Daily Archives: September 22, 2021

The same people who profit off of promoting universal masking and pushing strict COVID restrictions on their constituents and customers are shamelessly violating those orders.

These hypocrites are not only violating their own mandates as their infamous predecessors like California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi did, but they are reinforcing a COVID hierarchy that makes children, workers, and others follow the rules while they get to party without care.

Meet the leftist elites who dont truly believe in the science they so dutifully preach, because they wont suffer the consequences for breaking the rules.

Infamous House squad member and Democrat Rep. Pamila Jayapal shamelessly celebrated her September birthday without a mask on despite her fierce belief that people should simply wear a d-mn mask.

Months before, Jayapal blamed maskless Republicans and former President Donald Trump when she fell ill with COVID-19.

Too many Republicans have refused to take this pandemic and virus seriously, and in doing so, they endanger everyone around them. Only hours after President Trump incited a deadly assault on our Capitol, our country, and our democracy, many Republicans still refused to take the bare minimum COVID-19 precaution and simply wear a d-mn mask in a crowded room during a pandemic creating a superspreader event on top of a domestic terrorist attack, she wrote in a statement.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed was recently exposed for defying her own mask mandate in a jazz club. In a more than minute-long video, Breed can be seen dancing in a crowded room of maskless people despite city orders requiring people to keep face coverings on unless actively eating or drinking.

The mayor was unapologetic about getting caught and accused the people calling out her hypocrisy of being fun police.

I had a good time at the Black Cat. And I think its sad that this is even a story, she said.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, basketball star Magic Johnson, and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones all violated the Los Angeles County mask mandate when they posed for a picture together at a Cowboys vs. Chargers game in Inglewood, California.

The Chargers stadium also requires masks for every patron regardless of vaccination status,but that wasnt enough to stop these elites from hanging out together without masks.

Palm Beach County School Board Member Alexandria Ayala was caught attending a party maskless after she lobbied her fellow board members to implement a mask mandate in defiance of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantiss order banning schools from forcing face coverings.

Ayala previously claimed that she supported a mandate because I care about the safety of every child under our district more than anything else, but did not seem to mind her previous words as she celebrated in a spotted cowgirl hat.

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Meet The Maskless Elites Whose COVID Hierarchy Profits Them And Punishes You - The Federalist

The city of Portland quietly abandoned its pledge to ban goods and services from Texas in protest of the Lone Star States new pro-life law, which prohibits abortions once an unborn babys heartbeat is detected, because it could be punitive to Texans who, are in fact, the most affected.

Despite the national attention the citys original resolution received, the City Council walked back its proposed ban last week and instead voted to allocate $200,000 to programs and services related to reproductive healthcare. It is unclear which organizations will receive these funds.

Will what we do today fundamentally change the mindset of Texas legislators? Probably not, Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty told the Associated Press. But what it will do is send a very strong message, to the people of Texas, that we dont abandon them just because unfortunately they have the leadership that they have.

Despite the original proposals shortcomings, Democrat Mayor Ted Wheeler staunchly defended the City Councils efforts and reiterated his opposition to the Texas law.

Ive heard some suggest that this [law] has no bearing on our local community. I could not disagree more, Wheeler said during a meeting on Wednesday. If this Texas law, restricting the rights of women, is allowed to stand then it will spread to other states it will jeopardize Roe v. Wade and it will impact our constituents here in the city of Portland.

The City Council and Wheeler previously made national headlines for promising to ban goods and services as well as city-sponsored travel to and from Texas.

This law does not demonstrate concern for the health, safety, and well-being of those who may become pregnant. This law does not recognize or show respect for the human rights of those who may become pregnant, Wheeler said in a statement. This law rewards private individuals for exercising surveillance and control over others bodies. It violates the separation of church and state. And, it will force people to carry pregnancies against their will.

Corporate media amplified Wheelers threats and boosted rhetoric from the City Council, which called the Texas law an unconstitutional ban on abortion and a violation of human rights of those who may become pregnant.

We stand with Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Elena Kagan, Justice Stephen Breyer, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who fought to block this attack on the reproductive rights, freedom, and autonomy of people across the country, the City Councils statement said, echoing the same surveillance and control rhetoric as Wheeler.

When asked by The Federalist earlier in September which goods and services would be affected by the now-irrelevant ban, the citys public information officer merely said there was a total of $34,656,323 in goods and services originating from Texas during the past five years and that there were a total of 19 trips made by City employees to Texas within the last 2 years. Questions about whether the ban would extend to oil or even flights from Texas were left unanswered even when the City Council postponed the original vote.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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Portland Quietly Walks Back Boycott Of Texas Over Pro-Life Law - The Federalist

On this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour, podcast host and YouTuber Daniel Idfresne joins Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky to discuss his essay Im 17. And Im Immunized from Woke Politics. As a conservative, first-generation American from Brooklyn, New York, Idfresne explains how his parents, his church, his teachers, and his own personal interests inoculated him against the woke politics of his peers.

Teenagers, their highest value is acceptance is not necessarily the truth Its fine, right? We are teenagers, we are susceptible to our circles and the people around us, Idfresne said, noting the common fear in his generation that someone will be branded as a racist or sexist.

I would say that, for lack of a better term, a spidey sense of somethings wrong here, sort of like alarm is going off in many of my classmates heads but theyre not taking the next step of saying oh, let me research this. Oh, let me say something,' he said.

This generational hesitancy to question the woke politics that are spoonfed to people from all angles, Idfresne said, is exacerbated by social media.

Gen Z is more susceptible to agreeing with certain ideologies is because we are online all the time it almost feels like zero-sum competition and so in this world, it seems like there is no truth but power, he said.

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Can A Generation Swamped With Wokeness Turn To Free Thought? - The Federalist

If the Houses January 6 Committee wasnt already the Liz Cheney show, it is now.

On Friday, the partisan probe drew its latest recruitment with former U.S. Attorney John F. Wood, a close friend of the Cheney family, to serve as the investigations top legal adviser.

Mr. Wood has an impressive track record working inside and outside of government, and his expertise will enhance our efforts to investigate the events surrounding January 6th and understand what led to the attack against the U.S. Capitol that day, wrote Democrat Committee Chair Bennie Thompson of Tennessee with Cheney in a joint statement. Furthermore, his addition to the Committee staff underscores the nonpartisan nature of our work.

It would if the nature of the committee was actually non-partisan. Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger and Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney are the only two Republicans who serve on the committee, a far cry from a truly bipartisan investigation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed the pair of NeverTrumpers to sit on the panel after another slate of other Republicans sent by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California which included Ohios Jim Jordan and Indianas Jim Banks were kicked off.

Woods close affiliation with the vindictive NeverTrump caucus marks the probes escalation as a weaponized committee to go after the Democrats political enemies, i.e., former President Donald Trump and Trumps supporters. A former official in the Bush administration, Wood worked under former Attorney General John Ashcroft in the Department of Justice, and was chief of staff for Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

In 2016, Chertoff endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for president, and has remained an ardent anti-Trumper ever since with an endorsement for President Joe Biden last fall claiming the GOP had been hijacked. While Wood worked for Chertoff, Cheneys husband, Philip Perry, was general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Through her efforts to escalate a long-running feud with former President Trump and the Republican base, Cheney has championed the polarizing Jan. 6 Commission as a hallmark of her legacy in the lower chamber. She gave the commissions opening remarks at its first show-trial hearing in June.

Congress is obligated to conduct a full investigation of the most serious attack on our Capitol since 1814, Cheney said when presented the gig by Pelosi. Forget about the 1954 raidby Puerto Rican nationalists who shot five congressmen, the 1983 Senate bombing by left-wing militantsgranted clemency by Democrats, the al-Qaeda terrorists who flew a plane into the Pentagon on 9/11, or the summer of rage last year that perpetuated political violence in the nations capital in routine fashion.

In May, the House Republican Conference stripped the third-term representative of her number three role in leadership as she continued to antagonize Republican voters by waging an inner-party civil war that now threatens to kick Cheney out of Congress altogether.

Liz Cheney betrayed Wyoming. She betrayed all of us, including me, said former Cheney-ally turned Trump-endorsed primary challenger Harriet Hageman before a crowd of supporters in the state capital of Cheyenne when declaring her candidacy this month. When she ran for Congress the first time, she asked me to introduce her at the Republican state convention. Had I known what she would do five years later, and side with Nancy Pelosi and the radical left, I would have never answered her first phone call.

Cheneys animosity towards Trump in the state that voted for the president in the widest margin of any in the nation last fall was a key theme in Hagemans kick-off speech, who spoke to a crowd whose disillusionment from their incumbent representative was cast by Cheneys futile crusade to corral Republican support for Trumps January impeachment.

Liz Cheneys agenda is simple, and right now it is to destroy President Trump, Hageman said.

Cheney, who was a lead propagandist for the fake Russian bounties news story last summer, ultimately ended up one of 10 Republicans in the House to vote for Trumps impeachment. Several lawmakers had already announced their intent to vote in favor of Trumps guilt, raising questions about Cheneys real influence. This commission is the congresswomans vehicle to keep digging at the former president and his supporters, further exposed by its membership.

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Cheney Family BFF Tapped As Top Investigator On Cheney's Jan. 6 Probe - The Federalist

If youve watched TV in the last week, youve likely seen a commercial for a novel form of birth control called Phexxi. You could hardly miss it, starting as it does with Welcome to my vagina, and starring actress Annie Murphy from the wildly popular Emmy award-winning Canadian sitcom Schitts Creek. As the bubbly Murphy struts about in a cavernous pink bedroom, she promises that Phexxi is something that women have always wanted: an effective, in the moment, hormone-free method of birth control.

Phexxi was approved by the FDA over a year ago, but only in the past week has its manufacturer, Evofem, begun marketing the product in earnest. With this shiny new campaign, Evofem is betting on the recently heightened search among women for non-hormonal birth control options.

And its a good bet, as many women, like Annie Murphy herself, are waking up to the reality that the synthetic hormones found in most methods of contraception come with side effects and risks that are at best annoying, and at worst, dangerous. In fact, many women are increasingly unhappy with the birth control options available to them, fed up with side effects like headaches, weight gain, and more. And those are just the risks and side effects they know about.

When compared to women who are not on the pill or other forms of hormonal contraception, the population of women on hormonal contraception exhibits increased risk (higher prevalence rates) for the following conditions: breast cancer (19-37 percent higher risk), blood clots and other cardiovascular risks (80 percent), cervical cancer (60-220 percent), bone fracture (7 percent for COCs, and 40 percent for progestin-only), certain autoimmune diseases (Crohns Disease: 44 percent, Ulcerative Colitis: 18 percent, Lupus: 19-130 percent, Interstitial Cystitis: 131 percent), female sexual dysfunction, depression (10 percent for COCs, and 20 percent for progestin-only), and even attempted suicide (97 percent) and completed suicide (208 percent). When compared to women who are not on the Depo-Provera birth control shot, women on Depo exhibit a 40-49 percent higher prevalence for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the virus that causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDs). In other words, the Depo shot appears to increase a womans susceptibility for contracting HIV. (Data supporting all of the relative risks deduced in this paragraph by the lead author of the citizens petition, Dr. William V. Williams, can be found in the complete citizens petition, which is available for download here.)

Furthermore, an estimated 300 to 400 American women die every year from vascular diseases like heart attacks, strokes, and blood clots alone that are exacerbated by hormonal contraceptives. To put that into perspective: Meningitis killed 45 individuals (of all ages) in 2017, and most U.S. states mandate meningitis vaccination for college and university students (and lets not even get into the number of college-aged individuals for whom the COVID-19 vaccine is now required, despite how low their risk of serious illness is).

Now, that litany of risks and side effects doesnt sound quite right, does it? After all, women are constantly assured that birth control is safe and effective, and many are baldly told by their doctors that whatever symptoms they experience while on it are in their heads, or that the pill doesnt do that.

But in 2019, the non-profit womens health organization Natural Womanhood and a group of doctors and researchers put together a 90-plus page citizens petition to the FDA citing the robust, scientific evidence for every single one of the risks I listed above. They submitted this petition to the FDA two years ago, asking for greater transparency and evidence-based warnings about the risks of hormonal birth control in prescribing information and in product informational inserts.

After a cursory request for a few additional pieces of information from the FDA (which was promptly provided to them by the research team), Natural Womanhood has heard nothing in response but crickets. This is despite the petition garnering over 150 public comments, many of them from the families of young women who have died as a direct result of their use of birth control.

Women are, quite literally, dying for better birth control. Hence the perennial search for hormone-free birth control, and why the Phexxi site is emblazoned with Hormone Free in big, bold letters under a confident-looking Murphy. But even hormone-free Phexxi comes with its complications: its a gel that works by altering vaginal pH to make it extra inhospitable to sperm, which is why women who have recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs) are discouraged from using Phexxi, and why the most commonly reported side effects are vaginal burning, vaginal itching, vaginal yeast infection, urinary tract infection, vaginal area discomfort, bacterial vaginosis, and vaginal discharge.

Women also reported genital discomfort, pain while urinating, and vaginal pain, continues Phexxis safety information panel. Some male partners reported genital discomfort. But hey, nothing like itchy, burning genitalia to get folks in the mood, right?

Additionally, Phexxi is about 93 percent effective with perfect use and about 86 percent effective with typical use, putting it roughly in the same efficacy range as condoms. (The other popular hormone-free option of birth control the copper IUD is 99 percent effective, but comes with its own significant risks and side effects, including a nasty habit of breaking and migrating in womens bodies).

Its interesting that the FDA has chosen to ignore the petition I mentioned above, yet has continued to approve birth control products like Phexxi in the meantime. Is it because they know, on an as-yet publicly unacknowledged level, that women both want and need safer, non-hormonal options for family planning? Or is it that they just want there to be as many products on the market as possible for preventing pregnancy side effects and risks be damned?

After all, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was at least temporarily yanked from the market after being linked to far fewer cases of blood clots than is typical for hormonal birth control use (yes, even if a woman isnt a smoker or over age 35). Yet birth control seems destined to remain a sacrosanct, permanent fixture of our Pharma landscape, and without transparent acknowledgment from public health officials that it might be a possible source of a myriad of issues, from increasing rates of anxiety and depression in teen girls, to our autoimmune epidemic, to skyrocketing breast cancer rates, just to name a few.

If our public health officials really cared about giving women all of the options and information needed to prevent pregnancy, theyd speak more honestly about fertility awareness methods (FAMs) the only truly side effect-free forms of effective family planning available instead of actively discouraging their use, and wrongfully maligning them as the ineffective, outdated rhythm method. (By the way, many modern FAMs have both perfect and typical use rates that far outpace Phexxis.)

But at the very least, the FDA should better inform women and their doctors about the evidence-based risks and side effects of hormonal contraception. Then physicians might stop gaslighting women into thinking that their negative experiences on birth control are imaginary.

If youd like to help better protect women and be part of the movement to light a fire under the FDA when it comes to the harms of synthetic hormones, I encourage you to sign and share Natural Womanhoods petition today.

Grace Emily Stark is the Editor of Natural Womanhood. Her writing has been featured in multiple outlets, and in 2019, she was awarded a Robert Novak Alumni Fund Journalism Fellowship. Follow Graces writing at GraceEmilyStark.com.

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The Pill Is Killing Women. Why Won't The FDA Talk About It? - The Federalist

Its hard to keep up the illusion that youre the answer to an entire countrys ills when seemingly everything you touch falls apart. President Joe Biden is learning this lesson the hard way, with his endeavors regarding the coronavirus, foreign policy, and national security all wreaking havoc simultaneously.

As the Associated Press documented, in one single hour on Friday afternoon, Biden and his team failed spectacularly on Afghanistan, ate crow on their next attempted COVID-19 milestone, and ticked off the United States longest ally.

For starters, the Pentagon revealed that the Kabul drone strike that Biden authorized in late August after the failed Afghanistan withdrawal not only wasnt successful in taking out terrorists but instead killed 10 innocent civilians, including seven children. This is the airstrike that Gen. Mark Milley, who is under fire for making potentially treasonous phone calls to his communist Chinese counterpart, originally called righteous. Its the drone strike that the administration falsely claimed had killed two high-profile terrorists.

But that wasnt true. The strike was a tragic mistake, Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, admitted during a Friday news conference.

Then there was the vote by a panel advising the Food and Drug administration a vote that wasnt even close, by the way not to recommend COVID vaccine booster shots for everyone over age 16. So much for Bidens trust the science vaccine ambitions.

Finally, an angry France, a country thats been a U.S. ally since 1778, announced it was pulling its ambassador to the United States after some submarine deal that Biden struck with Australia and the United Kingdom. According to the French foreign ministry, its never recalled its ambassador to the U.S. until now.

That all happened on the same afternoon. It was an hour President Joe Biden would no doubt like to forget, the AP narrated.

Its an afternoon President Joe Biden no doubt did forget while it was still happening, given his recent track record on mental fortitude. And its an afternoon the corrupt press forgot as soon as it happened too, with a handful of Sunday news shows not even mentioning the report about the tragic mistake of a drone strike, according to Fox News.

But as these life-and-death failures continue to pile up in the Biden administrations L column, the American people should not so soon forget.

This is the man who promised a return to normal but is instead pressuring private establishments to require vaccines and pushing government agencies to roll out boosters, science be damned. This is the president who promised an end to Americas endless wars but instead got 13 U.S. service members killed in his disaster of a withdrawal, green-lighted a drone strike that left little boys and girls dead, and keeps telling the stories of his own personal tragedies to garner sympathy for himself. This is the president who promised America was back at the table and back in the business of leading the world but instead angers Americas allies and does business with our enemies.

With a campaign slogan devoid of meaning, Joe Biden promised he would build back better. Instead, with this commander-in-chief, its one step forward, 10 steps back, plus human casualties and lost liberties all along the way. Joe Bidens hour of mayhem on Friday wasnt a fluke of his administration; it was a feature. And though his team and the media would no doubt like to forget it, wed all do well to remember.

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Only Nine Months In And The Biden Presidency Has Failed Spectacularly - The Federalist

The suspicious disappearance of 22-year-old vlogger Gabby Petito took a tragic turn on Sunday when the FBI announced that human remains found in Teton County, Wyoming, were consistent with her description. Petitos family reported her missing on Sept. 11, after her fianc Brian Laundrie returned to Florida without her on Sept. 1. According to Laundries family, he disappeared on Sept. 14, three full days after Petitos disappearance was reported.

Laundrie is a high-profile person of interest in the case, with an attorney for the Petito family insisting Brian is not missing, he is hiding. Authorities have failed to find Laundrie, admitting on Friday that they dont know where he is.

The lead agency on the case said on Monday that it currently has no plans to conduct a major search of the Carlton Reserve, an over 24,000-acre preserve in Sarasota County, Florida, where state police said they have exhausted all avenues in looking. The FBI also announced the execution of a search warrant at the Laundrie residence on Monday.

Laundrie was the only person with Petito on the couples Wyoming road trip and apparently failed to report her disappearance (or a potential explanation for it) when he returned. Yet the above efforts are taking place six days after Laundrie disappeared, nine days after Petitos family reported her missing, and 19 days after Laundrie returned to Florida without his fiance.

Meanwhile, the FBI spent the weekend worrying about a rally that turned out to be an uneventful, sparse showing of a few hundred people, with law enforcement agents outnumbering attendees. In the past, the FBI has shown its willingness to bring the full force of its investigative power down on cases and individuals where it was laughably unmerited (or worse, sinister).

The FBI should be doing its utmost to solve jurisdictionally appropriate crimes like the Petito case appears to be, not running partisan ops, setups, or sham investigations. The FBI has an annual budget of over $10 billion and employs more than 35,000 people. Its failure to apprehend Laundrie in the days before he disappeared does not stem from a lack of resources but seems to reflect the FBIs dissolution from a serious crimefighting apparatus to a dangerously political machine thats bad at its job.

Why has the FBI let Brian Laundrie run away, while theyve pulled out the stops for far less serious (but more political) investigations? If Laundrie had done any of the things below, he could very well already be in federal custody.

When NASCAR reported a noose found in the garage assigned to race car driver Bubba Wallace, the FBI launched an investigation into what Wallace called a despicable act of racism and hatred. After devoting 15 agents to the situation, however, the FBI admitted that the noose had been there since the year prior, far before anyone knew Wallace would be in that garage.

Furthermore, a NASCAR statement conceded that the FBI had found that the noose was actually a garage door pull rope.

Linda Menk, a 71-year-old grandmother and member of the Coweta County School Board in Georgia, told The Federalist in August that a pair of FBI agents visited her after she attended the ill-fated rally at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Menk reportedly remained on the outskirts of the crowd at Trumps White House speech, standing on the grounds of the Washington Monument to watch the jumbotron from afar, before leaving about 10 minutes before the first rioters broke through the barriers at the Capitol.

But later that month, according to Menk, two agents called on her and at first appeared suspicious with business cards featuring hand-written phone numbers over blotches of white-out. Neither presented a warrant or would tell her their badge numbers, she noted.

In the months that followed, agents in all but one of the FBIs 56 field offices have been drafted to track down participants nationwide from the Jan. 6 events, USA Today noted. Investigators who typically work cases involving the trafficking of drugs, child pornography and sex have taken calls from rioters angry ex-wives and former girlfriends and employers turned tipsters.

After the hubbub of hysteria about an apparent plot to kill Democrat Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who has drawn the ire of many residents for strict lockdowns that even she doesnt follow, it turned out that of 14 people indicted, five (or more) were working as informants for the FBI.

The five people who seem to be the FBI informants were also the people who seemed to have all the kidnapping ideas and access to all the equipment needed for a paramilitary assault on Gov. Gretchen Whitmers vacation home, Matthew Braun noted for The Federalist. At one point, the leadership of the conspiracy met, and three of the five people in that discussion were FBI.

These revelations prompted outrage that the FBI may have instigated a plot that, without their leadership, likely would never have moved from thought to action. A defense attorney for one of the accused insisted his client was only engaging in big talk between crackpots and was never going to do anything in what looks like FBI entrapment.

The FBI made hay out of rich parents fraud while ignoring its own fraudulent behavior, irking many who believed a college admissions fiasco should not be the greatest concern of the nations domestic law enforcement agency.

While parents paying under the table for their children to be listed as recruited athletes or for their childrens test scores to be altered is undoubtedly wrong, pigeonholing these behaviors into charges of honest services mail fraud to allow for federal criminal prosecution hardly seems like the way the system was intended to work. Why did the FBI devote such emphasis to this case, rather than letting college authorities fire and expel as needed while the bureau focused on more urgent and jurisdictional matters?

Since Donald Trump ran against Hillary Clinton in 2016, its been revealed that the FBI used a defensive briefing to spy on the Trump campaign, part of the Crossfire Hurricane attempt to meddle in the election and undermine the Trump transition team. Related to that corrupt investigation, the FBI spied on phone calls of the vice president of Fox News.

Gabby Petito and her family deserve the best efforts from law enforcement in bringing the facts of her death to light and, if she was murdered, her killer to justice.We can hope the bureau succeeds in bringing justice to families like Petitos, instead of looking more and more like a political appendage to sic on partisan threats.

Elle Reynolds is an assistant editor at The Federalist, and received her B.A. in government from Patrick Henry College with a minor in journalism. You can follow her work on Twitter at @_etreynolds.

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If Brian Laundrie Did Any Of These 5 Things, He'd Be In FBI Custody Already - The Federalist

To get a true sense of just how grossly incompetent the COVID experts weve entrusted with our lives really are, look no further than Scott Gottliebs book tour.

Gottlieb is the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and hes doing the rounds on TV, explaining to whoever will listen that we we meaning everyone who isnt him could have done things differently at the start of the pandemic in order to be in a better position than we are now (the apparent tail-end of the second-worst wave of new infections to date).

Political leaders could have stepped up and tried to galvanize the public behind a common set of shared principles, Gottlieb said Monday on MSNBC. Easy stuff like masks. We couldnt even agree on the easy stuff. Things like getting the public vaccinated, thats going to be more difficult. When we cant even get a political consensus around a virtue of wearing masks in public and private as a component of trying to reduce infection and protect our fellow citizens, then were really behind the eight ball.

He went on to fault who else? former President Trump for arriving at the White House back in October and removing his mask on camera. You know, the president ceremoniously took off his mask when he came home from the hospital while he was still infectious with the virus, he said. That clearly sends a signal to the public that, you know, masks are imprudent and its counterproductive to what were trying to do as public health officials.

This is what is known in the public health community as B.S.

The way Gottlieb tells it, you would think Trump had staged a public burning of masks on the White House lawn.

But during the incident that Gottlieb is referring to, the president was seen exiting Marine One on the White House lawn, heading to the residence with his face covered by a surgical mask. He wore it as he walked up the stairs to the Truman Balcony, at which point he took it off and put it in his pocket.

He was outside and he was alone. The guidance from the experts has never been to wear a mask when youre standing by yourself outdoors. That would be stupid. But, hey. I wont pretend to know Gottlieb on a personal level.

Whats more, there was no easy stuff in 2020. It wasnt simply a matter of wearing masks, which we were initially told by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the deity, were a pointless waste of time. How silly that anyone would think a mask could prevent infection of a microscopic germ!

Masks were eventually en vogue, but only after thousands of people were thrown out of work, had their businesses shuttered, and then were told to lock themselves away from friends and family for weeks on end.

Piece of cake, right Gottlieb?

At the same time, every Democrat running for president and every TV news anchor outside of Fox was laying each new COVID case and death at Trumps feet. It was an election year, after all, and in all of that tragedy, they saw an opportunity.

Under those circumstances, masks became a little beside the point for a lot of people and yes, some of them resented the nags who got a rush out of telling people what to do.

If I was told to stand by and watch everything I had worked for quickly slip away, I might not be in the best mood for a confrontation over masks either.

In a separate interview on CBS the day before, Gottlieb admitted that the recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for individuals to maintain six feet of distance from one another in public is based on nothing.

Nobody knows where it came from, he said.

And yet were supposed to be listening to these people.

Fauci said just last week that it would be a mistake for the FDA to decline recommendations for booster shots for all adults who have been vaccinated against COVID. After the FDA did just that, he went on CNN Sunday to say never mind, I have no problem at all with their decision.

Theres The Science for ya!

Through it all, Gottlieb still thinks theres something we us, not him could have done differently. With the raging incompetence weve seen, the inability to get consistent and reliable information from all of the experts, Im skeptical.

Not everything Gottlieb has to say is entirely useless, though. In that MSNBC interview, he said, We were never going to be able to stop this pandemic, and that, This virus was going to spread.

Yeah. He at least got that part right.

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Scott Gottlieb Embodies The Sheer Incompetence Of The COVID 'Experts' - The Federalist

As our historic border crisis continues, teeming thousands of migrants are camped under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, waiting to be processed and transported to various locations throughout the country. It is within this perilous context that a new Texas law signed Friday will help better secure Americas southern border and fill the gap due to the federal governments intentional reduction of immigration law enforcement.

With substantial bipartisan support, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law HB 9,which allocates a hefty $1.8 billion to enable state agencies and border counties to deter illegal crossings, protect private property, and increase prosecution of state crimes committed by unauthorized migrants.

The single largest chunk of the new funding, $750 million, is being dedicated to the construction of up to 730 miles of border wall, a security need previously identified and approved by both Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress, including the current president, but abruptly and irresponsibly canceled at the outset of his administration. This appropriation is on top of the $250 million in emergency Texas border wall funding already allocated by Abbott.

In testimony before state legislators, Texas National Guard Adjutant General Tracy Norris explained that more than 100 landowners along the states unsecured international border with Mexico have asked for the wall to be built on their land. Initially, temporary fencing will be built by 12 of the Guards engineer teams at a pace expected to exceed more than one mile per day, up from the current few hundred feet per day being built by only one engineer team. Eventually, the temporary fencing will be replaced by a permanent barrier.

During floor debate over the measure, state Sen. Eddie Lucio, a Brownsville Democrat, responded to objections by some fellow Democrats by saying, I have talked to many of my constituents in Cameron and Hidalgo County and I can tell you the vast majority of those people want border security and want the wall, believe it or not. And some of us come up here fighting against it, were actually speaking against what our constituents want.

Lucio was among several Democrat lawmakers who supported the measure, including Sen. Chuy Hinojosa of McAllen, Sen. Royce West from Dallas, and Sen. John Whitmire of Houston.

In addition to the wall funding, the measure allocates several hundred million dollars to enable both the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety to place additional boots on the ground. Up to 2,500 Texas National Guardsmen will be deployed to the border region and, in addition to building the border wall, they have been deputized to execute criminal trespassing arrests of unauthorized migrants. Single males who are illegally crossing the border and trespassing are being targeted for these enforcement efforts.

The historic Texas border security effort is rounded out by $170 million in funding for three migrant intake centers, $100 million to reimburse border counties for related expenses, and additional funds for court administration and the Border Prosecution Unit.

None of the legislators or state officials testifying in support of these actions are under any illusion that it is enough to fully compensate for the reduction of effort by the federal government in meeting its obligation to secure the border.

Many of the legislators on both sides of the aisle also lamented that the state has to incur such massive expenditures. Col. Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told legislators that prior to the crisis that erupted this year, he was hoping to see the state be in a position to reduce its border security expenditures.

However, the data is clear that both Texas and the nation are being inundated by a spike in the trafficking of both people and illicit drugs across the border. Current federal leadership shows no signs of being willing or able to fulfill its obligation. Thanks to Abbott and the courageous and creative efforts of state lawmakers, Texas can and will work to fill the gap and take its border back.

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As Federal Government Fails, Texas Steps In To Secure The Border - The Federalist