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Thursday on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” conservative talker Mark Levin gave a wide-ranging monologue on different aspects of the coronavirus outbreak.

Levin hammered Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Democrats for launching an investigation into the Trump administration coronavirus response.

He also decried the handling of the government’s handling of the economy. Levin’s solution was to call on less government response and more work to open up parts of the economy.

LEVIN: You know, with respect to the Democrats investigating the coronavirus, that would be like Jack the Ripper investigating the failures of the London police force. The fact is that Adam Schiff, who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, was running an impeachment coup for months.

He should have been on top of the China matter. He should have been on top of the virus matter. And so, I want to know what Adam Schiff knew and when he knew it, and when he started to hold hearings.

This guy is a disgrace. He is a reprobate and he should stop giving aid and comfort to the enemy. First, it was Russia, now, it’s China.

But I want to move to another topic here and that’s our economy and I’m hoping people in Washington are listening. You cannot deficit-spend your way into prosperity. If you could, Venezuela would be the richest nation on the face of the earth.

And the media and the Democrats and some of his advisors, I fear, are boxing the president in. If the president a few weeks ago, I thought it a very good idea. Let’s look at the areas of the economy that we can open up, and I’m going to tell them I think there is.

You need to ask these businesses if they can adjust to this — I’ll give you a perfect example. We have food, we have heat, we have clean water. Who you think is giving that to us? Other citizens.

Electricity, gasoline for our cars. We have truckers, we have a mail service. We have UPS, FedEx, grocery stores, fast food drive-thrus, all open, all functioning. We get soap and diapers and toilet paper, prescription drugs. 7-Elevens are open.

We have doctors, nurses, cops, firefighters, more, going into these hot zones despite the fact that they are exposed. I’m not saying drop all the conditions. I’m saying let’s get a little smarter about this. We don’t ask these businesses and industries — and by the way, the president hasn’t shed a single one of them. It’s the governors and the mayors.

We don’t ask these businesses, can you adjust to this virus? Are there things you can do?

I’ll give your perfect example. I was at my local supermarket the other day. The people are filling those grocery shelves. They are working harder than ever before.

They are hiring people. They have the protective gloves. They have the masks on.

They are so smart, the companies, they built these plastic shields that the cashier — at the register. I go to the post office, same thing. There are things that people and businesses can do in some of these areas where they adhere to the requirements, where people are safe, but they still work. They still work.

So we have parts of the economy that are working, that are more than 10 people want to go to the supermarket, there may be 50, 60, 70 people there, parts of the economy that are working the parts of the economy that have been shut down because somebody has deigned its essential or nonessential.

Small restaurants, there is no reason a small restaurant can’t be asked how would you adjust to this? Maybe they say will take a few people, separate them out. There are certain things we can do.

The American people and the American entrepreneur — and by the way, that includes small company’s, not just GM and 3M. They are innovative. They are not asked what can you do to stay open but to ensure that their health care measures that are taken. We don’t do that.

And who is looking into this? Is there a single governor? No.

So, the president raises this as a possibility a few weeks ago and what happens? They cream him. They say you’re going to pick — the Governor Cuomo, you’re going to pick a human life or a dollar bill? Of course, we’re going to pick a dollar bill.

Governor, if this economy tanks, there are no hospitals. There’s no ventilators, there’s no vaccines, there’s no doctors, nobody’s working.

Now, this next round of spending is a disaster. You can’t push this kind of money into an economy and then say that we’re going to put people to work when you’re telling people not to work. That is the federal budget, $4.7 trillion. That is what they just spent last week, $2.2 trillion. That is what the fed can loan, $4.5 trillion and basically they’ve nationalized the private capital market.

Now, they want to spend another $2 trillion, believe me, with the Democrats is going to get worse than that. What’s a trillion dollars? A trillion dollars — does anybody know? Right now, that’s $13.4 trillion.

I have to put it in writing it’s so big. That’s 11 zeros. OK, $13.4 trillion — what is a trillion dollars? One trillion dollars is a million millions. $1 trillion is a thousand billions.

Washington, stop. You’re going to destroy the economy, what’s left of it. You’re going to create massive inflation.

If you’re right, if you’re right and I’m wrong, then we will have Venezuela — that is, if you do what you say you’re going to do, you’re going to be pouring money into industries that are not open. You’re going to be creating jobs that don’t exist and most of what you’re spending money on, by the way, does not create jobs. It tells employers you can get a loan if you continue to employ those people.

If I’m a restaurant, why would I take a loan to employ people who aren’t servicing guests? That doesn’t even make any sense.

If I’m a worker, why would I work for months when I can get 100 percent of what I was paid for not working? There’s a lot of real stupidity in these bills. Don’t pass another bill.

Open up parts of the economy. Ask these businesses what they got to do and tell these governors to cut it out.

via Breitbart News

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Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker (R) is counting gun stores as non-essential and keeping them closed despite the Trump administration’s guidelines to the contrary.

Breitbart News reported the guidelines, released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), went public on March 28, 2020.

Those guidelines listed as essential “workers supporting the operation of firearm or ammunition product manufacturers, retailers, importers, distributors, and shooting ranges.”

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (D) and Maine Governor Janet Mills (D) reversed course on aspects of their statewide closure orders after the DHS guidelines were released, allowing gun stores to reopen. But Massachusetts Governor Baker continues to reject labeling gun stores as essential in his state.

His latest list of COVID-19 “Essential Services” includes “workers supporting the operation of firearm or ammunition product manufacturers, importers, and distributors,” but retailers are not on the list. This means guns and ammunition can continue to be manufactured in Massachusetts, they simply cannot be sold to residents of the state once manufactured.

MassLive reports Governor Baker’s “Essential Services” list contained “gun retailers” for a few hours, Tuesday to Wednesday, then retailers were “quietly” removed, thereby keeping gun stores closed.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.

 

via Breitbart News

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The press has been publishing negative stories about One America News correspondent Chanel Rion for quite some time now. She’s young, she’s conservative, she was homeschooled, she’s bright, she’s not perfect (any more than they are – she occasionally gets stories wrong or follows the wrong rabbit holes) and she certainly isn’t part of their ‘in’ crowd. Worst of all, she’s liked by President Trump. A CNN denizen calls this competitor network “a fringe outlet.” Another CNN denizen claims that Rion promotes ‘conspiracy theories‘ which sounds kind of funny coming from the network that spent years promoting the Russia collusion conspiracy. 

So now they’ve finally put a stop to her, piously citing coronavirus public health concerns.

According to the Washington Post, which to judge by its extended Chanel Rion coverage, really doesn’t like her:

On Wednesday the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) issued a statement saying, in part: “We are writing to inform you that the WHCA Board has voted this evening to remove a news outlet from the rotation for a seat in the briefing room. We did this because a reporter for this outlet twice attended press briefings in contravention of this policy.”

“This policy” refers to steps taken by the association to ensure social distancing in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, the venue where Trump and his colleagues hold their daily coronavirus news conferences.

Though the correspondents’ association announcement didn’t specify the ousted organization, it is in fact OANN. The association, whose president is Jonathan Karl of ABC News, made its decision based on the allegedly unauthorized presence of Rion in the briefing room twice this week, in violation of the social-distancing rules that the WHCA instituted to mitigate the spread of coronavirus.

“We do not take this action lightly. This is a matter of public safety,” the association’s memo continued.

Which sounds a little disingenuous, given that the WaPo video showing Rion in the briefing room in the back, in this same story, clearly has her more than six feet away from other reporters. (Update: The video I saw doesn’t seem to be there anymore and it may have been replaced with an unrelated hairstyling video.)

Something says this expulsion might not be about the coronavirus.

At the White House, the press reports as a group, and the White House Correspondents Association issues rotation spots, yet they are not all doing the same thing. Some are TV, some are radio, some are print, some are wire and Internet. Some might be really trying to cover the news impartially and keep their own politics out of it. Some have an undeclared slant. Some honestly declare their slant. OAN seems to be in the last category, same as Buzzfeed on the left, and other outlets. They all say they’re there to tell the truth, and who gets truth moves on a continuum, actually based on what audiences respond to. Bottom line, all of it amounts to valid free speech.

But the White House Press Corps seems to be acting as a cartel, actually, seeking to enforce a common groupthink in coverage or non-coverage.

Start with this question: Why would the White House invite Rion in to cover the press conferences in the first place?

The answer seems pretty obvious:

Some of the networks actually vowed to not cover the briefings Trump was putting on. They hated that those direct addresses of Trump’s to the general public, comforting them at the time of a pandemic, and driving his poll numbers higher. Yet at the same time, they apparently held places in the WHCA press rotation, taking up seat space for the very briefings they said they wanted to keep out of the news. 

Here’s Deadline’s April 1 piece:

CNN and MSNBC each turned away from President Donald Trump’s coronavirus briefing after it started with an announcement — about a new advanced counter-narcotics operation.

The networks found it off-topic, particularly as Trump began to talk about progress of the construction of a wall along the southern border, a signature campaign promise.

CNN’s John King expressed his annoyance.

“When you are an incumbent president, to bring that into a briefing in the middle of a pandemic, the day after the incredibly sobering news the administration rightfully delivered to the American people yesterday, is shameless and it’s political,” he said on-air. “The president has other opportunities to do this. There are 24 hours in a day. He has all the buildings of the government still at his disposal.”

Which is hypocritical right on its surface beause the press itself asks off-topic questions at dedicated briefings all the time. I’ve seen this firsthand myself as a correspondent in those White House pools. Several years ago, I accompanied then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on a congressional delegation to Colombia to write about free trade and at one point, the reporters were to agree on pitching three questions. One of the reporters insisted on wasting one of those questions on a Middle East issue to finish up some previous story she was on and I objected so strenously (given that I had flown from Los Angeles to Washington to Colombia for this) that I know I made myself unpopular. The compromise we reached was to cheat on that three-question rule and jam in an extra question from the last reporter, something I give the Agence France-Press correspondent credit to for peacemaking. 

But more deeply, the declaration that the briefings not be covered because of “propaganda” and off-topic remarks from the president (normal people would skip covering the off-topic remarks and carry on) is problematic itself. That’s especially for press organizations supposedly devoted to casting daylight to the public. If they don’t want to cover the news, they need to give their seats to someone else who wants to. They can’t be placeholders to ensure news suppression, and they sure as heck don’t own those seats.

Sure, young Rion seems probably too close to White House officials, and maybe too eager to repeat heir talking points. But to hear such complaints from the people who by email coordinated with the Obama administration White House – ever heard of JournoList, run by then-Washington Post columist Ezra Klein - is kind of hypocritical, too

Here’s a second problem: According to this March 31 piece by the Washington Post, some of them weren’t even showing up to the briefings at all. They didn’t want to go, they didn’t want to write about it, and that is their prerogative, but it’s weird stuff for them to somehow not want anyone else to cover the briefings, either, as is the case with OAN. Which incidentally has proven a ratings bonanza for them.

With that kind of thing going on, why wouldn’t the White House want to create some kind of space for someone who really wanted to cover Trump’s press briefings? Based on the childish behavior seen, and the fact that the public really does want to see the press briefings covered, the WHCA is effectively acting as a cartel, not just trying to halt coverage of the news, but objecting to any competitor who does. 

As long as they are going to either threaten to not cover, or actually not cover the news, the White House has a perfect right to invite young Chanel Rion into the briefings.

Hypocrisy bites.

Image credit: YouTube screen shot, OAN

The press has been publishing negative stories about One America News correspondent Chanel Rion for quite some time now. She’s young, she’s conservative, she was homeschooled, she’s bright, she’s not perfect (any more than they are – she occasionally gets stories wrong or follows the wrong rabbit holes) and she certainly isn’t part of their ‘in’ crowd. Worst of all, she’s liked by President Trump. A CNN denizen calls this competitor network “a fringe outlet.” Another CNN denizen claims that Rion promotes ‘conspiracy theories‘ which sounds kind of funny coming from the network that spent years promoting the Russia collusion conspiracy. 

So now they’ve finally put a stop to her, piously citing coronavirus public health concerns.

According to the Washington Post, which to judge by its extended Chanel Rion coverage, really doesn’t like her:

On Wednesday the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) issued a statement saying, in part: “We are writing to inform you that the WHCA Board has voted this evening to remove a news outlet from the rotation for a seat in the briefing room. We did this because a reporter for this outlet twice attended press briefings in contravention of this policy.”

“This policy” refers to steps taken by the association to ensure social distancing in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, the venue where Trump and his colleagues hold their daily coronavirus news conferences.

Though the correspondents’ association announcement didn’t specify the ousted organization, it is in fact OANN. The association, whose president is Jonathan Karl of ABC News, made its decision based on the allegedly unauthorized presence of Rion in the briefing room twice this week, in violation of the social-distancing rules that the WHCA instituted to mitigate the spread of coronavirus.

“We do not take this action lightly. This is a matter of public safety,” the association’s memo continued.

Which sounds a little disingenuous, given that the WaPo video showing Rion in the briefing room in the back, in this same story, clearly has her more than six feet away from other reporters. (Update: The video I saw doesn’t seem to be there anymore and it may have been replaced with an unrelated hairstyling video.)

Something says this expulsion might not be about the coronavirus.

At the White House, the press reports as a group, and the White House Correspondents Association issues rotation spots, yet they are not all doing the same thing. Some are TV, some are radio, some are print, some are wire and Internet. Some might be really trying to cover the news impartially and keep their own politics out of it. Some have an undeclared slant. Some honestly declare their slant. OAN seems to be in the last category, same as Buzzfeed on the left, and other outlets. They all say they’re there to tell the truth, and who gets truth moves on a continuum, actually based on what audiences respond to. Bottom line, all of it amounts to valid free speech.

But the White House Press Corps seems to be acting as a cartel, actually, seeking to enforce a common groupthink in coverage or non-coverage.

Start with this question: Why would the White House invite Rion in to cover the press conferences in the first place?

The answer seems pretty obvious:

Some of the networks actually vowed to not cover the briefings Trump was putting on. They hated that those direct addresses of Trump’s to the general public, comforting them at the time of a pandemic, and driving his poll numbers higher. Yet at the same time, they apparently held places in the WHCA press rotation, taking up seat space for the very briefings they said they wanted to keep out of the news. 

Here’s Deadline’s April 1 piece:

CNN and MSNBC each turned away from President Donald Trump’s coronavirus briefing after it started with an announcement — about a new advanced counter-narcotics operation.

The networks found it off-topic, particularly as Trump began to talk about progress of the construction of a wall along the southern border, a signature campaign promise.

CNN’s John King expressed his annoyance.

“When you are an incumbent president, to bring that into a briefing in the middle of a pandemic, the day after the incredibly sobering news the administration rightfully delivered to the American people yesterday, is shameless and it’s political,” he said on-air. “The president has other opportunities to do this. There are 24 hours in a day. He has all the buildings of the government still at his disposal.”

Which is hypocritical right on its surface beause the press itself asks off-topic questions at dedicated briefings all the time. I’ve seen this firsthand myself as a correspondent in those White House pools. Several years ago, I accompanied then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on a congressional delegation to Colombia to write about free trade and at one point, the reporters were to agree on pitching three questions. One of the reporters insisted on wasting one of those questions on a Middle East issue to finish up some previous story she was on and I objected so strenously (given that I had flown from Los Angeles to Washington to Colombia for this) that I know I made myself unpopular. The compromise we reached was to cheat on that three-question rule and jam in an extra question from the last reporter, something I give the Agence France-Press correspondent credit to for peacemaking. 

But more deeply, the declaration that the briefings not be covered because of “propaganda” and off-topic remarks from the president (normal people would skip covering the off-topic remarks and carry on) is problematic itself. That’s especially for press organizations supposedly devoted to casting daylight to the public. If they don’t want to cover the news, they need to give their seats to someone else who wants to. They can’t be placeholders to ensure news suppression, and they sure as heck don’t own those seats.

Sure, young Rion seems probably too close to White House officials, and maybe too eager to repeat heir talking points. But to hear such complaints from the people who by email coordinated with the Obama administration White House – ever heard of JournoList, run by then-Washington Post columist Ezra Klein - is kind of hypocritical, too

Here’s a second problem: According to this March 31 piece by the Washington Post, some of them weren’t even showing up to the briefings at all. They didn’t want to go, they didn’t want to write about it, and that is their prerogative, but it’s weird stuff for them to somehow not want anyone else to cover the briefings, either, as is the case with OAN. Which incidentally has proven a ratings bonanza for them.

With that kind of thing going on, why wouldn’t the White House want to create some kind of space for someone who really wanted to cover Trump’s press briefings? Based on the childish behavior seen, and the fact that the public really does want to see the press briefings covered, the WHCA is effectively acting as a cartel, not just trying to halt coverage of the news, but objecting to any competitor who does. 

As long as they are going to either threaten to not cover, or actually not cover the news, the White House has a perfect right to invite young Chanel Rion into the briefings.

Hypocrisy bites.

Image credit: YouTube screen shot, OAN

via American Thinker Blog

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Democrats Should thank God President Trump is a president for Every American.

President Trump won the 2016 in an electoral college landslide.  He won over 30 states and a huge percent of counties around the US.  The areas that he did not win were the Democrat held big cities.  Areas like New York City, Washington D.C. and San Francisco all went to former first lady Hillary Clinton.  Now the areas that voted against President Trump need him the most.

Fortunately for the Democrat strongholds, President Trump is doing all he can to help them overcome the China coronavirus.

A map from the New York Times shows that the same areas that voted against President Trump are the areas hardest hit by the China coronavirus.  New York City accounts for near 40% of all coronavirus cases in the US:

Americans are fighting together against the China coronavirus.  It doesn’t matter what their politics are, Americans are willing to help others when they can, especially President Trump.

Hat tip D. Manny

The post Revealed: Areas Hit Hardest by Coronavirus All Voted Against Trump But He Helps Them Anyways appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

via The Gateway Pundit

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Millions Of Small Businesses Stunned To Learn They Are Not Eligible For Bailout Loans

Tyler Durden

Fri, 04/03/2020 – 11:13

via ZeroHedge News

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President Donald Trump’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) through the Department of Treasury and Small Business Administration has already on its first day pushed out more than $620 million to small businesses nationwide mostly through community banks.

A senior Treasury Department official told Breitbart News on Friday morning that as of 10:30 a.m. eastern time, a total of 1,652 loans were given out through 239 different banks for a total of $628,371,561. Most of the big banks like JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup did not have programs online—only Bank of America did—early Friday morning, so this means community banks nationwide are the ones stepping up to push the money out to small businesses affected by the coronavirus crisis.

“When the unprecedented PPP loan program for America’s small businesses went live in the early morning hours of April 3, the community banks were the ones ready to go,” the senior Treasury Department official told Breitbart News. “Unlike the big banks that are coming online later in the day, the community banks were up and running and ready to serve their small businesses. America’s community banks are the real heroes.”

It’s worth noting too that given that community banks are the ones stepping up to help small businesses—and that they’re doing it at such a rapid pace on the first day of the program—that this counters the narrative from some on the left and in establishment media that somehow the efforts of Trump, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and the broader administration were designed to only help big corporate cronies. Friday, as Mnuchin and Small Business Administration administrator Jovita Carranza announced at the White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing on Thursday night, is the first day these funds are going out to small businesses nationwide through banks across the country. The Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, passed as part of the $2.2 trillion phase three coronavirus relief package that Congress passed last week.

Since this money is going directly to small businesses across the country, and since it’s mostly flowing through small community banks it is significantly boosting communities and main street across the country rather than Wall Street. “This is the Main Street rescue, not a Wall Street bailout,” the senior Treasury Department official added.

via Breitbart News

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We are told that every business and many vital services, including many medical services, must be shut down indefinitely because of Anthony Fauci’s capricious and ever-evolving models and simulations. Do those same models and simulations also dictate that, with unemployment likely blowing out the Great Depression levels, we must continue to bring in more foreign workers?

Nearly all “non-essential” businesses are suspended in nearly every county of the country. Yet now, because immigration policy has been outsourced to former visa lobbyists like Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf, one thing will not be shut down during this man-made economic Hiroshima: foreign workers, including those from … China!

When I warned last week about the H-1B lottery and the need to cancel it on April 1, I didn’t really think my notice was necessary. After all, how could an “America first” administration conduct such a foreign worker lottery while shutting down the entire economy for Americans? Nonetheless, I published the article for good measure. Well, it’s a shame 1,000 other conservatives didn’t post similar warnings, because “America first” has now become “India and China first.”

On April 1, USCIS considered bringing in more Chinese workers an “essential” function and opened registration for the first day of the visa lottery. Every year, 85,000 H-1B visas are awarded via this lottery, and on the first day it was already saturated with 275,000 applications from corporations, a 37 percent increase over last year. Those chosen will be eligible to come here in fiscal year 2021 beginning this October.  Of course, 67 percent was monopolized by Indian nationals, which is why we have lost our tech industry to foreign powers. Roughly 36,300 applications, though, were from, you guessed it, Chinese nationals!

Obviously, this doesn’t mean Chinese nationals will necessarily be chosen, but they have typically composed roughly 13 percent of the annual lottery. And it’s not like this administration is placing a moratorium on Chinese visas until the Chinese government comes clean on the cover-up of the China virus.

Bringing in any foreign workers, much less Chinese ones, at a time like this is akin to doubling our immigration from Saudi Arabia after 9/11. Ooops … we actually did that, but I digress.

This is not to cast aspersions on the Chinese people as a whole. But as long as the evil communist government is ruling that country, our current policies put us at their mercy in times like this in three ways.

1. China is our #2 source of immigrants and #1 source of foreign students. China is historically the source of many viral outbreaks, and there is no reason to believe that will change in the future. This has created a huge amount much travel back and forth, making us vulnerable to any virus they spread from China.
2. Through the pipeline of monopolizing our universities and then through worker visas and green cards, the Chinese government uses many of its nationals to spy, steal our technology, and then bring the expertise back home, which encourages outsourcing.
3. Once China accomplishes 1 and 2, the Chinese government has us around the neck, because all of our critical medical and other supply lines trace back to the very source of the viral outbreaks.

We now know that China destroyed evidence and covered up critical information that could have given the world weeks of head start in blocking travel and bending the curve. How in the world can we allow China to own our universities, our immigration system, and our supply chains, knowing the Chinese government’s intentions and knowing how it has unleashed an economic and health care version of 9/11 on us?

Finally, putting China aside, we had 10 million unemployment claims filed just in two weeks. If you account for those who have had wages or hours cut, that includes 39 percent of all adults in the country! And we are just three weeks into this. The bipartisan political elites, sadly, including this administration, want this to go on for much longer. Under what sort of morality or model can this action be justified? Don’t tell me Fauci’s models show that bringing in more foreign workers will also save more lives too!

Further appalling is that, thanks to the misguided strategy of this universal shutdown, many nurses are being furloughed across the country. Among the other sacred foreign work permit programs promoted by some of these same administration officials is Optional Practical Training (OPT), which brings in numerous foreign nurses here as students. Employers facing a massive pool of unemployed Americans will be incentivized to hire them because, under the lawless, unauthorized OPT program, they don’t have to pay payroll taxes. Why wouldn’t Trump immediately suspend the OPT program?

It’s not that nothing good is coming out of the administration on immigration. Illegal immigration is finally being stopped at the border the way it should have been three years ago, and after much pressure from people like Tucker Carlson, it looks like the DHS will delay plans to bring in more low-skilled H-2B workers.

Which illuminates the salient point of this administration. There are good patriots like Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan and Acting Deputy DHS Secretary Ken Cuccinelli, and their work is reflected in some of the positive developments. But then there are people like Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who represent the opposite worldview to the one Trump campaigned on, and their work is reflected in the bulk of the negative policy outcomes.

The moral of the story is that conservatives with influence can’t hope that Trump drains the swamp; they must demand it. And that begins with the shallow state within the administration itself.

The post Horowitz: Why is the administration preparing to bring in 85,000 foreign workers after shutting down our economy? appeared first on Conservative Review.

via Conservative Review

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A blood test to determine who has been infected by SARS-CoV-2 is one thing, but a test to find out who has already had it is a whole different kettle of fish.

Because the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 can infect some people with absolutely no symptoms, an unknown number of people who are likely holed up in their homes have already been infected and are therefore immune. As the virus continues to sweep across the country, a test to find out who is immune will be key to re-opening the economy.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has now authorized the first blood test, known as a serology test, to look for antibodies in the blood.  Cellex Inc., a medical device company based in North Carolina, says the test could help physicians determine how widespread the virus is and the duration of immunity for people after they recover.

“Based on the totality of scientific evidence available to FDA, it is reasonable to believe that your product may be effective in diagnosing COVID-19,’  FDA chief scientist Denise Hinton wrote in a letter to James Li, CEO of Cellex. “The known and potential benefits of your product when used for diagnosing COVID-19 outweigh the known and potential risks of your product.”

“Current diagnostic tests, known as RT-PCR, are invasive and use genetic analysis to see if a person is actively infected,” Agence France Presse reported.

“Serologic testing, which only requires a drop of blood to conduct, focuses instead on finding virus antibodies, the presence of which indicates that an individual has had COVID-19 and is now likely immune. “Antibodies are one of the key immune response components. They start to be detectable around a week after initial infection,” said Andrew Preston, a reader in Microbial Pathogenesis at the University of Bath.

There are two types of antibodies associated with the COVID-19 immune response: IgM, which the body produces in the early stages of viral response, and IgG, which arrive later on during infection. The tests being developed can identify both antibodies, key hallmarks of a patient’s auto-immune response to the virus.

“Thus there is great interest in the use of an antibody test to indicate immunity against disease for use in the lifting of lockdown restrictions,” said Preston.

“In a vast majority of infectious diseases, recovery from disease and evidence of a strong immune response would lead to a period of immunity from re-occurrence,” he said.

Antibodies against the novel coronavirus are “generally detectable in blood several days after initial infection,” according to the FDA.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also says it is working on its own serology test. Such tests are already in use for other illnesses and any new test for coronavirus antibodies can be analyzed in labs using existing hardware.

Once millions of people are tested, those who have antibodies can emerge from their homes and get back to work. “The main question is how to ensure everyone can return to work,” Francois Blanchecotte, president of the French Union of Biologists, told AFP.

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On Thursday, conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh addressed the question of why California is not experiencing New York-like percentages of coronavirus cases and suggested that social distancing measures alone would not explain the significant disparity between the two states.

Dr. Deborah Birx, a leading member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force has seemingly credited early “social distancing” for the major discrepancy between California and hard-hit New York, but Limbaugh is skeptical that a state-wide two-day head start on “social distancing” measures did the trick.

As of Friday morning, there are 215 coronavirus-associated deaths in California (population 40 million), and 2,373 in New York (population 20 million).

“I have to get something off my chest here,” Limbaugh started. “For the past three days, I, El Rushbo, have been asking why California has not had more coronavirus cases and more coronavirus deaths. There are 40 million people.”

“This is the number of COVID-19 cases per million population. And West Virginia number one, 106,” the host detailed. “There are no Chinese there to speak of. Nebraska, ditto. California, 248 cases per million population. Forty million people in California. The number of cases is statistically tiny compared to the size of that state. New York City, 4,312 cases per million population. This is cases, not deaths.”

“Now, I’ve been asking why California hasn’t had more cases given the number of Chinese that come into that state, the large number of Chinese that live there,” he continued.

California officials are crediting their head start on social distancing measures, Limbaugh said. “Okay. Well, when did they start social distancing?” he asked. “Are you ready to be a little surprised? California ordered social distancing only 13 days ago. They didn’t order social distancing in December. They didn’t order social distancing in January. California did not order social distancing in February. They ordered it 13 days ago.”

“Do you know when New York state ordered social distancing?” the conservative asked. “Eleven days ago.”

“We are supposed to believe that two days made all the difference in the number of cases between California and New York?” Limbaugh said skeptically. “California, again, 248 cases of COVID-19 per million population. New York, 4,312. California began social distancing two days before New York. De Blasio wouldn’t even shut down the schools until recently, you remember? I don’t know how two days of social distancing before New York started it, New York state started it, could have this big a difference. It just doesn’t jibe.”

Limbaugh continued: “This time of year in California is warmer than New York. Almost nobody uses public transportation in much of California, particularly compared to the population center of New York state, which is New York City. The number of people walking on the streets in Los Angeles is infinitesimally small compared to the number of people walking on the streets in New York. Los Angeles is in fact a big, gigantic suburb with a little hub of a downtown where very few people live. And yet we’re being told that two days, a two-day head start in social distancing is the difference?”

“It can’t be. There have to be other reasons,” the host emphasized. “Why won’t somebody be honest about what they are, what they possibly are?”

“Well, because we’re being governed right now by social models, which tell us that social distancing is the only thing we can do,” explained the 69-year-old. “And in order to effect social distancing, we have to shut down.”

Limbaugh, clearly unconvinced “social distancing” is the key factor in keeping the COVID-19 death toll low, posited a theory of herd immunity, suggesting the novel coronavirus has already built up significant immunity in the state:

Let me just tell you what I think it is. I’m a layman. I’m just telling you what I think. I’m not a medical guy. I’m not telling you with ontological certitude. I think it is herd immunity that took place in California in December. A lot of people had something; they didn’t know what it was. It wasn’t flu. They lived through it. They got past it. That’s what I think happened in California.

The same theory was floated by politico Victor Davis Hanson at National Review on Tuesday.

“One less-mentioned hypothesis is that California, as a front-line state, may have rather rapidly developed a greater level of herd immunity than other states, given that hints, anecdotes, and some official indications from both China and Italy that, again, the virus may well have been spreading abroad far earlier than the first recorded case in the U.S. —and likely from the coasts inward,” wrote Hanson. “So given the state’s unprecedented direct air access to China, and given its large expatriate and tourist Chinese communities, especially in its huge denser metropolitan corridors in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, it could be that what thousands of Californians experienced as an unusually ‘early’ and ‘bad’ flu season might have also reflected an early coronavirus epidemic, suggesting that many more Californians per capita than in other states may have acquired immunity to the virus.”

However, Akiko Iwasaki, a virologist at the Yale School of Medicine, is skeptical, noting that herd immunity is typically associated with vaccination. The Atlantic reported:

Herd immunity is typically generated through vaccination, and while it could arise through widespread infection, “you don’t rely on the very deadly infectious agent to create an immune population,” says Akiko Iwasaki, a virologist at the Yale School of Medicine. 

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While the economy-crushing coronavirus shutdowns are wreaking havoc in just about every industry, the plastic industry is seeing, at least temporarily, one “win”: A growing number of liberal cities and states that have imposed bans or fees on single-use plastic bags are reversing their policies amid concerns about the health risks posed by reusable bags.

“In the latest sign of how dramatically the coronavirus pandemic is altering the social landscape, even the liberal San Francisco Bay Area this week banned reusable grocery bags as a sanitary measure, dismaying recycling advocates who say durable sacks should still be allowed at stores,” Politico reported earlier this week.

The famously radical-left city’s Department of Public Health announced the temporary reversal of its 2007 plastic bag ban on Tuesday as part of an update to its coronavirus “stay-at-home” order. The new ordinance restricts customers from bringing into stores their own reusable items, like bags and mugs.

As usual, San Francisco is leading the way in terms of severity of  its ban effort, imposing what Politico’s Debra Kahn describes as “the most stringent coronavirus-related restriction placed on reusable bags in California.”

“[F]aced with the realities of the coronavirus, the city’s leaders have realized that excessive environmentalism isn’t always compatible with the realities of the world we live in today,” Hot Air’s Jazz Shaw writes. “As such, the ban has been not only lifted but reversed. Reusable bags are now banned in the City by the Bay.”

In other words, the city that once led the nation in reusable bag enforcement is now one of the first to officially ban them.

And, as Shaw notes, San Francisco isn’t the only progressive city reversing course on the plastic bag ban — “Maine, New York and Massachusetts have all either suspended their plastic bag bans or halted enforcement of the regulations,” he writes.

Meanwhile, as reported by Politico, the plastic industry is pushing hard for their cause across the country, lobbying on the federal level as well as some key states, including New York and New Jersey, “asserting that often-unwashed reusable bags are hotbeds for the coronavirus, which early research suggests can remain on surfaces.”

Along with the plastic ban reversal in San Francisco, other “environmentally-friendly” efforts have been abandoned by the general populace, with people rushing out to their local grocery stores to buy up all of the bottled water, while companies impose their own bans on reusable items, including Starbucks and Coffee Bean.

Environmentalists are trying to push back, but so far to no avail. Kahn cites Californians Against Waste Executive Director Mark Murray chiding the “misguided” anti-reusable bag movement, but also expressing some sympathy. “This fear of bringing reusable bags into the stores is misguided, but I certainly understand why store employees don’t want to handle somebody else’s things,” said Murray. “I wouldn’t have any expectation that somebody is going to put my groceries into my bag that I brought from home.”

Related: Experts Question WH Coronavirus Projections; Fauci: ‘You Can’t Rely On The Models,’ Too Many Variables

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