Most Serious Surge in Virus Cases? Coming Across the Mexican Border

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We were told that the governmental interest in ensuring that hospitals aren’t overrun with too many COVID-19 patients was so strong that it superseded the Bill of Rights. All businesses had to be shut, masks must be worn, church services had to be canceled. As Chief Justice John Roberts said in upholding California’s ban on church services, “When those officials ‘undertake to act in areas fraught with medical and scientific uncertainties,’ their latitude ‘must be especially broad.’”

The very first action one would expect a government to undertake to stem the tide of a virus is to not purposely admit people sick with acute cases of the virus from countries with substandard health care. Cross-border travel is not a fundamental right like free movement within the country and from state to state or the right to earn a living, assemble, and worship. Plus, cross-border travel is the ultimate super-spreader.

Amazingly, at a time when politicians and media figures are pushing more lockdowns because of a rise in cases in some states, they fail to inform you that the biggest factor driving the most serious rise is coming from Mexico and is taking place in our southwest border counties. Thus, they are using the malfeasance of our government, which did not fully lock down the border, as a pretext to lock us all down within our own states.

As I’ve noted in recent days, most of the spike in cases is coming from the discovery of more cases through mass testing, antibody tests, multiple positives for one individual, reporting anomalies, universal testing of non-COVID-19 hospital patients and a new way of reporting “probable” cases. This is why, across the country, we are still seeing a decline in ICU admissions and fatalities. Most of the new cases are among younger and healthier people who are largely asymptomatic. However, there is one place where we have been seeing a spike in serious cases and even deaths since May: the border counties of California, Arizona, and Texas.

In Hidalgo County, Texas, last Monday, there were three deaths, more than at any time during the peak.

Mayor Ambrosio Hernandez, the mayor of Mission, Texas, has already instituted a nighttime curfew on the residents of his city thanks to the surge. “Mexico is under reporting by three to five times and when you look at that and the infrastructure among the Rio Grande Valley, meaning doctors nurses, hospitals and ICU beds and if we have to take care of our population here and then uncontrolled infections coming across, because they’re going to seek help, you’re going to totally overwhelm the system and that could be devastating,” Hernandez said.

KRGV reported that there is a shortage of remdesivir in the Rio Grande Valley because of the increase in sicker patients, which has doubled over the last month. Remdesivir has been distributed by the federal government for hospitals to use on patients with serious cases.

What is causing this surge of clearly sicker patients in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, which is the opposite of we are seeing in the rest of the country? Likely, the same thing we are seeing in the border counties of California and Arizona. In Imperial County, California, the San Diego Times reported last month that two hospitals had to shut the doors to more patients “after admitting scores believed stricken with the virus from Mexico’s nearby border town of Mexicali.”

Imperial County is one of California’s least densely populated counties, yet at 40.1 hospitalizations per 100,00 residents, it had the highest rate of coronavirus hospitalizations in the state. That is more than twice the rate of Los Angeles County, which is the largest county in the country and is 57 times more populous than Imperial County.

While it’s likely that illegal aliens are still coming over the border to use our hospital system, we know for sure that green card holders and dual citizens are definitely coming for the purpose of using the hospitals. Already in May, the Washington Post reported that border hospitals were “flooded” with dual citizens and “Americans working in Mexico or visiting family there.”

According to the Post, “approximately half of the coronavirus patients in several California border hospitals, including El Centro Regional Medical Center, are recent arrivals from Mexico.” That figure jumped to 60 percent for Scripps Mercy Hospital Chula Vista, which is located 10 miles away from the San Ysidro port of entry, between May 31 and June 2.

There is a similar dynamic in Arizona. Yuma Regional Medical Center saw a tripling of its cases in late May along with 13 deaths. As border reporter Todd Bensman of the Center for Immigration Studies commented:

I’ve been to Yuma many times. It’s a tiny community on the Mexican border where any entirely local outbreak generating 13 deaths is simply implausible on its face. Not a single word addresses who the patients are and from where they came. The June 7 [New York] Times story finally noted that many of these patients had come in from Mexico, albeit with the questionable assertion that all were green card holders and American citizens.

So border towns have now gone back into lockdown and have even instituted a curfew, infringing upon rights of Americans, all because of an outsized obsession with the phantom “right” to travel across our border. After suffering through the initial deadly wave of the virus, America has now re-imported the original deadly version from Mexico.

Once the spread starts at the border, who’s to say it won’t travel? Kyle Lamb, a data analyst who joined me on my podcast Friday, noted that 24 border counties accounted for 3.6% of the total positive cases over the past 21 days. Prior to May 29, they accounted for just 0.7%.

But not all of them will stay at the border. Lamb also observed that Hispanics now account for 33.7% of all positive cases and 30 percent of hospitalizations.

Clearly, it’s the cross-border travel that has brought it back in. Yes, it’s true that the border counties rely heavily on cross-travel of dual citizens and green card holders. But the Bill of Rights for Americans living in America was deemed nonessential and had to yield to the lockdown. Why wasn’t the international border locked down as strongly, especially with people coming across for the express purpose of getting treatment for the virus we were supposed to keep out?

Remember, while the virus peaked in Europe in March and in America in April, it didn’t peak in Latin America until well into May. Any dual citizen who wanted to come home should have done so in March. Once the border was closed, it should have remained closed, because we were importing more serious cases from Mexico after we had already gone through the peak.

Then there are the illegal aliens who come across to work in the fields. The media went berserk when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis noted that the spread in Florida was mainly among Hispanic migrant workers, as if he was singling out Hispanics. But the operative point wasn’t about race but rather geography. Migrant workers clearly brought in the virus to many southern states later in the cycle, thanks to the work season. We need to focus on where the problem is coming from instead of pushing lockdown for all Americans.

What has become clear in recent weeks is that racial warfare and rioting were able to trump even the new cult of social distancing. Now we know that cross-border travel is on the same superseding level. The media can have their cake and eat it too – keep the border open and then use the fallout to push more lockdowns on us. (For more from the author of “Most Serious Surge in Virus Cases? Coming Across the Mexican Border” please click HERE)

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Russia: Trump Has Sanctioned Us More in Three Years Than Obama in Eight

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference on Tuesday that the Trump administration has made more sanctions decisions against Russia in three years than the Obama administration did in eight.

“I’ve lost count already, trying to sum up the number of decisions made by both the Obama and the Trump Administrations. The Trump Administration, by the way, has already long surpassed Obama’s by the sheer amount of persons and legal entities covered by these decisions,” said Lavrov, as quoted by Russia’s state-run Tass news agency.

Of course, Lavrov did not render this verdict in an approving manner. He grumbled that the United States has grown less interested in resolving international disputes through negotiations than Russia or China.

“Our American colleagues have basically long ago embarked on abandoning diplomacy as a method of conducting business at the international arena. Unless it is a very exotic diplomacy, comprised of primitive simple moves: a demand is put forth, and, unless the demand meets total capitulation, then sanctions are threatened, complete with an ultimatum terms, and, if there is again no capitulation, the US imposes those sanctions,” he complained. (Read more from “Russia: Trump Has Sanctioned Us More in Three Years Than Obama in Eight” HERE)

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German Authorities Placed Children With Pedophile Foster Parent for 30 Years

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Authorities in Berlin placed children with a foster parent who was a paedophile for more than 30 years, researchers have said.

A new study has looked into the practice proposed by Dr Helmut Kentler, a psychologist who claimed paedophiles could make particularly loving parents for troubled children. . .

Ten young people were placed with a paedophile foster parent – who received a regular care allowance and was supervised by Dr Kentler – from the 1970s into the early 2000s, the researchers said. . .

“The study left no doubt about Kentler’s intentions. He used his influence to place children with paedophiles,” an official from the Berlin Senate’s department for education, youth and family said.

However, they said it is “less clear” to what extent officials, especially those in Berlin’s youth welfare services, turned a blind eye or supported the opinions of Dr Kentler, who died in 2008. (Read more from “German Authorities Placed Children With Pedophile Foster Parent for 30 Years” HERE)

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China Develops Weapons to Fry U.S. Electric Grid, Eyes High-Tech ‘Pearl Harbor’ Attack

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With the help of stolen U.S. technology, China has developed at least three types of high-tech weapons to attack the electric grid and key technologies in a “surprise Pearl Harbor” assault that could send America into a deadly blackout, according to a new analysis.

According to the report from the independent EMP Task Force on National and Homeland Security, China has built a network of satellites, high-speed missiles, and “super-electromagnetic pulse” weapons that could melt down the U.S. electric network, fry critical communications, and stifle aircraft carrier groups.

According to the report, written by the task force’s executive director, Peter Pry, long an expert on EMP warfare, China developed the weapons as part of its “Total Information Warfare” that includes hacking raids on computers.

What’s more, despite China’s promises to attack only after being attacked, Pry revealed new data to show that the communist nation is lying and eager to shoot first with “high-altitude electromagnetic pulse,” or HEMP, weapons launched from satellites, ships, and land.

“China’s military doctrine — including numerous examples presented here of using HEMP attack to win on the battlefield, defeat U.S. aircraft carriers, and achieve against the U.S. homeland a surprise ‘Pearl Harbor’ writ large — is replete with technical and operational planning consistent with a nuclear first-strike,” said Pry in his report provided to Secrets. (Read more from “China Develops Weapons to Fry U.S. Electric Grid, Eyes High-Tech ‘Pearl Harbor’ Attack” HERE)

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Putin’s Defense Against Coronavirus Is Straight out of Science Fiction

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One way Russian President Vladimir Putin is defending himself against the coronavirus is by using disinfection tunnels for visitors, according to a Kremlin spokesman.

Putin has one disinfection tunnel at his home in Novo-Ogaryovo and two from the Kremlin, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced Wednesday. Putin has spent most of his time during the pandemic in his near Moscow residence, according to Reuters.

The disinfection tunnel sprays a “fine water mist” on people passing through, state-run media outlet RIA Novosti news reported Tuesday. The spray comes from the ceiling and the sides when someone passes through, according to Reuters.

The tunnels were created and installed by a Russian company Mizotty and used Anolit, a government approved anti-septic, CNN reported.

“Such disinfectant equipment is installed in the Kremlin too, there are even two tunnels there, and in Novo-Ogaryovo, which you know is the main work base for the President, he hold[s] a lot of events there and goes back and forth to the Kremlin,” Peskov said. (Read more from “Putin’s Defense Against Coronavirus Is Straight out of Science Fiction” HERE)

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China Creep on Campus: Dozens of Colleges Fail to Disclose Millions in Chinese Donations

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Dozens of top American universities that received funding from the Chinese government failed to disclose those donations to the Department of Education, prompting concerns from education watchdogs about Beijing’s growing influence on campuses.

More than 100 U.S. universities host or once hosted Confucius Institutes, programs underwritten by the Chinese government that teach Chinese language and culture to American college students. The Department of Education requires all credentialed universities to disclose foreign gifts of more than $250,000, but only about 30 percent of institutions with Confucius Institutes have disclosed their financial ties to Beijing, according to a Washington Free Beacon review of federal records.

The Free Beacon reached out to all 75 institutions that did not report their funding to the federal government; 22 of them responded. A common theme of the responses was that the colleges did not disclose their donations because their annual receipts did not meet the $250,000 threshold. For example, a spokesman from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville said the college declined to disclose its 2019 Confucius Institute donations because it received only $246,711.

Rachelle Peterson, director of policy at the National Association of Scholars, called the lack of accountability at prestigious universities “alarming.”

“It is extremely alarming how little transparency there is,” she said. “$250,000 is much too high of a threshold. Gifts of money at much smaller amounts can be very swaying over a college or university, especially the humanities [departments] which traditionally have lower funding.” (Read more from “China Creep on Campus: Dozens of Colleges Fail to Disclose Millions in Chinese Donations” HERE)

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WATCH: North Korea Blows up South Korea Joint Office; South Korean Troops and Tanks Amass on Border With North After Embassy Attack

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By Straits Times. North Korea destroyed a building that was a key symbol of inter-Korean cooperation, in an apparent attempt to exert pressure on Seoul and Washington for their stalled dialogue.

Smoke was seen billowing from the inter-Korean liaison office building located in the border city Kaesong on North Korea’s side of the demilitarised zone yesterday, following the sound of an explosion.

North Korea’s state-owned Korean Central News Agency later confirmed that the facility had been “tragically ruined with a terrific explosion”.

The move, the culmination of a series of threats and harsh rhetoric, prompted a stern warning from South Korea’s presidential Blue House that it would “strongly respond if North Korea takes any action that further worsens the situation”.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan would analyse the situation and respond in close coordination with South Korea and the United States.

(Read more from “WATCH: North Korea Blows up South Korea Joint Office” HERE)

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South Korean Troops and Tanks Amass on Border With North After Embassy Attack

By Mirror UK. South Korea has stationed tanks on the border with the North, threatening a strong reaction after Kim Jong-un’s regime blew up an embassy building.

Tensions are high on the peninsula after the office – set up to encourage better relations between the neighbours – was “ruined” in a “terrific explosion”.

It has led to fears of military clashes in the heavily guarded Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that divides the neighbours, who are technically still at war, after the North said its troops were prepared to enter the area.

South Korean troops are amassing after the attack on the inter-Korea liaison office in the border town of Kaesong this morning.

The North fired its weapons in a rage after anti-Kim Jong-un leaflets were distributed by defectors branded “human scum” by the secretive state. (Read more from “South Korean Troops and Tanks Amass on Border With North After Embassy Attack” HERE)

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Chinese Military Officer Arrested While Allegedly Trying to Steal U.S. Medical Research

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A Chinese military officer was caught trying to leave California with university research materials this week, after allegedly lying on an application to obtain a visitor visa for a work-study exchange program, the Justice Department announced.

Xin Wang, a scientific researcher and officer with China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), was arrested at LAX as he was attempting to board his flight to Tianjin, China, according to court documents unsealed this week. He faces visa fraud charges.

Wang entered the U.S. on March 26, 2019, to conduct scientific research at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), according to his J1 non-immigrant visa application. The application, however, is said to have contained fraudulent statements — including claims that his service with the PLA had ended in 2016 — that were made to increase the chances that he would receive visa approval.

Officials claim Wang revealed that he had instructions from the director of his military lab to observe the layout of the UCSF lab with the understanding that they wanted to try to replicate it in China. He was also accused of attempting to bring materials to China with him and had already emailed research. (Read more from “Chinese Military Officer Arrested While Allegedly Trying to Steal U.S. Medical Research” HERE)

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Recent Study Suggests COVID-19 Was Spreading in August

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Coronavirus may have been present and spreading in Wuhan as early as August last year, according to a study that analysed satellite imagery of car parks outside major hospitals and search engine data.

The study, by researchers from Harvard medical school, Boston University of Public Health and Boston children’s hospital, looked at images captured between January 2018 and April 2020 and found a “steep increase” in vehicle counts starting in August 2019 and peaking in December 2019. Between September and October, five of the six hospitals observed had their highest daily volume of cars in the period analysed.

China’s foreign ministry rejected the study, calling it “extremely absurd”.

According to the study, the increase in vehicle volume coincided with a rise in queries on the Chinese search engine Baidu for “cough” and “diarrhoea”, about three weeks before the confirmed rise in coronavirus cases in early 2020. The researchers noted that while queries for cough coincided with the influenza season, diarrhoea is a symptom specific to Covid-19. . .

The origins of Covid-19, which was first detected in a cluster of cases associated with the Huanan seafood market in late December, has become an increasingly sensitive question as China fights off accusations that it should be blamed for the pandemic, which has killed more than 400,000 people around the world. (Read more from “Recent Study Suggests COVID-19 Was Spreading in August” HERE)

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‘Determined for War’: China Orders Fighter Jets

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Several Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) fighter jets and a U.S. military transport plane flew in Taiwan’s airspace Tuesday morning, Focus Taiwan reported.

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) confirmed the activity in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon, saying: “[S]everal Chinese Su-30s briefly entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone southwest of Taiwan, and Taiwan’s Air Force responded with radio warnings and monitored their movements until they flew off.”

Focus Taiwan described China’s fighter jet activity as an “intrusion” into Taiwan’s airspace, while the U.S. C-40A transport plane that flew through Taiwan’s airspace earlier on Tuesday was described by the MND as having done so with Taiwan’s permission. . .

Chinese military “experts” commented on the PLA fighter jets’ flight through Taiwan’s airspace Tuesday in an article published by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) newspaper Global Times on Wednesday:

The U.S. warplane’s rare flight over Taiwan showed the increasing collaboration between the U.S. military and Taiwan secessionists, and the Chinese mainland’s fighter jet sorties and approaches sent them a powerful warning and demonstrated how much the PLA was determined and prepared for war.

(Read more from “‘Determined for War’: China Orders Fighter Jets” HERE)

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