Miami mayor urges Wall Street firms to leave NYC for friendlier city


Excellent idea, Mayor Suarez. America is going to see some significant population shifts in the years to come, since more American corporations will flee Democrat States plagued by high taxes.

Miami mayor urges Wall Street firms to leave NYC for friendlier city

City taxes, business environment key draws for big banks, mayor says.

By Fox News, December 26, 2020
Miami’s Republican mayor said Thursday he hopes to draw some of the big financial firms from Wall Street down to Biscayne Boulevard, as a relief from the high tax burdens and other restrictions of New York.

Mayor Francis X. Suarez told “Your World” he is already having success in talks with firms like Blackstone, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.

New York State continues to be near or at the top of the list when it comes to taxation and other categories that businesses take heed of, while Florida does not impose a state income tax among other benefits.
Suarez said that one of the more recent developments that have made northeastern firms question their tenure in New York and the surrounding region is that of the change in federal SALT deduction.
The Trump tax bill capped the amount of local tax that residents of high-tax states can deduct from their federal return. While SALT used to have no limit, the plan maxed out the deduction at $10,000.
New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, previously accused Trump of “trying to kill New York City” with policies such as the SALT cap, further claiming it to be “retribution politics” against Democratic-run states, which tend to have a higher tax burden.
Suarez told “Your World” host Charles Payne he has already seen “an avalanche of people” moving into South Florida from Cuomo’s state, as well as California.
He also touted Miami’s standing as one of the safest large cities in America, remarking that its homicide rate is the lowest since 1954. For its part, New York had for some time been considered in similar straits, but the Big Apple had a spike in violence in recent months.
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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

VIDEO: FL State Senator Joe Gruters’ bill would prohibit businesses from discriminating against a customers’ COVID vaccination status


Florida’s State Senator Joe Gruters (R-District 23) has introduced legislation that would prohibit businesses from requiring customers to show proof of having been vaccinated against covid and/or from discriminating against would be customers who cannot and/or will not show such proof.
Watch the Cape Coral TV news blurb:

What you say? I do not support government intrusion into how a private business is operated.

  1. This bill would stop, in its tracks, attempts by Government to require the general citizenry to show proof of being vaccinated during the course of their normal day-to-day activities.
  2. This bill would stop, in its tracks, attempts by Government to, “under the color of law”, force businesses to become the “vaccination police”

That said, I would rather see legislation that prevents the State of Florida from imposing ANY sort of “must show proof” requirements and let businesses make their own decisions on the matter.
Then, again, when I walk into a bank lobby and some minion tells me I must wear a mask and then, using their bare hands (God only knows where their hands have been), from an open box (God only knows where it has been), hands me an unsealed mask (God only knows who has handled them) and demands that I put it on my face?
Let’s just say that we need something along the lines of Gruters’ bill and we need it damn soon.
Read the Bill here:https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2021/364
©Tad MacKie. All rights reserved.

VIDEO: Elon Musk’s Economic Truth Bomb to Joe Rogan


Elon Musk broke it down for Joe Rogan. What his insights mean for the world’s poor… and for us.

Elon Musk dropped an economic truth bomb on Joe Rogan’s podcast a couple of months ago.
“If you don’t make stuff, there’s no stuff.”
Obvious? You’d think so. But, as Musk pointed out, our economic policies throughout the COVID-19 pandemic have ignored that simple truth.
The prevailing assumption is that the government can press “pause” on the economy throughout the pandemic, throwing millions out of work, and then simply tide everyone over with relief checks.
“This notion,” said Musk, “that you can just sort of send checks out to everybody and things will be fine is not true.”
“They’ve become detached from reality,” he added. “You can’t just legislate money and solve these things.”

Musk’s point is indisputable. Government checks are only valuable to the extent that there is enough actual “stuff” (goods and services) available for those dollars to buy. The more you lock down production, the more our stock of “stuff” will shrink, and the more our living standards will worsen. No amount of zeros added to those government checks can change that.
When “stuff” dwindles, printing government checks cannot magically reverse that impoverishment. It can only do two things:

  1. Shift who gets impoverished by redistributing wealth (that is, access to the remaining “stuff”), and
  2. Delay the drop in living standards by enabling higher consumer spending.

Higher consumer spending means burning through our remaining “stuff” faster instead of investing it in production. This means even less “stuff” down the road.
It’s like if you lost your job and cheer yourself up by splurging on an expensive new TV. Government checks merely make us feel less poor by inducing us to further impoverish ourselves in reality. It postpones the pain today by condemning us to much greater pain tomorrow.
America has a lot of “stuff” to shift around and burn through, so we can delay the pain of impoverishment for quite a while. The same cannot be said for poor countries, however. People there have so little “stuff” that they feel the pain of production lockdowns immediately.
“If you don’t make the food,” Musk warned months ago, “if you don’t process the food, you don’t transport the food… there’s no stuff.”
And now, for hundreds of millions of people around the world, the stark truth of that statement is manifesting as empty stomachs and ruined lives.
According to a new report from World Vision, a global humanitarian organization, as many as 110 million children in Asia alone are facing hunger, and 85 million households across Asia have little or no food stocks as a result of the economic impact of COVID-19 and the lockdowns.
The report also found that as many as eight million children in Asia are being exposed to begging, child labor, and child marriage since parents are unable to buy food in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Our rapid assessments in countries across Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia show that it’s clear we are on the cusp of a catastrophe for children,” said Norbert Hsu, World Vision’s partnership leader for global impact. “Without urgent action we risk an increase in extreme poverty and hunger not seen for decades.”
World Vision’s numbers are no outlier. Similar figures were recently reported by the World Bank.
Hsu doesn’t explain precisely what “urgent action” should be taken. It wouldn’t be surprising if it involved massive amounts of foreign aid, the usual remedy prescribed by such organizations.
But international “relief” is not a real solution for them, any more than domestic “relief” is for us. As Musk said, “You can’t just legislate money and solve these things.”
To meet these massive problems without making them worse, we need to come to grips with economic reality: especially the concept of scarcity, and how it pertains to production and money.
Only then will we fully understand just what we are setting ourselves up for by locking down the economy indefinitely to combat the pandemic. Only then will we be able to make truly informed judgments about the trade-offs involved.
The crisis facing the global poor is a heart-rending tragedy. It is also an ominous warning, the proverbial canary in a coal mine.
If we keep burning through our “stuff” faster than we’re replacing it, we will eventually descend into an economic crisis that dwarfs what we have been through so far, and our fraying social fabric may not be able to handle it.
Like gravity, scarcity can be denied, but it cannot be defied.
“If you don’t make stuff, there’s no stuff.”
COLUMN BY

Dan Sanchez

Dan Sanchez is the Director of Content at the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) and the editor-in chief of FEE.org.

Jon Miltimore

Jonathan Miltimore is the Managing Editor of FEE.org. His writing/reporting has been the subject of articles in TIME magazine, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Forbes, Fox News, and the Star Tribune. Bylines: Newsweek, The Washington Times, MSN.com, The Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, The Federalist, the Epoch Times.
EDITORS NOTE: This FEE column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

U.S. Department of Labor Publishes Final Rule to Implement Legal Requirements for Religious Exemption


WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) today released its “Implementing Legal Requirements Regarding the Equal Opportunity Clause’s Religious Exemption” Final Rule, which will be published in an upcoming edition of the Federal Register. This rule will encourage the full and equal participation of religious organizations as federal contractors. Religious organizations, many of them small nonprofits, provide such essential services as feeding the hungry, supporting refugees, and educating our nation’s students.
Executive Order 11246, which OFCCP enforces, generally requires federal contractors to abide by nondiscrimination and affirmative action requirements. Yet the order also acknowledges that religious organizations may prefer in employment “individuals of a particular religion,” so that they can maintain their religious identity and integrity. This accommodation is patterned after a nearly identical provision that has been part of the Civil Rights Act for over a half-century. The rule provides clearer interpretation of the parameters of the religious exemption by adding definitions of key terms. It adds a rule of construction to provide the maximum legal protection of religious exercise permitted by the Constitution and law, including the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The rule also adds several examples within the definition of “religious corporation, association, educational institution, or society” to better illustrate which organizations may qualify for the religious exemption.
“Religious organizations should not have to fear that acceptance of a federal contract or subcontract will require them to abandon their religious character or identity,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia. “This rule gives full effect to Executive Order 11246’s protection of religious organizations.”
“OFCCP is committed to protecting religious liberty, while ensuring vigorous enforcement of the anti-discrimination laws the agency administers,” said Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs Director Craig E. Leen. “This rule will help ensure that religious organizations can fully participate in federal procurement consistent with the First Amendment and other applicable federal laws.”
The final rule is a deregulatory action under Executive Order 13771 as it reduces confusion regarding the Executive Order 11246 religious exemption. The Department estimates that the rule will yield unquantifiable net cost savings overall. The rule does not change the vast majority of federal contractors’ responsibilities to comply with their equal employment opportunity and affirmative action obligations under Executive Order 11246. The Department expects that the large majority of federal contractors do not and will not seek to qualify for the religious exemption.
In addition to Executive Order 11246, OFCCP enforces Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974. These laws, as amended, make it illegal for contractors and subcontractors doing business with the federal government to discriminate in employment because of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran. In addition, contractors and subcontractors are prohibited from discriminating against applicants or employees because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their compensation or the compensation of others subject to certain limitations, and may not retaliate against applicants or employees for engaging in protected activities. These laws also require that federal contractors provide equal employment opportunity through affirmative action. For more information, please call OFCCP’s toll-free helpline at 800-397-6251 or visit https://www.dol.gov/ofccp/.
The mission of the Department of Labor is to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights.
©All rights reserved.

Director of National Intelligence: Election ‘Issues’ Need to Be Resolved Before Winner Declared


Just Last week, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe also said authorities “have identified that two foreign actors, Iran and Russia, have taken specific actions” to influence the upcoming elections.

Director of National Intelligence: Election ‘Issues’ Need to Be Resolved Before Winner Declared

The top U.S. intelligence official suggested on Sunday that election lawsuits and other issues need to be resolved first before the winner of the Nov. 3 presidential election is declared.

By Jack Phillips, The Epoch Times, December 7, 2020:
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe told Fox Business that issues brought up by President Donald Trump’s legal team have to be heard in court.
“These election issues, we’ll see who is in what seats and whether there is a Biden administration,” he told the broadcaster.
Ratcliffe said that due to the unprecedented expansion of mail-in voting, many questions remain about the results.
“Essentially we had universal mail-in balloting across this country in a way we hadn’t seen before, and to that point, almost 73 percent of the American people this year voted before Election Day, a good percentage of those by mail,” he said.
“That’s about an 80 percent increase over anything we’ve ever seen before, so it’s little wonder that we see what’s happening around the country as a result of that, with mail-in balloting and all of the questions—and the questions that are being raised in lawsuits and by everyday Americans about what happened in the election,” Ratcliffe said.

In the interview Sunday, Ratcliffe made note of allegations that were brought up in recent days, including a truck driver who claimed to have transported hundreds of thousands of apparently completed mail-in ballots from a town in Long Island, New York, to Pennsylvania. He also referred to recent footage obtained by Trump’s team that shows election workers pulling out black, suitcase-like ballot containers from beneath a table after poll observers and other election workers were apparently told to go home for the night at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta.

“But people need to understand that’s different than election fraud issues—things like postal drivers saying they took 200,000-plus ballots from New York to Pennsylvania. Tens of thousands of ballots supposedly mailed in, but no folds or creases in them. More votes than ballots issued in places,” the intelligence chief said. “People pulling out suitcases and video evidence of that with questionable explanations for that. Those are issues of election fraud that need to be investigated and there’s a lot of them and it’s not just one person or one group of people. It’s across the country.”
Georgia election officials said the video showing containers being pulled from the table is not unusual, while Trump’s team said it is evidence of fraud. Officials in Fulton County, Georgia, and election officials have provided conflicting accounts of what happened on the night of Nov. 3, with one Fulton County spokesperson, Regina Waller, telling ABC News and other outlets at 11:30 p.m. on Election Night that vote counting was done for the night.
Later that week, other Fulton County officials confirmed that counting had continued for several hours longer. Georgia’s Republican Party chief, David Shafer, has said that poll observers were not present during this time period.
As a result, Ratcliffe said numerous Americans don’t believe “the votes were counted fairly, that the processes at the state and local level weren’t administered fairly.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

How Big Government Stacked the Deck Against Small Business


Not only did government persecute certain businesses to the benefit of others, it also provided incentives, handouts, and other pork.

Most of us wouldn’t list 2020 as our best year. But you know who would? Amazon, Wal-Mart, Google, Apple, and a whole host of other big corporations who’ve seen their sales and stock prices soar amidst the pandemic.
Small businesses have been pummeled by excessive and insane governmental lockdowns of the economy. Experts warn that one third of small businesses could ultimately shut down for good, and hundreds of thousands have already done just that.
Meanwhile, Amazon’s sales increased 40 percent in the second quarter alone, while their stock price increased 97 percent. Apple hit a $2 trillion market cap, the first publicly traded company to do so, and reported nearly $60 billion in revenue. Since the pandemic began, Facebook’s stock rocketed up 85 percent, Google’s by 50 percent, Netflix by 63 percent, and Microsoft by 57 percent. All saw their revenues greatly increase compared to last year’s numbers as well.
The typical headlines have followed: The Rich Are Getting Richer During the Pandemic, How Billionaires Saw Their Net Worth Increase by Half A Trillion Dollars, and How Rich People Are Getting Richer During the Coronavirus. “Eat the rich,” a rallying cry against perceived inequality, appears all over Twitter, clothing items, and graffitied walls. And for many, the billionaires at the helms of successful corporations provide ready-made villains for society to dump its economic woes, righteous anger, and feelings of powerlessness onto.
To be sure, there is cause for indignation. Small businesses are the lifeblood of America. They comprise the majority of U.S. companies and employ nearly 50 percent of all our citizens. Not only are they an essential part of our economy though, they represent the American Dream – the idea that no matter who you are you can come here, work hard, do the right thing, and build something for yourself and your family.
There is no value more prized than that dream in our society, and small businesses are the tangible iteration of that ideal. To see these businesses and their owners so casually trampled on by our politicians strikes at the very soul of our nation. Millions of Americans are out of work, many others have lost everything they’ve worked to build with little to no recourse. The dream has become a nightmare.
But the fault for this catastrophe does not rest on the corporations, and the anger many feel should be redirected towards the entity actually responsible for this situation: the government.
From the very beginning of the pandemic, government stacked the deck in favor of some companies to the detriment of others. First, they arbitrarily decided which businesses were essential and which could be forced to close. In order to keep people in their homes, which the science shows was never effective at preventing the contagion in the first place, the government had to allow tech businesses to operate at full capacity. Without Netflix, Amazon, and UberEats, few would have agreed to stay in their homes for weeks on end. To a large extent, these big businesses deserve the boom they’ve experienced because they did provide essential needs for people during a crisis. That’s a market response that should be praised.
But, there were many other businesses who could have provided similar services and were not allowed to because the government deemed them non-essential. Part of this is due to the fact the larger companies had the capacity to rev up their delivery abilities, but part of this is because they spend millions of dollars lobbying politicians to ensure they always receive carve outs from the worst government policies.
Not only did government persecute certain businesses to the benefit of others, it also provided incentives, handouts, and other pork in the CARES Act that continued to favor big business. Twenty-five percent of the initial $2 trillion (remember, those are your tax dollars) went to big business, with $58 billion going to the airlines alone and another $17 billion to the military-industrial complex giant, Boeing.
Only $350 billion was earmarked for small businesses, and of that, $243 million “accidentally” went to large companies instead – leading some companies to return the money over the ensuing outrage. All in all, only 5 percent of the first round of PPP loans reached small businesses.
F.A. Hayek once said, “Laws must be general, equal, and certain.” When government intervenes in the economy, it rarely ends up impacting all business owners equally. Most often they end up benefiting those who already have connections and means in the first place.
The free market isn’t perfect. Even without government interference in the economy, many businesses would have been hurt by the pandemic as consumers chose to stay home or purchase alternative services. But at least the system would not have been rigged against the little guy. All businesses should have had the chance to innovate, respond to the emergency, and try their best to stay afloat. It should have been up to consumers, not the government, which ones succeeded or failed.
Cronyism isn’t capitalism, it’s a perversion of the free market and only possible at the hands of government. If we want to address inequality and create a fair playing field, we must stand against these types of government handouts the next time temptation strikes.
COLUMN BY

Hannah Cox

Hannah Cox is a libertarian-conservative writer, commentator, and activist. She’s a Newsmax Insider and a Contributor to The Washington Examiner.
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EDITORS NOTE: This FEE column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

4 Takeaways From Arizona’s Election Fraud Hearing


On the same day that Arizona certified former Vice President Joe Biden as the winner of the state’s 11 electoral votes, state lawmakers held a fact-finding meeting Monday on allegations of voter fraud that might have tilted the closely contested state.
Biden appears to have won the traditionally Republican-leaning state by just over 10,000 votes. However, witnesses told state lawmakers that mail-in voting fraud and problems with the Dominion Voting Systems machines could have skewed the results.
Dominion has vigorously defended its machines, stating on its website:

According to a Joint Statement by the federal government agency that oversees U.S. election security, the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency: “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”  The government & private sector councils that support this mission called the 2020 election “the most secure in American history.”

The left is actively working to undermine the integrity of our elections. Read the plan to stop them now. Learn more now >>

The event was not a formal legislative hearing, since the Legislature is out of session, but Republican members of both the state Senate and the state House of Representatives participated in the panel, asking questions of witnesses.
The event, which began in late morning and ran well into the evening, wasn’t held at the state Capitol, but rather off-site at a Hyatt Regency hotel in Phoenix, with a “Stop the Steal” rally of supporters of President Donald Trump going on outside.
“The purpose of this public hearing, an inquiry into the integrity of the election that just passed, is to provide a forum where no others have been permitted for the president’s litigation team to present the evidence and testimony,” said Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem, a Republican, who organized the hearing, adding:

We are caught between the desire to trust the process and the suspicion that it has failed the people of Arizona, and potentially the people of our sister states. If there is voter disenfranchisement, we must identify its source and eradicate it, as we would any disease.

The following are four highlights from the Arizona legislators’ hearing.

1) 35,000 Fraudulent Votes?

If the allegations are true, the biggest news to come out of the forum was the possible addition of 35,000 illegal Democratic votes.
Retired Army Col. Phil Waldron, a cybersecurity expert, testified that an anonymous email from a Pima County tech provider alleged that 35,000 votes were illegitimately given to Democratic candidates in that county.
“He wanted to remain anonymous, but had enough concern that he wanted to send this to the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice,” Waldron said. “He did not want to be included in the investigation, but the information they recorded is what we would like the opportunity to investigate on your behalf or a forensics team of your choosing. It doesn’t matter to us.”
If the allegation of illicit votes is true, the 35,000 votes would be more than three times enough votes to flip Arizona to Trump. However, the anonymous individual is apparently thus far unwilling to provide a name or sign an affidavit under penalty of perjury.
“So, this coincides with the data analytics at that spike. We weren’t aware of this email until after the fact. So, there were approximately 35,000 fraud votes added to each Democratic candidate’s vote totals,” Waldron told the lawmakers.
He read from the message that said, “The candidates impacted include county, state, and federal election candidates,” and talked about the alleged 35,000 votes added for Democrats.
The anonymous person also alleged Democratic Party members invited him or her to a meeting on Sept. 10 and outlined a plan to add those votes.
The message from the anonymous person, displayed on a screen, said:

When I asked how in the world will 35,000 votes be kept hidden from being discovered, it was stated that spread distribution will be embedded across the entire registered-voter range and will not exceed the registered-vote count, and the 35,000 was determined allowable in Pima County, based on our county registered-vote count.
It was also stated that total voter turnout versus total registered voters determine how many votes we can embed.
Maricopa [County]  embed totals would be substantially higher than Pima’s due to embeds being based upon the total number of registered voters.
When I asked if this has been tested and how do we know it works, the answer was yes, and has shown success in Arizona judicial-retention elections since 2014, even undetectable in post-audits because no candidate will spend the kind of funds needed to audit and contact voters to verify votes in the full potential of total registered voters, which is more than 500,000 registered voters.

Still, Waldron said he would prefer the person identify himself on the record and under oath.
“We hoped this individual would come forward and issue this as an affidavit, but this is significant, and we also noted that the reporting numbers from Pima and Maricopa counties merged Election Day votes with write-in votes, with absentee ballots,” Waldron said. “So, there is no way in the publicly available data to parse those votes into the segments.”

2) Certifying Biden

Top state officials, including Arizona’s Republican governor, Doug Ducey, announced the certification of Biden as the winner of the state’s 11 electoral votes.
The governor tweeted, “Today, we signed the canvass for the 2020 election in Arizona. I’m grateful to the voters, the county election offices, the county recorders’ offices, & the poll workers across the state for their dedication to the success of our election system.”


Arizona House Democrats mocked the hearing in a tweet as a “meaningless waste of time at a downtown Phoenix hotel” and called for state residents to focus on the certification of a Biden victory and other election results.

However, during the hearing, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, spoke out against efforts to certify the election with so many unanswered questions. A former federal prosecutor, he even suggested it might be illegal to certify the vote.

“The vote as it presently exists is false. It’s fraudulent. If they certify it, they are certifying a false statement to the United States of America. Gosh, when I was a prosecutor, that was a federal crime,” Giuliani said.
“It’s clear that the numbers are false. It’s clear that you have included ballots that aren’t properly inspected. It is clear that you are including ballots that are voted by other people,” Giuliani, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, continued, adding:

It’s clear that you are using machines that have been shown to be totally manipulated in other places, and you won’t give us the opportunity to examine those machines. I think anybody who puts their name on that is getting very close to committing a crime.

3) ‘It’s Your Power’ 

Moreover, Giuliani stressed to the Arizona legislators that what the governor and secretary of state say might be irrelevant.
He said in 1892, the U.S. Supreme Court clarified that Article 2, Section 1 of the United States Constitution gives state legislatures the sole authority to select their representatives to the Electoral College as a means of providing a safeguard against voter fraud and election manipulation.
“It’s your constitutional power solely. That clause doesn’t say governors. It doesn’t say Congress. It doesn’t say newspapers. It says state legislatures,” Giuliani said. “The Supreme Court has said you can change that and take that power back anytime you want to, because it’s your power. It’s not theirs. Whatever power the governor or the secretary of state thinks they are exercising isn’t theirs; it’s the legislature’s. You can take it back.”
At that, those in attendance at the forum began to cheer.
“Based on evidence, you can make a determination. What is the right count? How can we get as close to the right count as possible? If we can, then have the courage to select that person to get the electors, because that person won the honest vote,” Giuliani said.
He told the assembled state legislators not to fear the media’s wrath and that if they determined the real, accurate vote, history would view them as heroes.
“I’m going to ask you to fight. I’m going to ask you to implore the other members of your Legislature to stand up to this,” Giuliani said. “Do not be bullied. Do not be frightened. Your political career is worth losing if you can save the right to vote in America.”
That also prompted applause from the audience.
Jenna Ellis, another of the president’s personal attorneys, stressed they weren’t asking lawmakers to reverse the election, but to investigate fraud and determine if the results are legitimate before appointing electors for Biden.
“We are going to ask you, as legislators, to reclaim that authority and to make sure that the people of Arizona and indeed the people of the United States of America as a whole are not disenfranchised by corruption,” Ellis told the panel.
She quoted Founding Father Alexander Hamilton in Federalist 68 noting that state legislatures are the safeguard against corruption.
“You are the last step to make sure that this election is not corrupted,” Ellis said. “We are not asking you to step up and overturn an election. We are asking you to step in to make sure that the corruption that occurred here does not stand.”
However, The Arizona Republic newspaper reported it would be highly unlikely for the Legislature—being out of session—to reconvene to appoint a new set of electors. That’s because it would require a supermajority to call the Legislature back into session. The GOP governor could also call the Legislature back, but he has already agreed the state should certify Biden as the winner.

4) Absentee Ballots, Duplicate Ballots, and 130% 

The Trump legal team also presented information from the Voter Integrity Fund, playing audio of several calls to people recorded as having requested an absentee ballot. Each said they did not do so.
Another witness for the Trump team was Shiva Ayyadurai, a former Senate candidate from Massachusetts and entrepreneur and engineer offering expert testimony on technology and data.
He presented data asserting the only way for Biden to have statistically caught up with Trump after trailing him early on was if the registered Democratic votes were 130% in favor of Biden and negative 30% for Trump. He showed a chart on a screen to explain the findings.
“What’s extraordinary about this graph is, again, we went through many, many iterations, it matches perfectly, near perfectly,” Ayyadurai told the Arizona state legislators. “The slopes match, the curves match. The shapes match. So, what this tells us is that this demographic distribution of allocation of party affiliations is what can generate this.
“I find it highly implausible, because this means that Mr. Biden got 130% of Democrat voters, and Mr. Trump got negative 30%.”
Anna Orth, a Pima County resident and Republican election worker, testified to the committee that she was denied the chance to observe about 2,000 duplicate ballots. Duplicate ballots are usually ballots that are somehow unclearly marked and require further inspection, typically by observers from both parties.
“I was specifically taken out of that room, ushered out, and brought into [another] room,” Orth told the state lawmakers.
COLUMN BY

Fred Lucas

Fred Lucas is chief national affairs correspondent for The Daily Signal and co-host of “The Right Side of History” podcast. Lucas is also the author of “Abuse of Power: Inside The Three-Year Campaign to Impeach Donald Trump.” Send an email to Fred. Twitter: @FredLucasWH.
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A Note for our Readers:

Election fraud is already a problem. Soon it could be a crisis. But election fraud is not the only threat to the integrity of our election system.

Progressives are pushing for nine “reforms” that could increase the opportunity for fraud and dissolve the integrity of constitutional elections. To counter these dangerous measures, our friends at The Heritage Foundation are proposing seven measures to protect your right to vote and ensure fair, constitutional elections.
They are offering it to readers of The Daily Signal for free today.
Get the details now when you download your free copy of, “Mandate for Leadership: Ensuring the Integrity of Our Election System.”

GET YOUR FREE COPY NOW »

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Pennsylvania State Legislature Files Resolution — Disputes Statewide 2020 Election Results


It is indeed happening.

It’s Happening: Pennsylvania State Legislature Files Resolution — DISPUTES STATEWIDE 2020 ELECTION RESULTS

By:  Gateway Pundit, November 27, 2020:
It is clear the Pennsylvania 2020 election was wrought with fraud and criminal conduct.
President Trump led by nearly 700,000 votes on election night.
Democrats dumped hundreds of thousands of votes to steal the state from the Trump Campaign.
On Wednesday the Pennsylvania state legislature held a hearing on the 2020 election issues and irregularities.
One witness described the huge “spikes” in Pennsylvania during the hearing and the crowd gasped.

On Friday the Pennsylvania State legislature filed a resolution to dispute the statewide 2020 election results.

Via Conservative Treehouse:
With mounting evidence of election fraud now visible, members of the Pennsylvania legislature have drafted a joint resolution [SEE HERE] to overturn election results, reverse the previous state certification, and the sponsors promise they will take it to the Supreme Court if necessary.

The Resolution
Declaring the results of statewide electoral contests in the 2020 General Election to be in dispute.
WHEREAS, Article I, Section 4, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution empowers state legislatures, including the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, to prescribe the “Times, Places, and Manner” of conducting elections; and
WHEREAS, Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution empowers state legislatures, including the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, to direct the manner of appointing electors for President and Vice President of the United States; and
WHEREAS, the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has exercised its authority to establish election administration procedures for the Commonwealth, known as the Pennsylvania Election Code; and
WHEREAS, the Pennsylvania Election Code requires all mail-in ballots to be received by eight o’clock P.M. on the day of the election; and
WHEREAS, the Pennsylvania Election Code requires election officials at polling places to authenticate the signatures of in-person voters; and
WHEREAS, the Pennsylvania Election Code requires that county boards of elections shall not meet to conduct a pre-canvass of all absentee and mail-in ballots until seven o’clock A.M. on Election Day, during which time defects on mail-in ballots would be identified; and
WHEREAS, the Pennsylvania Election Code prohibits the counting of defective absentee or mail-in ballots; and
WHEREAS, the Pennsylvania Election Code authorizes “watchers,” selected by candidates and political parties, to observe the process of canvassing absentee and mail-in ballots; and
WHEREAS, the Commonwealth conducted an election on November 3, 2020 for federal offices, including selecting electors for President and Vice President of the United States; and
WHEREAS, officials in the Executive and Judicial Branches of the Commonwealth infringed upon the General Assembly’s authority under the United States Constitution by unlawfully changing the rules governing the November 3, 2020 election in the Commonwealth; and
WHEREAS, on September 17, 2020, less than seven weeks before the November 3, 2020 election, the partisan majority on the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania unlawfully and unilaterally extended the deadline for mail-in ballots to be received, mandated that ballots mailed without a postmark would be presumed to be received timely, and could be accepted without a verified voter signature; and
WHEREAS, on October 23, 2020, less than two weeks before the November 3, 2020 election and upon a petition from the Secretary of the Commonwealth, the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ruled that mail-in ballots need not authenticate signatures for mail-in ballots, thereby treating in-person and mail-in voters dissimilarly and eliminating a critical safeguard against potential election crime; and
WHEREAS, on November 2, 2020, the night before the November 3, 2020 election and prior to the prescribed time for pre-canvassing mail-in ballots, the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth encouraged certain counties to notify party and candidate representatives of mail-in voters whose ballots contained defects; and
WHEREAS, heavily Democrat counties permitted mail-in voters to cure ballot defects while heavily Republican counties followed the law and invalidated defective ballots; and
WHEREAS, in certain counties in the Commonwealth, watchers were not allowed to meaningfully observe the pre-canvassing and canvassing activities relating to absentee and mail-in ballots; and
WHEREAS, in other parts of the Commonwealth, watchers observed irregularities concerning the pre-canvassing and canvassing of absentee and mail-in ballots; and
WHEREAS, postal employees in Pennsylvania have reported anomalies relating to mail-in ballots, including multiple ballots delivered to a single address with unfamiliar addressees, ballots mailed to vacant homes, empty lots, and addresses that did not exist; and
WHEREAS, witnesses testifying before the Pennsylvania Senate Majority Policy Committee on November 25, 2020 have provided additional compelling information regarding the questionable nature of the administration of the 2020 General Election; and
WHEREAS, there remains ongoing litigation concerning the administration of the November 3, 2020 election in the Commonwealth; and
WHEREAS, in 2016, Pennsylvania’s general election results were certified on December 12, 2016, and on November 24, 2020, the Secretary of the Commonwealth unilaterally and prematurely certified results of the November 3, 2020 election regarding presidential electors despite ongoing litigation; and
WHEREAS, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives has the duty to ensure that no citizen of this Commonwealth is disenfranchised, to insist that all elections are conducted according to the law, and to satisfy the general public that every legal vote is counted accurately;
THEREFORE, be it RESOLVED that the Pennsylvania House of Representatives—
1. Recognizes substantial irregularities and improprieties associated with mail-in balloting, pre-canvassing, and canvassing during the November 3, 2020 election; and
2. Disapproves of the infringement on the General Assembly’s authority pursuant to the United States Constitution to regulate elections; and
3. Disapproves of and disagrees with the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s premature certification of the results of the November 3, 2020 election regarding presidential electors; and
4. Declares that the selection of presidential electors and other statewide electoral contest results in this Commonwealth is in dispute; and
5. Urges the Secretary of the Commonwealth and the Governor to withdraw or vacate the certification of presidential electors and to delay certification of results in other statewide electoral contests voted on at the 2020 General Election; and
6. Urges the United States Congress to declare the selection of presidential electors in this Commonwealth to be in dispute. (link)

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

PENNSYLVANIA: Expert Witness — ‘The Biden Injection’ Vote Dump of 600K – 570K Went For Biden, 3200 for Trump [Video]


This is astonishing. By God, imagine what these treasonous destroyers have been doing all along.
WATCH LIVE: Senate Majority Policy Committee Public Hearing on 2020 Election Issues and Irregularities

https://twitter.com/TeamTrump/status/1331680682578501632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1331680682578501632%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fgellerreport.com%2F2020%2F11%2Fpa-hearing-expert-witness-the-biden-injection-vote-dump-of-600k-570k-went-for-biden-3200-for-trump.html%2F
Mayor Rudy Giulinai asked Phil Waldron, retired Army spending  first half of his career just  as a cavalry officer, conducting armed reconnaissance counter reconnaissance. Here is an excerpt from the Q & A:
Mayor GIULIANI: I believe that Greg Stenstrom mentioned earlier, the processing of these ballots through machines. There’s a manufacturer’s specified rate of speed that a number of ballots can image, be imaged and processed. These spike anomalies in this chart of Pennsylvania really show where for us to look forensically
GIULIANI: Could you explain at the very beginning what that line means? “Biden injection” at the very very beginning of the chart …..
WALDRON: So at the very beginning of the chart they all have, where there’s a circle that says on election day. What that indicates is there is a spike in loaded votes of 337,000 plus or minus some votes that were added in there. In one big batch. So that was an anomaly in the reporting normally you would expect to see a smooth curve going up. Not any not any big, big spikes,  that’s kind of what what Greg was talking about the the anomalies of loading And uploading those those votes. So that big spike that occurs there is a prime indicator of fraudulent voting.
GIULIANI:  And that’s 604,000 votes in 90 minutes, is that right?
WALDRON: Correct. This is the 337,000 votes in that period of time
GIULIANI: Yes. And when you look In this entire curve with all these spikes, can you calculate how much of a vote that accounted for Biden and how much for Trump
WALDRON: CLOSE TO 600,000. I THINK OUR FIGURES WERE ABOUT 570 SOME ODD THOUSAND THAT ALL THOSE SPIKES REPRESENTED OVER TIME FOR BIDEN. CORRECT AND HOW MUCH FOR TRUMP? I THINK IT WAS A LITTLE OVER 3200
GIULIANI: Now just just to go back to your original, your original document, this one pager that they all have mail in ballots counted without being observed. Those are the ballots can we’re talking about that when not observed in Allegheny County and In Philadelphia, correct all right 682,770. Now this is the part that is a mystery, mailed ballots sent out 1,823,148 but when you go to the final count of the vote, there are  2,589,242 mail ballots. What happened ….. how do you account for the 700,000 mail ballots that appeared from nowhere.
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Military Information Expert: These systems allow authorized and unauthorized users to cancel votes, shift votes, preload votes vote blank ballots, all in real time
Emergency petition in Wisconsin after finding 150,000 ‘potentially’ fraudulent ballots
EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

NEVADA: Washoe County, Clark County are Counting DUPLICATE Voters, Contested Ballots, Unregistered Voters


From Systems IT and Data Integrity specialist did this study after reading of Nevada’s corrupted numbers.
“All sources are listed all data should be available at the links.”

Bottom line, up front they are counting duplicated ballots; at least in Washoe County, NV.
Their own data says they are to those that are looking at it. Attached is the list of duplicate votes that were counted as of the 9 November 2020. There is no other way to explain it; there are 26 daily files listed where you can look back to the numbers reported if they are still available to the dates and these duplicate votes are still recorded.”

I am trying to get this data to someone that might be able to do something.  My background I am an auditor by profession.  Most of my audit experience revolves around systems and data integrity dealing with large scale data analysis. E.g. millions of records.
What I am going to say I can prove and I can prove with public files that were and hopefully still are available to anyone.  (I have a set of these files that are unmodified from download as well)
Sources:
https:// www. washoecounty.us/voters/files/20_general_ab_ev_files/[File_Name_Goes_Here]
**Note: [File_Name_Goes_Here] = one of the file names mentioned below
File Types and Names:
General Election Voter registration Files:
ab_ev_file_MM_DD_YY.xls
These are daily general election voter registration and ballot files for that date.
The files will show the date and time they were created when downloaded and will also show who they were last saved by for example Deanna Spikula.  Not sure who it is but it is the name of the person that saved the files.
ab_ev_file_10_12_20.xlsx
ab_ev_file_10_14_20.xlsx
ab_ev_file_10_15_20.xlsx
ab_ev_file_10_16_20.xlsx
ab_ev_file_10_17_20.xlsx
ab_ev_file_10_18_20.xlsx
ab_ev_file_10_19_20.xlsx
ab_ev_file_10_20_20.xlsx
ab_ev_file_10_21_20.xlsx
ab_ev_file_10_22_20.xlsx
ab_ev_file_10_23_20.xlsx
ab_ev_file_10_24_20.xlsx
ab_ev_file_10_25_20.xlsx
ab_ev_file_10_26_20.xlsx
ab_ev_file_10_27_20.xlsx
ab_ev_file_10_28_20.xlsx
ab_ev_file_10_29_20.xlsx
ab_ev_file_10_29_20.update.xlsx
ab_ev_file_10_30_20.xlsx
ab_ev_file_11_2_20.xlsx
ab_ev_file_11_5_20.xlsx
ab_ev_file_11_6_20.xlsx
ab_ev_file_11_7_20.xlsx
ab_ev_file_11_8_20.xlsx
ab_ev_file_11_9_20.xlsx
ab_ev_file_11_10_20.xlsx
ab_ev_file_11_11_20.xlsx
Inactive Voter Files:
These are the lists of inactive voters by date.
inactive_voters_9_17_20.xlsx
inactive_voters_9_19_20.xlsx
inactive_voters_9_24_20.xlsx
inactive_voters_10_1_20.xlsx
inactive_voters_10_22_20.xlsx
Primary Election Voter File:  This is the registered voters for the primary election dated 21 May 2020.
av_multi_file_5_21_20.xlsx
Test Summaries:
Voters that voted in the Primary Election who where moved to inactive voters:
(This is derived from using Washoe county file ‘av_multi_file_5_21_20’ crossed to ‘inactive_voters_10_1_20’)
A total of 12,476 registered voters removed; of the 12,476 registered voters removed 10,562 of them were challenged ballots in the primary election.  IN the general election 1,452 (11.64%) of the voters removed were added back.  Then of those added back 1,452 voters added back 1,188 (81.81%) were challenged votes in the primary election.
New Registered Voters by Date:
This looks at the net number of voters registered on a date using the file ab_ev_file_11_9_20.xlsx (test was done on 10 November 2020).  I closed the gap to go from 01 January 2017 forward.  (Note: It there is also another date anomaly in 1 January 1991 )
There are 24 days where the daily new registered voters were over 3 Standard Deviations (up to 10 standard deviations).
In those 24 days, 23,201 voters were registered of which 18,381 voted. So that is 7.77% of the votes cast.  Of those registered voters 7,477 were 50 or older.
Additionally, the county is using an inconsistent method to add inactive voters back to the registered voters.  What I mean is in some cases the voter registration date stays the same and in some cases they change the to a different date (No clear rhyme or reason for this).
Voter Registration date to ballot received:  
This is just looking at the date the individual was added to the voter registration file data set to the date they registered to vote and to the date their ballot was received.
File Used: ab_ev_file_11_9_20.xlsx
Then there are 2,038 voters that were entered into the ‘system’ prior to their registration date.  OF the 2,038 voters 422 (20.71%) of them had ballots received and counted prior to being registered to vote.
Duplicate Voters:
This looked for duplicate voters in the list by voter ID number.  File used: ab_ev_file_11_9_20.xlsx was used.
In that file you will see 7,637 duplicate votes (based on Voter ID Number):
3,757 ‘people’ voted 2 Times
40 ‘people’ Voted 3 Times
1 ‘person’ voted 4 times
Non Verified Voters or Votes (unsure of the field meaning, but from what I can tell it looks like votes not voters):
File used: ab_ev_file_11_11_20.xlsx
In this file 236,452 votes showing as received.  Of the 236,452 votes 130,398 (55.15%) are classified as verified and 106,054 (44.85%) are classified as not verified.
General Election Voter File changes by date:
This looks at changes in the daily file to see what was in a previous date file and not in a prior date file.
Files Used: ab_ev_file_10_12_20.xlsx forward three days to the end

File 1 File 1 Records File 2 File 2 Records Voters In File 1 and Not File 2 Ballots in File 1 and Not File 2
14-Oct-20              296,375 17-Oct-20              298,779                 244                   37
17-Oct-20              298,779 20-Oct-20              299,262                 108                   19
20-Oct-20              299,262 22-Oct-20              299,692                 118                   30
22-Oct-20              299,692 25-Oct-20              300,796                 127                   27
25-Oct-20              300,796 28-Oct-20              302,169                 104                   21
28-Oct-20              302,169 2-Nov-20              303,959                 148                   30
2-Nov-20              303,959 5-Nov-20              303,988                   29                     8
5-Nov-20              303,988 8-Nov-20              303,745                 269                   40
8-Nov-20              303,745 11-Nov-20             303,679                   81                   38
            1,228                 250

Net minimum number of voters added: 8,532  [7,304 from file record changes + 1,228 from dropped records]
Ballots cast that vanished: 250 (This is also the minimum number)
Other Odd items:
File used: ab_ev_file_11_11_20.xlsx
There are three ‘people’ that are 120 years old that voted: ( 1.ASTELLANOS-RAMIREZ, DARLA MARY / 2. SHAMIM, ZOAYLA NAIMA / 3. PUSZKIEWICZ, HUNTER RENEE)
Multi County Registered Voters:
File used: ab_ev_file_11_11_20.xlsx, Clark County Voter Registration Files from their website, Elko County Voter Files from their website.
Elko and Washoe County have an fairly easy to identify 40 or so individuals that are registered to vote in both counties.
Washoe and Clark County have a large number that need to be looked into.  From a first name, middle name, last name, and birthdate/year cross  there are 478.  Some of these have the same addresses listed but flipped.  Etc.
The Affidavit field for registered voters is not done in a constant manner.  (file: ab_ev_file_11_11_20.xlsx) There are multiple people that have the same affidavit number.  That number should the form of ID used to register and some type of serial number.
Also regarding the affidavit, there are people using a federal form used for military voters to vote when those individuals are clearly not in the military (out of state voters; and in some cases in state voters).
Why is the birthplace in this file not being consistently used?  Example: 36,126 registered voters that cast ballots in the general election… Washoe county does not even know where they are born???
Logic Test:
This is just the logic test to why the above is important.
The last time I checked the news is saying (Politico):
Biden: 126,098
Trump: 114,614
Total Votes: 240,712
(Source Politico 2020 Election Results for NV; 09 NOV 20)
File ‘ab_ev_file_11_9_20.xlsx’ was showing a total of 236,473 Ballots Received.  What that means is they are counting duplicate voters in those numbers and they are counting contested ballots in those numbers and they are counting unregistered voters in those numbers.
Votes cast: 236,473
Duplicate Votes <7,637>
Challenged Votes <13,275>  * Note: Up to because some of the duplicate votes were caught as challenged.
Other min County duplicates <500> *note just rounding
Removed after primary vote challenge <1,188>  This one should have everyone scratching their head
Added prior to registering  <2,037>
Net first glance Questionable <24,638>  (10.42% of 236,473)    
(Note: Politico is showing a 11,368 vote spread…. So those are over twice the number of the spread)
Votes after questionable: 211,835

I am sorry but this is, in my opinion, is unacceptable.  This is one the worst sets of data that I have seen in my life, in terms of any of it being creditable.  There are clearly no controls in place.  If there are no controls in place the data does need to be audited.

If at first glance I see 10.42% are highly suspicious there is an issue.
This does not even include the magical numbers of records that just appear in this file on the same second.
This does not include the number of voters that are using the same phone number or same addresses.  The out of proportion batch processing of ballots where there are groups that have an average age of 72.
Someone needs to be looking at the data and questioning it.  They need to be pulling those ballots and looking with their own eyes.
If the country knew the above what do you think they would believe?  Do you think that they would have any faith in the system with the data LITERALLY SHOWS THE NEWS AND THE COUNTY ARE COUNTING ALL VOTES AS BEING VALID.
Final Washoe Election Results… https://gis.washoecounty.us/agolHost?id=ElecGEN2020
Those duplicate votes are counted and have been counted this whole time… to included the unvalidated votes and the unvalidated challenged votes.
If you want a systemic issue I literally just handed it to you.  Everything above literally says this is a systemic issue.  I can send the lists of what I have if you are interested.  You can literally recreate everything I said using the referenced data listed.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Domestic Violence More Than Doubled Under Lockdowns, New Study Finds


New research shows that domestic violence surged during quarantine.

The unintended consequences of the COVID-19 lockdowns have been severe: mass unemployment, increased drug overdoses and suicides, and widespread social unrest are but a few of them.
On Monday, the National Bureau of Economic Research released a paper detailing another: increased domestic violence.
Analyzing government-mandated lockdowns in India, researchers Saravana Ravindran and Manisha Shah found evidence of a 131 percent increase in complaints of domestic violence in May 2020 in “red zone districts,” or districts that experienced the strictest lockdown measures, relative to districts that had less strict measures (“green zones”).
The researchers, who used a difference-in-differences empirical strategy, found the increase in domestic violence complaints was consistent with a surge in Google search activity for terms related to domestic violence over the same period.
The authors’ findings “contribute to a growing literature on the impacts of lockdowns and stay-at-home policies on violence against women during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The findings, which also found a decline in reported sexual assaults because of decreased mobility, are similar to those from research that found lockdowns led to a 100 percent increase in intimate partner violence calls in Mexico City. A study analyzing data from police departments in four US cities showed smaller increases in domestic violence, 10-27 percent, during lockdown periods.
Globally about one-third of women experience “intimate partner violence” (IPV), which negatively impacts female earnings, labor participation, earnings, mental health, and household consumption.

The global increase in domestic violence during the lockdown period has received relatively little attention, though CNN recently reported on the increase south of the US border.
In Mexico, federal lawmakers shut down most of its economy on March 23, urging people to stay indoors. Activists told the network the action spurred “an onslaught of domestic violence,” and data show 911 calls for domestic violence are up 44 percent from the same time the previous year.
“The lockdowns triggered violence in so many ways,” Perla Acosta Galindo, Director of Más Sueños A.C., a women’s community center, told CNN. “People can’t work, there’s alcoholism, overcrowding; it’s a lot.”

To some degree, the COVID pandemic has been portrayed as a morality play. Some would have you believe those who care about people support lockdowns; those who don’t care about people oppose them. We’re presented with false choices: we can support the economy or protect American lives.
These types of arguments only serve to divide. They can also obscure a basic truth: there are human costs to lockdowns, besides the economic ones, that can ravage lives just as badly as any disease.
The Washington Post, for example, recently reported on ”a hidden epidemic within the coronavirus pandemic”: drug overdoses. One Ohio coroner said he can’t process the bodies fast enough.
“We’ve literally run out of wheeled carts to put them on,” Anahi Ortiz told the paper.
Statistics suggest the trend is national in scope. Data from the Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program show that overdoses were up 18 percent in March, 29 percent in April, and 42 percent in May from the same periods the previous year.
These statistics should come as no surprise. Social scientists have been writing about the deadly consequences of social isolation for years.
It’s not just higher stress levels, disrupted sleep patterns, and altered immune systems. One 2015 study determined that social isolation substantially increased the risk of stroke (32 percent) and heart disease (29 percent).
Social isolation is also linked to suicide. While there is no comprehensive 2020 data on suicides, anecdotal evidence suggests many are struggling to cope with quarantine life. In May, during the peak of the lockdowns, one California doctor told local media his hospital has seen “a year’s worth of suicide attempts in the last four weeks.”

As the French economist Frédéric Bastiat stressed, every policy, “produces not only one effect, but a series of effects.” The immediate and intended effects are what he calls “the seen,” while the indirect, unintended consequences are “the unseen.” “The seen” usually gets all the attention, while “the unseen” often goes neglected.
In this case, “the seen” are the victims of the virus and those who hopefully avoid spreading or catching the disease because of the lockdowns. They are, without a doubt, worthy of our care and attention.
But we also must not ignore “the unseen”: the millions of human beings who, as a result of the lockdowns, have become victims of domestic violence, drug overdoses, depression, suicide, and more.
As Antony Davies and James Harrigan wrote, “The uncomfortable truth is that no policy can save lives; it can only trade lives.” It may one day be determined that the lockdowns saved more lives than they destroyed, although recent evidence suggests the correlation between lockdown severity and COVID-19 deaths is weak. But let’s not underestimate the devastating human toll of this policy.
The lives ruined or snuffed out by the lockdowns deserve better than that. They deserve to be seen.
COLUMN BY

Jon Miltimore

Jonathan Miltimore is the Managing Editor of FEE.org. His writing/reporting has been the subject of articles in TIME magazine, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Forbes, Fox News, and the Star Tribune. Bylines: Newsweek, The Washington Times, MSN.com, The Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, The Federalist, the Epoch Times.
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EDITORS NOTE: This FEE column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

VIDEO: THE LIE — It will be proven false.



TRANSCRIPT
Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary.
All the cheats and liars are issuing calls for unity and peace now that they appear to have the upper hand.
On the political scene, it was fake-Catholic Joe Biden’s primary point in his speech to the nation on Saturday night. Meanwhile, those who do and will control him — like Occasional Cortex as just one example — are saying things like lists need to be created of Trump supporters so they can be shut out of society once the Marxists assume power.
And yes, that’s exactly what she said: Keep a database of Trump supporters to ensure they don’t get hired later on. She also took to Twitter saying, “Is anyone archiving these Trump sycophants for when they try to downplay or deny their complicity in the future?”
And if that’s not enough, the blacklist is being pushed by an ex-Obama sportsperson as well. But some stalwarts on the right like the chairman of the American Conservative Union, Matt Schlapp, took to Twitter and said this about the fake calls for getting along: “For Democrats calling for unity, you may want to actually stop counting illegal votes in Nevada first.”
And he could have continued on much more extensively from there — illegal votes and counting are occurring in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.
On this matter, according to a survey released this morning by Rasmussen, two weeks before the election, only 6% of voters thought their votes would be counted correctly. Today, that number has more than quadrupled to a whopping 28%. More than a quarter of the U.S. population has serious doubts that their vote was treated fairly.
Add to that that findings from Monday show 70% of Republicans believe the election was neither fair nor free. These are gigantic numbers, and they reflect the reality that if Biden is sworn in, a large number of Americans will regard his presidency as illegitimate — because he and the Marxist Democratic machine (which has control of nearly all the states in question) simply cheated and cheated on a grand scale.
For more than four years, Americans were dragged through the daily bombardment of a pack of lies about Trump and anything they could pin on him — Russia, Ukraine, COVID, racism, rioting, the economy. If it could stick, they threw it at him.
The Democrats traffic in lies and so too do a number of Republicans who are in league with them in the swamp. And speaking of the swamp, the U.S. bishops as a body have been just as despicable, actually more so.
And the release yesterday of the long-awaited McCarrick Report drives that point home even further. Pope Francis is completely exonerated from any guilt or complicity in resurrecting McCarrick. So too are the closest associates of McCarrick, who are believed unquestioningly when they claim they were “shocked” to learn of this for the “first time” in the Summer of Shame.
It was all the fault of a canonized saint, the report concludes — and a handful of dead guys and Abp. Vigano. The report goes on for huge portions about the details of McCarrick’s foul deeds, like we all didn’t know that already, salacious details aside.
But when it comes to revealing certain things like the network that protected him, cooperated with him, personally profited by protecting him with their silence, it falls completely silent, except of course for naming the dead guys. And Vigano.
The report is, as long suspected, a giant whitewash, admitting mostly what was already known and reported by outfits like Church Militant (as well as many in the secular media).
For example, it speaks of McCarrick being well known for his cash payments — the “envelope culture” it’s called — detailing that he used to hand out envelopes full of large cash payments, but it steers very clear of saying whom he gave those to.
McCarrick handed out cash payments — large sums of money — for decades, especially to many in Rome. He used to carry that cash in his diplomatic pouch while traveling. But it’s certainly strange that the report confesses that again (since it is already well known) but deliberately fails to say who got the cash.
Likewise, the most well-known victim of “Uncle Ted,” a man who endured almost two decades of reprehensible abuse, James Grein, is never mentioned by name. His entire life is reduced to a mere footnote near the end of the report, and only then in reference to John Paul.
To have assembled a report on McCarrick with no reference to Grein whatsoever would be like issuing a study on the Scriptures without writing one syllable about the Holy Spirit. Unless you are a person fascinated with details about something you already have a working knowledge of, this report is a waste of time.
The very information so urgently sought of Pope Francis simply is not there. It can’t be. His inner circle, those who owe their careers to McCarrick, are the very ones advising and counseling the Pope — and Pope Francis knows that.
So what’s the relationship between the lies coming from the political Left and the deception coming from Rome? They are both pretending to want unity, but they despoil the word. Faithful Catholics and conservative Americans have simply lost trust in the respective institutions and those who run them.
Giant tech, Joe Biden, news media, higher education, you name it: They are no longer to be trusted. Likewise with Rome, a cesspool of deceit and cover-up. And neither camp is ever held to account — in this life, that is.
They want a phony unity, built on the lie. And what is the lie? The lie is that what matters is this world and this world alone, with no reference to God. The political Marxists out and out deny God and instrumentalize the good of the earth.
The theological Left doesn’t out and out deny God, but they instrumentalize the things of God. But each group is serving the Devil. Period. There is no such thing as unity built on a lie. Unity can only be had when it is built on truth.
The Vatican as well as Washington, D.C. have placed themselves in the service of the lie — both politically and theologically. This must be resisted with every fiber of your being. You must fight this evil — even if you have to die in the fight. But surrender is not an option.
Compromise with the Devil (in politics and especially morality) is how a person’s earthly life and, most especially, eternal life are doomed.
©Church Militant. All rights reserved.
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PODCAST: Trump and Supporters Wage Legal Battles Across U.S.


GUESTS AND TOPICS:

HANS VOT SPAKOVSKY
Hans von Spakovsky is an authority on a wide range of issues – including civil rights, civil justice, the First Amendment, immigration, the rule of law and government reform — as a senior legal fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. His analysis and commentary have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, Politico, Human Events, National Review Online and Townhall. Along with John Fund, he is the co-author of Who’s Counting? How Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote at Risk and Obama’s Enforcer: Eric Holder’s Justice Department
TOPIC: Trump and supporters wage legal battles across US!
REV. BEN JOHNSON
Rev. Ben Johnson is a managing editor of the Acton Institute’s flagship publication, Religion & Liberty. He also work focuses on the principles necessary to create a free and virtuous society in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. His writings have appeared in The (UK) Guardian, Human Events, The Stream, Real Clear Policy, Aleteia.org, Conservative Review, The Daily Caller, and have been cited by National Review, CBS News, and Fox News. He was managing editor of FrontPage Magazine and U.S. Bureau Chief at LifeSiteNews. He is the author of two books on tax-exempt foundations, as well as Party of Defeat (2008, Spence, with David Horowitz). Before turning to online journalism and editing, he spent more than a decade in all facets of radio broadcasting, including news and talk.
TOPIC: Kamala Harris’ ‘Equality vs. Equity’ video endorses injustice and discrimination.
TRACY BEANZ
Tracy Beanz is an investigative journalist and Editor-in-Chief at UncoverDC whose sole focus is the truth. While writing for UncoverDC, she has brought the intricate details of several major stories to light, including corruption at the highest levels of the government. Her tireless dedication has earned her a reputation for a dogged commitment to truth. A sought-after guest on major talk radio and television shows, She is also a social media phenom, in addition to her website, Tracy hosts a popular podcast and has amassed nearly 245,000 twitter followers, garnering retweets from other influential people including President Donald Trump, members of Congress and notable newsmakers.
TOPIC: A Republic, If You Can Keep It!

©Conservative Commandoes Radio. All rights reserved.

Trump suspended entry of migrants from Syria, Somalia, and Yemen over terror risk, Biden could admit 125,000


What could possibly go wrong? Celebrate diversity, you greasy Islamophobe!
“US Cuts Refugee Admissions, Creating Doubt for Tens of Thousands of Applicants,” by Aline Barros, VOA, November 6, 2020 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

The United States will admit a maximum of 15,000 refugees for fiscal 2021, an all-time low, according to a notice the Trump administration published Friday in the Federal Register.
The administration also suspended entry of most refugees from Syria, Somalia and Yemen, citing terrorism risks….
Humanitarian organizations told VOA the number of Syrian, Somali and Yemeni refugees already referred for resettlement in the U.S. was almost double the number established by the cap.
As of October 27, nonprofit groups confirmed that 27,023 individuals were in the “pipeline” for resettlement in the United States, pending security checks.
The breakdown among the countries was 12,924 from Somalia, 14,084 from Syria and 15 people from Yemen, according to two humanitarian organizations….
Contacted by VOA, a State Department spokesman declined to comment on whether refugees from Somalia, Yemen and Syria already in the resettlement process would be rejected based on their nationality or the lowered refugee cap.
Friday’s notice specifies that exceptions can be made for refugees of the three restricted nations “who have been persecuted or have a well-founded fear of persecution on account of religion” or were referred by a U.S. embassy….
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden vowed during the campaign to raise the refugee admissions ceiling to 125,000….

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

Joe Biden’s ‘Transition Agenda’ is Full of Big Government Power Grabs


Biden’s rhetoric focuses on restoring order and stability amid emergency, but the details of his transition agenda involve a radical upheaval of our economy.

Joe Biden plans to hit the ground running after Inauguration Day.
Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, have released a sweeping transition agenda they hope to implement after taking power. It focuses on several main issues: COVID-19, economic stimulus, racial equity, and climate change.
While Biden campaigned as a moderate Democrat, this transition agenda is very radical. It includes a whole host of policies that go far beyond the “return to normalcy” rhetoric that defined his campaign.


For example, Biden promises to respond to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic by further making use of the Defense Production Act. The emergency law allows the federal government to seize control of private industries and dictate their manufacturing. Biden says he would use this power to commandeer more private manufacturers and force them to build up the US’s supply of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE).
Biden also says he would use the COVID-19 crisis as cause to push for a massive expansion of government control of Americans’ healthcare.
Per his transition website, Biden will push for a government-run “public option” that “competes” with private health care companies.
As Pacific Research Institute healthcare analyst Sally Pipes has explained, this would lead to socialized healthcare in short order. Why?
Well, the government can force medical providers to accept lower rates and subsidize itself. Businesses can’t. No private company can “compete” with an institution that writes the rules of the game. They could eventually all go out of business, leaving just the government.
Biden says this plan is needed in the name of emergency pandemic response. But his public option would prove more than a short-term measure—it would almost certainly put the US on the path to permanent government-run healthcare for all.
On the economic front, Biden’s rhetoric focuses on restoring order and stability, but the details of his transition agenda involve a radical transformation of our economy toward more state control and intervention.
For example, Biden’s emergency economic recovery plan includes permanently implementing a federal $15 minimum wage. Slipped into his crisis response, this provision would put national price controls on the labor market and, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, eliminate millions of jobs.
That’s right: Biden has snuck a highly-debated big-government economic policy into the fine print of his COVID-19 emergency plan. And this quiet economic overhaul extends beyond the minimum wage.
“This is no time to just build back to the way things were before, with the old economy’s structural weaknesses and inequalities still in place,” reads Biden’s transition website. “This is the moment to imagine and build a new American economy for our families and the next generation.”
This overhaul would include a federal bailout for bankrupt state and local governments and further expansion of what was supposed to be a short-term, ultra-generous augmentation of unemployment benefits. Indeed, remember the benefits that paid 70 percent of the unemployed more to stay home on welfare than to go back to work?
Biden wants to extend what was sold as an emergency measure. (And, I’m sure, extend it after that, and after that…)
The obvious labor disincentive created evidently does not concern Biden, or, he has decided it is a price worth paying for a massive expansion of the welfare state. So, too, Biden would seize upon the pandemic to inject the government further into the labor market through the creation of a “Public Health Jobs Corps.”
And, as part of his “emergency” economic response, Biden wants to pass the PRO Act, a law permanently destroying many gig economy jobs and erasing right-to-work laws nationwide.
Oh, and don’t forget about climate change, of course.
The Biden-Harris transition agenda also promises to immediately address climate change and “achieve a carbon-pollution-free power sector by 2035.” In pursuit of this drastic goal they would inject government resources into the upgrading of 4 million buildings and 2 million homes as well as promoting the construction of 1.5 million new “sustainable” housing units.
We should acknowledge that all of these policy overhauls are eminently debatable. While free-marketeers and fiscal conservatives will no doubt find many of them harmful, people of good faith may support the Biden agenda.
What’s really disheartening is the quiet manner in which clearly radical policy provisions have been slipped into the Biden transition agenda and emergency response. In this, we can observe one of the perennial dangers of government power—that it will seize on emergencies to expand, yet never fully recede.
This is the danger economist Robert Higgs identified in his seminal work Crisis and Leviathan as “the Ratchet Effect.” As I’ve written before:

Higgs showed how throughout history, crises have been used to excuse government power grabs. After each crisis, the government lets go of some of the power, but never all of it. As a result, the federal government’s power (the Leviathan) has ‘ratcheted up,’ crisis after crisis, throughout the last hundred years.

This is seemingly what the transition agenda is constructed to do.
Of course, Biden and Harris have every right to argue for their progressive, big-government agenda once in office. However, we should all demand that they be upfront with the American people about what they are doing.
Otherwise, millions may unknowingly acquiescence to permanent government power grabs—masquerading as short-term emergency measures—that we may never fully be able to reverse.
COLUMN BY

Brad Polumbo

Brad Polumbo (@Brad_Polumbo) is a libertarian-conservative journalist and Opinion Editor at the Foundation for Economic Education.
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EDITORS NOTE: This FEE column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The ATF Has Become a Rogue Agency That Turns Lawful Gun Owners Into Felons


Over and over again, innocent people unwittingly find themselves in the ATF’s crosshairs.

What if government agents could, by declaration, make you into a criminal? What if, without legislative change, bureaucrats could decide that what was legal yesterday is a felony today? What if we were governed not by law, but by arbitrary statements telling us what we may or may not do?
Unfortunately, those questions are not merely hypothetical—thanks to recent abuses of power by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), millions of American gun owners are facing them head-on. Even if you hate guns, you should be deeply concerned by the arbitrary power wielded by the ATF against your fellow Americans. If an unchecked executive agency can run roughshod over any of our rights with impunity, all of our rights are in danger.

Recently, the firearms manufacturer Q, LLC shared disturbing news with its customers: the ATF had declared the delightfully-named and popular “Honey Badger” pistol to be a “short-barreled rifle” (SBR). This determination subjects the firearm to special restrictions under the National Firearms Act (NFA). As a consequence of the ATF’s decision, customers who had purchased the Honey Badger have suddenly found themselves in felonious possession of a now-illegal firearm that they had legally acquired and legally owned.
The ATF’s determination is arbitrary. It is inconsistent with both federal law and prior ATF statements. Substantially similar firearms continue to be sold legally, as they have been for years. Instead of explaining what makes the Honey Badger different from those firearms, the ATF vaguely alluded to “objective design features,” offering no further explanation as to what those features are or why they lead the ATF to determine that the Honey Badger is an SBR.
This is far from the first time that the ATF has issued a declaration that turns innocent people into criminals — other examples abound. As I explained in Felony by Fiat:

In 2015, the ATF decided that the physical action of holding a pistol equipped with an ATF-approved brace to one’s shoulder was equivalent to creating an illegal short-barreled firearm. That is to say, you could pick up your perfectly legal pistol (which is not otherwise subject to the NFA’s minimum barrel length restrictions) and unwittingly commit a felony by virtue of the way you held it. That guidance directly contradicted a 2014 ATF letter that said just the opposite. In 2017, new guidance was issued which appears to sanction the shouldering of a braced pistol so long as such use is ‘incidental, sporadic, or situational’ — whatever that means.

And:

Just last year, the ATF issued new measurement guidelines that transformed some conventionally legal pistols into presumptively illegal firearms under the NFA’s ‘any other weapon’ (AOW) classification, depending on how those pistols had been configured and accessorized.

In 2018, at President Trump’s direction, the ATF created rules banning the possession of bump stocks, devices which use a gun’s recoil to facilitate rapid operation of the trigger.
As Reason’s Jacob Sullum noted, the ATF’s regulatory move made “owners of ‘bump-stock-type devices’…felons, subject to a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.”

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The bump stock ban was more prominent than other instances of the ATF’s lawless policymaking. Nonetheless, the ban was met with little outcry or appreciation of its implications.
But, as you can see from the other cases detailed here, the ATF’s ban on bump stocks was not an aberration: it was just one of countless regulatory changes, before and since, that have turned lawful gun owners into criminals by executive fiat.

The ATF is not a lawmaking body—or, at least, it is not supposed to be. It is an executive agency tasked with enforcing laws passed by Congress.
The ATF is not empowered to create policy of its own accord, and it’s certainly not empowered to turn law-abiding citizens into criminals, but that’s exactly what it has been doing. Sadly, there’s no hyperbole in the observation that millions of legal gun owners must wonder: Will I wake up tomorrow to find that I’ve been declared a felon?
The rule of law is a fundamental value of a free society. We are not to be governed by edict, but only by laws that are consistent with the Constitution and created according to its provisions. The purpose of government is to protect us from arbitrary and illegitimate force, and to secure our rights—not to be the agent of their destruction.
The ATF itself has come to embody the exercise of arbitrary and illegitimate power. Such a perversion of government’s purpose must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. No matter how much our opinions about gun control laws diverge, we should be united in rejecting executive agencies’ usurpations of sovereignty.
COLUMN BY

Mark Houser

Mark Houser is an independent researcher who writes about the right to bear arms and firearm policy.
EDITORS NOTE: This FEE column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

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