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It’s time to checkmate run-amok COVID-19 states By Carey M. Golden

Posted By on May 27th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/05/its_time_to_checkmate_runamok_covid19_states.html

Hopefully, many of the things that lay heavy upon the nation right now will be in our collective rear-view mirror in the near future. These things include constant mention of pandemic and crisis, hourly radio reports and TV news reports of coronavirus infections and deaths, face masks, the pronouncements of “experts” like the little gnome man and the scarf lady, and ubiquitous signs and messages that implore us to stay home and stay safe (OBEY!) 

All of this is aimed at creating and reinforcing a state of fear and panic because scared people are easier to manipulate.  
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What will not, and must not, fade from our memory and consciousness is the stench of the actions of state governors and state officials who acted with little regard for the constitutional rights of their citizens. They imposed state-of-emergency edicts that were arbitrary, illogical, capricious, inconsistent and had little, if any, effect in controlling the virus “crisis.” It is hard to fathom why small businesses have had to close while Costco, Target, Home Depot, Lowe’s and other giant stores were allowed to stay open. Small businesses, whose owners have invested their lives and fortunes, were ordered closed in a fiat which jeopardized their very existence. These businesses were declared “non-essential,” but they are quite essential to their owners and very often their customers! The effect of thid business shut-down by state officials has been incredibly costly and as effective as medieval blood draining. The social costs haven’t even begun to be known.

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Ayatollah Khamenei and the Unhinged Mind of a Religious Zealot Iran’s Supreme Leader calls for a “final solution” to Israel and the “liberation of Palestine.” Ari Lieberman

Posted By on May 27th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/05/ayatollah-khamenei-and-unhinged-mind-religious-ari-lieberman/

This past Friday, Israelis of all backgrounds and political persuasions celebrated Jerusalem Day, which commemorates Israel’s liberation of the eastern part of the city during the Six Day War of 1967. While Israelis were celebrating and reflecting on their admirable achievements, it was an entirely different affair in the Islamic Republic of Iran where Iranian authorities organized and orchestrated anti-Israel demonstrations in commemoration of Quds Day. The hateful rallies came with all the expected banalities including the requisite burning of Israeli and American flags and effigies.

The demonstrations were accompanied by the usual over-the-top rhetoric by Iran’s so-called Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who likened Zionism to a “virus,” and Israel to a “cancerous tumor,” that must be destroyed and whose destruction is imminent. In a twitter rant, the mercurial supreme mullah leader called for a “final solution” to Israel’s existence, invoking Nazi-like genocidal language and promised that “Palestine [would] be free.”

This sort of bombast is to be expected from Iran’s virulently anti-Semitic leadership. This isn’t the first time that Khamenei referred to Israel as a “cancerous tumor,” and the employment of Nazi-like verbiage is unsurprising given that the mullah leadership frequently indulges overt Holocaust denial and sponsors Holocaust denial exhibits.

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Kafkafornia Clamps Down Attorney General Becerra grabs guns, Gov. Newsom deploys “trace force” of 20,000. Lloyd Billingsley

Posted By on May 27th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/05/kafkafornia-clamps-down-lloyd-billingsley/

“Gun violence is the last thing our communities and children should have to fear during a public health crisis. Background checks can save lives and DOJ’s firearms operations help make that happen. At the California Department of Justice, we’ll keep doing our part to keep firearms out of the hands of violent and dangerous individuals.”

That was California attorney general Xavier Becerra last week, but his announcement failed to cite any example of actual “gun violence.” The former congressman, once on Hillary Clinton’s short list as a running mate, was hailing raids that confiscated firearms from people who had committed no crime.

According to the Sacramento Bee, the state DOJ mounted “a dozen operations to confiscate firearms and ammunition possessed by owners who failed background checks.” This is the background check California requires for all purchases of ammunition. Failing this particular check is not the same as committing a crime.

From last July 1, when the program kicked in, until December, 2019, the state ran 345,000 background checks and rejected a full 62,000 Californians legally entitled to purchase ammunition. The 62,000 included off-duty sheriff’s deputies purchasing shotgun shells to hunt ducks. Database discrepancies meant the 62,000 had somehow “failed” a background check, implying malfeasance. The law-abiding gun owners then became “prohibited persons,” barred from purchasing ammunition and exercising their Second Amendment rights. 

Attorney Ari Freilich of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, told reporters that dangerous people were “committing a serious crime trying to acquire a product designed to take human life,” and that the background check system was working as intended. The outright confiscation of firearms in April, 2020, confirms that this is the case.

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A Man in Full Dan Crenshaw’s inspiring story. Bruce Bawer

Posted By on May 27th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/05/man-full-bruce-bawer/

I guess I became aware of Dan Crenshaw, the freshman congressman from Texas, when most other Americans did. Three days before the 2018 election, Saturday Night Live aired a “Weekend Update” segment on which cast member Pete Davidson mocked a few House candidates. Among them was Crenshaw, whom Davidson described as looking “like a hitman in a porno” – the purported joke being that Crenshaw wears an eyepatch. Davidson tagged his jest by saying: “I’m sorry, I know he lost his eye in a war…or whatever.” 

Indeed, Crenshaw was a Navy SEAL in Afghanistan, where, on June 15, 2012, a Taliban bomb severely damaged both of his eyes. Although doctors expected him to be totally blind, surgeons at Walter Reed managed – miraculously – to save his left eye.

Davidson’s tin-eared dig at Crenshaw made headlines around the world – that’s why I heard about it (I haven’t watched SNL in years) – and sparked outrage. There were calls for him to be fired. But Crenshaw didn’t join in the pile-on. Instead, on the following Saturday, after he’d won his election, Crenshaw appeared on SNL, graciously accepted an apology from Davidson, and read a few gags at Davidson’s expense.

That display of class and good humor was impressive. During the year and a half since, Crenshaw has become a familiar face on cable news, and he’s been consistently impressive there, too – articulate, unflappable, and very, very smart. Hence I expected Crenshaw’s new book, Fortitude: American Resilience in the Era of Outrage to be a worthwhile read.

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Dem Economist Predicts Most Explosive Recovery Ever. Democrats Predictably Horrified By Megan Fox

Posted By on May 27th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/election/megan-fox/2020/05/26/dem-economist-predicts-most-explosive-recovery-ever-democrats-predictably-horrified-n428514

Democrats have finally admitted that economic recovery for the American people means defeat for them. They would rather watch us suffer so they can beat Donald Trump. Politico published an article called “The General Election Scenario That Democrats Are Dreading,” which confirms what we’ve all been suspecting: the longer the lockdown continues and Americans are out of work, the happier Democrats are.

What kind of people root for economic ruin over recovery? Democrats.

Jason Furman, a Harvard professor and economist who worked for Barack Obama, gave a presentation in April to a group of bipartisan officials about the coming economic recovery. Democrats on the call were reportedly terrified.

“We are about to see the best economic data we’ve seen in the history of this country,” he said.

The former cabinet secretaries and Federal Reserve chairs in the Zoom boxes were confused, though some of the Republicans may have been newly relieved and some of the Democrats suddenly concerned.

“Everyone looked puzzled and thought I had misspoken,” Furman said in an interview. Instead of forecasting a prolonged depression-level economic catastrophe, Furman laid out a detailed case for why the months preceding the November election could offer Trump the chance to brag — truthfully — about the most explosive monthly employment numbers and GDP growth ever.

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The New York Times Continues to Pollute What Used to Be Journalism By Stephen Kruiser

Posted By on May 27th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/columns/stephen-kruiser/2020/05/26/the-new-york-times-continues-to-pollute-what-used-to-be-journalism-n430112

The Once Mighty Times Is a National Embarrassment

The New York Times is, for better or worse, still the newspaper of record in the United States. That title obviously doesn’t carry the prestige that it once did. The Times has basically won a war of attrition as the newspaper industry across the land continues to fade into irrelevance. If it hadn’t already had such a prominent position in American news consumption, it would be on the verge of disappearing soon too.

The Times just had a particularly offensive Memorial Day Weekend, and I say that as someone who is so used to their biased nonsense that I try not to let it bother me any more.

First — and this may have only offended me — the editorial brain trust at the paper decided to do a gimmicky front page on Sunday that listed the names of Americans  who died from COVID-19. Of course I believe these people should be mourned. What bothered me is that there is a very, very specific group of fallen Americans who we are supposed to remember on Memorial Day Weekend and I found the timing of this to be exceedingly off-putting.

The Times Never Commits Accidental Bias

The timing of the above example was undoubtedly deliberate and intended to deflect from duly honoring our war dead. That was a slight. What the editorial board did to kick off the weekend intended to honor our military dead was egregiously offensive and un-American.

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Media’s Unpunished Lies Hurt The Nation Far Worse Than Trump’s Indefensible Tweets By Mark Hemingway

Posted By on May 27th, 2020

https://thefederalist.com/2020/05/26/medias-unpunished-lies-hurt-the-nation-far-worse-than-trumps-indefensible-tweets/

The grim joke of the 20th century was that one death is a tragedy, 1 million is a statistic. Well, in the 21st century age of information warfare, one man’s libel is an outrage. When thousands do it, we call that ‘the news.’

Donald Trump’s tweets suggesting Joe Scarborough somehow murdered a young woman who died of natural causes nearly 20 years ago are reprehensible. This is in no way because these tweets defame Scarborough. It’s pretty hard to feel bad for a guy whose media presence enabled Trump’s political rise to the point he openly flirted with running as his vice president before making a comic heel turn against Trump. (In fact, back when Scarborough was playing footsie with Trump, left-wing blogs were trafficking in this repugnant conspiracy.) Trump’s tweets are awful because of how they have thrust the deceased girl’s memory and her family into the limelight.

This letter written by the dead woman’s husband asking Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to take down the offending Trump tweets is heart-wrenching. It’s exactly the kind of behavior I feared Trump was capable of in 2016 and loomed large in my mind when I made the decision not to vote for him.

So there’s your ritual malediction against Trump, necessary though it may be. Please don’t pretend to be outraged when now it must be explained, once more with feeling, why a torrent of new condemnations of Trump’s indefensible behavior will have no effect on his supporters or the political dynamic heading into November and beyond. And don’t confuse that with approval of Trump’s rhetoric or tweets.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Order Forcing Nursing Homes to Take Covid Patients Scrubbed from N.Y. State Website By Tobias Hoonhout

Posted By on May 27th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/cuomo-coronavirus-order-forcing-nursing-homes-to-take-covid-19-patients-scrubbed-from-new-york-state-website/

The New York Department of Health has apparently deleted a March order issued by Governor Andrew Cuomo that forced nursing homes to admit Covid-positive residents.

The order, which was implemented on March 25, stated that “no resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to a nursing home solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19,” and also prohibited nursing homes from requiring testing prior to admission or readmission. But the order is no longer visible on the state’s website.

Other outdated guidelines, including a February order stating “there is no need to cancel school or social events, and there is no need for students or school staff to wear surgical masks at school,” remain active on the site.

The New York Department of Health and Cuomo’s office did not respond to requests for comment as to why the order was deleted.

New York leads the country with over 5,000 nursing home deaths due to coronavirus, and earlier this month admitted to quietly changing its criteria to count only those cases in which the individual died at the nursing home, rather than at the hospital. News of the policy has resulted in calls for an investigation from conservative lawmakers.

Cuomo, who said in April that he was not aware of his state’s own policy, reversed it earlier this month. “We’re just not going to send a person who is positive to a nursing home after hospital visit. Period. If there’s any issue, the resident must be referred to the department of health which will find alternative care,” he announced on May 10.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The 82-Day Dictatorship By Michael Brendan Dougherty

Posted By on May 27th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/05/coronavirus-pandemic-hungary-prime-minister-viktor-orban-not-a-dictator/

Worries about Hungarian authoritarianism prove overblown, but are they hiding the real danger?

One wonders if it will be recorded in the history books that from March 30th to June 20th Hungary lived as the shortest dictatorship in European history, before voluntarily extinguishing itself. An odd act for a dictatorship. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary had used the coronavirus to make himself dictator for life, it was said. But I guess he only had it in him to be dictator for life for less than three months.

Our most important experts on democracy and Eastern Europe knew that Viktor Orbán had really done it this time. Yasmeen Serhan, writing in The Atlantic this April, declared: “There is a line between using emergency powers and outright authoritarianism—one that Hungary has undoubtedly crossed.”

“The brazenness of Orbán’s power grab is without any parallel in recent European history,” wrote Dalibor Rohac in the Washington Post, predicting confidently that absent a “strong pushback from Brussels and Washington — which are both understandably preoccupied by more urgent matters — Hungary is bound to emerge from the current crisis as a full-fledged dictatorship.”

It was on March 30th that the Hungarian Parliament approved a state-of-emergency law to deal with coronavirus that gave power to Viktor Orbán’s government to pass laws by decree, and instituted severe-looking restrictions on the dissemination of fake news. Several European countries had already passed enabling acts of this sort — France has seemed to go in and out of such states of emergency regularly in the last decade. That the emergency powers were a feature of Hungary’s existing constitution, limited by that constitution not to touch fundamental rights and subject to a parliamentary check, troubled none of these analysts.

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Why New York Is In Trouble – 290,304 Public Employees With $100,000+ Paychecks Cost Taxpayers $38 Billion Adam Andrzejewski

Posted By on May 27th, 2020

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2020/05/26/why-new-york-is-in-trouble–290304-public-employees-with-100000-paychecks-cost-taxpayers-38-billion/#66d7b319fee2

New York’s budget deficit ballooned from $6 billion to $13 billion while the Empire State was the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. But the financial woes aren’t stopping 290,304 government employees from bringing home six-figure salaries and higher.

Across New York, nearly 20,000 highly compensated local, city and state employees out-earned Governor Andrew Cuomo’s $178,500 salary.

Our auditors at OpentheBooks.com found plumbers in New York City making $285,000 per year; police officers at the Port Authority of New York-New Jersey earning $423,467; Long Island school superintendents making up to $547,049; and a 93-year old college professor retired on a $561,754 pension.

So, maybe it’s no surprise that the New York General Assembly hiked their own pay and will be the most highly compensated state legislature in the country by 2021 with salaries of $130,000.

Using our new interactive mapping tool, quickly review (by ZIP code) the 290,304 New York public employees and retirees who earned more than $100,000 and cost taxpayers $38 billion (FY2018-9). Just click a pin and scroll down to see the results rendered in the chart beneath the map.