Thursday, July 30, 2020
Wednesday, July 29, 2020
Senate report examines impact welfare programs have on 'demise of the 2-parent home
'
By Ryan Foley, Contributor
By Ryan Foley, Contributor
Wednesday, July 29, 2020
Unsplash/Irina Murza
Republicans on the U.S. Senate Joint Economic Committee recently released a report on “The Demise of the Happy Two-Parent Home,” which points to federal welfare programs as a possible contributing factor to the decline in marriage.
“The problem isn’t just that federal welfare spending enables women to choose govt programs over a husband, it is that the eligibility requirements force women to choose. In many cases if a woman gets married, they lose these benefits!!!” Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who is chairman of the committee, commented on Twitter last week.
The report “examines the state of family stability in the United States and describes policy approaches to ensure that more children are raised by two happily married parents.”
“Researchers have well established that children raised by married parents do better on a wide array of outcomes,” the report reads. “They have stronger relationships with their parents, particularly with their fathers. They are also much less likely to experience physical, emotional, or sexual abuse. They have better health, exhibit less aggression, are less likely to engage in delinquent behavior, have greater educational attainment, and earn more as adults. They are also far less likely to live in poverty.”
The report compares the state of family stability in the 1960s, at the dawn of the sexual revolution, to family stability in 2019. In 1962, 71% of women between the ages of 15 and 44 were married. That figure dropped to 42% in 2019.
Republicans on the U.S. Senate Joint Economic Committee recently released a report on “The Demise of the Happy Two-Parent Home,” which points to federal welfare programs as a possible contributing factor to the decline in marriage.
“The problem isn’t just that federal welfare spending enables women to choose govt programs over a husband, it is that the eligibility requirements force women to choose. In many cases if a woman gets married, they lose these benefits!!!” Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who is chairman of the committee, commented on Twitter last week.
The report “examines the state of family stability in the United States and describes policy approaches to ensure that more children are raised by two happily married parents.”
“Researchers have well established that children raised by married parents do better on a wide array of outcomes,” the report reads. “They have stronger relationships with their parents, particularly with their fathers. They are also much less likely to experience physical, emotional, or sexual abuse. They have better health, exhibit less aggression, are less likely to engage in delinquent behavior, have greater educational attainment, and earn more as adults. They are also far less likely to live in poverty.”
The report compares the state of family stability in the 1960s, at the dawn of the sexual revolution, to family stability in 2019. In 1962, 71% of women between the ages of 15 and 44 were married. That figure dropped to 42% in 2019.
Tuesday, July 28, 2020
Shoe Strike for Climate Justice
Shoe Strike for Climate Justice (Photo: John Palminteri)
Shoe Strike for Climate Justice (Photo: John Palminteri)
Shoe Strike for Climate Justice (Photo: John Palminteri)
NEWS REPORT
JUL 28 2020 12:30 PM
BY EDHAT STAFF
A "Shoe Strike for Climate Justice" demonstration showing the importance of action against climate change was held this past weekend.
The Society of Fearless Grandmothers Santa Barbara, in cooperation with 350SB and the Greta Thunberg Fridays for Future international organization, sponsored the strike on Saturday at the County Administration Building at 105 E. Anapamu in Santa Barbara.
The "shoe strike" was a COVID-19 safe demonstration without the need for a large in-person gathering. Modeled on the SkoStrejk movement that started in Sweden, the strike is now spreading across the world by displaying shoes to represent the people who, but for the pandemic, would be demonstrating in the streets.
Shoe strikes are being held worldwide on the last Saturday of each month to raise awareness of the need for Climate Justice and to demand that elected officials at every level of government take immediate action to address the climate crisis and the social and economic impacts of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. These two unprecedented crises require unprecedented action to protect our citizens and our planet, according to organizers.
The organizers demand local elected officials at all levels to deny any new permits for fossil fuel projects, focus responses to the COVID-19 crisis on a just transition from the fossil fuel economy; protect people and the environment -- not corporate profit; and end systemic oppression to stop the long history of racial and economic injustice.
"America’s Frontline Doctors,” Hold Press Conference About “Massive Disinformation Campaign”
Group Of “America’s Frontline Doctors,” Hold Press Conference At Capitol Hill About COVID-19 Calling Out “Massive Disinformation Campaign”
By Joe Mcdermott On Jul 27, 2020
Editors note: This video will be replaced with the original when we hear back from America’s Frontline Doctors who we have reached out to for the original version. It is unusually hard to find online and being removed from several video platforms, as, you guessed it, ‘misinformation’. It is related to COVID-19 and contains doctors opinions on what they believe is a massive misinformation campaign. [seeking raw video file]
WASHINGTON, D.C. – From the steps of the US Supreme Court, a group of doctors calling themselves “America’s Frontline Doctors,” are speaking out as physicians from around the country, addressing the American people about COVID-19 and what they are calling a “massive disinformation campaign” as COVID-19 is keeping businesses closed and schools planning to remain closed this coming September. The event is being widely recognized as a “White Coat Summit” on Capitol Hill which is scheduled to be a two-day event.
Speakers at the event included Pediatrician Bob Hamilton, MD from Santa Monica, CA in practice 36 years. Primary Care Physician Stella Immanuel, MD from Houston, TX who stated she has treated over 350 patients with COVID-19 with not a single death. Dan Erickson, MD from California, widely recognized as one of the first to come out with his own grim findings related to misinformation which were referenced in the highly controversial and banned video Plandemic.
Interestingly, the forty-five-minute video is not easy to find through normal channels such as YouTube, Google News, and other ordinary search services. It was live streamed on Facebook and is now removed from breitbart.com.
“American life has fallen casualty to a massive disinformation campaign. We can speculate on how this has happened, and why it has continued, but the purpose of the inaugural White Coat Summit is to empower Americans to stop living in fear. If Americans continue to let so-called experts and media personalities make their decisions, the great American experiment of a Constitutional Republic with Representative Democracy, will cease.”
BREAKING: American Doctors Address COVID-19 Misinformation with SCOTUS Press Conference… https://t.co/kAiNLcaTpu— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) July 27, 2020
Editors note: This video will be replaced with the original when we hear back from America’s Frontline Doctors who we have reached out to for the original version. It is unusually hard to find online and being removed from several video platforms, as, you guessed it, ‘misinformation’. It is related to COVID-19 and contains doctors opinions on what they believe is a massive misinformation campaign. [seeking raw video file]
WASHINGTON, D.C. – From the steps of the US Supreme Court, a group of doctors calling themselves “America’s Frontline Doctors,” are speaking out as physicians from around the country, addressing the American people about COVID-19 and what they are calling a “massive disinformation campaign” as COVID-19 is keeping businesses closed and schools planning to remain closed this coming September. The event is being widely recognized as a “White Coat Summit” on Capitol Hill which is scheduled to be a two-day event.
Speakers at the event included Pediatrician Bob Hamilton, MD from Santa Monica, CA in practice 36 years. Primary Care Physician Stella Immanuel, MD from Houston, TX who stated she has treated over 350 patients with COVID-19 with not a single death. Dan Erickson, MD from California, widely recognized as one of the first to come out with his own grim findings related to misinformation which were referenced in the highly controversial and banned video Plandemic.
Interestingly, the forty-five-minute video is not easy to find through normal channels such as YouTube, Google News, and other ordinary search services. It was live streamed on Facebook and is now removed from breitbart.com.
“American life has fallen casualty to a massive disinformation campaign. We can speculate on how this has happened, and why it has continued, but the purpose of the inaugural White Coat Summit is to empower Americans to stop living in fear. If Americans continue to let so-called experts and media personalities make their decisions, the great American experiment of a Constitutional Republic with Representative Democracy, will cease.”
BREAKING: American Doctors Address COVID-19 Misinformation with SCOTUS Press Conference… https://t.co/kAiNLcaTpu— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) July 27, 2020
Related
Google will keep employees working remotely until July 2021
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai emailed employees Monday to announce the plan
By Kim Lyons
on July 27, 2020 9:41 am
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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Google plans to keep 200,000 full-time and contract employees working remotely until at least July 2021, The Wall Street Journal reported. Other tech firms have announced long-term plans to keep employees working from home due to restrictions from the coronavirus pandemic, but Google would be the first to extend remote working into the middle of next year.
According to the WSJ, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google parent company Alphabet, made the call last week following a meeting with top company executives. A Google spokesperson told The Verge that Pichai sent an email to employees this morning announcing the plan: “To give employees the ability to plan ahead, we are extending our global voluntary work from home option through June 30, 2021 for roles that don’t need to be in the office.”
Google had previously announced plans to reopen some offices for a limited number of employees starting on July 6th, but it made the return to physical offices optional. Pichai made the decision to establish a more specific time frame for remote working in part to give Google employees with families more certainty about how long they would be working from home, as many are struggling with inconsistent direction from school districts, the WSJ reported.
Facebook, Twitter, and Square have already announced plans to allow workers to continue working remotely indefinitely.
UPDATE July 27th 1:15PM ET: Added information about Sundar Pichai email to employees.
Google plans to keep 200,000 full-time and contract employees working remotely until at least July 2021, The Wall Street Journal reported. Other tech firms have announced long-term plans to keep employees working from home due to restrictions from the coronavirus pandemic, but Google would be the first to extend remote working into the middle of next year.
According to the WSJ, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google parent company Alphabet, made the call last week following a meeting with top company executives. A Google spokesperson told The Verge that Pichai sent an email to employees this morning announcing the plan: “To give employees the ability to plan ahead, we are extending our global voluntary work from home option through June 30, 2021 for roles that don’t need to be in the office.”
Google had previously announced plans to reopen some offices for a limited number of employees starting on July 6th, but it made the return to physical offices optional. Pichai made the decision to establish a more specific time frame for remote working in part to give Google employees with families more certainty about how long they would be working from home, as many are struggling with inconsistent direction from school districts, the WSJ reported.
Facebook, Twitter, and Square have already announced plans to allow workers to continue working remotely indefinitely.
UPDATE July 27th 1:15PM ET: Added information about Sundar Pichai email to employees.
Monday, July 27, 2020
Sunday, July 26, 2020
Saturday, July 25, 2020
Three Injured in Shooting as Rival Armed Militias Converge on Louisville
Emily Shugerman, Gerry Seavo James
Bryan Woolston/Reuters
Shots rang out in Louisville, Kentucky on Saturday as hundreds of members of heavily armed militia groups converged on the city for a protest against police brutality.
Louisville police confirmed three people were injured when a gun discharged as members of the “Not Fxxxing Around Coalition,” an all-Black militia, gathered in Baxter Park shortly before 1 p.m.
A spokesperson for the police department described the shooting to The Daily Beast as “negligent” and said there were “no charges at this time” and no outstanding suspects.
The victims, all of whom were members of the NFAC, were transferred to the University of Louisville Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
The NFAC’s founder, Atlanta-based rapper and DJ John “Jay” Johnson, said in a YouTube video that the march was a response to the death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was fatally shot by Louisville Metro Police Department officers serving a no-knock warrant on her apartment in March. Her death and those of other Black Americans sparked widespread protests this summer over racism and police violence.
Shots rang out in Louisville, Kentucky on Saturday as hundreds of members of heavily armed militia groups converged on the city for a protest against police brutality.
Louisville police confirmed three people were injured when a gun discharged as members of the “Not Fxxxing Around Coalition,” an all-Black militia, gathered in Baxter Park shortly before 1 p.m.
A spokesperson for the police department described the shooting to The Daily Beast as “negligent” and said there were “no charges at this time” and no outstanding suspects.
The victims, all of whom were members of the NFAC, were transferred to the University of Louisville Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
The NFAC’s founder, Atlanta-based rapper and DJ John “Jay” Johnson, said in a YouTube video that the march was a response to the death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was fatally shot by Louisville Metro Police Department officers serving a no-knock warrant on her apartment in March. Her death and those of other Black Americans sparked widespread protests this summer over racism and police violence.
Members of the Kentucky ‘Three Percenters’ militia line up as the all-Black militia group called NFAC hold an armed rally.
Bryan Woolston/Reuters
The “Three Percenter” far-right militia group also called on members to be present on Saturday to act as an ad-hoc security force during the rally, sparking fear among residents of clashes between the two militias.
The group is known for its support of gun rights and opposition to government “tyranny,” and for its presence at white supremacist rallies like Unite the Right in Charlottesville. A Kentucky-based Three Percenter group held a rally in May, over gun rights, where they hung an effigy of Gov. Andy Beshear from a tree with a noose.
Register Now: Faithful Recovery in a Time of Climate Change
Fri, 07/24/2020 - 12:35pm by Elena
Please join us on Thursday, July 30th (2-3 p.m. Eastern) for a webinar on Faithful Recovery in a Time of Climate Change, discussing our two interconnected global crises: the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change.
NOTR - JESUITS, BLM & THE AMERICAN GUNPOWDER PLOT - 7.23.20
THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2020 AT 3:36PM
Today's Show: JESUITS, BLM & THE AMERICAN GUNPOWDER PLOT - 7.23.2020
In a special one-hour program, Chris discusses the overwhelming support from Pope Francis and the priesthood of Rome in America for the Marxist Black Lives Matter movement. In fact, the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University (Berkeley Campus) issued a statement against what they called “the persistent racialized suffering of black Americans.” Their lengthy statement goes on to declare how their school of theology has committed itself to “dismantle the racially unjust culture of our nation …” Also discussed is the testimony of Charles Jacobs, a modern human rights champion who opposes modern slavery in Africa, and exposes black leaders today (including Louis Farrakhan) who refuse to speak out on it. We also hear the testimony of a Black Lives Matter activist who openly reveals the plan to overthrow the United States as we know it.
By clicking this icon you will be directed to our archives page in order to get an mp3 version of today's show. With this file you can listen to Noise of Thunder from your iPod or MP3 player whenever you want.
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Image Surfaces of Dr. Fauci With George Soros, Bill Gates Sr., David Rockefeller, Ted Turner
Image Surfaces of Dr. Fauci With George Soros, Bill Gates Sr., David Rockefeller, Ted Turner:
Image Surfaces of Dr. Fauci With George Soros, Bill Gates Sr., David Rockefeller, Ted Turner, & More
Image Surfaces of Dr. Fauci With George Soros, Bill Gates Sr., David Rockefeller, Ted Turner, & More
Churches sue Calif. Gov. Newsom over COVID-19 order banning in-home Bible studies
By Samuel Smith, CP Reporter
Thursday, July 23, 2020
A man reading the Bible. | Getty images/stock photo
A multicampus church has filed a complaint in federal court against California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s COVID-19 executive order that it believes effectively bans church members from holding Bible studies and other small group meetings in their homes.
The new lawsuit was filed last Saturday on behalf of the Pasadena-based Harvest Rock Church, which has campuses throughout the state, and Harvest International Ministries, a nonprofit corporation with 162 member churches statewide and over 65,000 affiliates worldwide.
Both organizations are led by Ché Ahn, an author and international chancellor of Wagner University who has been seen on networks like Trinity Broadcasting Network and GodTV.
The legal complaint says the governor’s order earlier this month that bans all indoor worship services in as many as 30 counties on the state’s COVID-19 county monitoring list also bans members from gathering at each other’s homes for Bible studies in those counties.
“As part of the exercise of its sincerely held religious beliefs, Harvest Rock’s Church campuses also have numerous Life Groups, which meet in the homes of members of the Church to worship together, engage in Bible study, fellowship with one another, and minister to the needs of each other,” the complaint explains.
“Harvest Rock has and exercises a sincere religious belief that Life Groups are an essential way for the church to fulfill its mission and to foster a healthy, vibrant, and growing Church community such that its members can gather together to grow in the Lord, mature in their faith, and understand the Scriptures better.”
The legal filing, filed by the conservative Christian legal nonprofit Liberty Counsel, calls for an injunction that would not only allow home fellowship and Bible study gatherings but also end the governor’s prohibition on indoor worship services entirely.
“Harvest International has 162 member churches in California, and each of these churches has and exercises the sincere religious beliefs that the church is to minister the Gospel of Jesus Christ to its members and attendees at its facilities,” the complaint reads, adding that the churches can’t fulfill this ministry without “gathering together in person.”
All Nations Follow America's Lead
July 25
When all the people heard the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of musick, all the people, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshipped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.
When all the people heard the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of musick, all the people, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshipped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.
Daniel 3:7.
History will be repeated. False religion will be exalted. The first day of the week, a common working day, possessing no sanctity whatever, will be set up as was the image at Babylon. All nations and tongues and peoples will be commanded to worship this spurious sabbath. This is Satan's plan to make of no account the day instituted by God, and given to the world as a memorial of creation.
The decree enforcing the worship of this day is to go forth to all the world.84SDA Bible Commentary 7:976.
As America, the land of religious liberty, shall unite with the papacy in forcing the conscience and compelling men to honor the false sabbath, the people of every country on the globe will be led to follow her example.85Testimonies for the Church 6:18.
Foreign nations will follow the example of the United States. Though she leads out, yet the same crisis will come upon our people in all parts of the world.86Testimonies for the Church 6:395.
Nations will be stirred to their very center. Support will be withdrawn from those who proclaim God's only standard of righteousness, the only sure test of character. And all who will not bow to the decree of the national councils and obey the national laws to exalt the sabbath instituted by the man of sin, to the disregard of God's holy day, will feel, not the oppressive power of popery alone, but of the Protestant world, the image of the beast.87Selected Messages 2:380.
The season of distress before God's people will call for a faith that will not falter. His children must make it manifest that He is the only object of their worship, and that no consideration, not even that of life itself, can induce them to make the least concession to false worship. To the loyal heart the commands of sinful, finite men will sink into insignificance beside the word of the eternal God. Truth will be obeyed though the result be imprisonment or exile or death.88Prophets and Kings, 512, 513.
History will be repeated. False religion will be exalted. The first day of the week, a common working day, possessing no sanctity whatever, will be set up as was the image at Babylon. All nations and tongues and peoples will be commanded to worship this spurious sabbath. This is Satan's plan to make of no account the day instituted by God, and given to the world as a memorial of creation.
The decree enforcing the worship of this day is to go forth to all the world.84SDA Bible Commentary 7:976.
As America, the land of religious liberty, shall unite with the papacy in forcing the conscience and compelling men to honor the false sabbath, the people of every country on the globe will be led to follow her example.85Testimonies for the Church 6:18.
Foreign nations will follow the example of the United States. Though she leads out, yet the same crisis will come upon our people in all parts of the world.86Testimonies for the Church 6:395.
Nations will be stirred to their very center. Support will be withdrawn from those who proclaim God's only standard of righteousness, the only sure test of character. And all who will not bow to the decree of the national councils and obey the national laws to exalt the sabbath instituted by the man of sin, to the disregard of God's holy day, will feel, not the oppressive power of popery alone, but of the Protestant world, the image of the beast.87Selected Messages 2:380.
The season of distress before God's people will call for a faith that will not falter. His children must make it manifest that He is the only object of their worship, and that no consideration, not even that of life itself, can induce them to make the least concession to false worship. To the loyal heart the commands of sinful, finite men will sink into insignificance beside the word of the eternal God. Truth will be obeyed though the result be imprisonment or exile or death.88Prophets and Kings, 512, 513.
Maranatha, p. 214.
Friday, July 24, 2020
Thursday, July 23, 2020
Vatican denies it intervened on exhumation of former Spanish dictator, Francisco Franco
Vatican denies it intervened on exhumation of former Spanish dictator, Francisco Franco
In this Friday, Oct. 4, 2019 photo, a visitors holds a portrait of former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco at the Valley of the Fallen mausoleum near El Escorial, outskirts of Madrid, Spain. (Credit:Alfonso Ruiz/AP.)
ROSARIO, Argentina – Though generally refraining from denying public statements from global leaders, the Vatican on Tuesday publicly refuted the Spanish prime minister’s claim Pope Francis had helped him with the exhumation of the remains of the late head of state, General Francisco Franco.
The Vatican statement came several weeks after the head of the Spanish government, Socialist Alberto Sanchez on July 8 told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, that the Argentine pontiff had helped him on the matters of Franco’s remains, an issue that has long divided Spain.
Franco ruled Spain for nearly four decades following the end of the country’s civil war – with the help of Benito Mussolini’s fascist Italy and Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany – in 1939.
Despite the aid he received from the Axis powers, Spain remained neutral in World War 2, allowing Franco to stay in power after war’s end until his death in 1975.
The remains of the dictator were laid to rest in the the Basilica of the Valley of the Fallen. However, this has always proved controversial in Spain, especially among the country’s leftwing.
In October, the casket was transferred in a military helicopter to a cemetery in the outskirts of the Spanish capital, where the late dictator was buried in the family mausoleum, where his widow, Carmen Polo, had been buried in 1988.
Since Sanchez expressed the Socialist government’s intentions of exhuming Franco from what had been his final resting place, the Vatican released a series of statement saying it wouldn’t oppose the move if it was so decided by the competent Spanish authorities.
In his interview with Corriere della Sera, Sánchez defended the decision to take Franco out of the basilica, saying that “a dictator does not deserve a mausoleum, his victims cannot lie next to him. I’ve acted in a legal way, applying the Law of Historic Memory [approved by ex-President Jose Luis Rodriguez] Zapatero, and with ample popular support.”
Asked about the relationship between the Spanish government and the Catholic Church, Sanchez had said: “The relations are peaceful. Francis is a charismatic pope; I hope I can meet him. I’ll tell you something: In the matter of the remains of Franco, he helped me. In the Valley of the Fallen there was a community of Benedictine [monks] who were very much against the exhumation. I asked for the Vatican’s intervention. And it all went well.”
DeVon Franklin lands deal with CBS...
DeVon Franklin lands deal with CBS; plans to 'create new opportunities' for Christians, people of color
DeVon Franklin on the set of the "Breakthrough" movie in Winnipeg, Canada, December 2018. | The Christian Post
Christian author and filmmaker DeVon Franklin announced that he's struck a deal with CBS where he plans to “create new opportunities for people of faith and people of color.”
Franklin, president and CEO of the Franklin Entertainment production company, made the announcement on Instagram on Tuesday.
“Thanks for all the thanks and congrats! I’m beyond excited to expand into TV with CBS Studios!” he wrote. “I’m excited to create new opportunities for people of faith and people of color! I believe entertainment is one of the most powerful mediums in the world and we can use it to help shape hearts and minds for the better. Now when you see the announcement of a deal, it’s the beginning of something, not the end. So now the real works begins, so please keep your prayers going up (I need them!) and I commit to doing my best to bring you the best shows I possibly can!”
Though the CBS deal marks Franklin’s first foray into television, his production company also has a multi-year first-look film deal with Paramount Pictures and a second-look deal with Netflix, according to Deadline.
Christian author and filmmaker DeVon Franklin announced that he's struck a deal with CBS where he plans to “create new opportunities for people of faith and people of color.”
Franklin, president and CEO of the Franklin Entertainment production company, made the announcement on Instagram on Tuesday.
“Thanks for all the thanks and congrats! I’m beyond excited to expand into TV with CBS Studios!” he wrote. “I’m excited to create new opportunities for people of faith and people of color! I believe entertainment is one of the most powerful mediums in the world and we can use it to help shape hearts and minds for the better. Now when you see the announcement of a deal, it’s the beginning of something, not the end. So now the real works begins, so please keep your prayers going up (I need them!) and I commit to doing my best to bring you the best shows I possibly can!”
Though the CBS deal marks Franklin’s first foray into television, his production company also has a multi-year first-look film deal with Paramount Pictures and a second-look deal with Netflix, according to Deadline.
Wednesday, July 22, 2020
Tuesday, July 21, 2020
America Run Riot
The narrative around the killing of George Floyd is destructively false
by Wilfred C. Reilly
George Floyd was brutally killed by police officers—probably murdered, in fact, in the technical legal sense of that term. However, beyond that fact, which virtually all people of good will agree on, nearly every aspect of the narrative that grew up instantly around his tragic and senseless death has collapsed or seems likely to do so. The already-standard account is that Floyd was killed by white cops in a vicious display of pure racism, that the killing is evidence of patterns of institutional bias throughout policing and America itself, and that the riots following Floyd’s death represented an almost-justified lashing out at white society.
All of this is questionable or outright false, and the mainstream media, which abandoned a previous frenzied narrative about COVID-19 for this older one of race war, bears great responsibility for presenting it.
The center-left mainstream media has almost universally argued that Floyd’s killing was an intentional act of anti-black racism. Following the tragedy, the BBC website ran a headline that read “George Floyd: ‘Pandemic of Racism’ Led to His Death” and quoted memorial speaker Al Sharpton to this effect. The New Yorker went with “The Killing of George Floyd and the Origins of American Racism,” while Al Jazeera chose “George Floyd: UN Rights Boss Slams ‘Structural Racism’ in USA.” Not to be outdone, the New York Times opined that it was not even racism that felled George Floyd, but rather the even more specific and disturbing problem of “anti-blackness.”
In reality, fairly little evidence points to Floyd’s killing being an act specifically of racism, rather than of criminally bad policing that should be punished by jury and judge. Virtually forgotten in the entire George Floyd conversation is that there were four officers on the scene when he died, at least three of whom apparently restrained Floyd—only two of whom could be considered white. Tou Thao, age 34, is of Hmong descent, while J. Alexander Kueng is a Korean-surnamed speaker of multiple languages with a college degree in sociology. Neither of these officers apparently confronted the knee-wielding Sergeant Derek Chauvin at any point during his restraint of Floyd.
Even the conclusion that Chauvin’s own motivation was “anti-blackness” is far from obvious. The most disturbing of several misconduct charges against him came from white Twin Cities resident Melissa Borton. Moreover, Chauvin was in an interracial marriage with a woman from the Philippines at the time of Floyd’s death. It is also notable that Floyd himself had worked security at the same Minneapolis club that employed a moonlighting Chauvin, and that the two might well have known and personally disliked each other.
Many recent “race violence” stories have shared this tendency—the denial of all-too-human complexity in favor of a simple and crude storyline. The shooting of black jogger Ahmaud Arbery in rural Georgia was originally presented to the public as a near-lynching: A “black body” was cut down simply for running out of doors. The reality appears to have been far more messy. During December 2019 and January 2020, residents of the Satilla Shores neighborhood where Arbery was killed reported, while posting on the neighborhood’s Facebook page and NextDoor accounts, at least three break-ins or thefts, including one theft of costly firearms. The day of the shooting, a security camera set up to monitor a new-build construction site in the same area observed Arbery illegally entering the building.
Assuming Arbery might be the repeat burglar, three males aware of the security-cam footage—Greg and Travis McMichael and neighbor William Bryan—set off to pursue him in a small convoy of vehicles and initiated the confrontation that led to a fight and Arbery’s killing. Of course, and without question, none of this backstory justifies the death of Ahmaud Arbery, who was fired on with a shotgun in a public street and may in addition have been struck by a truck. Racial attitudes may well have played some role in the violence, as an ethnic slur for Arbery was apparently used at one point. More important, in 2020, Americans of all colors are not allowed to resolve neighborhood disputes via “posse.” But these actual facts strongly imply that race was not the sole factor in this case, and possibly not the most important one.
The narratives of undeniable racism surrounding individual tragedies such as Floyd’s begin to lose their clarity upon close examination. But close examination is not what we get from our town criers. The consensus position of the center-left in the United States is that there is an extraordinary wave of widely tolerated police and citizen violence against people of color. Benjamin Crump, the well-known attorney who represented the family of Trayvon Martin, who was killed in a street-level confrontation by a neighborhood-watch volunteer in Florida, recently published Open Season: The Legalized Genocide of Colored People—an Amazon bestseller with 272 posted reviews and a reader rating of 4.8/5. However, the claim made in Crump’s title is untrue to a remarkable extent, and the fact that this is not more widely known is surprising and troubling.
Excellent data on police violence are easily available, and they torpedo the “genocide” claim—and for that matter any narrative about generally out-of-control policing. According to the Washington Post’s police-killings database, the gold standard in this field from a left-leaning publication, the total number of unarmed black persons killed by police during 2019 was 15. There are 42 million Black people in the United States. The overall number of unarmed individuals killed by police during that year was 56. Even adding in all those armed with a weapon or attacking officers, police in 2019 took exactly 229 black lives, out of a total of 1,004 among the 330 million people living in America.
Monday, July 20, 2020
Saturday, July 18, 2020
Ahead of G-20 meeting, Caritas urges debt relief for poor countries
BYJUNNO AROCHO ESTEVES
JUL 17, 2020
Siblings are seen in the neighborhood of Lujan, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Aug. 17, 2019. (CNS photo/Magali Druscovich, Reuters)
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- As finance ministers representing the world's wealthiest countries prepare to meet online, Caritas Internationalis echoed Pope Francis' call for debt relief to poor countries reeling from war, poverty and the coronavirus pandemic.
Presenting the organization's annual report at an online media briefing July 17, Aloysius John, secretary-general of Caritas Internationalis, said the debt of poor countries "is often paid for by the sweat and toil of the poorest in these nations" who live in dire poverty and are "easy prey to all kinds of health problems."
"Caritas calls for the reduction of debt of the poorest nations and for the reallocation of the funds to reliable organizations who work with these communities, in particular faith-based organizations," John said.
"Only the reduction of debt and its reallocation for development at the grassroots will enable the achievement of the sustainable development goals and ensure the dignity of the poorest," he said.
The secretary-general also called for a global cease-fire, as well as an end to the use of economic sanctions in the Middle East, particularly against Syria.
"The effects of the sanctions as a political tool have proved to be useless, but they have shown enormous power to destroy the lives of poor civilians," he said.
John made the appeal as finance ministers and central bank governors of leading rich and developing nations, commonly known as the G-20, were set to meet July 18 to discuss the global economy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The members of the G-20 are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.
Although the World Bank and the G-20 endorsed an initiative in April that would grant debt-service suspension to poor countries, all low-income countries are still obliged to pay an estimated $2.8 billion per month in debt repayments throughout 2020, the international news network Al-Jazeera reported July 16.
Furthermore, countries deemed as middle-income countries, such as Argentina, Ecuador and Lebanon, have been excluded from debt relief, prompting them to default on debt payments this year, Al-Jazeera said.
Biden Promises To Outlaw Gas-Powered Cars If Elected Presiden
I & I Editorial Board
3 days ago
C-SPAN
I&I Editorial
Joe Biden’s $2 trillion climate change plan, released this week, was described by one liberal outlet as “the Green New Deal, minus the crazy.” We beg to differ. Just look at Biden’s plan to eliminate the internal combustion engine.
Biden says that on his first day in office, he will develop “rigorous new fuel economy standards aimed at ensuring 100% of new sales for light- and medium-duty vehicles will be zero emissions.”
He hasn’t said exactly when he wants new cars to be all-electric, but House Democrats have already established a timetable. Their new climate change plan calls for mandating 100% “clean” vehicles by 2035.
Keep in mind that as of today, plug-in electrics account for 0.5% of cars on the road, and made up less than 2% of new vehicles sold in 2019. And that’s despite massive public subsidies that have cost taxpayers $5 billion in credits to — mostly wealthy — EV buyers.
Clearly, consumers are not that interested in plug-ins, which is why Biden and his fellow Democrats want to force electric cars on everyone in the name of climate change.
Aside from fuel economy mandates, Biden also wants to extend and expand the EV tax credit, pump federal money into charging stations, and create a new “cash for clunkers” program for those who trade in a gasoline-powered car for a plug-in.
The cost of all this? Who knows. Aside from the $2 trillion price tag that Biden put on his entire Green New Deal plan, he hasn’t broken down his EV mandate scheme. But Sen. Chuck Schumer has already proposed a cash-for-clunkers plan, which would cost $454 billion over a decade.
And for all this, the electric car mandate will have a negligible impact on CO2 emissions and zero impact on the climate.
For one thing, the CO2 advantage of electric cars is vastly oversold. These are not “zero emissions” vehicles. They simply change the source of the emissions from the car to power plants — most of them powered by coal and natural gas.
Greta Thunberg demands 'crisis' response
July 16, 2020, 11:11 am
Swedish activist Greta Thunberg signed an open letter with thousands of others on Thursday (July 16) urging European leaders to take emergency action on climate change.
The 17-year-old also accused some people in power of practically "giving up" on the possibility of handing over a decent future to coming generations.
She said authorities would only start a meaningful response to climate change once they accepted they had to transform the whole economic system.
"We need to see it as, above all, an existential crisis. And as long as it's not being treated as a crisis, we can have as many of these climate change negotiations and talks, conferences as possible; it won't change a thing."
The letter was made public on Thursday - a day before a European council summit where EU countries will try to reach a deal on the bloc's next budget.
Demands in the letter include an immediate halt to investments in fossil fuel exploration and extraction.
It also called for binding annual “carbon budgets” to limit how much greenhouse gas countries can emit.
And it wants leaders to develop climate policies designed to protect workers and reduce economic, racial and gender inequalities.
Video Transcript
[CHEERING]
- Swedish activist Greta Thunberg signed an open letter with thousands of others on Thursday urging European leaders to take emergency action on climate change. The 17-year-old also accused some people in power of practically giving up on the possibility of handing over a decent future to coming generations. She said authorities would only start a meaningful response to climate change once they accepted they had to transform the whole economic system.
GRETA THUNBERG: We need to see it as, above all, an existential crisis. And as long as it's not being treated as a crisis, we can have as many of these climate change negotiations and talks, conferences as possible. It won't change a thing.
- The letter was made public on Thursday, a day before a European Council summit where EU countries will try to reach a deal on the bloc's next budget. Demands in the letter include an immediate halt to investments in fossil fuel exploration and extraction. It also called for binding annual carbon budgets to limit how much greenhouse gas countries can emit, and it wants leaders to develop climate policies designed to protect workers and reduce economic, racial, and gender inequalities.
Satanic Miracles --1 & 2
There shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Matthew 24:24.
The enemy is preparing to deceive the whole world by his miracle-working power. He will assume to personate the angels of light, to personate Jesus Christ.58Selected Messages 2:96.
So far as his power extends, he will perform actual miracles. Says the Scripture: “He ... deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do,” not merely those which he pretends to do. Something more than mere impostures is brought to view in this scripture. But there is a limit beyond which Satan cannot go, and here he calls deception to his aid and counterfeits the work which he has not power actually to perform. In the last days he will appear in such a manner as to make men believe him to be Christ come the second time into the world. He will indeed transform himself into an angel of light.59Testimonies for the Church 5:698.
He will come personating Jesus Christ, working mighty miracles; and men will fall down and worship him as Jesus Christ. We shall be commanded to worship this being, whom the world will glorify as Christ.60The Review and Herald, December 18, 1888.
Just before us is “the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” Revelation 3:10. All whose faith is not firmly established upon the word of God will be deceived and overcome. Satan works “with all deceivableness of unrighteousness” to gain control of the children of men, and his deceptions will continually increase. But he can gain his object only as men voluntarily yield to his temptations. Those who are earnestly seeking a knowledge of the truth and are striving to purify their souls through obedience, thus doing what they can to prepare for the conflict, will find, in the God of truth, a sure defense. “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee” (verse 10), is the Saviour's promise. He would sooner send every angel out of heaven to protect His people than leave one soul that trusts in Him to be overcome by Satan.61The Great Controversy, 560.
Friday, July 17, 2020
Biden, a devout Catholic, courts even religious conservatives and Trump's core base
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS |
JUL 17, 2020 AT 4:42 PM
In this Monday, June 1, 2020, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden touches his face as he speaks to members of the clergy and community leaders at Bethel AME Church in Wilmington, Del. Democrats are betting on Biden’s evident comfort with faith as a powerful point of contrast in his battle against President Donald Trump. (Andrew Harnik/AP)
President Donald Trump’s appeal to religious conservatives is a cornerstone of his political identity. But Joe Biden is a different kind of foe than Trump has faced before: one who makes faith a central part of his persona — often literally wearing it on his sleeve.
In fact, Biden's practice of carrying a rosary that belonged to his late son Beau caught the attention of one of his Democratic presidential rivals when the two were awaiting a debate last year. Standing backstage next to Biden, Pete Buttigieg asked the lifelong Catholic about the prayer beads and fell into a conversation about loss, family and faith.
Biden "often talks about the comfort and meaning that he's drawn from faith," said Buttigieg, Biden's primary rival-turned-endorser. "That's something that will resonate with Americans a lot more than usual."
Democrats are betting on Biden’s evident comfort with faith as a powerful point of contrast with Trump. The faith-focused work underway within Biden’s campaign suggests that, while he may not significantly undercut the president’s popularity among white evangelicals, he could chip away at Trump’s base by appealing to pockets of the conservative faithful.
Biden's identity as "a very devout Catholic and person of deep faith," deputy political director John McCarthy said, is "baked into the core messaging and core functions of the campaign."
Biden has framed his presidential bid as a fight for "the soul of the nation," a subtle invocation of the Catholic beliefs that have guided his life. His campaign has released three digital ads focused on faith, including one crediting his religious practices with instilling a "sense of solace."
It's a notable contrast with Hillary Clinton, who lost in 2016 after a campaign that largely sidelined her Methodist faith.
As Trump promises to be evangelicals' "champion" on policy, Biden is making a less transactional play for religious support, betting that a beliefs-focused brand will be more persuasive than agreement on an agenda.
"For faith and values voters," McCarthy said, Biden's spiritual authenticity is "the quality they're looking for." They might disagree on a particular issue, he added, but can connect with Biden through a shared worldview.
That often may depend on the issue in question. The presumptive nominee’s shift leftward on federal funding for abortions is a potential liability with evangelicals as well as many Catholics, for example.
But Biden has used moral language and quoted Pope Francis when discussing other issues that many Catholics do support, such as immigration reform, expanding health care access and tackling climate change.
"My faith teaches me that we should be a nation that not only accepts the truth of the climate crisis, but leads the world in addressing it," Biden wrote in a Religion News Service editorial.
As the coronavirus pandemic and unrest over racial injustice roil Trump's presidency, Biden's team sees an opening to claim the moral high ground. Joshua DuBois, who led religious outreach for former President Barack Obama, described the political climate as "the perfect storm" for the president.
President Donald Trump’s appeal to religious conservatives is a cornerstone of his political identity. But Joe Biden is a different kind of foe than Trump has faced before: one who makes faith a central part of his persona — often literally wearing it on his sleeve.
In fact, Biden's practice of carrying a rosary that belonged to his late son Beau caught the attention of one of his Democratic presidential rivals when the two were awaiting a debate last year. Standing backstage next to Biden, Pete Buttigieg asked the lifelong Catholic about the prayer beads and fell into a conversation about loss, family and faith.
Biden "often talks about the comfort and meaning that he's drawn from faith," said Buttigieg, Biden's primary rival-turned-endorser. "That's something that will resonate with Americans a lot more than usual."
Democrats are betting on Biden’s evident comfort with faith as a powerful point of contrast with Trump. The faith-focused work underway within Biden’s campaign suggests that, while he may not significantly undercut the president’s popularity among white evangelicals, he could chip away at Trump’s base by appealing to pockets of the conservative faithful.
Biden's identity as "a very devout Catholic and person of deep faith," deputy political director John McCarthy said, is "baked into the core messaging and core functions of the campaign."
Biden has framed his presidential bid as a fight for "the soul of the nation," a subtle invocation of the Catholic beliefs that have guided his life. His campaign has released three digital ads focused on faith, including one crediting his religious practices with instilling a "sense of solace."
It's a notable contrast with Hillary Clinton, who lost in 2016 after a campaign that largely sidelined her Methodist faith.
As Trump promises to be evangelicals' "champion" on policy, Biden is making a less transactional play for religious support, betting that a beliefs-focused brand will be more persuasive than agreement on an agenda.
"For faith and values voters," McCarthy said, Biden's spiritual authenticity is "the quality they're looking for." They might disagree on a particular issue, he added, but can connect with Biden through a shared worldview.
That often may depend on the issue in question. The presumptive nominee’s shift leftward on federal funding for abortions is a potential liability with evangelicals as well as many Catholics, for example.
But Biden has used moral language and quoted Pope Francis when discussing other issues that many Catholics do support, such as immigration reform, expanding health care access and tackling climate change.
"My faith teaches me that we should be a nation that not only accepts the truth of the climate crisis, but leads the world in addressing it," Biden wrote in a Religion News Service editorial.
As the coronavirus pandemic and unrest over racial injustice roil Trump's presidency, Biden's team sees an opening to claim the moral high ground. Joshua DuBois, who led religious outreach for former President Barack Obama, described the political climate as "the perfect storm" for the president.
Thursday, July 16, 2020
Biden Announces $2 Trillion Climate Plan
Joe Biden’s plan connects tackling climate change with the economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis, while also addressing racism. The proposal drew praise from his onetime critics.
TRANSCRIPT
‘These Are the Most Critical Investments,’ Biden Says of Climate Plan
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. unveiled his $2 trillion climate plan for reducing fossil fuel use across the U.S. and creating jobs.
Today, I’m here in Wilmington to talk about a second plan: How we could create millions of high-paying union jobs by building a modern infrastructure and a clean energy future. These are the most critical investments we can make for the long-term health and vitality of both the American economy, and the physical health and safety of the American people. Here we are now with an economy in crisis. But with an incredible opportunity, not just to build back to where we were before, but better, stronger more resilient. When Donald Trump thinks about climate change, the only word he can muster is “hoax.” When I think about climate change, the word I think of is “jobs” — good-paying union jobs.
‘These Are the Most Critical Investments,’ Biden Says of Climate Plan
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. unveiled his $2 trillion climate plan for reducing fossil fuel use across the U.S. and creating jobs.
Kriston Jae Bethel for The New York Times
By Katie Glueck and Lisa Friedman
July 14, 2020
Joseph R. Biden Jr. announced on Tuesday a new plan to spend $2 trillion over four years to significantly escalate the use of clean energy in the transportation, electricity and building sectors, part of a suite of sweeping proposals designed to create economic opportunities and strengthen infrastructure while also tackling climate change.
In a speech in Wilmington, Del., Mr. Biden built on his plans, released last week, for reviving the economy in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, with a new focus on enhancing the nation’s infrastructure and emphasizing the importance of significantly cutting fossil fuel emissions. As he denounced President Trump’s stewardship of the virus and climate change, he drew criticism from Republicans — but he also faced a key test from progressives who have long been skeptical of the scope of his climate ambitions.
Biden: ‘Pope Raised Awareness About the Growing Climate Change Crisis'
Biden: ‘Pope Francis Directed the Global Community to Raise Awareness About the Growing Climate Change Crisis’
By CNSNews.com Staff | July 9, 2020 | 11:57am EDT
(CNSNews.com) - Former Vice President Joe Biden says on a section of his campaign website entitled “Joe Biden’s Agenda for the Catholic Community” that he will fight climate change, noting that Pope Francis has called for this.
“In his encyclical, Laudato Si, Pope Francis directed the global community to raise awareness about the growing climate change crisis,” says this page on Biden’s campaign website.
“Climate change threatens communities across the country, from beachfront coastal towns to rural farms in the heartland,” says Biden’s website. “Joe’s plan will tackle climate change and pollution to protect our communities.”
“He will push the United States to achieve a 100 percent clean energy economy and reaches net zero emissions no later than 2050,” says the page on Biden’s website.
“I’m a practicing Catholic. I believe faith is a gift,” Biden says at the top of the same page.
Here is the passage from “Joe Biden’s Agenda for the Catholic Community” that talks about fighting climate change:
Serve as stewards of our creation and protect our planet against climate change: In his encyclical, Laudato Si, Pope Francis directed the global community to raise awareness about the growing climate change crisis. Climate change threatens communities across the country, from beachfront coastal towns to rural farms in the heartland. Joe’s plan will tackle climate change and pollution to protect our communities. He will ensure that communities harmed by climate change and pollution, particularly communities of color and low-income communities, are the first to benefit from his clean economy revolution. He will push the United States to achieve a 100 percent clean energy economy and reaches net zero emissions no later than 2050. Joe’s plan will create 10 million good-paying jobs in the United States, hold polluters accountable, and push other countries to go further on their climate action commitments. He will work to ensure that every American has access to clean drinking water, clean air, and an environment free from pollutants. And, every dollar spent towards rebuilding infrastructure will be used to prevent, reduce, and withstand a changing climate.
Wednesday, July 15, 2020
Several States Begin Walking Back Reopening Plans Amid COVID-19 Surge
July 15, 20205:02 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
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NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to David Wessel, director of the Hutchins Center at the Brookings Institution, about the economic impact on states who have reversed their reopenings during the pandemic.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Just how much of a mess is the economy now? Big companies and banks are beginning to report their profits for the second quarter, which may offer us some clues. David Wessel is here with the big picture. He's director of the Hutchins Center at the Brookings Institution. David, good morning.
DAVID WESSEL, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: I guess the big question here is what the progress, if that's the word, of the pandemic means for the economy.
WESSEL: Well, the economy is basically being held hostage by the coronavirus. And there was some hope that we might have what people called a sharp V-shaped recovery later this summer into the fall, but that depended on reducing the number of COVID cases. In a lot of places, that's just not what's happening. So, you know, we've seen these improving trends and all sorts of measures like the number of hours that are being worked at small businesses or the number of people that are going to restaurants, and those trends have been disrupted. They haven't turned the wrong way, but they're not getting better. So it's a little bit worrisome.
INSKEEP: Oh, sure, because restaurants are having to reclose in different places. So those are small businesses, which we can see on the streets. What about the bigger companies, like banks?
WESSEL: Yeah. So at this time of year, we begin to get the second-quarter reports from big companies, and yesterday we got the reports from three of the nation's biggest banks. And, frankly, there was nothing encouraging there. Now, there's a lot of details. JPMorgan's profits were down by more than 50%. Citibank's profits were down by more than 70%. But three banks - Citi, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo - together put aside $28 billion to cover loans to businesses and consumers who might not be able to pay them back. And that's on top of $19 billion that they set aside in the first quarter.
And one of the most interesting things is you get to hear the chief executives of the bank give - look over the horizon at what do they see. And the CEO of Citibank said that the pandemic has a grip on the economy that doesn't seem to loosen until vaccines are available. And at Wells Fargo, which lost money for the first time in more than a decade, CEO Charles Scharf said that, in the bank's view, the length and severity of the economic downturn has deteriorated considerably.
INSKEEP: Wow.
WESSEL: So that's not a good sign.
INSKEEP: Now, with that said, when you talk about banks setting aside billions of dollars to cover loans that aren't going to be paid back, that's worrisome. It's grim. But it also sounds kind of prudent on the part of the banks. Do they still have the resources to get through this?
WESSEL: Yes, I think they do. I think there's a lot of fear that we might be - repeat the Great Recession of a decade ago, when the banks had to be bailed out, and I don't think that's going to happen unless things get a whole lot worse. The banks entered this crisis substantially stronger, with much more capital to absorb losses, than they did the last time, partly because of the post-crisis reforms.
But Lael Brainard, who's a governor of the Federal Reserve, warned yesterday that some banks might have to pull back on lending if they face rising losses or weaker capital positions. And the Fed has come under some criticism, including from former Chair Janet Yellen, for letting the banks continue to pay dividends to their shareholders instead of holding on to the money as insurance against a worsening economy.
INSKEEP: If most of the news is grim, why has the stock market remained higher than it was when it drove in the spring?
WESSEL: Yeah, that's incredible. It's really hard to understand. I got three possible explanations. One, the stock market is just optimistic that we're about to find a treatment or a vaccine and things will get back to normal in the next six months ago. Another is that interest rates are so low around the world that there's simply nowhere else to put your money except the U.S. stock market, and that's driving things up. And the third option is the market is just nuts. So take your pick.
INSKEEP: (Laughter) An explanation for almost any news story anymore - people are nuts.
WESSEL: (Laughter) That's right.
INSKEEP: David, thank you very much.
WESSEL: You're welcome.
INSKEEP: David Wessel is director of the Hutchins Center at the Brookings Institution.
(SOUNDBITE OF MATTHEW HAISALL'S "THE END OF DUKKHA")
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Fauci: ‘Bizarre’ White House Behavior Only Hurts the President
The nation’s top public-health expert tells The Atlantic that he isn’t going anywhere, despite the Trump administration’s newest attempts to undercut him.
PETER NICHOLAS
1:30 PM ET
DREW ANGERER / GETTY / KATIE MARTIN / THE ATLANTIC
Anthony Fauci isn’t about to quit, despite the White House’s clumsy attempts to stain his public image. More so now than at any other point in their uneasy partnership, it seems that if President Donald Trump wants to be rid of Fauci, he’ll need to fire him. In recent days especially, the White House has stepped up efforts to discredit Fauci, a move he describes as “bizarre.”
“Ultimately, it hurts the president to do that,” Fauci told The Atlantic in a series of interviews this week. “When the staff lets out something like that and the entire scientific and press community push back on it, it ultimately hurts the president.”
He described the White House attacks against him as “nonsense” and “completely wrong.” He also seemed dismayed that they are coming at a time when COVID-19 is surging across the country, deaths are once again rising, and Americans remain deeply confused about how to keep themselves and their loved ones safe.
Targeting Fauci seems like a tragic misuse of White House time and energy if officials’ aim is to defeat the coronavirus. But Trump appears more concerned with discrediting Fauci. Over the weekend, the White House sent multiple news outlets a document that smacked of opposition research. It carried a list of statements Fauci had made about COVID-19, purporting to show that he had contradicted himself about the outbreak and that he “has been wrong on things.” In one example from an NBC interview in February, the White House omitted Fauci’s full quote, giving the impression that he’d misjudged the outbreak’s danger. Peter Navarro, Trump’s top trade adviser, wrote an op-ed for USA Today yesterday claiming that Fauci has been “wrong about everything I have interacted with him on.” (A Trump communications aide tried to distance the White House from the op-ed this morning.)
The attempt to discredit Fauci’s public-health expertise is a political move, and one with disastrous implications. As much as Trump wants and needs Americans to see the virus as a nuisance that’s soon to be overcome, Fauci is a recurring reminder that the crisis remains a grave and enduring threat, and that Trump has mishandled the pandemic. The Americans who believe the White House’s anti-science campaign risk cutting themselves off from potentially life-saving information.
“I cannot figure out in my wildest dreams why they would want to do that,” Fauci told The Atlantic, in reference to the White House document. “I think they realize now that that was not a prudent thing to do, because it’s only reflecting negatively on them.
“I can’t explain Peter Navarro,” he added. “He’s in a world by himself.”
My colleague Ed Yong and I spoke with Fauci in two interviews over the past 24 hours—about the oppo against him, the private discussion he had later with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and the nation’s faltering response to the virus’s resurgence. What follows is an edited and combined transcript of our conversations.
The Atlantic: In your 36-year history as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has anything like this ever happened to you? What do you think about the White House’s claim that you made inaccurate statements about the pandemic?
Anthony Fauci: I stand by everything I said. Contextually, at the time I said it, it was absolutely true … [The White House document] is totally wrong. It’s nonsense. It’s completely wrong. The whole thing is wrong. The whole thing is incorrect.
Anthony Fauci isn’t about to quit, despite the White House’s clumsy attempts to stain his public image. More so now than at any other point in their uneasy partnership, it seems that if President Donald Trump wants to be rid of Fauci, he’ll need to fire him. In recent days especially, the White House has stepped up efforts to discredit Fauci, a move he describes as “bizarre.”
“Ultimately, it hurts the president to do that,” Fauci told The Atlantic in a series of interviews this week. “When the staff lets out something like that and the entire scientific and press community push back on it, it ultimately hurts the president.”
He described the White House attacks against him as “nonsense” and “completely wrong.” He also seemed dismayed that they are coming at a time when COVID-19 is surging across the country, deaths are once again rising, and Americans remain deeply confused about how to keep themselves and their loved ones safe.
Targeting Fauci seems like a tragic misuse of White House time and energy if officials’ aim is to defeat the coronavirus. But Trump appears more concerned with discrediting Fauci. Over the weekend, the White House sent multiple news outlets a document that smacked of opposition research. It carried a list of statements Fauci had made about COVID-19, purporting to show that he had contradicted himself about the outbreak and that he “has been wrong on things.” In one example from an NBC interview in February, the White House omitted Fauci’s full quote, giving the impression that he’d misjudged the outbreak’s danger. Peter Navarro, Trump’s top trade adviser, wrote an op-ed for USA Today yesterday claiming that Fauci has been “wrong about everything I have interacted with him on.” (A Trump communications aide tried to distance the White House from the op-ed this morning.)
The attempt to discredit Fauci’s public-health expertise is a political move, and one with disastrous implications. As much as Trump wants and needs Americans to see the virus as a nuisance that’s soon to be overcome, Fauci is a recurring reminder that the crisis remains a grave and enduring threat, and that Trump has mishandled the pandemic. The Americans who believe the White House’s anti-science campaign risk cutting themselves off from potentially life-saving information.
“I cannot figure out in my wildest dreams why they would want to do that,” Fauci told The Atlantic, in reference to the White House document. “I think they realize now that that was not a prudent thing to do, because it’s only reflecting negatively on them.
“I can’t explain Peter Navarro,” he added. “He’s in a world by himself.”
My colleague Ed Yong and I spoke with Fauci in two interviews over the past 24 hours—about the oppo against him, the private discussion he had later with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and the nation’s faltering response to the virus’s resurgence. What follows is an edited and combined transcript of our conversations.
The Atlantic: In your 36-year history as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has anything like this ever happened to you? What do you think about the White House’s claim that you made inaccurate statements about the pandemic?
Anthony Fauci: I stand by everything I said. Contextually, at the time I said it, it was absolutely true … [The White House document] is totally wrong. It’s nonsense. It’s completely wrong. The whole thing is wrong. The whole thing is incorrect.
Tuesday, July 14, 2020
Monday, July 13, 2020
The Joe Biden 2020 Presidential Campaign is Promoting Pope Francis’ Climate Change Encyclical, Laudato Si’
July 13, 2020 by Andy Roman
Joe Biden is running for president and he has presented his “vision for America.” Part of his vision is to establish an economy with “100 percent clean energy” and “zero emissions” in the United States. On his official campaign website, Biden has promised to become a steward of “our creation and protect our planet against climate change.” And how exactly will he save America? His agenda focuses on Pope Francis’ climate change encyclical, Laudato Si’:
Joe Biden’s Presidential Campaign states:
- In his encyclical, Laudato Si’, Pope Francis directed the global community to raise awareness about the growing climate change crisis. Climate change threatens communities across the country, from beachfront coastal towns to rural farms in the heartland.
- Joe’s plan will tackle climate change and pollution to protect our communities. He will ensure that communities harmed by climate change and pollution, particularly communities of color and low-income communities, are the first to benefit from his clean economy revolution.
- He will push the United States to achieve a 100 percent clean energy economy and reaches net zero emissions no later than 2050. Joe’s plan will create 10 million good-paying jobs in the United States, hold polluters accountable, and push other countries to go further on their climate action commitments.
- He will work to ensure that every American has access to clean drinking water, clean air, and an environment free from pollutants. And, every dollar spent towards rebuilding infrastructure will be used to prevent, reduce, and withstand a changing climate. [1]
More than 100 years ago we were warned that as we got closer to the end we would see an ascendancy of Rome’s agenda in our nation:
“Catholicism is gaining ground upon every side. See the increasing number of her churches and chapels in Protestant countries. Look at the popularity of her colleges and seminaries in America, so widely patronized by Protestants … Protestants have tampered with and patronized popery; they have made compromises and concessions which papists themselves are surprised to see, and fail to understand” (Great Controversy, p. 566).
There is a need for our people to wake up and understand how Laudato Si’ is just one of the papacy’s methods to accomplish her purpose. There is a call to make Sunday the day of rest within the framework of Laudato Si’. This is exactly what we have been warned about:
Trump identifies another hoax: The coronavirus
Christopher Wilson
Senior Writer,
Yahoo News
•July 13, 2020
President Trump has called many things hoaxes over the years — the investigation into his 2016 campaign’s dealings with Russia, his impeachment, global warming — but on Monday he called into question the existence of an epidemic that has killed more than 135,000 Americans.
During a flurry of activity on his Twitter account, Trump retweeted a message from game show host Chuck Woolery that claimed “everyone is lying” about the coronavirus as part of a plot to sabotage the economy and hurt Trump’s reelection campaign.
“The most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19,” wrote Woolery in the message promoted by Trump. “Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most ,that we are told to trust. I think it’s all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. I’m sick of it.”
Asked about the retweet at a briefing later Monday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said that the “notion of the tweet was to point out the fact that when we use science, we have to use it in a way that is not political.”
A key problem keeping the economy from coming back is the 135,000 Americans dead from the coronavirus, per tracking by Johns Hopkins University, which reported 61,352 new cases and 685 deaths on Saturday. Woolery didn’t say whether he thought the death toll was faked. Florida set a record for most single-day cases of any state so far with more than 15,000 reported Saturday, the same day Walt Disney World reopened in Orlando. Arizona, California, Florida, Mississippi and Texas have all set record highs for daily deaths over the last week.
Trump sometimes uses “hoax” as an all-purpose denigration of opinions — or facts — he doesn’t like. In February he called criticism of his administration’s response to the coronavirus the Democrats’ “new hoax,” but he didn’t quite deny the existence of the epidemic, as Woolery appeared to do in his tweet.
There is no obvious precedent for a president repeating criticism that a key agency in his own administration — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — is lying, except for Trump himself, and the many times he has accused the FBI and the intelligence services of intentionally undermining him.
President Trump has called many things hoaxes over the years — the investigation into his 2016 campaign’s dealings with Russia, his impeachment, global warming — but on Monday he called into question the existence of an epidemic that has killed more than 135,000 Americans.
During a flurry of activity on his Twitter account, Trump retweeted a message from game show host Chuck Woolery that claimed “everyone is lying” about the coronavirus as part of a plot to sabotage the economy and hurt Trump’s reelection campaign.
“The most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19,” wrote Woolery in the message promoted by Trump. “Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most ,that we are told to trust. I think it’s all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. I’m sick of it.”
Asked about the retweet at a briefing later Monday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said that the “notion of the tweet was to point out the fact that when we use science, we have to use it in a way that is not political.”
A key problem keeping the economy from coming back is the 135,000 Americans dead from the coronavirus, per tracking by Johns Hopkins University, which reported 61,352 new cases and 685 deaths on Saturday. Woolery didn’t say whether he thought the death toll was faked. Florida set a record for most single-day cases of any state so far with more than 15,000 reported Saturday, the same day Walt Disney World reopened in Orlando. Arizona, California, Florida, Mississippi and Texas have all set record highs for daily deaths over the last week.
Trump sometimes uses “hoax” as an all-purpose denigration of opinions — or facts — he doesn’t like. In February he called criticism of his administration’s response to the coronavirus the Democrats’ “new hoax,” but he didn’t quite deny the existence of the epidemic, as Woolery appeared to do in his tweet.
There is no obvious precedent for a president repeating criticism that a key agency in his own administration — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — is lying, except for Trump himself, and the many times he has accused the FBI and the intelligence services of intentionally undermining him.
President Trump at a "National Dialogue on Safely Reopening America's Schools" event in the White House on July 7. (Alex Brandon/AP)
Sunday, July 12, 2020
White House seeks to discredit Fauci as coronavirus surges
Many of the statements the White House criticizes Fauci for were based on the best available data at the time and were widely echoed by Trump and other officials.
White House officials working to undermine Fauci's credibility
JULY 12, 202002:08
July 12, 2020, 2:47 PM EDT
By Josh Lederman and Kelly O'Donnell
The White House is seeking to discredit Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's leading infectious disease expert, as President Donald Trump works to marginalize him and his dire warnings about the shortcomings of the U.S. coronavirus response.
In a remarkable broadside by the Trump administration against one of its own, a White House official said Sunday that "several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr. Fauci has been wrong on things." The official gave NBC News a list of nearly a dozen past comments by Fauci that the official said had ultimately proven erroneous.
Among them: Fauci's comments in January that the coronavirus was "not a major threat" and his guidance in March that "people should not be walking around with masks."
It was a move more characteristic of a political campaign furtively disseminating opposition research about an opponent than of a White House struggling to contain a pandemic that has killed more than 135,000 people, according to an NBC News tally.
July 12, 2020, 2:47 PM EDT
By Josh Lederman and Kelly O'Donnell
The White House is seeking to discredit Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's leading infectious disease expert, as President Donald Trump works to marginalize him and his dire warnings about the shortcomings of the U.S. coronavirus response.
In a remarkable broadside by the Trump administration against one of its own, a White House official said Sunday that "several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr. Fauci has been wrong on things." The official gave NBC News a list of nearly a dozen past comments by Fauci that the official said had ultimately proven erroneous.
Among them: Fauci's comments in January that the coronavirus was "not a major threat" and his guidance in March that "people should not be walking around with masks."
It was a move more characteristic of a political campaign furtively disseminating opposition research about an opponent than of a White House struggling to contain a pandemic that has killed more than 135,000 people, according to an NBC News tally.
White House works to discredit Dr. Fauci as coronavirus surges in U.S.
JULY 12, 202001:58
Fauci, who runs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had been a leading member of the White House coronavirus task force and a key communicator with the public until the president soured on his sober assessments of the situation, which have increasingly conflicted with the more sanguine picture of a virus in retreat that the president has sought to paint.
Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak
In recent days, Fauci has deviated from Trump by disputing that the U.S. is "doing great" and by faulting the decision in some states to reopen too quickly and to sidestep the task force's suggested criteria for when it's safe to loosen restrictions. In a particularly alarming prediction, Fauci said he wouldn't be surprised if the U.S. was soon adding 100,000 new cases a day — a figure that would reflect an abject failure to slow the spread.
Fauci declined to comment.
The coronavirus is surging nationwide, which Trump has repeatedly downplayed as the result of increased testing rather than growing numbers of infections. Florida on Sunday reported over 15,000 new cases, the most any state has reported in a single day since the pandemic began. The U.S. on Friday also surpassed 70,000 new coronavirus cases nationwide for the first time.
As physicians and scientists have learned more about the coronavirus, the medical consensus on how to treat it and limit its spread has evolved — and not just in the U.S. Many of Fauci's assertions called into question by the White House official were based on the best available data at the time and were widely echoed by Trump, other members of the task force and senior White House officials.
"When you learn more, you change those recommendations," Surgeon General Jerome Adams, another member of the task force, told CBS News on Sunday. "Our recommendations have changed."
Giroir: 'Dr. Fauci is not 100 percent right'
JULY 12, 202001:29
The list of Fauci's comments compiled by the White House, first reported by The Washington Post, includes Fauci's saying in January— weeks before the first reported COVID-19 death in the U.S. — that the virus was "not a major threat for the people in the U.S." A month later, Trump told Americans that the virus would simply "disappear" like a "miracle."
The White House declined to provide further comment. But the signs of its displeasure have been mounting. On Thursday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany declined to say whether Trump still has confidence in Fauci, and the president said of him the same day: "He's made a lot of mistakes."
"I disagree with him," Trump said in a separate interview with Gray Television's Greta Van Susteren last week.
Signs of tension between Fauci and the president are growing. Fauci said last week that he hadn't seen Trump in person since June 2 and hadn't briefed him in person in at least two months.
Fauci, who has served in the federal government for decades, can't be directly fired by the president, and there were no signs that Trump was seeking to get rid of him altogether. Rather, the White House salvo appeared aimed at undermining the public's trust in the renowned immunologist in hope that Americans will be more inclined to believe Trump's far more optimistic version of events as the November election marches closer.
Fauci has enjoyed broad support from the public, which got to know the gruff-speaking doctor during his frequent appearances at the task force's televised briefings — a mainstay of the early response to the pandemic that has since fallen largely by the wayside.
A New York Times/Sienna College poll last month found that 2 in 3 registered voters approved of Fauci, including half of Republicans and 4 in 5 Democrats. Trump, by comparison, enjoyed support of his handling of the crisis from only 1 in 4 voters in the same poll, including just 4 percent of Democrats.
Another member of the coronavirus task force, Dr. Brett Giroir, added to the pile-on, saying Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that Fauci hasn't always been correct.
"I respect Dr. Fauci a lot, but Dr. Fauci is not 100 percent right, and he also doesn't necessarily, he admits that, have the whole national interest in mind. He looks at it from a very narrow public health point of view," Giroir said.
Saturday, July 11, 2020
Black Christians bracing for ‘whitelash’ over nationwide protests — but hope this time will be different
Published 1 day ago
on July 10, 2020
By Travis Gettys
Conservative white Christians have condemned racial injustice following the police killing of George Floyd, and pledged to fight systemic racism, but Black Christians remain wary.
Black Christians are bracing for a “whitelash,” when White Christians get tired of hearing about race and get frustrated when Black pastors and congregants want to continue the dialogue, reported CNN.
“It is so detrimental to someone’s faith when your experience, your reality, is squashed because it’s not the other person’s reality,” said Christian author Trillia Newbell. “I have experienced that time and time again.”
Newbell recalled a talk she gave in Jackson, Tennessee, where she spoke about imago Dei, the idea that humans of all races are created in God’s image, but a white man approached her afterward to dispute her claim.
“He explained that I was subhuman, that I was a different species,” Newbell said, “and he was trying to use Scripture as proof. Too many times to name, I have gone after a speaking event and wept in my hotel room just realizing how deeply deceived some people are.”
The 41-year-old, who serves as a community outreach director for an arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, is skeptical that white Christians will sustain their interest in fighting racism.
More than six in 10 Black Christians believe it’s important to discuss race and immigration in sermons, according to a new Pew Research Center poll, but more than six in 10 white Christians say those topics are not essential topics for church, and 40 percent argued that race and immigration should not be mentioned by pastors at all.
That poll was conducted before Floyd’s killing dramatically changed attitudes about the Black Lives Matter movement, and many Black Christians are doubtful this newfound commitment to justice will stick.
“It’s so rare to see White Christians stick with it unless they have a personal stake,” said Kristina Brown Button, an author and advocate for racial justice who struggled to find a white church willing to address racism. “I am not going to a predominantly white church again. It was just too painful.”
Black Christians still have a hard time accepting that white evangelicals overwhelmingly backed President Donald Trump.
“When presented with a choice between loving their black neighbors and supporting White supremacy, White Christians chose White power,” said Danté Stewart, a writer and preacher in Augusta, Georgia.
White Christians insist there were non-racist reasons to back Trump, but Black Christians are watching how they vote in November.
“If they have made all of these gestures in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, only to go back to voting for a man who embodies racial bigotry,” said historian and author Jemar Tisby, “it will do more damage than if they had just remained silent.”
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