Daily News Roundup

NOTABLE QUOTES

Daniel Greenfield: Anyone who wants to understand America’s racial divisions need only look at the perverse skill with which leftists divided the country between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated in less than a year. In a short amount of time people had been taught to hate each other and to form deep divides over an issue that hadn’t even been on their minds last summer. If the Left can do that with a shot, is it any wonder they were able to do it with skin color?

Peter D’Abrosca contributor to American Greatness: COVID restrictions and their hysterical premises are the greatest human rights abuses ever perpetrated against the American people. Yet not a single human rights group has stepped in, because politically, they are in lockstep with your torturers.

Matt Bettag, MD contributor to American Thinker: Now the latest, the delta variant, is surging because of the unvaccinated. Ignore the data from other countries that have very high vaccine rates but high spiking cases, and ignore the data from other countries that have low vaccine rates and almost no COVID. As a matter fact, let’s not even look at Sweden, who essentially didn’t do lockdowns or masking, has a low vaccination rate, and has almost zero COVID.

Jonathan Turley constitutional law professor and Democrat: To justify such intervention in an area of state control, Democrats and legal experts redefine what is a violation of state election authority. However, the Constitution is a bit more difficult to “re-imagine” than policing or education. Indeed, in City of Boerne v. Flores (1997), Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for a 6-3 majority, struck down the application of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) of 1993 to a state law. The court held that “Congress does not enforce a constitutional right by changing what the right is.” Kennedy stated that the court has been the final arbiter of what the law means since Marbury v. Madison and it is not in Congress’s power “to determine what constitutes a constitutional violation.” (Not to be outdone, various legal experts are calling not just for court-packing but challenging the very concept of judicial review.)

Jonathan Turley constitutional law professor and Democrat expressed his astonishment that Biden supported the extension of the eviction moratorium though declared unconstitutional: Biden came to office declaring a return to the “rule of law” but has actually racked up an impressive array of court losses. Now he is treating a presumptively unconstitutional act as a purely tactical consideration to allow the spending of federal funds. That is not exactly what he pledged before he declared “so help me God” on January 20th.

2020 ELECTION

Payne: DOJ legal threats against state election audits suggest unease about potential findings
The U.S. Department of Justice’s recent guidance on the process of state election audits indicates that the federal agency is apparently deeply unsettled by the string of election audits and election reform efforts carried out by state Republicans since last November’s presidential election. The guidance, distributed last week and directed in part toward state legislatures, instructs investigators on “how states must comply with federal law” when conducting election audits. It also addresses efforts by some state legislatures to repeal emergency COVID-19 voting rules that other states have in some cases sought to make permanent.
Read more at Just The News.

JANUARY 6

Kelly: Why Won’t the Government Release Officer Fanone’s Bodycam Video?
Set aside for a moment how the inflammatory and unsubstantiated accounts by those officers will taint an already highly biased jury pool in Washington, D.C. when trials begin next year; it’s clear the January 6 select committee already is influencing court proceedings. Judge Hogan, and presumably others, will take witness testimony at face value and use it as proof that Capitol defendants, even the nonviolent ones, contributed to “violence” that day. Which is why, as we have argued repeatedly at American Greatness, the government and U.S. Capitol Police should agree to release more than 14,000 hours of surveillance video captured by security cameras on January 6. If the four-hour melee indeed compares to the worst terrorist attacks against Americans, and ranks among the worst days in U.S. history, the public deserves to see what happened, minute-by-minute, inside and outside the building.
But it’s not just Capitol complex security video that the government is trying to conceal from the public. In a recent filing, Joe Biden’s Justice Department argued against the release of footage recorded by officer Michael Fanone’s bodycam on January 6. The D.C. Metropolitan Police narcotics officer was one of the four cops who testified last week. […] Fanone is working hard to become a household name. […] The reason Fanone’s bodycam video is not court material is that prosecutors, shrewdly, used screenshots of the videos rather than links to the actual evidence in court filings. “Entering a screenshot as an exhibit does not make the entire video from which the screenshot was taken an exhibit.”
Read more at American Greatness.

THE FIGHT FOR ELECTION INTEGRITY

The Center Square Staff: Attorneys general from 15 states file brief in support of Georgia’s new election laws
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is leading 15 other state attorneys general in backing Georgia’s effort to dismiss a federal lawsuit challenging the state’s new voter laws. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sued Georgia, Georgia’s secretary of state and other election officials in June, saying several provisions of the state’s recent voting reform law blocks the right to vote for Georgians based on race. The DOJ took issue with the portions of the bill that ban government entities from sending unsolicited absentee ballot applications and fine civic organizations, churches and advocacy groups for sending them. It also opposes the shortening of deadlines for absentee ballots and out-of-precinct provisional ballots. The DOJ said the limitations on drop boxes and restrictions on food and water giveaways close to precincts or polling lines are discriminatory, as is a photocopy identification requirement in the bill.
Yost called the justice department’s lawsuit baseless and political.
Read more at Just The News.

U.S. CONGRESS

ADI: Kelly Calls For Border Security In Maiden Speech Only To Vote Against It
The amendment to the INVEST in America Act would “prohibit the cancellation of contracts for physical barriers and other border security measures for which funds already have been obligated and for which penalties will be incurred in the case of such cancellation and prohibiting the use of funds for payment of such penalties.” “That amendment would have allowed the border wall to be built where the supplies were already purchased and in place,” one border area resident told the Arizona Daily Independent. “We have the materials here leftover from the Trump administration’s efforts. Instead they are rotting into our soil and God knows what it is doing to our soil and water. Instead Kelly and Biden are just letting it waste away.” The amendment failed on a mostly party line vote. […] Amendment vote by Senator Name
Read more at Arizona Daily Independent.

THE DEMOCRAT LED WAR ON AMERICA’S CHILDREN

Lindquist: Massive Teachers Union Sues Mom Who Asked About Political Material In Kindergarten Curriculum
The National Education Association has sued a mother in Rhode Island who asked what her daughter would be taught in her kindergarten classroom. Nicole Solas, the target of the NEA’s lawsuit, is now fighting back against the nation’s largest public-sector teachers union with the help of the Goldwater Institute, which describes itself as “a leading free-market public policy research and litigation organization that is dedicated to empowering all Americans to live freer, happier lives.” “This brazen and unprecedented act of intimidation by the NEA will not stand,” said the Goldwater Institute’s Director of National Litigation Jon Riches, who is representing Solas. “Nicole Solas is entitled to know what her daughter’s school is teaching in the classroom. She’s entitled to ask questions. And she does not deserve to face legal action just for asking questions any concerned parent would ask.”
Read more at The Federalist.

CHINA: AMERICA’S MORTAL ENEMY

Owens: Geopolitics 101: China, America’s Supply Chains, and Strategic Materials
Nowhere has the danger of China’s predation been more visible than in its vice-like grip on mineral production and processing, especially rare earth metals, the critical minerals at the heart of high technology, clean energy, and especially high-end U.S. defense platforms. In May 2019, Foreign Policy reported China “is the No. 1 producer and processor of at least ten critical minerals and metals that are essential to high-tech industries . . . giving China both an economic edge in the next high-tech industrial revolution and increasing geopolitical power.” Critical metals include: Copper, an irreplaceable element for advanced energy technology, including electric vehicles (EVs), wind turbines, and solar panels; lithium, which is essential for producing the lithium-ion batteries used in EVs; antimony, which has applications in everything from EV batteries, wind turbines, and solar panels to semiconductor chips, iPhone screens, and energy-efficient windows; and tellurium, which is essential to solar panels. These strategic materials are key elements of semiconductor chips and solar photovoltaic cells that convert sunlight into electricity. U.S. domestic supplies of these materials are more than adequate to sustain emerging technologies and industries but the higher cost of production has made it cheaper to import them. The United States imports more than 80 percent of these materials directly from China with much of the rest coming from counties acting as intermediaries for China. This situation provides immense geopolitical leverage to the PRC.
Read more at American Greatness.

BIDEN/HARRIS/OBAMA REGIME: TRANSFORMING AMERICA

Husebo: Reports: White House Considers Withholding Federal Money to Pressure People to Take Vaccine
The White House is reportedly considering withholding federal dollars to private business as part of its latest push to get more Americans to take the coronavirus vaccine. “If the Biden administration goes forward with the plans, it would amount to a dramatic escalation in the effort to vaccinate the roughly 90 million Americans who are eligible for shots but who have refused or have been unable to get them,” the Washington Post reported. “The effort could apply to institutions as varied as long-term-care facilities, cruise ships and universities, potentially impacting millions of Americans, the Post continued, “according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations.” […] Georgetown University’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law Lawrence Gostin told Fox News the federal government would be right to leverage the power of the purse to push those who are exercising their freedom of choice to become vaccinated. “I think wisely using the federal spending power is absolutely right,” said Gostin.
Read more at Breitbart.

Bedard: Humane, orderly? Border photos show human disaster amid overflowing toilets
In talks with the agents he oversaw during the Trump administration, Morgan said that many are frustrated with the Biden administration’s open border policies and lack of help. “They’re done,” he said. What’s more, agents are so overwhelmed that calls for volunteers to help have gone out. He shared one call for help in the Rio Grande Valley sector that read, “Fort Brown Station is seeking volunteers to assist with the overflow of subjects being experienced at RGV sector. RGV is currently at over 10,000 subjects with over 8,000 unprocessed.” […] Morgan said that since the emergency memo went out, another 2,000 have been added to the unprocessed group. Morgan provided Secrets with several photos of migrants jammed under a bridge near the McAllen, Texas, processing station. He said that one agent told him, “It’s nuts. There are 4,000 people under that bridge. We’ve had storms. They were outside …100 degrees outside.” Others told him that there are few or no showers and toilets available for the migrants, a situation that during the Trump years resulted in a parade of lawmakers and media outlets going to the border to decry the conditions there.
Read more/See photos at Washington Examiner.

Chamberlain: More than 800 unaccompanied kids stopped at southern border in single day
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) stopped a whopping 834 unaccompanied minors at the US-Mexico border Wednesday, the most since the Biden administration began releasing a daily tally of apprehensions of children earlier this year. The data, which was first reported by the Washington Examiner, come days after a top DHS official estimated in a court filing that more than 19,000 children traveling alone were picked up by immigration officers last month. That number would top the previous high of 18,877 in March of this year and works out to an average of more than 600 unaccompanied children being apprehended per day. Since then, CBP has apprehended 17,144 unaccompanied minors in April (571 stops per day); 14,137 in May (456 stops per day) and 15,253 in June (508 stops per day).
Read more at NY Post.

Johnson: DOJ launches probe of Phoenix police department
This is the third pattern-of-practice investigation that DOJ has launched during Garland’s tenure and the first probe since Clarke became head of the agency’s powerful civil rights division at the end of May. “I have noted that these investigations aim to promote transparency and accountability,” Garland said. “This increases public trust, which in turn increases public safety. We know that law enforcement shares these goals.” DOJ, Garland said, will examine a handful of issues, including whether the Phoenix Police Department uses excessive force, engages in discriminatory policing practices or “violates the rights of individuals experiencing homelessness by seizing and disposing of their belongings in a manner that violates the Constitution.” The country’s top prosecutor added that the agency will also investigate “whether the department violates the First Amendment by retaliating against individuals who are engaged in protected expressive activities, or whether the city and its police department respond to people with disabilities in a manner that violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.”
Read more at The Hill.

BANNONS WAR ROOM

Episode 1,150 – Biden’s Polls Are In A Free Fall
Our guests are: Raheem Kassam, Peter Navarro, Dr. Peter Navarro, Natalie Winters, Joe, Boris Epshteyn, Sonny Borrelli, Frank Miele

FAUCI’S VIRUS: IT’S POLITICAL

Biden’s DHS Admits ‘Significantly Increased Rates’ of COVID-Positive Border Crossers Arriving in U.S.
David Shahoulian, DHS’s assistant secretary for border and immigration policy, admitted in a court brief filed this week that the agency has seen “significantly increased rates” of coronavirus-positive border crossers arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, spurring “extremely worrisome” conditions at border facilities. Shahoulian writes in the brief: . . .
Read more at Breitbart.

Bettag, MD: Medical insanity, as described by an MD
When did the world become insane? What is the reason for it? Big Brother? Depopulation? Or people in love with control? I don’t know and it’s driving me nuts. But I’ve decided I’m tired of complaining about it to my friends and family and I’m willing to put my name on the line. If the woke culture wants to ruin me for speaking the truth, I guess I might as well just get it over with now. I have been a physician for 24 years, a practicing ENT for 19 years. I have never before seen the medical establishment just stop thinking. Insanity is the new rule, and common sense cannot even be discussed. From the beginning, 15 days to flatten the curve, I was shocked. We had never done this before, but perhaps this virus was really bad, so I gave the government the benefit of the doubt. Then came Fauci. He initially said social distancing didn’t work, and masks were largely ineffective. But by late March, he pronounced both masking and social distancing necessary. Weird…red flag. But what really hit me was that he went on to say people should use Tinder and Grindr at their own discretion. What? How do you socially distance that? So now I am alarmed.
Read more at American Thinker.