State Secretary Demands WHO Include Taiwan At Assembly Despite Chinese Protest

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Secretary of State Antony Blinken is demanding that Taiwan be allowed at the World Health Assembly later this month, despite protests from Chinese officials and delegates.

The Department of State released a press statement on Friday titled “Restoring Taiwan’s Appropriate Place at the World Health Assembly,” criticizing the Assembly’s decision to exclude Taiwan from the meeting due to China’s protests.

“There is no reasonable justification for Taiwan’s continued exclusion from this forum.” The statement read in part, calling for World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom to invite Taiwan as an “observer” to the assembly.

Blinken said that Taiwan offered “valuable contributions and lessons learned from its approach to these issues,” further adding that preventing the country from participation would “imperil, not advance” global health objectives at the meeting. (Read more from “State Secretary Demands WHO Include Taiwan At Assembly Despite Chinese Protest” HERE)

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Johns Hopkins Doctor Dismisses Fear-Mongering: ‘Most of the Country Is at Herd Immunity’ (VIDEO)

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Dr. Marty Makary, a surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital, disputed CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky’s contention that COVID-19 variants could set back the march to herd immunity from COVID-19 during a Thursday afternoon appearance on Fox News’ “The Story.”

Walensky on Wednesday called the various COVID-19 scariants, er, variants a “wild card” that could “reverse” the progress made so far.

In an op-ed for the New York Post published Tuesday titled “Don’t buy the fearmongering: The COVID-19 threat is waning,” Makary argued against buying into the “fear” that variants could “evade vaccines.”

Look at the facts: About 57 percent of adults are vaccinated and approximately half of unvaccinated people have natural immunity from prior infection. That’s why US cases have been plummeting, down 31 percent over the past 18 days.

To put things in context, during the mildest flu season in the last eight years, there were 24 million cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and approximately 447,000 daily cases during its peak week. By comparison, we’re averaging 49,641 daily COVID cases. That same mild flu season resulted in 280,000 hospitalizations. By comparison, current COVID hospitalizations as of May 1 are 34,905.

Let me be clear: COVID is not the flu, and we should not downplay the risk among susceptible people. But for the millions of Americans who are immune and live where the cases are low, the public-health threat is now defanged and below seasonal-flu levels. Given the harm of social isolation, we need to abandon the goal of absolute risk elimination at all cost.

(Read more from “Johns Hopkins Doctor Dismisses Fear-Mongering: ‘Most of the Country Is at Herd Immunity'” HERE)

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Alaska Teacher On Leave After Recent George Floyd Comments (VIDEO)

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A high school teacher in Fairbanks, Alaska, has reportedly been placed on administrative leave after suggesting to students that George Floyd would still be alive today had he complied with Minneapolis police.

In a video posted to YouTube last week, a teacher identified as “Ms. Gardner” is seen and heard conducting a virtual discussion with students about several high-profile shootings that have occurred in America of late, including police-involved incidents with black Americans.

When the topic of conversation shifted to Floyd, the teacher remarked that former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin “abused his authority” and “was complicit in George Floyd’s death.”

“But,” she added, “if George Floyd had, at the beginning when they got him out of the car and went to put him in the police car, if he had just sidled into the car and slid it in there, and let them put his legs in, he would be alive today, and you know that’s true.” . . .

According to the Daily Mail, after the video surfaced, the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District sent a letter to parents that the teacher had been placed on leave pending an investigation. Though officials reportedly did not disclose the teacher’s name, the outlet reported that “only one staffer with the same name: High school special education teacher Connie Gardner.”

(Read more from “Alaska Teacher On Leave After Recent George Floyd Comments” HERE)

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Joe Biden Dodged Half a Million in Taxes, and He Wants You To Pay Your ‘Fair Share’

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In his speech to Congress last Wednesday and his multi-trillion-dollar plan for “human infrastructure” released earlier that day, President Biden proposed yet another tax increase, this one on purportedly “wealthy” individuals and families. In his address Wednesday evening, Biden used the words “fair share” on no fewer than five separate occasions to justify these proposed revenue hikes.

Yet with his own taxes, Joe Biden didn’t pay his “fair share.” Upon leaving the vice presidency in early 2017, he and his wife Jill exploited a tax loophole of questionable legality to dodge hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes—and used the savings to fund lavish real estate holdings.

Biden’s personal conduct raises two obvious questions: How can someone who avoided more than $500,000 in taxes to fund his luxury lifestyle demand that others “pay their fair share”? And how can someone proposing the biggest expansion of government since Franklin Delano Roosevelt claim he supports more federal spending, when he wouldn’t pay for that spending himself? . . .

I previously reported on the details of the Bidens’ tax avoidance in the years following Joe Biden’s service as vice president. From 2017 through 2019, Joe and Jill Biden classified a total of $13.5 million in book and speech income as profits from their two corporations, rather than as cash wages.

While the couple paid full income taxes on all their revenue, classifying most of their earnings as corporate profits rather than wages allowed the Bidens to avoid paying $513,540 in payroll taxes on their $13.5 million in declared corporate profits. Tax experts interviewed by the Wall Street Journal in 2019 called the Bidens’ maneuvers “pretty aggressive,” and stated that they existed solely to circumvent paying payroll taxes. (Read more from “Joe Biden Dodged Half a Million in Taxes, and He Wants You To Pay Your ‘Fair Share’” HERE)

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Biden’s Migrant Plan Has Cost Taxpayers at Least $3B, Records Show

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The federal government has awarded about $3 billion in contracts to shelter unaccompanied illegal immigrant children since February, records show.

The Department of Health and Human Services awarded the three largest federal contracts, worth over $2 billion, to two private companies and one nonprofit — as record illegal immigration surges began overwhelming authorities at the southern border.

The contracts went to Deployed Resources of Rome, New York, Family Endeavors in San Antonio, Tx., and Rapid Deployment in Mobile, Ala.

Deployed Resources secured a $719 million contract to house 1,500 migrant children at a facility in Donna, Tx., and was previously contracted by the Trump administration for similar jobs. (Read more from “Biden’s Migrant Plan Has Cost Taxpayers at Least $3B, Records Show” HERE)

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What Really Led to Bill and Melinda Gates Calling It Quits

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There were a litany of issues that reared their heads in the lead-up to Bill and Melinda Gates’ divorce after 27 years of marriage.

Throughout their decades together, the billionaire couple reportedly had a “combo of things ” that prompted the split and the fact that their youngest child, Phoebe, is now an adult – the Gateses — Bill, 65, and Melinda, 56 — simply felt now was the right time to end things for good, a source told People magazine on Friday.

“It’s absolutely because their youngest child is graduating from high school, and the idea was that they stayed together through that,” the source says. “They limped through until their kids were out of school like a lot of people.” . . .

Several reports revealed that it was Melinda who pulled the trigger on the divorce from the Microsoft co-founder and in her official court filing, indicated that the two had already set a separation agreement in place.

The insider relayed to People that the agreement was their way of keeping things as civil and private as possible. The pair also plan to further their working relationship at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. (Read more from “What Really Led to Bill and Melinda Gates Calling It Quits” HERE)

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Court Orders Woman To Remove Rock With Confederate Flag – or Lose Child

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An intermediate appellate court in New York state has ordered a woman to get rid of a rock in her garden because it has a Confederate flag painted on it – or possibly lose her child.

The extreme order came from Judges Stan Pritzker, John Egan Jr., Sharon Aarons, Molly Reynolds Fitzgerald and John Colangelo and was in a custody ruling.

The parents are unmarried and have a daughter born in 2014 that is of mixed race. The ruling was an update in the custody arrangements, which provide for joint legal and physical custody. . .

“Given that the child is of mixed race, it would seem apparent that the presence of the flag is not in the child’s best interests, as the mother must encourage and teach the child to embrace her mixed race identity, rather than thrust her into a world that only makes sense through the tortured lens of cognitive dissonance,” they said.

“Further, and viewed pragmatically, the presence of the confederate flag is a symbol inflaming the already strained relationship between the parties. As such, while recognizing that the First Amendment protects the mother’s right to display the flag, if it is not removed by June 1, 2021, its continued presence shall constitute a change in circumstances and family court shall factor this into any future best interests analysis.” (Read more from “Court Orders Woman To Remove Rock With Confederate Flag – or Lose Child” HERE)

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Chief Court Judge Bans ‘Thin Blue Line’ Symbol Over ‘Bias’ Concerns

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The top Maryland district court judge has banned masks and any paraphernalia depicting the “Thin Blue Line,” a symbol of support for police, in state courthouses.

Chief Justice John Morrissey on Thursday wrote in an email announcing the ban that the symbol was creating “an issue of perceived bias” in the justice system. The order applies to anyone working in the state’s 34 federal district courts and to visitors.

“The Judiciary must maintain itself as an unbiased and independent branch of Maryland state government,” Morrissey wrote in an email first obtained by the Baltimore Sun. “Employees of the District Court wearing any clothing item or apparel which promotes or displays a logo, sticker, pin, patch, slogan, or sign which may be perceived as showing bias or favoritism to a particular group of people could undermine the District Court’s mission of fair, efficient, and effective justice for all and call into question the Judiciary’s obligation to remain impartial and unbiased.”

Morrissey’s explanation came after a public defender complained in a letter that the Thin Blue Line, a symbol associated with police throughout much of the 20th century, was “associated at times with white supremacist groups.” (Read more from “Chief Court Judge Bans ‘Thin Blue Line’ Symbol Over ‘Bias’ Concerns” HERE)

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Shocking Miss: The U.S. Economy Added Just 266,000 Jobs in April, Unemployment Ticks Up

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The U.S. economy added just 266,000 jobs in April and the unemployment rate ticked up to 6.1 percent, the Labor Department said in its monthly labor assessment Friday, smashing expectations.

This was far below expectations. Analysts surveyed by Econoday had predicted Friday’s report would show between 755,000 and 1.25 million workers added to payrolls in April. The median forecast was for 938,000 and an unemployment rate of 5.8 percent.

The disappointing number for April could be a sign that hiring is being held back by enhanced unemployment benefits and schools that have not reopened full time, requiring some parents to stay home to take care of children. Many businesses say that they cannot hire enough workers to fill positions because of the government’s enhanced unemployment benefits program.

The economy has outperformed expectations on many metrics this year as vaccinations have boosted business and consumer confidence and restrictions on businesses have been lifted. Friday’s employment numbers represent a rare miss.

In April, average hourly earnings increased by 21 cents to $30.17, a 0.7 percent increase, following a decline of 4 cents in the prior month. Average hourly earnings for private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees rose by 20 cents to $25.45. (Read more from “Shocking Miss: The U.S. Economy Added Just 266,000 Jobs in April, Unemployment Ticks Up” HERE)

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White House Admits it Tries To Get Biden to Shut Up

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. . .[W]ord that the White House doesn’t want Biden to respond to impromptu questions should surprise no one, Fox News reported.

Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said in a CNN interview it’s “not something we recommend.”

She added that many times she tells Biden not to take questions.

“But he’s going to do what he wants to do because he’s the president of the United States,” she said.

Psaki also said press conferences distract Biden from doing his work, and “he would have to answer questions about certain topics.” (Read more from “White House Admits it Tries To Get Biden to Shut Up” HERE)

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