California County Plans to Create Special Task Force to Confiscate Guns From Banned Gun Owners

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Santa Clara County in California has announced a plan to implement a brand-new task force to confiscate firearms from citizens who are not permitted to have them. . .

On Monday, Santa Clara County officials announced the possible formation of what they call a “County Gun Team.”

The sole purpose of the team is to take away firearms from those people who should not have them.

Officials said that approximately 4,600 people annually are court-ordered to turn in their guns, which necessitates the County Gun Team.

Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez requested the county’s board of supervisors to fund the new program, to the tune of $427,000 annually, in order to cover attorney and investigator expenses for the new team. (Read more from “California County Plans to Create Special Task Force to Confiscate Guns From Banned Gun Owners” HERE)

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Bottomless Money Pit: Agencies Dealing With Coronavirus Already Have Record Funding

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Rule number one in government: Never get into a bidding war with Democrats on how much money you want to spend. They have no limit to how much they will spend and will mortgage the future of our children to do so. Trump should heed this lesson as he fights with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer over the level of funding to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.

Trump’s mistake was even offering another $2.5 billion in emergency funding to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS. Everyone is forgetting that HHS already has a record high discretionary spending budget – over and beyond the high levels of the Obama years. If that is not enough to deal with the coronavirus, then there’s something else wrong here. Yet now that Trump promised more funding, Schumer is demanding $8.5 billion in spending. Why not make it $50 billion?

In fiscal year 2018, Trump promised massive cuts to the bloated HHS. Instead, he signed a bill dramatically increasing spending on the very programs he targeted for cuts. The spending level at HHS for that year wound up being 43 percent higher than Trump’s budget request. The budget for the National Institutes of Health was supposed to be cut by 22 percent and was instead increased by 8.8 percent. The CDC was to be cut by 16.9 percent and was instead increased by 14.4 percent.

In total, the amount of spending on discretionary health programs (not including Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, and similar welfare and entitlements) has grown from $56 billion to $73 billion since 2016.

NIH funding for this year is $41.68 billion, an increase of $2.6 billion from FY 2019. That is a total of $11.6 billion in more funding since FY 2016, a 38.6 percent increase. CDC is also at record funding levels.

At what point is enough enough? And if all that increased funding over Obama’s profligate years is not enough to deal with infectious diseases without more emergency funding, then what exactly is the department doing with the base funding?

Aside from the over $700 billion in entitlement spending through the department, HHS gets $105 billion in discretionary funding. Is there really nothing from all their international health programs that could be cut as a way of paying for this?

Trump himself planned on cutting the HHS budget by roughly 10 percent this year. Obviously, there are a lot of places to cut. Why not demand dollar-for-dollar cuts from Democrats?

The problem is that Trump let the cat out of the bag when he said at his press conference that he’ll sign whatever they send him. “With respect to the money that’s being negotiated, they can do whatever they want,” said Trump during yesterday’s press briefing on the coronavirus task force. “We’re requesting $2.5 [billion]. Some Republicans would like us to get $4 [billion], and some Democrats would like us to get $8.5 [billion], and we’ll be satisfied whatever it is.”

This has been the problem from day one. On the one hand, Trump will propose spending cuts, but then he’ll sign spending bills that increase those very programs to record highs, plus sign endless supplemental bills, further increasing spending.

Trump needs to stop relying on congressional Republicans to negotiate for him, because both parties are on the same side when it comes to spending. As Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said, “It seems to me the administration’s request is lowballing it, possibly.” He’s never seen an agency whose budget he didn’t want to increase except for that of ICE.

The issue of public health concerns is not about throwing more money at the problem. Like everything else, it’s more of a policy problem. We need to be less politically correct in dealing with outbreaks by shutting off travel from day one. Also, as Senator Josh Hawley is advocating, we need to better retain our own supply chain for vaccinations and stop relying on China and India through outsourcing and foreign labor. China now produces most of the materials that go into vaccine production. So, what do we do when the supply is shut down because the actual virus stems from China? Those issues don’t seem to bother Chuck Schumer.

Throwing another few billion dollars at hundred-billion-dollar departments won’t make us safer. And Trump will never win a bidding war accepting the Democrat premise that the way to solve a public policy crisis is with more money while doubling down on failed policies. (For more from the author of “Bottomless Money Pit: Agencies Dealing With Coronavirus Already Have Record Funding” please click HERE)

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Ignoring Leftist Outrage, Village People Say Trump Welcome to Play Their Music at Rallies (VIDEO)

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Iconic disco group Village People issued a statement on Monday declaring that President Donald Trump is welcome to their music at his rallies after left-wing activists demanded the group ban him from using their music.

Village People’s classic song “Macho Man” played as Trump entered a raucous rally in Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad, India, on Monday. The president has also previously used the band’s iconic 1978 hit “Y.M.C.A” at various campaign events.

Amid demands from left-wing agitators online screeching that the group ban Trump from using their music, Village People took to Facebook to say that anyone is allowed to use their songs no matter what their political persuasion.

“We have received numerous requests demanding that we prevent or ban President Donald Trump’s use of our songs, particularly ‘Y.M.C.A.’ and ‘Macho Man,’” the group wrote. “With the latest use of ‘Macho Man’ in India, we are being inundated and can no longer remain silent. Since our music is not being used for a specific endorsement, the President’s use is ‘perfect[ly]’ legal.”

“He has remained respectful in his use of our songs and has not crossed the line; if he or any other candidate were to use any of our songs in a manner that would suggest our endorsement, or in a promotional advertisement, that would cross the line,” they added.

(Read more from “Ignoring Leftist Outrage, Village People Say Trump Welcome to Play Their Music at Rallies (VIDEO)” HERE)

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No Human Dignity: Lisa Murkowski Votes Against Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act

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Yesterday, the United States Senate voted on two significant pieces of legislation: the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act and the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. Although a majority of senators supported the bills, both fell short of the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture (i.e., end debate and move to a vote on the bill) and overcome a Democrat-led filibuster. . .

[T]wo Republicans (Collins and Murkowski) voted against Pain-Capable. [O]pponents of the legislation—including the abortion lobby—launched a massive misinformation campaign to deny the need for these bills.

First, they denied scientific evidence that babies in utero can feel pain at 20 weeks. Doctors understand this scientific reality, which is why they administer pediatric anesthesia during fetal surgeries. This reflects an understanding that fetal surgeries have two patients: the mother and the child.

Moreover, the legal framework under Roe v. Wade allows abortion up to the moment of birth. Currently, unless individual states take legislative action to restrict abortion later in pregnancy, abortion on demand is legal through all nine months of pregnancy. According to FRC’s new pro-life map, 22 states allow abortion on demand right up until birth. The United States is one of only seven countries in the world (including North Korea and China) that allow abortion after 20 weeks.

Considering these facts, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is a necessary bill, and the Senate’s failure to pass it reflects a callous and cruel disregard for the dignity and value of human life. (Read more about Murkowski votes on prolife bills HERE)

Detroit Mass Murder Suspect Was a Federal Informant

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Federal authorities ensured Kenyel Brown stayed out of prison, despite multiple probation violations, before he allegedly went on a crime spree that left six people dead.

A federal law enforcement agency requested Brown remain free, even after he continually failed drug tests, didn’t appear for mandated meetings with drug counselors and was arrested for drunken driving while on probation for a federal weapons charge.

“Our court released Mr. Brown at the behest of a federal law enforcement agency,” U.S. District Court spokesman David Ashenfelter said in an email Tuesday. “We cannot elaborate further at this time.”

It was unclear Tuesday which federal agency requested that Brown remain free. At one point, Brown was cooperating with the government by “providing information concerning his knowledge of others who Mr. Brown believed to be involved with criminal behavior in the neighborhood where Mr. Brown resided,” his attorney, Mike Rataj, wrote in a November 2015 sentencing memo for the weapons charge. . .

Court records show Brown, 40, was given multiple plea deals and other chances before he allegedly went on a recent violent crime spree that ended Monday in an Oak Park backyard, where he shot himself in the head as police closed on him. (Read more from “Detroit Mass Murder Suspect Was a Federal Informant” HERE)

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Brown allegedly involved in multiple murders

By George Hunter and James Dickson.

►Brown was linked to a fatal shooting in River Rouge on Jan. 8, Craig said Monday.

►The U.S. Marshals Service Detroit Fugitive Apprehension Team police said that Brown was wanted in connection with a triple shooting — a double homicide and a reported non-fatal shooting — reported in late January. In that incident, which River Rouge police said was Jan. 30, the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the deceased as Dorian Patterson, 48, and Kimberly Green, 52. Both died of multiple gunshot wounds.

►Brown’s spree continued with the fatal shooting of a man in Highland Park on Feb. 18, Craig said.

►Three days later, police and U.S. Marshals Service said Brown was wanted for questioning in connection to another deadly shooting late Thursday on Detroit’s east side. Police said a 41-year-old man was found with a fatal gunshot inside the Next Level Custom Tees shop on the 16000 block of East Eight Mile.

►The next day, on Friday, Craig said, Brown is believed to have been involved in “two separate carjacking incidents within 19 minutes of one another” in Detroit.

►On Saturday, Craig said Brown fatally shot another man “over a drug argument.”

(Read more about the federal informant and his alleged murder spree HERE)

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CDC Confirms Potential Case of Community Spread Coronavirus in U.S.; Flight Attendant Diagnosed With Coronavirus After Trip To LAX; Odd Coincidence – Rogue CDC Official Pushing Coronavirus Panic Button Is Rod Rosenstein’s Sister

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By Breitbart. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed Wednesday a potential case of infection with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in California in a person not associated with relevant travel history or exposure to another known infected patient.

According to a media statement, CDC said:

At this time, the patient’s exposure is unknown. It’s possible this could be an instance of community spread of COVID-19, which would be the first time this has happened in the United States. Community spread means spread of an illness for which the source of infection is unknown. It’s also possible, however, that the patient may have been exposed to a returned traveler who was infected.

. . .

According to a report at the Washington Post, just moments after President Donald Trump’s announcement that Vice President Mike Pence would be heading a task force on the coronavirus, CDC confirmed the new case was a person in northern California who had neither traveled outside the United States nor come in contact with another infected individual.

Trump reassured Americans that the nation was prepared to deal with further spread of the coronavirus if that occurred. (Read more from “CDC Confirms Potential Case of Community Spread Coronavirus in U.S.” HERE)

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Korean Air Flight Attendant Working LAX Flights Diagnosed With Coronavirus

By CBS Los Angeles. A flight attendant for Korean Air who worked several flights out of Los Angeles International Airport has been diagnosed with coronavirus.

The 24-year-old was diagnosed Tuesday in southern Seoul, according to the Korea Joongang Daily newspaper.

The flight attendant had worked flights between LAX and Seoul–Incheon International Airport on Feb. 19 and 20, according to South Korean media outlets.

The woman also serviced a flight from Tel Aviv, Israel, to Seoul on Feb. 15, South Korea’s Center for Disease Control said. She may have contracted the virus from a South Korean church group who were on a pilgrimage to Israel, the Yonghap News Agency reports. (Read more from “Korean Air Flight Attendant Working LAX Flights Diagnosed With Coronavirus” HERE)

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Odd Coincidence – Rogue CDC Official Pushing Coronavirus Panic Button Is Rod Rosenstein’s Sister

By The Conservative Tree House. Earlier today Dr. Nancy Messonnier, an official in the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), held a conference call with media and pushed a panic narrative around the Coronvirus that ran counter to the Trump administration.

What makes the statements by Dr. Messonnier even more interesting is the fact she is the only sister of former DOJ Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Dr. Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (link) told reporters on the call:

“We are asking the American public to work with us to prepare for the expectation that this could be bad.” … “I understand this whole situation may seem overwhelming and that disruption to everyday life may be severe. But these are things that people need to start thinking about now.” (link)

(Read more from “Odd Coincidence – Rogue CDC Official Pushing Coronavirus Panic Button Is Rod Rosenstein’s Sister” HERE)

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Federal Court Strikes Blow to Atheist Activists Attacking Religious Monuments

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A federal court ruled on Feb. 19 that a religious monument in a Florida city park does not violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment. In an important victory for religious liberty, the 11th Circuit decided that the Bayview Cross, a 34-foot Latin cross erected in 1941, can remain standing. The monument represents the city of Pensacola’s history and serves as a symbol of hope. It was originally built to commemorate Easter sunrise services, a traditional Christian holiday.

In 2016, an atheist group sued to have the cross removed from the park and argued that it violated the establishment clause. Surprisingly, a district court judge ruled in the group’s favor and said the monument must come down because “the City’s maintenance of the cross violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.”

Becket, a religious liberty organization, took on the case in defense of Pensacola and the Bayview Cross, arguing that while the establishment clause is certainly vital, a monument with religious undertones showcases historical value and authenticity and is not an attempt by the city to establish a formal religion.

At first, on appeal, the 11th Circuit Court affirmed the lower court’s ruling because even though it seemed like the judges wanted to keep the monument up, they were bound by Supreme Court precedent. Then, the city of Pensacola asked the Supreme Court to review the case, and while that was pending, the Supreme Court ruled on American Legion v. American Humanist Association, a similar case regarding an old, historic cross monument. In that case, the Supreme Court held that a 32-foot Latin cross sitting on a piece of public land in Bladensburg, Maryland, did not violate the establishment clause despite another nonreligious group’s arguments.

Now, this federal court has essentially tossed out its own previous ruling and made a new decision based on the Supreme Court’s 2019 decision. The new federal court decision also noted that an atheist group suing the city over a monument that’s almost 80 years old, causing significant expense and commotion, just because the group is “offended” is “just plain wrong.”

(Read more from “Federal Court Strikes Blow to Atheist Activists Attacking Religious Monuments” HERE)

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Patents Secured for Revolutionary Nuclear Fusion Technology

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Scientists in Australia are making some astonishing claims about a new nuclear reactor technology. Startup HB11, which spun out of the University of New South Wales, has applied for and received patents in the U.S., Japan, and China so far. The company’s technology uses lasers to trigger a nuclear fusion reaction in hydrogen and boron—purportedly with no radioactive fuel required. The secret is a cutting-edge laser and, well, an element of luck.

The laser doesn’t heat the materials. Instead, it speeds up the hydrogen to the point where it (hopefully) collides with the boron to begin a reaction. . .

When the lucky hydrogen does fuse with a boron particle, the reaction throws off helium atoms whose lack of electrons means they’re positively charged. It’s this charge that the device gathers as electricity. (Read more from “Patents Secured for Revolutionary Nuclear Fusion Technology” HERE)

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JPMorgan Chase Joins the War on America’s Energy

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JPMorgan Chase has decided that it’s better for the company to join the progressive environmental gods than to continue supporting the great American energy miracle that has brought so much prosperity, stability, and job creation to this country. Has the Left finally won the war for the heart and soul of corporate America?

During the company’s annual investor day on Tuesday, the giant bank announced it would no longer be financing loans for oil and gas drilling in the Arctic and would divest from financing coal plants or mines. It also announced it would be divesting from any company that gets the majority of its revenue from coal by 2024.

When the Left can’t win at the ballot box or in a democratic debate in legislatures, it seeks recourse through the courts, or even better, the culture and markets. In this case, groups like Rainforest Action Network bullied the bank into submission, publishing a report showing JPMorgan Chase to be the single biggest lender to the oil and gas industry.

At Tuesday’s announcement, JPMorgan committed to investing in $200 billion worth of projects in support of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. That is the company’s credential in the elite world that will make its profits kosher – sort of an extortion that the progressives make companies pay as the cost of doing business in a political system they control.

However, it is never enough for the leftist anarchists, who are now demanding the bank also pull out of financing drilling in the lower 48 states as well.

It’s truly hard to overstate the economic miracle that oil and gas drilling has ushered into our job market. We have now become the global superpower of oil and gas production and exports, to the point that even the conflict with Iran in January did not cause a spike in energy prices at all.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), American crude oil production has hit an all-time record of 13 million barrels per day (bpd). That is an astounding 46 percent increase in production since Trump took office in January 2017. Poor states like New Mexico have benefited enormously with more state revenue and jobs, as oil production has increased 250 percent since 2012.

The more we drill for oil and gas, the more we recover. Far from running out of resources, proven reserves of crude oil have increased by 12 percent since 2017 and have more than doubled over the past 13 years. Likewise, proven reserves of natural gas increased to 9 percent since 2017 and more than doubled since 2005 to 504.5 trillion cubic feet.

Yet the flat-earth progressives are trying to reverse all that progress, which will result in regressive price increases and job losses for the most vulnerable citizens.

The revelation from JPMorgan comes as BP announces it is withdrawing its membership in the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, the Western Energy Alliance, and the Western States Petroleum Association due to concerns about the environmental stances of those trade groups. “Our priority is to work to influence within trade associations, but we may publicly dissent or resign our membership if there is material misalignment on high-priority issues,” said BP chief executive Bernard Looney in a February 12 announcement.

The cancel culture and boycott campaigns of the Left, coupled with a very weak Republican Party, have ensured that the cultural inertia is moving in one direction. Whereas the Left always controlled academia, media, and entertainment, its recent conquest of the corporate world is the key to actually moving the needle of anarchist socialist policies. We are seeing this with corporations boycotting ICE as well.

However, the growth in extremism among those on the Left provides conservatives with an opportunity to finally make these companies pick sides.

Until now, Republicans have allowed corporations to promote fiscal and cultural Marxism on the cheap by saving them from high taxes and a few targeted regulatory issues that they care about. Meanwhile, as we bail out the companies, corporate America has become the number-one enforcer – even more effective than the media and academia – of promoting open borders, endless Middle East migration, weak-on-crime laws, anti-religious-liberty policies, mindless multiculturalism, eco-socialism, and the transgender agenda. Even on fiscal issues, they support the welfare state, Obamacare, and all the regulations that help them shut out competition.

The one missing issue from the Democrats’ portfolio of corporate bosses is the tax issue. If the corporations empowered Democrats on that issue too, they couldn’t survive. Thus they keep the Republican lifeline against Democrats raising taxes and still promote the rest of the progressive agenda. And remember, government-run health care is the single biggest driver of our debt, and that is being fueled by big business.

These businesses also count on traditional establishment Democrats to ease off them when it counts, even as they talk tough to jazz up their activists. Well, now Bernie Sanders is changing all of that. He will actually put them out of business. So now it’s time for conservatives to make them pick sides. They either jump off the bandwagon of progressivism, or we will step back and allow the Bernie Democrats to hurt them at their bottom line. They must remember we’re all in the same sinking ship that they helped destroy. (For more from the author of “JPMorgan Chase Joins the War on America’s Energy” HERE)

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President Trump Appoints Pence to Head Coronavirus Task Force

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By Daily Caller. President Donald Trump appointed Vice President Mike Pence to head the Coronavirus task force charged with preparing for and preventing outbreaks in the United States Wednesday night.

The White House press briefing came hours after Trump returned from a diplomatic trip to India, and he described the current threat level of the disease as “low” in the U.S. His statement echoed that of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar in a Tuesday press briefing, where he described the virus as “contained,” but warned that more cases are expected as borders can’t be closed off entirely. Pence will replace Azar as head of the task force and report directly to the president.

Trump went on to cite a study from Johns Hopkins University that found the U.S. was the most well-prepared nation in the world when it comes to a flu-like outbreak such as Coronavirus.

“It could be at a small level or a larger level,” Trump said of the potential U.S. outbreak. “Whatever happens we’re totally prepared. We have the best people in the world. You see that from the study. We have the best prepared people, the best people in the world. Congress is willing to give us much more than we’re even asking for. That’s nice for a change. But we are totally ready, willing and able. It’s a term we use. Ready, willing and able. It’s going to be very well-under control.” (Read more from “President Trump Appoints Pence to Head Coronavirus Task Force” HERE)

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Trump Says Coronavirus Vaccine Coming Along ‘Rapidly’

By Fox News. As fears spread of a possible coronavirus outbreak in the U.S, President Trump addressed the nation in a Wednesday evening news conference at the White House to discuss how his administration was handling the virus threat — saying that a vaccine is being developed “rapidly” and “coming along very well.”

However, Anthony Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said later at the press conference that a vaccine would not be applicable to the epidemic for a “year to a year and a half,” due to delays from testing, development, production and distribution.

The freewheeling and sometimes confusing press conference marked a rare appearance by the president in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, as he usually takes questions from reporters outside the White House while his Marine One helicopter prepares for takeoff. . .

So far, there have been 60 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S. in total. That figure includes individuals who have been repatriated to the United States, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar later clarified at the podium. Fifteen people were in the initial set of cases, three more came from evacuation flights, and 42 were from the Diamond Princess ship that was quarantined by Japanese health authorities earlier this month. (Read more from “Trump Says Coronavirus Vaccine Coming Along ‘Rapidly'” HERE)

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