Month: April 2020

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Amazon Bans Sale Of N95 And Surgical Masks To General Public

Tyler Durden

Thu, 04/02/2020 – 16:00

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Since the 2020 race has been placed on ice, the Trump campaign has used its resources to buy up food from local restaurants to donate to hospital workers fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Since last Thursday, President Trump’s reelection campaign has been calling up local restaurants and ordering large amounts of food to be delivered to more than a dozen hospitals in New York, New Jersey, Washington state and Michigan,” a Fox News exclusive said.

The campaign had been making the orders anonymously until sources confirmed of the charitable operation with Fox News. One source said the effort was to kill two birds with one stone: support local restaurants while supplying medical workers with needed help. The campaign has already spent tens of thousands of dollars in the past few weeks, which they plan to continue to do in the coming days.

“They’re doing it as a donor who cares,” the source told the outlet. “So nothing politically is tied to it. … We’re just trying to, you know, show a thank you.”

“They’re trying to send things that are like, local restaurants that may need support [and] cool restaurant icons of the area that may need the business,” another source said.

As the source said, the orders were indeed placed anonymously, which several establishments confirmed. Giovanni’s Italian Deli in Secaucus, N.J., told the outlet that an anonymous individual placed an order for delivery to Hudson Regional Hospital. It included 40 platters of pasta, salads, and sandwiches.

“They only told us their first name,” a Giovanni’s employee told Fox News. “They called us, and they had us donate meals for the nurses and doctors – an assortment of things, 40 platters of pasta, salads, sandwiches. We’re happy to do it. Trust me.”

Fox News provided more evidence and confirmation of this anonymous charitable giving:

Sources told Fox News that the campaign also ordered from Nick’s Grill in Kirkland, Wash.; Chit Chat Diner in Morristown, N.J.; Turning Point of Long Branch, N.J.; and Antonio’s Trattoria in the Bronx, N.Y., among others.

The manager of Antonio’s Trattoria, in an interview with Fox News, said that a man called the restaurant Monday to have “100 individual orders” delivered to Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx.

“It was 20 penne vodkas, 20 pastas with tomato sauce, 30 chicken parmesans, and 30 house salads with grilled chicken,” the manager told Fox News. “He only gave his first name and said he wanted to remain anonymous.”

The Antonio’s Trattoria manager expressed thanks to the Trump campaign for using their business to help workers in need.

While the economy has certainly taken a hit during the pandemic, that does not mean businesses have stepped away from the challenge. In New York, for instance, a pizzeria earned itself free rent at its place of business after the landlord learned that they had donated hundreds of pizzas to hospitals around the city.

“All of the pizza getting made at Sauce Pizzeria – as many as 400 per day – are going straight to hospitals to feed health care workers pulling 14- or even 18-hour shifts as they remain on the front lines of the COVID-19 fight,” reported NBC New York. “Many of those nurses, doctors, and other medical staffers are so swamped helping patients every single day, many don’t have a moment to spare to grab something to eat.”

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A current global myth alleges that America under the Trump administration is not leading the world fight against the coronavirus in its accustomed role as the postwar global leader.

Yet the U.S. was the first major nation to issue a travel ban on flights from China, with President Donald Trump making that announcement on Jan. 31. That was a bold act. It likely saved thousands endangered by Chinese perfidy and soon became a global model. None of the ban’s loud critics are today demanding it be rescinded.

In typically American fashion, as we have seen in crises from Pearl Harbor to 9/11, after initial shock and unpreparedness, the U.S. economic and scientific juggernaut is kicking into action.

Already the U.S. is transitioning from a long, disastrous reliance on Chinese medical supplies and pharmaceuticals. In ad hoc fashion, companies are gearing up massive production of masks, ventilators, and key anti-viral supplies.

The number of known deaths from the virus—for now the only reliable data available—shows a fatality rate of about 7-8 per million people in the United States. That per capita toll is analogous to Germany’s and one of the lowest in the world among larger nations.

The U.S. economy in 2019—with its near-record-low unemployment, inflation, and interest rates—was the most robust in the world. It will soon be the key to rebooting global production and trade.

Confronting China over patent and copyright theft, technological appropriation, dumping, and currency manipulation was not just in the U.S. interest, but for the global good.

A reckless and disingenuous China poses an existential threat to countries across the globe. The only world bulwark against Chinese propaganda and bullying remains U.S. economic and military power.

Despite accusations of growing isolationism at a time of a worldwide pandemic, the U.S. still stations 200,000-250,000 troops abroad. Those assets ensure that no hostile power in the present crisis will opportunistically threaten European and Asian democracies.

Record U.S. natural gas and oil production have helped lower global home heating and transportation costs. Among the biggest beneficiaries are Europe and Japan, the largest customers for Russia and the Middle East’s unreliable energy production.

The radical increase in American natural gas productions helps explain why the U.S. has made more progress in reducing carbon emissions than the signatories of the Paris climate accord. That voluntary agreement has had little success in curbing the planet’s largest carbon emitters.

Even as the U.S. registered robust economic growth of nearly 2.5%, it nonetheless reduced its carbon emissions by 0.5% in 2017 (the latest year for which data is available), which was the largest reduction in the world.

The truth is that the free world would be a safer and more secure place if Europe, not the U.S., acted more responsibly. Individual European Union countries have junked their utopian EU brotherhood and are reverting to nationalist self-interests.

Fracking natural gas, with less reliance of coal-fired power plants, might have allowed European nations to meet their Paris climate accord promises.

Italy and other European countries have been especially vulnerable to Chinese mercantile pressure and have mortgaged their economic futures to Beijing, with disastrous results.

If the European Union produced more of its own gas and oil, it would not empower Moscow and the Middle East through its colossal importation of their energy.

And if NATO countries just met their obligation to spend 2% of their gross domestic product on defense, then the West would not be so vulnerable in such times of crisis. NATO nations could more effectively draw on their military and health resources to fight the virus.

Nor has the United Nations been much help. Its World Health Organization simply parroted Chinese propaganda in the key initial weeks of the virus.

The organization claimed in mid-January that there was no human-to-human transmission, then suggested weeks later that a travel ban on Chinese flights would have little value in combating the spread of the virus. Both were lies but were welcomed by the Chinese government.

Where the West is deficient is in the current lack of imagination of its most hallowed institutions. Universities in the United States and Europe are in suspension. They currently have hundreds of thousands of empty dorm rooms. Why not offer them as temporary refuges to the vulnerable homeless and poor?

Given the epidemic of misinformation, millions need accurate data. But poor readers are barricaded from major news websites by expensive firewalls. Required subscriptions to The New York Times and The Washington Post, for example, could be temporarily waived—at least for any articles that offer key information concerning the coronavirus.

Throughout the outbreak, the media have promulgated sensationalism and helped fan the hysteria. They could better use their muckraking journalists to police themselves.

Any laxity in fighting the virus is not to be found with the U.S., but rather with its loudest and most opportunistic critics.

(C) 2020 TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

The post America Still a Global Leader Even in a Time of Crisis appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., has sent a letter to the U.S. State Department requesting an investigation into the disappearances of three Chinese journalists who challenged the communist regime’s narrative in the coronavirus’ early stages.

“All three of these men understood the personal risk associated with independently reporting on coronavirus in China, but they did it anyway,” Banks wrote Wednesday in a letter to acting Undersecretary of State Nathan Sales, whose portfolio includes human rights abroad.

“They decided that they had an obligation to do what the Chinese Communist Party would not—provide useful and accurate information to the Chinese public about the risks and potential consequences of coronavirus,” Banks continued. “For their service, the Chinese government imprisoned them—or worse.”

Fang Bin, Chen Qiushi, and Li Zehua—the three missing journalists—haven’t been seen since February.

Bin is a clothing salesman who began documenting the Chinese government’s response to the virus in Wuhan in videos that he published on YouTube. He hasn’t been seen since Feb. 9.

Qiushi is a citizen journalist who reported on the chaos at Wuhan hospitals and interviewed local residents before going missing.

Despite widespread attention on Qiushi’s reporting and subsequent disappearance, China’s ambassador to the U.S. claimed not to know anything about the missing journalist in an interview that aired March 22.

Zehua was an anchor on a Chinese state television channel before he resigned in February and began independently reporting on the virus. He hasn’t been seen since his arrest in late February.

Banks said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo should block the “individuals responsible for Li, Chen and Fang’s mistreatment” from entering the U.S.

“If any of the three citizen journalists were murdered, I would urge Secretary of State Pompeo and Secretary of Treasury [Steven] Mnuchin to respectively administer visa and financial sanctions under section 1263 of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act to the responsible individuals,” Banks wrote.

“We owe these journalists a debt of gratitude for their sacrifice. As part of our investigation into the origins of this outbreak and the subsequent cover-up by the Chinese Communist Party, the United States should apply diplomatic pressure on the Chinese government to learn these journalists’ whereabouts and ensure their safety,” the congressman said in a press release.

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The post Chinese Journalists Keep Disappearing. This Congressman Wants Answers. appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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Idaho Gov. Brad Little has given women athletes
renewed hope. Faced with a politically correct culture that is denying women
the right to a fair playing field in sports, the Republican governor signed
into law new protections for them.

Recognizing “inherent differences between men and women,” Idaho’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act provides that “athletic teams or sports designated for females, women, or girls shall not be open to students of the male sex.”

The measure, which Little signed into law Monday, applies
to all of the state’s interscholastic, intercollegiate, intramural, and club
teams at the high school and college levels.

Idaho is the first state to prevail against forces working
to stop similar bills across the country that seek to right the wrong girls
face when state policies force them to compete in women’s sports against
athletes who are biological males.    

Getting this bill across the finish line wasn’t easy.

Proponents led by state Rep. Barbara Ehardt, a former Division 1 athlete and coach, bucked powerful activists in the business community, including Chobani, Clif Bar & Co., HP Inc., and Micron Technology Inc. But legislators overwhelmingly sided with female athletes and all who support them—moms, dads, coaches, fans, and Idaho citizens, including my parents and extended family. 

Little and state legislators rejected the threats of corporate
activists who, in the name of “diversity and inclusion,” claim without proof
that laws recognizing birth sex as a biological fact will cost the state
business. 

What big business ignores is the opportunities lost in sports for women and girls. Its social justice agenda drowns out the voices of women who should be protected under sex discrimination laws, not exploited by them.    

To their enormous credit, Idaho leaders withstood the
pressure and have paved the way for other states to follow.  

Proponents should be emboldened by U.S. Attorney
General William Barr, who recently intervened in a related federal court case
to state emphatically that Title IX prohibits the injustice in women’s sports
condoned by corporate activists.

On March 24, the Justice Department filed a Statement
of Interest in a Connecticut lawsuit challenging that state’s
participation rules in sports.

High school athletes Selina Soule, Chelsea Mitchell, and Alanna Smith have faced the sting of defeat and been denied state titles in girls track because they had to compete with biological males. The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference requires schools to allow athletes to participate in sports according to the “gender” with which they publicly identify. 

For the past several seasons, Connecticut has allowed male
runners to compete and win as transgender athletes in girls track. In fact, female
athletes in every state in the Northeast region have been forced to compete under
the same circumstances and under similar rules. Many also have lost their
rightful place across the finish line and on the podium.         

Congress passed Title IX in 1972 to prohibit
discrimination on the basis of sex, in large part to ensure equal opportunities
in athletics and education for female students. It extends to programs
operated or sponsored by schools receiving federal funding, which includes every
K-12 public school and virtually all colleges and universities in the
country. 

In evaluating the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference’s policy, the Justice Department concluded:

CIAC’s construction of Title IX as requiring the participation of students on athletic teams that reflect their gender identity would turn the statute on its head. One of Title IX’s core purposes is to ensure that women have an ‘equal athletic opportunity’ to participate in school athletic programs. … Reading Title IX to compel schools to require biological males to compete against biological females in athletic competitions is precisely the type of interpretation that this Court should reject.

The Justice Department’s instruction to the Connecticut federal
court carries a warning for all states to heed. Inherent, physiological differences
between the sexes still matter. Title IX expressly prohibits discrimination on
the basis of sex and is being violated by schools and state policies that allow
male athletes to compete in women’s sports. 

The Justice Department’s action has dignified Little’s bold action
to enact the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which will protect equal
opportunity in sports for female athletes in Idaho.

Other states have the opportunity, and responsibility, to get
on track.   

The post Idaho Becomes First State to Protect Women’s Sports From Transgender Agenda appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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The leaders of the World Health Organization need to be “held to account” for their “subservience to Beijing” during the coronavirus pandemic, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said in an op-ed Wednesday.

WHO, an arm of the United Nations, has provided cover for Chinese authorities as they attempt to shirk responsibility for the global coronavirus pandemic.

“The world’s leading global health organization cannot be used as a tool of the CCP, and the U.S.—the WHO’s largest financial contributor, giving five times as much money as obligated—must take steps to ensure it [isn’t],” Rubio wrote in National Review.

“Once this pandemic is under control, WHO leadership should be held to account. That includes Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who has allowed Beijing to use the WHO to mislead the global community.”

As previously reported by The Daily Caller News Foundation, Tedros won his WHO post with China’s backing and is leading WHO as it runs interference for the oppressive regime’s propaganda campaign.

Rubio said WHO’s director-general “is either complicit or dangerously incompetent. Neither possibility bodes well for his future at the helm of this critical organization.”

A top WHO official went viral earlier in March after cutting off an interview when asked about Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory.

“Dodging questions about Taiwan to please Beijing isn’t fatal, but it is indicative of a systemic problem within WHO leadership: a subservience to Beijing that comes at the expense of its stated commitment to public health,” Rubio wrote.

??WOW?? Bruce Aylward/@WHO did an interview with HK’s @rthk_news & when asked about #Taiwan he pretended not to hear the question. The journalist asks again & he hangs up!

She calls back & he said “Well, we’ve already talked about China.”

ENJOY+SHARE THE MADNESS! #CoronaVirus pic.twitter.com/jgpHRVHjNX

— ?Hong Kong World City ???? (@HKWORLDCITY) March 28, 2020

WHO has come under increasing scrutiny from Republican lawmakers.

Republican Florida Sen. Rick Scott on Tuesday called for a congressional investigation into whether WHO helped China’s communist government cover up the virus in its early stages.

Scott also called for congressional hearings on whether the United States should continue funding WHO.

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Since Tuesday, liberal journalists on CNN and MSNBC have been teaming up with elected Democrats to shoot down the notion that their collective obsession with impeaching President Trump slowed the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. The biased coverage argued the “talking point” was “dangerous” and predicted that it would not “pick up much traction.”

via NewsBusters – Exposing Liberal Media Bias

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