It’s Time to Make the State Governments Feel the Pain and Consequences of the Disproportionate Shutdown of America

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At present, governors and mayors face no political downside to suspending democracy and the economy with overly draconian measures. They only face accolades and praise from the media commensurate to the degree of lockdown they promote, based on the faulty science that failed so miserably in Europe. It’s time to make them feel the pain of their decisions so that they are forced to pursue a more prudent and balanced approach to coronavirus.

So far, all the damage to our liberty and economy is being pushed by state and local governments, not the feds. On the other hand, all the bailouts and responsibility for dealing with the fallout of their virtue-signaling decisions are being placed on the president. Isn’t it time for state legislatures and county councils to convene and take full responsibility? If they are big enough to declare nuclear winter on liberty, jobs, and the economy, they are big enough to handle the blowback and pay for their decisions.

To that end, citizens should pressure their state officials to suspend numerous forms of state taxation during the duration of the shutdown. The longer the shutdown continues, the longer states should do without their revenue. Furthermore, President Trump should promise that the $150 billion that state governments received during the last epic spending bill will not be present in the next one that will inevitably pass in a few weeks.

Yesterday, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy posted on Facebook that Congress should suspend the recently implemented cap on state and local tax deductions (SALT) on the federal income tax form for this year. I certainly understand why he feels that way, but this proposal is extremely insidious. He wants to have it both ways – shut down the state completely and then have the federal government bail him out from his already astronomical property taxes that long predated this crisis.

How about we do the opposite? Rather than the federal government incentivize greater state taxation by subsidizing it at the federal level, states should be pressured to cut property taxes until the shutdown is over. If the situation really requires economic nuclear winter, as the governors are suggesting, then they have no moral right to demand that people pay property taxes. This form of taxation eats away at people’s homes, even if they have long paid off their mortgages and even if they have no income.

Consider governors like Virginia’s Ralph Northam, who plans to shutter the economy until at least June 10. How does he expect people to pay their property taxes? And if a single man can rule by fiat without a rigorous and transparent debate in the legislature, then why should the citizens pay taxes at all? Aren’t we back to where we started in 1776, with taxation by King George without representation?

As of now, governors can virtue-signal on the cheap without owning up to the consequences of their actions and being forced to balance tough decisions and outcomes. Unlike federal taxes, most state taxes come from sales and property and are still being paid. Plus, governors have the federal government paying for the entire economic mess and bailing out the states with printed funny money. Thus, from their end, they can keep this charade going forever, even if prudence dictates within the next few weeks that we should pursue a different strategy for coronavirus.

With most property tax bills coming due at the end of June, it’s time for legislatures to reconvene and suspend payment for six months. They should also waive other state fees and taxes and ban salaries of top state executive officials until the shutdown is at least partially lifted.

Most of all, it’s time to return to self-government. It’s simply indefensible for Congress and state legislatures to remain out of session without public hearings and debate (at least remotely) over every aspect of the lockdown strategy and its cascading effects on our lives. If at this juncture in history – with the outcome of every aspect of our lives hanging in the balance more than at any time since World War II – elected representatives are hiding in their bunkers, then why do we even have them?

If we are going to be confined for months on end with so many citizens out of a job, we need more transparent answers to the questions about this strategy of the lockdown and all of the nakedly political decisions being made under the guise of saving lives. The stakes are too high to take our government on faith and credit. (For more from the author of “It’s Time to Make the State Governments Feel the Pain and Consequences of the Disproportionate Shutdown of America” please click HERE)

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Woman Who Blamed Trump for Her Husband’s Chloroquine Death Is Dem Donor Who Was Once Charged With Domestic Abuse in Divorce Argument

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The woman who fed her husband a chemical used for cleaning fish tanks and blamed President Donald Trump for his death has a history of being anti-Trump, donating to Democratic politicians, and of sometimes violent conflict with her husband, from whom she at one point sought a divorce. . .

Shortly after the president began touting the potential of chloroquine, a story emerged of a woman and her husband who had ingested chloroquine — not the medical version, but the version that is used to clean fish tanks — and the husband died. National media pounced on the story, giving the woman a platform to blame the president’s advice for her husband’s death.

“Trump kept saying it was basically pretty much a cure,” the woman told NBC News. “Oh my God. Don’t take anything. Don’t believe anything. Don’t believe anything that the president says and his people. Call your doctor.”

Even beyond the obvious problem with this story — that the woman and her husband were taking fish tank cleaner and not medicine — some details from the woman’s past cast more doubt on her motive and her account of what really happened to her husband.

In 2001, the woman was arrested and accused of domestic abuse against her husband for an altercation during which she allegedly tried to hit him with a bird house while they were arguing about marriage counseling and potential divorce. She was reportedly found not guilty, but both parties admitted to police that the conflict occurred. (Read more from “Woman Who Blamed Trump for Her Husband’s Chloroquine Death Is Dem Donor Who Was Once Charged With Domestic Abuse in Divorce Argument” HERE)

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Migrants Riot in Mexican Detention Center at Texas Border — Some Escape

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Dozens of Central American migrants rioted and set fire to the furniture inside a local immigration detention center Friday. Some managed to escape.

The rioting started shortly after noon when dozens of migrants tried to take over the facility and set fire to mattresses and other furniture at the offices of the National Immigration Institute (INM). During the confusion, some of the migrants ran into the streets to escape and avoid deportation. Dozens of federal and state police responded to the scene to contain the matter. Some migrants were being held for deportation hearings while others waited for U.S. asylum determinations. . .

While the federal building does have some detention capabilities, it was recently refit to house more migrants since some local shelters were forced to close following the arrival of the Coronavirus. Currently, the border city has two confirmed cases. Piedras Negras is immediately south of Eagle Pass, Texas. (Read more from “Migrants Riot in Mexican Detention Center at Texas Border — Some Escape” HERE)

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Nancy Pelosi Signals She’ll Ease Up on Packing Next Relief Bill with Progressive Agenda

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) signaled that she is easing up on what appeared to be her original intention of packing the next phase of economic relief with a host of progressive agenda items, telling reporters on Friday that the next emergency measure should follow the same model as the last.

Democrats, under the leadership of Pelosi, came under fire last week after delaying the Phase 3 emergency relief measure to pursue their own version, which the speaker packed with what critics referred to as “liberal wish list items.” Those included Green New Deal initiatives, ballot harvesting, requirements for racial diversity data, and a bailout for the post office.

While she ultimately did not get any of those agenda items in the latest relief package, she spent the following days signaling her Party’s intention of packing the next relief bill with similar agenda items. However, she struck a different tone on Friday, telling reporters in the Capitol, “Let’s do the same bill we just did, make some changes to make it current.” . . .

“We’ve had three bills that have been bipartisan. I think right now we need a fourth bipartisan bill. And I think the bill could be very much like the bill we just passed,” she told the network.

“I’m very much in favor of doing some of the things that we need to do to meet the needs of clean water, more broadband, and the rest of that. That may have to be for a bill beyond this,” she admitted. (Read more from “Nancy Pelosi Signals She’ll Ease up on Packing Next Relief Bill With Progressive Agenda” HERE)

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HUH?! Feds Issue Tens of Thousands of New Work Visas to Foreigners as Americans Lose Jobs by Millions; UPDATE: DHS Suspension

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By WND. Amid record unemployment claims and predictions of a staggering 32% unemployment rate, the federal government is issuing thousands of visas to guest workers.

Among them are 20,000 new H2B visas announced Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security for seasonal jobs in industries such as landscaping, food processing and resorts, noted Tucker Carlson on his Fox News show Wednesday night. . .

But these are “bonus visas,” Carlson explains, in addition to the 66,000 H2B visas the federal government must allow each year by law.

A total of 35,000 visas were added at the discretion of DHS Secretary Chad Wolf.

“That’s a total of 100,000 workers coming to this country to take jobs during the single biggest unemployment crisis in a century,” he said. “It’s demented.” (Read more from “Feds Issue Large Numbers of Work Visas as Americans Lose Jobs by Millions” HERE)

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In Wake of National Outrage, DHS Suspends Visa Lottery

By Jason Hopkins. The increased media scrutiny and surging unemployment claims appeared to be too much for DHS. The department on Thursday announced it was suspending the release of the planned 20,000 H-2B visas.

“To clear up various misreporting — DHS’s rule on the H-2B cap is on hold pending review due to present economic circumstances. No additional H-2B visas will be released until further notice,” read a statement from the DHS Twitter account.

H2-B visas are set aside for foreign workers to come temporarily into the U.S. and work in numerous non-agricultural industries, such as service and landscaping jobs.

Congress set the annual cap on H-2B visas at 66,000, giving temporary legal status to non-agricultural workers. At the same time, lawmakers gave DHS the authority to raise this cap by as much as 64,000 a year. In early March, right before COVID-19 grabbed the nation, DHS chief raised the cap by 35,000. (Read more about the work visa suspension HERE)

However, the 20,000 H-2B visas to be released in April is no longer a go — at least for now.

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Jewish GOP Group Targets Congress’s Strongest Constitutionalist For Defeat

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The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) — specifically its political action committee — has had it with Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky. And he’s a Republican.

Massie infuriated both his own party and US Democrats last week by exercising a procedural motion that might have delayed the vote on the $2 trillion stimulus in the wake of the economic devastation wrought by the coronavirus pandemic. US President Donald Trump, a Republican, called Massie a “third-rate grandstander.”

Now the RJC said it will be backing Massie’s opponent in the Republican primary, which is scheduled for June 23, coronavirus willing. It’s a rare foray for a group that usually focuses on Democrats, plus partisan Jewish groups rarely get involved in primaries.

“After Rep. Massie recklessly decided to hold up the stimulus bill designed to help Americans who are struggling because of the coronavirus, the RJC PAC has decided to endorse and fund-raise for his GOP primary opponent, Todd McMurtry, and the RJC will be activating its nationwide team of volunteers to contact voters in the 4th congressional district of Kentucky to explain why it is so important to support McMurtry,” the group said in a news release last week.

Massie insisted that Congress adhere to a rule that a majority of House members are present to do business. Most members had returned home in order to avoid contracting or spreading the coronavirus. (Read more from “Jewish GOP Group Targets Congress’s Strongest Constitutionalist Representative for Defeat” HERE)

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Desperate Shoppers Say They Can’t Order Groceries for Delivery or Pickup. Amazon and Walmart Are Racing to Meet the Spike in Demand.

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Online grocery orders are surging in the US as shoppers increasingly avoid visiting stores, and retailers are racing to keep up with demand.

With the surge in orders, some shoppers are complaining on social media about little or no availability for grocery pickup or delivery. Some say they have given up on trying. Others are refreshing grocers’ websites late at night to try to snag time slots for pickup or delivery as soon as they become available.

In response, leading retailers including Amazon and Walmart are ramping up their online grocery businesses by hiring more workers and adding time slots for delivery and pickup, the companies told Business Insider.

“We are working hard to identify ways to deliver to more customers, like adding more delivery windows throughout the day and hiring over 100,000 positions across the US, enabling us to increase delivery window availability,” an Amazon spokesperson said. “We’ve also accelerated expansion of delivery and pickup from Whole Foods Market, and we’ll continue to expand quickly to reach more customers.” . . .

[Walmart] on Friday extended its grocery pickup and delivery hours to help meet demand after temporarily cutting them back during a sudden sales surge in early-to-mid March. (Read more from “Desperate Shoppers Say They Can’t Order Groceries for Delivery or Pickup. Amazon and Walmart Are Racing to Meet the Spike in Demand.” HERE)

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FDA Loosens Restrictions on Homosexual Men Donating Blood Amid Pandemic

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The federal government is loosening restrictions on blood donations from gay and bisexual men in light of a blood shortage brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

In revised guidelines published Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended a three-month deferral for men who have sex with men. The previous policy was a full year ban.

The new guidelines will remain in place throughout the pandemic and will be updated to incorporate public comment within 60 days of the emergency being lifted. . .

The three-month deferral also applies to those who recently got tattoos or piercings, as well as former sex workers or injection drug users, who were previously indefinitely banned from donating.

The FDA said experience in other countries like the United Kingdom and Canada with a three-month deferral and improved testing led the agency to make the change. (Read more from “FDA Loosens Restrictions on Homosexual Men Donating Blood Amid Pandemic” HERE)

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Ilhan Omar Suggests Sharia Punishment for Critic Who Accuses Her of Muslim Adultery

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Rep. Ilhan Omar suggested on Twitter Wednesday that a critic should face Sharia punishment for seeming to accuse her of adultery.

Omar, a Minnesota Democrat and practicing Muslim, had earlier commented on news that President Donald Trump had warned the next two weeks of the coronavirus outbreak would be “very painful” for Americans. . .

One Twitter user replied by invoking the Quran’s prohibition against “fornication/adultery.”

Omar took notice, and fired back with a reference to the Muslim holy book’s stance against accusing a woman of unchastity without sufficient evidence. According to Omar, Muslims are commanded to reject such “testimony” and to flog the offender “with eighty stripes” for being “disobedient to Allaah.”

(Read more from “Ilhan Omar Suggests Sharia Punishment for Critic Who Accuses Her of Muslim Adultery” HERE)

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Steven Mnuchin Speeds up First Round of Coronavirus Relief for Americans to Two Weeks

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By Breitbart. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday he had sped up the timing on individual payments to Americans from three weeks to two weeks.

“I’m pleased to report that within two weeks the first payments will be directly deposited into taxpayers’ accounts,” Mnuchin said.

The secretary said the Treasury Department was working quickly to speed up aid to the American people and to get their $1,200 relief checks to them.

Mnuchin said that Americans who had their direct deposit information already in the IRS system would receive their money in a timely fashion. He promised people who did not have their information in the IRS system could put it into a website that would ensure a speedy direct deposit. (Read more from “Steven Mnuchin Speeds up First Round of Coronavirus Relief for Americans to Two Weeks” HERE)

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Government Housing Agency Unveils New Mortgage Relief Policies for Struggling Borrowers

By Politico. The Department of Housing and Urban Development on Thursday directed companies that service government-insured mortgage loans to give beleaguered borrowers the option to defer payments for up to a year, effective immediately.

The move — coming just 15 days after HUD announced a two-month moratorium on evictions and foreclosures — underscores the urgency of the deepening economic crisis caused by the coronavirus outbreak. The $2 trillion economic rescue package passed by Congress last week included up to a year of payment relief on federally backed mortgages.

“If you’re struggling, immediate help is now available,” HUD Secretary Ben Carson said in an emailed statement. “The FHA will continue to work with stakeholders to ensure that the loss mitigation options that are offered for both forward and reverse borrowers are appropriately tailored for the present situation.”

The pandemic has already taken a massive toll on the economy, with some 10 million Americans filing unemployment claims in the last two weeks and some economists forecasting a crippling recession for months. (Read more from “Government Housing Agency Unveils New Mortgage Relief Policies for Struggling Borrowers” HERE)

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