the several hundred protesters marched across the Longfellow Bridge, which was the only route for hundreds more commuters in rush-hour traffic.

The march eventually stopped at the Amazon building near Cambridge, as part of their protest against private companies who supposedly cooperate with ICE in the detaining and deporting of illegal aliens. After arriving at Amazon, 12 of the protesters were arrested for trespassing, after which the remaining protesters eventually dispersed.

As Fox notes, Never Again Action previously saw 18 of its members arrested at a similar protest in July. The group also went viral for a protest in August where they blocked the driveway of an ICE facility in Rhode Island; a guard who worked at the facility and was trying to go to work accidentally almost drove into them, after which other personnel intervened and forced the protesters out using pepper spray.

Never Action Action is a self-described “Jews Against ICE” group founded in July, invoking the phrase “Never Again” as a reference to the Holocaust. This echoes the sentiment first promoted by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who compared migrant detention facilities to concentration camps, and even falsely accused such facilities of abusing detained illegals.

Although her claims have been debunked, her rhetoric has inspired an increase in terrorist actions against ICE and other immigration officials and facilities in recent months.

Smollett’s Lawyer: ‘Even if He Lied, It’s the Police’s Fault for Taking it Seriously’ Keely Sharp

https://dailypoliticalnewswire.com/smolletts-lawyer-even-if-he-lied-its-the-polices-fault-for-taking-it-seriously/?utm_source=newsletter

Here’s a statement to make you scrunch your nose and scratch your head: Jussie Smollett’s lawyer, William J. Quinlan, actually said that even if the actor did lie about being attacked by two white men in MAGA hats, it’s the police’s fault for taking him so seriously.

Yep, that’s right. The lawyer is blaming the police for Smollett’s crime! How is that even a valid argument?

“My client from the beginning has maintained his innocence and disputed the city’s allegations,” Quinlan stated, “We contend the city is wrong … The mere fact somebody filed a police report doesn’t presume the investigation will be done and certainly not to the extent of what the city is claiming.”

The “Empire” star was charged after he staged an attack on himself in January, in which he hired two men to attack him. Then he turned to the police and the media and cried wolf, claiming that he was attacked by anti-gay Trump supporters.

Obamas try to muscle little company into handing over its trademark to them By Monica Showalter

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/09/obamas_try_to_muscle_little_company_into_handing_over_their_trademark_to_them.html

The Obamas have always been big on Chicago-style political muscle, and even in the post-presidency, Barack and Michelle have not changed a bit.

Get a load of this outrageous bid to force a little company to give up its trademark — to him.  According to Fox News:

The legal team representing the Obamas filed a petition to cancel the trademark of an e-book publishing company called Higher Ground Enterprises, much to the chagrin of the publishing company.

“This is really deplorable behavior. I hope that the Obamas realize that these actions are not consistent with the values they preach and that they instruct their attorneys to immediately dismiss the petition,” attorney Larry Zerner told Fox News in a statement that was first given to The Hollywood Reporter.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Obama team wanted to name their Netflix propaganda venture ‘Higher Ground Productions’ which is kind of a stupid, banal name, but whatevs.  The U.S. trademark office told them “no” because another company, Higher Ground Enterprises, already had the name, and the names were too similar.