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Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers …
… wherever you might be experiencing lockdown.
I wish all of you a good day, however different it might be in 2020.
Lately, I’ve been watching Howie Carr every weekday on YouTube to find out how the election results are going.
Even now, Joe Biden is not yet president-elect. For the media, he is more like the president-select (all credit to Howie).
President Trump still occupies that spot, at least until January 2021, at least.
As I wrote this post, he rightly had a go at General ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis:
He highlighted Wisconsin’s suspicious election results …
… and pointed out a fact about the 27 House races that notional experts said Republicans would lose. Republicans won all 27:
He rightly celebrated the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaching 30,000 for the first time in history. Never let it be said that this was Joe Biden’s doing. It was Donald Trump’s policies that made this beautiful record landmark possible.
This is the ninth stock market record in 2020 and the 48th of the Trump administration:
President Trump pardoned the Thanksgiving turkey, a tradition that began in the 1860s during Abraham Lincoln’s administration when his son made friends with a turkey the Lincolns were planning to eat for Thanksgiving.
This year, a beautiful bird, Corn, came from Ames, Iowa, with his friend Cob — Corn and Cob, corncob — for the ceremony. They returned to Ames afterwards with the farmer who bred them:
Now back to Howie Carr, who also covers the latest coronavirus news on a daily basis.
Pity Americans who have to put up with Dr Anthony Fauci. Even Britons roll their eyes at his advice.
A disgusted English friend of mine scorned Fauci’s ‘don’t kill Granny’ advice. I shook my head at ‘a quarter of a million deaths’, which were revised downward drastically during the summer as being deaths with COVID and not of COVID. There’s a big difference:
Back to the ‘killing Granny’ narrative — this is the other side of the story for many elderly with younger family members:
Too right.
Here’s another choice morsel from Fauci:
https://twitter.com/CuomoPrimeTime/status/1329628397639700481
I would love to know what Fauci is doing for Thanksgiving, but he doesn’t have a Twitter account and it is too painful listening to his idiocy.
As I write on Tuesday, Howie has been reading out the American resistance to lockdowns and restrictions from news articles. These detail how the great and the good have been dictating, sometimes under penalty of law, how people like you and me should live our lives with an illness that has the same fatality rates as the flu. Note that this does not mean coronavirus is synonymous with flu.
Never mind Fauci. American governors have become more brazen and authoritarian with every passing day, no more so than at one of the sacrosanct, inviolable national holidays: Thanksgiving Day, which is celebrated this year on Thursday, November 26.
Let us make the rounds, coast to coast, to see what these governors have been doing, starting on what used to be known as the Eastern seaboard.
Massachusetts
Republican — actually, RINO — governor Charlie Baker (Joe Biden calls him Charlie Parker) has been issuing various prohibitions for ages.
This is his advice to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (as it is officially known) for Thanksgiving, the kick-off to the holiday season, which ends in the US on New Year’s Day. I enjoyed the response to Baker’s advice — well said:
https://twitter.com/DWadeBsFan/status/1330865331372511234
New York
Let’s move somewhat south to New York State.
Howie Carr plays the best clips of Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Cuomo’s monologues sound as if they are clips from horror movies until Howie says that they’re the governor’s pronouncements. Scary.
I don’t have any of those audio clips, but Cuomo’s tweets about Thanksgiving are unintentionally amusing.
Before I go there, however, let’s look back to the beginning of the month, two days before the election on Tuesday, November 3.
There was a massive Trump car rally on the bridge named for his father, Mario Cuomo.
As far as I am concerned, the Governor Mario M Cuomo Bridge will always be the TAPPAN ZEE BRIDGE.
This was held in the rain. I embraced the enthusiasm and wished I could have been there:
The current Gov Cuomo, a Dem, as was his father, does not like the fact that President Trump has been able to announce two coronavirus vaccines:
On Friday, November 20, a group of business owners in Buffalo, upstate near Canada, told sheriffs and one or more notional health inspectors to get lost.
Gateway Pundit reported, in part, that the business owners were in a gym. Gyms are/were currently closed because of the Chi-vi (emphases mine below):
Business owners in Buffalo, New York fed up with Cuomo’s authoritarian Covid lockdown orders asserted their Constitutional rights and kicked out sheriffs and “health inspectors” on Friday night.
50 business owners gathered inside of a shuttered gym in Buffalo, New York Friday night when two sheriffs and a so-called ‘health inspector’ showed up to harass the group in response to an “anonymous tip.”
The business owners shouted down and kicked out the health inspector and the told the sheriffs to come back with a warrant.
Well done!
The story comes from the Buffalo News.
This brings us to Thanksgiving.
Cuomo warned New Yorkers to stay at home within their own households, so much so that the New York Post reported that there are big window decals with a photo of Cuomo snooping in people’s homes, accompanied by an image of a turkey.
Interestingly, the company that makes the decals is also located in Buffalo:
One upstate company wants Gov. Andrew Cuomo to be the biggest turkey at your Thanksgiving dinner this year.
The Buffalo-based design firm Custom 716 is selling stickers of the governor’s face that can be put on a window to make it look like Cuomo is peering inside — presumably to make sure not too many people are there to celebrate the holiday this year.
The sticker is a clear way of ripping Cuomo for demanding that New York families avoid gathering in large groups for the holiday out of fears of spreading COVID-19.
“Great for all gatherings, sure to get laughs, great for your business or your home!” they write about the $10 sticker on their firm’s website.
“$10 and I will mail it to you for free, or pick up is available. Located in North Tonawanda, NY,” the description reads, offering a promo code allowing customers to bypass the $8.05 shipping and handling fee.
Cuomo has been begging New Yorkers to spend Turkey Day alone, warning the coronavirus’s rapid spread has increased in part thanks to small, indoor gatherings in recent months as the weather has turned slightly chillier.
“It’s your family, it’s your home, it’s your table — these are all environments where you feel safe and that’s the beauty of Thanksgiving,” he said during a phone conference briefing with reporters Thursday.
“Your safe zone is not a safe zone, your safe zone is dangerous this year.”
When you hear the audio of him saying that (thanks to Howie), it sends chills down the spine.
Fortunately:
politicians and law enforcement agents across the state … argue it’s nearly impossible to enforce caps on indoor, private gatherings.
At the time, Cuomo included himself in that diktat:
However, a few days later, Andrew Cuomo announced big plans for a family get together. Hmm, interesting:
Here’s a tweet, including a photo of the snoop decal from Buffalo. Note the ‘for thee, but not for me’ response from someone living in Governor Pritzker’s fiefdom of Illinois (see below):
https://twitter.com/pgasaluki/status/1331002207689433089
Howie Carr said on Tuesday, November 24 that Cuomo got so much blow back from New Yorkers that his family’s plans for a communal turkey dinner changed. One of his daughters would not be attending (H/T Gateway Pundit):
Aww.
Also:
His daughter, wearing a tee shirt with ‘New York tough’ emblazoned across it, tweeted:
The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported:
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo abruptly canceled his Thanksgiving plans Monday, less than two hours after revealing he planned to spend the holiday with his mother and two of his daughters.
During a radio interview Monday around 3:45 p.m., Cuomo revealed his “current plan” for the holiday: His 89-year-old mother, Matilda, and two of his three daughters, Michaela and Cara, are planning on joining him in Albany.
…By 5:30 p.m., Cuomo nixed the gathering entirely.
Good.
Hypocrisy is most unbecoming.
New Jersey
Just west of New York, across the Hudson River, New Jersey’s governor Phil Murphy was accosted by angry diners when he was eating out with his family and appearing without a mask. New Jersey has had a particularly arduous lockdown.
Remember, Phil Murphy won’t have to worry about where his next meal is coming from. The taxpayers are footing his bill:
Murphy, who, Howie Carr says, attended the same high school and college as Massachusetts’s Charlie Baker, is still trying to frighten his state’s residents:
His wife is at it, too:
I couldn’t agree more about the gaslighting.
North Carolina
Moving several hundred miles south, North Carolina’s Governor Roy Cooper approves of business closures in Greensboro:
https://twitter.com/2ashamedtoname/status/1330184262335795205
On Monday, November 23, he issued a Thanksgiving sermonette on the ‘stay at home’ theme, most of which follows. Like the UK, he has a colour-based ‘tier’ designation:
With that sort of warning, what North Carolina resident could possibly want to go through with (gasp) a family or friend oriented Thanksgiving dinner?
Amazingly, people in North Carolina have not been able to attend church — or any sort of celebration — for nine months. He has the nerve to tell them to keep it up ‘just a bit longer’ — for November 2021. Good grief:
Governor Cooper has even better news for the run-up to Christmas:
https://twitter.com/RealPhilJones1/status/1331067808877338626
Excellent response.
Illinois
Let’s travel around 1,000 miles northwest to Illinois.
Governor JB Pritzker comes from a family of real estate moguls. As one would expect, he can escape Illinois, lovely as it is, to take a break at family properties elsewhere.
Last summer, he defied his own executive order to take part in a protest in Chicago. Pritzker is the man in the blue and white checked shirt in the second photo below:
More recently, Howie Carr said that Pritzker’s immediate family have been spotted at their Florida farm which has horses that his children can ride. Howie, now a Florida resident, lives in the vicinity.
Hmm.
A Republican congressman from Illinois called out Pritzker:
Someone replied:
Fortunately, Pritzker’s and Illinois’s directives, such as these …
… are being ignored. Just look at Chicago’s O’Hare airport:
Well done!
Gee, 20 years on, the TSA still have their checkpoint. Why didn’t President Trump ever repeal the Patriot Act? ‘There’s a there there’, no doubt.
For those Illinois residents who will not be travelling for Thanksgiving, there is no absolution if you live in Chicago. On November 15, a spokeswoman from Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office said, ‘You are the problem; you are putting everyone at risk’ (see the 11-second mark):
Yet, anecdotally, the vast majority of Chicagoans are wearing masks:
https://twitter.com/ImpactMadison/status/1328116030187724800
Speaking of masks:
Chicago — the Windy City — which is also darned chilly at this time of year, is pushing OUTDOOR dining in a TWO-sided tent!
You could not make this advice up:
As for Thanksgiving dinners, Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot has cancelled them. She is pictured in the photo above with Governor Pritzker at a June 2020 protest. Note that CNN has not shown the official US COVID-19 death count, which is still at ‘with’ + ‘of’, as it was last summer:
https://twitter.com/sbacon0410/status/1327299219691085825
Interestingly, during lockdown in April, Madame Mayor felt compelled to get her hair cut when she had told ordinary Chicagoans that hairdressing was non-essential. See the Daily Mail report from April 12, complete with photo of her with her hairdresser, no social distancing required.
Washington
Let’s leave the Midwest for the West Coast, starting in the most northern state, Washington, home to Seattle, the site of much summer mayhem.
Governor Jay Inslee, who did not oppose said summer mayhem, is now telling Washington residents not to get together for Thanksgiving. This advert is unbelievable:
https://twitter.com/GovInslee/status/1331305361718931457
COVID-19 can find you everywhere! Woo-oo!
Inslee thanks Washington residents for not celebrating one of America’s two most historic holidays this year. The reply is excellent:
Oregon
The state immediately south of Washington is Oregon.
There Governor Kate Brown is all in for the deadly coronavirus narrative, especially at Thanksgiving:
On Monday, November 23, she asked for Oregonians to snitch on each other at Thanksgiving.
Hot Air has the story, first reported in the Washington Times. Reporter Jazz Shaw says:
I guess nobody told Oregon Governor Kate Brown about the old rule regarding snitches and stitches. With the holidays fast approaching and an increasing number of citizens growing tired of government mandates forbidding them from gathering with friends and family to celebrate, Brown is concerned that people may simply ignore her orders and gather around the feast table anyway. So what’s an autocratic executive to do? The answer is as simple as pumpkin pie. She’d like people to keep an eye out for large gatherings in their neighborhood and call the police if they see any suspiciously large, turkey-related activity going on. That’s an idea that’s sure to put everyone in the holiday spirit, right? (Washington Times)
This must be one of the snottiest adverts about family ever made. See what you think. A photo of the governor follows (she’s not the one with the pink gloves):
Let us not forget that Portland has had mayhem going on since June. Every doggone night for months on end:
https://twitter.com/LOA503/status/1331342968469393408
California
The most blatant nose-thumbing has come from California’s governor Gavin Newsom, who with the co-operation of mayors and county officials has kept the Golden State under lockdown for most of the year, with most counties at the top two highest tier levels during that time.
The status holds true, if not worse, even now:
Meanwhile, Governor Newsom has been releasing prisoners sporadically because they are in danger of catching COVID-19. Forget about law-abiding citizens:
One used to think California voters were being silly in continuing to vote in Democrats.
However, in recent years, a growing number of Americans think that Democrats have won so many elections because of voter fraud:
https://twitter.com/tired_fighting/status/1328445757997813760
With regard to the curfew, at least one protest took place. This is from Huntington Beach:
Protests last summer in the state were acceptable to most, but the anti-lockdown and anti-curfew ones attract comment. Fortunately, some can discern the truth:
https://twitter.com/KahumaSolomon/status/1330610731109281792
Newsom has seemingly bought into the mask narrative, even though that policy has not improved his state’s figures:
https://twitter.com/urtweetnme/status/1328486001342255105
Exactly. Probably more adjusted statistics. We have them in the UK, too.
However, right now, more Californians are interested in Newsom’s social life during lockdown:
With regard to masks …
No one cares that the Newsom family is self-isolating for a fortnight:
The tweets kept coming and coming:
https://twitter.com/NikonIdiot/status/1329549571211501574
https://twitter.com/malcolm_ring/status/1329986677356572673
Newsom isn’t alone, it seems, in rule breaking. Is this the California state legislature? Yes, it is:
By the way, masks are probably not a good conversational topic for Thanksgiving. See this brief exchange:
But I digress.
The three-star French Laundry in Yountville (Napa Valley) is one of the world’s most famous restaurants.
In the 1920s, it was used as a French steam laundry, hence the name.
In the 1970s, the then-mayor of Yountville Don Schmitt and his wife Sally turned the building into a restaurant.
In 1994, the French chef Thomas Keller bought the restaurant and made it into the legend it is today.
Friends invited Gavin Newsom to the French Laundry for a birthday celebration on November 6 during California’s lockdown.
Talk about ‘for me, but not for thee’.
The Daily Caller reported:
Photos show the maskless governor of California dining indoors at one of the highest rated restaurants in the world despite his restrictive coronavirus guidelines for the citizens of California.
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom can be seen dining at the Michelin-starred French Laundry on the evening of November 6, according to photos obtained by Fox LA. The restaurant, located in California’s Napa Valley, is considered “the pinnacle of California dining” and has been ranked the best restaurant in the world numerous times, according to various outlets.
Newsom has said the restaurant was outdoors, but FoxLA reported that the room’s glass sliding doors had been closed, making the dinner party indoors. Newsom’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The group was so loud that customers complained:
“While we were there we realized there was a very loud party going on in a room 20 feet from us,” the woman who took the photos told FoxLA. “It was a bit annoying since you’re spending hard-earned money to go there. It got louder and louder and so they had some sliding glass doors that they were able to close, so then it was a closed-off room but you could still hear them with how loud they were.”
She continued: “I just happened to look over and realize hey is that Gavin Newsom, who is that? And I did ask one of the waitresses and she confirmed it was, so I was able to take a couple of photos, I was able to document this especially since nobody was wearing a mask. It was a very large group of people shoulder to shoulder, something that he’s always telling us not to do so yeah it was a bit annoying for sure.”
Newsom has urged California residents to wear face masks “in between bites” at restaurants and announced Monday that California is “pulling an emergency brake” and mandating the most restrictive tier of coronavirus restrictions for more than two dozen California counties …
The governor also warned that he would announce more COVID restrictions Friday ahead of Thanksgiving.
Newsom apologized Tuesday for attending the dinner party, calling it a “bad mistake” and saying that he became uncomfortable after arriving when he realized that the group was larger than he expected, according to FoxLA.
…
But the woman who took the photos said Newsom did not appear uncomfortable.
“I was surprised because it didn’t look like he was uncomfortable being there until the very end until people were looking at him and staring at him as he was leaving the room,” she told FoxLA.
Not surprisingly, the dinner made a splash in California’s media:
A few days ago, the California IBank had the nerve to tweet this. I applaud the reply:
That is so true.
Words fail me.
On Thanksgiving, when in doubt, eat more and add more butter.
I hope that those celebrating Thanksgiving can enjoy their dinner the best they can — with hearty gratitude. (Things could always be worse.)
Last week, I ran a series on the Revd John MacArthur and the court battle involving his Grace Community Church regarding indoor worship in Los Angeles County.
It seems as if John MacArthur is an outlier, with no support from clergy from other churches.
Last week ended on an optimistic note: ‘A court win for John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church’.
One of my readers, H E, sent in the following comment concerning religious and other restrictions during the coronavirus outbreak.
Some time ago, H E gave me permission to repost his comments, and I am happy to do so now. This is excellent (emphases mine below):
Thank you for your series of articles about Pastor John MacArthur and his court fight to permit his church to hold indoor services.
I concur with John Cheshire that it is disappointing that mainstream church bodies generally have not supported Pastor MacArthur’s efforts.
I live in the US. In elementary school, I was taught that the rights enumerated in the US Constitution (freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, etc) are inalienable, natural rights given by God (teachers could say ‘God’ in those days) which pre-exist and supersede civil law.
What troubles me is that governors and mayors in the US issued dictates that forbade a citizen from exercising his God-given rights, despite the fact that, at their inauguration, these officials swore to uphold the Constitution which guarantees free exercise of such rights. I live in the state of New Jersey. Our governor, Philip Murphy, stated on television that he had not considered the effect of his restrictive executive orders on the Bill of Rights. In that interview he stated “the Bill of Rights is above my pay grade.”
(As a sidebar, there have been no calls for the removal of Governor Murphy on the basis that either he lied when he swore to uphold the Constitution or he is incompetent. On the contrary, his approval rating is about 70%).
Policemen are sworn to uphold the law. Implicit in this oath is the understanding that a policeman should not enforce an illegal law. Nonetheless, policemen in New Jersey, acting on an executive order from the Governor, walked into a Jewish religious service, arrested the Rabbi, put him in handcuffs, and hauled him off to jail because he had the temerity to hold a religious service that violated the Governor’s dictates.
For the police to disrupt a religious service and arrest the person leading the service is appalling to me and unheard of in the US, in my personal experience. This is something I would expect to see in China. The legal system in the US is normally reluctant to interfere with religious activities and arrest religious leaders. (I understand that this is a reaction to the shameful way the courts and the police treated Mormons in the 1830s and 1840s). In fact, all one needs to do is to call himself ‘Reverend’ and establish a ‘church’ and he pretty much can do what he wishes. As an example, see Al Sharpton who for decades has been a political rabble rouser, but somehow is untouchable by the courts and the police.
It’s good that the court ruled in Pastor MacArthur’s favor. But what if it hadn’t? Would this mean that Pastor MacArthur’s inalienable right to assemble and worship God is void? How can this be? How can the exercise of one’s God-given, inalienable rights be dependent upon a decision of a local court judge, whose normal job duty is to adjudicate parking tickets?
In my opinion, the issue here is that there should never have been orders by local officials to close church services. They simply don’t have the legal authority to do this. And policemen should never have obeyed orders to enforce such unlawful directives.
The problem we face is that our society has devolved to the point where God-given, inalienable rights have been reduced to the level of municipal ordinances, subject to the whims of petty public officials.
How do we get our rights restored? Through the courts? I don’t see this as likely since the courts are an arm of the state and work to uphold the interests of the state against the citizens. Elect new representatives? We elected Donald Trump as President and the Deep State has blocked nearly every action he has tried to take. I don’t know what the answer is.
I replied:
I don’t have an answer, either …
I am not surprised, though, that other churches aren’t openly supporting John MacArthur, although, no doubt, they’ll gladly take any benefits accruing from a court decision in Grace Community Church’s favour.
First, most pastors in established denoms are left-wing. Secondly, the last thing they want to do is stick their heads above the parapet. A lot of those denominations have hierarchies, too, therefore, individual pastors cannot take those sorts of decisions independently.
The independent Evangelical pastors probably want a quiet life but will gladly let MacArthur do the heavy lifting and then reap the rewards any wins bring.
Today, by chance, I came across an article at LifeNews.com:
‘Judge Fines Church $3,000 for Holding Worship Service, But Abortion Clinics Can Kill Babies’ chronicles the stories of two other California churches that have fallen foul of the law recently. One is in Ventura County. The other is in Santa Clara County:
California Pastor Rob McCoy of Godspeak Calvary Chapel in Thousand Oaks appeared before Judge Vincent O’Neill in Superior Court of Ventura County on Friday, August 21 and was held in contempt of court. Godspeak Calvary Chapel was fined $500 per three services, for two Sundays, or a total of $3,000.
Pastor McCoy received an order from a Ventura state judge on Friday, August 7, banning the church’s in-person services. Superior Court Judge Matthew Guasco issued a temporary restraining order to Pastor Rob McCoy, the Church, and Does 1-1000, along with anyone “acting in concert with them” who might attend worship in the future. Governor Gavin Newsom ordered no singing or chanting, and then ordered no worship, even in private homes with anyone who does not live in the home.
Godspeak Calvary Chapel (Church) held three worship services on Sunday, August 9 and August 16. An evidentiary hearing is set for Aug. 31.
North Valley Baptist Church in Santa Clara, California was also fined $5,000 for singing in each of the two worship services yesterday, although social distancing was practiced. The four-page letter posted on the front door of the church said, “North Valley Baptist is failing to prevent those attending, performing and speaking at North Valley Baptist’s services from singing. This activity is unlawful. The county understands that singing is an intimate and meaningful component of religious worship. However, public health experts have also determined that singing together in close proximity and without face coverings transmits virus particles further in the air than breathing or speaking quietly. The county demands that North Valley Baptist immediately cease the activities listed above and fully comply with the Risk Reduction Order, the Gatherings Directive, the State July 13 Order and the State guidance. Failure to do so will result in enforcement action by the county.”
Santa Clara County had North Valley Baptist Church under surveillance:
Santa Clara County acknowledged in its cease and desist letter they had been sending agents into the church to spy on the congregation during worship services.
In his defence, the church’s pastor pointed to the Bible:
Pastor Jack Trieber said, “You can’t have any law against assembling in God’s house. None. I know we have a Constitutional right to worship, but we have a Higher Power that we answer to. I have a biblical mandate. We have obeyed authority in this church. We’ve always obeyed authority. But when local authority begins to disregard this authority, we go with this book right here,” he said pointing at the Bible.
This is the crazy situation that Newsom has created during the coronavirus outbreak. You can meet in church for anything except worship:
Gov. Newsom’s orders allow the church to feed, shelter, and provide social services, but the same people in the same building cannot worship. In order words, non-religious services are acceptable but religious services are banned. People can receive food, but not take communion. People can be housed overnight, but cannot hold a short worship service, Bible study, or meet for prayer. People can receive counseling to find work but cannot be counseled on finding eternal life.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The same governor who encourages mass protests, bans all worship and is now fining churches for their right to assemble and worship. The same governor who says the church can meet for secular services, bans the church from having religious worship. This unconstitutional hostility against religious worship must end.”
Absolutely. I could not agree more.
Thank you, H E, for another excellent comment. The quotes from LifeNews.com reinforce your salient and important points on this topic.
It is cruel that, during a time when church becomes even more important during a life and death health situation, California’s governor forbids his residents from seeking communal solace in God and in Jesus Christ.
Several days ago, James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas issued a request for information about coronavirus cases from people in the know:
On March 27, O’Keefe and a colleague visited a few hospitals in New York and New Jersey. They asked for a test at the first hospital, as they’d been travelling around the United States. The nurse on duty at the rear entrance said that no one gets tested for coronavirus, not even the health workers. She told the two men to self-isolate.
Project Veritas managed to speak with other health workers. Essentially, this interesting video is a bit of a mixed bag. Everything and everyone is calm. Anyone expecting sensational scenes — the sort that the media whip up on the news every day — will be disappointed, which is why I am posting it:
On Thursday, March 26, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he was unsure whether a state-wide quarantine was a good idea. New York state’s economy is crippled.
The New York Post reported (emphases mine):
“We closed everything down. That was our public health strategy,” said Cuomo during an Albany press briefing. “If you re-thought that or had time to analyze that public health strategy, I don’t know that you would say ‘Quarantine everyone.’”
It’s the third day in a row that Cuomo has publicly mused about quarantines and how best to eventually restart the Empire State’s shattered economy.
But Wednesday, Cuomo’s answer during an hour-long news conference about quarantines — which are backed by city and state health officials — took a new turn as he speculated it might have spread the disease.
“I don’t even know that that was the best public health policy. Young people then quarantined with older people, [it] was probably not the best public health strategy,” he said. “The younger people could have been exposing the older people to an infection.”
So far, New York has clocked 37,258 confirmed cases and 385 deaths from COVID-19.
Cuomo’s staff told the New York Post that he had read a column in the New York Times by a professor from Yale University, Dr David Katz, who is doing a study on risk stratification.
Cuomo’s staff said that the governor referenced Katz’s article in his press conference two days earlier:
“There’s a theory of risk stratification that Dr. Katz who’s at Yale University is working on, which is actually very interesting to me,” Cuomo told reporters then. “Isolate people but really isolate the vulnerable people. Don’t isolate everyone because some people, most people, are not vulnerable to it.”
He added: “And if you isolate all people, you may be actually exposing the more vulnerable people by bringing in a person who is healthier and stronger and who may have been exposed to the virus, right.”
That said, he is wary of reopening New York for some time yet, because the apex of the pandemic in the state is still two or three weeks away.
Once the FDA approves an antibody test for COVID-19, Cuomo would like New York residents to take it. If they are immune, then they can return to work:
“Younger people can go back to work. People who have resolved can go back to work,” Cuomo again said Wednesday. “People who — once we get this antibody test — show that they had the virus and they resolved can go back to work.
“That’s how I think you do it. … It’s not [that] we’re going to either do public health or we’re going to do economic development and restarting. We have to do both.”
Mass self-isolation will prove to be a huge mistake on many levels.
February 2019 turned out to be violent for some supporters of President Trump.
Four real hate attacks took place that month.
University
On Tuesday, February 19, a Trump supporter was violently punched in the face at UC Berkeley for manning a stand for conservative students’ organisation Turning Point USA (TPUSA). The victim, Hayden Williams, is not a member of TPUSA, but was volunteering for them at the time.
On February 21, Fox News reported (emphases mine):
University of California police want the public’s help tracking down a suspect whose brutal alleged assault of a conservative activist on the Berkeley campus was caught on video.
The campus police website said that two men on Tuesday approached a table where the activist was recruiting members to his group, and an argument ensued. The alleged victim, identified by Turning Point USA as Hayden Williams, held up his cell phone and began filming the two men who were allegedly harassing him. One of the two men knocked over the table, police said, and then punched Williams several times, causing injuries to his face. Much of the incident was captured on a witness’ cellphone, but it was unclear what, if anything, Williams may have said before the attack.
The suspects had left by the time police arrived.
Although Williams was helping Turning Point USA, he is not actually a member of the group. Williams is campus representative for Leadership Institute, according to Campus Reform, a conservative news site that the institute operates.
A witness told Fox News the recruitment table had a sign that said: “Hate Crime Hoaxes Hurt Real Victims,” in reference to the case of “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett, who is accused of staging a bias attack against himself in downtown Chicago last month.
On its website, Campus Reform, which interviewed Williams, reported that the alleged attacker cursed at the activist, calling him a racist and threatened to shoot him.
The Berkeley incident is the latest in a growing series of ideological clashes that have turned violent on college campuses. Conservative groups claim students who lean to the right have been targeted for harassment and even assault over their views.
That evening, Hayden Williams spoke to Sean Hannity about the incident:
TPUSA founder and president Charlie Kirk tweeted:
A few days later, a conservative organisation offered a $50,000 reward to bring the attacker to justice:
Just a few days later, on Friday, March 1, University of California — UC — Police made an arrest. Gateway Pundit reported (italics in the original):
On Friday, Zachary Greenberg was identified and arrested by UC Police — law enforcement booked him into jail at 1 PM.
CBS San Francisco reported that police will formally present the case to the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office for consideration of the filing of criminal charges, the university said.
That evening Fox’s Laura Ingraham interviewed Hayden Williams and his lawyer, Harmeet Dhillon, who is experienced in representing conservative victims of violence and hate (start at 11:06):
On Saturday, March 2, President Trump welcomed Williams onstage to say a few words. He then praised Williams for being able to ‘take a punch’, which, he added, the student did ‘for all of us’. How true:
Here’s the full CPAC segment. Trump also asks Williams to request that Harmeet Dhillon sue the university, the city and the state. Trump had high praise for her:
High school
On Tuesday, February 26, a young man wearing a yellow vest fought to remove a Trump flag from a younger student at a high school in New Mexico:
A Twitter account holder published the school’s number, then attempted to call, only to find out the number was not in service:
Someone tweeted the name of the school principal, who did not reply:
https://twitter.com/denise_kandra/status/1100510430571782150
Restaurant
That same day, across the nation in Falmouth, Massachusetts, a Brazilian woman who has been in the US illegally for 20 years, was taken into ICE custody following an assault on a young man wearing a MAGA hat in a local Mexican restaurant. The assault had taken place earlier that month, at which time the woman was promptly arrested and released by local police.
After her ICE arrest, she was subsequently released, pending an upcoming hearing on March 20. This story ran and ran on the Howie Carr Show (Boston) last week.
CBS affiliate WBZ in Boston reported (photo at the link):
Police said Rosiane Santos walked by Bryton Turner as he was eating dinner at Casa Vallarta and knocked the hat off his head. She then allegedly confronted him verbally.
Turner recorded video showing some of the confrontation.
Falmouth Police charged Santos with disorderly conduct following the incident earlier this month. On Tuesday, ICE took her into custody.
“Deportation officers with ICE’s Fugitive Operations Team arrested Rosiane Santos, an unlawfully present citizen of Brazil, today near Falmouth, Massachusetts,” said ICE spokesman John Mohan.
Turner said he was just trying to eat a nice meal when Santos grabbed his hat supporting President Trump.
“It’s just a hat at the end of the day,” Turner told WBZ after the incident. “I don’t really understand why people can’t just express themselves anymore, everybody has to get mad.”
Santos was later released from ICE custody. She has been ordered to appear before an immigration judge for removal proceedings.
Heavy has two short videos of the incident.
Retail outlet
Also on February 26, an 81-year old New Jersey man was assaulted at a ShopRite store in Franklin Township because he, too, was wearing a MAGA hat. The New York Post reported:
The victim was confronted by an unknown man over the hat just before 3:30 p.m. Monday in Franklin Township in Somerset County, officials said.
County authorities, who are working with local cops on the investigation, would not release any further details.
The injured man, who is a Franklin Township resident, refused medical treatment.
Pathological behaviour, especially towards an elderly man.
Conclusion
Anyone who thinks these attacks are outliers should read the tweet below listing the incidents that occurred between June and August 2018:
https://twitter.com/Kgarath2/status/1100506291728982016
The verbal and physical assaults — as well as battery — on Trump supporters are very real, indeed.
The crazed Democrat reaction to Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court is the 2018 mid-term October Surprise.
It’s galvanised the GOP — Republican — base to the extent that, provided all these angry yet decent Americans vote between now and November 6, the Grand Old Party should hold both the House and the Senate, possibly with increased majorities.
The outrage is even spreading in Dem-dominated states, such as New Jersey. George S Bardmesser, a lawyer, wrote about it for The Federalist, ‘The Left’s Treatment Of Kavanaugh Fills Millions Of Americans with Rage’ (emphases mine):
This last Friday night, I spoke to my 81-year-old father. We talked of his health, and then he surprised me. “Can you believe this outrage in the Senate?” he said, his voice trembling with rage. “How can they do this to this man? How?”
We rarely talk politics …
I didn’t think my father followed the goings-on in Washington. My initial response was: “I’d rather not talk about it, or I’ll pop an artery in my brain.” But then I told him: “You live in New Jersey. Guess what? Your senator is up for re-election, and he is a corrupt Democrat. Talk to your friends. Get them to vote for the Republican in November. This time, you have a chance.”
Again, he surprised me. He said he doesn’t need to talk to them, they are already planning to vote Republican. Every single one of them. “Tell them to talk to their friends,” I said. “Tell them to get every one of their friends to vote.” “I will,” he said, “I must.” So there will be a few more people voting against Sen. Bob Menendez five weeks from now.
Bardmesser writes that Kavanaugh’s speech in his own defence turned his nomination around. Let’s recall that Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations comprised a story full of unanswered questions. The Left — including Dems — accepted them as true. Bardmesser and many other Americans know this was not about Kavanaugh but American men in general.
He wrote this on October 2, when leftist accusations were at their peak, but it’s worth remembering what those first few days in October 2018 were like:
The next step in the progressive hate parade is straightforward: Kavanaugh is a serial rapist and killer who buries his victims in his back yard. (Pardon me, an alleged serial rapist and killer—he hasn’t been convicted yet, which is a minor inconvenience for the left, but only a minor one.) But worry not. Stormy Daniels and her reptiloid lawyer are on the case.
I shake with fury when I think about how Democrats are using Ford, a woman with memory and documented psychological issues, in a calculated vicious campaign of obstruction, character assassination, and destruction of one of our finest judges. If they can do this to him, they can do it to anyone. And we all know they will do it to anyone. We all know this is the new normal: weaponizing sexual misconduct allegations, however uncorroborated, however improbable, however lurid or bizarre, against Republican nominees. Everyone is vulnerable. Everyone.
Righteous anger at Democrats about Kavanaugh lanced a figurative boil, reminding Americans of everything else that infuriates them:
I shake with fury when I think of how this farcical confirmation process is symptomatic of what Democrats are doing to our country, from workplaces to universities, from old media to new media, from schools to kindergardens. Everyone is now vulnerable to the wildest accusations of sexual impropriety, with no proof needed, since the charges are inherently unprovable, and one must always believe the victim.
They will take that righteous anger to the ballot box, Dems.
That same day — October 2, when Dems were sure Kavanaugh would cave — Quinnipiac published a poll saying that Republicans were closing their deficit of voting enthusiasm, from 14 to 7 percentage points. Hot Air reported:
Quinnipiac has produced some of the largest gaps in the aggregated polling on the generic congressional ballot this cycle. Their previous poll, taken at the beginning of September, showed Republicans trailing by a disastrous 14 points with two months to go before the midterms.
Today, it’s seven points — among registered voters …
Also worth noting: this is the lowest level polled for Democrats in the Quinnipiac series since at least the first week of July, after which they have remained at 50% or above until now. It also ties the highest level achieved by Republicans in the series from mid-August …
Does this represent a Kavanaugh effect? The polling for this took place between Thursday and Sunday, meaning that three of the four days came after the televised hearings in which Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford testified, a hearing obsessively covered by the national news media. One might have expected Democrats to get a bump coming out of that hearing, especially given the tenor of the coverage it received. Instead, the momentum shifted in the other direction even among the wider population. It’s tough to directly correlate that to Kavanaugh, since Quinnipiac didn’t bother to ask any questions on the issue, but it’s tough to assume that it had no impact either.
Another state where the Dem lead is in trouble is North Dakota, home to Senator Heidi Heitkamp, whose re-election bid could be in trouble. On October 1, KFYR TV reported:
We start out with the latest numbers for the race for Senate. According to SRA, it surveyed 650 likely voters last month. And, Republican challenger Rep. Kevin Cramer leads incumbent Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp by 10 percentage points; 51 percent to 41 percent. Eight percent have yet to make up their mind …
Obviously a hot topic lately is the pending confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Sixty percent of voters in North Dakota support Kavanaugh with 27 percent expressing opposition. The poll was conducted during the recent disclosure that Kavanaugh may have engaged in sexual misconduct while in high school and college, but before the Sept. 27 testimony by Kavanaugh and one of his accusers before the Senate Judiciary Committtee.
And in national issues, the SRA poll say[s] an overwhelmingly that 21 percent of North Dakota voters have Kavanaugh as their biggest concern.
True, particularly among North Dakotan women:
https://twitter.com/Bre_payton/status/1047213470570225665
Heitkamp voted against Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court on Saturday, October 6, so it will be most interesting to see how that plays out in November.
Her opponent, Rep. Kevin Cramer:
called Ford’s accusations “absurd” and criticized Democrats for orchestrating a campaign against the nominee.
“At some point Brett Kavanaugh deserves due process,” Cramer said in a radio interview. “You can’t just stage these allegations to delay the Supreme Court.”
On October 3, the New York Post reported that the Kavanaugh nomination process had galvanised Republican voters. Again, this was written before the confirmation vote took place:
Whatever the outcome of the immediate contest, it’s increasingly clear that Democrats and the media establishment made an enormous miscalculation by waging total war against Kavanaugh and his family …
Whatever disputes we have on our own side, the thinking on the right now goes, we have to set them aside and stop a politics of personal destruction, fueled by a moral panic and an uncritical mainstream media that sees itself as an adjunct of the anti-Trump resistance.
These forces have combined to turn Kavanaugh into a folk hero, a stand-in for every American who has found himself falsely accused, or railroaded by malicious hearsay, or facing an unfeeling bureaucracy that treats juvenile missteps as unforgivable sins …
The result of all this: Republicans are now more fired up about the November midterm elections than Democrats. NPR reported Wednesday: “In July, there was a 10-point gap between the number of Democrats and Republicans saying the November elections were ‘very important.’ Now, that is down to 2 points, a statistical tie.”
This is particularly true for Republican women:
Crazed Democrat reactions to Kavanaugh have also had a big effect in Nevada — and across the country. Breitbart reports that support for Nevada’s Republican candidates has improved noticeably over the past few weeks.
Nationally:
A recent NBC News survey found that Republicans across the nation have matched Democrat interest in the midterm election.
Former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus recently contended that the Kavanaugh effect will give Republicans an extra boost in the midterm elections.
“Something incredible has happened over the last couple of weeks, and it’s called the Kavanaugh effect on Republican voters,” said Priebus.
“Before Kavanaugh, Democrats were at a ten [in enthusiasm] to defeat Trump. Republicans were at like a six. They were happy with the economy,” Priebus added. “They were happy with the wins that we had. But they weren’t at the level they needed to be. Well, now they are at a ten. So the effect is the Democrats didn’t go above ten. They are at ten. And now, the Republicans are at a ten. And so you get the juice that you need to run the machinery.”
On Friday, October 5, I heard a substantial part of the lengthy speech that Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) made regarding Kavanaugh. With its many historic references, it was her way of saying she was voting ‘Yes’ for his appointment to the Supreme Court.
Regardless of what Kavanaugh’s opponents said about her …
… Collins’s speech played well with sensible women voters who did not believe Christine Blasey Ford’s nebulous accusations:
https://twitter.com/Bre_payton/status/1048296975739899904
Radical Dem water carriers are doing their side no favours by harassing Collins, especially privately. On Monday, October 15, a suspicious envelope arrived at her home. Her husband was there at the time. CBS News in Boston has the story:
It was unclear who sent the letter and why. But critics have hurled threats at Collins recently over her vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
Outside the house, a Bangor Daily News photographer captured an image of a person in a hazmat suit holding an envelope in a plastic bag. Later, the FBI arrived, along with vans carrying people in military uniforms, the newspaper reported.
Law enforcement officials were analyzing the contents of the letter. An FBI spokeswoman said Monday evening that preliminary tests on the envelope indicated there was no threat to the public.
Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, who voted against Kavanaugh, came to his fellow senator’s defense.
“Regardless of any political differences, @SenatorCollins, her family, and her staff should not have to be subjected to these threats — there’s just no place for it in our discourse,” he tweeted.
Absolutely agree.
Here is more Kavanaugh polling …
… and more polling (‘Harvad’ should be ‘Harvard’):
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) thought the anti-Kavanaugh craziness resembled a Salem witch trial:
Crazed leftists were consumed with KDS (Kavanaugh Derangement Syndrome) and TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome). This tweet is too filthy to display.
Here’s one I can show:
The design lead at Google had to delete one of his tweets, although he kept an anti-Evangelical one and an anti-conservative one up for display. As for the one he deleted:
https://twitter.com/DaveHogue/status/1048989153130475520
In the end, it was all good. Thanks, Dems!
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) thanked the Dems for energising the Republicans:
https://twitter.com/AaronBlake/status/1048629984275955712
We can only hope that everyone fired up over Kavanaugh is ready to go out and VOTE REPUBLICAN between now and November 6.
Remember …
Please help President Trump Make America — and the world — Great Again!
On Monday, September 19, the main suspect in the New York and New Jersey bombings at the weekend was finally arrested.
Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, of Elizabeth, NJ, was found asleep in the neighbouring town of Linden. He was slumped in the doorway of a tavern there.
The owner was at another establishment across the street. He thought Rahami was a drunk until he recognised him. He rang the police.
When police awakened Rahami, the suspect opened fire, wounding one policeman in the chest. The other officers pursued him on foot. Rahami shot at a police car. The bullet ricocheted and grazed another officer’s face. The chase ended when police shot him several times and took him to hospital.
Rahami was not particularly forthcoming when questioned after surgery.
The investigation is ongoing and, as I write, it is unclear whether there is a terrorist cell in greater New York and whether Rahami had help. CNN has full details of what happened at the weekend.
There have been extremist Islamic terror cells in the United States for many years. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that they exist. The map below, courtesy of Free Thought Nation, shows terror activity and compounds dating back to the 1980s:
CNN reported that Rahami’s family accused the city and police of Elizabeth, NJ, of discriminating against their First American Fried Chicken restaurant because they had to close at 10 p.m. while other establishments in the neighbourhood could stay open later. However (emphases mine):
In 2011, the city council voted to close the restaurant at 10 p.m. because of “all the people hanging out there” around the clock, Elizabeth Mayor J. Christian Bollwage said Monday.
Owner Mohammad Rahami and his two sons filed a lawsuit claiming the city conspired to “discriminate” and “illegally harass” them by subjecting them to citations for allegedly violating a city ordinance on hours of operation.
The case alleged the Rahamis were “threatened and harassed” by a police officer. It argues that officers and city representatives said “the restaurant presented a danger to the community.”
It also accused a neighboring business owner of telling the Rahamis that “Muslims make too much trouble in this country” and “don’t belong here.”
The defendants, including police officers and city officials, denied the allegations.
Federal court records show the case ended in a “statistical closing.” Bollwage said Monday the 2012 ruling on the case favored the city, adding that the family’s restaurant was “disruptive in the city for many, many years.”
Rahami’s sister put up a post on Facebook asking for privacy at this time.
The Daily Beast reports that Rahami and members of his family have freely travelled to and from Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Investigators are now trying to piece together his activities abroad.
Rahami’s father last travelled to Pakistan in July 2011 and stayed until September that year. Rahami had to appear for a court case — possibly the one connected with his restaurant — and, while he was present, his lawyer:
informed the judge that while the father had returned, his “family is in Afghanistan” but was expected to return within days.
Rahami’s brother is currently in Pakistan.
Rahami has a wife in that country:
U.S. Rep. Albio Sires told the Bergen Record that Rahami contacted his office via email in 2014 seeking an immigrant visa for his wife in Pakistan who was 35 weeks pregnant and whose Pakistani passport had expired.
The Rahami family arrived in the United States in 1995 as asylum seekers from Afghanistan:
There has been some confusion over when Rahami or his family were officially granted legal residency in the country, but it may have taken some time for their application to be processed and approved.
In 2013, one of the suspect’s brothers, Mohammad K. Rahami, posted a Facebook message in 2013, accompanied by a photo. It read:
I bring the men who desire death as ardently as you desire life.
In another Facebook entry in April that year:
Mohammad posted a photo of himself with a man identified as Ahmad in a comment. The two men are sitting outside, grilling kebabs.
Currently:
Authorities have not named either brother as suspects or persons of interest.
Ahmad Khan Rahami is known to the police, with:
a series of escalating run-ins with the law beginning in 2008, when he spent a day in jail for unpaid parking tickets, and another in 2012 after he allegedly violated a restraining order, The New York Times reports. In 2014, Rahami spent three days in jail on weapons and aggravated assault charges, after allegedly stabbing a person in the leg, The New York Times reports. A grand jury dropped Rahami’s charges for the fight, which allegedly began as a domestic dispute.
Before Rahami was arrested in Linden, authorities raided his family’s home in Elizabeth at 3 a.m.:
according to time-stamped cellphone footage reviewed by The Daily Beast. The video, taken by a neighbor across the street, shows heavily armed officers at the family’s Elizabeth home waiting for family members to come out, one by one. Two of Rahami’s brothers came out first, followed by a woman and a young child. The father came out last, the neighbor said.
At the same time:
A Perth Amboy address linked to Ahmad Rahami and brother Mohammad Khan Rahami was subject to loud banging at 3 a.m., a neighbor told The Daily Beast. Police later confirmed they had investigated a Perth Amboy address. Maintenance workers were changing locks on the front door late Monday morning.
The explosive devices:
track closely to what was suggested in al Qaeda’s Inspire magazine in an article titled, “Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom.” The guide was written by Samir Khan, a U.S. citizen born in Saudi Arabia who fled to Yemen to join Anwar al-Awlaki, an American cleric turned al Qaeda propagandist.
Khan advised aspiring bomb-makers to make pipe bombs and link them together for greater effect, just as Rahami is alleged to have done at two sites in New Jersey. Khan advised building larger bombs using pressure cookers.
Similar devices were used in the Boston and San Bernardino attacks.
The First American Fried Chicken restaurant in Elmore Avenue became a magnet on Monday for patrons and friends of the Rahami family:
Patrons and public records say the family appears to have five sons and three daughters. Two of the children are minors. The status of their mother is unknown, the customers said.
A 60-year-old musician named Jacob said that he has known Rahami — the father — for 14 years:
“When I met them [the Rahami siblings], they were kids. But lately they’ve been holding down the store,” Jacob told The Daily Beast, as he watched police work the scene. “They seemed like normal people.”
The longtime neighbor called Ahmad Rahami’s father, Mohammad, a “pretty decent, guy” and “real quiet and laid back.”
The dad talked of visiting Afghanistan on vacations and would hook Jacob up with turkey sandwiches and gyros, he said.
“He was cool. I’m just sorry that this happened to him,” he said.
Saul Asian, a 21-year-old classmate of one of Rahimi’s brothers:
described the Rahimi chicken spot as a hangout for middle-schoolers of the nearby Abraham Lincoln School. He used to see Ahmad work as a cashier.
“I didn’t want to believe it… until I saw it on the news,” Asian said of Ahmad’s arrest.
But not everyone was so positive.
Fox News reports that a young woman named Maria fell in love with Ahmad when they were both in high school. She has a little girl. He is the father. She says that he:
didn’t pay child support and often railed against American culture. The 26-year-old, who spoke after her grandmother called her for a reporter who produced his press credential and identified himself at the grandmother’s home in Elizabeth, said she had not seen Rahami in two years.
“He would speak often of Western culture and how it was different back home,” she said. “How there weren’t homosexuals in Afghanistan.
“He seemed standoffish to American culture, but I never thought he would cross the line,” she added.
The boy who was once a ‘class clown’ at Edison High School grew into a man who:
demonstrated his hatred for the U.S. military.
“One time, he was watching TV with my daughter and a woman in a [military] uniform came on and he told [their daughter], ‘That’s the bad person,'” she said.
Maria also told Fox that:
Rahami would often go back to Afghanistan to see family, and would stay for weeks, or even months. Right before their daughter was born, Rahami was in Afghanistan and had trouble returning because authorities in Afghanistan confiscated his passport for unknown reasons, Maria said. The last time Maria knows that Rahami visited his homeland was nine years ago. He brought back a wife and another child, she said.
She ended the interview by expressing why her former love made her afraid and why she cut off his visits:
My greatest fear is that he would try to take my daughter.
But, readers, as we all know, none of us must dare to call this man a terrorist.
Churchmouse Campanologist 