America Is a Land of Systemic Justice

The best available evidence suggests that, in terms racial demographics, cops are arresting those who actually commit the crimes.

by Jeffrey H. Anderson for American Greatness

Abraham Lincoln described America as a nation “conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Today’s Left portrays America as a nation conceived in slavery, and dedicated to the perpetuation of racial oppression. When CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell askedJoe Biden in the summer of 2020, “Do you believe there is ‘systemic racism’ in law enforcement,” Biden answered, “Absolutely. But it’s not just in law enforcement. It’s across the board. It’s in housing. It’s in education. It’s in everything we do.” 

Such assertions of “systemic racism,” both in our police forces and in America writ large, are the topic of the latest issue of the American Main Street Initiative’s Quick Hits: “Are Cops ‘Systemically Racist’—and Is America?” Quick Hits are readable four-pagers, chock-full of key information on important issues of the day. 

During the same summer Biden told America that its cops and its broader society are systemically racist, the Bureau of Justice Statistics—the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Justice—undertook a meticulous examination of the demographics of those who commit crimes and those who are arrested for crimes. I was the director of BJS at the time, and this inquiry was led by Allen J. Beck, Ph.D., who was the top-ranked statistician at the bureau and had begun his tenure there during the Reagan Administration. Our aim was to see whether police disproportionately arrest alleged offenders of one racial group or another—that is, whether police appear to be biased against, or in favor of, any particular race.

The results of this inquiry were released in mid-January 2021 and are discussed in the newly released Quick Hits. BJS compared victims’ accounts of who committed crimes against them (rather than relying upon cops’ own reporting) with the arrest records of police. For serious nonfatal violent crimes reported to police, BJS found following: 

• White people accounted for 41 percent of offenders and 39 percent of arrestees;
• Black people accounted for 43 percent of offenders and 36 percent of arrestees;
• Asians accounted for 2.5 percent of offenders and 1.5 percent of arrestees.

None of these differences between the percentage of offenders and the percentage of arrestees of a given race were statistically significant. (The findings are limited to nonfatal crimes for the simple reason that murder victims are unable to identify their assailants.) 

In other words, the best available evidence suggests that, in terms racial demographics, cops are arresting those who actually commit the crimes. As the Quick Hits says, “Far from providing evidence of ‘systemic racism,’ such statistics provide evidence of systemic justice.”

The latest Quick Hits also highlights other illuminating statistics. For example, according to victims’ own accounts, a whopping 70 percent of violent incidents involving black victims also involved black perpetrators. BJS writes, “Among black victims, the percentage of violent incidents perceived to be committed by black offenders (70%) was 5.8 times higher than the representation of black persons in the population (12%).” 

Despite such high rates of intraracial violent crime committed against black residents, however, black Americans on the whole are victimized by violent crime at rates similar to other Americans. To quote Quick Hits, “The reason for this is that there are comparatively few violent crimes committed by white (or Hispanic) residents against black residents.” Indeed, violent incidents involving black offenders and white victims were 5.3 times as likely as those involving white offenders and black victims—a huge disparity. 

Again, all of these statistics are according to victims.

“Our history shows that America is a nation conceived in liberty, which fought for and won the freedom of the English colonists and later of the slaves,” the new Quick Hits concludes. “And while today’s race-obsessed Left seeks to re-instill a divisive race-consciousness, the evidence indicates that the actions of our police forces are consistent both with the hard-won colorblind ideal and with our founders’ dedication to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

And we Know, On the Fringe, and more- April 19

 

How Many Deaths Will It Take Before Biden Forcefully Addresses the Fentanyl Crisis?

Fentanyl is poisoning babies, teenagers, and adults. Those in government in Washington, D.C., who were elected to protect us have done the opposite.

Salena Zito reporting for American Greatness

PENN HILLS, Pennsylvania—When the Penn Hills police and paramedics arrived at the modest suburban Pittsburgh home in the 8100 block of Chaske Street on Jan. 14, they found the father of 7-month-old Zhuri Bogle desperately performing CPR on his infant daughter. It was 6:44 a.m., and with the exception of a few flurries swirling in the brisk winter air, the sky was still as dark as midnight. 

The first responders immediately took over from the father and administered CPR on the unresponsive baby for the next 21 minutes. At 7:05 a.m., Zhuri was pronounced dead at the scene.

The local police immediately requested the Allegheny County Police Homicide Unit assist in the investigation; those detectives, in turn, launched an investigation into the baby’s death. 

Two months later, the Allegheny County medical examiner announced Zhuri died from acute fentanyl toxicity. The detectives on the case also determined that Zhuri’s grandmother and her “friend,” David Poindexter, age 58, were watching Zhuri when the baby overdosed. 

On Friday, Poindexter was served with an arrest warrant and charged with involuntary manslaughter and recklessly endangering another person. 

In January, 10-month-old Senna Matkovic had luck, a fast-acting nanny and nearby paramedics on his side when he survived exposure to fentanyl. He was playing with his twin brother at San Francisco’s Moscone Park when it happened. Within 10 seconds of Fire Rescue Captain Robert Kuzma administering Narcan, the child went from supine, unresponsive, and blue to breathing and crying for his parents. 

Kuzma said it was not the first pediatric opioid overdose in his career. Tragically, it likely won’t be his last. 

The number of young children under five who have died from overdoses in the United States has increased significantly in the past few years, according to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics. The highest number of those fatal poisonings of children comes from opioids. 

The study, which relied on records for all children five and younger from the National Fatality Review-Case Reporting System, showed that two-fifths of the children who died were infants and that 65 percent of those deaths happened at home. Nearly a third of those occurred under the supervision of someone who was not their biological parent, as in the case of Zhuri. 

We have looked the other way as opioid addiction and abuse in the U.S. has gone from zero to a grotesque and infinite epidemic. It now endangers every aspect of life. Our public health has degraded, our economic output has suffered, and our national security has been breached so brazenly and without consequence that it is hard to grasp. 

Even infants are not safe. Yet we do nothing. 

In the past 23 years alone, over 1 million people in the U.S. have died of drug overdoses, almost exclusively opioids, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. By the end of this week, 1,500 people will have overdosed on opioids and died. By the end of next week, 1,500 more people will have overdosed and died from an opioid, and the week after that, and the week after that. 

China is the main manufacturer of the ingredients needed to create fentanyl. They find their way from China to the southern border, where the drug cartels are happy to produce the drug and then hand it off to distribution networks to smuggle it across the porous border. 

The Biden administration “urged” Mexico and China to take strong action in their countries. Both countries responded that the problem wasn’t with them—it was with us. 

With no consequences from the U.S. government, the drugs make their way into the U.S. Those carrying the drugs blend in easily with the record-breaking 2.76 million other illegal crossings that happened last year. They spread the drugs to cities, suburbs, and rural communities in your backyard. 

Fentanyl is 50 times more powerful than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. It is cheap to produce and deadly to the unsuspecting, such as children playing in a San Francisco park or coming into contact with an addicted caregiver. 

Every year at the border, the number of seizures of the product gets higher. Every year, the amount that gets past law enforcement gets larger as well. Fentanyl is poisoning babies, teenagers and adults. Those in government in Washington, D.C., who were elected to protect us have done the opposite. 

It is the border agents, law enforcement, first responders, doctors, firefighters, and paramedics who are our last line of defense. It makes no sense that we accept the death of Zhuri as normal. It makes no sense that any parent must worry about sending a child to a public park and having him or her not come back alive. It makes no sense that this White House has not done something serious to call all of this out publicly, telling both China and Mexico unequivocally that this ends now. 

We have allowed China to steal our intellectual property, outperform us in technology and military capabilities, supersede us in forming strategic alliances with our former allies, escape accountability over the spread of COVID-19, spy on us, out-manufacture us, and now poison us. Still, we do nothing.

We have also allowed Mexico to take zero accountability for its hand in this, to turn the problem back on us. Last month, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that in his country, they do not have a problem with fentanyl consumption. “Why don’t they take care of their problem of social decay?” he asked. 

A little baby died here in western Pennsylvania—a victim of a series of failures by our government. When does the Biden administration say that enough is enough?

 

France's Macron Heckled by Crowd Angry Over Pensions

Wednesday, 19 April 2023 03:00 PM EDT

In France, when presidents take strolls among the public, they’re described as “taking a crowd bath.” Emmanuel Macron took a very cold one on Wednesday.

Braving hecklers who shouted for him to resign, the French leader threw himself into the uphill task of repairing damage done to his presidency by forcing through unpopular pension reforms, taking his first such “crowd bath” since he enacted the law last week.

The visit to eastern France, close to the border with Germany, was part of a concerted new effort by Macron and his government to put the furor caused by the pension change behind him. Raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 has ignited a months-long firestorm of protest in France.

The uproarious climate of discontent threatens Macron’s ability to get some other planned policies through in the remaining four years of his second and last term. He got to see first-hand how unhappy people still are when he mingled among a crowd in the town of Selestat.

One man who shook his hand didn't hold back and told Macron that his government is “corrupt” -- a claim that Macron immediately denied.   

You’ll soon fall! You’ll see,” the man said.

Working his way along the crowd, which was kept back by a metal barrier, Macron argued for his pension reform but also acknowledged that it was "unpopular."

“It doesn’t make anyone happy to work more and for longer,” he said.

Still, he insisted that he wouldn’t be cowed from mixing with people.

“I’ve known worse,” he said.

In the background, some shouted “Macron, resign!,” or intoned a song that has become an anthem of the retirement protests.

Earlier Wednesday, during a visit to a company specializing in wooden buildings, Macron was met by a more silent protest.

Lawmaker Emmanuel Fernandes of the far-left France Unbowed party appeared wearing a gag over his mouth bearing the number 49-3, in reference to the constitutional article that the government used to force the new pension age through parliament without a vote.

The hard-left CGT union plans scattered protest actions Thursday, and all of France's main unions plan new nationwide protests on May 1 to coincide with International Workers' Day.  

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/france-macron-angry-crowd-pension-protests/2023/04/19/id/1116747/  

President Trump Releases Policy Statement on Homelessness, Drug Addicted and Dangerously Deranged

President Trump delivers a T47 policy video covering the topic of homelessness, drug addiction and dangerously deranged. [Direct Rumble Link]

“For a small fraction of what we spend upon Ukraine, we could take care of every homeless veteran in America. Our veterans are being treated horribly.” ~ President Donald Trump

Current Polling Status – DeSantis in DC Looking for Establishment Help

posted by Sundance at Conservative Treehouse 

Not much change in the last week according to the Morning Consult polling [DATA HERE]:

[Source Link]

The next two weeks are critical for the non-Trump team consisting of Ron DeSantis handlers, multinational corporations, GOPe professional political class, most elements of the RNC and the 2024 spearhead institution of the Republican Governors Association (RGA).  DeSantis handlers have him scheduled in Washington DC today, in an effort to circle the DeceptiCon wagons and fend off the MAGA insurgency.

However, as the DeSantis team call everyone trying to stop MAGA advancements, Florida Rep. Greg Steube became the fifth member of the sunshine state’s 20-member Republican congressional delegation to endorse former President Donald Trump for 2024.  [Details Here]

(Via Politico) – Steube’s endorsement came last night on Newsmax, and while campaign endorsements don’t win elections, they can feed a narrative about who’s up and who’s down. He contended Trump “is the only person that can reverse on Day 1 all these disastrous policies of the Biden administration. … We need to right all the wrongs that happened under this administration.” The southwest Florida representative added that Trump is “widely supported in my district, widely supported in Florida.”

Steube’s decision to endorse happened after reports came out that those in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ orbit reached out to GOP members of Congress last week. That outreach came in the wake of rumblings that several were poised to endorse Trump. Steube’s endorsement also comes on the eve of a DeSantis visit to Washington, D.C., where the likely presidential candidate is doing a meet and greet hosted by several Republicans, including two House members who have endorsed him — Chip Roy of Texas and Thomas Massie of Kentucky.

When asked about DeSantis, Steube noted that he just got reelected and said he hoped that he would continue “to concentrate” on his job as governor. “I hear from constituents all the time that want him to finish out his term and support President Trump,” Steube said on Newsmax. Steube then even took a bit of a swipe at DeSantis, noting his pending trip to D.C. and South Carolina while the Florida Legislature is in session. “His focus should be in Florida. Floridians want to be focused on Florida. That’s what he signed for his job for reelection to do.” (more)

Wall Street and the Sea Island billionaires backing DeSantis are all-in to stop Trump and the working-class coalition of supporters.   DeSantis has around $500 million in corporate dark money already on the SuperPAC books, and access to another estimated $500 million in the next three months.  That buys a lot of support from the professional political class and the grifting influencers.

Get ready, 2024 is MAGA burning the ships behind us.  This one is for all the marbles. This is not a place where tepid half-measures and gentlemanly pastels will suffice.  Get right with God, put on the armor, absorb the focus of fighting like the third monkey on the ramp to Noah’s ark and get comfortable being uncomfortable.

Our ally is anyone who stands beside us, right now. Our enemy is anyone who doesn’t.

The new sons and daughters of the revolution are going to look completely different.  The Green Dragon Tavern may be a church, a picnic table or a tailgate.  Our assembly is not focused on the labels of the assembled.   The mission is the purpose… The fight is wherever it surfaces…. Delicate sensibilities must be dispatched like a feather in a hurricane.

'Healthy' doctor, 32, died after rare severe reaction to AstraZeneca COVID jab, coroner concludes

 

A "fit and healthy" doctor who was one of the first people to be given the AstraZeneca COVID vaccination died after a "rare" severe reaction to the jab, a coroner has ruled.

Dr Stephen Wright, of Sevenoaks, Kent, died 10 days after receiving the inoculation in mid-January 2021.  

The 32-year-old NHS clinical psychologist and frontline health worker was among the earliest groups of people to be given the vaccine during the pandemic.

Scientists and medical experts were not aware of the vaccine's possible deadly side effects because Dr Wright's case happened so early in its rollout, said Dr Mark Howard, a consultant pathologist and medical examiner at King's College Hospital.

He said: "It is a truly tragic and very rare complication of a well-meant vaccination.

"It was a rare and unintended consequence."

An inquest at London's Southwark Coroner's Court heard Dr Wright was part of a small group of people who have had a severe reaction to the jab and that an investigation is being carried out by health authorities.  

Dr Wright suffered from a combination of a brainstem infarction, bleed on the brain and "vaccine-induced thrombosis" and was taken to Princess Royal University Hospital in Orpington before being moved to King's College Hospital as his condition worsened.

Coroner Andrew Harris described it as a "very unusual and deeply tragic case".

Outlining the facts, Mr Harris said it is "very important to record as fact that it is the AstraZeneca vaccine - but that is different from blaming AstraZeneca".

He said: "Dr Wright was a fit and healthy man who had the AstraZeneca vaccine on 16 January 2021, awoke with a headache on 25 January and later developed left arm numbness."

He attended an A&E department just after midnight where was found to have high blood pressure and a sagittal sinus thrombosis, Mr Harris said. 

"He was transferred to King's College Hospital at 6.39am but, due to the extent of the bleed and very low platelets, was unfit for surgery…"

"My understanding is that this condition is rare." 

Earlier, consultant neurosurgeon Francesco Vergani said platelets provide the body's first response to try to stop bleeding.

He said: "There was nothing that could have been done to have a successful operation.

"When you have someone with critically low platelets who is bleeding in the brain, the surgery is a disaster."

Dr Wright's widow Charlotte is considering taking legal action against AstraZeneca.

After the inquest, she said: "It was made clear that Stephen was fit and healthy and that his death was by vaccination of AstraZeneca.

"For us, it allows us to be able to continue our litigation against AstraZeneca. This is the written proof."

 

An AstraZeneca spokesman said: "We are very saddened by Stephen Wright's death and extend our deepest sympathies to his family for their loss.

"Patient safety is our highest priority and regulatory authorities have clear and stringent standards to ensure the safe use of all medicines, including vaccines.

"From the body of evidence in clinical trials and real-world data, Vaxzevria (the brand name for AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine) has continuously been shown to have an acceptable safety profile and regulators around the world consistently state that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of extremely rare potential side effects."  

https://news.sky.com/story/healthy-doctor-died-after-very-rare-reaction-to-astrazeneca-covid-jab-12861032  

NEW: Major Senate Report Finds Two Lab Leaks Caused the COVID Pandemic, Cites Far Earlier Timeline

Bonchie reporting for RedState 

A new comprehensive US Senate report on the origins of COVID-19 is pointing to at least two different lab leaks ultimately causing the worldwide pandemic. According to Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), a lack of change in operations by both the Chinese and the United States could lead to another outbreak as well.

While speaking to reporters (Just the News), Marshall bemoaned the fact that gain-of-function research was being done at the Wuhan facility and noted that there’s no indication that China has changed its procedures. US money is still flowing to Chinese labs despite the communist state’s attempts to cover up its role in starting the COVID-19 pandemic.

Another interesting aspect of the report is when the first leak allegedly occurred. It sets the timeline back much further than originally suspected.

“This report concludes most likely this was two leaks,” Marshall said during a briefing with reporters ahead of the release of the report. “The possibility of a lab leak in the September-October [2019] time frame, even as early as July or August, was followed by vaccine development in November 2019. And then another lab leak seems to be the most sensible explanation in this retrospective review.”

The report suggests that China could have been covering up a leak as far back as July or August of 2019. That’s determined by the fact that the Chinese began vaccine development in November of 2019, according to documents obtained by Marshall and other senators. The supposition past that is because the virus didn’t start spreading until early 2020, another leak must have occurred at the unsecured Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The report further determined that gain-of-function research was occurring in Wuhan despite US legal prohibitions against it.

The report determined that the U.S. government was funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

“I think we’re in no better shape today than we were a year ago, three years ago, as far as I’m concerned,” Marshall said in response to a question from Just the News.

“There’s nothing proving to me that they’re doing this type of research in BSL-4 labs,” he continued. “Their own documents continue to show that they’re understaffed, that they don’t have the right facilities to do it in, a huge concern. That’s why we’ve been calling for a halt in all viral gain-of-function research until we get the guardrails around it.”

That part of this saga would seem to implicate Dr. Anthony Fauci, who signed off on the research while skipping over a normally required review by an NIH board. Fauci continues to publicly mislead on the matter, insisting that gain-of-function research isn’t actually gain-of-function research. For its part, EcoHealth Alliance, which received the grant used in Wuhan, was allowed to change the definition to avoid scrutiny.

As Marshall points out, there’s nothing that has been done to ensure that gain-of-function research is only done in BSL-4 labs, and there’s every indication that another outbreak could originate in China. That’s unfathomable given everything we know today, but for reasons which have long been speculated on, the Biden administration appears completely subservient to Xi Jinping and the Chinese government.

Sand in the Skate Park: A Countdown of the Most Ridiculous COVID Responses Three Years Later

Kira Davis reporting for RedState 

Few states were hit harder by draconian COVID rules than California. The reasons should be obvious (hint: commies).

Some of the most insane COVID restrictions were levied here in the Golden State. Things were so nonsensical for so long that California soon became a symbol of the American pandemic era. All the most ridiculous restrictions here inspired all the most ridiculous restrictions everywhere else.

In year two of the pandemic, when the government allowed us to go the beaches again (we’ll get to that), I recall taking my own family to the beach and chuckling to myself at some of the people I witnessed riding bikes along the beach paths, wearing masks. People were wearing masks while walking alone, in the outdoors, with no one else nearby. It seemed insane but by that time I didn’t care what anyone else did. I was just happy to be out and about and moving back towards some kind of normalcy. Then I noticed a family swimming in the ocean together – mom, dad, two children…bobbing around in the waves, enjoying this lovely beach day, wearing masks. That’s right, they were all wearing surgical masks in the water. In the ocean.

That was the day I realized that I was no longer in a place of being able to simply mind my own business. Government had wielded that pandemic to actively make people stupid. The restrictions and constitutional violations had become so heavy and merciless, they had trained the most weak-minded among us to completely ignore reality and accept wholesale the government’s pronouncements about health and safety. People had become so compliant they would risk water-boarding themselves to death in the ocean on the off chance they might catch a virus with a 99.7% survival rate in that same ocean. To my mind, they had more of a chance of making themselves sick by swallowing the ocean water soaked up by their useless masks than from getting COVID from a wave.

But hey, I’m no EXPERT SCIENTIST™.

I knew that day I was no longer going to be “live and let live” about the whole thing. We are still suffering the consequences of that concentrated “dumbing down” of America. Acquiescing so much corporate critical thinking to the government has put us in a position to now be having arguments over whether or not men can have periods.

Pro tip: Men cannot have periods.

Today, Twitter reminded me of one of the most ridiculous examples of COVID-era nonsense, one that marked a turning point for a lot of people (at least the thinking ones) in how they viewed the government’s responses. It seems like a good day to remind everyone about some of the most ridiculous responses. The COVID cultists want “amnesty,” but I say NEVER FORGET. We should extol this anniversary every year, and use it to remind people of the absurdity that is thrust upon law-abiding citizens when they hand over all personal decisions to a power-hungry government.

1.The Pits

It is fitting to start this list in California, in the town of San Clemente, just seven miles from where I live. San Clemente is a sleepy, working class -middle class beach town in south Orange County. When the government ordered everyone to stay home, residents took advantage of the weather, sun and fresh air that others were envying in the winter/spring of 2020. Government didn’t like that one bit, and the city of San Clemente (which has been plagued by progressive leadership) decided to spite the free-thinkers with the most childish move possible. They filled in a popular skate park with sand so the kids had one less place to find joy. It was the height of pettiness, one that was rooted in control, not health or safety. Of course, it has long since been proven that fresh air and physical activity are two huge factors in escaping COVID infection. At the time, California and the city of San Clemente found it better to trap our children indoors with no sun, no education and no friends.

Folks in this part of California don’t take kindly to being told what do, however. The new sand pit just gave the dirt bikers a new place to play and that’s exactly what they did.

Never forget.

2.Surfin’ U.S.S.R.

Six feet of space! That random number of “social distance” became a mantra during the earliest days of COVID. Over and over again we were told the key to slowing the spread was to stay apart, stay alone, stay in our bubbles. What our governments really meant, however, was stay in your place. One California man obeyed the social distance orders while also finding a way to enjoy nature alone, and was rewarded with a police expert back to shore and an arrest.

Obviously it was much safer for him to come into contact with 4-6 people dragging him out of the open ocean and then dozens of people at the police station rather than to be breathing alone, bothering no one on the open ocean.

Never forget.

3.COVID Doesn’t Want a Seat at the Table

When our betters in government realized that shutting down every small business in society was a bad idea, they graciously allowed us back in restaurants. Thankfully, the EXPERT SCIENTISTS™ figured out that COVID doesn’t make a great dinner guest. The “new normal” guidelines told us that we had to wear our masks to walk to our tables, or get up and walk anywhere else, but we could remove our masks to sit at the table. As long as you were seated, you were safe…or something. It was all an exercise in absurdity. Everything we learned about germs and viruses in science classes growing up was shoved aside as masks became a symbol of control and virtue.

Never Forget.

4.Freedom For Me But Not For Thee

When California Governor Gavin Newsom shut down family businesses and restaurants and ordered Californians to “stay home, stay safe,” he didn’t mean for everyone to stay home. If and when Newsom ends up running for President, his opponents will be sure to run attack ads reminding everyone how he violated his own mask mandates, social distancing guidelines, and stay-at-home orders when he was caught dining with a large group of friends at the $20-thousand-dollar-a-plate Napa Valley restaurant The French Laundry.

It wouldn’t be the only time a major political leader was caught being a COVID hypocrite. Newsom was snapped enjoying a packed, mask-free Super Bowl game next to Magic Johnson and other unmasked, wealthy guests. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer scolded residents for making a break for their boat slips in the spring of 2020, warning them that it was better to stay home and isolated over the Memorial Day Weekend. Then came word the First Gentleman was dropping her name at the dock that houses their yacht, in hopes that he could quietly and quickly get his own boat in the water.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Congressional Queen Nancy Pelosi were both caught sneaking out for special hair appointments while the cosmetology industry had been shut down for COVID. Other business owners lost everything, but the elites who knew COVID wasn’t nearly as dangerous as they were purporting it to be enjoyed their privileges as usual.

Never forget.

5.No Seeds For You!

In what has to be one of the pettiest moves of the pandemic, Governor Gretchen Whitmer ordered all gardening centers closed and banned the sale of gardening items at stores. When petty politicians realized they did not have the power to force millions of people to sit completely still for two years, they turned to cutting off avenues of entertainment and self-sufficiency. Whitmer was outraged that people would buy supplies to keep themselves busy and productive at home. It was pathetic and petulant, not to mention completely unnecessary. The only reason for such a move was pure pettiness that the people of Michigan were not heeding Whitmer’s power plays. It will stand out as one of the most childish government moves of the pandemic.

Never forget.

6.List Every Voice and Shhhhh…

California closed their churches, and when the state allowed (I shiver to even write it) churches to reopen, they banned singing. They banned singing…in church. The state made it illegal to express faith through corporate song.

Never forget.

Of course there were so many other utterly insane responses to COVID, ones that went well beyond the notion of public health. List your “favorite” crazy restrictions in the comments. And never forget.

Tim Kaine: It’s OK For The FBI To Put Informants In Churches

Tristan Justice reporting for The Federalist

Virginia Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine gave the FBI his approval to investigate Catholic parishes in his own state on Monday.

When asked by a local ABC affiliate about the FBI’s Richmond division infiltrating Catholic communities to spy on the church for alleged extremism, Kaine called the revelations a misunderstanding.

“I think the key is communication,” Kaine told ABC13. “If the FBI has a concern like that, then go to the church leaders and say, ‘Hey look, we have a concern and we don’t want your members to get unwittingly caught up in something.'”

Former FBI Special Agent Kyle Seraphin blew the whistle on the agency’s Richmond office investigating the Catholic Church with undercover informants in February. The FBI, Seraphin wrote, “would like to protect Virginians from the threat of ‘white supremacy,’ which it believes has found a home within Catholics who prefer the Latin Mass.”

“The document assesses with ‘high confidence’ the FBI can mitigate the threat of Radical-Traditionalist Catholics by recruiting sources within the Catholic Church,” Seraphin warned.

[RELATED: 19 Times Democrats & DOJ Deliberately Politicized Law Enforcement]

House Republicans on the Judiciary Committee responded to the news with a subpoena to FBI Director Christopher Wray earlier this month. “We know the FBI, relying on information derived from at least one undercover employee, sought to use local religious organizations as ‘new avenues for tripwire and source development,'” Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio wrote in the subpoena cover letter.

Kaine said Monday that the FBI has been running similar surveillance of American Muslims.

“We’ve done the same thing for years working in tandem with mosques because there have been groups that have tried to target or radicalize, especially young people,” the senator said.

Despite the FBI’s targeting of Catholics, U.S. bishops remained silent.

“The U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops is a powerful organization, with a 2018 budget of more than $200 million, much of it from federal grants and contracts,” The Federalist’s Evita Duffy-Alfonso reported in February. “What has the Catholic Church hierarchy had to say in the seven days since the slanderous leak? Nothing.”

The conference never responded to The Federalist’s inquiries. Bishop Barry Knestout was the only U.S. bishop to speak out on the issue one week after the February whistleblower report.

Absolut Vodka halts exports to Russia after backlash

 

Absolut Vodka will stop exporting its products to Russia after a backlash in its home country, Sweden.

The company initially halted the exports in March 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine.

But its parent company, Pernod Ricard, confirmed that some exports had resumed - which sparked fury.

Pernod Ricard has now announced they have stopped Absolut Vodka exports again, in order to protect their staff and partners from criticism.

It said it was exercising its "duty of care towards our employees and partners, we cannot expose them to massive criticism in all forms".   

Last week, many top bars and restaurants in Sweden pulled the drink from their shelves, and politicians condemned its export, following media reports it was being sold to Russia.

The Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said he was "very surprised" to hear the company had resumed exports.

And three Swedish artists launched a viral campaign, depicting a picture of a smouldering bomb crater in the shape of the Absolut bottle.

Stephanie Durroux, the CEO of Absolut, said the strong reaction to Absolut restarting Russian trade showed the role the brand played in Swedish society.

"We acknowledge the significance of these long-standing and trusting relationships with our Swedish employees, partners, consumers, and the Swedish society at large," she added.

Before the war Pernod Ricard made about 3% of its annual sales on the Russian market, and despite pulling Absolut Vodka, the company will continue to sell some products to Russia.

In 2022, Russia changed its import laws to bypass EU sanctions. The changes allowed for the import of goods into Russia without the permission of their authorised importers. 

On Friday, the Kremlin published a list of goods from numerous foreign markets - including carmakers and technology companies - that the government has included in its parallel imports scheme.

Absolut warned they had no control over the parallel market and their vodka could still get into Russia that way.

"For clarity, this will unfortunately not prevent Absolut from falling into the hands of the 'parallel market', which has strongly increased in recent months and over which we have no control," Pernod Ricard said.  

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65315083