MUST WATCH: Biden Says ‘You Ain’t Black’ If You Can’t Decide Between Him and Trump

/0 Comments/in , /by

By National Review. Joe Biden said in a Friday interview that a black voter who can’t decide between him and President Trump in the 2020 elections isn’t really black.

“If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black,” Biden told radio DJ Charlamagne tha God on The Breakfast Club. (The comments come at around the 17:15 mark.)

“It don’t have nothing to do with Trump, it has to do with the fact — I want something for my community,” Charlamagne responded.

The comments came after Biden said his campaign was looking into “multiple” African-American women to pick as his running mate.

Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only Republican African American senator currently in office, slammed Biden’s remarks. (Read more from “Biden: ‘You Ain’t Black’ If You Can’t Decide Between Me and Trump” HERE)

__________________________________________________

Joe Biden Expresses Regret Over ‘You Ain’t Black’ Comments: ‘I Shouldn’t Have Been so Cavalier’

By Fox News. Joe Biden expressed regret Friday during a call with black business leaders for suggesting in an earlier interview that African-Americans unsure about whether to support him or President Trump “ain’t black.”

“I shouldn’t have been so cavalier,” Biden said in an afternoon phone call with the U.S. Black Chambers, addressing the controversy within seconds of the session starting.

The public attempt to walk back the remarks underscored how explosive the issue became for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s campaign in a matter of hours, at a time when he’s working to unite the party and avoid the kind of internal divisions that helped Trump win in 2016.

Biden said he understands the comments sounded like he was taking the black vote “for granted” but insisted that wasn’t the case.

“I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy,” Biden said. “… No one should have to vote for any party, based on their race or religion or background.” (Read more from “Joe Biden Expresses Regret Over ‘You Ain’t Black’ Comments: ‘I Shouldn’t Have Been so Cavalier'” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

1 in 5 Adults Think the Coronavirus Is a Hoax; COVID-19 Vaccine Trials: Massive Testing Planned in U.S.

/0 Comments/in , /by

By NPR. About 1 in 5 adults in England believe the coronavirus is to some extent a hoax, according to research on conspiracy theories by the University of Oxford.

In addition, researchers found nearly 3 out of 5 adults in England believe the government is misleading them to some extent about the cause of the virus, and nearly 1 in 10 strongly agree that China developed the coronavirus to destroy the West — which is utterly false. . .

The research was based on surveys of 2,500 adults earlier this month and published in the journal, Psychological Medicine.

Lead researcher and psychology professor Daniel Freeman said the pandemic has the necessary ingredients to fuel conspiracy theories, including sustained threat and enforced change. He added that those who believe conspiracy theories are less likely to follow government guidance designed to save lives. (Read more from “1 in 5 Adults Think the Coronavirus Is a Hoax” HERE)

_____________________________________________________

COVID-19 Vaccine Trials: Massive Testing Planned in U.S.

By NBC News. The United States plans a massive testing effort involving more than 100,000 volunteers and a half dozen or so of the most promising vaccine candidates in an effort to deliver a safe and effective one by the end of 2020, scientists leading the program told Reuters.

The project will compress what is typically 10 years of vaccine development and testing into a matter of months, testimony to the urgency to halt a pandemic that has infected more than 5 million people, killed over 335,000 and battered economies worldwide.

To get there, leading vaccine makers have agreed to share data and lend the use of their clinical trial networks to competitors should their own candidate fail, the scientists said.

Candidates that demonstrate safety in small early studies will be tested in huge trials of 20,000 to 30,000 subjects for each vaccine, slated to start in July. (Read more from “COVID-19 Vaccine Trials: Massive Testing Planned in U.S.” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

U.S. Billionaires Got $434 Billion Richer Since Coronavirus Pandemic Began

/0 Comments/in , /by

Even as the coronavirus pandemic plunges the U.S. economy into the worst downturn since the Great Depression, some of the wealthiest Americans have seen their collective fortunes increase exponentially, according to a new report.

U.S. billionaires’ wealth has grown by $434 billion since March 18, when the majority of the nation shut down to slow the spread of the virus, findings from Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies’ Program for Inequality show. The report, released Thursday, is based on Forbes data for America’s more than 600 billionaires. . .

The five wealthiest Americans — Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett and Larry Elison — saw their combined fortune surge by $75.5 billion, or roughly 19 percent. Together, they represent about 21 percent of the total wealth growth of all 600 billionaires in the last two months.

The combined net worths of Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, and Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, grew by nearly $60 billion, or 14 percent of the $434 billion.

With millions of Americans stuck at home in an attempt to mitigate the spread of the virus, consumers are increasingly relying on technology for basic needs like groceries. (Read more from “U.S. Billionaires Got $434 Billion Richer Since Coronavirus Pandemic Began” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Pastor Urging Nationwide Reopen to Preach at Church Met With Chicago ‘Thuggery’

/0 Comments/in , /by

The pastor urging churches nationwide to reopen in defiance of coronavirus shutdown orders is traveling to Chicago this Sunday to stand with a church the city fined $500 for holding service this week.

Brian Gibson, pastor of His Church, a megachurch with locations in Owensboro, Ky., and Amarillo, Texas, is going to Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church, one of three the city fined for violating Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s statewide stay-at-home order, according to the Chicago Police Department. . .

His Church pastor points out Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s “double standard” for getting a haircut, but then using government force to block church parking lots and fine congregations: “There’s a ruling caste and you are peasants,” the pastor characterized her actions.

“This is a refugee population that came here from a totalitarian government, had no religious liberties … and what do they find when they get in Chicago?” Gibson added. “They find thuggery, they shut down the streets around their church. These people are harassed … It’s un-American. It’s unacceptable. This is not Romania. This is not China … This is America. . .

Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel founder and chairman representing Elim and Logos Baptist Ministries, also slammed the governor and mayor’s actions as being “reminiscent of mob-like thuggery.” (Read more from “Pastor Urging Nationwide Reopen to Preach at Church Met With Chicago ‘Thuggery'” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

China Overtakes U.S. as No 1 in Buying Power, but Still Clings to Developing Status

/0 Comments/in , /by

China’s statistics agency acknowledged that as early as 2017 the nation’s economy was larger than that of the United States when measured by purchasing power, but it has insisted it remains a “developing country” as per capita output is still only 85 per cent of the average global level.

The World Bank released its new purchasing power parities (PPPs) report for 2017 this week, which showed that China’s PPP-based gross domestic product (GDP) stood at US$19.617 trillion in 2017, while the United States’ GDP was US$19.519 trillion.

The calculation of GDP by purchasing power, using the price of a common basket of goods and services, instead of using the US dollar, provides a more accurate basis to compare economic development levels. If measured by the US dollar, China’s GDP was about US$12 trillion in 2017 and US$14 trillion in 2019, which was still below the US.

China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said China’s number one ranking in PPP-based GDP does not change the fact it remains “the world’s largest developing country”.

Xu Xianchun, a former deputy head of the NBS, published an article on the agency’s website on Tuesday saying that the World Bank study had overestimated China’s economic might. (Read more from “China Overtakes U.S. as No 1 in Buying Power, but Still Clings to Developing Status” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

67K Criminals Released so Far Under Coronavirus Jailbreak. and Crime Keeps Rising

/0 Comments/in , /by

Is this the country for which our soldiers sacrificed their lives?

By now, most Americans are familiar with the shocking stories of everyday Americans getting arrested for simply opening businesses that don’t even attract large crowds. However, fewer are aware of the other side of this dystopian and tyrannical equation. As salt-of-the-earth small business owners are being marched into the jails, career dangerous criminals are being marched out of the jails and prisons in astounding numbers.

According to UCLA, which is tracking this data, 67,000 criminals have been released throughout the 50 states. The majority of the criminals, 43,000 of them, have been released from the nation’s jails, and 24,356 were released from prisons.

Consequently, given that we know the shocking degree of recidivism even among criminals more carefully selected for release, we can add victims of crime due to coronavirus jailbreak as the latest long-term death toll from COVID-19, or at least from the governmental reaction to it.

Remember, this has nothing to do with fear of prisoners dying of coronavirus. Just a few hundred deaths have been recorded out of a population of 2.2 million inmates, lower than that of the general population. In most prisons, the overwhelming majority of those who got the virus have been asymptomatic and are now already immune and have been for quite some time. Thus, there is no reason to release large numbers of convicted criminals, most of whom are young and healthy.

This has everything to do with accelerating an already dangerous de-incarceration movement, which is why you shouldn’t hold your breath and wait for them to be re-apprehended after the virus burns out.

According to a brand-new report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2018, the combined federal and state incarceration rate in prisons had already dropped to the lowest levels since 1996. Over the past year and half since that data collection, that decline has likely accelerated given the recent sweeping jailbreak policies enacted in so many states.

Despite the common complaint of over-incarceration among African-Americans, the incarceration rate fell 28 percent just in the 10 years from 2008-2018. That is for prisons. In the nation’s jails, the incarceration rate has plummeted so steeply that, for black residents, it was lower in 2018 than at any time since 1990. Again, that was before some of the recent law changes abolishing or limiting bail in many states and counties.

As such, those who had remained in prison as of early this year were the worst of the worst.

Consider the insanity of Hawaii. The state has released roughly 38% of the state’s entire jail population. This is a state where there are just 17 COVID-19 deaths overall and no confirmed cases in jails. Yet they emptied them of criminals. In early May, a 20-year-old Hawaiian was arrested for murder just two weeks after being released out of fear of the virus! At the same time, the state has the strictest lockdown in the nation. One man was arrested for posting photos of himself at the beach after the fact!

As I’ve noted throughout this crisis, so many of these criminals are extremely dangerous and have dozens of arrests on their rap sheets, yet they are deemed eligible for release if the last crime for which they are serving time is supposedly “low-level.” In the dystopian thinking of these politicians, that entitles them to a lower risk of dying of the coronavirus than the rest of the country. Yet, at the same time, they have zero problem placing the ultimate low-level “criminals,” aka you and me, in jail with no concern that we may catch the virus there.

The recidivism of these people is unbelievable. According to the New York Post, out of the 276 shooting incidents in New York City so far this year, 19 percent of suspected or arrested gunmen having been released this year. Also, 13% of the incidents’ more than 315 victims were also out on parole. Thus, we have created a shooting war among released criminals. Ironically, they are much more likely to die from homicide than from the virus.

Overall, this year, shootings are up 21% in the city and break-ins have jumped 38%. As of just the first few weeks of the epidemic, the city released more than 1,500 criminals.

It’s not just other criminals who are victims of those released from prison. In Washington State, a career felon who was just released was arrested after allegedly attacking a woman on a hiking trail and nearly choking her to death. A man convicted of armed robbery was released early in Denver and is now accused of murdering a young woman less than a month after his coronavirus jailbreak.

As of 2018, at 23.2 victimizations per 1,000 persons, anyone outside a nursing home is several hundred times more likely to be victimized by a violent crime than to die of coronavirus. With the release of so many more criminals since 2018, that risk has likely grown exponentially. Has anyone asked Dr. Fauci to simulate a model of these forgotten COVID-19 deaths?

Between releasing criminals while arresting small business owners and locking down the healthy while downright infecting nursing homes with 4,300 sick patients sent back from hospitals, this is no longer the country for which our soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice. For the sake of their memory, it’s time to take back our republic this Memorial Day. (For more from the author of “67K Criminals Released so Far Under Coronavirus Jailbreak. and Crime Keeps Rising” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

‘A Year’s Worth of Suicide Attempts in the Last Four Weeks’: Doctor Calls for End to Lockdown; Fauci Warns Overextending Coronavirus Lockdowns Could Cause ‘Irreparable Damage’

/0 Comments/in , /by

By National Review. The doctor in charge of a Bay Area, Calif. trauma center said the state should end its lockdown orders after an “unprecedented” spike in suicide attempts amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’ve never seen numbers like this, in such a short period of time,” Dr. Mike deBoisblanc, head of trauma at John Muir Medical Center, told local station ABC7. “I mean, we’ve seen a year’s worth of suicide attempts in the last four weeks.” He added that he thinks “it’s time” to end the state shutdown.

“I think, originally, this was put in place to flatten the curve and to make sure hospitals have the resources to take care of COVID patients,” he explained. “We have the current resources to do that and our other community health is suffering.” (Read more from “‘A Year’s Worth of Suicide Attempts in the Last Four Weeks’: Doctor Calls for End to Lockdown” HERE)

_________________________________________________

Fauci Warns Overextending Coronavirus Lockdowns Could Cause ‘Irreparable Damage’

By New York Post. Fauci believes many parts of the country are ready for “cautious” and “prudent” reopenings, though he warned that guidelines for social distancing and mask-wearing must still be adhered to, he said during an appearance on CNBC Friday.

“We can’t stay locked down for such a considerable period of time that you might do irreparable damage and have unintended consequences, including consequences for health,” he said.

The National Institutes for Health official has taken heat from Republican lawmakers for appearing to lobby against President Trump’s calls for reopening.

Fauci on Friday said that although state lockdowns are effective as long as cases are surging, the country has hit a point where some regions could begin reopening.

“We are enthusiastic about reopening and I think we can do it in a pace that would be reasonable and would get us back as a society from a morale standpoint as well as the economy,” he said. (Read more from “Fauci Warns Overextending Coronavirus Lockdowns Could Cause ‘Irreparable Damage’” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Secret Chinese Military Data Adds New Terrifying Detail to Coronavirus Reporting

/0 Comments/in , /by

By Isaac Stone Fish and Maria Krol Sinclair. Beijing claims that since the coronavirus pandemic began at the end of last year, there have been only 82,919 confirmed cases and 4,633 deaths in mainland China. Those numbers could be roughly accurate, and in that case a detailed account would be an important tool in judging the spread of the virus. But it’s also possible that the numbers presented to the rest of the world are vastly understated compared to Beijing’s private figures. The opaqueness and mistrust of outsiders in the Chinese Communist Party’s system makes it hard to judge—but learning more about the coronavirus data used directly by Chinese officials is invaluable for governments elsewhere.

A dataset of coronavirus cases and deaths from the military’s National University of Defense Technology, leaked to 100Reporters, offers insight into how Beijing has gathered coronavirus data on its population. The source of the leak, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of sharing Chinese military data, said that the data came from the university. The school publishes a data tracker for the coronavirus: The online version matches with the leaked information, except it is far less detailed—it shows just the map of cases, not the distinct data.

The dataset, though it contains inconsistencies, is the most extensive dataset proved to exist about coronavirus cases in China. More importantly, it can serve as a valuable trove of information for epidemiologists and public health experts around the globe—and has almost certainly not shared with U.S. officials or doctors. (The World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not immediately respond to requests for comment.)

While not fully comprehensive, the data is incredibly rich: There are more than 640,000 updates of information, covering at least 230 cities—in other words, 640,000 rows purporting to show the number of cases in a specific location at the time the data was gathered. Each update includes the latitude, longitude, and “confirmed” number of cases at the location, for dates ranging from early February to late April. (Read more from “Secret Chinese Military Data Adds New Terrifying Detail to Coronavirus Reporting” HERE)

_________________________________________________________

New York Eases Ban, China Reports No New Cases

By Bloomberg. China reported no new coronavirus cases on May 22 and said there are two suspected cases, one local and one that was imported, according to statement posted on website of National Health Commission.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo dropped the state’s ban on gatherings of any size Friday, issuing an executive order saying up to 10 people are now allowed to be together as long as they abide by other social distancing guidelines adopted during the coronavirus pandemic, the Associated Press reported. Hertz Global Holdings Inc. became the latest company to file for bankruptcy amid the pandemic after sweeping travel restrictions destroyed demand for its vehicles.

Singapore’s contact-tracing phone app, “Trace Together,” will remain voluntary for “as long as possible,” Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said in an interview with Sky News Australia. (Read more from “New York Eases Ban, China Reports No New Cases” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

FBI Offered to Pay Christopher Steele ‘Significantly’ to Dig up Dirt on Flynn

/0 Comments/in , /by

By Daily Caller. An FBI offer to pay former British spy Christopher Steele to collect intelligence on Michael Flynn in the weeks before the 2016 election has been one of the more overlooked revelations in a Justice Department inspector general’s report released in December.

The reference to the FBI proposal, which was made in an Oct. 3, 2016, meeting in an unidentified European city, has received virtually no press attention. But it might have new significance following the recent release of government documents that show that Steele peddled an unfounded rumor that Flynn had an extramarital affair with a Russian woman in the United Kingdom.

The inspector general’s report, released on Dec. 9, 2019, said that FBI agents offered to pay Steele “significantly” to collect intelligence from three separate “buckets” that the bureau was pursuing as part of Crossfire Hurricane, its counterintelligence probe of four Trump campaign associates.

One bucket was “Additional intelligence/reporting on specific, named individuals (such as [Carter Page] or [Flynn]) involved in facilitating the Trump campaign-Russian relationship,” the IG report stated. (Read more from “FBI Offered to Pay Christopher Steele ‘Significantly’ to Dig up Dirt on Flynn” HERE)

___________________________________________________________

Eli Lake: Why Michael Flynn Was Right to Withdraw His Guilty Plea

By Fox News. Bloomberg columnist Eli Lake told “The Brian Kilmeade Show” on Thursday that many people became “invested” in the original narrative about former national security adviser Michael Flynn and his alleged ties to Russia and refuse to change their opinion, even in light of the new information that has been revealed.

Lake discussed his new piece in Commentary Magazine, titled “The Railroading of Michael Flynn,” which takes an in-depth look at how the case against Flynn unfolded.

“I thought that when you look at all of the evidence, and a lot of this is evidence that was never shared with the defense counsel until about three or four weeks ago, let alone the public, I think that when those facts are changing you have to change our opinion on this,” Lake told host Brian Kilmeade.

“And unfortunately we’ve seen a number of the people so invested in the initial narrative about Flynn sort of forming a kind of wall around any kind of challenge to it.”

He went on to say that he thinks “it’s unfortunate, because in order for reform to work in our society we need both sides to sort of recognize when new facts come to light.” (Read more from “Eli Lake: Why Michael Flynn Was Right to Withdraw His Guilty Plea” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

How The Obama Administration Weaponized Surveillance Laws To Target Trump

/0 Comments/in , /by

The drip-drip-drip of newly declassified documents related to the Trump-Russia investigation, together with recent reports that a classified leak against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn might not have come from an unmasking request, leaves little doubt that the Obama administration weaponized federal surveillance laws to target Trump associates and undermine the incoming administration. . .

But Obama and Biden and other top law enforcement and intelligence officials need not have committed crimes to have egregiously abused their power. It now appears that Obama officials used intelligence authorities to defeat the entire purpose of the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act—that is, to do the very thing that led to the creation of FISA: spy on their political opponents. . .

Proponents of FISA likely never imagined that warrants for electronic surveillance or unmasking requests might be used by an outgoing administration to spy on an incoming one, but that appears to be what happened in the Trump-Russia investigation and the targeting of Flynn.

We’ll likely know more soon. Sens. Johnson and Grassley have since expanded their request, calling for the release of records related to the unmasking of Trump campaign affiliates by Obama officials from January 2016 to January 2017. The senators say they’re concerned that surveillance of the Trump campaign began long before the FBI launched its counterintelligence investigation, Crossfire Hurricane, which became the basis for the Robert Mueller probe and years of conspiracy theories about Trump colluding with Russia.

We don’t yet know where all this will lead, but it seems increasingly clear that the Obama administration managed to thwart the entire purpose of FISA, particularly its minimization protections, transforming them from a safeguard against domestic political spying into a vehicle for Obama to do just that. (Read more from “How the Obama Administration Weaponized Surveillance Laws to Target Trump” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE