bonginoreport--2020-07-06--Ed Achorn: Cancel Culture Vs. Mount Rushmore

It seems clear that those hellbent on undermining America have little or no knowledge or appreciation of the past .
I was glad to see the Democratic Party this week quickly delete its tweet about the great fireworks celebration at Mount Rushmore in honor of Independence Day .
The reprehensible tweet called the nation ’ s birthday party “ a rally glorifying white supremacy.
” Political passions have become so hot of late that some will not even set aside the hatreds of identity politics on July 4th , a day when we celebrate this great nation and express gratitude @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has bestowed on all of us , of all skin tones .
Two of the mighty presidents hewn into the rock of Mount Rushmore—there on the left , George Washington and Thomas Jefferson—were slaveowners .
It is interesting that a third president , over on the right , Abraham Lincoln , was a bitter , lifelong enemy of slavery who , at immense sacrifice , finally presided over its destruction .
But he had the highest regard for both , recognizing their crucial role in securing liberty and preparing the way for slavery @ @ @ @ @ @ @ under attack in today ’ s fevered climate—all four , if you count Theodore Roosevelt , whose memory was recently dishonored in New York City .
Our nation ’ s leaders seem to have surrendered to an anti-intellectual mob that argues ( falsely , in my opinion ) that America is inherently evil and that symbols of its past and national identity thus must be eradicated .
Lincoln , the subject of my new book , Every Drop of Blood , was a brilliant man .
Born to desperate poverty , he virtually @ @ @ @ @ @ @ churchgoer—some thought he was not even a believer—but he read deeply into the King James Bible , the one book that could be found in many pioneers ’ cabins .
He loved its beautiful language and the hard-won wisdom it conveyed about enduring the catastrophe that is human existence , and living a just , moral , and fulfilling life .
His decency , absence of arrogance , and unwillingness to look down on others reflects a sense of morality and maturity that sets him high above any politician or activist today I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ take Jesus ’ message ( which he quoted in his Second Inaugural ) to heart : “ Judge not , lest ye be judged.
” While activists today want to brand every Confederate as evil , and tear down their statues , Lincoln had this to say in 1854 about the Southern people : “ They are just what we would be in their situation .
If slavery did not now exist among them , they would not introduce it .
If it did now exist amongst us , we should not instantly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to punish the Southern people after the war , he called for “ malice toward none ” and “ charity for all ” in his Second Inaugural .
Lincoln especially revered Jefferson for two actions that he believed set slavery on the path of destruction .
The first was his authorship of the Declaration of Independence , which argued that “ all men are created equal ” and endowed with rights no government or tyrant could justly take away .
While initially thought to refer to white men , the language helped destroy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence , ” Lincoln said in 1861 .
The Declaration was not just about separating from Britain but giving “ hope to the world for all future time.
” The Declaration promised “ that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men , and that all should have an equal chance.
” Jefferson , Lincoln said , “ had the coolness , forecast and capacity to introduce into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ truth , applicable to all men at all times .
.
.
that shall be a rebuke and a stumbling block to the very harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression.
” That is among the vast blessings we celebrate on July 4 .
Jefferson also used his influence to block the spread of slavery into the Northwest Territory , through the Ordinance of 1787 .
That was proof , in Lincoln ’ s eyes , that the Founders wished to stop slavery as much as they practically could , hoping it would wither @ @ @ @ @ @ @ strongly Jefferson denounced slavery .
He held throughout his life that it was unjust and immoral .
He blasted the slaveholding interest ’ s “ avarice and oppression ” and contrasted this with the “ sacred side ” of emancipation .
The great black leader of the Civil War era , Frederick Douglass , quoted Jefferson ’ s blistering observation that Patriots who had fought the British were willing to inflict “ on their fellow man , ” through slavery , “ a bondage one hour of which is fraught with more misery @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in rebellion to oppose.
” Although they were unable to eradicate slavery on their own , Jefferson and Washington were among the first people in human history to question the morality of that ubiquitous institution .
We owe everything to them .
As for Lincoln , as much as he detested slavery , he argued he would rather quit politics — and let the pro-slavery Democrats win — than join forces with the Know-Nothings , or American Party , which advocated much stricter immigration controls and opposed the election of foreign-born people or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , succumbing to the self-righteous anti-intellectualism of a segment of our society , has decided to remove a monument to this man that was designed by ex-slaves .
It seems clear that those hellbent on undermining America have little or no knowledge or appreciation of the past , which involves the complex interactions of human beings .
Is it too late to change the way we educate the young ?

I was glad to see the Democratic Party this week quickly delete its tweet about the great fireworks celebration at Mount Rushmore in honor of Independence Day. The reprehensible tweet called the nation’s birthday party “a rally glorifying white supremacy.”
Political passions have become so hot of late that some will not even set aside the hatreds of identity politics on July 4th, a day when we celebrate this great nation and express gratitude for the extraordinary blessings of freedom it has bestowed on all of us, of all skin tones.
Two of the mighty presidents hewn into the rock of Mount Rushmore—there on the left, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson—were slaveowners. It is interesting that a third president, over on the right, Abraham Lincoln, was a bitter, lifelong enemy of slavery who, at immense sacrifice, finally presided over its destruction. But he had the highest regard for both, recognizing their crucial role in securing liberty and preparing the way for slavery’s destruction.
All three are under attack in today’s fevered climate—all four, if you count Theodore Roosevelt, whose memory was recently dishonored in New York City. Our nation’s leaders seem to have surrendered to an anti-intellectual mob that argues (falsely, in my opinion) that America is inherently evil and that symbols of its past and national identity thus must be eradicated.
Lincoln, the subject of my new book, Every Drop of Blood, was a brilliant man. Born to desperate poverty, he virtually educated himself. He was not a churchgoer—some thought he was not even a believer—but he read deeply into the King James Bible, the one book that could be found in many pioneers’ cabins. He loved its beautiful language and the hard-won wisdom it conveyed about enduring the catastrophe that is human existence, and living a just, moral, and fulfilling life.
His decency, absence of arrogance, and unwillingness to look down on others reflects a sense of morality and maturity that sets him high above any politician or activist today I can think of. He seemed to take Jesus’ message (which he quoted in his Second Inaugural) to heart: “Judge not, lest ye be judged.”
While activists today want to brand every Confederate as evil, and tear down their statues, Lincoln had this to say in 1854 about the Southern people: “They are just what we would be in their situation. If slavery did not now exist among them, they would not introduce it. If it did now exist amongst us, we should not instantly give it up.” Rather than seek to punish the Southern people after the war, he called for “malice toward none” and “charity for all” in his Second Inaugural.
Lincoln especially revered Jefferson for two actions that he believed set slavery on the path of destruction. The first was his authorship of the Declaration of Independence, which argued that “all men are created equal” and endowed with rights no government or tyrant could justly take away. While initially thought to refer to white men, the language helped destroy any moral authority for slavery.
“I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence,” Lincoln said in 1861. The Declaration was not just about separating from Britain but giving “hope to the world for all future time.” The Declaration promised “that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance.”
Jefferson, Lincoln said, “had the coolness, forecast and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document, an abstract truth, applicable to all men at all times . . . that shall be a rebuke and a stumbling block to the very harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression.”
That is among the vast blessings we celebrate on July 4.
Jefferson also used his influence to block the spread of slavery into the Northwest Territory, through the Ordinance of 1787. That was proof, in Lincoln’s eyes, that the Founders wished to stop slavery as much as they practically could, hoping it would wither and die.
It is striking how strongly Jefferson denounced slavery. He held throughout his life that it was unjust and immoral. He blasted the slaveholding interest’s “avarice and oppression” and contrasted this with the “sacred side” of emancipation. The great black leader of the Civil War era, Frederick Douglass, quoted Jefferson’s blistering observation that Patriots who had fought the British were willing to inflict “on their fellow man,” through slavery, “a bondage one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose.”
Although they were unable to eradicate slavery on their own, Jefferson and Washington were among the first people in human history to question the morality of that ubiquitous institution. We owe everything to them.
As for Lincoln, as much as he detested slavery, he argued he would rather quit politics — and let the pro-slavery Democrats win — than join forces with the Know-Nothings, or American Party, which advocated much stricter immigration controls and opposed the election of foreign-born people or Roman Catholics to public office.
Lincoln wrote:
I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we begin by declaring that “all men are created equal.” We now practically read it “all men are created equal, except negroes.” When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read “all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics.” When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty—to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy.
Boston, succumbing to the self-righteous anti-intellectualism of a segment of our society, has decided to remove a monument to this man that was designed by ex-slaves. It seems clear that those hellbent on undermining America have little or no knowledge or appreciation of the past, which involves the complex interactions of human beings. Is it too late to change the way we educate the young?
This article originally appeared on EdAchorn.com.


bonginoreport--2020-07-06--Kevin McCullough: Six Weeks, Six Cities, 600 Murders

The single most important domestic issue of our time is not the rising number of new people testing positive for COVID-19 .
Deaths have hit all-time lows .
The single most important domestic issue of our time is not even the continued economic hardship of a nation that was artificially shut down and sent spiraling into a faux recession .
Millions of jobs have been added over the past 60 days and the skyrocketing unemployment has turned around to nearly where it was percent wise in most of the Obama early years ( 11.1 vs 9.9 . )
The single @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the largest swaths of populations in America , is the scandal the media ignores even as it explodes in our faces .
In only six weeks , city after city operated by entrenched Democrats have seen a massive expansion in lawlessness , violence , and murder .
Stunningly , many news outlets seem gobsmacked and mystified at how or why such an explosion of lawlessness has occurred .
For the sake of brevity , let ’ s sample six of the nation ’ s largest cities , including all of the top three @ @ @ @ @ @ @ understood as anti-police .
His wife recently imagined the city as “ Nirvana ” if the NYPD were eliminated altogether .
Thus far in 2020 , homicides are up 21 percent .
Shootings are up by 46 percent .
The Democratic mayor ’ s agenda included emptying the prison known as Rikers Island , bail reform letting perps walk before the paperwork is completed , and the effort to # DefundPolice that took 600 anti-crime units out of commission .
June saw disturbing trends .
An increase in the month ’ s first @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and a 56 percent increase in shootings .
Following the death of George Floyd in May the LAPD received a $ 150 million cut .
Year-to-date shootings have eclipsed 1,508 for 2020 , putting them 350 ahead of 2019 .
To date homicides sit at 254 , placing them ahead of 2019 .
Important to note that the Cook County board voted in favor of defunding police .
Eleven city alderman raced to the fore to demand that not a single penny of $ 333 million in federal dollars not go to police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to cut current funding by more than $ 30 million in current spending .
Year-to-date homicide numbers are 13 percent higher than this time a year ago .
Nevertheless , the District PD is slated to be defunded by more than $ 15 million .
Shootings are up 67 percent .
Victims of armed violence are up 29 percent .
Homicides are up 25 percent .
So of course it makes sense to defund the Philadelphia PD by $ 19 million .
As consistently one of the most dangerous cities in America with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ murders , last year Baltimore set a new record at 348 homicides .
Yet in 2020 they outpace last year ’ s record and will see defunding to the effect of $ 22 million .
As I said there are many more that I could highlight for you .
So why did all of these cities take such violent turns ?
Is it because their leadership capitulated to the anger of the mobs as opposed to thinking clearly and strategically about an effective response ?
Or do these Democrat-run towns literally operate with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ else can you explain that in the city of Minneapolis ( where a nation watched in horror and subsequently responded to the murder of an innocent man ) that within 30 days they would record 1,600 shots fired ?
But then respond by voting to dismantle its police operations all together ?
The single most important threat to our nation at this moment are Democrats who are voting in favor of eliminating law enforcement and who are by extension responsible for the greater and greater increase in the loss of life .
They @ @ @ @ @ @ @ complete chaos and disorder .
They also seem utterly unconcerned about any lives mattering , black or white .
They appear to be holding on to an idea that they are not impacted by the scum and villainy at play under their jurisdiction .
They even perhaps believe that this is all worth it , if it will allow them to have electoral success in the fall .
If so , they need to brace themselves for three basic truths .

The single most important domestic issue of our time is not the rising number of new people testing positive for COVID-19. Deaths have hit all-time lows.
The single most important domestic issue of our time is not even the continued economic hardship of a nation that was artificially shut down and sent spiraling into a faux recession. Millions of jobs have been added over the past 60 days and the skyrocketing unemployment has turned around to nearly where it was percent wise in most of the Obama early years (11.1 vs 9.9.)
Nope!
The single most important issue, affecting some of the largest swaths of populations in America, is the scandal the media ignores even as it explodes in our faces.
In only six weeks, city after city operated by entrenched Democrats have seen a massive expansion in lawlessness, violence, and murder. Stunningly, many news outlets seem gobsmacked and mystified at how or why such an explosion of lawlessness has occurred.
For the sake of brevity, let’s sample six of the nation’s largest cities, including all of the top three.
New York:
The Democratic mayor has long been understood as anti-police. His wife recently imagined the city as “Nirvana” if the NYPD were eliminated altogether.
Thus far in 2020, homicides are up 21 percent. Shootings are up by 46 percent. The Democratic mayor’s agenda included emptying the prison known as Rikers Island, bail reform letting perps walk before the paperwork is completed, and the effort to #DefundPolice that took 600 anti-crime units out of commission.
Los Angeles:
June saw disturbing trends. An increase in the month’s first week by 250 percent of homicides, and a 56 percent increase in shootings. Following the death of George Floyd in May the LAPD received a $150 million cut.
Chicago:
Year-to-date shootings have eclipsed 1,508 for 2020, putting them 350 ahead of 2019. To date homicides sit at 254, placing them ahead of 2019. Important to note that the Cook County board voted in favor of defunding police. Eleven city aldermen raced to the fore to demand that not a single penny of $333 million in federal dollars go to police, and various proposals are being considered to cut current funding by more than $30 million in current spending.
Washington, D.C.
Year-to-date homicide numbers are 13 percent higher than this time a year ago. Nevertheless, the District PD is slated to be defunded by more than $15 million.
Philadelphia:
Shootings are up 67 percent. Victims of armed violence are up 29 percent. Homicides are up 25 percent. So of course it makes sense to defund the Philadelphia PD by $19 million.
Baltimore:
As consistently one of the most dangerous cities in America with a five-year streak of more than 300 murders, last year Baltimore set a new record at 348 homicides. Yet in 2020 they outpace last year’s record and will see defunding to the effect of $22 million.
As I said there are many more that I could highlight for you.
So why did all of these cities take such violent turns? Is it because their leadership capitulated to the anger of the mobs as opposed to thinking clearly and strategically about an effective response?
Or do these Democrat-run towns literally operate with denial in good and evil?
How else can you explain that in the city of Minneapolis (where a nation watched in horror and subsequently responded to the murder of an innocent man) that within 30 days they would record 1,600 shots fired? But then respond by voting to dismantle its police operations all together?
The single most important threat to our nation at this moment are Democrats who are voting in favor of eliminating law enforcement and who are by extension responsible for the greater and greater increase in the loss of life.
They are allowing Marxists and Anarchists to create complete chaos and disorder. They also seem utterly unconcerned about any lives mattering, black or white.
They appear to be holding on to an idea that they are not impacted by the scum and villainy at play under their jurisdiction.
They even perhaps believe that this is all worth it, if it will allow them to have electoral success in the fall.
If so, they need to brace themselves for three basic truths.
It’s time they learn the truth
It’s time they be held accountable.
And...It’s time to stop them!


bonginoreport--2020-07-06--Victor Davis Hanson: An Industry of Untruth

The brand of all cultural revolutions is untruth about the past and present in order to control the future .
Why we have this happening to our country is the only mystery left .
The current revolution is based on a series of lies , misrepresentations , and distortions , whose weight will soon sink it .
Unfortunately few in authority have been more wrong , and yet more self-righteously wrong , than the esteemed Dr. Anthony Fauci .
Given his long service as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and his stature during the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ held up by the media as the gold standard of coronavirus information .
The media has constructed Fauci as a constant corrective of Trump ’ s supposed “ lies ” about the utility of travel bans , analogies with a bad flu year , and logical endorsement of hydroxychloroquine as a “ what do you have to lose ” possible therapy .
But the omnipresent Fauci himself unfortunately has now lost credibility .
The reason is that he has offered authoritative advice about facts , which either were not known or could not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his declarations .
Since January , Fauci has variously advised the nation both that the coronavirus probably was unlikely to cause a major health crisis in the United States and later that it might yet kill 240,000 Americans .
In January , he praised China for its transparent handling of the coronavirus epidemic , not much later he conceded that perhaps they ’ d done a poor job of that .
He has cautioned that the virus both poses low risks and , later , high risks , for Americans .
Wearing masks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ little utility and yet , later , essential .
Hydroxychloroquine , he huffed , had little utility ; when studies showed that it did , he still has kept mostly silent .
At various times , he emphasized that social distancing and avoiding optional activities were mandatory , but earlier that blind dating and going on cruise ships were permissible .
Fauci weighed in on the inadvisability of restarting businesses prematurely , but he has displayed less certainty hedged about the millions of demonstrators and rioters in the streets for a month violating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he is human like all of us , but that in each of these cases he asserted such contradictions with near-divine certainty—and further confused the public in extremis .
In terms of how the United States “ fared , ” it is simply untrue that Europe embraced superior social policies in containing the virus .
The only somewhat reliable assessments of viral lethality are population numbers and deaths by COVID-19 , although the latter is often in dispute .
By such rubrics , the United States , so far , has fared better @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Italy , the United Kingdom , Spain , Sweden , and Belgium—in terms of deaths per million .
Germany is the one major exception .
But if blame is to be allotted to public officials for the United States having a higher fatality rate than Germany , then the cause is most likely governors of high-death , Eastern Seaboard states—New York , New Jersey , Massachusetts , and Connecticut in particular .
They either sent the infected into rest homes , or did not early on ensure that their mass transit systems @ @ @ @ @ @ @ social distancing .
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo , more than any other regional or national leader , is culpable for decisions that doomed thousands of elderly patients .
He did not just suggest long-term-care facilities receive active COVID-19 patients , but ordered them to take them—knowing at the time that the disease in its lethal manifestations targeted the elderly , infirm , and bedridden .
Then in shameful fashion , after thousands died , Cuomo claimed that either the facilities themselves or Donald Trump were responsible for the deaths .
In truth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coronavirus is largely a fatal disease in two senses : the vulnerable in just four states on the Eastern Seaboard that account for about 12 percent of the nation ’ s population but close to half of its total COVID-19 fatalities , and/or patients in rest homes or those over 65 years old with comorbidities .
Why are there currently spikes in cases among young people in warmer states and those of less population density in late June ?
No one is certain .
But one likely reason is that millions of protestors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s cities , suburbs , and towns , shouting and screaming without masks , violating social distancing , and often without observant hand washing and sanitizing—most often with official exemption or media and political approval .
The period of exposure and incubation is over , and the resulting new cases—for the most part asymptomatic and clustered among the young—are thus no surprise .
Still , what is inconvenient is the rise in these cases—given that the Left either had claimed its mass demonstrations would not spread the disease , or , if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an affordable price to pay for the cry of the heart protests .
Perhaps , but the real cost of four weeks of protesting , rioting , and looting was to undermine the authority of state officials to enforce blatant violations of the quarantine .
Obviously , if some can march with impunity in phalanxes of screaming , shoulder-to-shoulder protestors , while others are jailed as individuals trying to restart a business , then the state has lost its credibility with people and they will simply ignore further edicts as they see fit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people ’ s own calibrations of their own safety .
Mismanagement of the virus ?
There have been four disastrous official policy decisions : sending patients into rest homes ; allowing millions en masse for political reasons to violate state mandates on masks and social distancing ; retroactively attempting to reissue quarantine standards that their advocates and authors had themselves earlier de facto destroyed ; and consistently issuing pandemic alerts solely on the flawed basis of new positive cases , without distinguishing those who were asymptomatic , or who were infected and recovered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were asymptomatic and tested positive for antibodies , or who were only briefly ill , recovered , and by no means still a case-patient .
Black Lives Matter , Antifa , and other revolutionary groups hijacked the tragic death of George Floyd .
Within hours they created a mythology of rampant white police lethal attacks on innocent black victims .
But that trope , too , was without a factual basis .
The wrongful deaths of unarmed African-Americans in custody have been on the decline , is far less than the number of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the number of white suspects killed , and proportionally fewer , in terms of percentages of those arrested by police , than other racial groups .
In rare interracial violence , blacks are five times more likely to attack whites than vice versa .
There is a tragic war against young , black males—over 7,000 murdered per year—but it is an urban genocide of sort perpetrated in liberal cities , governed by liberal mayors and governors , and overseen by liberal police chiefs .
The shooters are overwhelmingly other black males .
Somehow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into a trope that George Floyd was typical of an epidemic of white-generated lethal racial hatred .
One can certainly argue about systematic racism as being a factor in all these asymmetries , but that is not what the rioting and their apologists have done in trafficking in accusations that have no data to support them .
There is no logic to statue toppling , name changing , or culture canceling other than the quest to assert power , humiliate authorities , and create crises where they do not exist in order to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of a political agenda .
In some sense , whether any statues fall is contingent entirely on the lack of resistance .
We know this because the ignorant rioters and protestors can not explain why monuments to Ulysses S. Grant , Cervantes , black Civil War veterans , or Abraham Lincoln need to be toppled and destroyed as much as a statue of Robert E. Lee .
We are not told why the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton is canceled out , but not the Wilson Center in Washington , or why a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ defacement but not the hit play , “ Hamilton , ” another founder who at one time owned slaves .
And what or who , if any , exactly is to replace our fallen luminaries ?
Name the most iconic—Martin Luther King Jr. , Malcolm X , or Che Guevarra and the current rules of perfection would disqualify them all .
The abettors of the madness—corporations , the Democratic National Committee , universities , and the media—are not so mad .
Yale , named for a slave owner , is now mostly a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a first-class , disinterested , and classically liberal education .
Take the elite stamp away , and what replaces it might as well be an online degree mill—given that it is no longer so demonstrable that a Yale graduate learned more than in his four years than did a graduate of Cal State Stanislaus .
So university presidents at Princeton , Yale , Stanford , and Columbia , know that by the standards of BLM their brand names must be changed .
But to do so is synonymous with multi-billion-dollar losses and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is why they pander to the mob the way a Roman would-be emperor outbid rivals seeking to win over the Praetorian Guard .
The truth is that the COVID-19 epidemic , the lockdown , and the rioting were seen by the Left , the media , and now the Democratic Party as a renewed effort in this election year to do what Robert Mueller , Ukraine , and impeachment had not—abort the presidency of Donald Trump , or make it impossible for him to be reelected .
So Trump was to be reconfigured @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of George Floyd .
Then he was smeared as a Herbert Hoover who supposedly crashed the economy all on his own .
And then he became a Typhoid Mary purveyor of death who sickened and killed tens of thousands of Americans at his rallies in a way millions at left-wing protests did not .
To that end , almost daily , entire fantasies were birthed , floated , crashed , and then were replaced by new hoaxes .
The strategy was that while one lie might be refuted , the bigger and more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ continuous narrative could be fabricated .
Consequently , the last two weeks , in succession we were told by the media that a noose was left in a NASCAR garage as a racist threat to NASCAR ’ s only major African-American driver , typical of Trump ’ s racist America ; that Donald Trump , in dejection and self-incrimination , was soon to quit rather than face the humiliation of a landslide defeat in November ; that the president knowingly rejected intelligence that the Russians were paying bounties on American soldiers in Afghanistan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Vladimir Putin ; and that Trump went to Mount Rushmore to honor racist presidents and dishonor sacred Native American land .
All were not just lies , but respectively unimaginative and banal successors to similarly long ago discredited lies—the Jussie Smollett hoax , the “ Trump never wished to be president in the first place ” hoax , the Russian “ collusion ” hoax , and the hoax that Trump ’ s presence turns once esteemed monuments that prior presidents , most recently Barack Obama , visited into racist dog whistles .
Then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Biden has no cognitive disabilities .
That he does was the consensus of one in five polled Democratic voters , of many of his own primary rivals in numerous Democratic debates , of handlers who bragged that his basement quarantine need not end because it resulted in him outpolling Trump , of a scramble to turn the vice-presidential nomination into a veritable presidential bid , and in a litany of gaffes , blank outs , and tragic memory lapses of familiar names , places , and common referents .
Biden finally came out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and talk to a few preselected reporters .
He almost immediately blasted a reporter as a “ lying dog face pony soldier.
” In one of his next appearances , his opening statement started with “ I am Joe Biden ’ s husband , even as the liberal media insisted “ Joe ” was “ Jill.
” There is now a Biden-inspired cottage industry of arguing that what Biden is recorded as saying is not what he was saying—on the theory that he so poorly pronounces words that they can become almost anything @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cynically using a cognitively challenged candidate for the purpose of winning an election and then replacing him with a far-left vice president who otherwise likely would never have been elected .
FDR and the Democratic Party did something similar in his successful fourth-term bid in 1944 because of FDR ’ s anticipated early death in office—but in matters of hiding physical rather than cognitive impairment .
Moreover , at least that dishonest gambit was undertaken in order to prevent a socialist takeover of the United States by jettisoning the hard leftist , Vice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the effort is not to ensure that a socialist not be appointed president who otherwise would not have been elected , but rather to ensure that she will be .
The brand of all cultural revolutions is untruth about the past and present in order to control the future .
Why we have let this happen to our country is the only mystery left .

The current revolution is based on a series of lies, misrepresentations, and distortions, whose weight will soon sink it.
Viral confusion
Unfortunately few in authority have been more wrong, and yet more self-righteously wrong, than the esteemed Dr. Anthony Fauci. Given his long service as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and his stature during the AIDS crisis, he has rightly been held up by the media as the gold standard of coronavirus information. The media has constructed Fauci as a constant corrective of Trump’s supposed “lies” about the utility of travel bans, analogies with a bad flu year, and logical endorsement of hydroxychloroquine as a “what do you have to lose” possible therapy.
But the omnipresent Fauci himself unfortunately has now lost credibility. The reason is that he has offered authoritative advice about facts, which either were not known or could not have been known at the time of his declarations.
Since January, Fauci has variously advised the nation both that the coronavirus probably was unlikely to cause a major health crisis in the United States and later that it might yet kill 240,000 Americans. In January, he praised China for its transparent handling of the coronavirus epidemic, not much later he conceded that perhaps they’d done a poor job of that. He has cautioned that the virus both poses low risks and, later, high risks, for Americans. Wearing masks, Fauci warned, was both of little utility and yet, later, essential. Hydroxychloroquine, he huffed, had little utility; when studies showed that it did, he still has kept mostly silent.
At various times, he emphasized that social distancing and avoiding optional activities were mandatory, but earlier that blind dating and going on cruise ships were permissible. Fauci weighed in on the inadvisability of restarting businesses prematurely, but he has displayed less certainty about the millions of demonstrators and rioters in the streets for a month violating quarantines. The point is not that he is human like all of us, but that in each of these cases he asserted such contradictions with near-divine certainty—and further confused the public in extremis.
In terms of how the United States “fared,” it is simply untrue that Europe embraced superior social policies in containing the virus. The only somewhat reliable assessments of viral lethality are population numbers and deaths by COVID-19, although the latter is often in dispute.
By such rubrics, the United States, so far, has fared better than most of the major European countries—France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden, and Belgium—in terms of deaths per million. Germany is the one major exception. But if blame is to be allotted to public officials for the United States having a higher fatality rate than Germany, then the cause is most likely governors of high-death, Eastern Seaboard states—New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Connecticut in particular. They either sent the infected into rest homes, or did not early on ensure that their mass transit systems were sanitized daily as well as practicing social distancing.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, more than any other regional or national leader, is culpable for decisions that doomed thousands of elderly patients. He did not just suggest long-term-care facilities receive active COVID-19 patients, but ordered them to take them—knowing at the time that the disease in its lethal manifestations targeted the elderly, infirm, and bedridden.
Then in shameful fashion, after thousands died, Cuomo claimed that either the facilities themselves or Donald Trump were responsible for the deaths. In truth, in the United States, the coronavirus is largely a fatal disease in two senses: the vulnerable in just four states on the Eastern Seaboard that account for about 12 percent of the nation’s population but close to half of its total COVID-19 fatalities, and/or patients in rest homes or those over 65 years old with comorbidities.
Why are there currently spikes in cases among young people in warmer states and those of less population density in late June? No one is certain. But one likely reason is that millions of protestors for nearly a month crammed the nation’s cities, suburbs, and towns, shouting and screaming without masks, violating social distancing, and often without observant hand washing and sanitizing—most often with official exemption or media and political approval.
The period of exposure and incubation is over, and the resulting new cases—for the most part asymptomatic and clustered among the young—are thus no surprise. Still, what is inconvenient is the rise in these cases—given that the Left either had claimed its mass demonstrations would not spread the disease, or, if they would, the resulting contagion was an affordable price to pay for the cry of the heart protests.
Perhaps, but the real cost of four weeks of protesting, rioting, and looting was to undermine the authority of state officials to enforce blatant violations of the quarantine. Obviously, if some can march with impunity in phalanxes of screaming, shoulder-to-shoulder protestors, while others are jailed as individuals trying to restart a business, then the state has lost its credibility with people and they will simply ignore further edicts as they see fit. Now what adjudicates quarantines are the people’s own calibrations of their own safety.
Mismanagement of the virus? There have been four disastrous official policy decisions: sending patients into rest homes; allowing millions en masse for political reasons to violate state mandates on masks and social distancing; retroactively attempting to reissue quarantine standards that their advocates and authors had themselves earlier de facto destroyed; and consistently issuing pandemic alerts solely on the flawed basis of new positive cases, without distinguishing those who were asymptomatic, or who were infected and recovered without ever being tested, or who were asymptomatic and tested positive for antibodies, or who were only briefly ill, recovered, and by no means still a case-patient.
Endemic Racial Violence?
Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and other revolutionary groups hijacked the tragic death of George Floyd. Within hours they created a mythology of rampant white police lethal attacks on innocent black victims. But that trope, too, was without a factual basis.
The wrongful deaths of unarmed African-Americans in custody have been on the decline, is far less than the number of police murdered per year, less than the number of white suspects killed, and proportionally fewer, in terms of percentages of those arrested by police, than other racial groups.
In rare interracial violence, blacks are five times more likely to attack whites than vice versa. There is a tragic war against young, black males—over 7,000 murdered per year—but it is an urban genocide of sort perpetrated in liberal cities, governed by liberal mayors and governors, and overseen by liberal police chiefs. The shooters are overwhelmingly other black males.
Somehow those facts were distorted by the Left into a trope that George Floyd was typical of an epidemic of white-generated lethal racial hatred. One can certainly argue about systematic racism as being a factor in all these asymmetries, but that is not what the rioting and their apologists have done in trafficking in accusations that have no data to support them.
Iconoclasm Redux
There is no logic to statue toppling, name changing, or culture canceling other than the quest to assert power, humiliate authorities, and create crises where they do not exist in order to manufacture a faux state of emergency—in service of a political agenda. In some sense, whether any statues fall is contingent entirely on the lack of resistance.
We know this because the ignorant rioters and protestors cannot explain why monuments to Ulysses S. Grant, Cervantes, black Civil War veterans, or Abraham Lincoln need to be toppled and destroyed as much as a statue of Robert E. Lee. We are not told why the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton is canceled out, but not the Wilson Center in Washington, or why a memorial to President Washington is targeted for defacement but not the hit play, “Hamilton,” another founder who at one time owned slaves. And what or who, if any, exactly is to replace our fallen luminaries? Name the most iconic—Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, or Che Guevarra and the current rules of perfection would disqualify them all.
The abettors of the madness—corporations, the Democratic National Committee, universities, and the media—are not so mad. Yale, named for a slave owner, is now mostly a brand name, not a certification of a first-class, disinterested, and classically liberal education.
Take the elite stamp away, and what replaces it might as well be an online degree mill—given that it is no longer so demonstrable that a Yale graduate learned more than in his four years than did a graduate of Cal State Stanislaus.
So university presidents at Princeton, Yale, Stanford, and Columbia, know that by the standards of BLM their brand names must be changed. But to do so is synonymous with multi-billion-dollar losses and the destruction of centuries-old brands. Perhaps that is why they pander to the mob the way a Roman would-be emperor outbid rivals seeking to win over the Praetorian Guard.
Trial Balloon Lies
The truth is that the COVID-19 epidemic, the lockdown, and the rioting were seen by the Left, the media, and now the Democratic Party as a renewed effort in this election year to do what Robert Mueller, Ukraine, and impeachment had not—abort the presidency of Donald Trump, or make it impossible for him to be reelected.
So Trump was to be reconfigured as a racist responsible for the death of George Floyd. Then he was smeared as a Herbert Hoover who supposedly crashed the economy all on his own. And then he became a Typhoid Mary purveyor of death who sickened and killed tens of thousands of Americans at his rallies in a way millions at left-wing protests did not.
To that end, almost daily, entire fantasies were birthed, floated, crashed, and then were replaced by new hoaxes. The strategy was that while one lie might be refuted, the bigger and more numerous the lies, the more a continuous narrative could be fabricated.
Consequently, the last two weeks, in succession we were told by the media that a noose was left in a NASCAR garage as a racist threat to NASCAR’s only major African-American driver, typical of Trump’s racist America; that Donald Trump, in dejection and self-incrimination, was soon to quit rather than face the humiliation of a landslide defeat in November; that the president knowingly rejected intelligence that the Russians were paying bounties on American soldiers in Afghanistan, as part of his obeisance to Vladimir Putin; and that Trump went to Mount Rushmore to honor racist presidents and dishonor sacred Native American land.
All were not just lies, but respectively unimaginative and banal successors to similarly long ago discredited lies—the Jussie Smollett hoax, the “Trump never wished to be president in the first place” hoax, the Russian “collusion” hoax, and the hoax that Trump’s presence turns once esteemed monuments that prior presidents, most recently Barack Obama, visited into racist dog whistles.
Then there was the monstrous lie that Joe Biden has no cognitive disabilities. That he does was the consensus of one in five polled Democratic voters, of many of his own primary rivals in numerous Democratic debates, of handlers who bragged that his basement quarantine need not end because it resulted in him outpolling Trump, of a scramble to turn the vice-presidential nomination into a veritable presidential bid, and in a litany of gaffes, blank outs, and tragic memory lapses of familiar names, places, and common referents.
Biden finally came out of his bunker to do some tele-fundraising and talk to a few preselected reporters. He almost immediately blasted a reporter as a “lying dog face.” In one of his next appearances, his opening statement started with “I am Joe Biden’s husband, even as the liberal media insisted “Joe” was “Jill.” There is now a Biden-inspired cottage industry of arguing that what Biden is recorded as saying is not what he was saying—on the theory that he so poorly pronounces words that they can become almost anything you wish.
What is cruel is cynically using a cognitively challenged candidate for the purpose of winning an election and then replacing him with a far-left vice president who otherwise likely would never have been elected.
FDR and the Democratic Party did something similar in his successful fourth-term bid in 1944 because of FDR’s anticipated early death in office—but in matters of hiding physical rather than cognitive impairment. Moreover, at least that dishonest gambit was undertaken in order to prevent a socialist takeover of the United States by jettisoning the hard leftist, Vice President Henry Wallace.
In 2020, the effort is not to ensure that a socialist not be appointed president who otherwise would not have been elected, but rather to ensure that she will be.
The brand of all cultural revolutions is untruth about the past and present in order to control the future. Why we have let this happen to our country is the only mystery left.


bonginoreport--2020-07-06--Trump Rips Redskins and Indians for Possible Name Changes

President Trump waded deeper into the culture wars roiling the US on Monday — defending the team names of the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians and slamming them for being “ politically correct.
” “ They name teams out of STRENGTH , not weakness , but now the Washington Redskins & Cleveland Indians , two fabled sports franchises , look like they are going to be changing their names in order to be politically correct .
Indians , like Elizabeth Warren , must be very angry right now !
” Trump tweeted .
The Redskins , who have long faced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , said last week it would consider a name change .
Nike appeared to have pulled Redskins merchandise off its website after FedEx — the company whose name is on the arena where the team plays — publicly called on the franchise to change its name , putting increasing pressure on owner Dan Snyder , who has refused to consider a name change for years , Fox Business reported .
On Sunday , three minority owners , Robert Rothman , Dwight Schar and Fred Smith , who own a combined 40 percent of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not happy being a partner ” with Snyder and hired an investment firm to search for potential buyers of their shares , the Washington Post reported Sunday .
The Cleveland Indians have also come under fire over the years over the team name and its logo depicting a caricature of a Native American , “ Chief Wahoo.
” Cleveland manager Terry Francona said Sunday he was in favor of the team changing its name , according to BleacherReport.com .
Addressing reporters during summer camp on Sunday , Francona said “ it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ new name .
In a statement released Friday , the team announced it was looking at other options for a name .
“ We have had ongoing discussions organizationally on these issues .
The recent social unrest in our community and our country has only underscored the need for us to keep improving as an organization on issues of social justice , ” the team said .
“ With that in mind , we are committed to engaging our community and appropriate stakeholders to determine the best path forward with regard to our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ came minutes after White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany told reporters she was unaware of Trump ’ s position on the issue .

President Trump waded deeper into the culture wars roiling the US on Monday — defending the team names of the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians and slamming them for being “politically correct.”
“They name teams out of STRENGTH, not weakness, but now the Washington Redskins & Cleveland Indians, two fabled sports franchises, look like they are going to be changing their names in order to be politically correct. Indians, like Elizabeth Warren, must be very angry right now!” Trump tweeted.
The Redskins, who have long faced criticism from Native American groups and others, said last week it would consider a name change.
Nike appeared to have pulled Redskins merchandise off its website after FedEx — the company whose name is on the arena where the team plays — publicly called on the franchise to change its name, putting increasing pressure on owner Dan Snyder, who has refused to consider a name change for years, Fox Business reported.
On Sunday, three minority owners, Robert Rothman, Dwight Schar and Fred Smith, who own a combined 40 percent of the team, said they were “not happy being a partner” with Snyder and hired an investment firm to search for potential buyers of their shares, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
The Cleveland Indians have also come under fire over the years over the team name and its logo depicting a caricature of a Native American, “Chief Wahoo.”
Cleveland manager Terry Francona said Sunday he was in favor of the team changing its name, according to BleacherReport.com.
Addressing reporters during summer camp on Sunday, Francona said “it’s time to move forward” with a new name.
In a statement released Friday, the team announced it was looking at other options for a name.
“We have had ongoing discussions organizationally on these issues. The recent social unrest in our community and our country has only underscored the need for us to keep improving as an organization on issues of social justice,” the team said.
“With that in mind, we are committed to engaging our community and appropriate stakeholders to determine the best path forward with regard to our team name.”
Trump’s tweet came minutes after White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany told reporters she was unaware of Trump’s position on the issue.


bonginoreport--2020-07-06--University of Memphis Football Will Be First Division I Team to Wear “BLM” On Helmets

The head coach of the University of Memphis football team , Ryan Silverfield , announced that his team will wear “ BLM ” stickers on their helmets this season , apparently making them the first Division I football team to do so .
Silverfield tweeted , “ This season , for every game , our student-athletes ’ helmets will have a BLM sticker .
# ALLINagainstRACIALINJUSTICE.
” He told The Memphis Commercial Appeal , “ The use of the BLM logo on a helmet decal was an idea from our student-athletes .
It doesn ’ t mean we support any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or any specific political party .
In fact , I love this country and I love our players .
Rather the decal is a show of support to our team.
” After being named head coach of the Tigers last December , Silverfield stated , “ It ’ s not an overnight deal , but we ’ ve got to continue to grow and I ’ ve got to do a better job myself as a head coach because I understand that I have a platform , and I have to voice myself @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make sure they are not being treated unjustly in all walks of life , ” according to WMC-TV .
He told The Athletic , “ This can ’ t just be a one-time thing where I send out a tweet or have one unity march .
It ’ s got to be ongoing .
I can ’ t think of a better way to show support than to put it on display and do it in a proud way.
” University of Memphis President M. David Rudd released a statement in which he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recently decided they will wear a Black Lives Matter emblem on their helmet during the upcoming season .
I want to make it clear this does not represent endorsement of any political entity or affiliated group ; it represents a commitment to social justice and American values we all embrace but have not fully realized as a country.
” On June 14 , University of Memphis student-athletes held a march regarding racism at which Silverfield stated , “ Right now , tomorrow , and forever – we are all in for social justice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Have an understanding of why we are doing this walk … As we ’ re walking , as we are marching , as we ’ re together , think about what we are walking for .
Think about the change we want to make .
Every single day we need to continue to battle this and make a positive difference in our world .
It starts with you .
Student-athletes , you guys have a wonderful platform .
Use it .
Let ’ s be the difference makers.
” “ Silverfield and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Matter ) at one point during their walk Sunday from the university ’ s south campus to main campus .
He said that after listening to his players , he was challenged to make sure that not only did he support them , but did so publicly so they know where he stands on matters of racism and injustice , ” The Memphis Commercial Appeal noted .
The Daily Wire , headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro , is a leading provider of conservative news , cutting through the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ readers with the most important , relevant , and engaging stories of the day .
Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member .

The head coach of the University of Memphis football team, Ryan Silverfield, announced that his team will wear “BLM” stickers on their helmets this season, apparently making them the first Division I football team to do so.
Silverfield tweeted, “This season, for every game, our student-athletes’ helmets will have a BLM sticker. #ALLINagainstRACIALINJUSTICE.” He told The Memphis Commercial Appeal, “The use of the BLM logo on a helmet decal was an idea from our student-athletes. It doesn’t mean we support any anti-American, violent organization or hate group or any specific political party. In fact, I love this country and I love our players. Rather the decal is a show of support to our team.”
After being named head coach of the Tigers last December, Silverfield stated, “It’s not an overnight deal, but we’ve got to continue to grow and I’ve got to do a better job myself as a head coach because I understand that I have a platform, and I have to voice myself in order to have student-athletes backs and make sure they are not being treated unjustly in all walks of life,” according to WMC-TV. He told The Athletic, “This can’t just be a one-time thing where I send out a tweet or have one unity march. It’s got to be ongoing. I can’t think of a better way to show support than to put it on display and do it in a proud way.”
University of Memphis President M. David Rudd released a statement in which he said: “Our Tiger football team recently decided they will wear a Black Lives Matter emblem on their helmet during the upcoming season. I want to make it clear this does not represent endorsement of any political entity or affiliated group; it represents a commitment to social justice and American values we all embrace but have not fully realized as a country.”
On June 14, University of Memphis student-athletes held a march regarding racism at which Silverfield stated, “Right now, tomorrow, and forever – we are all in for social justice. Today needs to stand for something. Have an understanding of why we are doing this walk … As we’re walking, as we are marching, as we’re together, think about what we are walking for. Think about the change we want to make. Every single day we need to continue to battle this and make a positive difference in our world. It starts with you. Student-athletes, you guys have a wonderful platform. Use it. Let’s be the difference makers.”
“Silverfield and his players chanted it (Black Lives Matter) at one point during their walk Sunday from the university’s south campus to main campus. He said that after listening to his players, he was challenged to make sure that not only did he support them, but did so publicly so they know where he stands on matters of racism and injustice,” The Memphis Commercial Appeal noted.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers with the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member.


bonginoreport--2020-07-06--DHS Rule Change Will Allow ICE to Remove Foreign Students Taking Full-Online Course Load in Fall

The Department of Homeland Security , through Immigration and Customs Enforcement , announced Monday that all participants in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program ( SEVP ) will not be allowed to remain in the country and take a fully-online course load in the fall .
An ICE press release stated that DHS will not issue new visas for students enrolled or enrolling at schools that have opted not to hold in-person classes in the fall .
Any foreign students currently in the U.S. must either return home if they wish to take a full term of online classes or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Eligible students may remain in the country and take up to three credit hours worth of online classes .
The rule change allows for removal proceedings to begin if foreign students do not comply and noted that rule changes allowing students to stay in the country without taking a full course load in the spring and summer were temporary measures meant to deal with the unprecedented nature of the coronavirus pandemic .
DHS did not immediately return Daily Caller ’ s inquiries on how many students they expect the rule change to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is just the latest step the Trump administration has taken to restrict immigration throughout the coronavirus pandemic .
( RELATED : Biden Says Trump ’ s New Immigration Order Is An ‘ Attempt To Distract ’ From Coronavirus ‘ Failure ’ ) President Donald Trump signed an executive order in June that put a temporary stay on work visas in an effort to address rising unemployment due to coronavirus by freeing up an estimated 500,000 jobs .
The order suspended H-1B visas , H-2B visas , certain J visas , and L visas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ permanent residents , foreign workers who are essential to the U.S. food supply , and any spouse or child of a U.S. citizen .
Former Vice President Joe Biden accused Trump of using the order to distract the public from his handling of the pandemic .
“ Immigrants help grow our economy and create jobs , ” Biden tweeted at the time .
“ The President can ’ t scapegoat his way out of this crisis.
” The State Department also moved to expel Chinese graduate students studying in the country as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Hong Kong .
The action would impact roughly 3,000 of the 360,000 Chinese students in the country , all of whom were identified by State as having direct ties to the Communist Party of China .
The president tweeted “ SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL ” just after the announcement was made .
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin suggested Friday that the next round of coronavirus stimulus legislation could include dedicated funds for schools so that they can reopen in the fall while following social distancing guidelines .
Democrats in the Senate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to include similar allocations in any potential bill .

The Department of Homeland Security, through Immigration and Customs Enforcement, announced Monday that all participants in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) will not be allowed to remain in the country and take a fully-online course load in the fall.
An ICE press release stated that DHS will not issue new visas for students enrolled or enrolling at schools that have opted not to hold in-person classes in the fall. Any foreign students currently in the U.S. must either return home if they wish to take a full term of online classes or transfer to a school offering in-person classes. Eligible students may remain in the country and take up to three credit hours worth of online classes.
The rule change allows for removal proceedings to begin if foreign students do not comply and noted that rule changes allowing students to stay in the country without taking a full course load in the spring and summer were temporary measures meant to deal with the unprecedented nature of the coronavirus pandemic.
DHS did not immediately return Daily Caller’s inquiries on how many students they expect the rule change to impact in the fall.
The move is just the latest step the Trump administration has taken to restrict immigration throughout the coronavirus pandemic. (RELATED: Biden Says Trump’s New Immigration Order Is An ‘Attempt To Distract’ From Coronavirus ‘Failure’)
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in June that put a temporary stay on work visas in an effort to address rising unemployment due to coronavirus by freeing up an estimated 500,000 jobs. The order suspended H-1B visas, H-2B visas, certain J visas, and L visas but order carved out exceptions for lawful permanent residents, foreign workers who are essential to the U.S. food supply, and any spouse or child of a U.S. citizen.
Former Vice President Joe Biden accused Trump of using the order to distract the public from his handling of the pandemic.
“Immigrants help grow our economy and create jobs,” Biden tweeted at the time. “The President can’t scapegoat his way out of this crisis.”
This is yet another attempt to distract from this Administration’s failure to lead an effective response to COVID-19. Immigrants help grow our economy and create jobs. The President can’t scapegoat his way out of this crisis. https://t.co/FEqWNJG6TK — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 23, 2020
The State Department also moved to expel Chinese graduate students studying in the country as a retaliatory measure for China’s action in Hong Kong.
The action would impact roughly 3,000 of the 360,000 Chinese students in the country, all of whom were identified by State as having direct ties to the Communist Party of China.
The president tweeted “SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL” just after the announcement was made.
SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL!!! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 6, 2020
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin suggested Friday that the next round of coronavirus stimulus legislation could include dedicated funds for schools so that they can reopen in the fall while following social distancing guidelines. Democrats in the Senate are also pushing Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to include similar allocations in any potential bill.


bonginoreport--2020-07-06--Former Reddit CEO Says Everyone Knew Ghislaine Maxwell “Supplied Underage Girls” for Epstein

The former CEO of social networking website ‘ Reddit ’ – Ellen Pao – made the startling Twitter admission that she “ knew ” Ghislaine Maxwell was “ supplying underage girls for sex ” and therefore refused to take photos with her at a party attended by Former Vice President Al Gore and other high profile individuals .
Maxwell was indicted on multiple charges last week in connection to an alleged sex-trafficking operation that brought girls as young as 14 to Jeffrey Epstein ’ s Manhattan home between 1994 and 1997 .
Prosecutors allege Maxwell actively “ assisted , facilitated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ abuse of minor girls by , among other things , helping Epstein to recruit , groom and ultimately abuse victims known to Maxwell and Epstein to be under the age of 18.
” Pao – a lawyer who founded a “ diversity consulting non profit ” – said on Twitter that Maxwell was a guest at a super exclusive Kleiner Perkins Holiday party in 2011 .
She shockingly added that she had no desire to take a photo with Maxwell as “ we knew about her supplying underage girls for sex , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ‘ cool ’ people who managed the tightly controlled guest list ” .
Pao has since removed the tweet and made her profile private .
The National Pulse understands from a 2011 list of guests from the party that the following high profile individuals were also in attendance alongside Pao and Maxwell : • Former Vice President of the United States , Al Gore • Former Chair of the US President ’ s Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton , Laura Tyson The party was described thusly by Business Insider in 2011 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Pao had courted controversy in her time at Kleiner Perkins .
In May 2012 , just six months after the holiday party that Maxwell attended , Pao filed a lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins for discrimination in the workplace and sought $ 16 million in damages .
The claim went to trial and the jury ruled that Kleiner Perkins did not discriminate against her because of her gender or deny her a promotion because she was a woman .
Pao dropped her appeal and agreed to pay the legal fees incurred by Kleiner @ @ @ @ @ @ @ million .
In her time as CEO of Reddit , Pao drew heavy criticism as she led a campaign to curtail the ‘ anything goes ’ environment that attracted users to Reddit .
Reddit is a social sharing platform that is built around users creating forums where people can share news and content .
Pao caused anger when she made the decision to shut down sections of Reddit which led to the accusation that she was limiting free speech .
This resulted in Pao firing Director of Talent , Victoria Taylor , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ users demanding Pao ’ s removal that attracted more than 210,000 signatures .
In addition , many of the unpaid moderators who keep Reddit forums running , shut down their sections in protest .

Ex-Reddit CEO Says She ‘Knew’ Ghislaine Maxwell Was Trafficking Underage Girls, Attended Party With Al Gore, Facebook AND Amazon Execs
The former CEO of social networking website ‘Reddit’ – Ellen Pao – made the startling Twitter admission that she “knew” Ghislaine Maxwell was “supplying underage girls for sex” and therefore refused to take photos with her at a party attended by Former Vice President Al Gore and other high profile individuals.
Maxwell was indicted on multiple charges last week in connection to an alleged sex-trafficking operation that brought girls as young as 14 to Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan home between 1994 and 1997.
Prosecutors allege Maxwell actively “assisted, facilitated and contributed to Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of minor girls by, among other things, helping Epstein to recruit, groom and ultimately abuse victims known to Maxwell and Epstein to be under the age of 18.”
Pao – a lawyer who founded a “diversity consulting non profit” – said on Twitter that Maxwell was a guest at a super exclusive Kleiner Perkins Holiday party in 2011.
She shockingly added that she had no desire to take a photo with Maxwell as “we knew about her supplying underage girls for sex, but I guess that was fine with the ‘cool’ people who managed the tightly controlled guest list”.
Pao has since removed the tweet and made her profile private.
The National Pulse understands from a 2011 list of guests from the party that the following high profile individuals were also in attendance alongside Pao and Maxwell:
Former Vice President of the United States, Al Gore
Former Chair of the US President’s Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton, Laura Tyson
Current Facebook VP, Mike Abbot
Former Amazon Director, Bing Gordon
Former Myspace CEO, Owen Van Natta
Former Hewlett Packard Chairman, Ray Lane
Chime Founder, Jared Morgenstern
Former Hulu Executive, Eric Feng
The party was described thusly by Business Insider in 2011:
With an ex-vice president in the house, even spouses weren’t allowed in. The spots were reserved for investors and their portfolio founders. … Everyone was dressed up except for an entrepreneur with a DropBox sweatshirt and another with flannel jammy bottoms on. Parked outside, of course, was a Fisker — the super sexy electric sports car from the latest startup trying to wean drivers from gasoline.
This isn’t the first that Pao had courted controversy in her time at Kleiner Perkins.
In May 2012, just six months after the holiday party that Maxwell attended, Pao filed a lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins for discrimination in the workplace and sought $16 million in damages. The claim went to trial and the jury ruled that Kleiner Perkins did not discriminate against her because of her gender or deny her a promotion because she was a woman.
Pao dropped her appeal and agreed to pay the legal fees incurred by Kleiner Perkins that amounted to almost $1 million.
In her time as CEO of Reddit, Pao drew heavy criticism as she led a campaign to curtail the ‘anything goes’ environment that attracted users to Reddit.
Reddit is a social sharing platform that is built around users creating forums where people can share news and content. Pao caused anger when she made the decision to shut down sections of Reddit which led to the accusation that she was limiting free speech.
This resulted in Pao firing Director of Talent, Victoria Taylor, a decision that led to a petition from users demanding Pao’s removal that attracted more than 210,000 signatures. In addition, many of the unpaid moderators who keep Reddit forums running, shut down their sections in protest.
Pao left Reddit in 2015.


bonginoreport--2020-07-06--Journos Waste Entire Briefing Asking McEnany About Confederate Flag

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany had a testy exchange with the White House press corps Monday after several reporters asked about President Donald Trump ’ s Monday morning comments on NASCAR and the Confederate flag .
The president criticized NASCAR ’ s decision to ban the Confederate flag Monday , and also ripped driver Bubba Wallace after an FBI investigation concluded that Wallace was not the victim of a hate crime .
( RELATED : Trump Threatens To Veto Defense Bill If It Renames Confederate-Named Military Bases ) “ I ’ ve explained to you .
This is I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ ll try it again , ” McEnany told a reporter .
“ In aggregate , what [ Trump ] was pointing out is this rush to judgement to immediately say that there is a hate crime as happened in this case , as happened with Jussie Smollett , as happened with the Covington Catholic boys.
” “ We should not have this rush to judgement , knee-jerk reaction before the facts come out , ” she continued .
“ The FBI did their job and determined there was no hate crime.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the president ’ s tweet , McEnany responded by calling on another reporter .
“ I ’ m not going to answer a question a sixth time , ” McEnany said .
NASCAR announced last month that they would prohibit Confederate flags from their events amid nationwide protests against racism .
Shortly after the announcement , a rope allegedly shaped like a noose was found in Wallace ’ s garage .
( RELATED : Al Sharpton Still Believes Bubba Wallace Noose Story : ‘ I Don ’ t Think We ’ ve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ concluded that Wallace was not the victim of a hate crime , and that the rope had been in the garage since October 2019 .

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany had a testy exchange with the White House press corps Monday after several reporters asked about President Donald Trump’s Monday morning comments on NASCAR and the Confederate flag.
The president criticized NASCAR’s decision to ban the Confederate flag Monday, and also ripped driver Bubba Wallace after an FBI investigation concluded that Wallace was not the victim of a hate crime. (RELATED: Trump Threatens To Veto Defense Bill If It Renames Confederate-Named Military Bases)
“I’ve explained to you. This is I guess the fourth attempt, but we’ll try it again,” McEnany told a reporter. “In aggregate, what [Trump] was pointing out is this rush to judgement to immediately say that there is a hate crime as happened in this case, as happened with Jussie Smollett, as happened with the Covington Catholic boys.”
“We should not have this rush to judgement, knee-jerk reaction before the facts come out,” she continued. “The FBI did their job and determined there was no hate crime.”
After the reporter continued to question her on the president’s tweet, McEnany responded by calling on another reporter.
“I’m not going to answer a question a sixth time,” McEnany said.
WATCH:
NASCAR announced last month that they would prohibit Confederate flags from their events amid nationwide protests against racism. Shortly after the announcement, a rope allegedly shaped like a noose was found in Wallace’s garage. (RELATED: Al Sharpton Still Believes Bubba Wallace Noose Story: ‘I Don’t Think We’ve Seen Closure’)
The FBI ultimately concluded that Wallace was not the victim of a hate crime, and that the rope had been in the garage since October 2019.


bonginoreport--2020-07-06--Venezuelan Oil Production Falls Another 32% in June

Production of crude in the oil-rich nation of Venezuela fell for the sixth consecutive month in June , falling a further 32 percent .
According to Bloomberg , which claimed to have gained access to internal documents , production at the state-run Petroleum of Venezuela ( PDSVA ) fell by 200,000 barrels compared with the previous month .
As of June 28 , production was around 422,400 barrels per day ( BPD ) .
Between June 1-15 , production at crucial locations such as the Orinoco oil belt fell as far as 50 percent to 148,000 BPD , while output @ @ @ @ @ @ @ percent to 83,600 BPD .
Overall production on June 10 fell to just 374,000 barrels , the lowest level since 1947 .
Such figures are roughly in line with the findings of Rafael Quiroz , a petroleum economist and professor at the prestigious Central University of Venezuela ( UCV ) , who analyzed Venezuela ’ s six largest oil refineries and found them capable of producing 1,300,000 BPD .
In reality , he estimated they producing just 205,000 BPD , around 8.5 percent of total capacity , the same number as in 1945 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The numbers also underline the dire state of the country ’ s oil industry , once the lifeblood of a thriving South American economy .
The industry ’ s demise can be traced back to Hugo Chávez ’ s rise to power in 1998 , when he immediately nationalized PDSVA and placed his socialist allies in charge .
The company soon became chronically inefficient and profligate in its spending , leading to an exodus of its most experienced employees .
In 2017 , socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro placed the PDSVA under the control @ @ @ @ @ @ @ man with no previous experience in the oil industry .
As borne out by the figures , the company ’ s problems have only exacerbated since then .
Despite having the second-largest global oil reserves after the United States , Venezuela ’ s oil production is now so low that it has been forced to import crude from allies such as Russia , China , and Iran .
This lack of oil production has also had a severe impact on the lives of Venezuelan motorists , many of whom are now forced to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to access gasoline .
In May , an Iranian-flagged oil tanker delivered around 45.5 million gallons of oil and other essential products in an effort to alleviate gasoline and other shortages .
Both under the pressure of U.S. sanctions , the two countries have developed an important strategic relationship over recent years in order to withhold the pressure of their collapsing economies .
Over the past year , Venezuelans have experienced countless power cuts that have crippled the country ’ s basic functionality , forcing the closure of schools , hospitals , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ combined with the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic , has further worsened the humanitarian crisis that has led to an exodus of refugees larger than in the Syrian Civil War .
Follow Ben Kew on Facebook , Twitter at @ ben_kew , or email him at bkew @ breitbart.com .

Production of crude in the oil-rich nation of Venezuela fell for the sixth consecutive month in June, falling a further 32 percent.
According to Bloomberg, which claimed to have gained access to internal documents, production at the state-run Petroleum of Venezuela (PDSVA) fell by 200,000 barrels compared with the previous month. As of June 28, production was around 422,400 barrels per day (BPD).
Between June 1-15, production at crucial locations such as the Orinoco oil belt fell as far as 50 percent to 148,000 BPD, while output at the Maracaibo basin fell around 40 percent to 83,600 BPD. Overall production on June 10 fell to just 374,000 barrels, the lowest level since 1947.
Such figures are roughly in line with the findings of Rafael Quiroz, a petroleum economist and professor at the prestigious Central University of Venezuela (UCV), who analyzed Venezuela’s six largest oil refineries and found them capable of producing 1,300,000 BPD. In reality, he estimated they producing just 205,000 BPD, around 8.5 percent of total capacity, the same number as in 1945 when Isaías Medina Angarita was president.
The numbers also underline the dire state of the country’s oil industry, once the lifeblood of a thriving South American economy. The industry’s demise can be traced back to Hugo Chávez’s rise to power in 1998, when he immediately nationalized PDSVA and placed his socialist allies in charge. The company soon became chronically inefficient and profligate in its spending, leading to an exodus of its most experienced employees.
In 2017, socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro placed the PDSVA under the control of Chavista General Manuel Quevedo, a man with no previous experience in the oil industry. As borne out by the figures, the company’s problems have only exacerbated since then.
Despite having the second-largest global oil reserves after the United States, Venezuela’s oil production is now so low that it has been forced to import crude from allies such as Russia, China, and Iran. This lack of oil production has also had a severe impact on the lives of Venezuelan motorists, many of whom are now forced to wait hours or even days in order to access gasoline.
In May, an Iranian-flagged oil tanker delivered around 45.5 million gallons of oil and other essential products in an effort to alleviate gasoline and other shortages. Both under the pressure of U.S. sanctions, the two countries have developed an important strategic relationship over recent years in order to withhold the pressure of their collapsing economies.
Over the past year, Venezuelans have experienced countless power cuts that have crippled the country’s basic functionality, forcing the closure of schools, hospitals, and other essential public services. This, combined with the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, has further worsened the humanitarian crisis that has led to an exodus of refugees larger than in the Syrian Civil War.
Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.


bonginoreport--2020-07-06--Lack of Leadership Explains Why NFL is Embracing BLM

Four years ago , the NFL forbade Jason Witten and the Dallas Cowboys from placing “ Arm in Arm ” stickers on the back of their helmets that would honor five slain Dallas police officers .
This year , according to a Thursday report by ESPN The Undefeated ’ s Jason Reid , the NFL Players Association and the NFL are collaborating on an idea to list the names of black people killed by police on jerseys .
The absurdity of this pivot could only be topped by the folly of DeMaurice Smith ’ s and Roger Goodell ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , in Week 1 the NFL will play the “ black national anthem , ” Lift Ev ’ ry Voice and Sing , before playing The Star-Spangled Banner .
So the NFL is going to start its season with all of its employees standing for the “ black national anthem ” and a majority of its on-field employees immediately taking a knee for the American national anthem ?
That ’ s the game plan Smith and Goodell cooked up ?
It feels as devoid of foresight and substance as the trial balloon floated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hire black or female head coaches and executives enhanced third-round draft picks .
That failed trial balloon was pinned on NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent .
No matter the architect , what ’ s clear is the absence of courageous and mature leadership pervasive throughout football .
Goodell , Smith and Vincent all appear to have a wet finger flying in the Twitter air hoping a strong gust blows them in the right direction .
Social media has established that the highest form of American humanity is a black @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
That is the promised land , according to Martin Luther Tweeter .
Rayshard Brooks ’ life is more worthy of celebration and remembrance than David Dorn ’ s .
Brooks , of course , is the Atlanta parolee/drunk driver who fought police , fired a stolen taser at police and was subsequently shot dead by police .
His girlfriend has been arrested for burning down the Wendy ’ s restaurant where Brooks fell asleep in the drive-thru lane .
Brooks ’ funeral services were held at Atlanta ’ s historic Ebenezer Baptist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s church .
Dorn is a little-known , black 77-year-old retired St. Louis police officer who was murdered by a looter robbing a pawn shop .
A 24-year-old black man has been charged with Dorn ’ s murder .
Had white men murdered Dorn , he would be a household name worthy of having his name on the jersey of an NFL player .
Hell , Dorn might be as iconic as Ahmaud Arbery .
Unfortunately , Dorn had the misfortune of suffering the same fate as thousands of other black men killed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ NFL players , the league doesn ’ t have enough jerseys to list all the black men who will be murdered this year .
( Approximately 7,500 black people are murdered each year . )
It ’ s wise to limit the jersey honorees to the 30 or so special victims Twitter has identified and popularized over the last six or seven years .
The lives of the special victims have more meaning and value than the life of Mehki James , the 3-year-old black boy recently killed in Chicago .
The people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ football .
They don ’ t have the balls to do what ’ s right , to stand up to the Twitter mob empowering Black Lives Matter , aka , White Perpetrators Matter .
Over the last 60 years , football and sports have been a force promoting unity across racial , political , religious and economic differences .
The games and leagues are now promoting a re-segregation and a toxic polarization .
Football , a game that forbade Tim Tebow from referencing the Bible on his eye black , is now going @ @ @ @ @ @ @ NFL .
Really ?
The collegiate Memphis Tigers are planning to place BLM decals on their helmets .
Really ?
The hypocrisy and cowardice overrunning football are stupefying .
If you ’ d like to interview Jason Whitlock for your radio show or podcast , email Gary @ Outkick.com .

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Hippocratic Hypocrisy

A rallying cry of this wave of protests that have captured the American narrative since the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police on May 25 has been an ask for equity .
But equity and equality are the furthest thing from the minds of those advocating for the ongoing mass demonstrations .
As The New York Times points out , it was in May that over 1,300 health professionals signed a testament to their approval for the protests , which have been tens of thousands of individuals strong .
These epidemiologists , doctors , and other medical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as reinforcing white supremacy , but as soon as the Black Lives Matter protests began , they switched their view and said that not supporting the protests was white supremacist .
As the Times points out , this represents a bit of cognitive dissonance on behalf of those who signed the letter , while at the same time witnessing deaths and complications due to coronavirus spread .
Christina Hoff Sommers writes : `` Infuriating .
Public health experts judge safety of protests depending on who is protesting .
1300 experts condemned protests against @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ' But protests against racism—'vital to the national public health . '
'' The Times interviewed a few of these health professionals who had decried the anti-lockdown protests , who had encouraged everyone to stay home .
Brown University epidemiology professor Mark Lurie said `` Instinctively , many of us in public health feel a strong desire to act against accumulated generations of racial injustice .
But we have to be honest : A few weeks before , we were criticizing protesters for arguing to open up the economy and saying that was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ still grappling with that , '' he said .
Well , yeah , so is everyone whose free speech rights were violated , whose right to free expression of religion was violated , and who were unable to tend to their dying kin during their last moments on earth because medical professionals like Lurie said everyone else 's health was more important .
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston infectious disease epidemiologist Catherine Troisi said `` I certainly condemned the anti-lockdown protests at the time , and I ’ m not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ struggle with that .
I have a hard time articulating why that is OK. '' Why does she have a hard time reconciling that ?
Because the cognitive dissonance in making it okay to condemn some protestors for not adhering to public health norms and lifting up a set of protestors who do not adhere to public health norms is complete and total insanity .
Troisi is lying to herself and she ’ s trying to make that okay .
It ’ s not .
Dan Bongino of Fox News and Bongino Report @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are spreading coronavirus , but packed protests aren ’ t , then you ’ re probably a moron .
And you should probably stop advertising that you ’ re a moron .
Thanks . ''
When those protestors in North Carolina , Michigan , Nevada , California , Florida , and Toronto stepped out to express their want for society , the economy , and yes , their own businesses to reopen , they were roundly derided as insensitive grandma killers .
This is what we were told .
These folks who wanted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the bedsides of their dying loved ones , hold funerals for their dead , they were supposed to suck it up for the greater good , to put their own cares aside lest they spread the illness .
Yet those who want to murder 8-year-old girls in Wendy ’ s parking lot are well within their rights , apparently .
For some reason we ’ re meant to believe that these protests , that began over the wrongful police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis , warrant the ignoring of those same social @ @ @ @ @ @ @ literally more important than tending to our beloved at the moment of their death .
No one should be forced to exit this world alone , not when those who love them want to be near .
There is nothing more important than tending to our dying .
Instead , we heard that this was shallow .
Now these medical experts admit that some protestors ’ concerns more important than others , that there is a hierarchy of grievance .
That is neither equity nor equality .
If that is what Black Lives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ me out .
Protests are an integral part of the fabric of American discourse .
The freedom to peaceful assembly is a natural right , held dear by Americans the continent over , a right fought and died for by so many brave men and women from the Revolutionary War straight up through those wars that we are still fighting now .
We know this .
As we hear the chants and calls for equity and equal justice , as we hear the left finally , blessedly , demand that their first amendment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ let ’ s remember that rights are not based in race , grievance , or identity .
Rights are for all of us , and the single most important thing in American jurisprudence is that we are all treated equally under the law .
If you think rights are only for some individuals in our nation , if you think that freedom of speech and assembly are only to be given to some and not others , you are not fighting for equality , you are not fighting for black lives , you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the devastation of the only nation on earth that made these principles the core of its founding documents .

A rallying cry of this wave of protests that have captured the American narrative since the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police on May 25 has been an ask for equity. But equity and equality are the furthest thing from the minds of those advocating for the ongoing mass demonstrations.
As The New York Times points out, it was in May that over 1,300 health professionals signed a testament to their approval for the protests, which have been tens of thousands of individuals strong. These epidemiologists, doctors, and other medical personnel, had decried the anti-lockdown protests as reinforcing white supremacy, but as soon as the Black Lives Matter protests began, they switched their view and said that not supporting the protests was white supremacist.
As the Times points out, this represents a bit of cognitive dissonance on behalf of those who signed the letter, while at the same time witnessing deaths and complications due to coronavirus spread.
Christina Hoff Sommers writes: "Infuriating. Public health experts judge safety of protests depending on who is protesting. 1300 experts condemned protests against lockdown as 'rooted in white nationalism.' But protests against racism—'vital to the national public health.'"
Infuriating. Public health experts judge safety of protests depending on who is protesting. 1300 experts condemned protests against lockdown as “rooted in white nationalism.” But protests against racism—“vital to the national public health.” ?@nytimes https://t.co/VjFkpYs7Ta — Christina Sommers (@CHSommers) July 6, 2020
The Times interviewed a few of these health professionals who had decried the anti-lockdown protests, who had encouraged everyone to stay home. Brown University epidemiology professor Mark Lurie said "Instinctively, many of us in public health feel a strong desire to act against accumulated generations of racial injustice. But we have to be honest: A few weeks before, we were criticizing protesters for arguing to open up the economy and saying that was dangerous behavior."
"I am still grappling with that," he said.
Well, yeah, so is everyone whose free speech rights were violated, whose right to free expression of religion was violated, and who were unable to tend to their dying kin during their last moments on earth because medical professionals like Lurie said everyone else's health was more important.
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston infectious disease epidemiologist Catherine Troisi said "I certainly condemned the anti-lockdown protests at the time, and I’m not condemning the protests now, and I struggle with that. I have a hard time articulating why that is OK."
Why does she have a hard time reconciling that? Because the cognitive dissonance in making it okay to condemn some protestors for not adhering to public health norms and lifting up a set of protestors who do not adhere to public health norms is complete and total insanity. Troisi is lying to herself and she’s trying to make that okay. It’s not.
Dan Bongino of Fox News and Bongino Report tweeted: "If you think beaches are spreading coronavirus, but packed protests aren’t, then you’re probably a moron. And you should probably stop advertising that you’re a moron. Thanks."
If you think beaches are spreading coronavirus, but packed protests aren’t, then you’re probably a moron. And you should probably stop advertising that you’re a moron. Thanks. — Dan Bongino (@dbongino) July 6, 2020
When those protestors in North Carolina, Michigan, Nevada, California, Florida, and Toronto stepped out to express their want for society, the economy, and yes, their own businesses to reopen, they were roundly derided as insensitive grandma killers. This is what we were told.
These folks who wanted to go to church, attend to the bedsides of their dying loved ones, hold funerals for their dead, they were supposed to suck it up for the greater good, to put their own cares aside lest they spread the illness.
Yet those who want to murder 8-year-old girls in Wendy’s parking lot are well within their rights, apparently.
For some reason we’re meant to believe that these protests, that began over the wrongful police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, warrant the ignoring of those same social distancing restrictions that we were told were literally more important than tending to our beloved at the moment of their death.
No one should be forced to exit this world alone, not when those who love them want to be near. There is nothing more important than tending to our dying.
Instead, we heard that this was shallow. Now these medical experts admit that some protestors’ concerns more important than others, that there is a hierarchy of grievance. That is neither equity nor equality. If that is what Black Lives Matter protestors are fighting for, count me out.
Protests are an integral part of the fabric of American discourse. The freedom to peaceful assembly is a natural right, held dear by Americans the continent over, a right fought and died for by so many brave men and women from the Revolutionary War straight up through those wars that we are still fighting now. We know this.
As we hear the chants and calls for equity and equal justice, as we hear the left finally, blessedly, demand that their first amendment rights triumph over ludicrous government restriction, let’s remember that rights are not based in race, grievance, or identity. Rights are for all of us, and the single most important thing in American jurisprudence is that we are all treated equally under the law.
If you think rights are only for some individuals in our nation, if you think that freedom of speech and assembly are only to be given to some and not others, you are not fighting for equality, you are not fighting for black lives, you are fighting for the death of democracy and the devastation of the only nation on earth that made these principles the core of its founding documents.