The intelligence community’s (IC) recently declassified non-assessment of the origins of the Chinese coronavirus should be seen as part of a continued charade by the Biden administration that—in effect—protects Communist China.

It enables Team Biden to present the appearance of concern over China’s malign behavior, while absolving itself of any responsibility to forthrightly confront it.

More than a year-and-a-half after the coronavirus began spreading, the IC declared that it “remains divided on the most likely origin of COVID-19. All agencies assess that two hypotheses are plausible: natural exposure to an infected animal and a laboratory-associated incident.”

This conclusion seemed almost preordained. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a highly reminiscent statement on May 27, just after President Joe Biden called for the 90-day review into the origins of the coronavirus, asserting that: “The U.S. Intelligence Community does not know exactly where, when, or how the COVID-19 virus was transmitted initially but has coalesced around two likely scenarios: either it emerged naturally from human contact with infected animals or it was a laboratory accident.”

As then, in the final assessment, different agencies gave different weights to these hypotheses.

The IC claimed it could not provide a more definitive conclusion without better clinical samples and the like, and that “China’s cooperation most likely would be needed to reach a conclusive assessment.”

Interestingly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, the IC was only unequivocal on the most provocative thesis regarding the origin of the coronavirus: “We judge the virus was not developed as a biological weapon.” Chinese officials, per the IC, had no “foreknowledge of the virus” before the initial outbreak of COVID-19 emerged.

The report, in short, generated precisely the answer one would have expected from increasingly hyper-politicized bureaucracies keen to hedge on vital questions—and likely even more so given the geopolitical implications at play—when seeking out sensitive information from a closed country in which they lack visibility, where they have frequently found themselves blindsided, and on which they have allegedly gone soft in the recent past.

Occam’s Razor suggests President Biden got exactly the review one would have expected, and therefore that he would have wanted.

We may never fully know why the lab leak thesis became politically correct months after officials across the federal government, in the medical field, and media had gone to such great lengths to pooh-pooh it. But we know that this created a political issue for the Biden administration after it had punted the origin question originally to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-dominated World Health Organization (WHO) for a futile Potemkin inquiry, and reports surfaced that it had quashed a Secretary of State Mike Pompeo-directed investigation into the matter.

The IC review was a necessary sideshow.

Why?

Because in the final analysis, how the coronavirus came about is of secondary importance to what China did once it was literally or figuratively out of the bottle.

Yes, the lab leak thesis is more than plausible based on a mass of circumstantial evidence, including that catalogued by the Secretary Pompeo-led State Department, the writings of prominent scientists and science journalists, and a House Republican-led report on the origins of the coronavirus. The president’s statement subsequent to the release of the IC review that “We will do everything we can to trace the roots of this outbreak…so that we can take every necessary precaution to prevent it from happening again” though banal and toothless, is fine insofar as prudence demands learning from catastrophes.

But set aside how the coronavirus came about.

We know it came from China.

We know the CCP silenced whistleblowers who might have had valuable knowledge and insight into the coronavirus that could have saved lives (and certainly, including those associated with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where we know China engaged in dangerous gain-of-function research—one of the only places in the world where such work is conducted—that could very well have resulted in COVID-19).

We know it lied about human-to-human transmission.

We know it shut down internal travel but permitted Chinese citizens to fly all over the world and encouraged other nations not to halt such travel.

We know it hoarded personal protective equipment and then sold shoddy versions of it to peoples worldwide.

We know it pressed the WHO to push its favored narratives—including casting anyone who dared finger China for the coronavirus’s spread as racist and bigoted.

We know its mouthpiece threatened to “plunge” America “into the mighty sea of coronavirus” by withholding vital drugs as the crisis metastasized.

We know it sought to stymie investigations into the coronavirus’s origins at every turn.

We know it aimed to take advantage of the pandemic in service of its hegemonic ambitions in myriad ways, from the very start of the pandemic.

One could rattle off infinitely more such points.

But the bottom line is this: The CCP lied, deceived, and in effect weaponized the coronavirus that began on its soil. It did everything possible to conceal what was transpiring subsequent to the outbreak, stop other nations from taking necessary precautions—but advocating they shut down human life for months on end—and encourage its spread globally, which it has tried to exploit and leverage at every point to increase its power and influence.

The Biden administration has never made this point clear—that a hostile China weaponized the virus, and used it to pursue its ambitions. Consequently, it has never vowed to make China pay for it. And this in turn substantiates the point that the Biden administration’s punting of the question of the origin of the coronavirus to the intelligence community was part of a charade.

The review was the best the Biden administration could do if it wanted to create the impression of holding China to account out of political necessity, without doing anything about it.

And remember who the Biden administration’s core constituency is: The elite. Elites in government who have egg on their face over the gain-of-function research they funded by proxy at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and who again refused to investigate the lab leak thesis when smoking guns may still have been hot; elites in the medical field who appear to have been influenced by China into ignoring or dismissing the lab leak thesis—that Big Tech even banned talk of; elites in the business community, who are wedded to trading with China forever no matter the CCP’s evils; and elites in the media who themselves are complicit in refusing to investigate the coronavirus’s origins, and often running CCP-favorable coronavirus propaganda.

This is to say nothing of President Biden’s well-documented kowtowing to Communist China for nearly 50 years, made all the more disturbing and dangerous given the business activities of son Hunter and other family members.

The losers of this charade are the American people, who are seeing China once again appeased by their leaders, which will only invite further aggression.

The Chinese Coronavirus Origin Charade (theepochtimes.com)

Right-wing media outlets and commentators are claiming U.S. President Joe Biden fell asleep during a meeting with the Prime Minister of Israel, but what really happened?

WASHINGTON, DC – Joe Biden has had a rough week that started with a botched military withdrawal from Afghanistan which led to a humanitarian crisis with imminent danger to American civilians and military personnel. On Thursday, that crisis turned into a disaster after thirteen U.S. service members were killed in a blast at the Kabul airport. Other American Marines, soldiers, and sailors were critically maimed and wounded in the blast.

But, was President Joe Biden so exhausted that he fell asleep during his postponed meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett?

A narrative by many Republican-aligned blogs and media sources claim Biden dozed off as Prime Minister Bennett was thanking America for its support.Breaking News:  Cooperating with the Taliban is now the only way to save Americans?

For approximately 60 seconds, Biden bowed his head down as Bennett continued speaking. With his hands folded and his fingers fiddling, it appears that Biden may have heard at least some of what Bennett spoke about because he snapped out of his posture when the Israeli leader finished speaking and attributed the success of the Israeli-American relationship on former U.S. President Barack Obama’s “Qualitative Military Edge” policy for Israel.

As far as those who claim Biden was sleeping, well, it’s inconclusive at this point. What you can say is that Biden’s posture during the meeting was not one of full and utmost respect toward a world leader. Biden should have remained attentive, focused, and establishing eye contact with the foreign leader as he spoke.

While we can’t confirm or deny that the President was sleeping, the idea could be plausible, however somewhat unlikely that he dozed off enough to actually enter an official cycle of sleep, but perhaps he lingered in a state of consciousness prior to entering a sleep cycle. The situation would be the same as students in class who slightly doze off, but not enough to miss the teacher’s instruction. Then before entering a sleep state, the body jolts awake.

When Biden “awoke” his legs and knees did exhibit similar movement.

Fact Check: Did Joe Biden fall asleep during meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett? (shorenewsnetwork.com)

During an event in which Joe Biden presided over the bodies of fallen US Marines during the dignified transfer ceremony at Dover Air Force Base, the President appeared to check his watch, drawing national outrage as many viewed the move as inconsiderate and selfish given the circumstance and setting.

In the middle of a dignified transfer ceremony for the fallen US Marines that were recently killed in Afghanistan, Joe Biden appeared to check the time on his wrist watch, drawing outrage from many who viewed the move as incentive, inconsiderate, and selfish.

BIDEN APPEARS TO CHECK HIS WATCH DURING THE DIGNIFIED TRANSFER CEREMONY AT DOVER AIR FORCE BASE. PIC.TWITTER.COM/OMSBEFNMFS

— BENNY (@BENNYJOHNSON) AUGUST 29, 2021

THIS MAKES MY BLOOD BOIL, WHAT A SELFISH BASTARD. PIC.TWITTER.COM/0EQ0X9EWRW

— ALEX JONES WAS RIGHT (@ALEXJONESWS) AUGUST 29, 2021

“Biden checking his watch at the ceremony of our fallen heroes is the most disrespectful thing I have ever seen. Are they an inconvenience to you POTUS? I want an explanation,” tweeted one Twitter user. “Joe Biden checking his watch after removing his hand over his heart so disgusting…our government hates us,” tweeted another. “Utter disrespect. He looks at his watch during the ceremony of 13 fallen American heroes killed in Afghanistan. Their ages were less than half of Biden’s time in politics! Biden voters will call this “edited video” because they are brainless. #BidenMustGo,” tweeted third Twitter user.

This would not be the first time Americans slammed Biden over his apparent lack of sympathy with regards to his Afghanistan Disaster. Just one day before the 13 Marines were killed, Biden smirked when reporters asked him about the situation in Afghanistan. The smirk outraged the heartbroken mother of Rylee McCollum, a fallen US Marine who tragically died as a result of the bombing in Afghanistan, who ultimately condemned Biden and Democrat voters over the death of her son on a radio show hosted by Andrew Wilkow, as National File previously reported.

“MY SON IS GONE, AND I JUST WANT ALL YOU DEMOCRATS WHO CHEATED IN THE ELECTION, OR WHO VOTED FOR [BIDEN] LEGITIMATELY, YOU JUST KILLED MY SON…WITH A DEMENTIA-RIDDEN PIECE OF CRAP WHO DOESN’T EVEN KNOW HE’S IN THE WHITE HOUSE, HE STILL THINKS HE’S A SENATOR,” SAID MCCOLLUM, WHO LATER NOTED THAT “I WANTED MY SON TO REPRESENT OUR COUNTRY, TO FIGHT FOR MY COUNTRY, BUT I NEVER THOUGHT THAT A FECKLESS PIECE OF CRAP WOULD SEND HIM TO HIS DEATH AND SMIRK ON TELEVISION WHILE HE’S TALKING ABOUT PEOPLE DYING, WITH HIS NASTY SMIRK. THE DEMENTIA-RIDDEN PIECE OF CRAP NEEDS TO BE REMOVED FROM OFFICE. IT NEVER WOULD HAVE HAPPENED UNDER TRUMP.”

(VIDEO: Joe Biden Slumps Over, Appears To Fall Asleep During Meeting With Israeli PM)

In related news, the US military has relieved Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller from duty after he released a heartfelt video critiquing the tragic Afghanistan withdrawal following the Kabul bombings that killed up to 13 American service members. “My chain of command is doing exactly what I would do…if I were in their shoes. I appreciate the opportunities AITB command provided. To all the news agencies asking for interviews…I will not be making any statements other than what’s on my social platforms until I exit the Marine Corps,” explained Scheller. However, Scheller appears to be optimistic about his future aspirations, despite being relieved of duty.

NO RUSH: Biden Checks His Watch While Receiving Bodies Of Slain Marines At Dover Air Force Base – Conservative War – Breaking Political News

The suicide attack that killed 170 people including 13 U.S. troops provides the crowning disgrace for President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and the military leadership going all the way up to Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This disaster in Afghanistan is worse than Benghazi, worse than Jimmy Carter’s hostage crisis, because those were inept responses to an external situation. By contrast, this is a disaster that Biden and his inept team themselves created.

I remember well how Carter’s hostage crisis ended. It ended on the very day that Ronald Reagan was inaugurated in January 1981. Reagan had pledged that he would take very strong action against Iran, without specifying what that action might be. Evidently the terrorists, who had the backing of the Khomeini regime, decided it was not a good idea to test Reagan’s resolve. They let the hostages go.

The current catastrophe in Afghanistan seems to have proceeded in reverse. While Donald Trump was in office, the Taliban continued its war, but neither they nor other Islamic radical groups, from al Qaeda to ISIS, had the capacity to inflict massive damage on U.S. forces. The moment Biden got into office, however, the Taliban and the other terrorists all realized it was time to get going. They exploited their opportunity to seize Kabul. They were emboldened to launch a suicide attack that was the most successful strike against America since 9/11.

The blame, of course, starts with Biden. He’s primarily responsible for this self-inflicted wound. Yet Biden has done his best to shift the blame to his predecessor, Trump. Biden’s position seems to be that he was merely carrying out a withdrawal that Trump agreed to. Yet Biden has reversed Trump’s policies in innumerable areas, so he was hardly obliged to follow in Trump’s tracks here. Moreover, there’s a huge difference between a decision to withdraw and the manner of the withdrawal. The responsibility for the latter lies wholly with Biden.

In a recent interview, retired Gen. David Petraeus, the four-star general who was former head of U.S. forces both in Iraq and Afghanistan, disputed Biden’s claim that Trump is responsible for the current mess. Petraeus pointed out that there were merely 2,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and they were not doing front-line fighting. Rather, their responsibility was to provide intelligence and logistical support for the Afghan army, and moreover, to help carry out air strikes to provide the Afghan army with cover during clashes with the Taliban.

This, Petraeus says, the Afghan army counted on. They were never trained to fight exclusively on their own. They were trained to fight with U.S. coordination and support, and when this coordination was precipitously halted, and the U.S. just got up and ran, well, the Afghan army decided to get up and run also. This, Petraeus concludes, is why Afghanistan fell so quickly into Taliban hands.

Biden’s blunders have continued beyond the fall of Kabul. That loss was disastrous enough, because it left a huge cachet of guns and matériel for the Taliban to use itself or put on the international market for other terrorist groups and also for China and Russia. Moreover, thousands of Americans were left stranded, not to mention tens of thousands of Afghan allies who were assured the United States would stick with them but now found themselves vulnerable to imprisonment, torture, and death.

But even after leaving Americans behind—creating a vast potential hostage situation of his own—Biden compounded the problem by giving the Taliban a list of names of U.S. citizens, green card holders, and Afghan allies. The ostensible purpose was for the Taliban to grant these people access to the outer perimeter of the city’s airport, so that they could get out. It’s not clear whether Biden himself made this decision, but his administration clearly approved it.

The danger here should be obvious. The Taliban have been fighting against the United States and its Afghan allies for 20 years. Wouldn’t it make sense that they would grab the list, thank Allah for this incredible gift, and then put all these people on a kill list? Is there any doubt that Islamic radicals hardened by privation and guerilla war would be willing to execute people whom they view as enemies of Allah and the very people they have been trying to kill for two decades?

Yet the Biden administration seems willing to trust the Taliban to protect and help evacuate the people on this list. Press secretary Jen Psaki said the Taliban would want to do this to secure its reputation in the international community, as if the Taliban cares what people at the United Nations or the European Union think about its actions. Equally absurd, the commander of the U.S. Central Command said that the United States and the Taliban “share a common purpose,” which raises the question of why the two groups were trying to kill each other since 2001.

The U.S. media, for its part, has provided relatively little honest critical scrutiny of Biden’s actions, evidently owing to its ideological sympathies with the current administration. There have been several articles instructing Americans not to confuse the Taliban with the ISIS-K group that claimed responsibility for the suicide attack. The underlying premise is that the Taliban and ISIS-K have several disagreements, there have been reported clashes between the two, and therefore it’s not unreasonable to expect the Taliban to assist the United States after an attack mounted by the terrorists of ISIS-K.

These articles have all the persuasiveness of someone who argues that there are two types of snakes in the garden, rattlesnakes and copperhead snakes, and humans should not hastily confuse the two. This may very well be true, and it might also be that rattlesnakes and copperheads don’t get along, since they compete for the same types of food. But it does not follow that humans can count on the rattlesnakes to be our allies when faced with a threat from a copperhead. The wiser course of action is for humans to recognize they are in a snake pit and take action to destroy as many snakes as we can.

Some Republicans are already calling for resignations, but not enough of them, and not loudly enough. It’s not enough to stop at Biden. The Pentagon, State Department, and intelligence agencies all share the blame for this unmitigated disaster. They all put Americans last, they all betrayed their countrymen and women, and they all should face the consequences.

A Self-Inflicted Catastrophe (theepochtimes.com)

How can you think straight and make rational decisions when each and everyday you hear conflicting and contradictory information from “authoritative” sources? You can’t. No one can. That’s the whole point. That’s why the powers that be are doing this. Welcome to the secular hell of a post-truth world.

We don’t need to wear masks. No wait, now we do. Hold up now we need to wear two masks. We can stop wearing masks now. Surprise, we need to wear masks again. Actually it turns out masks aren’t as effective as we thought.

We just need 15 days to slow the spread. Now we need a month. Maybe a year. Never mind, we didn’t need to lockdown at all and it caused more harm than good.

Don’t take any vaccine that Donald Trump rushed to market. You didn’t get the vaccine, are you nuts? The vaccine is highly effective. Oops it looks like highly vaccinated Israel is having a major outbreak. Get the vaccine or lose your job.

Are you keeping up? This is the reality of living in a post-truth world.

They want us shell shocked with rapidly changing information overload which leads to option paralysis and fear. When people are in a state of fear coupled with option paralysis they are very susceptible to manipulation and easy to control.

While we are all dazed and confused they are destroying families, small businesses, and entire nations. They are rigging elections, they are botching troop withdrawals to flood western countries with refugees, the American border is being invaded by hundreds of thousands of people, they are buying up single family homes and pricing you out of the market, they are printing endless money and inflating your currency.

They are transferring trillions of dollars in wealth to themselves and shutting up each and every last voice of dissent to it all while doing it.

All while the while you worry about a virus that statistically you have a 99% chance of surviving with the immune system God gave you.

It’s exhausting and impossible to keep up with by design. It’s meant to drain you mentally, physically, and spiritually so that you submit to their control. Don’t.

In the post-truth world anything goes. Chaos reigns. Those who create the chaos manifest their means of control. Do not comply. Do not give them one inch. Stand your ground. Hold the line.

Christians reject the post-truth world. We have absolute Truth in Jesus Christ and His Gospel as a firm foundation on which to stand. God is our authority. Not the CDC. Not the Biden administration. Not the WHO. Nor the talking heads on CNN and Fox News.

In the darkness of chaos Jesus is the Light that leads us to salvation. Jesus saves. That is the fundamental Truth of the Gospel. Now more then ever we need saving. We need Truth. We need Order.

The battle rages on, but the war has already been won and we must never forget that. We must cling to the cross and stand firm in our convictions. We must love one another, obey God, and humble ourselves enough to fully depend on Him in this time of great trial.

I know we can do it, because we serve the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Creator of the universe. May you find comfort in His Truth and keep the faith.

God bless you and God bless America,

Andrew Torba
CEO, Gab.com
Jesus is King

How To Survive In a Post-Truth World Of Chaos – Gab News

Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden has been dinged several times by fact-checkers over claims he has made during the coronavirus crisis, including a total of 11 “Pinocchios” from the Washington Post.

Over the course of three weeks between March 13 and April 3, Biden was fact-checked five separate times for making false or misleading claims concerning the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic.

A Washington Post fact check on March 13 awarded Biden four Pinocchios, the fact-checker’s most severe rating, for two manipulated videos the Biden campaign circulated.

The first video claimed to show Trump at a Feb. 28 rally saying Democrats were turning the coronavirus into “their new hoax” after they failed to bring Trump down through impeachment. Biden’s video was edited to make it appear that Trump was calling the coronavirus a hoax. Trump, however, was referring to the Democrats’ attempts to blame him for the virus, not the virus itself.

The second Biden campaign video showed Trump saying the phrase “the American Dream is dead,” which the Post found was taken out of context and missing the second part of Trump’s statement where he promised to “bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before.”

Another Post fact check on March 24 gave the campaign four Pinocchios after adviser Ron Klain accused Trump of silencing Dr. Nancy Messonnier of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The president and the White House sent a clear message to scientists in the government—there would be a price for speaking out and speaking up,” he said in a campaign video released on March 21.

Messonnier continued to hold routine phone briefings with reporters in the weeks after she raised the alarm about the virus at a press conference with Trump.

Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler wrote that Klain’s framing was “simply wrong.” Messonnier’s alarming rhetoric did irritate Trump, but the idea that she was silenced was a “false narrative,” Kessler added.

At a CNN town hall on March 27, Biden repeated an earlier claim that Trump had eliminated the White House pandemic office. He also claimed Trump made “no effort” to put any pressure on Chinese president Xi Jinping and reduced the CDC’s staff in China prior to the outbreak. Biden added he called for China to admit medical experts from the United States when the outbreak in China was still in its early stages.

The Post‘s fact check gave Biden three Pinocchios due to his imprecise language. The Trump administration sought access for CDC experts, and the administration told the Post that Trump offered to send experts to China to help with the outbreak. Biden also did not specifically call for experts to be sent until late February.

Those weren’t the only times Biden has been fact-checked for rhetoric during the crisis.

On March 15, during the Democratic presidential debate, Biden falsely claimed that Trump refused coronavirus testing kits from the World Health Organization. The kits were never offered in the first place. PolitiFact rated his statement “Mostly False.” CNN, after initially deeming his statement factual, retracted its rating after a report by the Washington Free Beacon.

On March 19, Biden first tweeted that Trump “eliminated” the pandemic response team. The Washington Post fact check found this claim “overstated” due to the fact that the global health directorate was folded into another office under the guidance of former national security adviser John Bolton. Citing “dueling narratives,” however, it didn’t give a rating to Biden’s claim.

Biden Has Earned 11 Pinocchios From Fact-Checkers During Coronavirus Crisis (freebeacon.com)

Thursday’s suicide bombings in Kabul, which claimed the lives of at least 13 American servicemen, marked the deadliest day for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since 2011. President Joe Biden’s low energy press conference in response to the attacks was widely panned for failing to inspire confidence as the situation spirals out of control.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. During the 2020 Democratic primary, Biden touted himself as the only candidate with the experience necessary to successfully handle an international crisis. “To be commander in chief, there’s no time for on-the-job training,” he said during a primary debate in November 2019. “I’ve spent more time in the Situation Room, more time abroad, more time than anybody up here. I know every major world leader. They know me, and they know when I speak, if I’m the president of the United States, who we’re for, who we’re against, and what we’ll do, and we’ll keep our word.”

Former president Barack Obama tried to warn us. He urged Biden not to run for president in 2016, reportedly out of concern that his former running mate “would embarrass himself on the campaign trail and that the people around him would not be able to prevent a belly-flop.” Obama did not mince words during the primary campaign, telling one fellow Democrat: “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to fuck things up.” We should have listened.

When Biden introduced his top foreign policy advisers in February 2021, he touted their “unmatched experience and accomplishments,” as well as their commitment to diversity and inclusion. Biden went on to imply, without evidence, that he had compiled a team “that will keep our country and our people safe and secure.”

“It’s a team that reflects the fact that America is back, ready to lead the world, not retreat from it, once again sit at the head of the table, ready to confront our adversaries and not reject our allies, ready to stand up for our values,” Biden said.

The events of the past several weeks suggest otherwise.

FLASHBACK: Biden Said His Foreign Policy Team of Geniuses Would ‘Stand Up for Our Values’ and ‘Keep Our People Safe’ (freebeacon.com)

California voters have long been excoriated by commentators for the 1994 passage of Proposition 187, which severely limited state services for illegal immigrants. Among other things, it required teachers and nurses to report suspected illegal immigrants to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, effectively becoming INS agents. Those were among the reasons the initiative was thrown out of federal court.

Now Prop. 187-style enforcement requirements could be imposed due to COVID-19. A measure by Assemblymembers Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), Akilah Weber (D-San Diego), and Evan Low (D-Campbell) would mandate proof of vaccination “before entering restaurants, bars, movie theaters, gyms, hotels, stadiums and other indoor establishments.” That’s according to a draft summary of the law obtained by the Sacramento Bee. There’s no bill number or text yet available to read.

If passed, the state Department of Health would be required to develop an enforcement plan by Nov. 1.

It would mean waitresses, bartenders, movie ushers, gym workers and stadium ticket-takers would be turned into police officers for the Department of Health. Would they be fined severely for doing their jobs poorly, or not at all? Would they receive special training? Who would pay for that?

In a state with an ongoing labor shortage, it’s easy to see these employees quitting to do something else. And if they’re fired, would they be given unemployment? If not, would there be thousands of lawsuits against the already overburdened and only partly reformed Employment Development Department?

According to the Bee, “The new law would exempt children who aren’t eligible for vaccines and people who aren’t eligible due to a medical condition or disability, subject to verification.” Would that include the controversial “conscience” exemption some religious groups have advanced? What about the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion, also guaranteed in the California Constitution?

The proposal comes with the rise of the Delta variant of COVID-19. But will the increase in infections recede by November, when the law would go into effect, the way previous surges have receded after a couple of months? Nobody knows.

Meanwhile, Assemblyman Marc Levine (D-Greenbrae) on Wednesday proposed a resolution suspending all member of the Legislature who have not been vaccinated. The suspensions would be imposed just ahead of the Legislature’s Sept. 10 adjournment date.

At the end of session, the Assembly and state Senate camp out in their separate chambers for many hours a day to hammer out legislation. “No other job has people locked up in a room for two weeks,” Levine said. “There’s only one bathroom off the chamber. There’s only one place to get coffee off the chamber. Even if we don’t get sick, we can be carriers.”

The Los Angeles Times reported its survey of the 40 senators and 80 assemblymen and found 12 of them refused to disclose their vaccination status, 11 being Republicans. That’s 39 percent of the GOP’s already minuscule representation of 28 legislators. So their ranks would be reduced to 17.

Moreover, even if the unvaccinated got the jab today, according to the CDC, “It typically takes 2 weeks after vaccination for the body to build protection (immunity) against the virus that causes COVID-19. That means it is possible a person could still get COVID-19 before or just after vaccination and then get sick because the vaccine did not have enough time to build protection.”

That means the Levine resolution would expel the 11 members for the rest of the 2021 session, with no recourse for those affected. It’s hard to think of anything more anti-democratic.

Here’s a better idea: The Legislature should adjourn until next January. It already passed the key budget bills. Few of the hundreds of bills left on the calendar should be passed anyway. Anything worthwhile can wait until January.

California Legislature Planning to Use Pandemic to Shred Democracy (theepochtimes.com)

Ineffective forest management policies are much more to blame than climate change for the massive destruction from wildfires in recent years in California, says Sierra County Supervisor Raul Roen.

Fighting wildfires, he said, has morphed into a “self-sustaining” industrial complex, he told The Epoch Times.

“It is out of control. The intent is no longer to put fires out, it’s to manage budgets. It’s just embarrassing, and that’s what I do for a living. I would be the first to say it, and I’m on the record saying it,” Roen said.

In addition, interference from environmental lobbyists has turned forest management, forestry, firefighting, and wildfire prevention into a “train wreck,” he said.

“It’s just really frustrating. I’ve been in fire work for 25 years and what we’re doing today is not working. We’ve got to do something different because this is just getting ridiculous,” Roen said.

Meanwhile, California lawmakers have delayed a wildfire oversight hearing indefinitely amidst the lead-up to the recall election on Sept. 14, when California voters will decide whether to oust Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Scathing Letter

Butte County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Connelly on Aug. 12 drafted a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Chief Randy Moore over how the Dixie Fire and last year’s North Complex Fire were handled. However, the letter was revised to “make it less tense,” and to reflect the views of the entire board before it was sent.

The original draft accused the Forest Service of dereliction of duty and demanded an investigation into the way the Dixie Fire and last year’s North Complex Fire were handled.

“Because of the gross negligence of the USFS fire management philosophy, we no longer have trust and confidence in the decision-making process being used by the USFS,” it read.

The final letter was sent 12 days later. It stated: “The fire suppression philosophy of the USFS needs to be questioned. The ‘fire use policy’ which has been used consistently by the USFS [which allows a fire to burn provided it does not pose an immediate risk of damage to homes or lives] is clearly not effective in these times. This practice in recent years has not worked. With the extreme dry conditions and weather patterns, fires are able to burn over 15 miles in one day.”

The letter also acknowledges that the Forest Service has recently stated it “will discontinue this policy for this fire season.”

Both versions of the letter request reimbursement for costs related to the county’s response to the fires and recovery efforts.

The Dixie Fire, one of the largest fires in California history, began above the Cresta Dam in the Feather River Canyon on July 14 and is still raging. It has burned at least 765,635 acres and was 48 percent contained as of Aug. 29, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire). It has destroyed more than 1,200 structures and affected five counties, including Butte, Plumas, Tehama, Lassen, and Shasta.

Meanwhile, the Monument Fire and McFarland Fire have each burned more than 100,000 acres. The Caldor Fire in El Dorado County has destroyed the town of Grizzly Flats, Roen said. That fire has burned 126,566 acres and more than 450 homes.

On Aug. 25, two new fires were reported in San Bernardino County’s Lytle Creek San Bernardino and Calaveras County.

‘A Crystal Ball’

As a chairman of the Sierra County Board of Supervisors in 2014, Roen declared a local state of emergency embraced by all five supervisors. Today that resolution “reads like a crystal ball to where we are today,” he said. “It’s just amazing.”

“I asked for every other forested county in the state to support our concept,” he said. “We got several counties to participate, but I wanted the whole state to stand up and scream.”

The local state of emergency was updated and renewed in 2016, but ultimately the effort failed to gain traction with state and federal authorities.

The resolution warned the U.S. Forest Service and state agencies that the “uncontrolled build-up of natural fire fuels” posed a “severe and ongoing threat of catastrophic wildfire.”

The document is evidence of the constant battle to mitigate fire risks at the wildland-urban interface instead of “burning out” these communities,” said Roen, who has served as a fire commissioner and now currently sits on the Sierra-Nevada Conservancy board.

‘Thinning the Forests’

Roen said the main reason California continues to fight so many devastating forest fires is because Cal Fire and the U.S Forest Service keep making the same mistakes “over and over again” and expecting a different outcome.

The first mistake, he said, was allowing environmental groups, such as the Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club, to stand in the way of fuel reduction techniques such as the “thinning” of forests, which involves logging some trees and removing dead ones to create healthier forests and reduce fire risk.

Both environmental groups have large legal teams and have sued government agencies and companies involved in primary industries such as logging and mining.

In a statement in response to the allegations, Cal Fire said, “Cal Fire supports active reduction of wildland fuels. Cal Fire supports the development of commercial enterprises that utilize vegetation removed for fuels reduction.”

Until the Camp Fire in 2018, the Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club interfered with efforts by contracted Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) maintenance crews to remove trees near power lines, Roen said.

Contractors were told by environmentalist groups which trees they could remove and which ones they couldn’t, he said.

“They were told you can’t take those trees, you can’t take these trees,” Roen said.

The Camp Fire was caused by a faulty PG&E transmission line. It was the most deadly and destructive wildfire in California’s history, killing at least 85 people and razing the town of Paradise.

In years preceding the Camp Fire, Roen said PG&E maintenance crews had to “take a tree here and a tree there to not hurt anybody’s feelings,” instead of removing all trees that could potentially fall and hit a power line. “And, that is part of why we are where we are today,” he said.

Though the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, states the cause of the Dixie Fire is “under investigation,” Roen said he’s heard reports from reliable sources that a tree fell on a power line causing a short.

According to a PG&E report (pdf) submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission on July 18, a PG&E worker on July 13 first discovered the fire at the base of a tree leaning on power lines.

ABC 10 reported PG&E released photos taken from a drone during a 2019 site inspection to a probation judge on Aug. 16. The photos show a fir tree leaning towards the power lines at the origin of the fire, but more recent photos show the tree, believed to have fallen the morning on July 13, “being held up by power lines,” the report stated.

PG&E told the court the tree wasn’t considered a hazard in early 2021, when the site was last inspected, ABC reported.

Biomass Facilities

The Center for Biological Diversity also opposes biomass facilities (pdf), or wood-burning power plants that consume dead wood and debris and emit steam—not smoke, Roen said.

In a release, the organization stated that “biomass energy is often promoted as a tool to incentivize large-scale tree-cutting (‘thinning’) under the claim that this will protect communities and forests during wildfires.” The non-profit group also stated that thinning is an “ineffective” means of protecting homes and communities.

“Although biomass energy is promoted as a means for disposing of debris piles from forest thinning projects, it is mostly lumber mill residues from commercial logging that end up being subsidized. Meanwhile, biomass extraction does significant ecological damage to forests,” according to the organization.

The organization claims that “dead trees do not increase wildfire and should not be sent to bioenergy facilities.” It also states that “dead trees—standing or fallen—provide numerous ecological benefits such as wildlife habitat, soil stabilization, water quality, and carbon storage. These ecological benefits are lost when dead trees are removed and incinerated in biomass power plants.”

However, Roen said it’s only common sense that dead trees and dry debris create a tinderbox and needlessly stoke forest fires with extra fuel that could be removed.

“It’s not rocket science,” he said.

Roen said if a whole forest burns, all the benefits of leaving the debris, as well as everything else—including the wildlife—are lost anyway.

“The forest is just a big lawn,” he said. “If you don’t take care of it, what happens? It’s a renewable resource. If we don’t utilize it, Mother Nature will take care of it. She’ll clean it up and that’s what she’s doing.”

Roen estimates that more than half of the Plumas National Forest has been lost to wildfires in the last few years.

Climate Change

Roen disagrees with the narrative that climate change is the sole cause the wildfires in California over the last several years.

“It’s not,” he said. “This issue we’ve created ourselves.”

While “there is no doubt” climate change is a factor, that’s even more reason to spend funds wisely and develop better forest management and more practical wildfire prevention policies, he said.

Roen said he wouldn’t go as far as suggesting environmental groups have a vested interest in forest fires but pointed out they do benefit from any crisis that helps promote the climate change narrative.

Heavy smoke-filled skies spanning from the Desert Southwest to the Pacific Northwest and beyond over the last two summers should send a signal to federal agencies, such as the U.S. Forest Service, and state governments in California, Oregon, and Washington that their policies aren’t working, he said.

The U.S. Forest Service did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.

County Supervisors Blame Bad Policies—Not Climate Change—for California Wildfires (theepochtimes.com)

It’s easy for conservatives to believe that progressives leading the Woke Revolution have put targets on their backs. It certainly seems that way sometimes, especially when progressives react to conservatives as if they were abominable characters who must be shunned and ousted from society, cancelled forever. That overreaction was fully displayed at the horrors registered by leftists at the very sight of Trump rallies and in the hysteria of the four-year RESIST that followed the election.

But the irrationality only shows that progressives have a deeper antagonism, a conflict that precedes or transcends politics. In truth, the real enemy that progressives face is not another group of human beings who value different things. It’s nature itself.

The reason is simple: Nature is unfair. Think of nature in terms of progressive ideals. Nature doesn’t create equality; it creates inequality. It doesn’t produce just outcomes, endowing and rewarding everyone in proper measure. It sends tornadoes and floods to the good and bad alike. Worse, it throws tender souls into the world with unequal talents and resources. Some are beautiful, some homely; some are smart, some dull; some are strong, some weak.

That’s not right, the progressive says, that’s not fair. Why should anyone pass through his mortal career at a disadvantage? Why should he be given inferior traits and not be able to overcome them? Nobody should suffer because of the accidents of birth. He didn’t choose them, yet he’s a victim of them. Thomas Jefferson spoke of a “natural aristocracy,” which he accepted as a fact of life. Political aristocracies could be eliminated through concerted democratic action, but the truth that this man is tall and swift, that man short and slow, is not a political concoction.

The progressive cannot accept this. He wants to end all political, social, and economic inequalities, of course, but those are not enough. Natural inequalities must go, too, or at least be neutralized. Every inequality is insult to their moral sense—except, perhaps, the moral inequality that raises them well above libertarians and conservatives in their dedication to altering the natural wrongs. Progressives have a pat solution to this political disagreement: Individuals on the right must come over to the left. No compromise, no negotiation, just the bad guys surrendering to the good guys.

Nature, though, isn’t so pliable. We have a natural injustice done to females, for instance. Nature has burdened them with childbearing, which changes their bodies for many months and sometimes endangers them, while men can have their momentary pleasure and go their merry way. It’s not enough, then, for progressives to eliminate patriarchal practices and notions from society. Patriarchy is a social creation, powerful men subjugating women (so the feminist argument goes). To stop it, women must go to college, delay childbearing, build a career, vote pro-choice, break the glass ceiling, fill the ranks of the elite … all of which, of course, will never fully fix the problem. Women earn many more bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees than men, and have for many years, but nature still has its way.

This is the frustration that leads to progressivist hysteria over “fat-shaming” and “body-shaming,” the evidence-free assertions of “systemic racism,” and the maniacal unwillingness of progressives even to consider the notion of there being a genetic component to average differences in intelligence among racial/ethnic groups (though cognitive psychologists and psychometricians generally admit some degree of “heritability” in IQ, they disagree over how strong it is). It’s why they hate beauty pageants and want every child to earn a trophy. When we find that progressives don’t like free speech and open debate, when they respond to a conservative who asserts that single-parentage is terribly hard on children as if the conservative has uttered a belief worthy of a 17th-century Puritan who likes to burn witches, we should pin that excess on a deep and troubling conviction of natural blockage.

No wonder, then, that no matter how many major battles progressives win in the legislatures, through school boards, and in popular culture, they conclude with the truism, “There’s so much more to do, still a long way to go.” That will always be the case, because nature will never stop getting in the way. This is a never-ending reform, one that leaves progressives ever unsatisfied. They are unhappy people, uncomfortable with comedy and irritated by tragedy (suffering should never happen!), without wit and leery of irony, earnest to a fault. The most fervent anti-nature crusade at the present time is the trans-movement, where we have an enterprise out to undo the structures of a person’s own body. It’s a denial that can’t endure no matter how aggressively Federal regulations back it up. Deep in their hearts, they know they can’t win, that in the battle of Progress versus Nature, the wrong end is already ordained.

The Woke Revolution is merely the current expression of the anti-nature impulse, the most audacious one in our history, I would say. It demands equal representation of all identity groups in elite spaces, from expensive boarding schools to boardrooms to symphony orchestras. The more competitive the habitats, the more the Wokesters insist on proportionality—which runs squarely against the way nature works. You can sense in their urgency the exasperation of delay. Why, they ask, a half-century after Women’s Liberation, are women still under-represented at the top levels of business? (Female work preferences have much to do with it, but progressives don’t want to admit that.) Why is it that, more than 50 years after the Civil Rights Act, more African Americans don’t get doctorates? (Single-parentage, which is extremely high among African American households, is a strong factor in low academic performance in early grades.)

The proportions may improve a bit in the coming years, but not by much, certainly not sufficiently to please the progressive personality. His desires are utopian; he will not get realistic. That would be to give up on one of progressivism’s key attractions, the prospect of heaven on earth, perfect happiness all around. To be sure, there are many canny fellows in the ranks of the left, people who use the movement solely for their own advancement. But those inauthentic idealists couldn’t work their game if they didn’t have the backing of genuine idealists, who are impatient and easily activated. Conservatives are less impatient, less discomfited by the world as it is, but this gives them no advantage in the current war. The restlessness of the left fatigues those on the right. From what I’ve seen, conservatives can’t stop them. Only a superhuman force, nature itself, can bring the progressive movement to defeat.

Nature’s Unfair, Progressives Hate It (theepochtimes.com)

Many of the reports coming out of Afghanistan this past week mention something that is simultaneously deplored and swept under the rug.

I mean the fact that when the United States raised the white flag to the Taliban it left behind an enormous amount of American-made military hardware.

Just a couple of weeks ago, all of that war-making matériel had been the property of two entities.

Some belonged to U.S. forces themselves.

A lot of it belonged to the U.S.-supplied Afghan government that was—the mighty 300,000 man-strong force that, on July 8, President Joe Biden said would prevail over the Taliban if push came to shove.

Push did come to shove, as we all know, and now those vast stores of military hardware are under sole control of the Taliban.

There have been several differing inventories of these stockpiles. One just published in the London Times provides perhaps the most authoritative accounting published to date.

Scattered in seven Afghan army garrisons across the country, from Kabul and Kandahar to Herat, Mazar-Sharif, Kunduz, these arms depots include an impressive amount of U.S. military hardware: 22,174 armored Humvees, for example, 42 pickup trucks and SUVS, 64,363 machine guns, 162,043 radios. 16,035 night vision goggles, 358,530 assault rifles (the real ones, not the “assault rifles” that Joe Biden warns about at home), 126,295 pistols, and 176 artillery pieces.

And that’s just for starters. The U.S. also generously left behind more than 100 helicopters, including 33 Blackhawks, 4 C-130 transport planes, and some 60 other fixed-wing aircraft.

There was also oodles of ammunition to go along with all the loot.

The question that has not really been pressed about this rather awe-inspiring armory is, why?

Why did we leave it behind to be used by the Taliban?

I don’t believe that question has been addressed with anything like the determination it deserves.

Some people have suggested that it was just a matter of simple incompetence on the part of the Biden administration, particularly the State Department, which is overseeing the evacuation, and the president himself, who apparently chose to ignore advice from some of his advisors about the time table for the evacuation.

But I suspect there is something more insidious than simple incompetence.

What we’re dealing with here is politicized, and therefore, malevolent incompetence.

This is beginning to be recognized in some surprising venues.

The New York Times, for example, just published an op-ed by Elliot Ackerman, a former Marine who is part of a group of “veterans, journalists, and activists” who have been privately helping to organize evacuation efforts in Afghanistan for months.

“Never,” Ackerman wrote, “have I witnessed a greater, swifter collapse of competence than what I have seen with the U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan.”

Nor is he shy about identifying the source of the pandemonium: “Events at the airport—desperation, death—indicate the extreme chaos that ensues when the commander in chief doesn’t actually understand the value of service.”

Like many observers, Ackerman focuses mainly on the chaos in Kabul.

But I continue to wonder about all that fire power and supporting matériel that we have left behind.

Why did we do so? Why did we not destroy it?

As far as I know, no one has answered those questions.

Of course, military hardware is not all that we have left behind.

The evacuation “mission” is apparently also leaving behind hundreds of Americans.

According to Rep. Dan Crenshaw, among others, “Biden is not letting U.S. citizens through the airport gates. It has been impossible to get anyone through for the last 24 hours.”

Crenshaw concludes: “This administration has been lying about their intent to save Americans. Unforgivable.”

Biden has been quick to try to shift the blame for this whole debacle onto Donald Trump. “He made a deal with the Taliban!” is his constant refrain.

But Biden neglects to point out that Trump had a plan to leave by the beginning of May, before the “summer fighting season,” and well before the Taliban had overrun the country.

Biden came up with his own timetable for the optics: he wanted to be able to claim the credit for ending “America’s longest war” and to do so in a way that would deny Trump any credit for it.

It has backfired spectacularly, and the blowback, I predict, is far from over.

For those who wonder about the kinder, gentler Taliban that Biden is partnering with, we’re already getting some vivid indications.

Sure, they post pictures of themselves eating ice-cream to taunt Biden.

I have even seen reports that they have bought or are planning to buy a painting by Hunter Biden to install in the Presidential palace.

Maybe that’s satire, who knows?

The Biden administration and its media poodles keep suggesting that the Taliban may be turning over a new leaf. I think you would have to be mad to think so.

One representative incident: The London Times is reporting that “Taliban fighters have shot dead an Afghan folk singer after it outlawed music and women’s voices on television and radio in the bellwether province of Kandahar, laying the ground for a nationwide ban in an echo of the brutal Islamist regime of 20 years ago.”

Uh oh.

What have we left behind in Afghanistan?

The brilliant editorial cartoonist Michael P. Ramirez provided the crispest summary in his cartoon for today.

A big transport helicopter is flying over our (former) embassy in Kabul. One speech balloon asks: “What did we leave behind.”

The other answers: “Our credibility.”

What We Left Behind in Afghanistan (theepochtimes.com)

In a stunning announcement, former Democratic Senate Leader Gloria Romero endorsed Republican Larry Elder for Governor in the recall election of California Governor Gavin Newsom. Romero is a longtime charter school and parental choice advocate, which aligns with Elders’s position on school choice.

“Our public schools need big change. I’m Gloria Romero; I was the majority leader of Democrats in the state senate. I believe in charter schools and school choice. So does Larry Elder – but not Gavin Newsom. He shut our public schools while he sent his kids to private schools” said Romero in a new campaign video ad for Elder.

“Yes, I’m a Democrat. But the recall of Newsom is not about political party. It’s about Newsom. Larry Elder for governor” said Romero in the video. Romero is also a contributor to the California Globe and former California Senate Majority Leader, former Senator and Assemblywoman.

She was also the Senate Education Committee, and “authored and guided to passage a fiercely contested ‘parent trigger’ law which allows a majority of parents in a failing school to vote on a method to restructure the school” reports the California Globe.

In his campaign video Elder says, “school choice means the money follows the child rather than the other way around. A quality education is the first step into the middle class.”

Former CA Democrat Publicly Endorses Republican Larry Elder for Gavin Newsom Recall Election | Gregg Jarrett (thegreggjarrett.com)

This is a strange thing to have to tell someone, but here’s some advice that could have saved Kristin Pitzen’s some problems: Social media reaches beyond California.

Given that’s the whole point of social media, it seems like an odd bit of knowledge to relay. Even when you have your account on Twitter or Facebook set to private, if you post something particularly cretinous, if it rubs one of your friends wrong and you’re in a position of authority, there’s a good chance that it’s going to go wide, with decided swiftness.

In this case, Pitzen apparently didn’t even try to hide it. When the teacher in Southern California’s Newport-Mesa Unified School District posted about what she thinks of the American flag in her classroom on TikTok (there isn’t one), it was entirely public.

While she didn’t identify herself on her account, it didn’t take long for her identity to be sussed out. Her opinion might play well in Southern California. It probably doesn’t do so well when exported outside of the Golden State, however.

Here’s a brief summary about what she said regarding Ol’ Glory: She doesn’t have it in her classroom because she “lost” it, but if her students want to say the Pledge of Allegiance they can say it to the LGBT rainbow flag.Trending:US Special Forces Vets Go Rogue in Middle of Night, Rescue Afghan Allies That Biden Won’t

According to the U.K. Daily Mail, the school district is now investigating Pitzen after the high school English teacher’s clip about the Pledge of Allegiance got attention this week.

“OK, so during third period, we have announcements and they do the Pledge of Allegiance,” Pitzen said at the beginning of the video.

“I always tell my class, stand if you feel like it, don’t stand if you feel like it, say the words if you want, you don’t have to say the words.”

“So my class decided to stand but not say the words — totally fine,” she said. “Except for the fact that my room does not have a flag.”Do you think this teacher should be fired?Yes No
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“It used to be there,” she said, pointing and laughing. She said that while the school was closed for the pandemic, she took it down — adding, in a stage whisper, that she did it “because it made me uncomfortable.”

“And I packed it away, and I don’t know where, and I haven’t found it yet,” she added, laughing in a way that indicated she wasn’t exactly looking for it — if, indeed, she had “lost” it in the first place.

When one of her students said it was “kinda weird that we stand and then we say it (the Pledge of Allegiance) to nothing. And I’m like, ‘Oh, well, I’ve got to find it, I’m working on it, I got you.’”

At this point, a laughing Pitzen makes it clear she had not intention of looking for the flag.

“In the meantime, I tell this kid, ‘We do have a flag in the class that you can pledge your allegiance to.’ And he like, looks around and goes, ‘Oh, that one?’”Related:Listen: Hot Mic Catches Democrats Making Fun of Pledge of Allegiance

She then points to the LGBT pride flag.

Teacher mocks the American Flag and suggests to students they can say the Pledge of Allegiance to the pride flag: pic.twitter.com/1QTS5xjPln

— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) August 27, 2021

In a separate video, she showed off all of the flags she had collected and put around her classroom for Pride Month back in June, putting her hand over her heart and saying, “I pledge allegiance to the queers.”

She shows off all the pride flags in her classroom and says “I pledge allegiance to the queers” pic.twitter.com/eQXe1OfPoW

— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) August 27, 2021

Even in the People’s Republic of California, this is a bit iffy — particularly given she teaches in Orange County, not known for being the bluest part of the state. But the social part of social media means people who don’t live in Pitzen’s bubble got to see it. Shocker of shockers, they thought the disrespect for the flag — as well as coercing a student to pledge allegiance to the LGBT flag — was appalling.

What’s so disturbing is that these people post this thinking no one will care — like she’s not doing something wrong.

Well, now the district is investigating her.

Parents: remember to have conversations with your kids about their teachers, what they teach and how they teach it. https://t.co/3wN1kppBGe

— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) August 29, 2021

She should move to Afghanistan and strictly adhere to Sharia law. https://t.co/jvWz0yB71F

— Matthew Kolken (@mkolken) August 28, 2021

I’ve been reading about our fallen heroes all day, and then to see this…it made me weep. https://t.co/TaARsaWGHm

— Patricia Heaton (@PatriciaHeaton) August 28, 2021

Even in inside California, conservatives — notably Richard Grenell, former President Donald Trump’s acting director of national intelligence — were outraged at the video.

What kind of parent would allow their child to be taught by this wacko?

Why are parents turning their kids over to someone they don’t know?

I’d like to talk to people who think this is good?!? https://t.co/VnNxeBWLjA

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) August 28, 2021

“What kind of parent would allow their child to be taught by this wacko? Why are parents turning their kids over to someone they don’t know? I’d like to talk to people who think this is good?!?” Grenell tweeted.

Apparently, the school district is talking to people, too.

“We are aware of this incident and are investigating,” Annette Franco, public relations officer for the district, told Fox News.

“While we do not discuss employee related matters, we can tell you that showing respect and honor for our nation’s flag is a value that we instill in our students and an expectation of our employees. We take matters like this seriously and will be taking action to address it.”

That doesn’t exactly sound like they were pledging allegiance to the queers.

From the early stage of the fallout, it seems like even Pitzen might be getting the idea that the video wasn’t such a great idea.

“The original TikTok has since been taken down – along with all of Pitzen’s social media accounts – but has been viewed on Twitter more than 1.2 million times,” the Daily Mail reported.

I know this might come as a surprise to some in California, but yes, many millions of Americans still do respect the American flag. Possibly not knowing anyone who feels like that, Pitzen decided to tell the world her feelings, and how she manipulates her students.

To her, itt was all a great big laugh — particularly the part where she had a student pledge allegiance to the LGBT flag. LOL, amirite?

Perhaps — if you’re a liberal social media influencer and not a teacher. Pitzen isn’t getting paid to have yuks with the American flag or coerce the students in her charge to pledge allegiance to her pet cause. Hopefully, once the investigation is complete, she won’t be getting paid with public money at all.

Teacher Brags She Has No American Flag in Class, Here’s What She Tells Students to Pledge Allegiance To (westernjournal.com)

What’s Happening:

There are many mistakes made by the Biden administration in the unfolding Afghanistan crisis.

Far too many to count in just one article.

But it seems, over the last few days, the administration has gone out of its way to make matters worse.

We learned that Biden caved to the Taliban’s demands to leave by August 31^st.

Now, we discovered that Biden gave the murderous regime a list of American names.

Um… is Joe that much of an idiot? The administration claim this was to aid getting Americans out.

But Rep. Dan Crenshaw has a different take on this.

From Twitter:

If true, this qualifies as borderline treason. We need to find out who is responsible for giving the Taliban a hit list and they need to go to prison. https://t.co/WTkeRytHmN

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) August 26, 2021

If true, this qualifies as borderline treason. We need to find out who is responsible for giving the Taliban a hit list and they need to go to prison.

Republican lawmaker Dan Crenshaw hammered the Biden administration over their handling of American names to the Taliban. He said this was “borderline treason” and those responsible “need to go to prison.”

The administration claims they did this to help Americans get to the airport.

But reports from the ground revealed that the Taliban was in no way trying to help Americans.

Some stories say that they have been detaining Americans along the road. They have been stealing passports and phones.

One story claims Americans have been beaten.

So, why would Biden give a list of names of Americans stuck overseas to our enemy?

Remember, we are trying to evacuate Americans because they are in danger if they stay. The Taliban are not our friends.

They want us gone—because God knows what they’d do if Americans stick around.

It didn’t occur to Biden that handing over American names to these terrorists would be a bad idea?

Is Biden working for the Taliban? He gave them billions of dollars worth of weapons and gear.

And he is making it easier for the Taliban to hunt down those Americans Biden is leaving behind.

If it does constitute treason, Biden could be in very big trouble.

Key Takeaways:

• Dan Crenshaw blasted Biden over handing American names to the Taliban.
• The Republican said this is “borderline treason.”
• He called for those who did it to be sent to prison.

Dan Crenshaw Drops Accusation On Biden’s Team – He Claims Handing Out American Names “Qualifies As Borderline Treason” (thepatriotjournal.com)

Newly sworn-in New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is wasting no time taking sides in the school mask wars. Even before taking the top job, she told NBC’s “Today” that she intends to mandate masks for all public school students in the state.

She’s got President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party on her side, but the science is against her. There are no studies that demonstrate forcing young kids to wear masks reduces the spread of COVID-19 in schools.

Mandating masks also ignores the fundamental fact that not all masks are created equal. That should be the basis for a truce in the mask wars breaking out all over the nation. Mandates that settle for cloth masks with cartoon characters on them are a joke.

Most of the masks kids are wearing are laughably ineffective. A cloth mask blocks only 3% of viral particles from reaching the wearer, according to a study in the British Medical Journal. For such a minuscule difference, who would force kids to struggle with masks all day?

Instead of mandating masks, school districts should hand out effective masks, such as N95 or KN95 masks, at the beginning of the school day to kids whose parents request them. These masks block 95% of incoming viral particles. The masks were in short supply at the beginning of the pandemic, but no longer.

Flat surgical masks made from nonwoven polypropylene would be an improvement over what most kids wear. They block out 56% of virus particles, according to the same British study. But note that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns a surgical mask “does NOT provide the wearer with a reliable level of protection from inhaling smaller airborne particles and is not considered respiratory protection” in a health care setting.

Helping families who favor masking is smarter than producing classrooms full of kids with soiled, ineffective masks and many outraged parents.

The delta variant accounts for 98% of U.S. cases now and appears to be more dangerous to children. But would masks at school make a difference?

Not according to a CDC study of 169 Georgia elementary schools last winter. CDC researchers found that schools requiring staff and teachers to mask up had 37% fewer cases of COVID, and schools that improved air quality and ventilation had 39% fewer cases. Those approaches work. But mandating that students wear masks had no statistically significant impact on the spread of COVID. Mandating masks and letting masks be optional produced the same results. Not surprising considering the kinds of masks most kids wear.

Yet a week after releasing the Georgia study, the agency reversed course and recommended universal masking in school without offering new findings to justify that 180-degree flip. Perhaps the agency looked at the rising cases among children and panicked.

No surprise. Over the course of the pandemic, the CDC has earned a reputation as the “Centers for Disease Confusion.” The agency should have been guided by its own research.

Instead, it kowtowed to political correctness. Only a minority of Republicans support mandating masks, while 92% of Democrats agree, according to an Aug. 17 Axios/Ipsos poll.

Ten states — mostly blue states like Connecticut, New Jersey and California — mandate masks. Other states leave it up to local school boards. And eight red states, including Florida, ban local school boards from mandating masks, insisting parents get to decide.

Last week, Biden escalated the mask wars by threatening federal Department of Education lawsuits against the seven states. The New York Times followed with a full-throated endorsement of Biden’s maneuver, calling mandatory masking a “common-sense public health” policy.

Sorry. The science doesn’t support it.

Hochul argues that the New York Health Department has the authority to require masking in the state. According to the letter of the law, she’s right. But the Health Department has lost credibility after forcing nursing homes to take in COVID-positive patients and covering up the deadly results. The Health Department can’t be trusted.

Instead, Hochul should put parents in charge and provide effective masks for families who want them.

That’s good advice for governors in every state. Mandating masks that don’t work is a farce.

The Mask Mandate Farce :: Right & Free (rightandfree.com)

Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, a U.S. Marine infantry officer and battalion commander, was fired late last week after a video that he posted on social media went viral. In the video, he demanded that members of the Biden administration be held accountable for the disaster in Afghanistan, which has resulted in the deaths of at least 13 U.S. service members.

“[I’m] not making this video because it’s potentially an emotional time, I’m making it because I have a growing discontent and contempt for my perceived ineptitude at the foreign policy-level,” Scheller said. “And I want to specifically ask some questions to some of my senior leaders.”

“If I’m willing to risk my current battalion commander seat, my retirement, my family stability, to say some of the things that I want to say, I think it gives me some moral high ground to demand the same honesty, integrity, accountability from my senior leaders,” he continued. “The reason people are so upset on social media right now is not because the Marine on the battlefield, let someone down, that servicemember has always rose to the occasion, done extraordinary things. People are upset because their senior leaders let them down. And none of them are raising their hands and accepting accountability, are saying we messed this up.”

“If an O-5 battalion commander has the simplest live-fire incident, EO complaint. Boom. Fired,” he continued. “But we have a secretary of defense that testified to Congress in May that the Afghan National Security Force could withstand the Taliban advance. We have Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs — who the commandant is a member of that — who’s supposed to advise on military policy. We have a Marine combatant commander. All of these people are supposed to advise. And I’m not saying we’ve got to be in the Afghanistan forever. But I am saying, did any of you throw your rank on the table and say, hey, it’s a bad idea to evacuate Bagram Airfield, a strategic airbase, before we evacuate everyone? Did anyone do that? And when you didn’t think to do that, did anyone raise your hand and say, we completely messed this up?”

“And what I’ll say is, from my position, potentially all those people did die in vain if we don’t have senior leaders that own up and raise their hand and say, we did not do this well in the end,” he concluded. “Without that, we just keep repeating the same mistakes. This amalgamation of the economic / corporate / political/ higher military ranks are not holding up their end of the bargain. I want to say this very strongly. I have been fighting for 17 years. I am willing to throw it all away to say to my senior leaders, I demand accountability.”

U.S. Marine Commander Fired After Demanding ‘Accountability’ From Biden Admin Over Afghanistan Disaster | The Daily Wire

Chesa Boudin, AOC, and other progressive Democrats have cozied up to ‘Sing Tao’

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D., Calif.) earlier this month spoke at the annual gala for a pro-Beijing newspaper that has registered as a foreign agent of China due to its influence activities in the United States.

Newsom lauded Sing Tao for its “journalistic integrity” and for providing “balanced news stories” to its readers. He also said the newspaper, which publishes daily in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City, has helped Chinese Americans acclimate to California.

Sing Tao is considered a pro-Beijing news outlet. Its owners are members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a government advisory group controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. One of the owners, Charles Ho, last year defended a national security law that has been used to arrest pro-democracy journalists in Hong Kong. The Department of Justice required Sing Tao to register this month under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a law aimed at tracking foreign influence in the United States. Chinese state-controlled news outlets like CGTN, China Daily, and Xinhua have also registered with the Justice Department as foreign agents.

Newsom’s praise for the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece comes as he is campaigning to remain in office. Newsom’s opponents cited California’s high tax rates, homelessness problem, and lax enforcement of immigration laws as reasons to recall the Democrat.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) has also praised Sing Tao. The “Squad” leader thanked the newspaper in June 2020 for covering a roundtable discussion she held for foreign-language media outlets. Her campaign paid $728 to Sing Tao in April 2021 for ads touting the coronavirus vaccine and $2,755 for ads in June 2020, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. Rep. Grace Meng (N.Y.), another progressive Democrat, has paid $12,364 to Sing Tao through her campaign since 2012, the most of any lawmaker.

Former Rep. Ed Royce (R., Calif.) paid for $6,600 worth of ads in 2016. Royce, who was chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee until his retirement in 2019, is currently a registered lobbyist for Chinese tech giant Tencent.

The Democratic National Committee said in May that it would place ads with Sing Tao and other newspapers to raise awareness about hate crimes against the Asian-American community. The Republican National Committee paid $2,855 to the newspaper in November 2020.

Sing Tao has had most of its success cozying up to policymakers in California.

Chesa Boudin, the progressive San Francisco district attorney, spoke at the Sing Tao gala. Boudin, who once worked as a translator for the government of Hugo Chavez, the late Venezuelan communist dictator, touted an endorsement from Sing Tao during his campaign in 2019.

Like Newsom, Boudin faces a recall in San Francisco. His critics say his criminal justice reform efforts have caused a dramatic spike in crime. Chinese-American activists have criticized Boudin amid a spike in attacks against elderly people of Asian descent in San Francisco. Many of the activists blame Boudin’s soft-on-crime policies and support his recall, according to the New York Times.

San Francisco mayor London Breed (D.) and state senator Scott Wiener (D.) also spoke at the Sing Tao gala.

Newsom, Ocasio-Cortez, and the Democratic National Committee did not respond to requests for comment.

Newsom Praised Chinese Foreign Agent for ‘Journalistic Integrity’ (freebeacon.com)

EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak – the disgraced proponent of the COVID-19 “natural origins” theory and longtime collaborator of the Chinese Communist Party – deleted a tweet revealing his attendance at an event sponsored by Anthony Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases featuring Wuhan Institute of Virology researchers.

Posted on December 10th, 2019, just weeks before the Chinese government reported its first case of COVID-19, the tweet revealed Daszak’s attendance at the Nipah Virus International Conference in Singapore.

“The two-day session was co-hosted by Duke-NUS Medical School (Duke-NUS) and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). Also listed as organizers are the World Health Organization and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,” reports the site Some Bitch Told Me. CEPI was founded with a sizable investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In the now-deleted tweet, Daszak details how Shi Zhengli, the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s “bat lady,” calls for “open and transparent international scientific collaboration on pandemic risk pathogens” at her lab’s Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) facility. He follows up with a slide explaining how “you can train in the BSL-4 lab in Wuhan.”

Daszak’s deletion of the tweet follows The National Pulse unearthing the scientist’s extensive conflicts of interest with the Chinese Communist Party and its Wuhan Institute of Virology. These ties ultimately led to his recusal from the Lancet COVID-19 commission, where he used his position to discredit the “lab leak” theory and spread disinformation about the origins of the virus.

The unearthed post also follows Fauci, whose NIAID sponsored the event, denying affiliation with the Wuhan lab.

EcoHealth’s Peter Daszak Deletes Tweet Revealing Wuhan Lab Researchers At Fauci-Funded Conference. – The National Pulse

Congressman Paul Gosar (R-AZ) is demanding answers from the U.S. State Department after a National Pulse exposé revealing the Biden regime cancelled Trump-era plans to found a new bureau specializing in rescuing Americans from crisis zones such as Afghanistan.

On August 18th, we reported:

The “Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau” – which was designed to handle medical, diplomatic, and logistical support concerning Americans overseas was paused by Antony Blinken’s State Department earlier this year. Notification was officially signed just months before the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. 

In a letter dated August 27th, Rep. Gosar wrote to Secretary Blinken:

As Americans and the world-at-large watch in dismay at the frantic scenes coming from Kabul, we are all concerned for the safety of our fellow countrymen. I am equally concerned with the lack of preparation for this contingency. Questions regarding this lack of preparation will be brought to the Department of Defense, however I write today concerned by reports that the State Department terminated a crisis response group in the months leading up to the Afghanistan withdrawal.

Specifically, I am referring to the Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau (CCR) established in October 2020 under the Trump Administration which was designed to handle medical, diplomatic, and logistical support concerning Americans overseas. Reports from The National Pulse indicate that the State Department under your watch terminated this critically important bureau just months before the Afghanistan withdrawal and the need to evacuate thousands of Americans.

Gosar added:

Cancelling the CCR  as the Biden Administration was preparing for the Afghanistan withdrawal is baffling and raises serious questions about how prepared the Administration was to complete this final step in Afghanistan. Reports also indicate that the decision to pause the program go back as far as February, which means this decision would have also jeopardized the withdrawal plan committed to under the Trump Administration.MUST READ:  Bannon’s War Room 1188: Thurs. 19 August 2021

If reports that the CCR has been paused since February and terminated in June are correct, it shows that State was never prepared for this withdrawal, justifying the heartbreaking and concerning reports and videos we are now seeing from Afghanistan.

I am therefore asking for confirmation on whether or not CCR was terminated and if so, on what grounds? A full scope answer of what authorities and justification were given to terminate the CCR, what the State Department felt it had in place to fill the CCR gap, and a determination of any issues for the State Department responding to this contingency would greatly aid in oversight of this withdrawal.

Finally, please also indicate if elimination of the CCR was in response to any Biden Administration wide orders to reevaluate Trump era policies or the product of any lingering resentment towards the former Administration held by career or political employees. Please adhere to all rules and regulation when fulfilling this request.

The letter comes as discredited “fact check” websites such as Politifact panicked over The National Pulse’s reporting, and sought to confuse the matter with a long article quoting unrelated think-tank “experts” who claimed without evidence that the scrapping of the CCR plan did not affect the Afghanistan withdrawal. Notably, Politifact did not attempt to rate the story true or false, as it usually does.

The far-left Media Matters website was also rattled by the revelation, first misattributing the story to Fox News, then baselessly attempting to confuse the OpMed bureau inside the State Department with the new CCR, without speaking to people actively involved in the Trump-era program, as The National Pulse sourced.MUST READ:  WATCH: Kassam Breaks Biden Botched Afghanistan Exfiltration Scoop.

You can read Rep. Gosar’s full letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, here.

Rep. Gosar Demands Answers from State Dept Following National Pulse Afghan Exfiltration Exposé. – The National Pulse

A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) survey shows that at least 10 federal agencies have plans to expand their use of facial recognition technology over the next two years—a prospect that alarms privacy advocates who worry about a lack of oversight.

The GAO released the results of a survey of 24 federal agencies, finding that 18 of them use facial recognition technology. Fourteen of those agencies use the tech for routine activity, such as unlocking agency-issued smartphones, while six reported using facial recognition software for criminal investigations and five others use the technology for surveillance, the Aug. 24 report found.

“For example, [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services] reported that it used an FRT system (AnyVision) to monitor its facilities by searching live camera feeds in real-time for individuals on watchlists or suspected of criminal activity, which reduces the need for security guards to memorize these individuals’ faces,” the GAO said. “This system automatically alerts personnel when an individual on a watchlist is present.”

According to the GAO, at least 10 government agencies plan to expand their use of facial recognition technology through 2023. To do so, many agencies are turning to the private sector.

For example, “[the] U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations reported it began an operational pilot using Clearview AI in June 2020, which supports the agency’s counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigations,” the GAO said.

“The agency reported it already collects facial images with mobile devices to search national databases and plans to enhance searches by accessing Clearview AI’s large repository of facial images from open sources to search for matches.”

The GAO’s Aug. 24 report follows June research that focused specifically on law enforcement’s use of facial recognition technology. The GAO’s June report revealed the vast troves of data held by federal law enforcement, including 836 million images held by the Department of Homeland Security alone.

The June report also revealed the lack of oversight regarding facial recognition technology. According to the report, 13 of the 20 federal law enforcement agencies that use the technology didn’t know what systems they use.

“For example, when we requested information from one of the agencies about its use of non-federal systems, agency officials told us they had to poll field division personnel because the information was not maintained by the agency,” the report said.

“These agency officials also told us that the field division personnel had to work from their memory about their past use of non-federal systems and that they could not ensure we were provided comprehensive information about the agency’s use of non-federal systems.”

The lack of oversight of the government’s use of surveillance technology is an issue that has drawn the attention of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle. Democrats have largely focused on the racial disparities in the accuracy of facial recognition, while some Republicans have expressed concerns about domestic surveillance.

Michigan resident Robert Williams, a Black man who was wrongly arrested in January after Detroit police incorrectly identified him as a felon based on shoddy facial recognition technology, testified about such problems at a U.S. House Judiciary Committee hearing.

“Why is law enforcement even allowed to use such technology when it obviously doesn’t work?” Williams said to lawmakers July 13. “I get angry when I hear companies, politicians, and police talk about how this technology isn’t dangerous or flawed or say that they only use it as an investigative tool.

“If any of that was true, I wouldn’t have been arrested.”

Williams said he supports the Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act, which would halt the use of facial recognition technology by federal agencies until that use was authorized by Congress. However, little action has been taken on the measure—though Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) reintroduced the legislation in June.

With inaction on the federal level, states and localities have taken to curbing the use of facial recognition technology.

The state of Washington enacted a law in March 2020 that requires government agencies to obtain a warrant to run facial recognition scans. Local jurisdictions such as Oakland, San Francisco, and King County, Washington, have also banned government use of the technology.

Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) support such efforts, arguing that the expansion of facial recognition technology must be halted until lawmakers can enact safeguards.

Others have cautioned against banning useful technology in the zeal to protect privacy.

“Critics miss the fact that the benefits of law enforcement use of facial recognition are well-proven—they are used today to help solve crimes, identify victims, and find witnesses—and most of the concerns about the technology remain hypothetical,” the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a largely pro-tech industry think tank, stated.

“In fact, critics of the technology almost always make a ‘slippery slope’ argument about the potential threat of expanding police surveillance, rather than pointing to specific instances of harm. Banning the technology now would do more harm than good.”

Federal Use of Facial Recognition Technology Expanding: GAO Report (theepochtimes.com)

Hurricane Ida shut down more than 95 percent of the Gulf of Mexico’s oil production, said regulators, suggesting the Category 4 storm will have a significant impact on energy supply and gas prices.

The federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement confirmed the stop in oil production, with firms suspending 1.74 million barrels per day in oil production in the Gulf.

Colonial Pipeline confirmed Sunday it is temporarily shutting down two pipelines between Houston, Texas, and Greensboro, North Carolina, as a precaution due to the storm. They were shuttered “as a precautionary and routine safety measure,” the firm said a statement.

Ida made landfall on Sunday near Port Fourchon, near the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, which is the largest privately-owned crude terminal in the United States.

Around 94 percent of Gulf of Mexico natural gas production was suspended due to the storm, according to the federal regulator.

“Based on data from offshore operator reports submitted as of 11:30 CDT today, personnel have been evacuated from a total of 288 production platforms, 51.43 percent of the 560 manned platforms in the Gulf of Mexico,” said the agency in a statement on Sunday. “Production platforms are the structures located offshore from which oil and gas are produced. Unlike drilling rigs, which typically move from location to location, production facilities remain in the same location throughout a project’s duration.”

Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston, told news outlets on Saturday that if the New Orleans refineries take a direct hit from the storm, gas prices will likely rise about 10 cents per gallon in some markets.

Oil prices also rose sharply last week ahead of Hurricane Ida’s arrival.

Hurricane Ida made landfall as a Category 4 storm with 150 mph winds in southeastern Lousiana, doing considerable damage to infrastructure and causing significant flooding in the region. Hundreds of thousands of people are currently without power in Louisiana, according to Poweroutage.us.

In an update from the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters, President Joe Biden said that locals need to take heed of state and local officials’ directions.

“The storm is a life-threatening storm. … And its devastation is likely to be immense. We shouldn’t kid ourselves,” he said. “And so the most important thing I can say right now is that everyone, everyone should listen to the instructions from local and state officials, just how dangerous this is. And take it seriously. It’s not just the coasts. It’s not just New Orleans. It’s north as well. The rainfall is expected to be exceedingly high.”

Biden said he would put “the country’s full might” behind rescue and recovery efforts.

Gas Prices to Rise as Hurricane Ida Shuts Down 95 Percent of Gulf’s Oil Production (theepochtimes.com)

The FBI allegedly paid a publisher of white supremacist literature more than $144,000 over 16-plus years to serve as a confidential informant, according to recent filings in an ongoing domestic extremism case.

These allegations were made earlier this month by Kaleb Cole, an accused member of the white supremacist group Atomwaffen. Cole was arrested in February 2020 for allegedly participating in an Atomwaffen intimidation campaign against Jewish people and journalists of color.

On Aug. 13, Cole filed a motion to suppress evidence seized during the FBI’s search of his Texas home. According to Cole, the FBI failed to disclose the sordid background of one of its confidential informants in the bureau’s application for a search warrant.

“The CI [confidential informant] is a convicted felon and currently owns and operates a publishing company that distributes white supremacist writings,” Cole said in his Aug. 13 filing.

“The CI began his long career as a professional informant in exchange for consideration regarding his sentence on a federal conviction for possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number and an unregistered silencer.

“He has continued this work for pay.”

According to Cole, the FBI has paid this white supremacist more than $144,000, including more than $82,000 for his work in this case.

Cole’s attorneys argued that the FBI’s omissions violate requirements for law enforcement to disclose whether their informants have financial or other ulterior motives for providing information.

“The failure to include the information about the CI’s incentives is made more egregious by the fact that the warrant application incriminated Mr. Cole based almost solely on the alleged observations of the CI,” Cole’s motion said.

The Department of Justice admitted in filings last week that the FBI failed to disclose information about the confidential informant’s criminal history—though prosecutors said the search warrant used against Cole was still legally obtained.

“Although the defense is correct that certain potential impeachment information about the informant was not included in the affidavit, that omission is hardly fatal,” the DOJ said. “The omitted information was limited to the fact that the informant was well compensated by the FBI over a 16-year period, and was convicted of a firearms crime over 15 years ago.”

According to prosecutors, the FBI didn’t include this information because agents believed in good faith that probable cause wasn’t dependent on the informant’s credibility.

Moreover, the FBI didn’t believe that including the informant’s criminal history would have changed the judge’s decision to issue a warrant to search Cole’s home, prosecutors said. In fact, the DOJ argued that the FBI’s use of the informant for more than 16 years suggests that the FBI consistently found the informant reliable.

“And it is far-fetched to suggest that a single 15-year-old firearms conviction would have caused the magistrate judge to refuse to sign off on the warrant,” the DOJ said. “And finally, as the affidavit outlined in great detail, the agents were able to corroborate the information the informant had relayed about the plot.”

The DOJ’s response didn’t address Cole’s allegation that the FBI informant is a white supremacist publisher.

When contacted by The Epoch Times, a DOJ spokesperson said, “Our filings in this case speak for themselves, and we have no additional comment to add at this time.” Cole’s attorney declined to comment, while the FBI’s Houston office directed inquiries to the national press office, which has not responded.

Cole’s case is set for jury trial on Sept. 27.

The allegations about the Atomwaffen informant follow revelations about the heavy role FBI informants played in the failed plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. A Buzzfeed News investigation last month found that the FBI used at least 12 informants involved with the kidnapping—suggesting that the scheme might not have started in the first place without the FBI.

“Working in secret, they [the informants] did more than just passively observe and report on the actions of the suspects. Instead, they had a hand in nearly every aspect of the alleged plot, starting with its inception,” Buzzfeed reported. “The extent of their involvement raises questions as to whether there would have even been a conspiracy without them.”

Questions have also been raised about the role FBI informants may have played in the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riots.

“What would be shocking and strange is not if the FBI had embedded informants and other infiltrators in the groups planning the January 6 Capitol riot,” said journalist Glenn Greenwald, who’s been extensively documenting various questionable activities of the national security apparatus, in a recent op-ed. “What would be shocking and strange—bizarre and inexplicable—is if the FBI did not have those groups under tight control.”

FBI Allegedly Funded White Supremacist Publisher: Court Documents (theepochtimes.com)

Twitter has permanently suspended former New York Times journalist and author Alex Berenson, an outspoken critic of CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus mandates and lockdowns—as well as Big Tech censorship.

“The account you referenced has been permanently suspended for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation rules,” a Twitter spokesperson told news outlets on Aug. 28, referring to the disease caused by the CCP virus.

Berenson, on his Substack page, also confirmed the suspension, writing: “Goodbye, Twitter.”

“This was the tweet that did it,” he wrote, referring to a now-deleted tweet that downplayed the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. “Entirely accurate. I can’t wait to hear what a jury will make of this. Meantime, guess you’ll be getting more Substacks.”

Berenson later noted that the ban didn’t come as a surprise to him.

“I expected this day was coming,” he wrote. “And Twitter can’t touch my Substack (in fact, it reportedly tried to buy Substack last year, but Substack fortunately said no).”

Berenson also hinted at possibly filing a lawsuit against Twitter over the suspension.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other health agencies have said that COVID-19 vaccines “are safe and effective” after clinical trials and say that side effects are rare. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walenksy and others have cited studies saying that vaccines don’t necessarily prevent transmission of COVID-19, but have stated that the shots limit the severity of the illness.

Berenson worked for The New York Times from 1999 until 2010 before becoming a full-time author.

In July, Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 advisors, criticized Berenson for his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

“It’s horrifying … I just don’t get that. I mean, and I don’t think that anybody who is thinking clearly can get that,” he said of the crowd’s response to Berenson’s speech.

Right before his suspension, Berenson had often made note of the results of a preprint Israeli study that found that previous COVID-19 infection provides better protection against the Delta variant than any COVID-19 shot.

“SARS-CoV-2-naive vaccinees had a 13.06-fold increased risk for breakthrough infection with the Delta variant compared to those previously infected, when the first event (infection or vaccination) occurred during January and February of 2021,” the study reads.

SARS-CoV-2 is another name for the CCP virus.

Those who were vaccinated, the study found, were also at a higher risk of being hospitalized when compared to individuals who were previously infected.

Berenson also assailed what he described as Big Tech censorship, writing for the Wall Street Journal in December that the pandemic has ushered in a “new age of censorship and suppression.”

“Information has never been more plentiful or easier to distribute. Yet we are sliding into a new age of censorship and suppression, encouraged by technology giants and traditional media companies. As someone who’s been falsely characterized as a coronavirus ‘denier,’ I have seen this crisis firsthand,” he wrote, with Amazon having twice allegedly blocked the publication of his book.

Twitter Permanently Suspends Alex Berenson Over Viral COVID-19 Tweets (theepochtimes.com)

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. – On Thursday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent a letter to the Biden Administration demanding transparency and that they cease sending “illegal aliens” to Florida.

“President [Joe] Biden, Vice President [Kamala] Harris, and their administration have refused to fulfill their responsibility to enforce immigration laws enacted by Congress and the resulting influx of unvetted illegal aliens endangers our national security and undermines the socioeconomic wellbeing of hardworking American citizens,” DeSantis said in a written statement. “Unfortunately, even though the federal government is responsible for immigration enforcement, it is the states who bear the brunt of this administration’s reckless immigration policies.”

In the letter (pdf) to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, the Republican governor wrote that he wanted an end to the mass resettlements of “illegal aliens” into the United States. DeSantis also urged the Department of Homeland Security to provide more transparency when it comes to the resettling of illegals in Florida and to give advance notice to “state leadership” before illegals are resettled into the state.  He called the Biden administration’s border policies “disastrous” and gave a deadline of September 30, 2021, to give the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) a long list of information and data before sending more illegals into the state.

DeSantis’ letter requested that the Biden administration disclose the following information to FDLE:

• the number of illegal aliens resettled in Florida;
• the names and destination of the illegal aliens;
• the number of illegal aliens resettled in Florida who were tested for COVID-19 and the results of such tests;
• the identities of illegal aliens who have criminal records and who have previously entered the U.S. illegally; and
• the number and identity of illegal aliens resettled in Florida who have failed to appear for their removal proceedings.

The letter went on to accuse the Biden administration of operating its own human smuggling operation.

“My office has received information indicating that ICE, sometimes with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has chartered flights transporting illegal alien adults and children to Florida,” the governor wrote. “Given the overall lack of transparency, I am concerned that the federal government is running its own massive human smuggling operation, surreptitiously resettling illegal aliens in the various states without consultation or even advance notice to state leadership.”

The governor wrote that this practice is “intolerable and unacceptable.”

DeSantis wrote that he knows “firsthand” about the border crisis as he visited the border and deployed law enforcement officers to aid Texas law enforcement and border patrol agents with the surge of migrants attempting to cross the border.

“I have been to the border, and I observed firsthand the chaos that this administration’s policies have created,” DeSantis said. To fill the void left by the federal government, Florida deployed its own law enforcement officers to the border.”

After speaking with law enforcement officers who were deployed to the border to aid Texas law enforcement, DeSantis said they have told him that many of the migrants that were apprehended at the border said they plan to come to Florida.

“Floridians welcome responsible immigration that serves the interests of our citizens, but we cannot abide the lawlessness that this administration is aiding and abetting, and frankly encouraging, on the southwest border,” DeSantis said.

Law enforcement officials, according to the governor’s office said that most of the migrants indicated their final stops were going to be larger Florida cities such as Kissimmee, Orlando, Miami, Hialeah, and Jacksonville.

In April 2021, DeSantis had written to Mayorkas’s office requesting that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) remove all illegal alien felons who had completed their prison sentences in Florida.  The governor said in his current letter that he has seen “no action” to enforce the federal immigration laws.

DeSantis wrote that it was his opinion that DHS was resettling large numbers of illegal aliens who have “no lawful status under federal immigration law from the southwest border to Florida.”

He wrote: “The Constitution charges the President with the duty to faithfully execute the laws, and with respect to immigration enforcement, the federal government, with the Supreme Court’s blessing, has assumed near exclusive responsibility. Unfortunately, President Biden and this administration refuse to fulfill their responsibility to enforce the immigration laws enacted by Congress.”

DeSantis said in his letter that the “Remain in Mexico” program that was administered under the Trump Administration was ultimately replaced with “catch and release” by the Biden administration, which he attributes to the massive influx of migrants.

“The administration’s reversal or weakening of the prior administration’s enforcement policies had amounted to an open invitation for mass illegal migration the United States, and the results have been predictably catastrophic,” DeSantis wrote. “Since this administration took office, the number of illegal aliens encountered at the southwest border has skyrocketed, increasing each month at an unrelenting pace.”

When Biden took office in January the number of border encounters was 78,417. In one month that number increased to 101,098; 173,283 in March; 178,797 in April; 180,569 in May; 188,934 in June and 212,672 in July according to figures from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.  This puts a total number of encounters for the fiscal year to be approximately 1.3 million.  In the last year of the Trump administration the total number of encounters was 458,088.

The governor ended his letter with doubts that the federal government would comply with his request and reminded the secretary that it was the states who were “saddled” with the costs of having illegals in their states.  Also, he said that massive illegal immigration increases the spread of COVID-19 and will consume taxpayer money and overload government services including the education system.

“Although I seek an immediate end to the resettlement of illegal aliens in Florida, at the very least, DHS should provide the requested information in the interest of greater transparency,” DeSantis wrote. “The State of Florida is entitled to this information to protect the health, safety, and welfare of its people.”

Efforts to obtain a response from the White House were made with no response.

Gov. DeSantis Demands Biden Administration Cease Resettlement of Illegals in Florida (theepochtimes.com)

Google reported to the Australian federal government that it has removed around 800,000 YouTube videos concerning COVID-19, and 275 million COVID-19 apps from across its platform as part of its $1 billion (US $726 million) global campaign to “counter COVID-19 misinformation.”

It has also launched a US $3 million fund to wipe out alleged vaccine misinformation.

Google regards official government information from national health departments or the World Health Organization as reliable sources. Meanwhile, the WHO has noted that information changes over time as the world “learns more about the virus.”

Lucinda Longcroft, Google’s director of government affairs and public policy for Australia and New Zealand, told a Senate committee on foreign interference through social media in July that Google has extensive automated systems and a global network of staff to remove “false or misleading” COVID-19 content “as rapidly as possible.”

This is combined with algorithmic tools to help promote government-approved COVID-19 information and bury “borderline” content, which was defined in a January blog post by Youtube as content that “comes close to—but doesn’t quite cross the line of—violating our Community Guidelines.”

“This has been a broad campaign and activity across our organisation,” Longcroft said. “We have deployed significant resources and developed innovative tools, both human-based and machine-based, to curb harmful information and promote authoritative information.”

During the Senate meeting, Longcroft also confirmed that Google had “engaged very closely” with the Australian government, giving it AU $3.6 million worth of free advertising, resulting in 20.6 million impressions of government-approved COVID-19 information for Australian users.

Big Tech Censorship Concerns

Big tech’s efforts to remove public discourse around COVID-19 from online platforms has raised the ire of some researchers working on understanding the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, who have voiced concerns that big tech is stifling scientific debate around the pandemic, calling it censorship.

For example, in June, YouTube removed a video in which Stanford professor of medicine John Ioannidis discussed data related to COVID-19 and the negative impacts of the ongoing lockdown. Despite numerous challenges to the censorship, YouTube did not reveal which part of Ioannidis’s interview it construed as misinformation.

In May, Facebook deleted a post linking to a peer-reviewed Lancet article, which reported that SARS-CoV-2 spreads by airborne transmission. The article had criticised a claim made by a review funded by World Health Organization (WHO) that there were no firm conclusions to be drawn about airborne transmission.

Authors of the Lancet article included world-renowned experts on aerosols, including American scientist Kimberly Prather and the highly cited aerosol researcher Jose-Luis Jimenez from the University of Colorado. 

“We absolutely recognise that measuring misinformation is a real challenge,” Facebook’s head of policy in Australia Josh Machin told the Senate last month.

“First, because people’s views on whether a post on Facebook is misinformation or not can vary, and also because, particularly since the pandemic began last year, we’ve had to really rapidly scale up our policies and continue to consult with experts, and they have been shifting.”

Machin disclosed that Facebook had removed 18 million posts containing “harmful misinformation” about COVID-19 and vaccines, attached “false” labels to 167 million posts on these topics, and collaborated with 80 fact-checkers around the world.

But while social media companies usually turn to the WHO, local health officials, and governments for authoritative information, “this does not imply that they are unerring,” wrote Swedish bioethics researcher Emilia Niemiec in a scientific report last year.

Niemiec argued that because knowledge about COVID-19 is “currently limited and unsettled,” the medical community is still debating “various topics,” such as the lockdown policies and vaccines.

She also noted that while the censorship on social media might seem like an “effective and immediate” solution to the problem of misinformation, it can also limit the sharing of constructive critique of the current evidence and opinions.

These types of information, the medical researcher pointed out, is “necessary” to identify and correct potential errors, as well as further the understanding of complex issues surrounding the pandemic.

“A major question regarding the policies of the communication platforms is who exactly defines … which information is deemed to be false or harmful? And can we rely on these judgements?” Niemiec asked.

She added that if the “exclusive authority” to define what is scientifically proven or medically substantiated is left to social media providers or certain institutions, there is potential for errors and miscalculation, or even the potential abuse of this power to “foster political, commercial, or other interests.”

“The censorship is not based solely on science,” the researcher added. “An analysis of content banned on social networks suggests that the moderation is often politically biased.

“If we add to this the fact that Google is the most popular search engine, it becomes clear that a few tech companies have huge power over what information Internet users can see and how their views are shaped.”

Australian Senator Malcolm Roberts asked in the Senate on Aug. 11 whether there was a potential “conflict of interest” giving Google the final say in how COVID-19 vaccine information is screened and approved.

Roberts noted that Google and YouTube’s parent company, Alphabet, owns 12 percent of Vaccitech Ltd. through a venture capital fund GV (formerly Google Ventures). Vaccitech is a UK-based biotechnology company that co-invented the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The Epoch Times has contacted Alphabet, Vaccitech, and Google for comments but did not receive a response.

Google Tells Australian Government of $1 Billion Global Campaign to Censor ‘COVID-19 Misinformation’ (theepochtimes.com)

The accounts of the video state that Joe met Jill two years after a fatal car crash that killed Biden’s previous wife and their baby daughter

A campaign advertisement for the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden describing how he met his wife Jill has been disputed by her ex-husband, according to The Washington Times.

The accounts of the video state that Joe met Jill two years after a fatal car crash that killed Biden’s previous wife and their baby daughter.”

My name is Jill Biden, and I want to tell you about my husband Joe. I first met Joe two years after a car accident that injured his sons and killed his wife and his baby daughter,” Jill said in the advertisement.

Biden said that the two were introduced after he saw her picture on a poster, and requested her number from his brother, who apparently knew her.”

My brother said, there’s this woman – you’ll really like her, Joe,” Biden said in a 2020 Democratic National Convention video, according to the Times. “So I gave her a call, and she had [another] date that night.”

Biden claims that he persuaded her to cancel that date, and Jill corroborated the story saying: “You said, do you think you can break your date? Well, I called and told the guy that I had a friend in from out of town, and went out with Joe.”

However, her ex-husband, Bill Stevenson, denies the account, claiming that Jill and Joe met before the crash during Biden’s campaign for Senate and had an affair which led to the end of their marriage.

The Biden campaign denied the accounts that Stevenson gave to multiple media outlets, accusing him of attempting to publicize his upcoming autobiography, according to the Washington Times.”

These claims are fictitious, seemingly to sell and promote a book,” a Biden campaign spokesperson told Inside Edition in September, according to the paper. “The relationship of Joe and Jill Biden is well documented. Jill Biden separated from her first husband irreconcilably in the fall of 1974 and moved out of their marital home. Joe and Jill Biden had their first date in March of 1975, and they married in June of 1977.

Stevenson made the claims in an August 17 interview with local Delaware media outlet WDEL.”I said, ‘Look, the Bidens made up this dramatic story that they met, he saw a picture of her,’ and I told him, I said, ‘That was so untrue,’”Stevenson said in the interview, according to the Times. “There’s probably 500 people in Delaware that saw Joe Biden and Jill at three major fundraising events at the Stone Balloon [Ale House] in 1972, after the Stone Balloon opened in February.”

One thing I do not want to do, and I know this might sound funny to people, is that I don’t want to hurt her chances of becoming first lady of the United States – that’s not my goal,” Stevenson told the station, according to the paper. “I would say to Jill, ‘listen, you know how I feel about this. You had an affair. You worked on the campaign,’” Stevenson said. “Why you invented this crazy story on Oprah Winfrey [that] he saw your picture in the train station – there’s too many people that knew we worked on his campaign in 1972.”

Ex-husband of Joe Biden’s wife claim two had affair that split marriage – The Jerusalem Post (jpost.com)

Just eleven days have passed since we first reflected on the “unmitigated disasters” of Joe Biden’s short-yet-violent presidency. Today, our worst fears are confirmed. The President of the United States is unable or unwilling to carry out his most basic duties.

Both are likely true.

In Joe Biden’s infrequent moments of lucidity, he callously compares his own personal stories with some of the most fresh and harrowing wounds the nation is feeling. Listen to his press conference from today, if you can bear it, or even find it.

Within minutes he was talking about his son Beau, again, just as he did throughout the election period.

Beau Biden was a Judge Advocate General (JAG) – an Army lawyer – who trained lawyers for the Organization for Security and Co-operation (an NGO) in Europe. Beau spent a year in Iraq in a non-combat role, being visited by his Vice President father three times while deployed. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2010, and received the finest treatment possible until his demise five years later.

Despite these very real differences between Beau Biden’s death and the sudden, violent deaths of 13 U.S. Marines in Kabul on Thursday morning, Joe Biden once again sought to hide behind the body of his deceased son.Four minutes into yesterday’s presser, Biden explained:

“Being the father of an Army Major who served for a year in Iraq and before that was in Kosovo as a U.S. attorney for the better part of six months in the middle of a war. When he came home after a year in Iraq, was diagnosed like many many coming home with an aggressive, lethal cancer of the brain. And we lost. We have some sense like many of you do what the families of these brave heroes are feeling today. You get this feeling like you’re being sucked into a black hole in the middle of your chest. There’s no way out.”MUST READ:  CORTES: Welcome to Joe Biden’s American Carnage.

Beau Biden sadly died of cancer. Dozens of human beings died yesterday because of Joe Biden’s ineptitude, his team’s arrogance, and the U.S. military’s pathetic, woke leaders.

As if the phony comparison wasn’t rage-inducing enough, Biden spent the rest of the presser attempting to blame his predecessor, Donald Trump.

Trump was in fact the President who tried to set up the Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau within the State Department. That entity was specifically tasked with dealing with situations like Afghanistan and its capital city. The entity was scrapped by Biden’s team between February and June this year.

In repeatedly insisting that the “buck stops with him”, Joe Biden summons more historical precedent than he may know.

President Harry Truman kept a sign on his desk that read, “The Buck Stops Here”. Plagued by corruption and poor polling numbers, the internationalist president did not run for a second full term.

Perhaps even more fitting is that President Jimmy Carter resurrected the plaque, placing it in front of him in a nationally televised address in April 1977, just a few years before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan which caught him flat-footed. That led to the United States funding the mujahideen in Afghanistan, which became the Taliban, which in turn kicked Joe Biden’s ass.

In fact, the last year of the first term Trump administration saw the U.S. achieve zero deaths in Afghanistan.

So what? So nothing, frankly. Or maybe just one thing.

Mainstream Republicans today began to call for Biden’s resignation. Confirming for themselves what some of us have been warning about all along, they now recognize this is not just a mindless present, but a heartless one too.

Joe Biden’s apathy is palpable, as evidenced by his administration’s dismissive and curt press release on the back of a major loss of life for both the U.S. and her supposed friends abroad.

The only strategically correct decision to make in this war is for the Commander-in-Chief to resign. Yes, it hastens the onset of Queen Kamala, but her deep and unshifting unpopularity with the American public will only serve as a boon to conservatives. Bring it on.

But first, Joe Biden must resign.

Joe Biden Must Resign. (thenationalpulse.com)

Deborah Seligsohn – an American academic frequently cited by Western media outlets to debunk the COVID-19 “lab leak” theory – has extensive ties to the Chinese Communist Party, including delivering lectures at the regime’s Central Party School and accepting fellowships from state-run universities. 

When cited, mainstream media outlets routinely fail to disclose Seligsohn’s deep ties to Beijing, which call into question her ostensible status as a neutral arbiter of COVID-19’s origins. Currently an Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department at Villanova University, Seligsohn was formerly in charge of science and health issues at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing during the SARS epidemic in the early 2000s.

Since her job in the U.S. State Department, Seligsohn has lectured and participated in fellowships at institutions led by the Chinese Communist Party. She addressed the Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party – the “exclusive training ground for the elite apparatchiks groomed to govern China” – in December of 2011. She also spoke at the regime-sponsored Shanghai World Expo in 2010.

Seligsohn also served as a research fellow at the state-run Nanjing University before leveraging her credentials to contribute to a host of mainstream media outlets including NPR, Foreign Policy, Associated Press, and more.

In a Foreign Policy op-ed titled “Demands for a Lab Leak Investigation Are a Dangerous Distraction,” Seligsohn posits there “is no actual evidence for the lab leak allegation” despite the theory counting support from scientists and government officials including former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Chief Dr. Robert Redfield and former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe. Seligsohn’s op-ed was then utilized by Chinese state-run media outlet China Global Television Network (CGTN), amplifying her words in its article “Expert: Demands For Lab Leak Investigation Are Dangerous Distraction.

“Although virologists have said over and again that there is no actual evidence for the lab leak allegation of the coronavirus, some people in the U.S. just won’t let it go. The demands for a lab leak investigation are a dangerous distraction, warned Deborah Seligsohn, an assistant professor of political science at Villanova University, in an article published recently on the website Foreign Policy,” CGTN wrote in a summary of Seligsohn’s article.

Seligsohn has peddled similar sentiments in outlets including the Associated Press and NPR, both of which failed to include her Chinese Communist Party ties.

In addition to dismissing the lab leak theory, she has also defended scientific collaboration with the Chinese Communist Party, arguing that “joint US-China research on bat coronaviruses is going to be more important after this pandemic, not less” in the Financial Times.

Seligsohn has participated in exclusive interviews with Chinese state-run media outlets decrying officials who trace COVID-19 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and defending National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded collaboration with Chinese Communist Party-run labs.

U.S. Republicans claim the virus causing COVID-19 escaped from a Wuhan lab. Assistant Professor Deborah Seligsohn of @VillanovaU says such conspiracy theories are very damaging. #covid #coronavirus @DebSeligsohn pic.twitter.com/Id9rffa4e1

— CGTN America (@cgtnamerica) August 24, 2021

She joins the ranks of more and more former U.S. government employees and so-called “experts” who have quietly been aiding the Chinese Communist Party for years.

EXC: Media’s ‘Lab Leak’ Denial Darling Is Actually Ex-Chinese Communist Advisor. (thenationalpulse.com)

A sitting Marine battalion commander was fired Friday after he slammed the “ineptitude” of U.S. military leadership over the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, saying he was willing to risk losing his 17-year career and future retirement pension in order to “demand accountability” from top military brass.

Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller said in a Facebook post that he was relieved for cause after he posted a video Thursday saying military leadership let service members down during the bungled Afghanistan withdrawal. His video post came after a terrorist attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport on Thursday that killed 13 U.S. service members, including someone with whom Scheller had a close relationship.

“I have been relieved for caused based on a lack of trust and confidence,” Scheller wrote.

In his Thursday video post, Scheller said that military leadership should take responsibility for the situation in Afghanistan.

“The reason people are so upset on social media right now is not because the Marine on the battlefield let someone down. That service member always rose to the occasion and done extraordinary things,” Scheller said. “People are upset because their senior leaders let them down and none of them are raising their hands and accepting accountability or saying, ‘We messed this up.'”

The scathing public rebuke is a sign of the growing anger among U.S. service members over the pullout and evacuation effort, which has led to a Taliban takeover of the country, left departing Americans vulnerable to deadly terrorist attacks, and stranded thousands of at-risk Afghan military allies.

“I want to say this very strongly. I have been fighting for 17 years. I am willing to throw it all away to say to my senior leaders: I demand accountability,” said Scheller.

On Aug. 18, Gen. David Berger, commandant of the Marine Corps., issued a public letter in an attempt to reassure Marines who were venting their frustration on social media, telling them that their service was “meaningful, powerful, and important.”

Scheller said the letter missed the point and failed to address the actual concerns of his fellow Marines.

He argued that the withdrawal was a major policy failure from the highest levels of military leadership, calling out Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and the joint chiefs of staff.

“I’m not saying we’ve got to be in Afghanistan forever. But I am saying, did any of you throw your rank on the table and say, ‘Hey, it’s a bad idea to evacuate Bagram Airfield, a strategic airbase, before we evacuate everyone’? Did anyone do that? And when you didn’t think to do that, did anyone raise their hand and say, ‘We completely messed this up’?” asked Scheller.

Scheller acknowledged that his critique would almost certainly cost him his job three years before he would qualify for a retirement pension.

“I thought through, if I post this video, what might happen to me—especially if the video picks up traction, if I have the courage to post it,” Scheller said. “But I think what you believe in can only be defined by what you’re willing to risk. If I’m willing to risk my current battalion seat, my retirement, my family’s stability to say some of the things I want to say, I think it gives me some moral high ground to demand the same honesty, integrity, and accountability from my senior leaders.”

Update 4:12 p.m.: This post has been updated to reflect that the Marine Corps relieved Scheller of his duty.

Marine Battalion Commander Fired After Blasting ‘Inept’ Military Leadership Over Afghanistan Withdrawal (freebeacon.com)

Baitulmaal gives financial support to families of Palestinian terrorists

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) on Wednesday shared a tweet that advertised a fundraiser for an organization with ties to Hamas and the Taliban.

Tlaib, who has a long history of anti-Semitic rhetoric, retweeted a post from critical race theorist Khaled Beydoun that urged donations to Baitulmaal, a Texas-based nonprofit. Experts say Baitulmaal helps fundraise for Hamas and distributes aid to the “families of martyrs of the Palestinian people.” And the group’s leader, Mazen Mokhtar, has been accused of working with the Taliban and other terrorist groups.

The retweet isn’t the first time Tlaib expressed support for terrorists. Days after she became a congresswoman, the controversial Democrat hosted Abbas Hamideh, a pro-Hezbollah activist who has repeatedly compared Israelis to Nazis. She shared a post last year that included an anti-Semitic phrase frequently used by Palestinian terrorist groups that seek to destroy Israel. She subsequently unshared the post.

Baitulmaal works closely with Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, according to a 2020 analysis by the Middle East Forum. The group, which received $10,000 in emergency coronavirus funding last year, frequently partners with Unlimited Friends Association for Social Development, a Palestinian group that describes itself as a “a social, developmental, educational NGO.”

The Unlimited Friends Association works with Baitulmaal to hand out cash to the families of Palestinian terrorists, according to the Middle East Forum. These donations complement the Palestinian Authority’s formal “Pay to Slay” program, which has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Palestinian terrorists. The Palestinian government this year paid $42,000 to the family of a Palestinian terrorist who stabbed two Israelis to death and wounded two more, including a two-year-old child.

The association, which lists Baitulmaal on its website’s partners and donors page, is openly hostile towards Israel. The group’s Facebook page contains references to “the filth of the most dirty Jews” and “Nazi Zionist jails.” The association also partners with Islamic Relief, a group with which the State Department cut ties this year because of “anti-Semitism exhibited repeatedly” by its leaders.

In 2004, federal agents in Connecticut investigated Mokhtar for running a website that “solicited funds for the Taliban and Chechen mujahideen.” Mokhtar was not convicted. Three years later, he was arrested on a multi-count indictment for filing false tax returns. The lead prosecutor was former New Jersey governor Chris Christie (R.).

Baitulmaal also partners with West Bank-based Hamas organizations. The organization hosted a 2008 fundraiser for the Yazour Medical Clinic in Nablus, an offshoot of Hamas. One Palestinian newspaper reports that Baitulmaal and the Hamas offshoot have been working together “for years.”

Anti-Semitic activist Linda Sarsour last year hosted a fundraiser for Baitulmaal that raised tens of thousands of dollars.

Tlaib and Baitulmaal did not respond to requests for comment.

Rashida Tlaib Promoted a Fundraiser for Group Tied to Hamas, Taliban (freebeacon.com)

The radical left is doing everything they can to destroy Black America:

• Scream “Black Lives Matter” while you burn down Black-owned businesses.
• Defund the police and make Black neighborhoods less safe.
• Use Critical Race Theory to convince Black kids that they will never succeed without a government handout.
• Increase the handouts, but nobody asks why?

Liberals want to keep Black America dependent on the government – it is the only way they will keep supporting liberal policies.

Help us fight back and save Black America from another century of lies!

CRT is the lynchpin in their plans to keep Black America down for generations. Their fight for CRT hurts the Black boys, and their push for gender equality hurts Black girls. Our fight against this poisonous doctrine cannot be more critical for the future of Black children in America.

“Woke” liberalism is destroying my community, and I have a plan to turn it around.

You can hear more about it here – when I was on Fox & Friends the other morning.

My name is Marc Little, and I am Executive Director of CURE America Action. I am a pastor, a patriot, an attorney, and a Black man. I am also Executive Director of CURE America Action, and I’m counting on you to help me counter the radical left’s attacks on Black America by making your generous contribution of $25, $50, $100, or even $1,000, right away!

The radical left targets Black people like me who push back on their lies. When proud black conservatives fight back, the radical left tries to put us in our place.

Congressman Byron Donalds, a Black Republican and proud conservative, was blocked from joining the Congressional Black Caucus for his conservative views. Senator Tim Scott was called “Oreo” by a Democrat politician and “Uncle Tim” by legions of liberals on social media just a few weeks ago.

They are terrified that someone might tell Black America that they don’t need anyone’s permission to succeed – they have the same opportunity as anyone else. That the mission statement of CURE America Action, and it is precisely what your donation will be funding. We are the antithesis of critical race theory, and we need your help.

Don’t let the radical left enslave Black Americans on their liberal plantation. Help us take our message of prosperity and opportunity to Americans of every race and creed. Chip in $1,000, $100, $50, or $25 and give us the ammunition to teach America the truth!

Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.
– Proverbs 12:22

If the left succeeds with their push to teach Critical Race Theory to our children, they will be lost to big government liberalism – liberalism that categorizes people by race – forever. The future of our nation depends on our ability to stop this propaganda from demonizing our children with lies and hate.

You and I must work quickly. Please let me hear from you today.

God Bless America,

Marc Little
Executive Director
CURE America Action

The identities of the 13 US service members who were killed by an ISIS-K suicide bomber outside the Kabul airport while helping to oversee the evacuation of thousands of Americans and Afghan allies have begun to emerge. 

The names of one Navy corpsman and four Marines killed in Thursday’s blast have been released, while the identities of an additional six Marines and two Army soldiers have yet to be disclosed while the military works to inform their families. 

“We continue to mourn the loss of these Marines and pray for their families. Our focus now is taking care of the families of those who were killed and caring for our injured,” Maj. Jim Stenger, a Marine Corps spokesperson, told The Post in an email. 

Per protocol, the military does not release information on deceased service members until 24 hours after their family members have been notified, but relatives have already independently confirmed several of the deaths ahead of that timeline. 

Here’s what we know about the US service members who were killed. 

Maxton Soviak

Soviak, a 22-year-old Navy hospital corpsman, hailed from Berlin Heights, Ohio, and graduated from Edison High School in Milan in 2017, the Sandusky Register reported. 

A woman who identified herself as Soviak’s older sister, and who goes by Marilyn Soviak on Instagram, penned a heartbreaking post Friday that confirmed her brother’s death. 

“I’ve never been one for politics and i’m not going to start now. What I will say is that my beautiful, intelligent, beat-to-the-sound of his own drum, annoying, charming baby brother was killed yesterday helping to save lives,” the sister wrote. 

“he was a f–king medic. there to help people. and now he is gone and my family will never be the same. there is a large Maxton sized hole that will never be filled,” she wrote alongside a slideshow of images showing the two as children.

“he was just a kid. we are sending kids over there to die. kids with families that now have holes just like ours.” 

While in high school, Soviak was on the honor roll and football team, the outlet reported.

“Max was a good student who was active in sports and other activities throughout his school career. He was well respected and liked by everyone who knew him,” the school said in a statement, adding that news of his death has brought “great sorrow.”

Soviak also previously worked as a lifeguard and a maintenance technician, the outlet reported. 

Kareem Nikoui was a young Marine from California whose father didn’t realize he’d been killed until he saw a clutch of Marines show up at his door, the Daily Beast reported. 

“I haven’t gone to bed all night,” the heartbroken dad told the outlet.

“I’m still in shock. I haven’t been able to grasp everything that’s going on.”

He said his son “loved what he was doing” and “always wanted to be a Marine.”

“He really loved that [Marine Corps] family. He was devoted — he was going to make a career out of this, and he wanted to go. No hesitation for him to be called to duty,” the dad said.

Ahead of his deployment to Afghanistan, Kareem Nikoui was stationed nearby at Camp Pendleton and often visited home on the weekends, bringing along “10 or 15 other Marines” with him, the dad told the Daily Beast. 

“My wife and I felt very honored that [since] these other boys weren’t around their homes, that we were able to provide some sort of family life for them,” he said.

The father criticized President Biden’s sloppy withdrawal from Afghanistan and said he didn’t expect his son to be in this situation. 

“They sent my son over there as a paper pusher and then had the Taliban outside providing security,” Steve Nikoui said. 

“I blame my own military leaders … Biden turned his back on him. That’s it.”

David Lee Espinoza

Espinoza was a 20-year-old Marine from Laredo, Texas, according to the Laredo Police Department. 

“Our thoughts and prayers will remain with the family of United States Fallen Marine, David L. Espinoza, as well as to his friends and fellow Marines,” the agency wrote in a Facebook post alongside a photo of Espinoza.

“Semper Fi. Thank you for your service.”

Espinoza graduated from Lyndon B. Johnson High School in Laredo and lived in Rio Bravo his entire life, KGNS reported.

“Mr. Espinoza, a Laredo Marine killed in Afghanistan, embodied the values of America: grit, dedication, service, and valor. When he joined the military after high school, he did so with the intention of protecting our nation and demonstrating his selfless acts of service,” Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) wrote on Twitter.

“I mourn him and all the fallen heroes in Afghanistan. My heart goes out to the Espinoza family in this extremely difficult time. The brave never die. Mr. Espinoza is a hero.”

Espinoza leaves behind a brother, mother and stepfather, News 4 San Antonio reported.

Rylee McCollum 

McCollum, a Marine from Bondurant, Wyoming, was on his first deployment and was three weeks away from being a dad when he was killed in Thursday’s blast, his sister told the Casper Star Tribune.

“He wanted to be a Marine his whole life and carried around his rifle in his diapers and cowboy boots,” McCollum’s sister Roice McCollum told the outlet. 

“He was determined to be in infantry … Rylee wanted to be a history teacher and a wrestling coach when he finished serving his country. He’s a tough, kind, loving kid who made an impact on everyone he met. His joke and wit brought so much joy.” 

Rylee McCollum had just graduated from high school in 2019 and was manning an airport checkpoint when the bomb exploded, the outlet said. 

“Saying that I am grateful for Rylee’s service to our country does not begin to encapsulate the grief and sadness I feel today as a mother and as an American,” Wyoming Schools Superintendent Jillian Balow told the outlet. 

“My heart and prayers are with Rylee’s family, friends, and the entire Jackson community.”

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon tweeted about the death early Friday. 

“I’m devastated to learn Wyoming lost one of our own in yesterday’s terrorist attack in Kabul,” Gordon wrote.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Rylee McCollum of Bondurant. Jennie and I, along with all of Wyoming and the entire country thank Rylee for his service.”

Jared Schmitz 

Schmitz was a 20-year-old Marine lance corporal from St. Charles County, Missouri, according to KMOX.

“His life meant so much more. I’m so incredibly devastated that I won’t be able to see the man that he was very quickly growing into becoming,” Schmitz’s father, Mark Schmitz, told the outlet. 

The heartbroken dad said his son, who always dreamed of being a soldier, was on his first deployment and was sent to Afghanistan from Jordan. He was notified of his son’s death at about 2:40 a.m.

State Rep. Nick Schroer penned a Facebook post about the death.

“Today please pray for Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz who paid the ultimate sacrifice yesterday serving our nation,” Schroer wrote on Facebook. 

“This young marine was from St. Charles County and is a true American hero. Keep his family in your prayers today. Thank you for your service young man! God Bless you and your family, Marine.” 

These are the US service members killed in Kabul airport attack (nypost.com)

‘The IOC hasn’t learned anything. They trust the CCP too much.’

When an Australian Olympian ran into Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 2002 waving a 1964 Tokyo Olympic banner with the words “truthfulness, compassion, tolerance” written on it as a stand against human rights abuses in China, she already knew that the communist country had been awarded the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Five years later, in 2007, she traveled the world in the lead-up to the Games as an ambassador for the Global Human Rights Torch Relay (GHRTR)—with the slogan, “Olympics and crimes against humanity cannot coexist in China.” She never expected that eight years later, in 2015, China would be awarded that privilege yet again; this time, to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Former Olympic swimmer Jan Becker, from Melbourne, Australia, now aged 76, swam the 100-meter freestyle relay in Tokyo at the ’64 Olympics and won the silver medal.

Her protest in Tiananmen Square—where she was arrested, interrogated, and deported along with several other Australians—was a major event at the beginning of her decades-long journey in speaking out about the persecution of faith by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). She returned home to see the media headlines: “Olympian Arrested in China.”

Just move the Olympics. With human rights, what they’ve done is just absolutely atrocious. The CCP is so anti-Divine … The International Olympic Committee hasn’t learned anything.— FORMER OLYMPIC SWIMMER JAN BECKER

“When I saw what they were doing, when they were killing people and taking their organs, I just had to stand up,” Becker told The Epoch Times. “That’s why I went to Tiananmen Square, because I wanted to get the news out to the world and to let the Chinese people know that the Western world was aware of what they were going through and that we were supporting them.

“I wanted the CCP to know there was an Olympian there, that that was connected⁠—the Olympics.”

Believing in “a connection” between the Olympics and “faith in the Divine,” yet seeing no ceasing of the CCP’s ongoing persecution of faith, including of Christians, Tibetans, Buddhists, Falun Gong, and more recently of Uyghurs, Becker is urging for a complete move of the 2022 Games away from China.

“I would prefer to see a complete move of the Games, not boycott China, just move the Olympics,” Becker said. “With human rights, what they’ve done is just absolutely atrocious, what they’ve done to Falun Gong practitioners, selling their organs around the world. They don’t believe in any faith. The CCP is so anti-Divine, against people who practice looking up to their God or their divinity.

“So many athletes actually look to the heavens. They do believe in God, they do believe in the Divine, and it must have a connection.” But as for the CCP, “they certainly wouldn’t dedicate anything to faith or religion,” Becker said.

A 22-Year Human Rights Advocacy Journey

Besides being an Olympian, Becker has taught and coached swimming for 20 years, worked as a consultant for 8 years, and was a human resource manager for 22 years before finally retiring in 2014.

But rather than slowing down, Becker, a mother-of-three and grandmother-of-eight, shifted much of her freed-up time into what she’d been doing in her spare time outside of her full-time job since 1999—raising awareness of the grave human rights violations in China, predominantly, of the persecution, torture, and organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners.

“I’ve always given 100 percent of myself to any job, my family, and do everything to the best of my ability. And that’s what I’m doing now,” she said.

Talking about what led her to defend human rights in China, Becker said it’s the CCP’s ongoing persecution of her faith: Falun Gong.

Searching for a cure for an illness at 54, Becker was introduced to the spiritual practice in February 1999. A self-cultivation practice of mind and body incorporating meditative exercises and moral teachings based on the principles of “truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance,” Falun Gong (or Falun Dafa) was practiced by 70 million to 100 million people in China before the CCP launched a persecution campaign in July 1999 in an attempt to eradicate the practice.

“I had been suffering probably for five or six years with a terminal illness, and I tried a whole lot of different things and nothing seemed to work,” she said. “And then someone told me about Falun Gong. I could see after reading the book that this would be really good for me to do. It was a spiritual journey.”

Besides the health benefits, Becker said that after 22 years of having taken up the practice, it has made her a better person. “I learned I had to be compassionate. That was the main thing I had to learn. And I have become a better person for it. It’s quite amazing,” she said.

After only five months of Becker having taken up the practice, however, the CCP’s persecution in China was launched.

By 2002, the reports of arrests, torture, and deaths of her fellow Chinese practitioners prompted her and some other Australian practitioners to go to China to stage a peaceful protest in Tiananmen Square to request the communist regime to end the persecution.

“I went to Tiananmen Square with a group of other Australians,” she said. “I took a 1964 Olympic banner, and I had a Falun Gong emblem painted on it—on ⁠the Japanese red circle⁠—and the words ‘truthfulness, compassion, tolerance,’ and I ran into Tiananmen Square.”

Becker said she was determined to make an impact and wasn’t scared of going, despite knowing that thousands of Chinese practitioners who had already protested in the Square before her were arrested, often tortured, and some even lost their lives.

“I never had any fear about going. I knew I was going, I was doing it, and I was coming home,” said Becker, whose story of going to Tiananmen was documented in the 2020 film “Protest at Heaven’s Gate.”

“Being an Olympian gave me a platform to be able to go out. That’s why I went to Tiananmen Square, because I wanted to get the news out to the world. The main thing was to let the CCP know that there was an Olympian in that. And also, make people around the world take a bit more notice of what was happening.”

Becker was arrested on that day, March 7, 2002, along with eight other Australians, not more than 30 seconds after running into the Square with her Olympic banner. She was questioned for 5 1/2 hours before being detained overnight and deported the next day, blacklisted from ever returning.

“They wanted to know where my Falun Gong books were, where my tapes were.” Becker said. “I said ‘they’re in my head and in my heart, I don’t need to bring them here.’ And they came in waving a glove, wanting to do a body search. They asked me to get undressed. I got down to my bra and knickers, and I said, you want me to get them off too?

“I remember telling the policeman that was interviewing me that they need to get out to see the world more, that ‘it’s not like this’ outside China. The world is not like what China was like. Everywhere I went in China, I was watched. They followed us down the street with phones. That’s why the Chinese people are so scared, they’re scared to do anything.”

The harassment didn’t stop there, either, Becker said. It extended beyond China’s walls to include threats to get her to stop speaking out to media only days after she’d returned home to Australia and had already told her story to various news outlets. About two or three days after being back home, she had left her house for the day, and when she returned, she found that the front door had been knocked down, “totally kicked off its hinges.”

“They’d placed a pitchfork on my bed, as if to scare me,” she said, referring to who she describes as “CCP agents” living outside China. Becker reported the incident to the police.

By the time of the 2008 Beijing Olympics approaching, to raise awareness and call for a boycott of the Games, a coalition of China human rights advocates launched their human rights torch relay and asked Becker to serve as the GHRTR Australian ambassador. The relay kicked off in Athens, Greece, on Aug. 9, 2007, and made its way through over 100 cities in more than 30 countries throughout Europe, America, Asia, and Australia.

While the CCP was touring its Olympic torch around the world, Becker was carrying its counterpart, the “human rights torch,” in its own separate international tour, including relaying it through 67 towns and suburbs in her home state, Victoria, in Australia.

“I had to stand up,” she said. “Lots of people were involved. In many towns, there were mayors, MPs, media, faith leaders, school groups, and human rights advocates; there were lots of reports and lots of things that happened with that torch relay.”

‘2022 Olympics Should Be Moved’

In referring to the March 2020 final judgment of the China Tribunal, a London-based people’s tribunal, Becker said that after thorough investigations, chair of the tribunal Sir Geoffrey Nice QC and a seven-member panel summarized that “any government, organization, or individual who interacts with China should recognize they are ‘interacting with a criminal state.’”

The tribunal stated in its judgment that “Commission of Crimes Against Humanity against the Falun Gong and Uyghurs has been proved beyond reasonable doubt,” and that the investigations led to the tribunal’s “unavoidable final conclusion that forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale.”

“Therefore, I’m calling that the 2022 Olympics should be moved,” Becker said. “And I believe that the sanctity of life and respect for human beings takes precedence over any sporting event—even the Olympics.”

Although lawmakers in the United States, Canada, Europe, and recently Australia, have called for a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, Becker says she doesn’t believe it will solve the issue, because the CCP no longer cares about pleasing diplomats, so “that’s not going to make them lose anything,” nor stop their human rights abuses.

“I don’t think China will care at all if the diplomats don’t go,” she said. “You’ve just got to look at how they’re treating Australia at the moment, look how many things they’ve taken off Australia; they don’t really care about the politicians or the diplomats that much anymore. I think they’ve got to move the 2022 Games, they’ve got to push to move them.”

Becker, who currently has commemorative items on display at the “Memories of Tokyo 1964” exhibition at the Consulate-General of Japan in Melbourne, said that, even if the Games have to be delayed, which “can be done as we saw for Tokyo 2020,” a complete move away from China is achievable.

“There’s plenty of countries that could do it,” she said. “Plenty of European countries that have got the infrastructure set up. If they need to get things together, we could put it off a year, but I’m sure there will be European countries that would take it on.”

Becker said that expecting any kind of boycott by athletes is not a realistic solution either. Shifting the burden to athletes who’ve “put in 110 percent” would not be a fair or reasonable expectation; she said the burden lies with the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

“This may be their only opportunity, one opportunity to go to an Olympics,” Becker said of the athletes. “It’s very hard to ask them to walk away from that. Administrators and the IOC should have made the right choices, it shouldn’t involve the athletes having to make this decision at all.”

The IOC ‘Stands Alone’

In 2001, when the IOC awarded the 2008 Games to China, as a former Olympian still in good relations with the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), Becker raised with them directly the seriousness of the communist regime’s “horrible” human rights record.

Later in 2007, while touring the world as Australian ambassador for the GHRTR, she implored them to ask the IOC to move the Olympics to Athens.

Becker said that, at the time, they had taken up a collection of petitions to move the 2008 Beijing Olympics. And John Coates, the now-vice president of the IOC, who was then a member of the IOC and the AOC, had forwarded those to the then-president of the IOC. “He guaranteed me that they got those petitions. So he reported how I felt. He’s supportive,” she said.

Even when China was still being considered as a contender for hosting the 2008 Olympics, Becker managed to raise her concerns with then-vice president of the IOC Kevan Gosper in-person at an Olympic function they both attended in November 2000. His response was that he believed the CCP would surely change.

“He told me the CCP would improve. I assured him at the time, they wouldn’t,” Becker said. “It’s interesting that they don’t learn, the IOC hasn’t really learned what the CCP’s about. In 2001, they were awarded those Games; It’s 20 years down the track, and they’re still doing the same thing today.”

Referring to the recent Hong Kong issue, suppression of Uyghurs, and the CCP’s recent intrusion activities in Taiwan, Becker called these all “new human rights abuses.” “These are new things after they were awarded the Olympics. The IOC hasn’t learned anything. They trust the CCP too much,” she said. “The CCP have just done exactly what they want to do afterward.”

Becker applauds the members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) who have coordinated legislative actions on the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, saying they’re “politicians who have a good heart and understand the human rights issues.” She said, however, that presidents and prime ministers are not likely to get involved.

“The IOC is a very strong organization. It stands alone, away from politics,” she said. “That’s why those politicians don’t want to get involved. They know that it stands alone. So it’s up to the people to try to talk to the International Olympic Committee, the Australian Olympic Committee, people involved at that level are the people we have to get to.

‘It’s Up to the People’

Becker said citizens around the world who are concerned about Beijing hosting the Olympics can find and sign an existing petition to the IOC, or start a new one. “I think they can all sign a petition,” she said. “Stand up where they can, show China⁠. We’ve seen that China can’t be trusted, even with the COVID situation. I think people are really waking up to how it is.”

In getting the Games moved, Becker said the world shouldn’t rely solely on “people at a high level of government.” “I think individual people can make it happen more, and as the groundswell happens, they then might come onboard,” she said.

Speaking about corporate sponsors dumping money into the Beijing Games—dubbed the “Genocide Olympics” by critics—Becker said corporations “will do anything for money.” “Corporations need to be talked to because they’ve supported the Olympics forever and ever, it’s going to be a difficult one to move them on that, but we have to try,” she said.

Various human rights abuses were reported to have happened during the 2008 Beijing Olympics: Elderly people being thrown out of their homes and made homeless to make way for the Olympic village, and dissidents being rounded up en masse by the CCP and imprisoned out of fear they might expose the CCP’s crimes to overseas visitors.

“We spoke about all these things in 2008,” she said. “I don’t know that many people listened as much as they should have, otherwise we wouldn’t be in this situation. I guess we have to go through it all over again.”

In predicting that “they’ll do it again,” Becker said those previous abuses by the CCP need to be brought back to the world’s attention because, “once again, they’ll make sure that anyone who doesn’t suit the commitment of the Party, the CCP, will be pushed out of town so no one can see them.”

Future of China, CCP, and Communism

When asked her thoughts about a communist country hosting the Olympics, and what she holds out for the future of China, Becker said: “I don’t believe in communism or socialism. I think it’s really bad for the world, you can see what’s happening⁠—people don’t have any thoughts, they can’t think for themselves, it’s just a terrible way of living.”

Becker said she’d like “to see the CCP collapse” and for freedom to be returned to the Chinese people. “It will be a better world for the Chinese people eventually. And I hope it’s sooner than later,” she said.

Seeing communism as a threat to the world, Becker said from her own experience that “we would not want to be ruled by the CCP.” But despite what may appear to be grim prospects with how far the CCP have already infiltrated the West, she maintains hope that the citizens of Western countries will fight to gain their dwindling sovereignty back.

“Even just in Australia⁠—and it’s happening in America and other countries as well⁠—the people are waking up; they’re realizing what the CCP is really all about, and how much they want to control everything,” she said. “People can now see through it.”

As for whether China will remain the host nation of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Becker believes that it “wouldn’t be good for the Olympic movement.”

“They’re putting themselves in a really difficult situation if they let China host the 2022 Olympics. They should have learned from the last one, and from the empty stalls in Tokyo. They may never go on. It may not keep going if we can’t take that away from the CCP,” she said.

“It’s wrong, it’s just wrong for them to have it.”

For Sanctity of Life, ‘Move the 2022 Games,’ Olympian Once Arrested in Beijing Says (theepochtimes.com)

The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, the so-called core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, vaulted in the 12 months through July to levels not seen in 30 years.

The Commerce Department said in a release Friday that core PCE rose 3.6 percent over the year in July, matching last month’s level, which was an increase from 3.5 percent in May and 3.1 percent in April.

The last time the core PCE inflation gauge saw a similar year-over-year vault was in July 1991, while the highest level the measure has hit is 10.2 percent in February 1975, when the economy was gripped in a troubling upwards wage-price spiral fueled by rising inflation expectations on the part of consumers.

The Fed looks to core PCE as a key inflation measure that informs its monetary policy, which has an inflation target of a longer-run average of 2 percent.

On a monthly basis, the core PCE gauge rose 0.3 percent between June and July, after rising 0.5 percent the prior month, suggesting inflationary pressures may have peaked.

It comes as Fed officials are meeting virtually for an annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday, with investors watching closely for signs of when and how the central bank may begin to roll back its extraordinary support measures for the economy. In response to the pandemic hit to the economy, the Fed last year dropped interest rates to near zero and set out on a massive asset purchasing program, buying around $80 billion in Treasury securities and $40 billion in mortgage securities per month.

In a speech Friday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell addressed inflationary pressures, acknowledging a “sharp run-up in inflation” driven by the rapid reopening of the economy while reiterating his oft-repeated view that price pressures would moderate once supply-side shortages and bottlenecks further abate.

Powell acknowledged the relatively high level of Friday’s core PCE print, noting it’s “well above our 2 percent longer-run objective” and that both businesses and consumers “widely report upward pressure on prices and wages.”

“Inflation at these levels is, of course, a cause for concern. But that concern is tempered by a number of factors that suggest that these elevated readings are likely to prove temporary,” he said, arguing that the current spike in inflation is largely driven by a relatively narrow group of goods and services that have been directly impacted by the pandemic and the reopening of the economy.

“We are also directly monitoring the prices of particular goods and services most affected by the pandemic and the reopening, and are beginning to see a moderation in some cases as shortages ease. Used car prices, for example, appear to have stabilized; indeed, some price indicators are beginning to fall,” Powell said.

Powell added that officials have not, so far, noted broad-based inflationary pressures but acknowledged that evidence of such pressures spreading more broadly through the economy would be concerning and would prompt a swift policy response.

The Fed chief also addressed wage pressures. In the 1970s, upward pressure on wages combined with growing consumer expectations of further price increases to push prices higher, prompting the Fed to raise interest rates. Powell said there is little evidence of this phenomenon today.

“If wage increases were to move materially and persistently above the levels of productivity gains and inflation, businesses would likely pass those increases on to customers, a process that could become the sort of ‘wage-price spiral’ seen at times in the past,” Powell said.

“Today we see little evidence of wage increases that might threaten excessive inflation. Broad-based measures of wages that adjust for compositional changes in the labor force, such as the employment cost index and the Atlanta Wage Growth Tracker, show wages moving up at a pace that appears consistent with our longer-term inflation objective,” he said.

Powell also noted disinflationary forces like technology and globalization, arguing that there is little evidence these have suddenly reversed or abated, arguing that “it seems more likely that they will continue to weigh on inflation as the pandemic passes into history.”

He said the baseline economic outlook is for the economy to continue progressing towards maximum employment, with inflation returning closer to the Fed’s goal of averaging 2 percent over time.

Key Inflation Gauge Posts Fastest Annual Price Gain in 30 Years (theepochtimes.com)

When I was young and inexperienced, with no money and no career, I nonetheless made a firm assumption about people who’d made it, who’d risen to the top of their fields. They were daring individuals, I thought, outspoken and candid, willing to go against the crowd. These were people with a skeptical eye on the conventional wisdom, ever ready to challenge and dispute whenever they sensed a stale assertion of it.

When I worked for Dana Gioia at the National Endowment for the Arts, he told me once that when he was in advertising his team would meet at the end of the year to review themselves, and they spent five times as many minutes discussing what they did wrong as they spent on what they did right. That was the kind of toughness I imagined happened in every elite circle.

Look at the leaders of institutions, today, however, and you witness a pageant of conformity and timidity, guardedness ever present, the most powerful people in politics, education, entertainment, media, and business speaking in well-rehearsed terms, mouthing standard pieties with an air of solemnity that is one millimeter thick. Political correctness has turned them into cliche machines.

Did you notice the apology written recently by Mike Richards, the man who was to replace the late Alex Trebek as host of “Jeopardy!”? Richards is a big deal in the game show world, the executive producer of “Jeopardy!” and of “Wheel of Fortune,” winner of three Emmy Awards, too. But after he was selected as “Jeopardy!”‘s new host, some comments that he’d made on his 2013–14 podcast surfaced and set him up for what is now a familiar ritual: the high-profile cancellation. The ritual meant the loss of his post, and also a confession/contrition/plea on the accused’s part that is painful to read—not because of the sentiments themselves, however, but because of their dispiritingly banal expression.

Richards might have said, “Yeah, I made some dumb remarks just trying to get a laugh—I don’t regard them as cause for termination eight years later, though—let’s ease up, okay.”

No, instead we got the nauseatingly customary script:

“It is humbling to confront a terribly embarrassing moment of misjudgment, thoughtlessness, and insensitivity from nearly a decade ago,” he said.

It sounded like every other public apology we’ve heard in recent years, with studied humility and sober drama of self-confrontation. The words follow with all the formulaic layout of an algebraic equation. We have the expected family invocation as well, and role model talk: “My responsibilities today as a father, husband, and public personality who speaks to many people through my role on television means I have substantial and serious obligations as a role model, and I intend to live up to them.”

I don’t blame Richards for this, though. It’s the environment he’s in, a tiresome and phony place that the rest of America recognizes instantly for its mendacity. These declarations sound so sincere, but we know how calculating they are. To the material loss suffered by the penitent one, we have the pain of self-emasculation added in the most predictable language. Can’t any of these people think for themselves? Richards’ public career is over, at least for the near future and maybe the far. What does he have to lose? Why go official and betray his own heart (which is precisely what a man who adopts the idiom of his executioners is doing), even when you know it won’t save you?

Again, these are not people beaten down by life, their egos crushed by poverty and disappointment.  They have all the trappings of self-determination—money, education, worldliness, competitiveness, achievement—and yet the working-class guy and gal show a heckuva lot more independent spirit than Mr. Success ever does.

I think that this conformist atmosphere among the elite has played a significant role in the rise of populist anger in America. The contempt that the elite feel for the non-elite in our country is on display every day in the opinion pages and the liberal cable news shows. Just the recently, while driving through the South and listening to NPR, I heard the host introduce interviewee Robin D’Angelo with the question, “Why is it so hard for white people to talk about racism?” The willingness to cast an entire racial group as deficient in some way used to be called “stereotyping,” and enlightened folk universally rejected it. Here, however, it was offered as an enlightening observation. The condescension was thick and gleeful. The host wasn’t aware of how smug she sounded, but ordinary Americans have seen and heard such sentiments over and over, and they discern the contempt more acutely than elites realize.

How irritating it is, then, for these judgmental elites to appear so weak and obedient and cookie-cut at times that call for bold presentation. They’re avid about their superiority, but feeble in their individuality. They profess to be the best and the brightest, but they sink into stupid politically correct truisms when the pressure’s on. Liberalism claims to honor the individual voice, the lone dissenter, but never does a prominent 21st-century liberal wish to fall out of step with his fellows. The guns of cancellation are always primed, and he knows it.

A country whose leadership class is fearful and wary is in trouble. Insecurity makes for bad decisions, and for bad symbolism, too. A leader who stands up and apologizes for the “systemic” sins of the institution he leads doesn’t come off as properly sensitive and constructively progressive. He’s just weak. The celebrity who gets down on his knees and apologizes for some “phobic” remark made years earlier on the internet isn’t rightly repentant and newly enlightened. He’s just humiliating himself. Ordinary Americans draw a pat conclusion: These figureheads make a lot of money and they’re awfully full of themselves and down on us, but when you get down to it, they’re not so great, not at all.

This is the end of a great American tradition of rebelliousness. Ben Franklin ran away from Boston and struck out on his own as a mere teenager. Emerson praised self-reliance as the essence of genius. Thoreau headed to the woods because he couldn’t stand the copycat mentality of fellow citizens. Huck at the end aims to light out for the territory, knowing he’ll never fit in with civilized society. Those figures are the opposite of today’s Americans aspiring to the realms of the elite. Ambitious ones sense at an early age that climbing the ladder means fitting in and filtering impulses. The pipeline has sensors attuned to pick up the maverick spirit and mark it as suspect. Our leaders are tame souls whose wills are triggered mainly by the appearance of a rogue in their midst.

Therein lies the aversion to Donald Trump. It wasn’t Trump’s politics or policies that disturbed the elite. It was, instead, his headstrong personality and outspoken words. The content of his thought and speech they might have opposed in the normal political ways, but the character of the man couldn’t be handled that way. His performances could be received by them only as an admonishment. He spoke his mind, they didn’t, and that made them feel bad about themselves—as it should. Let us hope that more untamed figures surface and do the same thing.

Our Tame Leaders (theepochtimes.com)

Terminations, job walk-offs could be ‘devastating’ to communities

A nationwide shortage of nurses and health care workers may soon worsen as thousands of medical staff face losing their jobs by refusing to obey new COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

“It will be really terrible. We’re already understaffed,” said one veteran registered nurse who works at a health care facility north of Seattle.

She said she will lose her job after her employer’s Aug. 31 mandated vaccine goes into effect unless she complies with the requirement.

She estimates that as many as 400—20 percent—of the health center’s 2,500 employees refuse to take the vaccine. That number will likely shrink due to the financial hardship of job loss, she said, though “even losing 5 percent would be devastating to the community,” she told The Epoch Times.

The nurse, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said her only solution is if her employer grants her a religious exemption, which appears unlikely at this point.

“It looks like they’re going to reject my religious exemption. They need more information, but they’re not telling me what information they’re going to need. It puts me in a really tough situation,” she said. “I have two [elderly] parents who live with me. It would be extraordinarily disruptive to move them. It’s extremely scary trying to start again somewhere else.”

Stephanie Thorpe, a registered nurse in the UCHealth Colorado system, is also stuck between an employee rock and a medical hard place over her company’s pending vaccine mandate.

Thorpe said she, too, could lose her job if her application for a religious exemption is denied.

UCHealth reports more than 92 percent of 26,000 employees systemwide are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

That leaves a reluctant 8 percent who refuse the shots.

These medical professionals—Thorpe included—will have until Sept. 1 to comply with UCHealth’s Oct. 1 vaccine mandate, or else they will face disciplinary action up to and including termination.

“We do allow if there is a religious exemption or a medical exemption as well,” said UCHealth spokeswoman Kelly Tracer. “UCHealth has been facing the same staffing challenges that hospitals around the country are, definitely. It’s a national shortage.”

Thorpe estimates “a couple hundred” staunch opponents to the vaccine mandate “are willing to walk away” because of the vaccines.

“Right now, [UCHealth] is working short-staffed at many facilities,” she told The Epoch Times.

Thorpe said that even if a small percentage of UCHealth employees are fired or walk off the job, their departure could be significant.

“I’m concerned that the people who are vaccinated and are going to stay are going to take the majority of the workload,” Thorpe said. “We can’t even get people now to fill positions. It could get very scary.”

UCHealth, however, states that over the past six months, more than 4,400 new employees, including 1,100 new nurses, have been hired.

“Our new employee orientations often have hundreds of people in each class, and today, we have about 7 percent more employees than at this time last year,” UCHealth said in a statement. “These new employees are making a difference, but especially when our hospitals are as full as they are right now, recruiting employees and retaining our current employees are top priorities for us.”

However, it’s not only UCHealth employees that refuse the vaccine that may soon join the ranks of the unemployed.

A partial list of other U.S. hospital systems that have mandated or plan to mandate vaccinations for their employees includes Allegheny Health Network (19,000 employees) in Pennsylvania, Banner Health Network (52,000) in Arizona, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (13,000) in New Hampshire, Kaiser Permanente (216,000) in California, Ascension Health (160,000) in Missouri, Advocate Aurora Health (75,000) in Illinois, Bay State Health (12,000) in Massachusetts, and New York-Presbyterian (20,000) in New York.

Ballad Health Care CEO Alan Levine told reporters that mandating shots on the 22-hospital system’s remaining 38 percent of unvaccinated workers would likely worsen an ongoing nursing shortage.

While at least one media outlet referred to those medical professionals who refuse to take the vaccines as “unlikely” to be hesitant because of their knowledge and medical training, several nurses interviewed by The Epoch Times said it’s their scientific training that gives them pause.

The nurse in Washington said there’s “a lot of distrust of the vaccine and the media narrative ‘safe and effective.’”

“There are a lot of credible doctors out there,” she said, “and they’re being shunned” by the medical community because they oppose the mRNA shots.

Another registered nurse, in Virginia, said she chose to give notice to her employer rather than be compelled to take the vaccine.

“This is a new type of vaccine—an mRNA vaccine that has never been used on humans before,” she told The Epoch Times on condition of anonymity. “It’s different from any of the other vaccines.”

“I am not against vaccines,” she said. “I encourage people to get vaccines that have been studied for years. I don’t think I’m being hypocritical by saying I’m pro-vaccine, but not pro this vaccine.”

Like Thorpe, the nurse said COVID-19 vaccine mandates will make the shortage of health care workers much worse.

“Who is going to take care of people with the [COVID-19] influx? You can only work short-staffed to a degree without compromising patient safety,” she said.

To illustrate her point, the nurse said she was recently offered a position at a health care facility without an interview ever taking place. The offer was rescinded when she refused to comply with the company’s vaccine mandate.

“I’ve been in health care over 10 years. I’ve never been given a job offer prior to an interview,” she said.

Currently, there are nearly 4 million registered nurses in the United States. However, the need to hire thousands more qualified staff was present even before the pandemic.

“Without decisive action, nurses will practice under increased stress. As the health care system is strained by an aging population and broadened access to public health care, it will be nurses that feel the weight of patient responsibility on their shoulders,” according to the American Nurses Association (ANA).

The ANA adds that by 2022, there will be “far more registered nurse jobs” than any other profession.

With more than 500,000 seasoned registered nurses (RNs) anticipated to retire by 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the need for 1.1 million new RNs to replace those that have retired and to avoid a nursing shortage.

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the United States will also see an estimated shortage of 37,800 to 124,000 physicians by 2034, including shortfalls in both primary and specialty care.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted many of the deepest disparities in health and access to health care services and exposed vulnerabilities in the health care system,” said AAMC President and CEO David J. Skorton in a statement.

To bridge the gap, hospitals and health care systems now offer various incentives to lure qualified nursing staff.

At Duke University Hospital in North Carolina, for example, a recent job posting sought an experienced RN Clinical Team Lead with a $15,000 sign-on bonus.

Nationwide, a skilled RN can earn anywhere from $70,000 to $130,000, and even more in states such as California.

In Arizona, there are currently 75,600 total nurses to serve an aging population that continues to grow.

Ann-Marie Alameddin, president and CEO of the Arizona Hospital and Health Care Association, said the shortage is mainly due to nurse retirement and normal attrition, as well as COVID-19 burnout.

Only “a handful” of hospitals in Arizona currently require a COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of employment, Alameddin told The Epoch Times.

“This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” she said, and likened those employees who get vaccinated to honoring a “social contract” to keep people safe.

Jennifer Bridges, a former nurse at Houston Methodist Hospital, said: “The thing that’s really scary is now [hospitals] are mandating [the vaccine], like everywhere.”

“I mean, nurses and other staff are contacting me from so many different states and all over the place right now. And a lot of them are not going to take [the vaccine]” or they’re getting fired or seeking an exemption. “A lot of times they deny exemptions, so it’s just going create more of a shortage all the way around the board,” Bridges said.

In June, a federal judge threw out a lawsuit brought by 117 employees at Houston Methodist who were suing the hospital system over its COVID-19 vaccine requirement.

The social cost of the vaccine mandates being felt, however, has nothing to do with public health or safety, the nurse in Washington said.

“It’s really shocking and devastating to me. I’m going to lose a whole number of [vaccinated] people I consider friends. I feel like I’m going through this feeling of grief. I’m really scared what this means for society,” she said.

Nurses Warn of Staff Shortages Due to COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates (theepochtimes.com)

Thirteen U.S. troops were killed on Thursday in the bombings in Kabul, Afghanistan.

More than a dozen others were wounded, CENTCOM Commander General Kenneth McKenzie told reporters in a briefing conducted hours after the attack.

Twelve deaths were initially announced; among them were 11 Marines and one Navy medic. Another Marine was reported to have died hours later.

Kabul health officials were quoted as saying that at least 60 Afghan civilians were killed in the attack, reported Reuters.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, bragging that a suicide bomber “managed to penetrate all the security fortifications” put into place by U.S. forces and the Taliban.

President Joe Biden said the United States would retaliate against the terror group.

“We will hunt you down and make you pay,” he said in Washington, speaking to those responsible for the bombings.

U.S. officials also said evacuation efforts would continue until Aug. 31, when U.S. troops are scheduled to withdraw from Afghanistan.

“We will not be dissuaded from the task at hand,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a written statement. “To do anything less—especially now—would dishonor the purpose and sacrifice these men and women have rendered our country and the people of Afghanistan.”

The bombings took place at or near the Abbey Gate, which sits on the eastern side of the airport, on Thursday evening local time.

One went off at the gate before at least one other exploded near the Baron Hotel, situated a short distance from the gate.

Photographs showed injured and bloodied people, with dozens of Afghans among those wounded or killed.

13 US Troops Killed in Afghanistan Bombings (theepochtimes.com)

Los Angeles Police Department officers patrol on bicycles past a homeless man on a downtown sidewalk in Los Angeles, California on June 7, 2017. 

As drug overdose deaths rise in California, state leaders are considering paying addicts to stay sober, but a former drug addict questions the efficiency of the incentive known as SB 110.

Yolanda Terrazas, a former addict and current secretary for The Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center in Anaheim told The Epoch Times the proposed legislation provides only a temporary solution as addicts will use the money to purchase drugs.

“Giving money to an individual that has an addiction problem, doesn’t give them coping skills, doesn’t give them ways to manage their feelings and emotions,” Terrazas said.

“All they’re doing is giving them money to temporarily stop and they’ll just turn around and spend that money and find another way to receive funds. Somebody else will pay for their addiction, while they temporarily stop using, they won’t gain anything. If they don’t have skills, knowledge, or tools to use.”

Terrazas stated addicts need more proactive solutions, such as organizations that provide programs that allow addicts to find sobriety to last a lifetime. Rather than giving funds to addicts, the money should be used to assist in finding employment for individuals who complete addiction programs, she said.

Before finding employment at The Salvation Army eight months ago, Terrazas joined the organization’s six-month rehab program to get sober. The program taught her communication and employment skills while providing a structured schedule she accredits to helping her get sober.

Every day, the beneficiaries of the program are tested. Terrazas is approaching her two-year sober anniversary next month.

While discussion contingency management payments to encourage addicts to remain sober continues, similar legislation is supported by both Republicans and Democrats.

According to co-author of the substance use contingency bill Assemblymember Laurie Davies, studies have shown contingency management programs have been effective for veterans that are meth addicts.

“California’s opioid epidemic shows no signs of slowing down, even during the Covid-19 pandemic,” Assemblymember Laurie Davies told The Epoch Times in an email. “For years, our state has struggled to get a handle on this crisis and for years we have seen preventable suffering and loss.”

Davies said SB 110 is a “common-sense measure to try an all-of-the-above approach to really incentive people to get away from substance abuse.”

The legislation proposes that through MediCal, low-income residents can receive substance use disorder services and care.

Through the proposed contingency management services outlined in SB 110, beneficiaries will be limited to the number of incentives received.

Former Drug Addict Questions California’s Bid to Pay Addicts to Sober Up (theepochtimes.com)

The Orange County Board of Education (OCBE) called out critical race theory (CRT) during its second ethnic studies forum, debating with differing perspectives on Aug. 24.

Moderated by Harriette Reed, five expert panelists gave opening and closing remarks, and answered questions from the board during the meeting.

“The motivation for ethnic studies is grounded in the idea that historically underserved communities don’t see themselves in the curriculum, which is a really important goal to address,” panelist Elina Kaplan, co-founder and president of the Alliance for Constructive Ethnic Studies (ACES), said during the meeting.

Kaplan’s concern, along with most of the panelists, was the infiltration of CRT in ethnic studies. CRT is an ideology that divides society into oppressors and the oppressed based on racial characteristics. Kaplan said when she first looked at the California Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) a couple of years ago, it looked “familiar” and reminded her of the indoctrination she received growing up in the Soviet Union.

“What in the world is neo-Marxist dogma doing in a K-12 ethnic studies curriculum—a curriculum that’s supposed to be focusing on building bridges of understanding between ethnic groups, building mutual respect,” she said.

Kaplan said there are two forms of the ESMC that are being pushed in schools. One is liberation ethnic studies, which critiques “white supremacy, racism, patriarchy,” etc. The other is constructive ethnic studies, which focuses on the roles and experiences of different ethnic groups in American history.

“In one case, the emphasis is more on the oppressed versus oppressor, on the colonialism, and so on. The other one, the emphasis is much more on building bridges and discussing racism, but in a way that addresses all the causes of racism, not just focus on the colonialism aspect,” she said.

While ethnic studies can be valuable, she said, in the wrong hands—and taught through the lens of CRT— it can be “counterproductive.”

“We can agree that we want our kids to get an education that teaches them how to respect each other, how to honor their differences, how to confront racism honestly and with mutual respect,” Kaplan said.

“If the majority of California and America knew what critical race theory-based ethnic studies was, they would not want it and we would not be here having this conversation.”

Author and Mathematician James Lindsay said CRT stretches back to Herbert Marcuse, a critical theorist that was widely popularized in the 1960s.

“The point of [Marcuse’s] liberation critical theory is to induce psycho pathologies in activists so that they find the life that we live in our society intolerable and require liberation in order to survive, to function in day-to-day society,” Lindsay said during the discussion.

Lindsay said a “meaningful” debate about ethnic studies cannot take place since the subject has been “co-opted by critical theorists.”

“[Ethnic studies] has become a Trojan horse for a separate ideology, where the merits of ethnic studies may well be high enough to merit that being a program we want. Whereas the demerits—the horror of critical race theory—now makes it impossible to have that debate,” he said.

Lindsay pointed out that ethnic studies focuses on diversity of race (rather than diversity of perspectives) because it believes in a doctrine called structural determinism, defined as systemically racist systems of power determine the outcomes of different races.

Inclusion, Lindsay said, also has a “double meaning” within ethnic studies.

“Inclusion actually is biased based on these beliefs about power dynamics … Inclusion actually means that only certain people must be given inclusion and belonging. It becomes instead in practice for these people that are implementing it to give justification for purges, justification for censorship.”

Pastor D.A. Horton said ethnic studies allows students to “feel affirmed, noticed, valued, and heard from” regarding their cultural backgrounds.

“If we teach ethnic studies with transferrable skills, it teaches us how to reduce those inter-ethnic and cross-ethnic conflicts through shared experiences, communication, and interpersonal relationship building,” Horton said.

He continued: “If you can define your terms about what the curriculum says, and the parents communicate and not allow somebody to hijack terminology, then you can help set the record straight and keep it straight and then you pass the baton to your children.”

According to the University of California, the phrase “there is only one race, the human race” is considered a microaggression.

Cultural anthropologist Joe Nalven said viewing the idea of “there is only one race, the human race” as a microaggression is a “mistake” if accepted to reframe anthropology and biology, as these fields of study consider the idea to be “fundamentally true.”

“You are taking a psychological issue and you are projecting it onto a sociological, biological science to disrupt the way in which science is taught,” he said.

Psychiatrist Mark McDonald said that racism is no longer an obstacle to success in this country.

However, since the media and government are pushing the idea that American society is suffering from a “crisis” of racism and it necessitates CRT, “then you can justify really any sort of irrational policy,” he said.

“What will happen if you spent 12 years in critical race theory, indoctrination; where’s that going to lead? I don’t know. But it scares me.”

Orange County Board of Education Calls Out Critical Race Theory in Ethnic Studies (theepochtimes.com)

The Supreme Court of the State of Idaho unanimously ruled this week that the state’s new statute governing citizen-initiated ballot initiatives is unconstitutional because it infringes on the public’s right to enact laws without the participation of the state Legislature.

The decision came Aug. 23 in the case known as Reclaim Idaho v. Denney, dockets 48784 and 48760. Lawerence Denney is Idaho’s Republican secretary of state.

Reclaim Idaho is a left-wing political action committee that led a successful Medicaid expansion initiative in 2018 and supports boosting funding in kindergarten through 12th-grade education by increasing Idaho’s corporate tax rate and taxes on individuals earning $250,000 or more annually.

The group’s website explains that “Reclaim Idaho’s primary organizing tactic is the ballot initiative. … We also engage in grassroots advocacy efforts, such as fights against cuts to Medicaid and restrictions on initiative rights. Our grassroots advocacy campaigns organize local leaders and volunteers to contact their legislators, advocate at the capitol, and host local town-hall meetings.

“But the initiative is our primary tactic because it has the greatest potential for growing a statewide movement.”

Idaho’s highest court found that the statute at hand runs afoul of Idaho voters’ fundamental right to carry out a citizen-led initiative. Denney and the state Legislature both “failed to present a compelling state interest for limiting that right,” according to the new court opinion.

“Ultimately, the effect of SB 1110 [i.e. the new statute] is to prevent a perceived, yet unsubstantiated fear of the ‘tyranny of the majority,’ by replacing it with an actual ‘tyranny of the minority,’” the court stated in striking down the statute. The court also noted that the statute conflicts with “the democratic ideals that form the bedrock of the constitutional republic created by the Idaho Constitution.”

According to The Idaho Statesman, the state Legislature “will have to pay Reclaim Idaho and [another litigant] their attorney fees for the lawsuit, on top of the fees paid its own attorney to defend the law.”

The U.S. Supreme Court briefly involved itself in the issue a year ago, when it temporarily blocked a federal district judge’s order that relaxed election rules to give Reclaim Idaho additional time to gather signatures for a ballot initiative during the pandemic.

In the Idaho court’s opinion, Justice Gregory W. Moeller noted that Article III, Section 1 of the Idaho Constitution, states in part: “The people reserve to themselves the power to approve or reject at the polls any act or measure passed by the legislature. … The people reserve to themselves the power to propose laws, and enact the same at the polls independent of the legislature.”

Idaho Code section 34-1805(2), as amended by a law known as SB 1110, “requires that, for an initiative or referendum to appear on the ballot, organizers must obtain a threshold number of signatures from ‘each of the thirty-five (35) legislative districts’ in the state.”

Both Denney and the Legislature argued that the changes enacted by SB 1110 were “a lawful exercise of the legislature’s constitutionally delegated power to prescribe the conditions and manner under which initiatives and referenda may be carried out by the people.” Denney also argued, among other things, that “this case presents a nonjusticiable political question that the Idaho Supreme Court should not address.”

Moeller also noted that Reclaim Idaho, alongside another group called the Committee to Protect and Preserve the Idaho Constitution Inc., sought a declaration that the new signature threshold mandated by SB 1110, requiring signatures from every legislative district, was unconstitutional. The two groups also contested the constitutionality of another statute, Idaho Code section 34-1813(2)(a), which was amended in 2020 “and states that an initiative may not become effective earlier than July 1 of the year following the vote in which it was passed.”

Reclaim Idaho welcomed the ruling.

“Thousands of Idahoans will be breathing a sigh of relief,” said group co-founder Luke Mayville, KTVB reported. “Those of us directly involved in the case are ecstatic. It’s an historic day. A fundamental right of the people of Idaho has been restored.”

Idaho Supreme Court Invalidates Ballot Initiative Law (theepochtimes.com)

U.S. investors cut their use of leverage in July, marking the first month since the onset of the pandemic that saw a reduction in the use of margin debt to buy securities such as stocks, potentially a warning sign for markets buoyed by heavy use of borrowed money.

Data from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) on the use of margin debt, which is money borrowed by investors from brokers to buy securities, show $844 billion borrowed against portfolios in July. That’s the first month the metric has dipped since embarking on a steady month-over-month climb in March 2020, when it stood at $479 billion. Margin loans had hit a record high of $882 billion in June 2021, according to FINRA figures.

A separate data point from Interactive Brokers, which serves about 1.5 million clients, showed that margin debt among its customers fell 2 percent from June to July, according to the Financial Times.

Some see the reduction in borrowing as an ominous sign for markets, coming as some analysts believe the stunning bull run in U.S. equities is due for a correction.

Stephen Suttmeier, technical research strategist at Bank of America, wrote in a recent note cited by Fortune that “rising leverage tends to confirm U.S. equity rallies” and that it’s not new record highs for margin loans that are cause for worry, but “we get concerned when margin debt stops rising to suggest that investors have begun to reduce leverage.”

Nick Reece, portfolio manager at Merk Investments, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that the buildup in margin debt since the end of 2019 has matched the rise in the market, and “that’s nothing to be concerned about.”

In his view, “what would be concerning is to see a major buildup in margin debt relative to the market,” which ties into the idea that if asset prices continue to rise, then a commensurate rise in borrowing is nothing to worry about, particularly when—as now—borrowing costs are low.

At the same time, Reece believes the feverish bull run for the benchmark S&P 500, which has continued to push to new all-time highs, is ripe for a pullback.

“I continue to think the market is due for a short-term correction or sideways consolidation,” he said. “The market is trading at the top end of the bull market trend channel. And there hasn’t been a 10 percent correction since the March 2020 lows—it’s always worth being mentally prepared for one.”

“Of course, a 10 percent correction might only start 10 percent higher from here, so trying to time it is a fool’s errand in my view,” he said, noting that a positive medium-term market outlook for equities continues to be supported by a number of data points, including the business cycle expansion and the so-called TINA effect, an acronym for “there is no alternative,” which is the notion that frothy markets will keep rising despite showing signs of weaker fundamentals because there are no other options for yield-seeking investors.

Suttmeier argued in his note that the dial-back in leverage sends an ominous signal.

“Although peaks in margin debt don’t always coincide with highs for the [S&P 500], they tend to be bearish for equities,” he said.

Investors Borrow Less to Buy Stocks for First Time Since Pandemic Began, an Ominous Sign (theepochtimes.com)

America is underwriting its own demise.

Woke Capital apparently wants to hasten it.

Coming on the heels of a letter from titans of American industry to the Biden administration calling for it to jettison punitive China tariffs post-haste, and resume trade negotiations with Beijing, BlackRock’s research arm recently urged investors to increase their exposure to the PRC by two-to-three times.

The world’s leading asset manager of some $10 trillion in assets did so 18 months after China helped foist a pandemic on America and the world that has caused incalculable damage in blood, treasure, and sacrificed liberty and justice.

It did so after China crushed Hong Kong, clashed with India, antagonized Australia, and as it threatens a takeover of Taiwan.

It did so in spite of the fact that Xi Jinping is currently waging a jihad—euphemistically referred to as a “regulatory crackdown”—against China’s largest businesses, U.S.-listed ones of which saw $400 billion of market value lopped off this summer.

It did so surely knowing those funds ultimately redound to the benefit of the sworn adversary of the United States that seeks to supplant it and reign as the dominant world power.

It did so notwithstanding all the U.S. government has done for it, BlackRock having been dubbed the “fourth branch of government” for its political and pecuniary ties to the feds generally, and the quasi-public Federal Reserve in particular.

And it did so irrespective of its claimed fealty to progressive investing principles.

Former Trump administration Deputy National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger, one of the principal architects of the administration’s China strategy, broadly captured the symptoms of Woke Capital’s China addiction, and exposed the hypocrisy of the likes of BlackRock, in a recent piece in Foreign Affairs.

Pottinger noted:

“The retirement savings of millions of Americans currently finance Beijing’s military modernization and support Chinese companies that are complicit in genocide and other crimes against humanity. Even as Beijing was systematically expelling foreign journalists from China and making the country’s investment climate increasingly opaque, stock index providers such as FTSE Russell and MSCI continued to add Chinese companies to their indexes, sometimes under pressure from Beijing. Because many American funds benchmark their investments to those same indexes, billions of U.S. dollars automatically flow to Chinese companies, including those that Washington has sanctioned or subjected to export controls.”

This issue is so systemic that until the Trump administration forbade it, the retirement funds of federal employees were being funneled into malevolent Chinese companies as well.

Meanwhile, many financial firms pledging allegiance to “ESG”—prioritizing investments in companies that adhere to progressive environmental, social, and governance standards—demonstrate those concerns do not stretch beyond America’s shores.

As Pottinger adds:

“Some money managers…eschew investing in Western companies that don’t meet…’ESG criteria’…but happily invest in Chinese companies that feature atrocious records in all three categories. There are U.S. university endowments, for instance, that could deliberately decide to invest in only ESG-compliant companies in the United States but simultaneously invest in a raft of Chinese firms that flout all accepted standards of corporate governance and environmental stewardship. Chinese firms contribute more to greenhouse gas emissions, ocean plastic pollution, and illegal fishing than do the companies of any other country on earth. As for social responsibility, a wide variety of Chinese companies—from leading technology firms to manufacturers that export globally—work with Beijing’s security apparatus to track, incarcerate, and extract forced labor from ethnic Uyghur and Kazakh Muslims. With respect to corporate governance, CCP cells, operating mostly in secret, wield significant and often decisive control over Chinese companies—making a mockery of Western standards of corporate transparency and independence.”

When it comes to the likes of BlackRock, and its peers, it’s “ESG for thee, but not for Xi.”

American—increasingly in-name-only—financial firms, which lubricate the global economy, epitomize the Woke elite, who reject the very system from which they have so richly benefited.

That the rest of that elite—our political class, media, academic institutions, and so on—are literally and figuratively invested in, beholden to, or at minimum afraid of running afoul of China, is at root a symptom of an existential crisis that threatens to undo America far before we ever get around to doing all that is necessary to counter Beijing.

The existential crisis concerns our understanding of who we are as a nation, our confidence in its purpose, and our resolve to do whatever is necessary to defend and protect it, and cultivate its greatness.

A pervasive America Last mentality of Wokeism, decadence, and decline prevails over the commanding heights of society. It is born of a sort of moral narcissism, as Roger Simon has termed it, under which our elites confess their sins of power and privilege, while supporting paternalistic policies falling hardest on those for whom they claim to care most. The elites virtue-signal without bearing any cost—on the contrary, they end up further ensconced in their preeminent societal position.

Unserious as this cynical charade is, it may prove fatal.

A nation that prioritizes politics over merit; rewards mediocrity over excellence; protects the connected and targets the contrarian; permits tyranny under the guise of health and safety; privileges foreigners over citizens; and inculcates an ethos of national self-loathing aimed at undoing the system on which it is based, no matter the resources and capabilities of those laboring under it, will be poised to crumble well before it gets around to confronting its global foes.

Domestic peace and prosperity will erode; morale will recede; the will to survive, let alone thrive, will be extinguished.

The zeitgeist of Wokeism, decadence, and decline will defeat us before China has a chance to say “kowtow.” That our putative leaders already kowtow in word and deed—indeed are actively aiding, abetting, and enabling our worst enemy—demonstrates the extent of the rot that has already set in.

Woke Capital Hastens America’s Demise by Backing China (theepochtimes.com)

In light of the Biden Administration encouraging employers to mandate vaccines in order to retain employment while ironically not requiring vaccination mandates for their own staff, Gab has created a No Vax Mandate Job Board group.

You can view and join the group here.

This job board is for sharing job openings that do not require employees to inject themselves with an experimental substance or violate their bodily autonomy and religious beliefs in order to retain employment. This is also a board for job seekers to share their resume, skills, and story.

Related resource: DOWNLOAD COVID VACCINE RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION DOCUMENTS HERE

At Gab we do not require our employees to be vaccinated. In fact we don’t pry into any of the personal health choices of our team because frankly it’s none of our business. We know there are many businesses who share these values with us and many people looking to work for those businesses.

This job board aligns with Gab’s vision of building infrastructure for a parallel economy and we hope to expand further on this job board initiative in the coming months.

As Facebook and other Big Tech giants work to silence and “fact check” any and all vaccine dissent Gab remains committed to mission of being the home of free speech, individual sovereignty, and the free flow of information online.

Andrew Torba
CEO, Gab.com
Jesus is King

The No Vax Mandate Job Board – Gab News

Multiple casualties among Americans and Afghans were reported

The U.S. ambassador in Kabul has told staff there that four U.S. Marines were killed in an explosion at the city’s airport and three wounded, a U.S. official with knowledge of the briefing said. Two explosions ripped through crowds of Afghans trying to enter the airport on Thursday.

At least three U.S. troops were injured, a U.S. official said. Witnesses reported multiple fatalities among the Afghans, many of whom were trying to enter the airport because they had assisted U.S.-led coalition efforts and feared persecution by the Taliban.

Western governments have repeatedly warned of an imminent attack by Islamic State and urged their citizens not to approach the airport. After the blasts, the U.S. Embassy told all Americans to leave the entrances to the airport immediately.

The explosion at the Abbey Gate of the airport was the result of a complex attack, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said. He said another blast occurred near the Baron hotel adjacent to the airport. A British security official said both attacks were carried out by suicide bombers.

An Afghan man who was attempting for the fifth time to get into the airport and get on one of the evacuation planes was standing in the crowd outside Abbey Gate when the detonation took place. “A lot of people got hurt,” he said by phone. “I helped a little girl. I think she died.”

Kabul Airport Explosion Kills Four U.S. Marines Amid Evacuations – WSJ

It’s often said that ideas have consequences.

Ordinary men and women intuitively understand that good ideas yield good results, while bad ideas produce poor decisions and tragic consequences.

Over the last century, avant-garde ideas about the nature of “progress” have produced a compulsive desire for intellectual certainty and immediate self-gratification. Today, historical experience and examples set by preceding generations are generally regarded as irrelevant to the conditions of modern humanity.

Modern opinion makers and politicians constantly put forward premises and techniques that promise to propel society to higher levels of reasoning. More and more, public figures are piloted by “dialectical analysis” and “critical theory,” which highlights past errors, assigns blame, and proposes to set us on a course toward a more perfect existence. “Build back better” is the seductive mantra of our 21st century illuminati.

Good and Bad Ideas

Good ideas are generally based on human experience and truth. Bad ideas frequently reject truth and rely almost entirely on people’s wish to believe. A natural inclination to believe in the conventional wisdom leads many to accept what is false as true and what is imagined as real.

Much of the West’s current philosophical disposition goes back some 400 years to the European Enlightenment. Enlightenment thought revolved around the idea that God and tradition could be replaced by human reason as the primary source of authority and legitimacy.

Eighteenth century liberal philosophers advocated for ideals such as reason, science, progress, liberty, tolerance, fraternity, freedom of speech, constitutional government, democracy, and the separation of church and state. In and of themselves these ideas were good and, to the extent they endured, served us well.

Enlightenment and Religion

America and other Western democracies were founded at the apex of the Enlightenment. But, early democratic experiments were carried out in societies that also had deep religious convictions.

Individual liberty was tempered by long-standing forms of spiritual worship and moral authority. At the birth of modern democracies, traditional virtues and obligations such as self-discipline, chastity, compassion, personal responsibility, family loyalty, friendship, hard work, courage, perseverance, honesty, patriotism, and faith provided a sound moral basis for free and well-ordered societies.

Over the last 200 years, intellectuals out of city centers such as Paris, Frankfurt, and New York set out to reason away most of the moral and religious ties that bound traditional communities together and tempered the excesses of liberal-progressive thought. For my own post-World War II generation, this led to profound cultural change.

To my grandparents, who hailed from a small fishing outport on Newfoundland’s Northern Peninsula, ignoring the traditions and faith that held people together would have seemed as pointless as trying to push back an incoming tide.

Today, if pockets of popular wisdom still exist, it’s outside the dominant relativistic worldview of our progressive establishment. Precious few contemporary people of influence and power argue in favor of traditional virtues.

The Wisdom of Tradition

One notable exception is the young Iranian-America New York Post op-ed editor Sohrab Ahmari, whom I have had the pleasure of meeting through a couple of events sponsored by the Canadian Civitas Society.

Ahmari might best be described as a young man with an old soul. In his formative years he transitioned, with his parents, from Shiite Islam in Iran to the seductive liberal culture of America and New York City. His final transition to Christianity, marriage, and fatherhood left him convinced that our present version of Enlightenment culture is no longer one of freedom rightly understood.

In a recent book titled “The Unbroken Thread, Discovering the Wisdom of Tradition in an Age of Chaos,” Ahmari urges us to rediscover the inherited traditions and ideals that once gave our lives meaning and purpose. He has come to believe that “the very modes of life and thinking that strike most people in the West as antiquated or ‘limiting’ can liberate us, while the Western dream of autonomy and choice without limits is, in fact, a prison; that the quest to define ourselves on our own is a kind of El Dorado, driving to madness the many who seek after it …”

In order to bring out the best in us, says Ahmari, “other parts of us must be tied down, enclosed, limited, bound.” For centuries, religious truths and timeless common sense taught us that genuine happiness lay in pursuing virtue and accepting limits.

Disenchantment, Alienation, and Uncertainty

In the late 1970s, an era eerily similar to the one in which we presently find ourselves, American scholar George Gilder argued that the success of democratic-capitalist societies depended on the interconnected virtues of “work, faith, and family.” Gilder and other liberal-conservative thinkers reconnected the link between faith and reason. What followed was a new morning for America and the West, and global developments that freed millions from Soviet tyranny and perpetual serfdom.

Today, among those who are best schooled, best fed, and most powerful, “critical theory” invites the rejection of traditional virtues and the choice of a lifestyle that is fashionable, easy, and “sustainable.” All we’re left with are the capricious desires that a technologically advanced society is equipped to fulfil.

Liberty has become license. Equality is equity. Self-discipline and chastity are prudish. Compassion is reduced to virtue signalling. Hard work is for others. Honesty is seldom the best policy. Patriotism is xenophobia, and faith in God is for rubes who cling to their bibles and their guns.

We suffer from a morbid form of narcissism that leads us to believe we can sit in God-like judgement of others while nothing stands in judgement of ourselves. We accept lectures from social misfits, tolerate corruption of the democratic process, reject leaders who project common sense, and elect fools to govern our civic and national affairs.

The result is a deeply divided society and individual lives that are marked by disenchantment, alienation, and uncertainty. We’ve pursued and achieved the modern dream of defining ourselves—but at an enormous cost.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Western Disenchantment and the Cost of Separating Faith From Reason (theepochtimes.com)

Children hold up signs during a rally against critical race theory being taught in schools at the Loudoun County Government center in Leesburg, Va., on June 12, 2021

Race shaming and allusions to surgical castration in children’s literature—as well as accusations of xenophobia against political figures—are among the themes found in Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s “Indoctrination in North Carolina Public Education” report.

Robinson previously told The Epoch Times that he created the Fairness and Accountability in the Classroom for Teachers and Students task force (F.A.C.T.S.) to gather evidence of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in the K-12 North Carolina school system.

CRT is a Marxist philosophy that suggests society is a class struggle between oppressors and the oppressed, labelling white people as the oppressors and all other races as the oppressed.

The task force, according to the report, consists of volunteer education professionals with experience in various roles in education, such as teachers, administrators, university professors, education policy experts, and elected members of the state Senate and House.

Through an online portal, parents, teachers, and students could anonymously submit evidence from curriculums by email.

The report was released on Aug. 24 and was gathered from over 500 submissions.

What has surfaced are themes of CRT, bias, sexualization, and race shaming of children, Robinson said in a press release posted on Facebook (pdf).

In one parent’s submission, a child, in learning the word “xenophobia,” was instructed to use former President Donald Trump as an example.

“The teacher had definitions on one side and sentences on the other and the sentence that described xenophobia was ‘President Trump has xenophobia,’” the parent said. “Another example was a definition of Republican was that Republicans don’t care for people’s issues and Democrats are people who care for people.”

The example provided in the image was a prompt for the student to define “xenophobia.”

The prompt said: “It can be said that Donald Trump has xenophobia, because of his fear of people from other countries than the United States.”

Allusions to Surgical Castration

Another submission involved a book titled “George,” by Alex Gino, which is a children’s novel about a transgendered, fourth-grade girl.

According to the report, the book is used in North Carolina classrooms to illustrate the story of a biological boy in the fourth grade who wants to be a girl.

“The book talks about cutting off male genitalia and hormone therapy,” the report stated. “The submitter who shared this information said the book was included in their child’s elementary school. This book is recommended for third to seventh-grade students.”

An excerpt from the book as follows was provided in the report: “’So, like, do you want to’—he made a gesture with two fingers like a pair of scissors—‘go all the way?’ George squeezed her legs together. ‘Maybe someday,’ she said.’”

Faculty Microaggression

A submission from a teacher alleged “microaggression” training class requirements for faculty and staff.

The teacher, who remained anonymous, said she’s been teaching high school for 14 years.

“Faculty and staff are required to attend professional development related to ‘equity’ and ‘microaggression’ as it relates to race, gender, and other areas,” the teacher said. “They define microaggression as ‘The everyday slights, indignities, put-downs and insults that people of color, women, LGBT populations of those who are marginalized experiences in their day-to-day interactions with people.’”

White staff members are told that they are unaware of their racism, the teacher reported, in these personal development sessions.

“We are given examples of microaggression such as a statement: ‘I believe everyone can succeed in today’s society if they work hard and the most qualified people should get the job,’” the teacher said, adding that this statement, according to the tenet of microaggression, translates as: “White people believe people of color are lazy and don’t work hard.”

‘We Didn’t Hide in the Dark’

 The Senate Education Committee passed House Bill 324 on Tuesday after a heated exchange between state Sen. Jay Chaudhuri and Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson regarding the task force’s mission.

According to the bill, its purpose is to ensure “the equality and rights of all persons” by requiring that “students, teachers, administrators, and other school employees recognize the quality and rights” of people by prohibiting the promotion of “certain concepts that are contrary to that intent.”

Chaudhuri, a Democrat, said that, during the first week of school, students should be honored instead of debating what he called a “Fox News-driven issue that’s more about fearmongering that’s turned into a fishing expedition of our public-school teachers.”

The task force, Chaudhuri added, operated without abiding by open-meeting laws.

“We didn’t hide in the dark,” Robinson, a Republican, said.  “We didn’t ask to do it.”

Parents, teachers, and students within the North Carolina school system demanded it, Robinson said.

“And to sit here and call it a ‘Fox News-driven issue’ when I have stood with teachers who have cried because they feel like their jobs, livelihoods, and professions have been threatened, for you to call it that is an insult—an absolute insult,” Robinson said.  “And you know where my office is, and you know that this task force is going on. When did you contact me? Please don’t turn this into some partisan issue.”

North Carolina Task Force Reports Themes of Critical Race Theory in K-12 Schools (theepochtimes.com)

Agents also raided homes of Democratic city council members

FBI agents on Wednesday raided Detroit’s city hall and the homes of city council members Janeé Ayers (D.) and Scott Benson (D.) as part of a corruption investigation.

The FBI agents executed warrants to search the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, which serves as Detroit’s city hall, and Ayers’s and Benson’s houses. While the investigation’s exact focus has not yet been released to the public, investigators have already brought corruption charges against Councilman André Spivey (D.).

“The citizens of Detroit have a right to a city government that’s free of corruption,” special agent Timothy Waters told reporters on the day of the raids.

Ayers is running for a second term and Benson for a third term in November. Ayers’s name came up in a federal bribery investigation three years ago, though she faced no charges.

While Detroit has a long history of political corruption, the probe is the largest federal investigation into the city’s politicians in eight years, according to the Detroit News. In 2013, then-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (D.) was sentenced to 28 years in federal prison on racketeering charges. His sentence was commuted this year by former president Donald Trump.

FBI Raids Detroit City Hall in Corruption Probe (freebeacon.com)

Matt Cartwright, Susan Wild called for federal aid to assist landlords while raking in rental income

Two Pennsylvania Democrats who collected tens of thousands of dollars in rental income in 2020 pushed for taxpayer-funded relief for landlords without acknowledging that they could profit from the policy.

Reps. Matt Cartwright and Susan Wild collected up to $130,000 in combined rental income in 2020, their latest financial disclosures show. In December, Cartwright deemed a Democratic-led effort to extend the CDC’s eviction moratorium insufficient, writing, “We also need to pass an aid package to assist landlords.” Wild, meanwhile, called federal assistance for landlords “a key part of our state recovery” in March. Neither Democrat acknowledged their status as landlords in their public remarks.

Neither Democrat returned a request for comment.

Cartwright and Wild are far from the only House Democrats who raked in thousands of dollars during the pandemic as they advocated federal landlord relief. “Squad” members Ayanna Pressley (D., Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) reported up to $65,000 in combined 2020 rental income. At the same time, both Democrats backed legislation that would cancel rent and create a “landlord relief fund,” which would require the federal government to reimburse landlords for lost income.

According to their financial disclosures, both Cartwright and Wild reported earning the same range of rental income in 2020 as they did in 2019. Many small landlords, however, struggled to collect rent amid the eviction moratorium, which the Pennsylvania Democrats supported throughout 2020. Cartwright and Wild also reported millions of dollars in assets and enjoy a $174,000 congressional salary—roughly a third of individual landlords earn less than $90,000 a year, according to the left-leaning Brookings Institution.

Neither Democrat returned a request for comment.

Cartwright’s rental income stems from three sources, the Democrat’s financial disclosures show: a Scranton, Pa., office building; a Hague, N.Y., “property trust”; and a Massachusetts holding company based in Nantucket. Cartwright earned up to $115,000 from the properties in 2020.

According to Wild’s financial disclosure, the Democrat owns a Washington, D.C., rental property worth between $250,000 and $500,000. Local real estate records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show that Wild inherited the property from her late mother, Susan Ellis, in 2015. She earned up to $15,000 in rental income from the property in 2019 and 2020. Wild used the property’s address to register a D.C.-based limited liability corporation in 2015, according to the city’s business records. The Democrat then listed the LLC on her financial disclosure to report the rental income, rather than reveal the property’s address.

Both Cartwright and Wild face contentious reelection battles in 2022, having narrowly defeated their Republican challengers by just 3 points each in November. Cartwright is one of seven House Democrats who represent a district that voted for Donald Trump in 2020. He outperformed President Joe Biden by 8 points in the district, which includes Biden’s hometown of Scranton.

Two Pennsylvania Dems Pushed for Taxpayer-Funded Landlord Relief. Both Are Landlords. (freebeacon.com)

White House tapped Georges Bergès to vet art sales for ethical conflicts

The art dealer who the White House has tapped to vet Hunter Biden’s art sales for ethical conflicts was sentenced to three months in jail in 1998 for threatening to stab a man to death and was later accused of defrauding an investor in a messy 2016 lawsuit, raising alarms with ethics watchdogs.

Georges Bergès, the gallery owner who is scheduled to host exhibitions of Hunter Biden’s paintings this fall, will be responsible for approving sales of the art works—which are priced between $75,000 and $500,000 and will be open to foreign buyers—according to the White House.

Court records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon shed additional light on Bergès’s legal history, which was first reported by the New York Post in January. Bergès was accused in May 1998 of assaulting a man with a knife and making death threats, according to charging documents filed in Santa Cruz County. According to prosecutors, Bergès threatened the victim “with the specific intent that the statement be taken as a threat” and “was so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate and specific as to convey to the victim a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution.”

Bergès pleaded no contest to making terrorist threats, a misdemeanor charge. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail, required to submit to warrantless police searches, and barred from contacting the victim or possessing deadly weapons for 36 months, according to court records.

Ethics watchdogs, already critical of the Biden administration’s decision to outsource the vetting process to Biden’s art dealer, called for public transparency to ensure prospective buyers don’t use the process to try to purchase influence with the White House. Critics say the sales could attract lobbyists or foreign nationals who would be willing to buy the paintings for way over their value in order to curry favor with the White House. Bergès’s legal history serves as a reminder that Hunter Biden’s dealings have not always been on the up and up. Biden was tapped for a high-paying board position at the Ukrainian oil company Burisma and at a Chinese hedge fund while his father was vice president, arrangements that drew criticism during the elder Biden’s presidential campaign. He is also under federal investigation for his tax activities.

“Everything about Hunter’s art deal screams shady, and the new information about the organizer only solidifies what we have been saying: Hunter’s shenanigans threaten to derail the entire Biden agenda,” said Tom Anderson, director of the National Legal and Policy Center’s Government Integrity Project.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters in July that “all interactions regarding the selling of art and the setting of prices will be handled by a professional gallerist, adhering to the highest industry standards, and any offer out of the normal course would be rejected out of hand.” She added that Bergès would “not share information about buyers or prospective buyers, including their identities, with Hunter Biden or the administration.”

Kendra Arnold, executive director of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, said the administration’s “complete lack of transparency regarding the sale of Hunter Biden’s art is deeply troubling.”

“There is no way for the public to know who the buyers are and whether or not those buyers are using their purchases to influence decisions made by the president,” Arnold said. “This arrangement is opaque and ripe for abuse.”

Bergès was also caught up in a 2016 lawsuit in which artist Ingrid Arneberg, the daughter of a Norwegian shipping tycoon, accused Bergès of defrauding her out of a $500,000 investment in his gallery.

Arneberg claimed that Bergès made numerous financial misrepresentations in the investment proposal and that his gallery was in dire economic straits at the time, according to federal court filings in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. She said the art dealer misled her about how much additional funding he raised and falsely claimed that he sold two dozen paintings by a well-known contemporary artist for $50,000 each, when the actual numbers were significantly lower.

In court records, Arneberg also cited alleged text messages between Bergès and a friend in which the gallery owner supposedly mused that he might have to have sex with Arneberg to convince her to invest.

“Malcolm [Bricklin] thinks I may have to sleep with her [Arneberg] because she is just divorced,” Bergès allegedly said in one text message. In other texts, he reportedly described Bricklin, one of his business associates, as “the Godfather shark” who “smells money” and “is about a quick buck and I have to reign him in all the time.”

Bergès countersued Arneberg for defamation and breach of fiduciary duty. Both cases were dismissed after an undisclosed settlement in 2018, according to records.

Bergès and Arneberg did not respond to a request for comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Hunter Biden Art Dealer Served Jail Time and Allegedly Defrauded Investor (freebeacon.com)

The Biden White House granted the Chinese Communist Party-linked firm Huawei – which was crippled by Trump-era sanctions – licenses to purchase American auto chips, according to reports. 

The decision follows the Beijing-backed tech firm hiring several lobbyists, including the brother of Joe Biden’s White House Counselor Steve Ricchetti and CNN guests who have pushed the Trump-Russia collusion hoax.

“U.S. officials have approved license applications worth hundreds of millions of dollars for China’s blacklisted telecom company Huawei to buy chips for its growing auto component business, two people familiar with the matter said,” Reuters reported.

The reported approval follows a Trump-era crackdown on the telecommunications firm, which has extensive links to both the Chinese Communist Party. Labeled a “national security threat” by the Trump administration and a decades-long Chinese military collaborator by the U.S. Department of Defense, Huawei routinely provides the regime backdoor access to its products, networks, and devices.

Former President Donald Trump’s State Department also emphasized that the Chinese Communist Party uses Huawei as an “instrument not only for making money but also for pursuing the Party-State’s agenda and fulfilling its strategic objectives […] deeply enmeshed in Beijing’s system of oppression at home and its increasingly assertive strategic ambitions globally.”

The Biden White House, however, has taken a considerably softer approach to the company, as Reuters notes:

Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, has been hobbled by trade restrictions imposed by the Trump administration on the sale of chips and other components used in its network gear and smartphones businesses. The Biden administration has been reinforcing the hard line on exports to Huawei, denying licenses to sell chips to Huawei for use in or with 5g devices. But in recent weeks and months, people familiar with the application process told Reuters the U.S. has granted licenses authorizing suppliers to sell chips to Huawei for such vehicle components as video screens and sensors. 

Biden White House Approves Licensing Deal For Chinese Communist Party-Linked Huawei, Reversing Trump-Era Hardline. – The National Pulse

Oregon Governor Kate Brown has participated in events sponsored by Chinese Communist Party propaganda groups flagged by the U.S. State Department for “directly and malignly influenc[ing]” American officials, The National Pulse can reveal.

The unearthed Chinese Communist Party links follow Oregon Democrats calling for the cancellation of an upcoming event featuring The National Pulse’s Raheem Kassam and Natalie Winters due to the site’s promotion of “China-centric conspiracy theories” and “toxic beliefs.”

The Oregon Democratic Party is attempting to ban China-focused news reporters while one of the party’s most high-profile members – Governor Kate Brown – recently established links with one of the regime’s chief influence groups abroad.

Brown, in fact, has a long history of collaboration with groups tied to Beijing’s United Front Work Department.

Propaganda 101.

China’s billion-dollar “United Front” effort aims to “to co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of its ruling Chinese Communist Party” and “influence foreign governments to take actions or adopt positions supportive of Beijing’s preferred policies,” according to the federal U.S.-China Security and Economic Review Commission. United Front groups such as the China United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF) have used tactics including free trips to China to garner “favorable coverage” from mainstream media outlets according to Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) filings.

Scarcely a “China-centric conspiracy theory” as the Oregon Democratic Party insist.

Brown also has deep ties to the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), dubbed the “public face” of the United Front and “avowedly an arm of the party-state.” The U.S. State Department has even described the CPAFFC as seeking to “directly and malignly influence” U.S. state and local leaders.

MUST READ:  Chinese Regime Takes Financial Stake In TikTok, Now Directly Linked to Facebook Fact-Checker ‘Lead Stories’.

Brown attended the group’s 2015 China-U.S.Governors Forum, an event the State Department has singled out for its subversive influence on U.S. politics:

“CPAFFC’s actions have undermined the Governors Forum’s original well-intentioned purpose.”

As the CPAFFC recounts, Brown emphasized that “Oregon hopes to enhance cooperation with China” at the event, which counted Chinese Communist Pary leader Xi Jinping as its top speaker. Following the forum, Brown was one of six governors to ink a deal with Beijing to collaborate on “clean technology and economic development.”

While taking a private meeting with CPAFFC Vice President Lin Yi the month following the forum, Brown reportedly described Xi’s remarks as “encouraging” while pushing to “strengthen pragmatic cooperation with China in education, science and technology, health, tourism and sports”:

Governor Brown said it was her great honor to attend the Governors’ Forum held in Seattle last month. President Xi’s remarks were encouraging and the Forum helped provide great opportunities for U.S.-China cooperation. The State of Oregon regards China as the most important international partner and has  willingness to strengthen pragmatic cooperation with China in education, science and technology, health, tourism and sports, etc. 

REVEALED: Oregon Democrat Governor Kate Brown Has Long-Standing Ties to Chinese Communist Influence Groups. (thenationalpulse.com)

Samples from early Wuhan COVID-19 patients show the presence of genetically modified Henipah virus, an American scientist has found.

Henipah was one of the two types of viruses sent to China by Chinese-born scientists from a Canadian laboratory at the centre of a controversy over the firing of the scientists and collaboration with Chinese military researchers. It is not clear whether the virus found in the Chinese samples is related to the virus samples sent by the Canadian lab, which were shipped in late March 2019.

The finding was confirmed for The Epoch Times by another qualified scientist.

The evidence was first found by Dr. Steven Quay, a Seattle-based physician-scientist and former faculty member at the Stanford University School of Medicine, who looked at early COVID-19 samples uploaded by scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) shortly after China informed the World Health Organization about the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak.

The samples from the patients, who reportedly were found to have an “unidentified pneumonia disease” in December 2019, were uploaded to the genetic sequence database, GenBank, on the website of the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH).

Quay says that while other scientists around the world were mostly interested in examining the genome of SARS-CoV-2 in the samples uploaded by the WIV scientists, he wanted to see what else was in the samples collected from the patients.

So he collaborated with a few other scientists to analyze sequences from the samples.

“We started fishing inside for weird things,” Quay told The Epoch Times.

What they found, he says, are the results of what could likely be contamination from different experiments in the lab making their way into the samples, as well as evidence of Henipah virus.

“We found genetic manipulation of the Nipah virus, which is more lethal than Ebola.” Nipah is a type of Henipah virus.

The Epoch Times asked Joe Wang, PhD, who formerly spearheaded a vaccine development program for SARS in Canada with one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, to verify the finding. Wang is currently the president of NTD Television Canada, the sister company of The Epoch Times in Canada.

After examining the evidence, Wang said he was able to replicate Quay’s findings on the Henipah virus. He explains that the genetic manipulation of the virus was likely for the purposes of vaccine development.

Documents released by the Canadian government state that the WIV’s intended use of the virus samples sent by Canada was “stock virus culturing,” which in simpler terms means storing the viruses while keeping them alive. Genetic manipulation would not be within the scope of this description.

Winnipeg Lab

The firing of Chinese-born scientist Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, from the National Microbiology laboratory (NML) in Winnipeg has been the subject of much controversy in Canada, with opposition parties pressing the government for more details on the case, and the government refusing to release information citing national security and privacy concerns.

Qiu and Cheng along with several Chinese students were escorted out of the NML, Canada’s only lab designated at containment level 4—or P4, the highest level of biosafety—amid a police investigation in July 2019. The two scientists were formally fired in January 2021.

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), which is in charge of the NML, said the termination was the result of an “administrative matter” and “possible breaches of security protocols,” but has declined to provide further details, citing security and privacy concerns.

During her time at the NML, Qiu travelled several times to the WIV in an official capacity, helping train personnel on level 4 safety. The Globe and Mail later reported that scientists at the NML have been collaborating with Chinese military researchers on deadly pathogens, and that one of the Chinese military researchers worked at the high-security Winnipeg lab for a period of time.

Documents and emails released by PHAC show that the shipment of Henipah and Ebola samples was done with the permission of NML authorities.

In one of the emails sent in September 2018, David Safronetz, chief of special pathogens at PHAC, informs then-head of NML Matthew Gilmour and other lab administrators about the request from the WIV for the shipment of the samples, saying “I trust the lab.”

In response, Gilmour asks about the nature of the work that will be done at the Wuhan lab, and why the lab doesn’t get the material from “other, more local labs.” He also tells Safronetz that it’s “good to know that you trust this group,” asking how the NML was connected with the group.

In his reply, Safronetz doesn’t specifically say what the samples will be used for in China, but notes that they will only be sent once all paperwork and certification are completed. He also says the WIV is requesting the material from NML “due to collaboration” with Qiu.

He adds, “Historically, it’s also been easier to obtain material from us as opposed to US labs. I don’t think other, closer labs have the ability to ship these materials.”

Gilmour resigned from his position at the NML in May 2020 and joined a UK-based bioresearch company.

MPs have asked NML management why shipment of the samples was allowed and whether they knew if China performs any gain-of-function (GoF) research at the WIV. GoF research involves increasing either the lethal level (virulence) or the transmissibility of pathogens or both.

The NML’s acting scientific director general Guillaume Poliquin told MPs during a parliamentary committee meeting on March 22 that the lab only sent the samples to the WIV after receiving assurance that no GoF research would take place.

Conservative MP John Williamson pressed for more answers, saying the word of the state-run Chinese lab can’t be trusted as the Chinese regime “has a history of theft and lies.”

The issue of GoF research at WIV has been a point of contention in the United States between lawmakers and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the NIH’s head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Fauci’s organization has funded research (through EcoHealth Alliance) on coronaviruses at the Wuhan lab. U.S. Sen. Rand Paul says published work from WIV on coronaviruses shows the lab is conducting GoF research, a charge that Fauci denies.

The Epoch Times sought comment from PHAC, including a response as to how the agency addressed issues of intellectual property and collaboration of the development of any products such as vaccines with WIV, but didn’t hear back by time of publication.

Despite repeated requests by the opposition parties for more details related to the firing of the two NML scientists, the Liberal government has refused to provide records, saying there are national security and privacy concerns.

After the House of Commons issued an order requiring the government to disclose the information, the government took the Speaker of the House to court to obtain confirmation from a judge that it can withhold the documents. The government later dropped its court case once Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called an election and Parliament was dissolved.

Exclusive: Samples From Early Wuhan COVID Patients Had Genetically Modified Henipah, One of Two Types of Viruses Sent From Canadian Lab (theepochtimes.com)

California auditors raised concerns on the homeless housing department for its role as a statewide leader in addressing the homelessness crisis, citing it failed to properly allocate millions in COVID-19 pandemic funding.   

A state audit of the California Department of Housing and Community Development (CDHCD) released Aug. 24 found $316 million in federal funding received through the CARES Act failed to be expedited to address and respond to the state’s homeless population during the COVID-19 pandemic.   

“The department did not take critical steps to ensure that the $316 million in ESG‑CV (Emergency Solutions Grant) funds promptly benefited the vulnerable population for which it was intended,” state auditors said.  

“Its lack of efforts to measure the outcomes of the programs to which it provides funding raise serious concerns about its ability to provide the leadership the State needs to address its ongoing homelessness crisis.”   

There were an estimated 161,548 homeless people living in the state in 2020, a 7 percent increase from 2019. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office responded to the audit findings and told The Epoch Times the state’s response to protecting the homeless during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic was efficient. 

“Governor Newsom acted quickly and comprehensively to protect people experiencing homelessness during the pandemic, which is why California’s approach has become the national model,” spokesperson Erin Mellon told The Epoch Times in an email.  

“Unprecedented resources, deployed at a quick clip has resulted in safely housing 42,000 individuals the construction of permanent shelter for 8,000 more individuals. To suggest anything else is to fundamentally misunderstand how impactful our response was at protecting unsheltered people’s lives from the worst ravages of COVID.”  

While Newsom’s office opposed the audit’s finding, the delay in fund dispersals hindered the ability for organizations through the Continuum of Care entities (COCs)—which assist in providing homeless services and prevention tactics—from receiving monetary necessities provided by the CARES Act. 

According to the audit, while the funding was passed in March 2020, most CoCs did not receive access to the first round of funding until December 2020, seven months after the funding was announced. The second round of funding was not distributed to CoC’s until recently.  

“Recognizing it lacked the capacity to manage this emergency funding, the department hired a contractor to manage the program although it did not do so until 14 months after the CARES Act passed,” the report read.   

As a result of the department’s delays, the funding is at risk of being lost as the Sept. 22 spending deadline approaches, California State Auditor Elaine Howle said in the report.   

The report also found the department is not gathering essential data to note the effectiveness of the allocation of the funds. Furthermore, the audit concluded there are no plants to evaluate and determine the overall effectiveness of the COCs’ homelessness crisis projects.   

While the department disagrees with the audit’s findings, a plan to implement the outlined recommendations is currently underway.   

California Fails to Allocate Millions in CARES Act Funding to Homeless Services (theepochtimes.com)

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby confirmed a second explosion in downtown Kabul Thursday after an earlier explosion rocked the capital’s international airport.

“We can confirm that the explosion at the Abbey Gate was the result of a complex attack that resulted in a number of US & civilian casualties. We can also confirm at least one other explosion at or near the Baron Hotel, a short distance from Abbey Gate. We will continue to update,” posted the Pentagon Press Secretary on Twitter.

We can confirm that the explosion at the Abbey Gate was the result of a complex attack that resulted in a number of US & civilian casualties. We can also confirm at least one other explosion at or near the Baron Hotel, a short distance from Abbey Gate. We will continue to update.

— John Kirby (@PentagonPresSec) August 26, 2021

Fox News is now reporting at least three American soldiers were injured in the first blast.

“A suicide bombing outside the Abbey Gate at Kabul’s airport in Afghanistan Thursday injured at least three U.S. troops, U.S. officials confirmed. A U.S. official indicated that the attack set off a firefight at Abbey  Gate, where last night, there were 5,000 Afghans and potentially some Americans seeking access to the airport,” reports Fox News.

“We can confirm an explosion outside Kabul airport. Casualties are unclear at this time. We will provide additional details when we can,” posted Kirby on Twitter.

We can confirm an explosion outside Kabul airport. Casualties are unclear at this time. We will provide additional details when we can.

— John Kirby (@PentagonPresSec) August 26, 2021

#BREAKING: Explosion reported at Kabul airport https://t.co/s40Ede94cd pic.twitter.com/4yeWCjwSF5

— The Hill (@thehill) August 26, 2021

BREAKING: Pentagon Confirms Second Explosion at Hotel in Kabul | Sean Hannity

An explosion has been reported Thursday outside of Kabul’s airport.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby confirmed Thursday that an “explosion” occurred outside Kabul’s International Airport, stating that “casualties are unclear at this time.”

“We can confirm an explosion outside Kabul airport. Casualties are unclear at this time. We will provide additional details when we can,” posted Kirby on Twitter.

We can confirm an explosion outside Kabul airport. Casualties are unclear at this time. We will provide additional details when we can.

— John Kirby (@PentagonPresSec) August 26, 2021

#BREAKING: Explosion reported at Kabul airport https://t.co/s40Ede94cd pic.twitter.com/4yeWCjwSF5

— The Hill (@thehill) August 26, 2021

Pentagon Confirms ‘Explosion’ Near Kabul Airport, ‘Casualties Unclear at This Time’ | Sean Hannity

The US Embassy in Afghanistan is warning Americans who are at or near the Kabul airport to “leave immediately.”

James Heappey, Britain’s armed forces minister, told the BBC that there was “very, very credible reporting of an imminent attack” that may be targeting the airport.

Heappey said that there could be an attack perhaps “within hours.”

The British official said that “there is an appetite by many in the queue to take their chances, but the reporting of this threat is very credible indeed and there is a real imminence to it.”

“There is every chance that as further reporting comes in, we may be able to change the advice again and process people anew, but there’s no guarantee of that,” Heappey added.

The US Embassy issued a statement late Wednesday evening saying that people should not attempt to travel to the airport and those who are already there should leave immediately.

“Because of security threats outside the gates of Kabul airport, we are advising U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a U.S. government representative to do so,” a statement from the embassy issued early Thursday morning said.

“U.S. citizens who are at the Abbey Gate, East Gate, or North Gate now should leave immediately,” the embassy added.

According to a report from the Seattle Times, “new warnings emerged from Western capitals about a threat from Afghanistan’s Islamic State group affiliate, which likely has seen its ranks boosted by the Taliban’s freeing of prisoners during their blitz across the country.”

Britain and New Zealand also warned their citizens not to go to the airport. Australia’s foreign minister also stated that there was a “very high threat of a terrorist attack.”

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo also said that his country had been warned about the possibility of an attack, according to the Seattle Times report.

“We received information at the military level from the United States, but also from other countries, that there were indications that there was a threat of suicide attacks on the mass of people,” he said, talking about the threat around Kabul airport.

There are still hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans who are attempting to flee the Taliban controlled country.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has dismissed reports of a possible imminent attack, calling them “not correct,” according to a report from Fox News.

BREAKING: British Official Warns Kabul Airport May Be Under ‘Imminent Attack,’ US Embassy Says to ‘Leave Immediately’ | TIMCAST IRL

posted by Hannity Staff – 8.26.21

Senator Lindsey Graham stopped by ‘Hannity’ Wednesday night to discuss the escalating chaos in Kabul; saying President Biden has “signed the death warrant” for thousands of Afghans who helped America the last two decades.

“This is the most dishonorable thing a Commander-in-Chief has done in modern times. He said he’s leaving 31 August because the Taliban told him we have to get out. There’s no way in hell we’re going to get all the American citizens out,” said Graham.

“We’re going to leave thousands of Afghans behind. We’re setting the table for the rise of al Qaeda and ISIS to attack us down the road,” he added. “President Biden has signed the death warrant for thousands of Afghans who helped us.”

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki defended President Biden’s joke about Americans being stranded in Afghanistan during her briefing Wednesday, saying “we’re on track to complete our mission.”

“At the tail end of the President’s remarks today about cyber security, he was asked about Afghanistan and he made a joke… So, what’s so funny?” asked Fox News’ Peter Doocy.

“What he conveyed is that, he uh, he has not, well, what I can convey from here, is that we’re on track to complete our mission by August 31^st,” said the Press Secretary.

What’s so funny?

Peter Doocy presses Jen Psaki as to why Joe Biden laughed about leaving Americans in Afghanistan earlier today. pic.twitter.com/CWi9imJaHA

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 25, 2021

President Biden continued to deflect questions surrounding his withdrawal from Afghanistan Wednesday when the White House turned off the Commander-in-Chief’s microphone as journalists shouted questions about the safety of Americans in Kabul.

“Thank you all very much, and I thank the press for being here. We’re going to go private now,” said the President.

“Mister President, what will you do if Americans are still there after the deadline?” pressed one journalist.

The White House turned off the President’s microphone at that moment.

“I asked President Biden what he will do if Americans are still in Afghanistan after the 8/31 deadline,” posted New York Times reporter Peter Alexander. “His response: ‘You’ll be the first person I call.’ Took no questions.”

GRAHAM on HANNITY: ‘Biden is Signing the Death Warrant of Thousands of Afghans Who Helped Us’ | Sean Hannity

Liberal author Naomi Wolf’s DailyClout channel was abruptly deleted by YouTube after she posted an interview with a prominent critic of mandatory masking policies in schools.

“This censorship highlights the extreme clampdown on free speech and public discourse prevailing in the United States,” Wolf said in an Aug. 24 statement after the channel was eliminated.

Wolf, a co-founder of the DailyClout website, is a widely published journalist and bestselling author of books such as “The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women” (1990) and “The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot” (2007). She was an adviser to then-President Bill Clinton’s 1996 reelection campaign and to then-Vice President Al Gore, both Democrats.

Twitter banned Wolf, who has been critical of vaccine passports and media coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, earlier this summer, as The Epoch Times reported at the time. Twitter said Wolf had disseminated vaccine misinformation in violation of the microblogging website’s policies, a claim she denies.

Wolf said she can’t state with certainty why YouTube suppressed the DailyClout channel.

“I can’t possibly know what YouTube’s motives are. There’s no appeal, as with Twitter, there’s no appeal process. There’s no one I can call,” she told The Epoch Times in a follow-up interview.

The DailyClout website’s mission “couldn’t be more pure and altruistic—to explain democracy,” Wolf said.

“We’re not partisan. We don’t support one side or the other. We literally exist to explain legislation and the legislative process and what’s in a bill. We read the stimulus bill and point out what’s in it. We read the health care bill and bullet point what’s in it,” Wolf said.

“We do the hard work of making civic engagement easy and accessible for everybody.”

YouTube sent DailyClout an email that advised that a video titled “Dr Naomi Wolf and Leslie Manookian speak about her award-winning documentary ‘The Greater Good,’” had been removed for violating YouTube’s “medical misinformation policy.”

“YouTube doesn’t allow claims about COVID-19 vaccinations that contradict expert consensus from local health authorities or the World Health Organization (WHO),” stated the Aug. 21 email, obtained by The Epoch Times.

The video featured an interview Wolf conducted with Manookian, who is president and founder of Health Freedom Defense Fund Inc. (HFDF). In the video, the two discussed apparent conflicts of interest at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is run by Dr. Anthony Fauci. NIAID is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which, in turn, is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The NIAID holds patents on COVID-19 vaccines, which has been documented by Public Citizen and Axios.

Manookian noted that NIH allows employees who hold patents to receive up to $150,000 per year per patent, and Wolf said there was a need for an open public discussion of this issue.

Wolf was deplatformed by Twitter after sharing with 146,000 followers the resume of UNC senior researcher Dr. Ralph Baric, which shows that his work on gain-of-function research had been funded by NIAID under Fauci. Vanity Fair also reported on the funding.

“I can’t stress enough … [that] I was reporting … on primary source public documents … reporting matters of public record,” as opposed to breaking actual news, Wolf said in the interview.

Wolf said both the Twitter and YouTube bans came as she was merely “reporting on successful legal efforts or legislative efforts to ban vaccine passports, to ban vaccine discrimination, or to change policy around mask mandates.”

“I don’t know why a successful channel that was bringing matters of public importance to viewers was deplatformed,” Wolf said.

“Many, many, many credible important voices are being deplatformed, a good proportion on the right—I happen to be on the left … and I am part of a lawsuit against big tech.”

Wolf said she’s concerned about governmental collaboration with Big Tech.

“I believe that government is not allowed to use private industry to go around the First Amendment … and so if there’s any coordination there, that is unlawful and that’s what [the legal process of] discovery is for.”

Wolf said she was disturbed when President Joe Biden and his aides have raged against what they call misinformation.

“In a democracy, when a head of state … [engages in that] kind of finger-pointing, [such a thing] has no place in an open democracy with a First Amendment. It’s very dangerous,” she said.

“I think something very serious indeed is happening if a channel devoted to educating people from all walks of life, all political persuasions, every age, about democracy in America is closed down. That’s really serious.”

Officials at YouTube, which is owned by Google, didn’t immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

YouTube Bans Forced-Vaccination, Big Tech Critic Naomi Wolf (theepochtimes.com)

Business headquarters are leaving the state at an accelerating rate. That’s according to a new report (pdf) for the Hoover Institution by Joseph Vranich and Lee E. Ohanian, “Why Company Headquarters Are Leaving California in Unprecedented Numbers.” Ohanian is a Hoover research fellow and professor of economics at UCLA.

Vranich has been one of my sources for 20 years. His Spectrum Location Solutions used to be in Irvine. Now it’s in McKinney, Tex., near Dallas. Just like so many ex-California firms and people.

The new report’s shocking news: For the first six months of 2021, company headquarters exiting California has doubled from the same period in 2018. And in the first half of this year, 74 headquarters skedaddled, more than all last year.

The reasons: “High tax rates, punitive regulations, high labor costs, high utility and energy costs, and declining quality of life for many Californians which reflects the cost of living and housing affordability.”

However, the authors caution the 2020 numbers were affected by COVID-19, which slowed planning and scouting for new locations.

From 2018 to 2021, here are the main destinations for company HQs:

Texas 114;

Tennessee 25;

Arizona 17;

Nevada 15;

Colorado 14;

Florida 13;

North Carolina 8;

Georgia 5;

Idaho 4;

Kentucky 4;

Virginia 4;

Indiana 4;

Alabama 3;

Missouri 3;

Minnesota 3;

Oregon 3.

The study notes of this and other data: “Additional companies have relocated their headquarters to other states, but the only states listed above are those where such events are public knowledge. The states listed have likely experienced more wins.”

Anecdotal evidence also supports the data. I know many people who have left, mainly for Texas and Tennessee. Almost everybody I know talks about getting out, although it’s still difficult to depart the balmy weather, family, friends, and local connections.

No Awareness

I asked Vranich if there’s any awareness of this exodus among Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state’s other top political leaders. “No,” he replied. He said the state isn’t even thinking about cutting taxes, despite what Newsom claims is a $78 billion budget surplus (but which the Legislative Analyst pegged at a still hefty $38 billion).

And he pointed to this July 2021 statement by Ohio Lt. Gov. John Husted: “Fifteen years ago we began reforming our tax plan—we eliminated the corporate franchise tax … eliminated the death tax—we went from a high-tax state to a lower-tax state. We absolutely do see it as a time to compete. Capital will ultimately go where it can be the most appreciated.”

The Hoover report itself noted: “Ohio is gaining popularity as the place where more companies call home. Five states lowered corporate income tax rates for 2021—Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa and Mississippi.”

And: “Gov. Newsom’s strategy is not to reduce taxes but to increase incentives offered to companies, thus increasing taxpayer burdens…. Since the start of the Newsom Administration in January 2019, GO-Biz awarded 147 businesses a total of $593,844,974 in California Competes Tax Credits.”

I asked Vranich if there were any good signs. He said, “An honest politician would admit that the only bright spots include growing tax revenue from Silicon Valley’s billionaires and also from film-making that is being preserved thanks to the state’s generous economic incentives.”

Dismal Rankings

The study cited Chief Executive magazine’s ranking of state business climates, which pegged California the worst of the 50 states and Texas the best—in each case, for the 17th year in a row.

On the Tax Foundation’s 2021 State Business Tax Climate Index, California did better—49th place, after New Jersey. Their analysis: “California’s poor position is unlikely to improve considering that its businesses routinely face threats of increases in income taxes, property taxes, and sales taxes along with higher county and municipal taxes and fees.”

They key to what’s left of California’s once tolerable tax climate is Proposition 13, the property tax limitation passed by voters in 1978.

Vranich and Ohanian warn: “Pro-tax coalitions launch continual efforts to eliminate or weaken Proposition 13’s protections—coalitions comprised of legislators, deep-pocketed special interests, and interests such as government contractors and state and local government-employee unions. Such entities have spent millions of dollars to overturn Proposition 13. Thus far they have not been successful, but they certainly will try again.”

Losses By County

The largest California counties also suffered the largest losses of business HQs:

Los Angeles 54;

San Francisco 47;

Orange 29;

Santa Clara 28;

Alameda 20;

San Diego 17;

San Mateo 13;

Sacramento 8;

Contra Costa 6;

San Bernardino 6;

Riverside 5.

However, San Francisco’s population is 873,965 (2020 U.S. Census) compared to Los Angeles’s 3.9 million. That’s 4.5 times higher. So the per capita San Francisco HQ loss is about four times that of Los Angeles.

By contrast, Orange County’s population of 3.2 million (2020 U.S. Census) is just behind L.A.’s 3.9 million. But OC suffered only about half L.A.’s headquarters losses.

OC’s business and tax climate is well known as more welcoming than Los Angeles. For example, the City of Los Angeles’ sales tax rate is 9.5 percent. By contrast, most OC cities’ rates are 7.75 percent.

The study especially scorches California’s addiction to litigation. They charge, “Lawmakers in Sacramento continually enact laws designed to expand civil liability on business and property owners … California’s statutes and regulations are so unreasonable that companies have reported in confidence that their legal costs in California are disproportionate to the number of employees they have in the state.”

No wonder the American Tort Reform Foundation brands California a “legal hellhole.”

Workers Compensation Costs

California reformed workers compensation laws in 2003 under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. It worked for a while. But a friend of mine in the industry said since then the reforms have been undercut by laws, court rulings and new legal maneuvers devised by plaintiff attorneys.

The Hoover study listed the average workers compensation costs, per $100 in 2020:

Worst:

New Jersey $2.52;

New York $2.23;

Vermont $2.21;

California $2.16;

Hawaii $2.08.

Best:

North Dakota $0.67;

Arkansas $0.72;

West Virginia $0.79;

Utah $0.85;

Texas $0.98.

Shocking Energy Costs

Business energy costs also are excessive. All that “green energy” doesn’t come cheap. Here are the electricity prices paid in March 2021, cents per kilowatt-hour:

Worst:

Hawaii $30.76;

Alaska $18.89;

California $17.20;

Connecticut $16.98;

Massachusetts $16.81.

Best:

Oklahoma $6.36;

Nevada $7.15;

Idaho $7.76;

Virginia $7.77;

Utah $8.01.

It’s going to get worse for California: “Customers in all parts of California are likely to see energy cost increases by virtually every utility. PG&E Corp. submitted a proposal to regulators for a rate increase totaling $3.6 billion starting in 2023 to help make its system more reliable and safer by sparking fewer fires.

“Southern California Edison in April 2020 increased its rates by approximately 7 percent overall. In 2021, SCE requested an additional residential rate increase of 14 percent, while commercial rates are estimated to rise between 9 and 11 percent.”

Major Firms Leaving

The report identified large and medium firms whose relocation can be found in news accounts. But many small firms just up and leave with no notice.

At the end the report lists all the corporate HQs that have left from January 1, 2018 to June 30, 2021. Some of those include:

Charles Schwab, from San Francisco to Westlake, Tex.;

DailyWire (Ben Shapiro’s website), from Los Angeles to Nashville, Tenn.;

Dole Food Co., from Los Angeles to Charlotte, N.C.;

Hewlett Packard Enterprise, from Santa Clara to Houston, Tex.;

Joe Rogan Experience, from Los Angeles to Austin, Tex.;

Kaiser Aluminum, from Lake Forest to Franklin, Tenn.;

Lockheed Martin FBM, from Sunnyvale to Titusville, Fla.;

Musk Foundation (Elon’s nonprofit), from Menlo Park to Austin, Tex.;

Mitsubishi Motors, from Cypress to Franklin, Tenn.;

National Hot Rod Association, from Glendora to Indianapolis, Ind.;

Nestle USA, from Glendale to Arlington, Va.;

Conclusion

In sum, it’s a dismal report. The state budget currently is buoyed by the bounty from Silicon Valley, whose revenues just keep growing and growing.

But for just about any other firm in California, the times are tough and getting tougher. And when the going gets too tough, even the tough get out.

California Businesses Exiting Faster than Ever (theepochtimes.com)

The Democratic National Convention released a statement on Tuesday about President Biden’s handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal titled “President Biden Defies Expectations (Again), Delivers Results in Afghanistan.” The statement surprisingly claimed that the “results” Biden “delivered” were better than expected.

“President Biden has defied expectations and exceeded even his own administration’s goal in successfully ramping up evacuations from Afghanistan,” the statement said. “Not only has President Biden evacuated nearly 60,000 people from Kabul with no American casualties, but he has taken the steps necessary to finally end a 20-year long war, bring Americans home, and keep our promise to our Afghan partners.”

Biden certainly defied his own expectations as the disastrous withdrawal went far worse than he had predicted in a press conference a month prior. At the time, Biden said that “the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.”

A month later, the Taliban have “overrun everything” and are in control of Afghanistan.

Biden also added, “The Taliban is not the south — the North Vietnamese army. They’re not — they’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability.  There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy in the — of the United States from Afghanistan.  It is not at all comparable.”

A month later, there were, in fact, “people being lifted off the roof of a embassy” in Afghanistan.

DNC Praises Biden On Afghanistan Withdrawal As Crisis Continues | The Jeffrey Lord

“We built them a pretty amazing war chest and now all of it is in the hands of the Taliban”

The United States military is leaving 75,000 vehicles, 600,000 weapons and 208 aircraft in Afghanistan after the Taliban conquered the country amid the withdrawal of U.S. forces.

“We built them a pretty amazing war chest and now all of it is in the hands of the Taliban,” said Open The Books CEO Adam Andrzejewski. “We know that last month, as late as July, seven new helicopters were being delivered in the capital city of Kabul.”

“We’ve made the Taliban into a major U.S. arms dealer for the next decade,” said Andrzejewski. “They now control 75,000 military vehicles. This is about 50,000 tactical vehicles, 20,000 Humvees they control about 1,000 mine-resistant vehicles, and even about 150 armored personnel carriers.”

Andrzejewski also told The National Desk that “there are also about 208 airplanes and helicopters. Some U.S. equipment given to Afghan security forces is currently unaccounted for, including missing military drones.”

“We found a Federal Audit that detailed up to $200 million worth of drones that had disappeared,” Andrzejewski said. “We don’t know where 600,000 weapons are within the country.”

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that the United States doesn’t know where the equipment is, but a “fair amount” is in the hands of the Taliban.

“We don’t have a complete picture, obviously, of where every article of defense materials has gone, but certainly a fair amount of it has fallen into the hands of the Taliban,” he said.

U.S. Leaving 75,000 Vehicles, 600,000 Weapons, 208 Aircraft In Afghanistan | Leo Terrell (theleoterrell.com)

posted by Hannity Staff – 8.25.21

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki defended President Biden’s joke about Americans being stranded in Afghanistan during her briefing Wednesday, saying “we’re on track to complete our mission.”

“At the tail end of the President’s remarks today about cyber security, he was asked about Afghanistan and he made a joke… So, what’s so funny?” asked Fox News’ Peter Doocy.

“What he conveyed is that, he uh, he has not, well, what I can convey from here, is that we’re on track to complete our mission by August 31^st,” said the Press Secretary.

What’s so funny?

Peter Doocy presses Jen Psaki as to why Joe Biden laughed about leaving Americans in Afghanistan earlier today. pic.twitter.com/CWi9imJaHA

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 25, 2021

President Biden continued to deflect questions surrounding his withdrawal from Afghanistan Wednesday when the White House turned off the Commander-in-Chief’s microphone as journalists shouted questions about the safety of Americans in Kabul.

“Thank you all very much, and I thank the press for being here. We’re going to go private now,” said the President.

“Mister President, what will you do if Americans are still there after the deadline?” pressed one journalist.

The White House turned off the President’s microphone at that moment.

“I asked President Biden what he will do if Americans are still in Afghanistan after the 8/31 deadline,” posted New York Times reporter Peter Alexander. “His response: ‘You’ll be the first person I call.’ Took no questions.”

I asked President Biden what he will do if Americans are still in Afghanistan after the 8/31 deadline.
His response: “You’ll be the first person I call.”
Took no questions. pic.twitter.com/MlyFIayrMZ

— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) August 25, 2021

A reporter asks President Biden what he will do if Americans are still in Afghanistan after the deadline.

White House cuts the audio feed pic.twitter.com/noBM74gzNn

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 25, 2021

‘You’ll Be The First Person I Call’: Biden Jokes When Pressed On Plan For Americans Left Behind In Afghanistan https://t.co/I8673J2n9W

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 25, 2021

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy issued a dire warning after receiving a classified briefing on Afghanistan Tuesday; saying he’s “less confident” all Americans can be evacuated from Afghanistan before the Taliban’s August 31^st deadline to remove all US Troops.

“I’m less confident after leaving that briefing. There’s no possible way that we can get every American that’s still in Afghanistan out in the next seven days,” McCarthy said.

“At no time should America ever bend or allow the Taliban to tell us when we have to stop bringing Americans out. We should stay until every single American is able to get out of Afghanistan. And we should use every recourse possible to make that happen,” McCarthy continued.

WATCH: Psaki Clams-Up When Asked Why Biden Joked About Americans Stranded in Afghanistan | Sean Hannity

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy ripped the Biden Administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan during his weekly press briefing Wednesday, saying Joe Biden went “against everything America has stood for in the past.”

“We’re going to have to reassure our allies that we’re going to keep our word… A number of them question what America will do in the future,” said McCarthy.

“We just had a president go against everything America has stood for in the past,” he added. “He made a decision and won’t answer questions.”

Rep. Kevin McCarthy on President Biden: “We just had a president go against everything America has stood for in the past.” pic.twitter.com/nR0WmBR0Pz

— The Hill (@thehill) August 25, 2021

Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw also slammed President Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan on Fox News Tuesday, saying the Commander-in-Chief is “building the Taliban back better” -not America.

“Every time you think of something you shouldn’t do that’s exactly what he does. He is building the Taliban back much better,” he said. “That’s exactly what he has done. He is not building America back better.”

“You know what the House has been working on all week – what Pelosi has been putting on the floor –  is giant inflation-driving spending bills. $3.5 trillion, which is actually closer to really $6 trillion if the math is done correctly as well as that $1 trillion of infrastructure spending. That’s what they’re talking about right now,” Crenshaw said.

“It’s wasteful spending at a time when we don’t need it and in a time we all need to be focused on what’s going on in Afghanistan. As you noted, there is bipartisan outrage over this Aug. 31 deadline.”

“I never thought I would see our American military; our country acting this way,” he said. “We don’t run from these people. We make our own timelines and those timelines should be based on getting our people out in a timely manner. And it’s over when we say it’s over. If they don’t like that, then too bad. We will kill you.”

McCARTHY: ‘We Just Had a President Go Against Everything America Stood for in the Past’ | Sean Hannity

Newly sworn-in New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is wasting no time taking sides in the school mask wars. Even before taking the top job, she told NBC’s “Today” that she intends to mandate masks for all public school students in the state.

She’s got President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party on her side, but the science is against her. There are no studies that demonstrate forcing young kids to wear masks reduces the spread of COVID-19 in schools.

Mandating masks also ignores the fundamental fact that not all masks are created equal. That should be the basis for a truce in the mask wars breaking out all over the nation. Mandates that settle for cloth masks with cartoon characters on them are a joke.

Most of the masks kids are wearing are laughably ineffective. A cloth mask blocks only 3 percent of viral particles from reaching the wearer, according to a study in the British Medical Journal. For such a minuscule difference, who would force kids to struggle with masks all day?

Instead of mandating masks, school districts should hand out effective masks, such as N95 or KN95 masks, at the beginning of the school day to kids whose parents request them. These masks block 95 percent of incoming viral particles. The masks were in short supply at the beginning of the pandemic, but no longer.

Flat surgical masks made from nonwoven polypropylene would be an improvement over what most kids wear. They block out 56 percent of virus particles, according to the same British study. But note that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns a surgical mask “does NOT provide the wearer with a reliable level of protection from inhaling smaller airborne particles and is not considered respiratory protection” in a health care setting.

Helping families who favor masking is smarter than producing classrooms full of kids with soiled, ineffective masks and many outraged parents.

The delta variant accounts for 98 percent of U.S. cases now and appears to be more dangerous to children. But would masks at school make a difference?

Not according to a CDC study of 169 Georgia elementary schools last winter. CDC researchers found that schools requiring staff and teachers to mask up had 37 percent fewer cases of COVID, and schools that improved air quality and ventilation had 39 percent fewer cases. Those approaches work. But mandating that students wear masks had no statistically significant impact on the spread of COVID. Mandating masks and letting masks be optional produced the same results. Not surprising considering the kinds of masks most kids wear.

Yet a week after releasing the Georgia study, the agency reversed course and recommended universal masking in school without offering new findings to justify that 180-degree flip. Perhaps the agency looked at the rising cases among children and panicked.

No surprise. Over the course of the pandemic, the CDC has earned a reputation as the “Centers for Disease Confusion.” The agency should have been guided by its own research.

Instead, it kowtowed to political correctness. Only a minority of Republicans support mandating masks, while 92 percent of Democrats agree, according to an Aug. 17 Axios/Ipsos poll.

Ten states—mostly blue states like Connecticut, New Jersey, and California—mandate masks. Other states leave it up to local school boards. And eight red states, including Florida, ban local school boards from mandating masks, insisting parents get to decide.

Last week, Biden escalated the mask wars by threatening federal Department of Education lawsuits against the seven states. The New York Times followed with a full-throated endorsement of Biden’s maneuver, calling mandatory masking a “common-sense public health” policy.

Sorry. The science doesn’t support it.

Hochul argues that the New York Health Department has the authority to require masking in the state. According to the letter of the law, she’s right. But the Health Department has lost credibility after forcing nursing homes to take in COVID-positive patients and covering up the deadly results. The Health Department can’t be trusted.

Instead, Hochul should put parents in charge and provide effective masks for families who want them.

That’s good advice for governors in every state. Mandating masks that don’t work is a farce.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

The Mask Mandate Farce (theepochtimes.com)

SEATTLE—A Washington state tech executive has been sentenced to two years in prison after fraudulently obtaining nearly $1.8 million in federal COVID-19 disaster relief loans.

Mukund Mohan, of Clyde Hill, previously worked for Microsoft and Amazon and was making more than $200,000 a year as the chief of technology for the Canadian e-commerce company BuildDirect when he was arrested in July 2020.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle said he submitted eight fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program loan applications seeking $5.5 million for companies he purportedly ran, and he actually received almost $1.8 million.

Mohan’s attorneys sought a six-month sentence, noting Mohan had no criminal history and had spent only $16,500 of the money. They said his actions, possibly triggered by mental health issues, were such an aberration for him that he fainted when federal agents knocked on his door.

Federal authorities were able to seize the money from Mohan’s accounts. He paid back the amount he had spent and was ordered to pay a $100,000 fine.

As part of the scheme, Mohan submitted fake and altered documents, including phony federal tax filings and altered incorporation documents. He said one of his companies had dozens of employees when in reality it had none.

In a news release, Corinne Kalve, acting special agent in charge of IRS Criminal Investigation, attributed the crime to Mohan’s greed, saying that when people abuse such benefit programs “they are stealing from those that are most vulnerable.”

Tech Exec Sentenced to 2 Years for $1.8 Million COVID Fraud (theepochtimes.com)

On Wednesday, Fox News’ meteorologist Janice Dean, who had relentlessly pursued New York Democrat governor Andrew Cuomo for his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, targeted celebrities who had lavished praise on Cuomo but still have not apologized for their championing of him.

She tweeted, “It would be very helpful if some of these celebrities that fawned over @andrewcuomo fessed up to their terrible judgement and apologized to the women and families affected by their tone deaf comments last year. But they won’t. “

It would be very helpful if some of these celebrities that fawned over @andrewcuomo fessed up to their terrible judgement and apologized to the women and families affected by their tone deaf comments last year. But they won’t.

— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) August 25, 2021

Dean then named some celebrities who had lauded Cuomo last year, including Whoopi Goldberg, Billy Joel, Billy Crystal, Rosie Perez, Ben Stiller, Chelsea Handler, Sarah Silverman, and Cher.

.@WhoopiGoldberg @billyjoel @BillyCrystal @rosieperezbkln (who blocked me) @RedHourBen @chelseahandler @SarahKSilverman @cher

— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) August 25, 2021

In November 2020, when the Emmys gave Cuomo the Founders Award “in recognition of his leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic and his masterful use of television to inform and calm people around the world,” host Bruce Paisner stated:

Last spring, when the virus was new and out of control, and the people of New York were frightened at its relentless spread. One man took it upon himself to use technology to spread reliable information and tell citizens what to do. … And as spring turned into summer this year, the people of New York went from fear of the unknown to increasing knowledge of what was known and a sense that somebody had a plan.

Billy Crystal breathed, “In the darkest days of the pandemic, your daily briefings, live from New York, gave us hope, gave us clarity, gave us the truth, and gave us something we were not getting from Washington: Leadership.”

Billy Joel added, “In the midst of this storm, Andrew Cuomo became the nation’s governor. People across the country tuned into his press conferences every day.” Perez stated, “Governor Andrew Cuomo, you are the man.” Stiller: “I look up to you still.”

Joel wrote of Cuomo on his website in March 2020, “We are not at all surprised by his leadership during such a chaotic time and we are so proud of him. We’re lucky to call him ‘The Godfather,’ his favorite title, and our friend.”

In March 2020, Handler penned an article in Vogue with the gushing title,“Dear Andrew Cuomo, I Want to Be Your First Lady.” She wrote:

Between watching episodes of Tiger King and episodes of Trump’s daily press briefings and trying to find more marijuana to ingest, I quicken to something that cuts through the insanity. Out of the darkness, you, Andrew Cuomo, walk into my life, looking remarkably like the Incredible Hulk.… Thank you, Andrew Cuomo. Thank you for reminding us that there are men who can lead and be clear and tell the truth—even when the news is bad. Who practice benevolent ruthlessness. (Thanks, Maureen Dowd.) Who speak to Americans with respect. Thank you for being a leader at a time when so many of us were desperately looking for one.

Cher had her moment of gushing in April 2020, tweeting, “I’m in love with Andrew Cuomo.”

I’m in Love With Andrew Cuomo 💋
“ANDY”🎶

— Cher (@cher) April 15, 2020

The same month, Sarah Silverman wrote, “I really hope @NYGovCuomo sees this awesome @RandyRainbow video from one great New Yorker to another.”

I really hope @NYGovCuomo sees this awesome @RandyRainbow video from one great New Yorker to another (@chelseahandler you got competish) https://t.co/nms03dutck

— Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) April 6, 2020

The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member. 

Janice Dean Names Celebrities Who Lauded Cuomo: Apologize To The Women And Families | The Daily Wire

Former President Donald Trump has dropped a brutal new ad attacking President Joe Biden and nicknaming him the “Surrender-in-Chief.”

Trump has been calling for Biden to step down over his handling of the withdrawal.

The 90-second ad was created by the Save America PAC, which was started by Trump following the 2020 presidential election.

“Joe Biden lied to America and to the World when he told us ‘America was back.’ Instead, he surrendered to the Taliban, and left Americans behind to die in Afghanistan,” a spokesman for the Save America PAC said in a statement.

“This will go down as one of the greatest Military failures in American history. Now, it’s the Taliban that is back – not America,” the spokesman added. “This is not the America we know and the media refuses to hold Biden accountable for the destruction and tragedy he’s caused. It’s time for the truth.”

The ad is a montage of photographs and videos highlighting the inflation since January, the handling of COVID, the border crisis — and of course, the chaos in Kabul as the Taliban took control of the city.

🚨 NEW AD 🚨

President Donald J. Trump releases, “Surrenderer-In-Chief” pic.twitter.com/ctijLXj8gg

— Taylor Budowich (@TayFromCA) August 24, 2021

Another ad released by the PAC earlier this month featured Afghans falling from planes as they attempted to hold on and flee the country. It referred to the chaos as “worse than Saigon.”

Worse than Saigon pic.twitter.com/AdRCirWCLd

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) August 18, 2021

In a statement released as the Taliban took control, Trump called for Biden to “resign in disgrace.”

“It is time for Joe Biden to resign in disgrace for what he has allowed to happen to Afghanistan, along with the tremendous surge in COVID, the Border catastrophe, the destruction of energy independence, and our crippled economy,” Trump said.

The former president added, “it shouldn’t be a big deal, because he wasn’t elected legitimately in the first place.”

Trump Releases New Attack Ad Dubbing Biden ‘Surrenderer-in-Chief’ | TIMCAST IRL

Unbelievable footage resurfaced Wednesday showing Donald Trump issuing a major warning on Afghanistan back in 2017, saying a “rapid exit” from the country would be “unacceptable” and create a “vacuum” filled by terror networks like ISIS and al Qaeda.

“My original instinct was to pull out. The consequences of a rapid exit are both predictable and unacceptable. 9/11 -the worst terrorist attack in our history- was planned and directed from Afghanistan because that country was ruled by a government that gave comfort and shelter to terrorists,” said the President,.

“A hasty withdrawal would create a vacuum that terrorists -including ISIS and al Qaeda- would instantly fill just as happened before September 11^th,” he added.

House Republicans sent a scathing letter to the Department of Justice this week over allegations exiled Afghani President Ashraf Ghani departed the country with upwards of $169 million in assets as the Taliban seized control of Kabul.

“President Ashraf Ghani fled the country of Afghanistan on August 15, precipitating the rapid collapse of the Afghan government in Kabul and paving the way for the Taliban’s entry into the capital city and presidential palace. The Taliban are now in control of Afghanistan for the first time in nearly two decades. President Ghani is residing in the United Arab Emirates, which has granted him humanitarian protection. However, reports state that President Ghani may have been self-dealing with U.S. funds intended for the Afghan people, having fled the country with enormous sums of cash totaling well over a hundred million dollars. If true, this was not the dignified exit of a benevolent head of state, but that of a coward and grifter. The United States must do everything in its power to seize any illicitly gained funds that were corruptly embezzled by President Ghani. If he diverted funds from their intended purposes, the U.S. should bring him to justice,” write the lawmakers.

“It is unclear how President Ghani obtained such a large sum of cash, but the amount and nature of his flight from Afghanistan raises the specter that he illegally and corruptly embezzled these funds from U.S. assistance intended for the Afghan people’s welfare and defense. In fact, until recently, approximately 80% of Afghanistan’s total budget was funded by the United States and other international assistance. Thus, if Ghani was embezzling funds from the government of Afghanistan, he was likely embezzling U.S. taxpayer funds,” add the legislators.

As the nation struggles to safely rescue countless Americans and their allies in Afghanistan, Elizabeth Warren is promoting the Green New Deal, bravely informing her followers on social media that she “believes in science.”

Are you sitting down? Because I’m about to say something that can be pretty shocking, at least in Washington: I believe in science. So I know that climate change is real. And we have to fight this crisis with everything we’ve got.

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) August 25, 2021

Author’s Note: Please see climate change below, showing more than the past hundred years, and note we are entering a grand solar minimum period, so we are right on schedule to repeat the pattern. US Patriot

The Democrat’s post comes as President Biden’s foreign policy efforts in Afghanistan fall apart.

Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw ripped President Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan on Fox News Tuesday, saying the Commander-in-Chief is “building the Taliban back better” -not America.

“Every time you think of something you shouldn’t do that’s exactly what he does. He is building the Taliban back much better,” he said. “That’s exactly what he has done. He is not building America back better.”

“You know what the House has been working on all week – what Pelosi has been putting on the floor –  is giant inflation-driving spending bills. $3.5 trillion, which is actually closer to really $6 trillion if the math is done correctly as well as that $1 trillion of infrastructure spending. That’s what they’re talking about right now,” Crenshaw said.

“It’s wasteful spending at a time when we don’t need it and in a time we all need to be focused on what’s going on in Afghanistan. As you noted, there is bipartisan outrage over this Aug. 31 deadline.”

“I never thought I would see our American military; our country acting this way,” he said. “We don’t run from these people. We make our own timelines and those timelines should be based on getting our people out in a timely manner. And it’s over when we say it’s over. If they don’t like that, then too bad. We will kill you.”

“That’s exactly what we do to people who get in the way of us saving Americans,” Crenshaw continued. “And that’s exactly the message that should be delivered right now. And I’m telling you, there is actually bipartisan support for this — for extending the deadline, and it’s time we stand up for ourselves and stand up for the people we left behind in this botched withdrawal and it’s time we act like America again.”

WARREN: ‘Are You Sitting Down? I Believe in Science, I Know That Climate Change is Real’ | Sean Hannity

Was the longest war worth it?

After two decades of combat, Americans by more than 2-1 say the war in Afghanistan, launched in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, wasn’t worth it. In a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll, 3 of 4 predict the Taliban-led country will once again become a haven for terrorists targeting the United States.

For President Joe Biden, the cost of the war’s chaotic end has been steep. His overall job approval rating now stands at 41% who approve versus 55% who disapprove – a big drop in the closely watched barometer of political health. Until last week, national polls generally showed his approval rating above 50%.

Now, while he has held the backing of 87% of Democrats, only 32% of independents say he’s doing a good job.

The poll was taken Thursday through Monday, when the nation’s headlines were dominated by scenes of desperate families trying to evacuate the Kabul airport and a surge of COVID-19 cases across the United States.

Half approved of his handling of the pandemic, 39% of his handling of the economy, 26% of his handling of the Afghan withdrawal.

“Today, President Biden’s overall approval has taken a turn for the worse due to his awful job performance rating on Afghanistan,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk Political Research Center. “His approval on immigration and the economy are also upside down. The only issue keeping him remotely in the game is his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, where he is barely at 50%.”

Latest on Afghanistan:U.S.-Taliban meeting reported, UN issues warning on human rights

Biden’s decision to pull out troops was backed by most Americans, 53%-38%. But almost two-thirds, 62%, disapproved of the way his administration has handled that withdrawal.

“He basically handed the Taliban all these weapons, and he’s inspired a resurgent ISIS now,” said Aubrey Schlumbrecht, 51, of Lakewood, Colorado, a home health-care nurse and political independent who was among those polled. “He is not even taking any responsibility. He says he owns it, but he’s blaming other people and he’s blaming the Afghan people themselves.”

John Plaskowsky, 55, a business manager from Suwannee, Georgia, said the news media’s coverage of the tumultuous withdrawal has been unfair to Biden.

“I would say probably for the last 10 years they’ve been ignoring Afghanistan, then President Biden gets handed a horrible deal from the previous administration,” he said in a follow-up interview. While noting that he is a Republican, he said former President Donald Trump played a role by negotiating with the Taliban for a U.S. withdrawal that was supposed to be completed by May 1.

“There needs to be some accountability to the previous administration on the deal they cut,” he said.

Some say Afghanistan war was ‘all for nothing’

Attitudes toward the war in Afghanistan and the leadership of the commanders-in-chief who waged it are complicated.

“There were objectives in the very beginning that were probably good objectives,” said Leif Hassell, 46, a Democrat and public health administrator from Little Rock, Arkansas. “But we spent a long time there and used a lot of treasure and a lot of American lives. There was no clear goal, and there’s been no clear benefit from it.”

While most of those surveyed say Biden mishandled the exit in Afghanistan, few blame him for what went wrong in the war itself. Among those who say the war wasn’t worth it – a view held by 60%-28% – just 7% identify Biden as the president who is most responsible for that. Fifteen percent cite Barack Obama, who vowed to end U.S. participation in the war and didn’t.

Nearly two-thirds, 62%, put the responsibility on George W. Bush, the president who ordered the invasion in 2001.

“He’s the one that had the big push into Afghanistan,” said Ryan Haugh, 27, an independent from Camphill, Pennsylvania. “After 9/11, I think there was very few Americans that were against war at that point because of what happened with the World Trade (Center) and the Pentagon. But I think some of the reasons that we were there were the wrong reasons. And then, ultimately, if you look at the end goal, or the end game, where we’re at now, it’s kind of just like it was all for nothing.”

Foreign policy and defense strategists in a string of administrations say the war was a success in routing the Taliban and combating terrorist groups, if not in establishing a stable democracy. 

But now 73% of Americans believe Afghanistan will once again become a base for terrorists who want to attack the United States. There is scant support for developing diplomatic relations with the emerging rulers there; 71% say the United States should not recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.

Senator Marco Rubio ripped the Biden Administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan on ‘Hannity’ Tuesday night, saying the United States just “donated an Air Force to the Taliban.”

“When history looks back at this moment, this is going to be a big deal for decades. This is going to be one of the worst catastrophes in American foreign policy history,” said Rubio.

“They should have known, the red lights were flashing the whole time,” he added. “They were oblivious to it… We just donated an Air Force to the Taliban.”

A report from Fox News highlights the scope of the crisis unfolding in Afghanistan as the network claims the Taliban now control 75,000 vehicles, 200 aircraft, 600,000 weapons and $85 billion in funding.

If this isn’t impeachable, then what is? pic.twitter.com/n0K9iBalv5

— Bongino Report (@BonginoReport) August 20, 2021

“U.S. officials tell Reuters that the current intelligence indicates that the Taliban control at least 2,000 U.S.-made armored vehicles, between 30 and 40 aircraft and an untold number of small arms,” writes a reporter from the global news agency.

“Joe Biden creates the Taliban Army and Air Force,” posted former Trump official Richard Grenell on Twitter.

Joe Biden creates the Taliban Army and Air Force. https://t.co/x5ly8ez6VS

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) August 19, 2021

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan admitted last Tuesday that the administration does not yet have a “complete picture” on the location of American defense equipment abandoned in Afghanistan.

“We don’t have a complete picture, obviously, of where every article of defense materials has gone,” the Biden adviser said. “But certainly, a fair amount of it has fallen into the hands of the Taliban, and, obviously, we don’t have a sense that they are going to readily hand it over to us at the airport.”

“The president did not think it was inevitable that the Taliban were going to take control of Afghanistan,” Sullivan said. “He thought the Afghan national security forces could step up and fight because we spent 20 years, tens of billions of dollars, training them, giving them the best equipment, giving them support of U.S. forces for 20 years.”

RUBIO on HANNITY: ‘We Just Donated an Air Force to the Taliban’ | Sean Hannity

Two top House Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are demanding answers over the allegations that exiled Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country with $169 million in cash, as the Taliban terrorist group seized control of Kabul.

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the top Republican on the committee, and Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.), the ranking member on the National Security subcommittee, wrote a letter (pdf) to Attorney General Merrick Garland following accusations that Ghani took large sums of money with him as he departed the presidential palace.

“President Ghani may have been self-dealing with U.S. funds intended for the Afghan people, having fled the country with enormous sums of cash totaling well over a hundred million dollars. If true, this was not the dignified exit of a benevolent head of state, but that of a coward and grifter,” the lawmakers wrote.

Comer and Grothman said that the United States must do everything in its power to seize “any illicitly gained funds that were corruptly embezzled by President Ghani.”

“If he diverted funds from their intended purposes, the U.S. should bring him to justice,” the lawmakers said.

Ghani’s exit from the country on Aug. 15 allowed the Taliban to take the capital unopposed. He fled as the Islamist insurgents entered Kabul, saying he did so to avoid bloodshed.

The lawmakers called it “imperative that corrupt foreign government officials not be permitted to personally enrich themselves with U.S. taxpayer money,” and charged that Ghani’s actions contributed “to the speed with which the Taliban took over the country.”

“It is unclear how President Ghani obtained such a large sum of cash, but the amount and nature of his flight from Afghanistan raises the specter that President Ghani illegally and corruptly embezzled these funds from U.S. assistance intended for the Afghan people’s welfare and defense,” the Republican lawmakers continued.

Speaking from exile in the United Arab Emirates on Aug. 18, Ghani denied reports that he fled the country with large sums of money.

The pair concluded their letter with a list of questions the said they want answered by the Department of Justice (DOJ), including whether it is probing the matter, if the alleged sum came out of U.S. funding, and what action the DOJ intends to take to bring Ghani “to justice,” if he did “engage in corrupt actions…to enrich himself at the expense of the U.S. taxpayers.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to the DOJ for comment.

Months before he fled the country, Ghani claimed that his government could resist the terrorist group’s attacks without U.S. support, and that “no power in the world” could persuade him to get on a plane and leave the country.

“It is a country I love, and I will die defending,” he claimed in an interview with German news magazine Der Spiegel published on May 14.

The president’s words saw tens of thousands of Afghan families flee their homes hoping to find safety from the approaching Taliban in Kabul.

Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh has remained in the country following Ghani’s exit. He said on Twitter on Aug. 17 that he has remained to fulfill his duty as the “caretaker president” as outlined in the country’s constitution, adopted in 2004.

He has since vowed to resist the Taliban from the Panjshir Valley, together with Ahmad Shah Massoud, the son of a former anti-Soviet mujahedeen commander.

Comer and Grothman have asked for answers to their questions by Aug. 31, which is President Joe Biden’s self-imposed deadline to pull remaining U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

Republicans Demand Answers Over Claims That Exiled-Afghan Leader Fled With $169 Million in Cash (theepochtimes.com)

posted by Hannity Staff – 8.25.21

Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw ripped President Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan on Fox News Tuesday, saying the Commander-in-Chief is “building the Taliban back better” -not America.

“Every time you think of something you shouldn’t do that’s exactly what he does. He is building the Taliban back much better,” he said. “That’s exactly what he has done. He is not building America back better.”

“You know what the House has been working on all week – what Pelosi has been putting on the floor –  is giant inflation-driving spending bills. $3.5 trillion, which is actually closer to really $6 trillion if the math is done correctly as well as that $1 trillion of infrastructure spending. That’s what they’re talking about right now,” Crenshaw said.

“It’s wasteful spending at a time when we don’t need it and in a time we all need to be focused on what’s going on in Afghanistan. As you noted, there is bipartisan outrage over this Aug. 31 deadline.”

“I never thought I would see our American military; our country acting this way,” he said. “We don’t run from these people. We make our own timelines and those timelines should be based on getting our people out in a timely manner. And it’s over when we say it’s over. If they don’t like that, then too bad. We will kill you.”

“That’s exactly what we do to people who get in the way of us saving Americans,” Crenshaw continued. “And that’s exactly the message that should be delivered right now. And I’m telling you, there is actually bipartisan support for this — for extending the deadline, and it’s time we stand up for ourselves and stand up for the people we left behind in this botched withdrawal and it’s time we act like America again.”

Read the full report at Fox News.

CRENSHAW RIPS BIDEN: ‘He is Building the Taliban Back Better, Not America’ | Sean Hannity

Christina Bohannan condemned voter ID laws, backed taxpayer-funded gender reassignment surgeries

Democratic congressional candidate Christina Bohannan scrubbed her old campaign site—which called voter ID laws “a threat to democratic governance” and endorsed taxpayer-funded sex change surgeries—in an effort to bolster her moderate pitch to Iowa voters.

Bohannan, a state legislator, announced on Tuesday her bid to unseat Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R.), saying she decided to run “because she believes we need less bickering in Washington, and more working together.” Prior to the announcement, she removed all policy positions from her 2020 campaign site—including sections that condemned Iowa’s voter ID law and backed taxpayer funding for “gender confirmation surgery for transgender individuals.”

The revelation threatens to undermine Bohannan’s attempt to position herself as a moderate and to complicate Democrats’ ability to flip a district that former president Donald Trump won in November by 4 points. Nearly 70 percent of Iowa voters, for example, expressed support for voter ID requirements after Republicans introduced their “Election Integrity Act” in 2017. According to Bohannan, however, the law is one of the “numerous threats to democracy in our state” and should be repealed.

In addition to her anti-voter ID stance, Bohannan’s “health care” policy section endorsed the use of “Medicaid funding to pay for gender confirmation surgery” and called the matter “both a medical issue and a human rights issue.”

Bohannan did not return a request for comment on whether she stands by her past positions. While her 2020 campaign site is still live, the Democrat replaced its content with a redirect link that sends visitors to her congressional campaign page, which does not include detailed policy positions.

Bohannan in 2020 ran to the left of fellow Democrat Vicki Lensing, who for eight years represented the deep-blue 85th district in the Iowa House of Representatives. After Bohannan argued for a “more progressive and less defensive attitude in the Iowa House,” she defeated Lensing in the primary by 32 points. She did not face a Republican challenger in the general election.

One veteran Iowa political operative cast doubt on Bohannan’s chances to unseat Miller-Meeks.

“It’s entertaining to watch Iowa Democrats continue to use the same failed playbook, running radical left candidates and desperately trying to rebrand them as folksy moderates,” the operative said. “It didn’t work with [failed Senate candidate] Theresa Greenfield, and it won’t work with Christina Bohannan.”

Iowa Dem Scrubs Left-Wing Views From Website as She Kicks Off Moderate Campaign (freebeacon.com)

VA Dem nixes pledge to ‘eliminate racial disparities’ in education as VA parents blast ‘equity initiatives’

Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe quietly removed race-focused language from his campaign website’s education page as voters pushed back on “equity initiatives” in public schools.

McAuliffe has made “equity” a chief theme in his campaign for a second term in the governor’s mansion, tying racism to issues such as education, the economy, and criminal justice. In mid-August, however, McAuliffe removed his pledge to “eliminate racial disparities” from the top of his campaign’s K-12 education page, screenshots reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show. The Democrat also nixed the term “equitable” from the top of four issue pages on his campaign site.

The move came just weeks after a Trafalgar Group poll showed McAuliffe with a narrow lead over Republican Glenn Youngkin. It also came as Democrats in Virginia and across the country expressed concern over “equity initiatives” in public schools. In Loudoun County, for example, parent groups have collected thousands of signatures to recall school board members who have endorsed critical race theory.

The changes to McAuliffe’s campaign site suggest the Democrat is attempting to play both sides of the issue. McAuliffe in June called critical race theory “another right-wing conspiracy” that is “totally made up by Donald Trump and Glenn Youngkin.” At the same time, the Democrat collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from teachers’ unions that have defended teaching critical race theory in public schools.

McAuliffe did not return a request for comment.

The Democrat has not changed his full K-12 education plan, which is aimed at “ensuring that every child has access to an equitable, world-class education.” But removing race-focused language such as “equitable” from prominent positions on his campaign site could reflect an attempt to distance himself from critical race theory while remaining in his union allies’ good graces. 

McAuliffe has received nearly $1 million from the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s two largest teachers’ unions. One week before the NEA contributed $400,000 to McAuliffe’s campaign, union president Becky Pringle said her members “are not going to be afraid” to teach critical race theory in schools, because they “know that to not teach it, we are not telling the truth.”

Youngkin, meanwhile, has placed his opposition to critical race theory at the center of his campaign. The Republican in May pledged to “make sure our kids learn real math, not a political ideology.” 

McAuliffe and Youngkin are set to square off in November. McAuliffe leads the Republican by four points, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average. President Joe Biden won the state by 10 points in November

As Public Pushback Mounts, McAuliffe Buries ‘Equity’ Agenda (freebeacon.com)

Andrew Cuomo granted clemency to Kathy Boudin’s partner, David Gilbert

Former Weather Underground member David Gilbert may be poised for a jailbreak thanks to former New York governor Andrew Cuomo (D.), but progressives have long supported his terrorist wife, who has for the past seven years operated a criminal-justice reform think tank at Columbia University.

The Center for Justice, Kathy Boudin’s think tank at Columbia, is bankrolled by left-wing billionaires, including George Soros, Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz, and Peter Buffett, the son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett. Their philanthropy has collectively poured millions into the Center for Justice, which Boudin cofounded in 2014 to push criminal justice reform.

Boudin and several Weather Underground members were convicted in 1983 on murder charges for their role in a robbery of a 1981 Brinks truck in Nyack, N.Y. Two police officers and a security guard were murdered during a shootout that followed the robbery. Cuomo, who resigned Tuesday in the wake of sexual harassment charges, granted clemency to Boudin’s partner Gilbert, who is serving a 75-year sentence for second-degree murder connected to the robbery.

Boudin and Gilbert are the parents of San Francisco district attorney Chesa Boudin (D.), who called on Cuomo last year to commute his father’s prison sentence.

Kathy Boudin rose through the ranks of academia after she was paroled in 2003. She joined Columbia University as an adjunct professor before she began the Center for Justice. The center says it partners with government agencies, universities, and advocacy groups to end mass incarceration and advance “alternative approaches to justice and safety through education, research, and policy change.”

The center also partners with the Manhattan district attorney’s office on a program called “Inside Criminal Justice.”

The NoVo Foundation, a charity founded by Buffett, contributed $2.5 million to the center in 2018. Buffett launched NoVo Foundation in 2008 with seed money from his billionaire father.

Soros’s Open Society Foundations in 2019 gave $150,000 to the Center for Justice. Moskovitz’s charity, the Open Philanthropy Project, sponsored the Center for Justice’s “Beyond the Bars” events in 2018 and 2019. The Ford Foundation, which sponsors a variety of left-wing causes, contributed $15,000 to “Beyond the Bars.”

Other backers are the Tow Foundation and Robert Sterling Clark Foundation.

Soros has backed progressive prosecutors across the country, many of whom have come under fire amid crime spikes in their cities. While Chesa Boudin has not received any direct support from Soros, he faces a recall effort from opponents who fault his policies for a dramatic increase in crime in San Francisco. Boudin ended the use of cash bail, supports cutting the jail population, and declines to prosecute crimes such as prostitution and public urination.

Boudin faced a recall effort after a career criminal, whom he declined to prosecute, killed two pedestrians while driving drunk on New Year’s Eve. The Moskovitz-funded Real Justice PAC, which supports the defund-the-police movement, has contributed more than $2 million to support progressive prosecutors, including Boudin. The political action committee contributed $100,000 to oppose the Boudin recall effort.

It is unclear whether the Center for Justice benefactors are aware of Kathy Boudin’s terrorist acts. In addition to her role in the Brinks robbery, she was at a Weather Underground hideout in 1970 when a bomb the group was building accidentally exploded. Three Weather Underground members died in the blast, though Boudin escaped without injury. The terrorists had hoped to kill Army personnel by setting off the bomb at a social event at New Jersey’s Fort Dix.

Billionaire Progressives Fund Weather Underground Terrorist’s Ivy League Think Tank (freebeacon.com)

Biden administration left Americans trapped in Kabul and American-made weapons in Taliban hands

Republicans are calling on the Pentagon’s inspector general to launch a formal investigation into the Biden administration’s bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan, including its decision to abandon scores of American-made weapons that are now in the Taliban’s possession.

Rep. Carlos Giménez (R., Fla.), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, is spearheading legislation that would direct the Defense Department’s inspector general to determine how the Biden administration’s pullout from Afghanistan endangered scores of American citizens who are trapped in Taliban-controlled Kabul and begging for rescue by U.S. forces.

Giménez’s bill is the first in what is likely to be a series of Republican efforts to investigate the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. The administration has faced criticism at home and abroad over its failure to plan for an immediate Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The administration, including the Pentagon and State Department, is struggling with its evacuation effort and has avoided answering questions about whether it had a plan to deal with the Taliban’s return to power. It is likely that Democrats will be forced to go along with these investigations, even as party leaders defend the Biden administration’s decisions.

Giménez told the Washington Free Beacon that Congress must begin investigating the ongoing disaster, particularly given the administration’s refusal to answer questions.

Biden and his senior advisers have “made categorically false statements to the American people, including lies that the American embassy in Kabul was secured and prepared for the withdrawal, that there are no al Qaeda militants in Afghanistan, that America’s allies are not questioning the president’s judgments, and even changed transcripts and readouts with our most important allies,” Giménez said.

“These falsehoods,” Giménez continued, “are deliberately deceptive to the American people with both the mainstream press and the president’s own senior national security officials contradicting these claims. If the president of the United States is not going to be straight with the American people while American lives are being left in Afghanistan at the mercy of the Taliban, then Congress has both the moral and constitutional obligation to demand accountability of any and all Biden administration officials who deliberately put American lives at risk.”

Giménez’s bill would direct the Pentagon inspector general to provide Congress with a full accounting of the Biden administration’s behind-the-scenes decision-making. This accounting would include an audit of “the reasons why United States Humvees, helicopters, artillery, and drones ended up in the hands of the Taliban,” according to the bill.

Since the United States pulled out of Afghanistan, the Taliban has seized scores of American-made weapons, which helped them take control of the country and trample the U.S.-trained Afghan National Army.

The legislation also would force the Defense Department to provide information on whether “Afghan forces in possession of United States equipment entered Iran,” which seeks to replace the United States as a powerbroker in Afghanistan.

The Pentagon inspector general’s report would be issued to Congress within three months and also examine the effectiveness of the Biden administration’s ongoing evacuation of Americans from Kabul, according to the bill.

Republicans Call for Formal Pentagon Investigation Into Bungled Afghanistan Withdrawal (freebeacon.com)

I woke up to yet another hit piece about both Gab and myself this morning. You know you are over target when you’re taking flak on a weekly basis. The funny thing is the “hit piece” actually made Gab look pretty great.

The journo who wrote it admitted that Gab is positioned for success, admitted that Gab doesn’t answer to the powers that be, and admitted that I am personally authentic with my belief in Jesus Christ, free speech, and defending Christian values. It’s nice when even your enemies can’t help but to admit that you are authentic and poised for success if nothing else. You can watch my full response and breakdown of this latest attack on our community below. 

Click here to watch the video

This hit piece follows the recent defamatory attacks from the New York Times and the Washington Post after I dared to remind people that they have religious liberty and bodily autonomy in this country. Sharing vaccine religious exemption forms, which can be found here, is apparently “disinformation” according to the powers that be. Many people have reached out to let me know that the exemption forms worked at their school or place of employment, praise God for that! Maybe they will work for you too. 

So I’m going to keep sharing them and I encourage you to do so as well, especially now that employers seem likely to force vaccine mandates after the rushed FDA “approval.” Note that 100 million people who are already skeptical of every branch of government aren’t likely to be compelled by the approval of another three letter government agency which has so often in the past approved dangerous drugs that were later recalled. 

FDA approval means nothing to me. I don’t look to our failing secular and wicked institutions for validation, I have God for that. 

Remember when the FDA approved Quaaludes, which are now considered a Schedule 1 drug like heroin?

The FDA also approved DES, a “synthetic form of estrogen, was marketed to the expecting mother who preferred to have a healthy baby. It claimed to prevent spontaneous abortion, miscarriage, and premature labor. Studies soon showed that mothers who took DES during the first five months of pregnancy were more likely to suffer from complications with their reproductive systems. The FDA finally banned it in 1971.”

The FDA approved Vioxx, “an anti-inflammatory medication intended to treat arthritis, was the subject of one of the largest recalls in history. After it was approved in 1999, it was prescribed to over 20 million people and was one of the most widely prescribed drugs of 2003. The following year, it was recalled. One of the FDA’s own scientists, Dr. David Graham, estimated that Vioxx had been associated with more than 27,000 heart attacks or deaths linked to cardiac problems.”

There are many more examples that you can research yourself. The bottom line is that this is predicatably being used as an excuse for the government and employers to force experimential vaccinations on people. Meanwhile Israel, one of the most fully vaccinated countries in the world, is struggling with a surge of the Delta variant of Covid. 

The best part about all of these attacks is that Gab is so big now that this post you are reading will get more views than all of these hit pieces on us combined. That’s really what they are mad about: our distribution is now larger than some of the top “news” outlets in the world and there’s nothing they can do to stop me from hitting the publish button on this blog. 

I’m getting private messages from hundreds of people on Gab who are afraid of what these vaccine mandates will mean for their families and personal health. I don’t have all the answers, but I do have faith that God is using this time of trial to draw us closer to Him. Please know that I am praying for each and every one of you and am doing my best to share your stories and make sure that Gab is the one place on the internet where you can get access to information that is banned everywhere else. 

God bless you and God bless America,

Andrew Torba
CEO, Gab.com
Jesus is King

We need your help now more than ever. Gab is funded by people like you and has been for five years now. As our community continues to grow, our operational costs grow with it. We rely on The People to pay for our data centers, engineers, lawyers, accountants, customer service team, and more. If you got any value from Gab this year please consider upgrading to GabPRO for just $15 a month or making a one-time purchase/donation from our shop.

Hit Piece on Gab Falls Flat, Makes Gab Look Based – Gab News

Border Patrol agents have arrested 8,691 criminal aliens coming across the southern border in the past 10 months. Between them, the aliens have committed 12,685 crimes.

On Aug. 14, border agents in south Texas arrested two MS-13 gang members. One, a convicted murderer from El Salvador, was apprehended after illegally crossing into the United States with a group near Mission, Texas. The 44-year-old man spent three years in prison for a murder in California in the late ’90s and was imprisoned again in 2005 for “re-entry of a deported alien,” according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Many criminal aliens are arrested while trying to evade Border Patrol, or as they attempt to blend into large groups crossing the border. While Border Patrol agents are tied up dealing with large groups, the cartels and criminal organizations smuggle contraband and people through unpatrolled areas nearby.

Several Border Patrol agents told The Epoch Times that agents estimate they’re apprehending between 10 percent and 20 percent of all illegal border crossers, although it’s impossible to estimate how many have avoided detection and capture.

Since February, Border Patrol agents have apprehended more than 1 million illegal aliens.

In the busiest sectors along the U.S.–Mexico border, agents are constantly being pulled off the line to help process large groups of illegal border crossers—many of whom seek out Border Patrol, knowing they’ll be released into the interior of the country with a request to report at a local Immigration and Customs Enforcement office when they reach their destination.

Additionally, at least 300,000 illegal aliens have slipped past border agents in the past 10 months, according to estimates based on statistics provided by Acting Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz.

The 8,691 criminal alien arrests over the past 10 months is about a 328 percent increase over fiscal 2020, if accounting for the two-month reporting difference.

Border Patrol agents are often not able to immediately check for criminal convictions in an alien’s home country, so most convictions that pop up are from crimes committed in the United States that have been recorded in the National Crime Information Center database.

On Aug. 19, Border Patrol agents in Brownsville, Texas, apprehended Mexican national Marco Antonio Tellez, who was previously arrested for first degree attempted sexual abuse of a child in Lexington, Kentucky. He was sentenced to one year in prison, registered as a sex offender, and then deported, according to records.

Two days earlier, Honduran national Arlin Reinaldo Ruiz-Cardona, was arrested as part of a group of 46 in Rio Grande City, Texas. In 2011, Ruiz-Cardona was arrested in New York City for raping an 8-year-old girl multiple times, according to New York records. He was sentenced to four years in prison and subsequently deported in June 2015.

Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley sector in Texas have arrested more than 140 illegal alien gang members affiliated with 10 different street gangs this fiscal year.

One of the most recent arrests was conducted by Texas state troopers about 70 miles north of the border. On Aug. 22, troopers apprehended two illegal immigrants at the Brooks County rest area. One of the men was a confirmed MS-13 gang member from El Salvador with a 2009 conviction for sexual battery in Hall County, Georgia.

Border Patrol Arrests Nearly 8,700 Criminal Aliens Despite Thin Ranks (theepochtimes.com)

Iran touts US failure in Afghanistan as it increases enrichment of weapons-grade uranium

Iran is set to hold a series of war drills with Russia and China, as the hardline regime celebrates the United States’ bungled evacuation in Afghanistan and boosts its enrichment of nuclear weapons-grade uranium to historically high levels.

Iranian and Russian leaders announced on Monday that their countries, along with China, will hold joint maritime war exercises in the Persian Gulf later this year or early in 2022, according to Iran’s state-controlled media. The countries said they will focus on “shipping security and combating piracy” as the United States reduces its military footprint in the region following its marred withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The announcement comes as the rogue countries step up their involvement in war-torn Afghanistan amid a hurried effort by the Biden administration to evacuate U.S. personnel from the country. Iran, Russia, and China have all expressed an interest in replacing the United States as a powerbroker in the nation and working with the newly installed Taliban government. Iran’s foreign ministry announced that “Iran is in contact with all parties in Afghanistan to pave the ground for dialogue and reconciliation” and that the Russian and Chinese embassies remain functioning.

Iran’s new hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi, celebrated what he called America’s “military failure” in Afghanistan last week, saying the Biden administration’s “military defeat and its withdrawal must become an opportunity to restore life, security, and durable peace in Afghanistan.” Iranian officials also have sought to increase ties with the Taliban, historically a regional enemy, as it expands its footprint in the region.

As the situation in Afghanistan deteriorates for the United States, Iran has increased its enrichment of uranium, the key component in a nuclear weapon. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported late last week that Iran produced uranium metals that were enriched up to 20 percent purity for the first time in its history. It also amped up its uranium enrichment program to 60 percent purity, a threshold level that allows the regime to produce the fuel needed for a nuclear weapon.

The move was met with consternation by the United States and its European allies, but they did not take any steps to sanction Iran or issue penalties for its breach of the 2015 nuclear accord. The United States said Iran must cease its enrichment, but would not go further than a public reproach. France, Germany, and the United Kingdom also acknowledged their concerns on the IAEA report in a joint statement on Thursday.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Washington Free Beacon that “the botched Afghanistan drawdown is a propaganda coup for Tehran.”

The Islamic Republic “has long advanced the idea that America can be forced from the region through a sustained death-by-a-thousand-cuts military strategy,” Taleblu said. “Moreover, it is trying to get local actors who are pro-American to accommodate rising Iranian power by saying those who work with Washington will one day be abandoned.”

Iran’s latest enrichment levels are a signal to the U.S. administration that the country “is increasingly comfortable with escalation and has survived peak pressure,” Taleblu said. “Would you be afraid of a state which has denigrated instruments of national power like economic sanctions and military force in a bid to change your national security policy?”

As Iran increases its regional footprint and funds terrorist groups operating in and around Afghanistan, the Biden administration is pursuing negotiations aimed at securing a revamped nuclear agreement.

The State Department has made clear that it remains open to talks even as Iran refuses to come back to the bargaining table. Tehran wants full-scale sanctions relief and access to hard currency, but claims the Biden administration is not going far enough in its concessions, which are rumored to include the removal of sanctions on Iran’s financial system and other sources of revenue for the regime.

U.S. Iran envoy Robert Malley said last week the Biden administration is prepared to present Iran with a new nuclear deal should talks on reentering the 2015 accord fall apart, according to Politico.

Iran recently enlisted U.S. ally Japan in its pursuit of sanctions relief. Japanese foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi landed in Tehran over the weekend to discuss ways both countries can pressure the Biden administration into granting Iran sanctions relief.

“To revive the [nuclear deal], the United States must abandon its excessive demands,” Motegi was quoted as saying following meetings with high-ranking Iranian government officials.

Emboldened Iran To Hold War Drills With Russia and China (freebeacon.com)

My friend Owen Shroyer was forced to turn himself in yesterday.

While he never stepped foot inside the Capitol on January 6th, he’s been charged with “illegally entering a restricted area on Capitol grounds”, along with disorderly conduct.

Owen is a journalist and was covering the event with a news crew from InfoWars.

They never entered the Capitol, never jumped any barricades, and never disobeyed orders from law enforcement – because they were given none!

So why are the Feds going after Owen?

Because he’s an influential conservative media figure, and they can take him down despite having no evidence of wrong-doing!

Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats are leading this charge with the intent to dismantle the activist wing of the conservative movement.

And it’s working!

Families are being broken up, careers are being destroyed, and everyone else is being terrified into silence or submission.

But not me – and that’s why I’m asking for your support for my run for Congress.

We have to stand up and tell the truth about what is happening, and it shouldn’t surprise any of us that the majority of Republicans in Congress are silent as Nancy Pelosi is literally taking political prisoners around the nation!

Do you think Democrats in Congress would have the same reaction if BLM and Antifa had swarmed the Capitol with Molotov cocktails and bricks like they did in Portland?

No! Pelosi, AOC and Ilhan Omar would be defending their right to protest, despite the fact that their actions are far from being “mostly peaceful”!

While over 600 Patriots have been charged with crimes from January 6th, nearly every BLM rioter is getting their charges dropped!

We need members of Congress brave enough to stand up to partisan plots like this . . . and that’s why it’s so important to send patriots to Congress who have a spine!

Help me get there today by funding my campaign.

And please, take a moment to give your thoughts and prayers to Owen Shroyer and the hundreds of other men and women whose lives have been upended by this partisan political power play.

Thanks so much for your time.

Respectfully,


Laura Loomer

National security officials fear newly freed Afghan terrorists may exploit border crisis

The Taliban’s release of prisoners throughout Afghanistan poses a security threat on the U.S.-Mexico border, according to senior Department of Homeland Security officials and national security experts.

The Taliban freed thousands of prisoners, many of whom either worked directly with or had ties to al Qaeda and ISIS, when it captured Bagram Air Base on Aug. 15. Afghan soldiers surrendered the base with virtually no resistance, leaving U.S. intelligence officials with little ability to track suspected terrorists. The crisis at the southern border could prove an inviting target for terrorists, according to the DHS official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly.

“We’ve always been surprised by the countries of origin we see individuals coming from along our southwest border. It’s more than likely some Afghans will arrive now as well,” the official told the Washington Free Beacon. “It’s definitely a national security threat, and the strain of forces currently along the border would make it more likely that some would slip through illegally.”

The intelligence community warned the administration about terror threats at the southern border just weeks after President Joe Biden announced the planned withdrawal from Afghanistan. National security officials warned the White House in a classified memo, first reported by the Free Beacon, that border patrol officers had arrested two Yemeni nationals on the terrorist watch list as they attempted to cross into the United States from Mexico. One of the two men was also on the FBI’s no-fly list. Their names have not been released to the public.

The Biden administration did not respond to a request for comment.

Senators from both parties pressed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Mark Milley on whether the Pentagon would change its terror assessment of Afghanistan following the collapse of the U.S.-backed government. The two acknowledged their report to Congress in June—that Afghanistan contained only a “medium” risk of terror groups—was likely obsolete. 

Individuals who had worked on assessing terror threats at the southern border told the Free Beacon that the surge of migrants has left border patrol officers ill-equipped to face the new terror challenge. Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief of staff Jon Feere said the record-setting influx of illegal border crossings will only exacerbate the threat.

“When it comes to cross-border illegal immigration that goes undetected, there is obviously no background check taking place,” Feere, who now works at the Center for Immigration Studies, said. “Customs and Border Protection apprehended foreign nationals from countries across the globe and that means there are likely many aliens from problematic countries getting past the border patrol already.”

Border patrol agents already complain about a lack of resources to adequately police the southern border. Biden administration officials have also come to acknowledge the strain. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas privately told border agents, “If our borders are the first line of defense, we’re going to lose and this is unsustainable,” according to Leaked Audio of his remarks. 

More migrants were recorded crossing into the country in July—212,000—than at any point in the last 21 years. Illegal crossings jumped 13 percent from June, which previously held the 21-year record. 

DHS Braces for Terror Threat on Southern Border (freebeacon.com)

A group of Republican Senators called-out White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki Tuesday after the Biden official claimed it was “irresponsible” to say there are currently Americans stranded in Afghanistan.

“This is just not true. And it’s a slap in the face to the thousands of Americans who are stranded right now,” posted Sen. Tom Cotton on Twitter.

This is a boldfaced lie!

My office literally just received word of a Tennessean STRANDED in Afghanistan. https://t.co/naM8g4OMRP

— Senator Bill Hagerty (@SenatorHagerty) August 23, 2021

This is just not true.

And it’s a slap in the face to the thousands of Americans who are stranded right now. https://t.co/ngiGfddDqs

— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) August 23, 2021

Psaki held her daily briefing at the White House Monday where she informed reporters that it’s now “irresponsible” to claim that American citizens are “stranded” in Afghanistan.

“I think it’s irresponsible to say that Americans are stranded. They are not. We are committed to bringing Americans who want to come home, home,” said Psaki.

.@PressSec: “I think its irresponsible to say that Americans are stranded. They are not. We are committed to bringing Americans who want to come home, home.” pic.twitter.com/lFIbQ56OBT

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 23, 2021

A report from Reuters highlights the scope of the crisis unfolding in Afghanistan as the agency claims the Taliban now control 2,000 American-made vehicles and between 30 and 40 aircraft.

“U.S. officials tell Reuters that the current intelligence indicates that the Taliban control at least 2,000 U.S.-made armored vehicles, between 30 and 40 aircraft and an untold number of small arms,” writes a reporter from the global news agency.

“Joe Biden creates the Taliban Army and Air Force,” posted former Trump official Richard Grenell on Twitter.

‘SLAP IN THE FACE’: GOP Senators React to Psaki’s Claim ‘No Americans Stranded’ in Afghanistan | Sean Hannity

The Biden administration continues to deflect growing criticism surrounding its decision to rapidly withdraw US troops from Kabul, claiming just weeks ago that the Afghanistan Army could defend itself from the terror network.

“What proof do you have that the Afghanistan forces can defend themselves?” asked one reporter.

“They have over 300,000 soldiers and police. They have a modern Air Force. They have modern weaponry. They have an organizational structure. They have a lot of advantages that the Taliban don’t have,” said the spokesperson.

President Biden addressed the nation Sunday afternoon on the chaos unfolding in Afghanistan, saying his decision to abruptly exit the country was “rational, logical, and right.”

“There are number of places where we’re doing that, without permanently placing American forces there… But look, that’s the job. My job is to make judgments no one else can or will make. I made them, I’m convinced I’m absolutely correct in not sending more women and men to war,” said Biden.

“I don’t trust anybody, there’s not a lot of people I trust. The Taliban has to make a fundamental decision. Are they going to attempt to be able to unite and provide for the well-being of the people of Afghanistan?” he added.

Watch the revealing comments above.

FLASHBACK: Six Days Before Fall of Kabul, Pentagon Dismisses Taliban’s Capabilities | Sean Hannity

New footage appeared on social media Monday allegedly showing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi addressing a crowd at a lavish Napa Valley fundraiser, delivering her address mask-free despite California’s strict COVID advisories.

“Speaker Pelosi wants to lock you down again while she wines and dines with her political donors. It’s utter hypocrisy,” posted House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Twitter.

Speaker Pelosi wants to lock you down again while she wines and dines with her political donors. It’s utter hypocrisy. https://t.co/PmiygfqN7F

— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) August 22, 2021

Pelosi made national headlines last week when she largely dismissed thousands of pieces of US-made military equipment falling into the hands of the Taliban.

“This is what happens when you withdraw,” Pelosi said in an interview with KPIX 5 News Tuesday. “Some stuff is left there. It was thought that would be used. It was hoped that would be used by the Afghan military to defend its own country.”

“The fact that it did not and could not,” Pelosi added, “was all more the reason for us to leave.”

The United States Ambassador to the United Nations weighed in this week on the unfolding chaos in Afghanistan, saying the UN Security Council issued a “very strongly worded press statement” that the Taliban must respect human rights.

“We have expressed in no uncertain terms, here in the United Nations, through a very strongly worded press statement from the Security Council that we expect the Taliban to respect human rights, including the rights of women and girls,” said Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

Watch Pelosi’s lavish address above.

FANCY NANCY RETURNS! Video Shows Mask-Free Pelosi Speaking at Lavish Napa Valley Fundraiser | Sean Hannity

Vice President Kamala Harris broke-out in laughter early Monday when asked about the chaos engulfing Afghanistan, telling reporters to “slow down!” when pressed about the foreign policy debacle.

“What’s your response to reports the American…” began one journalist.

“Hold on, slow down everybody. I want to talk about two things. First Afghanistan, we couldn’t have a higher priority right now,” said Harris. “

New polls are sounding alarm bells within the Democratic Party as Vice President Kamala Harris’ approval rating sinks amid a series of controversies surrounding the border, Afghanistan, and inflation.

“According to a Rasmussen Reports survey released Thursday, 55 percent of likely voters say the former senator from California is either ‘not qualified’ or ‘not at all qualified’ to assume the duties of the presidency. By contrast, 43 percent consider Harris ‘qualified’ or ‘very qualified’ to be commander in chief. The same poll found in April that 49 percent of likely voters said Harris was qualified to become president,” reports the NY Post.

The Vice President has been mostly absent since Afghanistan’s capital Kabul fell to the Taliban last weekend.

“Since then, she has taken part in at least four briefings with President Biden and his national security team, but has confined her public statements about Afghanistan to Twitter and did not appear at Biden’s side when he attempted to defend the withdrawal in remarks from the White House East Room Monday,” adds the Post.

“Kamala Harris, who has vanished since the debacle began, still can’t keep her approval polls from dropping,” posted Larry Elder -Republican candidate in Gavin Newsom’s upcoming recall- on social media.

Watch Harris above.

WATCH: Kamala Harris Cracks-Up When Asked About Americans Trapped in Afghanistan | Sean Hannity

US Border Patrol agents are reportedly suffering low morale, to the point they feel “almost dead inside,” as President Joe Biden’s policies leave only skeleton crews working in the field to intercept national-security threats.

“Everyone shows up to work sort of downtrodden, almost dead inside, for lack of a better term,” Jon Anfinsen, a spokesman for the Border Patrol’s union, told the Washington Examiner in an article published on Sunday. 

They’re not allowed to [do] the job, and they know that people are getting away every single day, every hour.

The US has set new 20-year highs in each of the past two months for the number of illegal aliens encountered by Border Patrol, including 213,000 in July, after Biden dismantled the policies of his predecessor Donald Trump, which he called “an assault on the dignity of immigrant communities.” Agents know that many more people are crossing the border undetected, as hundreds of agents have been pulled from the field to process and care for the crushing flow of migrants.READ MORESuspected terrorists are crossing into US at ‘level we have never seen before,’ outgoing Border Patrol chief tells agents – report

“Agents are primarily indoors, processing, and we’re dealing with the people who are flagging us down – the ones who are walking up to us and turning themselves in,” Anfinsen said. “Meanwhile, the immigrants who don’t want anything to do with us, they’re running away, although sometimes they’re walking because they have no need to run because we’re not there.”

In one 245-mile stretch of the southwest US border, there are only 12 agents patrolling, a record low, the Examiner said. On one recent day, the busy McAllen, Texas, Border Patrol Station had just one person and a dog working in the field because all other agents were needed for non-enforcement tasks, such as processing and transporting illegal migrants.

That’s especially troubling to agents, knowing that drug traffickers and suspected terrorists, among other threats, are exploiting the porous border. People on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist are crossing into the US at an unprecedented level, according to Rodney Scott, whom the Biden administration forced out as Border Patrol chief earlier this month. Also this month, Mark Morgan, a top border official in the Obama and Trump administrations, said the Biden administration has dropped at least 40,000 illegal aliens infected with Covid-19 into US cities.

The Examiner said many field agents have been turned into corrections officers, being jammed into crowded holding facilities with dozens of migrants packed in small rooms. Morgan said 37 employees have died from the virus since the pandemic began.ALSO ON RT.COMBiden administration has dumped 40,000 Covid-positive migrants into US cities, former border chief tells newspaper

The newspaper said its reporting was based on interviews with five current agents and three former senior officials who worked in the Biden administration. The administration has prohibited Border Patrol employees from speaking to media outlets without permission and stopped allowing reporters to do ride-alongs with enforcement agents.

“The mission is no longer deter, detect, detain,” one agent said. “It is wait until they have all crossed, Uber them to the station and process. Morale is below the Mason-Dixon line. We need more agents on the line, not at hospital or processing.” 

The agent added that more operatives are also needed to do intelligence work to target the cartels that are smuggling migrants.

Asked about the alleged plunge in morale, the US Customs and Border Patrol sent a statement to the Examiner, saying it’s fortunate to have agents who “remain resilient as we seek to improve enforcement efforts along the border.” The statement added, “Day in and day out, our Border Patrol agents continue to meet the need to protect our nation’s border as well as process migrants safely and expeditiously.”

Morale among ‘downtrodden’ Border Patrol agents PLUMMETS as Biden policies leave them unable to protect national security – report — RT USA News

• A supposed DNA match between Rep. Ilhan Omar and her second husband Ahmed Elmi allegedly proves that the two are siblings 
• It has long been rumored that Omar and Elmi are siblings, but because of a lack of paperwork in war-torn Somalia, positive proof has never been uncovered 
• The match says that Omar’s DNA was taken from a cigarette butt, while Elmi’s DNA purportedly came from a drinking straw
• Although Omar is not known to be a smoker, a grainy photo appears to show her smoking outside of her Washington, DC home   
• Republican strategist Anton Lazzaro posted the results hours before he was arrested and charged with trafficking underage girls for sex 
• Omar’s spokesperson is already discrediting the report due to Lazzaro’s involvement 
• A shadowy Republican group is behind the surreptitious sleuthing and claims this finally proves the two are siblings

Persistent claims that leftist congresswoman Ilhan Omar married her own brother to get around US immigration laws may be legitimized by what appears to be a conclusive DNA test.

The results of the test assert that there is a 99.999998% chance that Omar and her second husband Ahmed Elmi are siblings.

The report, drawn up by Endeavor DNA Laboratories does not name either Omar or Elmi, instead referring to them as ‘Sibling 1’ and ‘Sibling 2.’ DailyMail.com understands that Omar is Sibling 1.

It says that Sibling 1’s sample was garnered from a cigarette butt and Sibling 2’s from a drinking straw.

Omar has never before been known publicly to be a smoker, although her third husband Tim Mynett is. However, a grainy picture of her with a cigarette in her mouth, said to have been taken outside her home in Washington, D.C. appears as part of the evidence gathered in an intensive investigation by a shadowy conservative group.

Endeavour Laboratories did not name either Omar or Elmi on the results, identifying them merely as ‘Sibling 1’ and ‘Sibling 2.’ DailyMail.com understands Sibling 1 is Omar

The test was posted online by Anton Lazzaro, a Republican strategist in Minneapolis on Wednesday. Around 12 hours later Lazzaro was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges.

He is now in custody awaiting a hearing on Monday.

Lazarro’s lawyer Zachary Newland could not immediately be reached as he was on a flight. However he confirmed by email that the website was put up by his client.

Omar’s spokesman Jeremy Slevin threw shade on the report. ‘This is a fraudulent website created by a man charged this week with child sex trafficking and lying to federal investigators to cover it up,’ he said in a statement.

The supposed DNA match between the two was posted on Republican strategist Anton Lazzaro’s (pictured) Facebook page and Twitter feed just before he was arrested and charged with trafficking underage girls for sex

Endeavor, which is based in El Paso, Texas did not return a call for comment. The company charges $189 for a siblingship test.  

DailyMail.com understands that a shadowy Republican group was planning to release details of a DNA report in the next day or two. It is not known what relationship Lazarro, 30, has to that group.

Its work could have been undermined by Lazarro as it gives Minnesota congresswoman Omar, 38, an opportunity to try to discredit the information as coming from a tainted source.

Lazzaro’s website says that the group garnered a DNA sample from Elmi’s straw in Leicester, England as part of a two-year investigation. He has recently been living in both Kenya and on the east African island of Zanzibar.

The test result appears to show that some of the DNA matches are exact while others are close. The group behind the surreptitious sleuthing claims this proves the two are siblings.

Claims that Omar and Elmi, 36, are siblings have been rampant for years. The allegation is that they married so Elmi, a British citizen could go to school in the United States. He followed Omar to North Dakota State University.

Lazzaros’ website says: ‘Rep. Omar was a U.S. Citizen for a decade and her brother/ex-husband Mr. Elmi was a UK Citizen.

‘This is purely a crime of convenience, by an individual with extremely poor ethics now representing hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans in Congress. There was absolutely no threat to these individuals causing them to commit multiple felonies while living in the two wealthiest countries in the world seeking reduced tuition at a public University.

Omar, who was first elected to Congress in 2018, has never fully addressed the question of whether she is related to Elmi. While serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives she did issue a press release in which she called the allegations ‘absurd and offensive.’

In her memoir, This Is What America Looks Like, published last year, she claims she hardly knew him when they married, saying: ‘I had a Britney Spears-style meltdown, I not only eloped with a man — whom I spent so little time with that I wouldn’t even make him a footnote in my story if it weren’t for the fact that this event turned into the main headline later on — but I shaved my head.

‘Yes, like the beleaguered pop star, who shaved her head in 2007, I took clippers to my own head. Too many headaches, too little sleep — I had to flee myself, my relationships, my hair.

‘The difference between Britney and me is that I wore a hijab, so nobody knew what I had done — except my children who were very surprised. ”Mommy looks like me,” Adnan (her young son) declared. And he was right, I did look like a little boy.’

She didn’t even name Elmi in her memoirs.

Although Ilhan Omar is not known to be a smoker publicly, Elmi has been seen smoking along with her current husband Tim Mynett.

Omar was married to Ahmed Hirsi — who she later remarried. They have since divorced and in March 2020 she married Mynett, her chief fundraiser

But others have long claimed that she married him so he could go to school in the United States. She had come to America as a refugee fleeing war in her native Somalia, but he had taken up British nationality.

He followed her to North Dakota State University, after their marriage in 2009. A Christian minister performed the ceremony despite the fact that both are Muslim.

Somali blogger Abdihakim Osman Nur told DailyMail.com in February last year that he had known Omar growing up and suddenly her brother arrived in Minneapolis.

At the time Omar was married to Ahmed Hirsi — who she later remarried. They have since divorced and in March 2020 she married Mynett, her chief fundraiser.

‘No one knew there had been a wedding until the media turned up the marriage certificate years later,’ Nur said, about the Elmi-Omar marriage.

‘People began noticing that Ilhan and Southside were often with a very effeminate young guy,’ Osman said, referring to Hirsi by his nickname.

‘He was very feminine in the way he dressed — he would wear light lipstick and pink clothes and very, very, short shorts in the summer. People started whispering about him, added Nur, who spoke in Somali through an interpreter.

‘Southside and Ilhan both told me it was Ilhan’s brother and he had been living in London but he was mixing with what were seen as bad influences that the family did not like,’ added Nur.

‘So they sent him to Minneapolis as ”rehab”.’

Nur said that Omar kept her marriage to Elmi quiet, with no one from the Somali community invited to the wedding that was held at a county office in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

He explained: ‘When Southside and Ilhan got married, a lot of people were invited. It was a big Islamic wedding uniting two large clans in the Minneapolis community.

‘I would say there were 100-150 people there.’

But he said: ‘When she married Elmi, no one even knew about it.’

Nur said he believed Elmi and Omar sought out someone outside the Somali community to conduct the ceremony because an imam would have known they were related and would have refused to marry them.+10

Elmi and Omar married on February 12, 2009 at a Hennepin County office in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, southwest of Minneapolis, their license shows. The marriage was conducted by a Christian minister+10

In the late 2000s Elmi (pictured) appeared in Minneapolis, said Somali blogger Abdihakim Osman. ‘People began noticing that Ilhan and [Hirsi] were often with a very effeminate young guy. He was very feminine in the way he dressed — he would wear light lipstick and pink clothes and very short shorts in the summer. People started whispering about him. [Hirsi] and Ilhan told me it was Ilhan’s brother’

The marriage was conducted by Christian minister Wilecia Harris. When DailyMail.com approached her in 2019 she would not discuss the ceremony or why a Muslim couple would have asked her to marry them.

In a Facebook message, Harris’s husband Marcus told DailyMail.com: ‘My wife doesn’t want to be involved or interviewed about Congresswoman Omar.’

‘It’s not going to happen, not now and not never.’

Lazzaro’s arrest could complicate the latest attempts to prove the congresswoman may have broken federal immigration laws.

According to a press release from the Department of Justice in Minnesota, Lazzaro ‘conspired with others to recruit and solicit six minor victims to engage in commercial sex acts.’

‘The indictment charges Lazzaro with one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors, five counts of sex trafficking of minors, one count of attempted sex trafficking of a minor, and three counts of obstruction.’

He is being held in federal custody until a hearing on Monday.

Lazzaro, who has appeared on Fox News and other conservative media outlets has posted pictures of himself posing with former president Donald Trump, former vice-president Mike Pence and other leading Republicans.

According to the Daily Beast, which broke the story of his arrest, the FBI had raided Lazzaro’s luxury apartment in the Hotel Ivy Residences in downtown Minneapolis in December last year.

‘The indictment accuses Lazzaro of having ‘recruited’ at least five underage victims for paid sex between May and December last year, and trying to entice a sixth. It also says he ‘knowingly and intentionally interfered’ with the investigation as it closed in on him,’ the Daily Beast reported.

The outlet said law enforcement served the condo building’s management company with a search warrant seeking Lazzaro’s bank records and video surveillance footage a week before the raid.

At the time, Lazzaro told the Daily Beast: someone had ‘made a false allegation against me,’ and he said the matter was ‘almost resolved.’

Claims DNA match proves Ilhan Omar married her brother | Daily Mail Online

On Saturday 18 RINOs joined Democrats to pass the Democrat Party’s infrastructure bill. Democrats never allowed a similar bill to reach President Trump’s desk last year.

The RINOs gave Joe Biden a rare win at a time when the illegitimate president is sinking in the polls and continues to struggle with his diminishing faculties.

Mitch McConnell led the charge of the RINOs.
Here are the 18 GOP members who voted for this monstrosity on Saturday:

** Mitch McConnell
** Roy Blunt of Missouri,
**Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia,
**Bill Cassidy of Louisiana,
**Susan Collins of Maine,
**John Cornyn of Texas,
**Kevin Cramer of North Dakota,
**Mike Crapo of Idaho,
**Chuck Grassley of Iowa,
**John Hoeven of North Dakota,
**Deb Fischer of Nebraska,
**Lisa Murkowski of Alaska,
**Rob Portman of Ohio,
**Jim Risch of Idaho,
**Mitt Romney of Utah,
**Thom Tillis of North Carolina,
**Todd Young of Indiana
**Mike Rounds of South Dakota.

On Sunday morning Senator Kevin Cramer joined Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures to discuss his vote for the Socialist infrastructure plan. Big mistake. Maria Bartiromo chewed him up and spit him out — as he deserved.

TRENDING: MUST SEE: Mike Lindell on War Room Lays Out Day-by-Day Schedule on What to Expect at Much Anticipated Cyber Symposium This Week (VIDEO)

Bartiromo pointed out in the $1.2 trillion “infrastructure” monstrosity there is not a single dime for a border wall during the worst border crisis in US history. Cramer had no response. Instead he started spouting off about the globalists at the Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable who support the Uniparty spending plan.

Cramer was outmatched and looked ridiculous.
Maria destroyed him.

On Monday the War Room panel pointed out that there is not a dime in the trillion dollar plan supported by RINOs for border security.
And yet 18 Republicans voted for it.
It is clear these dirty RINOs DO NOT support their constituents.

Below are the 17 REPUBLICAN Senators and links to EMAIL THEM, keep your messages short, but let’s flood their email boxes with messages like “VOTE NO on Trillion Dollar Infrastructure bill”, “NO to Socialism”, “NO to GREEN NEW DEAL”.

Via Midnight Rider:

Contact Sen Blunt
https://www.blunt.senate.gov/contact/contact-roy
Senator Burr
https://www.burr.senate.gov/contact/email
Senator Cassidy
https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/contact
Sen Capito
https://www.capito.senate.gov/contact/share-your-opinion
Senator Collins
https://www.collins.senate.gov/CONTACT
Senator Cramer
https://www.cramer.senate.gov/contact/contact-kevin
Senator Crapo
https://www.crapo.senate.gov/contact/email-me
Senator Graham
https://www.lgraham.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-senator-graham
Senator Grassley
https://www.grassley.senate.gov/contact
Senator Hoeven
https://www.hoeven.senate.gov/contact/email-the-senator
Senator McConnell
https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=contact
Senator Murkowski
https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/contact/email
Senator Portman
https://www.portman.senate.gov/meet/contact
Senator Risch
https://www.risch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/email
Senator Romney
https://www.romney.senate.gov/contact
Senator Tillis
https://www.tillis.senate.gov/email-me
Senator Young
https://www.young.senate.gov/contact

Read More

THEY HATE YOU: Mitch McConnell and 17 RINO Senators Vote for Infrastructure Bill that Included ZERO DOLLARS for Border Security During Greatest Border Crisis in History – Orwellian Post

The city’s enforcement against shoplifters has dwindled, and these are the results.

San Francisco ranks as the fifth-worst city in the US when it comes to retail theft. Now, the problem is getting so bad that businesses like Target and Walgreens are being forced to make drastic changes in response.

“For more than a month, we’ve been experiencing a significant and alarming rise in theft and security incidents at our San Francisco stores,” a Target spokesperson said. “With the safety of our guests, team members and communities as our top priority, we’ve temporarily reduced our operating hours in six San Francisco stores.” 

Target stores normally stay open to 10:00 pm, but many in the San Francisco area will now close their doors at 5:00 pm or 6:00 pm. Meanwhile, Walgreens stores are faring even worse, with some shutting their doors altogether.  

“Representatives from Walgreens said that thefts at its stores in San Francisco were four times the chain’s national average, and that it had closed 17 stores, largely because the scale of thefts had made business untenable,” the New York Times reported. 

This isn’t just a problem at big-box retailers, either. The California Retailers Association has decried the rampant theft, which is hurting Golden State businesses small and large. Theft has gotten so bad in some parts of San Francisco that it is beyond belief. 

“I’m new to San Francisco,” Times journalist Thomas Fuller told a grocery store clerk shortly after moving to the city. “Is it optional to pay for things here?” It sounds like an absurd thing to ask, but Fuller explains that he was genuinely forced to wonder what was going on after he witnessed people walk into Walgreens and Safeway, grab stuff, and walk out.

The dysfunction-driven closures and scale-backs at major retailers will hurt everyday Californians. From the workers whose hours are cut to the customers who can’t get the products they need, this undermining of the market will have many victims beyond just those who are directly robbed. 

The sad affair is another reminder of the timeless truth described by economist Thomas Sowell, who said that property rights “belong legally to individuals, but their real function is social, to benefit vast numbers of people who do not themselves exercise these rights.”

Protecting property rights is a necessary precursor for basic economic activity to function. As I previously explained on FEE.org:

“When property rights are insecure or routinely violated—widespread looting and arson are prime examples—the very foundation of a community’s economy is undermined. Investors understandably balk at the uncertainty and forgo investing there, while entrepreneurs cannot launch new enterprises or even continue current ones without the knowledge that they will be secure in their property. As a result, job opportunities and income streams dry up.” 

This is why millions of our taxpayer dollars are given to police departments and other government agencies tasked with enforcing property and protecting our rights. But in San Francisco, they’ve woefully failed this most basic responsibility. 

A 2014 ballot referendum downgraded theft of goods less than $950 in value to just a misdemeanor, a slap on the wrist, and the city’s enforcement against shoplifters has dwindled in the years since.

That’s why Target and Walgreens are being forced to take drastic actions to protect their stores. But if widespread violation of property rights continues unpunished, they won’t be the last businesses in San Francisco to close their doors in response.

Target and Walgreens Are Making Drastic Changes Amid Skyrocketing Shoplifting in San Francisco – Foundation for Economic Education (fee.org)

• The number of homicides in six major cities across the country has increased compared to last year, disproportionately affecting black people, according to crime data.
• “We are seeing an uptick in violent crime across the country, specifically gun violence,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told The New York Times.
• In Chicago, black people have been the victims of roughly 81 percent of the 317 murders in the first six months of 2021, data shows. They were the victims of about 70 percent of the 295 murders committed in the first six months of 2020.
• “I am proud to lead a City Council that took the first step to responsibly reduce Baltimore’s budget dependence on policing,” former Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott, who is now the city’s mayor, said after the council voted to strip funding from the city’s police last year, the Baltimore Sun reported.

The number of homicides in six major cities across the country has increased compared to last year, disproportionately affecting black people, according to crime data.

Black people have represented a massive share of murder victims in six major cities through the first six months of 2021 compared to last year, which itself saw a large crime surge, according to data analyzed by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The DCNF analyzed both police department data and homicide reports compiled by local news outlets to determine how black people have been victimized in the wake of the 2020 crime spike.

“We are seeing an uptick in violent crime across the country, specifically gun violence,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told The New York Times earlier this month.

The DCNF collected homicide data from Chicago, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, and Indianapolis, some of the only cities in which such data is readily available. Most major cities have limited statistics tracking 2021 murders and homicide victims.

The percentage of murder victims in Chicago that were black increased from 70 percent in 2020 to 81 percent in 2021 while that figure increased from 60 percent to 90 percent year-over-year in Milwaukee, the data showed. In one of the cities analyzed, the percentage of black victims decreased, but the raw number of black victims still increased.

Democratic leaders of most of the cities examined voted to greatly reduce police funding amid widespread Black Lives Matter protests last year. In the wake of the death of George Floyd, who died after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck in May 2020, thousands of protests and riots took place across the country.

University of Missouri criminologist Richard Rosenfeld blamed the uptick in violence seen nationwide on the lack of trust between police and citizens, according to the NYT.

“When police legitimacy is greatly reduced, you get more crime because people are no longer relying on the criminal justice system for assistance,” Rosenfeld told the NYT. “People are less willing to cooperate with police in investigations, less willing to report crimes or other problems to the police, and more willing to take matters into their own hands.”

While murder statistics in just six cities were analyzed, the number of homicides has spiked roughly 18 percent across the country compared to 2020, according to a random sample of 37 cities, the NYT reported. In 2020, the number of murders increased by 36.7 percent compared to 2019, according to data analytics reporter Jeff Asher.

As Violent Crime SURGES across America, some politicians and some in the media are gaslighting the public into thinking the Police are the Problem…

Homicides:
Atlanta ⬆️ 58%
Portland ⬆️ 533%
Philadelphia ⬆️ 37%

Shootings:
New York City ⬆️ 64%
Los Angeles ⬆️ 51%
Chicago ⬆️ 18% pic.twitter.com/5RbhbKY312

— National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) (@GLFOP) June 22, 2021

Chicago, Illinois

At least 317 total homicides were committed in Chicago between Jan. 1, 2021 and June 22, 2021, according to a Chicago Sun-Times database. In that same period last year, 295 murders were committed.

While black people represented 207 of the murder victims in Chicago through the period last year ending on June 22, 2020, they represented a whopping 257 of the victims this year, according to the Sun-Times database. That means black people have been the victims of roughly 81 percent of murders this year while they were the victims in about 70 percent of 2020 murders.

Meanwhile, Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot proposed an $80 million cut to Chicago Police Department funding in October, according to Injustice Watch.

“While we will slow the rate of growth, with a resulting $80 million in corporate fund savings, on my watch we will never make cuts or policy changes that inhibit the core mission of the police department, which is to serve and protect,” Lightfoot said, according to the Sun-Times.

Illinois became the first state to completely abolish its cash bail system earlier this year, NBC News reported. The legislation laid out a new, stricter decision-making process for judges to determine if a person charged with a crime presents a threat.

“This legislation marks a substantial step toward dismantling the systemic racism that plagues our communities, our state, and our nation and brings us closer to true safety, true fairness, and true justice,” Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker said after signing the bill in February, according to NBC News.

Baltimore, Maryland

In Baltimore, black people represented 69 of the 152, or 45 percent, of total murder victims between Jan. 1, 2021, and June 17, 2021, according to a Baltimore Sun database.

While murder statistics between that same period in 2020 were unavailable, black people were the victims of 130, or 39 percent, of the 335 total homicides committed in Baltimore for all of last year, the database showed.

The majority of murder victims in 2020 and 2021 were listed without racial information in the Baltimore Sun database. Black people represented the vast majority of victims with their race listed.

But the Baltimore City Council agreed to cut $22 million from the city’s police budget in June 2020, according to the Baltimore Sun.

“I am proud to lead a City Council that took the first step to responsibly reduce Baltimore’s budget dependence on policing,” former City Council President Brandon Scott, who is now the city’s mayor, said after the vote, the Baltimore Sun reported. “This is just the beginning, and I intend to continue leading this process to redirect our public dollars and reimagine public safety in Baltimore.”

In March, Baltimore City State Attorney Marilyn Mosby, the city’s top prosecutor, announced she would no longer prosecute prostitution, drug possession, or other minor offenses, NBC affiliate WBAL-TV reported.

After multiple shootings in a popular area of Baltimore earlier this month, 37 businesses threatened to stop paying taxes unless Scott addressed surging crime, according to Fox affiliate WBFF-TV. The business owners argued that allowing minor crime to continue leads to major violent crimes.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

The number of total murders increased in Milwaukee from 75 in the period between Jan. 1, 2020, and June 17, 2020, to 87 committed over that same period this year, according to murder reports compiled by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Black people were the victims of 79, or 90 percent, of the total murders this year, the database showed. While isolated victim data wasn’t available for the first six months of 2020, black people represented 74 percent of all murder victims in Milwaukee last year.

The Milwaukee Common Council approved a police budget cut in November that reduced the department by 120 officers, the Journal Sentinel reported.

“Although the proposed budget cut would undoubtedly impact the operations of the Milwaukee Police Department, we remain committed to working and engaging with our community, elected officials, and public safety partners to ensure that all of our neighborhoods are safe, vibrant and livable,” the department said in a statement after Democratic Mayor Tom Barrett proposed the budget, according to the Journal Sentinel.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

In Pittsburgh, black people made up 90 percent of murder victims between January and April, according to county data. In comparison, 60 percent of murder victims during the same time period last year were black.

There were 20 murders between January and April this year and 10 in that same period in 2020, according to Allegheny County. Data beyond April 31, 2021, hasn’t been made available.

The Pittsburgh City Council approved a police department hiring freeze in July 2020, according to WPXI-TV. The council also ordered the department to redirect 10 percent of the budget to social service programs every year.

The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police said the actions would “greatly impact” its ability to increase diversity within its ranks, WPXI reported.

Los Angeles, California

Between Jan. 1, 2020 and June 21, 2020, black people were the victims of 92 of the 272 homicides committed in Los Angeles County, which includes the city and surrounding communities, according to a Los Angeles Times database. In the same period this year, they represented 103 of the 315 total homicides.

The data showed that the share of black murder victims in the county has stayed level at around 33 percent year-over-year. However, the uptick in violence this year has caused at least 11 additional deaths in Los Angeles County’s black community compared to last year.

Hispanic people, who are the largest demographic group in the county, accounted for the majority of murder victims in Los Angeles County in both 2020 and 2021 while black people accounted for the second-highest number of murder victims, according to the database. Hispanic people were the victims of 50 percent of the murder victims between Jan. 1, 2020 and June 21, 2020 and 57 percent of the victims in that same period this year.

The Los Angeles City Council approved a $150 million cut to the city’s police department in July 2020, ABC affiliate KABC-TV reported. Democratic Mayor Eric Garcetti supported the massive budget cuts.

“It will take years to recover from that,” Los Angeles Police union spokesman Dustin DeRollo told the DCNF last summer. “And it will result immediately with less officers patrolling the streets.”

“What that means simply is longer response times to emergency calls,” he continued. “It means less time to do community-based policing like building relationships in neighborhoods. And it also will mean less ability to implement the training that everybody wants our officers to have.”

But, amid the increased violent crime, the Los Angeles County Metro unanimously approved a $36 million budget boost for transit police in March. Garcetti, who serves on the Metro’s board, voted in favor of the budget increase.

Indianapolis, Indiana

Black people represented 58 of the 98 murder victims in Indianapolis between Jan. 1, 2021 and June 1, 2021, according to a homicide database created by the Indianapolis Star. Last year, black people were the victims in 53 of the city’s 70 total murders.

While the percentage of homicide victims who were black decreased from 75 percent to 59 percent in that period, the number of total black homicide victims still increased, the data showed.

Democratic Mayor Joe Hogsett resisted calls for defunding the city’s police department budget last year, the Indianapolis Recorder reported. Instead, he proposed a $7 million police budget increase.

Homicides Have Skyrocketed in These Six Democratic Cities; Black People Are Disproportionately the Victims, Data Shows (theepochtimes.com)

DEL RIO, Texas—Border Patrol agents have arrested 353 illegal aliens with sex-related criminal convictions so far this fiscal year. A large number of the detainees had prior convictions for crimes involving a minor.

In the same period in fiscal 2020, agents apprehended 55 criminal sex offenders, and 58 total in all of fiscal 2019.

The number of criminals illegally crossing the southwest border has spiked in tandem with the border crossing surge this year. Convicted criminals are the most likely population of illegal aliens trying to avoid capture by Border Patrol.

Border Patrol has detected more than 250,000 illegal aliens who have evaded capture so far this year, according to newly appointed Acting Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz on June 24. It’s impossible to estimate how many have evaded Border Patrol without detection.

“There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t read a paper or a report from my agents that talks about criminal aliens, sexual offenders that they’ve apprehended out there,” Ortiz said during an event in Del Rio, Texas.

“Those folks aren’t getting released in these communities. Guess what happens to them? They go to jail. When they get out of jail, they go back to their country of origin.”

According to reports by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), many of the criminals being caught have already been deported, sometimes on multiple occasions.

On June 24, agents in Rio Grande City, Texas, arrested convicted sex offender Benito Gomez-Lopez, from Mexico. Gomez-Lopez was arrested in May 2020 by the Burleigh County Sheriff’s Department in North Dakota for possession of certain prohibited materials and promoting a sexual performance by a minor, according to CBP.

He pleaded guilty to both counts and was sentenced to three years confinement, but was repatriated to Mexico in July 2020.

On June 14, a Peruvian child rapist was arrested by Border Patrol after he entered the United States illegally near Roma, Texas, according to CBP. Pedro Asuncion Ore-Quispe, 43, had been deported in 2020 after serving more than five years for felony rape of a child in Idaho.

On June 20, Mexican national Isidro Efrain Gallardo-Rangel was apprehended as part of a group of 24 illegal aliens near Laredo. Gallardo-Rangel is a registered sex offender with an extensive criminal history and a conviction for indecency with a child in 2018 in Dallas, Texas, according to CBP.

Del Rio Sector

Once a relatively quiet region for illegal border crossings, the Del Rio Sector in Texas is now the second busiest, after the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas.

“We’ve seen a tremendous increase. So far this year, this fiscal year, today, we’ve caught 144,000 people in the Del Rio sector,” said Sector Chief Austin Skero on June 24.

“We’ve gone through this before—we’ve seen these increases, these surges, for the last 30 or 40 years. It’s never been this bad. I’ll tell you that straight up—I’ve never seen it this bad.”

Skero said the sector has seen a 1,400 percent increase in the number of sex offenders arrested by Border Patrol agents.

A Del Rio resident said that prior to January, he had seen two illegal aliens pass through his backyard.

Now, he said, it’s hundreds per day.

“I have four daughters—does it concern me when you say there’s a 1,400 percent increase in sex offenders? Yes, it concerns me,” the resident said during a border update on June 24.

“I’m concerned about the single men who are running through my backyard, sneaking. And I’m about a 50 percent success rate on whether or not I get an agent to come out to my place when I call. And when they do, it’s awesome, they bring helicopters, they bring support.

“Otherwise, I’m sitting there unarmed and there’s a guy soaking wet in my backyard screaming at me in Spanish. I don’t know what to do with this guy.”

The resident asked Border Patrol if they could provide some type of training to citizens to prepare them for such encounters.

Skero suggested for residents to not engage with illegal aliens who are on their property and to call Border Patrol.

“We’re going to come just as soon as we can. Sometimes it will be immediate, sometimes it might take us an hour.”

But, he said, if an illegal immigrant is endangering a resident’s family, or is being assaultive, call 911.

State Response

At the behest of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) started surging extra law enforcement resources to the border beginning in March.

In the three months from March 4 through June 3, DPS has arrested 1,489 criminals.

In addition, state troopers have been involved in 340 vehicle pursuits along the border and have dealt with 630 vehicle bailouts. A bailout occurs when a vehicle being pulled by law enforcement stops and the illegal immigrant occupants scatter and flee to avoid capture.

Abbott issued a state of disaster declaration on June 10, highlighting 34 border counties that are struggling with cross-border crime and illegal immigration.

“We’re going to start making arrests, sending a message to anyone thinking about coming here: You’re not getting a free pass. You’re getting a straight pass to a jail cell,” Abbott said.

Last week a prison unit in Dilley, Texas, was being emptied in preparation for illegal alien criminals.

Abbott and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey also issued a call for help to other governors on June 10.

“With your help, we can apprehend more of these perpetrators of state and federal crimes, before they can cause problems in your state,” Abbott and Ducey, both Republicans, wrote in a letter.

So far, several Republican governors have pledged support by way of sending law enforcement personnel or National Guard troops.

542 Percent Increase in Convicted Sex Offenders Arrested at Border (theepochtimes.com)

The pandemic was and remains brutal for average people. But not for the rich: central bank policies created 5 million new millionaires during the pandemic. It’s the latest sign that our economy is rigged for the wealthy.

A new report from Credit Suisse has revealed that more than five million people have become millionaires over the course of the pandemic, while the number of people worth over $50 million increased by over a quarter. The main driver of this shocking increase in wealth has been rising equity and residential property prices, which increased aggregate household net worth to around $418.3 trillion. Meanwhile, more than half of the world’s population had less than $10,000 in net assets.

Most of the increase in wealth was concentrated in already wealthy countries, with the United States accounting for a third of the new millionaires. The number of millionaires in China is increasing and has now reached around one in two hundred; but in the United States, 8 percent of the population are now millionaires.

How is it that the countries worst affected by the pandemic were also those that registered some of the largest increases in wealth over the course of the last year? One reason stands out above all others: central bank asset purchases.

Over the course of the pandemic, central banks have pumped around $9 trillion worth of new money into the global financial system. This comes on top of the $10 trillion added between the financial crisis and the pandemic. The world is awash with central bank money, and it’s all flowing up rather than trickling down.

Central bankers initially argued that quantitative easing — as the policy of creating new money to purchase assets such as government bonds is known — would boost lending by providing commercial banks with more cash. Of course, the issue banks were facing in the wake of the financial crisis was not a lack of access to cash, but a lack of viable investment opportunities in the context of chronically deficient demand, exacerbated by austerity.

It ultimately became clear that QE worked, but not in the way we had initially been told. Rather than boosting lending, QE came to operate through a portfolio rebalancing effect — in essence, when governments purchased long-dated government debt, they provided private investors with cash that needed somewhere to go.

Investors responded by rebalancing their portfolios away from government bonds, which were providing negligible yields thanks to increased central bank demand, and toward other assets like equities, corporate bonds, and real estate.

In the United States, the result of this increased demand for equities was the longest bull run (a bout of optimism and rising stock prices) the world had ever seen. Cash flooding into high yield corporate bonds had also inflated a corporate debt bubble — it was so easy for even the most poorly managed companies to access cash that economists were pointing to the problem of the “zombie” corporation, which could only afford to service the interest payments on its outstanding debt.

The main impact of QE in the UK has been felt in the housing market, where prices have skyrocketed to far above where they were prior to the financial crisis of 2008 — particularly in London, the South East, and Manchester.

The pandemic has been a recession like no other — rather than falling, as they have during all previous recessions, house prices have risen. Thanks to the closure of offices and resulting emigration from cities, house prices in the countryside are now rising at a rate of around 14 percent per year next to 7 percent for urban areas.

What’s more, with interest rates at rock bottom and pensioners able to draw down their entire pensions in one go, many more older people have decided to purchase second homes to rent out to younger people. The Conservatives have created seven hundred thousand new landlords over the course of the last decade, shoring up their voter base while exacerbating the housing crisis.

Absent rent controls or a functioning social housing system, young people are being forced to pay extortionate amounts — often half to two thirds of their salaries — on rent just for the privilege of living within commuting distance of their jobs.

Meanwhile, huge international asset managers like Blackstone are taking advantage of the plentiful cash now available in the international financial system to buy up huge swathes of real estate to rent out themselves. The rise of the corporate landlord was first evident in the United States, then in Ireland, and now it is becoming increasingly visible in the UK.

In other words, the most powerful states in the capitalist world system are now in the business of creating millionaires. Undemocratic and unaccountable central banks are using the power of signories to inflate the fortunes of the wealthy; meanwhile the UK Treasury tries to prevent people from accessing sick pay.

The dramatic increases in the fortunes of the superrich during a pandemic in which millions have died and millions more have been pushed into poverty provide yet more evidence that we live in a warped economy and a sick society. But observing the irrationality of the current system is not enough; unless working people organize to hold the powerful to account, the capitalist state will continue to support the interests of the millionaires over the millions of people who work for them.

While Average People Suffered, 5 Million People Became Millionaires Under COVID-19 (jacobinmag.com)

‘Crime Is Skyrocketing In Many Big Cities,’ But Some Jurisdictions Have Cut Police Budgets In Response To ‘Defund The Police’ Demands And Many Others Are Rapidly Losing Police Officers

SENATE REPUBLICAN LEADER MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY): “From coast to coast, American families are facing an explosion of violent crime on their streets and in their neighborhoods. 2020 saw homicides skyrocket nationwide. The sharpest one-year increase in decades. And 2021 is already shaping up to be even worse…. Crime and delinquency have many causes. In some ways, the pandemic likely contributed. But it is impossible to ignore that these terrible trends are coming precisely as so-called ‘progressives’ have decided it’s time to denounce and defund local law enforcement. Seattle cut police funding by 20%. Minneapolis defunded cops by millions of dollars. The District of Columbia’s city council approved $15 million in cuts. These bone-headed decisions are the direct result of an anti-law-enforcement fad that has swept through the political left like a wildfire…. So, look, I’m not sure exactly how the rantings of far-left Twitter about crime and policing became official Democratic Party dogma in so many places across America. What I do know is that ordinary Americans cannot bear much more of this. And that goes double for the most vulnerable neighborhoods.” (Sen. McConnell, Remarks, 5/27/2021)

FLASHBACK: Far-Left Democrats: ‘No More Policing,’ ‘We Need To Disinvest From Police,’ ‘Defunding Police Means Defunding Police’

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): “Defunding police means defunding police.” (“Ocasio-Cortez Dismisses Proposed $1B Cut: ‘Defunding Police Means Defunding Police’,” The Hill, 6/30/2020)

REP. ILHAN OMAR (D-MN): “I will never stop saying, ‘Not only do we need to disinvest from police but we need to completely dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department.’” (“‘Defund The Police’ Movement Hits Semantics Roadblock,” The Hill, 6/14/2020)

REP. CORI BUSH (D-MO): “Defunding the police isn’t radical, it’s real.” (Rep. Bush, @CoriBush, Twitter, 1/27/2021)

REP. RASHIDA TLAIB (D-MI): “… Policing in our country is inherently & intentionally racist. … I am done with those who condone government funded murder. No more policing, incarceration, and militarization. It can’t be reformed.” (Rep. Tlaib, @RashidaTlaib, Twitter, 4/12/2021)

REP. AYANNA PRESSLEY (D-MA): “From slave patrols to traffic stops. We can’t reform this.” (Rep. Pressley, @AyannaPressley, Twitter, 4/12/2021)

And Sure Enough, Left-Wing Activists ‘Successfully Pushed For $840 Million In Police Spending Cuts Across The U.S.’

“According to Interrupting Criminalization, an initiative at the Barnard Center for Research on Women that supports defunding the police, organizers successfully pushed for $840 million in police spending cuts across the U.S., and $160 million in shifts to other social programs. Cities cut another $35 million by canceling contracts with police departments to patrol schools, the center said.” (“Cities Reverse Defunding the Police Amid Rising Crime,” The Wall Street Journal, 5/26/2021)

• “Last summer, nearly half of 258 police agencies surveyed by the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington, D.C., think tank, said their budgets had been cut or were likely to be cut. The cuts hit purchases of new police equipment hardest, followed by training, hiring new officers and overtime spending, the survey found.” (“Cities Reverse Defunding the Police Amid Rising Crime,” The Wall Street Journal, 5/26/2021)

In 2020, The United States Had ‘The Largest Single One-Year Increase In Homicides Since The Country Started Keeping Such Records’

“2020 has been a killer year in every way, including murder. The United States has experienced the largest single one-year increase in homicides since the country started keeping such records in the 20th century, according to crime data and criminologists.” (“2020 Saw An Unprecedented Spike In Homicides From Big Cities To Small Towns,” The Washington Post, 12/30/2020)

• “It is a trend mirrored across the country, where crime is skyrocketing in many big cities, putting liberal leaders under pressure to balance the demands of activists against the concerns of some residents about rising violence. In New York, where homicides grew by nearly 45 percent last year, crime is dominating the discussion in the race for mayor…. Even smaller cities haven’t been spared the rise in violence: Louisville last year set a record for homicides, with 173, and this year is on pace to surpass that.” (“A Year After George Floyd: Pressure to Add Police Amid Rising Crime,” The New York Times, 5/23/2021)

“A group of 34 of America’s biggest cities suffered a 30 percent total increase in homicides in 2020, according to a new survey published Monday, with police in four Midwestern cities reporting increases of more than 60 percent over 2019. In Milwaukee, homicides rose from 97 to 189, a 95 percent increase. In Louisville, homicides increased from 90 to 173, a 92 percent increase. Of the 34 cities surveyed by the National Commission on Covid-19 and Criminal Justice, a project of the D.C.-based Council on Criminal Justice, only four — Raleigh, N.C.; Baltimore; St. Petersburg, Fla.; and Virginia Beach — saw declines in 2020.” (“Homicides Rose 30 Percent In 2020, Survey Of 34 U.S. Cities Finds,” The Washington Post, 2/03/2021)

“[In March], the F.B.I. released preliminary statistics showing a major increase in murder last year, with a 25 percent rise in agencies that reported quarterly data. The F.B.I. did not receive data from several cities with known big increases in murder like New York, Chicago and New Orleans, but cities of all sizes reported increases of greater than 20 percent. A 25 percent increase in murder in 2020 would mean the United States surpassed 20,000 murders in a year for the first time since 1995. (The final official numbers for 2020 will not be released until late September.)” (“Murder Rate Remains Elevated as New Crime Reporting System Begins,” The New York Times, 3/16/2021)

Over The First Three Months Of 2021, The Murder Rate In 37 Cities Is Up 18 Percent Compared To The Same Period In 2020

“The big increase in the murder rate in the United States in 2020 has carried over to 2021. A sample of 37 cities with data available for the first three months of this year shows murder up 18 percent relative to the same period last year.” (“Murder Rate Remains Elevated as New Crime Reporting System Begins,” The New York Times, 3/16/2021)

As Murders Surged In 2020, Seattle Cut Its Police Department’s Budget ‘By Nearly 20%’

“Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan signed off on the 2021 budget, after months of debate and public outcry.  It includes a significant cut to the Seattle Police Department (SPD), and puts new money in new hands. … The 2021 budget sliced SPD’s budget by nearly 20% …” (“Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan Signs City’s 2021 Budget With 20% Cut To Police,” King5, 12/01/2020)

“Calling 2020 a year like no other, interim Seattle police Chief Adrian Diaz said Monday his department’s homicide detectives investigated 50 homicides last year, representing a 61% increase over the 31 people killed as a result of homicidal violence in the city in 2019. Citing data that shows homicides across the country were up 36% in 2020 compared to the previous year, Diaz said Seattle’s 50 homicides were the most investigated in the city in 26 years.” (“50 People Died From Homicidal Violence In Seattle In 2020, The Largest Number In A Quarter Century, Police Chief Says,” The Seattle Times, 1/11/2021)

The LAPD Had Its Budget Slashed By $150 Million In 2020 As Murders In Los Angeles Reached The Highest Number ‘In More Than A Decade’

“Now, a year after Mr. Floyd’s death, Los Angeles and other American cities face a surge in violent crime amid pandemic despair and a flood of new guns onto the streets. The surge is prompting cities whose leaders embraced the values of the movement last year to reassess how far they are willing to go to reimagine public safety and divert money away from the police and toward social services…. A year after streets echoed with calls to ‘defund’ law enforcement and city leaders embraced the message by agreeing to take $150 million away from the Los Angeles Police Department, or about 8 percent of the department’s budget, the city last week agreed to increase the police budget to allow the department to hire about 250 officers. The increase essentially restores the cuts that followed the protests. On the streets of South Los Angeles, where residents have historically suffered the most from aggressive policing and gang violence and where much of the current surge in shootings is happening, officers are ramping up patrols and stopping more cars to look for guns. ‘We’ve lost more than a decade of progress,’ Chief Michel Moore of the Los Angeles Police Department said in an interview, referring to the significant drops in crime in the years before the pandemic…. [T]he number of murders in Los Angeles last year — 350 — was the highest in more than a decade …” (“A Year After George Floyd: Pressure to Add Police Amid Rising Crime,” The New York Times, 5/23/2021)

• “If the old crop of activists sought changes by partnering with the police, the defining view of the new movement is a focus on money, and trying to pull as many dollars as possible away from police budgets and toward other programs that address systemic racism.” (“A Year After George Floyd: Pressure to Add Police Amid Rising Crime,” The New York Times, 5/23/2021)

Following A $15 Million Cut To Washington, D.C.’s Police Department Budget, 2020 Ended With The District’s Highest Number Of Homicides In 16 Years

“Homicides in the District rose for the third consecutive year in 2020, reaching nearly 200 for the first time since the previous decade and further stressing a city rattled by the pandemic and social and political unrest. The number of killings stood at 198 Thursday evening, making the past year the deadliest in the city since 2004. More than 920 people were shot in D.C. in 2020, a 64 percent increase from three years ago.” (“Homicides In D.C. Hit 16-Year High; Shootings Also Have Spiked,” The Washington Post, 12/31/2020)

• “In 2020, homicides in D.C. hit a 16-year high. If current trends continue, 2021 could be even deadlier. D.C. Police data reports a 43% increase in homicides from the same time last year, with 2021 totaling 63 as of April 28, compared to 44 on this date in 2020.” (“DC’s Homicide Rate Already Is Outpacing 2020, Which Saw A 16-Year-High,” WUSA, 4/28/2021)

“D.C. lawmakers [in June] advanced measures to cut $15 million from the police department budget, a change that defund-the-police activists dismissed as insufficient and the police chief warned could result in the loss of hundreds of officers. The D.C. Council’s Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety unanimously approved a plan to reduce the $533 million police budget proposed by Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) by cutting vacant positions and rejecting an expansion of the police cadet program. The committee also voted to cut the department’s capital budget and reallocate funds to alternative violence-reduction programs.” (“D.C. Activists And Lawmakers Confront Challenges Of ‘Defund Police’ Movement,” The Washington Post, 6/25/2020)

‘Last Year, The Homicide Rate In Minneapolis Hit Highs Not Seen Since The Mid-1990s’ And Still The City Council Voted To Cut $8 Million From The City’s Police Department

“Last year, the homicide rate in Minneapolis hit highs not seen since the mid-1990s, when killings led the city to be derisively called ‘Murderapolis.’ The bleak trend has continued into this year. According to police data, nearly 200 people have been shot this year — more than double the number in the same period last year and the most recorded in more than a decade. There have been 31 homicides, compared with 15 at this point in 2020.” (“A Year After George Floyd’s Death, Minneapolis Remains Scarred, Divided,” The Washington Post, 5/23/2021)

“Months after their pledge to dismantle the Police Department fell apart, members of the Minneapolis City Council voted [December 10^th] to divert nearly $8 million from the proposed policing budget to other city services … Trimming of those items raised alarm bells among the police chief and some lawmakers, as the department has lost 166 officers this year — some permanently, others because they are on disability, and still others saying they have post-traumatic stress from the massive protests that swept the city over the summer.” (“Minneapolis City Council Votes to Remove $8 Million From Police Budget,” The New York Times, 12/10/2020)

• “Steven Belton, the president of the Twin Cities chapter of the Urban League, called the cuts to the police budget misguided and misinformed. He said council members made it an either-or proposition between funding the police and other services when he believed everything was needed…. [In 2020], the city has logged 5,164 violent crimes, up 25.7 percent from last year, according to data from the Minneapolis Police Department. The cuts to the police budget could embolden criminals to think that policing was going away, Mr. Belton said. ‘It’s the wrong optics to the communities that are most impacted detrimentally by violence and the absence of policing and poor policing,’ he said.” (“Minneapolis City Council Votes to Remove $8 Million From Police Budget,” The New York Times, 12/10/2020)

‘The Number Of Slayings In 2020 Dwarfs Anything Louisville Has Seen’

“In 2020, 173 people in Louisville were victims of criminal homicides, according to metro police — shot, bludgeoned, strangled or stabbed to death. Another 20 people were slain in homicides investigated by other Jefferson County police agencies or in cases that didn’t result in criminal charges. The number of slayings in 2020 dwarfs anything Louisville has seen — obliterating the previous record of 117 criminal homicides in 2016…. Of last year’s homicides, 160 were shootings. Another 585 people were shot and survived — another grim milestone.” (“170-Plus Killings And Few Answers: Louisville Besieged By Record Homicides And Gun Violence,” Louisville Courier Journal, 1/01/2021)

• “Louisville is on pace to have another record year for homicides in the city [in 2021]. Community activist Christopher 2X said — as of the end of April — Louisville has now seen the deadliest four-month stretch of gun violence in the city’s history. ‘In four months and three days, we’re at 59 fatals, 218 nonfatals, and we’ve never been in this space before,’ 2X told WDRB News on Monday. ‘We’ve never reached almost 60 homicides this fast.’ 2X said April was the 15th consecutive month with double-digit homicides…. In the first weekend in May, LMPD responded to at least six separate shootings, two of them ending with fatalities.” (“Several Weekend Shootings Put Louisville On Pace For Another Record Year For Homicides,” WDRB, 5/03/2021)
• “As of [April 25], there had been 84% more non-fatal shootings so far this year, with 201, compared to the 109 instances reported during the same time in 2020, LMPD statistics show. There were 56 murders reported as of Sunday — a 75% increase from the 32 reported by April 25, 2020.” (“Louisville Police Department Staffing ‘In Dire Straits’ Amid High Crime Rates, Recruitment Woes: Union,” Fox News, 4/27/2021)

“In November, Louisville social justice organizer Travis Nagdy met with another local leader, Kenneth Forbes, to discuss turning attention to the city’s seemingly intractable violence. ‘The people dying look just like you,’ Forbes, founder of the group Mothers of Murdered Sons and Daughters United, told the 21-year-old Nagdy. ‘We are just asking for help, for compassion, for people to open up their ears and listen. For people to talk about it.’ Days after their meeting, Nagdy was dead, fatally shot in an apparent carjacking.” (“170-Plus Killings And Few Answers: Louisville Besieged By Record Homicides And Gun Violence,” Louisville Courier Journal, 1/01/2021)

“It’s a complicated problem, said Christopher 2X, founder of the Louisville nonprofit Game Changers, which tracks gun violence and supports victims…. 2X noted, Black men haven’t been the only victims. The majority of homicides each year, he said, take place in areas covered by LMPD’s First, Second and Fourth divisions, downtown and in Louisville’s West End. In 2020, though, 51 homicides were reported in areas patrolled by LMPD’s Third, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth divisions — on the outskirts of the city and in some of Louisville’s more upscale neighborhoods. In 2019, just 22 homicides were reported in areas covered by those five divisions. Just as striking, 2X said, is 34 female homicide victims in 2020, a higher number than in previous years. ‘That’s a number that we’ve got to be concerned about,’ he said.” (“170-Plus Killings And Few Answers: Louisville Besieged By Record Homicides And Gun Violence,” Louisville Courier Journal, 1/01/2021)

In New York City, Shootings Nearly Doubled In 2020 While Murders Rose Around 45%

“Homicides and shootings in New York City rose sharply in 2020, New York Police Department officials said Thursday, as police resources were stretched thin by the Covid-19 pandemic and responses to large-scale protests over the killing of George Floyd. The number of murders in the city rose to 462 last year, up nearly 45% from 319 in 2019, according to the NYPD. The increase accompanied a steep rise in gun violence more intense than any seen in the previous 20 years, according to police statistics. The city recorded 1,531 shootings in 2020, 97% more than the 777 in 2019. Data showed the number of shooting victims in the city more than doubled to 1,868 in 2020 from 923 in 2019. The number of shooting victims exceeds the number of shootings because multiple people may be shot in a single incident.” (“New York City Homicides And Shootings Rose Dramatically In 2020,” The Wall Street Journal, 1/07/2021)

• “The major rise in gun violence in the city began in 2020, after a period in which violent crime dropped to its lowest levels in more than six decades. Now, even as New York City emerges from the pandemic, the spike that began as the virus spread last spring has shown no sign of receding: As of the second weekend in May, the city had recorded 505 shooting victims, the most through that point of any year in the last decade. … Murders in New York are at 146 this year, up from 104 over the same period in 2019 and 115 in 2020. … This year, about 96 percent of shooting victims have been Black or Latino, police data shows, similar to previous years. One percent, or seven victims, have been white.” (“The Spike in Shootings During the Pandemic May Outlast the Virus,” The New York Times, 5/14/2021)

“A shooting in Times Square, a spike in gun violence and a spate of high-profile attacks on subway riders have pushed concerns over crime and public safety to the forefront of the New York City mayor’s race, altering the trajectory of the contest as the June 22 primary approaches. A year after the rise of the ‘defund the police’ movement amid an outcry over racial injustice, the primary will offer one of the first tests of where Democratic voters stand as the country emerges from the pandemic but confronts a rise in gun violence in major cities like New York…. As of May 2, 132 people have been killed compared with 113 this same time last year, a 17 percent increase, according to Police Department statistics. There have been 416 shooting incidents compared with 227 this time last year, an 83 percent increase…. Even before the Times Square shooting, there were mounting signs that public safety was intensifying as a concern in New York: a Spectrum News NY1/Ipsos poll released late last month found that ‘crime or violence’ was a major concern for New York Democrats, second only to the coronavirus.” (“Shootings and Subway Attacks Put Crime at Center of N.Y.C. Mayor’s Race,” The New York Times, 5/11/2021)

New Yorkers: ‘Are We Back In The ‘70s And ‘80s?,’ ‘I Want Someone [For Mayor] Who Can Make Us Feel Safer’

“Jade Lundy, a child-care worker who lives in the Bronx, said she has begun taking more precautions because there seems to be an uptick in crime, which she blamed on economic hardship caused by the pandemic. ‘I don’t take out my phone anymore,’ she said Monday afternoon as she headed for the subway to the Bronx, from Times Square. Ms. Lundy, who recently turned 18, said she plans to vote in the mayoral election and has just begun learning about the candidates. ‘I want someone who can make us feel safer,’ Ms. Lundy said. ‘Especially for the women. We have it harder out here.’” (“Shootings and Subway Attacks Put Crime at Center of N.Y.C. Mayor’s Race,” The New York Times, 5/11/2021)

“A spate of crimes targeting Asian-Americans have also alarmed New Yorkers across the city, some candidates say. ‘That makes them very worried about the city, and particularly for people who have lived here a long time,’ said [Kathryn] Garcia, the former sanitation commissioner. For those New Yorkers, she said, some wonder, ‘Are we back in the ‘70s and ‘80s?’” (“Shootings and Subway Attacks Put Crime at Center of N.Y.C. Mayor’s Race,” The New York Times, 5/11/2021)

“‘Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, people that lived here, including myself, you know, we witnessed some pretty nasty stuff,’ said Representative Adriano Espaillat, a New York Democrat. ‘We don’t want to slip back to that. So I think that that’s going to be a major issue with this year’s mayoral race.’ … Diana Ayala, a councilwoman representing East Harlem and the Bronx … said the response from the mayoral candidates to addressing crime will determine if she endorses anyone else for mayor. ‘Citywide, people are alarmed at the numbers of shootings but quite frankly, those numbers have been pretty consistent in my district for the last three and a half years,’ Ms. Ayala said. ‘Every summer, even as we speak, we are planning for what’s to come.’” (“Shootings and Subway Attacks Put Crime at Center of N.Y.C. Mayor’s Race,” The New York Times, 5/11/2021)

San Francisco Is Suffering From A ‘Shoplifting Epidemic’ That Has Forced Stores To Shutter And Even City Officials Now Admit Is ‘Out Of Control’

“[T]he shoplifting epidemic in San Francisco has only worsened. At a board of supervisors hearing [in early May], representatives from Walgreens said that thefts at its stores in San Francisco were four times the chain’s national average, and that it had closed 17 stores, largely because the scale of thefts had made business untenable. Brendan Dugan, the director of the retail crime division at CVS Health, called San Francisco ‘one of the epicenters of organized retail crime’ and said employees were instructed not to pursue suspected thieves because encounters had become too dangerous. ‘We’ve had incidents where our security officers are assaulted on a pretty regular basis in San Francisco,’ Dugan said. The retail executives and police officers emphasized the role of organized crime in the thefts. And they told the supervisors that Proposition 47, the 2014 ballot measure that reclassified nonviolent thefts as misdemeanors if the stolen goods are worth less than $950, had emboldened thieves. ‘The one trend we are seeing is more violence and escalating — and much more bold,’ said Commander Raj Vaswani, the head of the investigations bureau at the San Francisco Police Department. ‘We see a lot of repeat offenders.’” (“San Francisco’s Shoplifting Surge,” The New York Times, 5/21/2021)

• “The cost of business and shoplifting led Walgreens to shut 17 locations in San Francisco in the past five years — an ‘unpopular and difficult decision,’ Jason Cunningham, regional vice president for pharmacy and retail operations in California and Hawaii, said at the hearing…. Theft in Walgreens’ San Francisco stores is four times the average for stores elsewhere in the country, and the chain spends 35 times more on security guards in the city than elsewhere, Cunningham said. At CVS, 42% of losses in the Bay Area came from 12 stores in San Francisco, which are only 8% of the market share, Brendan Dugan, director of organized retail crime and corporate investigations, said at the hearing…. CVS security guards in San Francisco have been assaulted, especially at the now-closed Seventh and Market streets location, Dugan said. Some businesses instead hire costly off-duty police officers.” (“‘Out Of Control’: Organized Crime Drives S.F. Shoplifting, Closing 17 Walgreens In Five Years,” San Francisco Chronicle, 5/25/2021)
• “A statement from Safeway read at Thursday’s hearing blamed Proposition 47, which lowered penalties for thefts under $950, for ‘dramatic increases’ in shoplifting losses…. Professional shoplifters can work the system by stealing items under the threshold from one store and hitting several retailers in the same day.” (“‘Out Of Control’: Organized Crime Drives S.F. Shoplifting, Closing 17 Walgreens In Five Years,” San Francisco Chronicle, 5/25/2021)

“Retailers attributed a majority of losses to professional thieves instead of opportunistic shoplifters who may be driven by poverty, with one CVS leader calling San Francisco a hub of organized retail crime. Losses have shuttered drugstores providing vital services, even more critical during the pandemic as some stores give out vaccines.” (“‘Out Of Control’: Organized Crime Drives S.F. Shoplifting, Closing 17 Walgreens In Five Years,” San Francisco Chronicle, 5/25/2021)

• “For years, John Susoeff walked from his home two blocks to the Walgreens at Bush and Larkin streets — to pick up prescriptions for himself and for less mobile neighbors, to get a new phone card, and to snag senior discounts the first Tuesday of the month. That changed in March when the Walgreens, ravaged by shoplifting, closed. Susoeff, 77, who sometimes uses a cane, now goes six blocks for medication and other necessities. ‘It’s terrible,’ he said. On his last visit before the store closed, even beef jerky was behind lock and key. A CVS nearby shuttered in 2019, with similar reports of rampant shoplifting. ‘I don’t blame them for closing,’ Susoeff said.” (“‘Out Of Control’: Organized Crime Drives S.F. Shoplifting, Closing 17 Walgreens In Five Years,” San Francisco Chronicle, 5/25/2021)

“‘This has been out of control,’ said Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, who held a hearing [May 13^th] with retailers, police, the district attorney and probation departments. ‘People are scared to go into these stores — seniors, people with disabilities, children. It’s just happening brazenly. We can’t just as a city throw up our hands and say this is OK. We have to come up with solutions.’” (“‘Out Of Control’: Organized Crime Drives S.F. Shoplifting, Closing 17 Walgreens In Five Years,” San Francisco Chronicle, 5/25/2021)

• “On Thursday I called Ahsha Safaí, the member of the board of supervisors who organized the hearing. We talked about the thefts we had witnessed in the city and the sidewalk thieves’ markets where steaks, bicycles and other stolen goods are fenced. Safaí said he had recently stopped to inspect one of these markets at 24th and Mission. ‘Half of Walgreens was on the sidewalk. I’m not kidding,’ Safaí said. ‘I was blown away. I’ve never seen anything like it in this city.’ He talked about what he called a laissez-faire attitude in San Francisco. ‘It has become part of the landscape,’ he said of thefts. ‘People say, “Oh, well, that just happens.”‘ Thieves ‘are obviously choosing locales based on what the consequences are,’ Safaí said. ‘If there are no consequences for their actions, then you invite the behavior. Over and over.’” (“San Francisco’s Shoplifting Surge,” The New York Times, 5/21/2021)

As Violent Crime Surges In Cities, Metro Police Departments Are Hemorrhaging Officers While The Remaining Cops ‘Are Demoralized And Pulling Back On Patrolling High-Crime Areas’

“In some liberal cities like Minneapolis, where gun violence is surging and where the Police Department is depleted after so many officers quit or retired, some elected leaders and older clergy members and civil rights leaders are echoing the sentiments of conservative commentators who claim a link between the violence and the movement to defund police departments, saying officers are demoralized and pulling back on patrolling high-crime areas.” (“A Year After George Floyd: Pressure to Add Police Amid Rising Crime,” The New York Times, 5/23/2021)

• “From the crucible of 1992, former gang members in South Los Angeles worked to make peace, often working alongside a new force of police officers dedicated to ‘community policing,’ in which officers worked in specific neighborhoods to establish close relationships with residents. Leon Gullette, who was drawn to activism after 1992, now works for Community Build, which was co-founded by Maxine Waters, a local congresswoman. Mr. Gullette’s specialty is working to achieve truces between rival gangs. Unlike the younger activists with Black Lives Matter, he says working with the police is essential. ‘We can’t operate without the police, so I wouldn’t say defund the police,’ Mr. Gullette said.” (“A Year After George Floyd: Pressure to Add Police Amid Rising Crime,” The New York Times, 5/23/2021)

SEATTLE: “Seattle Police Department (SPD) officers are leaving the job at a ‘record pace’ — with at least 249 people leaving over the past year alone — as statistics show manpower has been declining in recent years, according to union and city officials. SPD boasted a police force of 1,276 uniformed members at the end of February 2020, but staffing levels dropped by 249 people to 1,027 by the end of February 2021, according to the most recent department statistics available to Fox News. … As of last week, 66 officers had left SPD so far this year, Solan said, confirming previous reports from local news. ” (“Seattle Police Department Losing Officers At ‘Record Pace’ Amid Budget Uncertainty, Lack Of Support: Officials,” Fox News, 5/01/2021)

• “Last June, three months into the pandemic and as the protests exploded in Seattle and around the country, officer-initiated calls plunged to a 10-year low. Mostly for that reason, the department’s overall call load dropped by almost half, to about 16,000, by June, according to a Seattle Times analysis. At the same time, the department’s monthly average response time for all remaining calls more than doubled, climbing from about 20 minutes in May to 41 minutes in June. Response times for the most serious 911 calls — known as Priority 1 and Priority 2 calls — increased 48% and 84% respectively, even though commanders repeatedly ordered the department to operate on ‘priority call status.’ That means dispatchers send officers only to Priority 1 and Priority 2 calls such as homicides, robberies and assaults, skipping other calls, such as break-ins.” (“Seattle 911 Response Times Climbed In Summer 2020. Now, Police And Activists Debate What Comes Next,” The Seattle Times, 5/11/2021)

LOS ANGELES: “Like in many major cities, homicides and other forms of violent crime in Los Angeles have risen sharply in the past year, and the LAPD is facing an unexpected staffing shortage. The LAPD was expected to have roughly 9,750 officers at the end of June 2021 — but an increase in retirements and resignations have left the department with about 9,450 officers, which [Mayor Eric] Garcetti is hoping to expand with this year’s budget.” (“Defund The Police Encounters Resistance As Violent Crime Spikes,” CNN, 5/25/2021)

WASHINGTON, D.C.: “The D.C. police force has already grown smaller, from about 3,850 officers in 2019 to around 3,650 today, because of budget cuts lawmakers imposed last year and an increasing number of resignations and retirements. About 90 percent of the department’s budget is spent on personnel.” (“Commission To Reimagine Police In District Grapples With Effort To Defund,” The Washington Post, 3/21/2021)

MINNEAPOLIS: “Nearly 200 Minneapolis police officers have left the department since Floyd’s death, including dozens who filed PTSD claims after the unrest.” (“Minneapolis To Bring In Outside Help To Deal With Surge In Violence,” Star Tribune, 5/24/2021)

• “Minneapolis police are bringing in outside help as they try to temper violence that killed four people this weekend alone, including a college senior who was out celebrating graduation. Mayor Jacob Frey said the city has asked state and federal agencies for assistance, citing the city’s shortage of officers. ‘Safety in our city has to be a priority,’ Frey said at a news conference Sunday, calling the reinforcements ‘really, really critical.’” (“Minneapolis To Bring In Outside Help To Deal With Surge In Violence,” Star Tribune, 5/24/2021)

LOUISVILLE: “Nearly 190 cops left the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) in 2020 and 43 have stepped away from the Kentucky city’s agency so far in 2021, either choosing to retire or resign altogether, as law enforcement officials struggle to recruit new members to make up for a deficit in manpower, authorities and a union spokesperson told Fox News on Tuesday.” (“Louisville Police Department Staffing ‘In Dire Straits’ Amid High Crime Rates, Recruitment Woes: Union,” Fox News, 4/27/2021)

• “Statistics provided by LMPD on Tuesday show the department has hired 26 new members so far this year, while 43 have left. The 1,069-person department falls 255 people short of its ‘authorized strength’ of 1,324 — the number of personnel it is authorized to employ, statistics show.” (“Louisville Police Department Staffing ‘In Dire Straits’ Amid High Crime Rates, Recruitment Woes: Union,” Fox News, 4/27/2021)

NEW YORK: “More than 5,300 NYPD uniformed officers retired or put in their papers to leave in 2020 — a 75 percent spike from the year before, department data show. The exodus — amid the pandemic, anti-cop hostility, riots and a skyrocketing number of NYC shootings — saw 2,600 officers say goodbye to the job and another 2,746 file for retirement, a combined 5,346. … Through April 21 of this year, 831 cops have retired or filed to leave…” (“Are NYPD Officers Rushing To Retire Amid City’s Anti-Cop Climate?,” New York Post, 4/24/2021)

Research | The Leader Board | THE NEWSROOM | Republican Leader (senate.gov)

Democratic mayors in 20 of the nation’s 25 biggest cities slashed police department budgets and positions even as they spent millions of tax dollars on their own security details, according to data obtained by a government watchdog.

“In 25 major U.S. cities, officials have proposed cutting—or in 20 cases already cut—police budgets. However, what OpenTheBooks.com auditors found was that mayors and city officials still enjoy personal protection of a dedicated police detail costing taxpayers millions of dollars,” Adam Andrzejewski, CEO and founder of Open The Books (OTB), said in a statement announcing the new data.

“This is ‘police protection for me (the political elites), but not for thee (the citizens),’” Andrzejewski said.

The Chicago-based group is a nonprofit that uses public-right-to-know and freedom of information laws to maintains hundreds of publicly available databases of federal, state, and local spending with the goal of providing “every dime online in real time.”

In San Francisco, for example, the costs of the security detail protecting Mayor London Breed and other city officials spiraled up from $1.7 million in 2015 to $2.6 million in 2020.

Breed has proposed shifting $120 million from the city’s police department to mental health and workforce training programs. City officials declined to say how many officers are assigned to the security details, according to OTB.

In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot claimed to be opposed to defunding the police, but OTB found that officials quietly abolished 400 police department positions last year.

Those positions were eliminated even as the city’s “security detail costs peaked in 2020—up $700,000 over five years: $2.7 million spent on 16 officers (2015); $2.9 million for 16 officers (2016); $2.7 million for 20 officers (2017); $2.8 million for 16 officers (2018); $2.8 million for 17 officers (2019); and $3.4 million for 22 officers (2020)—an all-time high,” OTB stated.

In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio slashed $1 billion from the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) $6 billion annual budget, including $354 million transferred to mental health, homelessness, and education services.

But the mayor, who briefly sought the Democratic presidential nomination last year, continues to enjoy tax-paid police protection for himself, his wife, and his son.

City officials haven’t yet agreed to disclose the costs or number of officers assigned to the multiple de Blasio security details, according to OTB.

In Baltimore, Mayor Brandon Scott’s administration spent $3.6 million on a security detail that included 14 officers to protect the chief executive as well as State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby and Police Commissioner Michael Harrison, according to data compiled by OTB. The Baltimore Police Department budget has been reduced by $22 million.

“Protection for the mayor included six officers and one sergeant, costing almost $2 million,” OTB said in the statement. “The state’s attorney has three officers and one sergeant, costing $1.3 million. The police commissioner’s security detail included two officers and one sergeant, costing $464,948.”

Baltimore has been plagued for a decade with steadily rising rates of serious crime, including murder, robbery, and assault. The city has also seen two of the present mayor’s immediate predecessors, Catherine Pugh and Sheila Dixon, resign and be convicted on various corruption charges.

In San Diego, Mayor Todd Gloria’s administration budgeted $2.6 million for 12 full-time officers to protect him and members of the city council during meetings and city hall.

“However, the mayor’s budget calls for cutting $4.3 million from the police overtime budget and spending more than $1 million to set up the new police oversight body, the Commission on Police Practices,” OTB said.

Notable among the other cities examined by OTB were these:

Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed, cut $8 million from the police budget to launch a mental health team to respond to certain 911 calls.

Oakland officials cut the police budget by $14.6 million. Even bigger cuts are expected in the near future.

Despite two years of near-continuous rioting led by Antifa and Black Lives Matter activists, Portland officials slashed $15 million from the police budget and disbanded a gun violence reduction unit and transit team that had been accused of over-policing black communities, among other cuts.

Milwaukee officials are cutting 120 police officer positions, beginning with the current year’s budget. The reductions are to come mainly by not replacing retiring officers. Sixty positions were eliminated last year.

In Seattle, city council members at one point last year declared their intent to slash the police budget by half, but ultimately settled on a 20 percent reduction.

Los Angeles officials have approved a $150 million budget cut from its $1.86 billion proposed budget.

In the nation’s capital, officials reduced the Metropolitan Police Department’s budget by $15 million.

Philadelphia residents have seen local officials transfer $33 million from the police to other programs.

Austin officials cut about $20 million from the police department and shifted $80 million in services previously provided by law enforcement to other departments.

Many Big-City Democrat Mayors Defunded Police While Spending Heavily on Their Security Details, Watchdog Finds (theepochtimes.com)

WASHINGTON—U.S. consumer prices rose by the most in 13 years in June amid supply constraints and a continued rebound in the costs of travel-related services from pandemic-depressed levels as the economic recovery gathered momentum.

The consumer price index increased 0.9 percent last month, the largest gain since June 2008, after advancing 0.6 percent in May, the Labor Department said on Tuesday.

In the 12 months through June, the CPI jumped 5.4 percent. That was the largest gain since August 2008 and followed a 5.0 percent increase in the 12 months through May. Excluding the volatile food and energy components, the CPI accelerated 0.9 percent after increasing 0.7 percent in May.

The so-called core CPI surged 4.5 percent on a year-on-year basis, the largest increase since November 1991, after rising 3.8 percent in May. Annual inflation rates have been boosted by the dropping of last spring’s weak readings from the CPI calculation. These so-called base effects are leveling off.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the overall CPI would climb 0.5 percent and the core CPI would rise 0.4 percent.

COVID-19 vaccinations, low interest rates, and nearly $6 trillion in government relief since the pandemic started in the United States in March 2020 are fueling demand, straining the supply chain, and raising prices across the economy.

A global semiconductor shortage has undercut motor vehicle production, pushing up prices of used cars and trucks—the major driver of inflation in recent months.

With nearly 160 million Americans immunized, demand for airline travel and accommodations is picking up, also fanning price pressures.

Inflation is expected to remain elevated through part of 2022, as prices for many travel-related services are still below pre-pandemic levels.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has repeatedly stated that higher inflation will be transitory, noting that he expected supply chains to normalize and adapt. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen shares that view.

Minutes of the U.S. central bank’s June 15-16 policy meeting published last week showed “a substantial majority” of officials saw inflation risks “tilted to the upside,” and the Fed as a whole felt it needed to be prepared to act if those risks materialized.

The Fed slashed its benchmark overnight interest rate to near zero last year and is pumping money into the economy through monthly bond purchases. It has signaled it could tolerate higher inflation for some time to offset years in which inflation was lodged below its 2 percent target, a flexible average.

The Fed’s preferred inflation measure, the core personal consumption expenditures price index, jumped 3.4 percent in May, the largest gain since April 1992.

US Consumer Prices Surge in June, Inflation Climbs to 13-year High (theepochtimes.com)

Iranian intel agents sought to kidnap American journalist

The State Department informed Congress late Tuesday that it would waive sanctions on Iran’s illicit oil trade so that the country can access frozen funds from South Korea and Japan, the same day the Department of Justice announced charges on an Iranian spy network that sought to kidnap an American.

The waiver, signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, allows the “transfer of Iranian funds in restricted accounts to exporters in Japan and the Republic of Korea,” according to a notification sent to Congress by the State Department. The waiver allows Iranian money that had been frozen as a result of American sanctions to be freed up without violating the law. “Allowing these funds to be used to repay exporters in these jurisdictions will make those entities whole with respect to the goods and services they exported to Iran, address a recurring irritant in important bilateral relationships, and decrease Iran’s foreign reserves,” the waiver states.

The waiver was announced on the same day the Justice Department announced new charges against a network of Iranian intelligence agents who sought to kidnap an American journalist and bring her to Iran. The charges include kidnapping conspiracy, sanctions violations conspiracy, bank and wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy charges.

The sanctions relief also comes as the United States and Iran get closer to finalizing a revamped nuclear deal that will even further unwind sanctions on Tehran. Congressional Republicans are likely to oppose the move, which lessens economic pressure on Iran at a time when it is still funding regional terror groups and building out its nuclear weapons program. Sanctions of Iran’s oil trade were a hallmark policy of the Trump administration, which sought to cut Iran’s exports down to zero and deny the regime a key source of income.

Richard Goldberg, the former director for countering Iranian weapons of mass destruction on Trump’s White House National Security Council, said the waiver will relieve pressure on Iran’s floundering economy and give it access to much-needed cash.

“There’s a reason we talk about accessible foreign exchange reserves versus inaccessible foreign exchange reserves. If you free up money that’s trapped in foreign accounts for Iran to pay off debts, you are bailing out the regime and rescuing the mullahs from a balance of payments crisis,” said Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “This is a bailout, plain and simple. And to announce it right as DOJ tells us Iran tried to kidnap an American journalist out of New York City—that’s a national outrage.”

A State Department spokesman said Blinken signed the sanctions waiver to give Japan and Korea another 90-days to complete transactions with Iran.

“The secretary of state previously signed a waiver to allow funds held in restricted Iranian accounts in Japan and Korea to be used to pay back Japanese and Korean companies that exported non-sanctioned items to Iran,” the spokesperson said. “These repayment transactions can sometimes be time consuming, and the secretary extended the waivers for another 90 days.”

The State Department says the waiver “does not allow for the transfer of any funds to Iran,” and will make whole Japanese and Korean companies that exported non-sanctioned goods and services before U.S. sanctions were tightened by the previous administration.

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R., Tenn.) said the Biden administration is rewarding Iran with an economic bailout.

“President Biden today is giving the Iranian regime—the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism—an economic bailout by freeing up billions of dollars that U.S. sanctions had frozen in foreign banks,” said Hagerty. “I personally spent months working with the then-Japanese Prime Minster and his cabinet to put in place these crippling and biting sanctions, which had real and tangible results, only today to see them begin to be blown apart with the stroke of a pen in exchange for nothing. President Biden is doubling down on his Iran appeasement policy just as it was revealed that Iranian officials were plotting to abduct an American citizen in New York City, and as the regime is continuing to use missiles and proxy militants to attack Americans in Iraq and Syria.”

The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Biden Admin Waives Sanctions on Iranian Oil Trade As DOJ Announces Charges On Spy Network (freebeacon.com)

Border Patrol agents have continued to apprehend an increasing number of illegal aliens each month this year, and June was no exception.

Agents apprehended 188,829 people illegally crossing the border in June, up from 180,034 in May, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP). That averages 6,294 apprehensions per day for the month.

The number of illegal aliens detected by Border Patrol but who evaded capture isn’t released, although Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said on June 24 that the number has exceeded 250,000 so far this fiscal year.

The number of people who pass undetected is impossible to estimate.

Along with the increase in crossings, more illegal immigrants are dying of heat-related exposure, dehydration, and drowning. Water is scarce, it’s not hard to get lost, and smugglers will leave illegal immigrants behind if they’re slow or injured.

In June, 109 bodies were recovered by Border Patrol, up from 61 in May, according to numbers obtained from CBP by Jaeson Jones, host of “Tripwires and Triggers.” That brings the total for fiscal 2021 to 321 bodies recovered by Border Patrol, with three months to go.

A major change to the current border flow is expected after July 21 if Title 42 is revoked, which is largely seen as the remaining tool holding back the floodgates. Title 42 allows for Border Patrol to turn back illegal border crossers almost immediately as a pandemic measure, rather than be placed in ICE custody for a more protracted process through deportation proceedings under Title 8.

“When we do lose Title 42, the number of people that were previously being expelled are going to have to be processed under Title 8, and we’re going to be spending more time with them,” Texas’s Del Rio Sector Chief Austin Skero told The Epoch Times on July 15.

“So that is going to be … increasing the amount of time that our agents are processing and decreasing the amount of time that our agents can be in the field.”

Currently, single Spanish-speaking adults and some families are still subject to Title 42 and are turned back to Mexico. Once the policy is lifted, border facilities are likely to be quickly overwhelmed.

In some border sectors, particularly the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas, the Border Patrol facilities have been so overwhelmed that many individuals weren’t released with the common Notice to Appear document that states a date and time to appear in court. Rather, they received a Notice to Report, which is an honor system that requires the person to check in at their closest ICE facility within 60 days.

“Title 42 is absolutely critical,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Tae Johnson said during a congressional hearing on May 13.

“There’s certainly some gaps in our ability to track” illegal immigrants after they’re released, he said.

Under the agency’s narrowed criteria for priority removal, most of those who abscond won’t be a priority for ICE to track down unless they commit an aggravated felony.

ICE had around 55,000 detention beds in 2019; however, the capacity was reduced to 30,000 beds in the fiscal 2021 appropriations package.

Newly appointed Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said the main focus for the agency is to increase the ability to process illegal immigrants faster.

“It includes speeding up the process so we’re not bogged down in these communities,” Ortiz said in Del Rio on June 24.

He said a quicker electronic system to process aliens will be rolled out in about 90 days.

“[Agents] should be able to do everything on a tablet, they sign it, you move on,” he said.

Skero told The Epoch Times that a soft-sided, 500-person processing tent had been erected in Eagle Pass to help mitigate the anticipated increase.

“One of the difficulties that we have here in the sector is managing the flow of people that are coming, managing detention and the processing, and the distribution,” he said.

“And then trying to use whatever resources we have left to get after the folks who are getting away from us, the folks who don’t want to give up, who don’t want to surrender. That’s where the criminal element is really alive and well.

“But the reality is, even now, we don’t have enough people.”

Border Patrol Apprehends 188,829 Illegal Immigrants in June (theepochtimes.com)

A new BOMBSHELL report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) “must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet,” according to Secretary General Guterres.

▪️Report (the UN’s fifth) drew on over 14,000 studies by 234 experts from 66 countries
▪️Global temperatures anticipated to rise 1.5-2°C by 2030 – 10 years earlier than forecast just three years ago
▪️Global oceans have risen 20cm since 1900, with the rate TRIPLING in last 10 years – two-metre rise by 2100 not ruled out
▪️Planet at warmest levels for 125,000 years, methane levels highest in 800,000 years
▪️3mn years ago when CO2 levels and temperature last matched today’s, sea levels were 25m higher

Now, if we look at the picture of climate history above, …?

Better yet, see below.

Is There Global Cooling?

I am not a scientist and do not pretend to be. But, I have been watching the issue of climate change now for two decades and have found it is not what many say it is. Here are a collection of articles, sources, and information. Use it if you like. Hopefully it will encourage you to seek your own truth since this is one of the great issues of our time.

Geoffrey Pohanka

Is there global cooling? The answer might not be what you expected. – Home