Parental Consent Laws for Underage Girls Seeking Abortion Help Fight Against Human Trafficking

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It is welcome news that Florida is now set to become the sixth state to require both parental consent and notice before minor girls can get an abortion. A bill mandating this has passed both houses of the state Legislature, and Gov. Ron DeSantis has promised to sign it.

Ensuring that a child’s parents are involved before any medical or surgical procedure is performed on a minor patient makes sense in any state.

In Florida, though, it makes extra sense. Florida is home to a huge immigrant population, many of them undocumented and vulnerable, and special care should be taken to protect these vulnerable girls.

Surprisingly, abortion is often excluded under existing commonsense parental consent laws, even though it is an invasive surgical procedure with significant potential for harmful complications.

In these trying times, we must turn to the greatest document in the history of the world to promise freedom and opportunity to its citizens for guidance. Find out more now >>

In Florida, for instance, it is illegal to tattoo a child under 16, and parental consent is required for minors between 16 and 18. Anyone with a child in school knows how delicately and diffidently school administrators handle any medical intervention, even the administration of Tylenol for cramps.

Surgeons would lose their licenses if they performed a tonsillectomy on a child without informing the parents or guardians or seeking their consent.

In fact, from an ethical standpoint, children are deemed unable to consent to medical treatment since they may be unable to grasp complicated medical facts because of their age and inexperience.

Yet, the abortion lobby insists that minor girls should be allowed to access abortion without any parental oversight because such oversight could be a “threat to young women’s safety.”

But protecting girls from abusive or neglectful parents can be done with judicial waivers (included in the Florida bill) and without stripping good parents of their ability to protect their daughters from abusive boyfriends or older men who may be raping them and then coercing them to abort.

Sexual predators are happy when their victim has an abortion without the knowledge or involvement of her mother and father. It lets them keep abusing the child undetected.

Taking parents out of the picture doesn’t just leave girls to the mercy of bad men, it takes away parental counsel, guidance, and support. Parents who don’t know their child has had an abortion are unable to ensure their daughter will receive adequate follow-up care. In the absence of proper treatment, a minor complication can quickly become life-threatening.

All of these good reasons for requiring parental consent are even more important in Florida.

In my hometown of Miami, more than 50% of the population is immigrant. Many are undocumented. Far too many are vulnerable people whose lack of English and, sometimes, work papers consigns them to dangerous neighborhoods where their children live in close proximity to gang activity, prostitution, and human trafficking rings.

Sadly, after labor trafficking, “domestic minor sex trafficking,” constitutes “the … most prevalent and under-reported and under-prosecuted human trafficking offense in Florida,” according to a Florida State University study.

Given the prevalence of sexual abuse of girls here, it is simply unconscionable that Florida parents would not be informed if their minor daughter is pregnant and seeking an abortion.

Existing law requires abortion facilities and providers to alert the authorities if they suspect a young girl seeking an abortion is being abused by an older man or being trafficked as a prostitute, but abortion providers are in the business—the big business—of performing abortions and certainly cannot be counted on to report this.

One undercover sting video of a New Jersey Planned Parenthood showed a clinic manager telling a man posing as a pimp that when he brings his 14- or 15-year-old “girls” in for abortions they should lie or play stupid about their age. She is seen coaching the “pimp” on how to manage his underage prostitutes, some of whom, he says, do not speak English.

A girl’s natural protectors and defenders are her mother and father. A law that puts Florida parents back in that crucial role will be an important bulwark against the abuse of minor girls. It also will help ensure young women undergoing the tragedy of an abortion will receive the appropriate medical care should something go wrong.

The only losers when this commonsense, reality-based requirement becomes state law will be the sexual predators and greedy abortion providers who put profits over people.

COLUMN BY

Grazie Pozo Christie

Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie is a policy advisor for The Catholic Association. Twitter: @GChristiemd.

A Note for our Readers:

This is a critical year in the history of our country. With the country polarized and divided on a number of issues and with roughly half of the country clamoring for increased government control—over health care, socialism, increased regulations, and open borders—we must turn to America’s founding for the answers on how best to proceed into the future.

The Heritage Foundation has compiled input from more than 100 constitutional scholars and legal experts into the country’s most thorough and compelling review of the freedoms promised to us within the United States Constitution into a free digital guide called Heritage’s Guide to the Constitution.

They’re making this guide available to all readers of The Daily Signal for free today!

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

STATEMENT – McDonald’s Must Warn Employees About Porn Industry Recruitment Efforts

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Washington, DC (April 28, 2020) – The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) has requested that McDonald’s warn its employees about a pornography website that is targeting them for recruitment during COVID-19. Porn website IsMyGirl reportedly sent a press release to 500,000 McDonald’s workers to entice them into creating pornographic content.

In a letter to McDonald’s Corporation CEO Chris Kempczinski, National Center on Sexual Exploitation President & CEO Patrick Trueman asked that McDonald’s send company-wide messages to warn employees about pornography website IsMyGirl’s offer and to educate about the harms that getting involved would entail.

“In light of legal actions McDonald’s employees have recently taken towards corporate regarding sexual harassment, it is even more important and timely for you to respond to this targeting of your employees,” Trueman wrote.

“We do not believe this is a ‘legitimate option’ for anyone, especially those who are already particularly affected or suffering during these trying times. It is vital to recognize that pornography itself is a form of sexual exploitation, where ‘performers’ endure physical and mental trauma due to sexual harassment, grooming, abuse, and more.

“We are particularly concerned for your employees living in households where domestic abuse and manipulation may lead to pressurized environments forcing them to partake in this industry to gain promised financial stability.

“It is vital to recognize that it is impossible for the pornography industry to judge from the content of a video or image whether force, fraud, psychological coercion, social manipulation, etc., were used to instigate it. This is especially true considering many sex traffickers and abusers will groom victims to claim that they are operating of their own free will.

“In response to the targeting of your employees, we believe it is your social responsibility to make them aware of the exploitation and harms of the pornography industry. This action will also advance your reputation by refusing to aid in further trauma and effects of the trade, including sexual harassment and harms that your workers may face.

“We call on your company to live up to your corporate ethical commitment to ensure the health and safety of your people and provide a workplace free of harassment and its effects,” Trueman concluded.

EDITORS NOTE: This press release by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

VIDEO: Judicial Watch Exposes Deep State Leaks to Washington Post

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Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, a distinguished public servant, was briefly national security advisor to President Trump until allegations surfaced in the Washington Post that he had been in communication with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak.

Flynn’s lawyers alleged in a November 1, 2019, court filing that James Baker, the Pentagon’s Director of the Office of Net Assessment, “is believed to be the person who illegally leaked” the transcript of Flynn’s December 29, 2016, telephone calls with the ambassador to David Ignatius, a Washington Post reporter.

We went to court to uncover the details, and we now have received 143 pages of records from the Department of Defense that reveal extensive communications between Baker and Ignatius.

The Washington Post published Ignatius’ account of the calls on January 12, 2017, setting in motion a chain of events that led to Flynn’s February 13, 2017, firing as national security advisor, and subsequent prosecution for making false statements to the FBI about the calls. U.S. Attorney John Durham is reportedly investigating the leak of information targeting Flynn.

Citing “the government’s bad faith, vindictiveness and breach of the plea agreement,” Flynn’s attorney, Sidney Powell, moved in January 2020 to withdraw Flynn’s 2017 guilty plea during the Mueller investigation. Flynn claims he felt forced to plead guilty “when his son was threatened with prosecution and he exhausted his financial resources.” Last week, prosecutors provided Flynn’s defense team with documentation of this threat, according to additional papers Flynn’s lawyers filed on April 24, 2020, in support of the motion to withdraw.

We obtained the records in our November 2019 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed after the DOD failed to respond to a September 2019 request (Judicial Watch v. Department of Defense (No. 1:19-cv-03564)). We were seeking:

  • All calendar entries of Director James Baker of the Office of Net Assessment.
  • All records of communications between ONA Director James Baker and reporter David Ignatius.

The communications we requested occurred May 2015 through September 25, 2019.

The records we have received include an exchange on February 16, 2016, with the subject line “Ignatius,” in which Baker tells Pentagon colleague Zachary Mears, then-deputy chief of staff to Obama Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, that he has “a long history with David” and talks with him regularly.

In an email exchange on October 1, 2018, in a discussion about artificial intelligence, Baker tells Ignatius: “David, please, as always, our discussions are completely off the record. If any of my observations strike you as worthy of mixing or folding into your own thinking, that is as usual fine.” Ignatius replies, “Understood. Thanks for talking with me.”

Here are Ignatius and Baker’s email exchanges by year:

  • In 2015, Ignatius and Baker had a total of seven email conversations to set up meetings or calls, two simply to compliment one another and one exchange where Ignatius invited Baker to speak at the Aspen Strategy Group conference.
  • In 2016, Ignatius and Baker had a total of 10 email exchanges to set up meetings or calls and two to compliment each other.
  • In 2017, Ignatius and Baker had a total of 10 email exchanges to set up meetings, one exchange where Ignatius forwarded one of his articles, and one exchange where Ignatius asks Baker for his thoughts on the JCPOA (the Iran nuclear deal), because Baker wasn’t available on the phone.
  • In 2018, Ignatius and Baker had a total of nine email exchanges to set up meetings, four where Ignatius forwarded articles and one where Ignatius asks Baker for tips on what to say at a quantum computing conference where he was speaking.

These records confirm that Mr. Baker was an anonymous source for Mr. Ignatius. Mr. Baker should be directly questioned about any and all leaks to his friend at the Washington Post.

In a related case, in October 2018 we filed a FOIA lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense seeking information about the September 2016 contract between the DOD and Stefan Halper, the Cambridge University professor identified as a secret FBI informant used by the Obama administration to spy on Trump’s presidential campaign. Halper also reportedly had high-level ties to both U.S. and British intelligence.

Government records show that the DOD’s Office of Net Assessment (ONA) paid Halper a total of $1,058,161 for four contracts that lasted from May 30, 2012, to March 29, 2018. More than $400,000 of the payments came between July 2016 and September 2017, after Halper reportedly offered Trump campaign volunteer George Papadopoulos work and a trip to London to entice him into disclosing information about alleged collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign.

Flynn’s attorney told the court that Baker was Halper’s “handler” in the Office of Net Assessment in the Pentagon.

In an interview with Lou Dobbs, I discussed the possibility that Judge Emmet Sullivan would look at all of this and throw the Flynn case out or that Attorney General William Barr would cancel the prosecution. “Flynn was ambushed,” I say in the interview. “He is the victim of a coordinated leak campaign.”

I know that President Trump is taking a good hard look at this. While the FBI is under renewed scrutiny over its disgraceful handling of the Flynn matter, it’s clear we need to look closely at the Defense Department as well.

EDITORS NOTE: This Judicial Watch video and column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Members of Congress and Their Highly Selective Indignation

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Stephen Flatow notes that a letter signed several weeks ago by 60 members of Congress shocks the conscience, or should. Here is his story :

Did you hear the shocking news? Sixty Congress members just signed a letter demanding that the Federal government stop the dismantling of any illegally built homes that have been built by Arabs. But they did not object to Israel’s continuing policy of dismantling illegally built Jewish homes.

The letter demanded that the American government not allow American-made equipment it supplied to Israel to be used in what they called “the ongoing home demolitions” of Arab homes. There was no mention in the letter of the Israeli government’s dismantling of Jewish homes and settlements it deemed “illegal.” Nor was there any mention of the demolition of houses belonging to the families of terrorists as an effective way to discourage would-be terrorists.

Who would have thought that in this day and age, members of Congress would stoop so low as to make policy recommendations based on the idea that one specific ethnic group should be targeted?

We were supposed to have given up the old practice of making policies based on the color of people’s skin, rather than the content of their character. Images of George Wallace standing in that schoolhouse door were supposed to be just a bad memory. Yet here we are, in 2020, with 60 Democrats signing a letter that echoes the attitudes of those dark times.

J Street played a major role in organizing the Congressional letter. In a December 10 press release, the group announced that “J Street supporters across the country are contacting the offices of their members of Congress and urging them to sign on to this important and timely letter.”

The letter was sent to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on March 16, bearing the signatures of 60 members of Congress, all Democrats. They urged the US government to prevent Israel from using American-made equipment in “the ongoing home demolitions and forcible transfer of Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.”

The letter’s reference to “Palestinian civilians” indicates that J Street misled the members of Congress. Evidently, the J Streeters did not explain to potential signatories that house demolitions in Israel are not based on the race, religion, or ethnicity of the homeowners.

Israeli courts authorize dismantling illegally built homes on the basis of whether the homes were built illegally. The Israeli government does not have a policy of demolishing Palestinian homes. If it did, it would be doing quite a poor job of it, since 99.9% of Palestinian homes are still standing!

Both Jews and Arabs in the West Bank have illegally built homes. Some are on “state and waste” lands that are owned by the Israeli government, and from which permission for such building had not been obtained. In some cases Jewish settlers have wrongly claimed – as was the case with the settlement at Amona — to have bought the land they built on from Palestinians, claims that did not stand up in court. Individual houses, owned by Arabs and Jews – though mostly by the former – have been pulled down when the builders violated building codes so egregiously that only demolishment would discourage them, and warn others, from continuing to flout the law.

Clearly, J Street never informed these members of Congress that the Israeli government has been demolishing illegally built Jewish homes too.

On October 24, Israeli bulldozers destroyed two housing structures in the unauthorized Jewish community of Shevah Ha’aretz, near the town of Yitzhar. On November 26, the government sent tractors to level a Jewish housing structure near the community of Bat Ayin and to plow over an adjacent olive grove that had been planted by Israeli Jews and their Christian Zionist supporters. On January 15, the bulldozers were active in Yitzhar, destroying two more Jewish homes that were built illegally.

Had you heard or read about this Israeli destruction at Shevah Ha’aretz, near Bet Ayin, and at Yitzhar of Jewish houses that had been built illegally? No, of course not. It’s not something the Times or the Post or the BBC or any other part of the mainstream media would want brought to your attention. And while we hear constantly about the destruction of “Palestinian” olive trees by mad-dog Jewish settlers, have you ever heard of Israeli tractors plowing over an olive grove planted by Jews that the government considered “illegal”? No, you never have, until just now.

So why didn’t the Congressional letter ask Secretary Pompeo to make sure that no American-made bulldozers were used to smash those Jewish homes?

There are two possible answers.

One would be that those members of Congress are a bunch of racists who care only about the demolition of homes owned by one ethnic group and don’t care about the ones owned by another ethnic group.

But I don’t believe that. I believe that the signatories, except for a few die-hard Israel-haters such as Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, are simply unaware of the reality on the ground in Judea and Samaria. They are unaware because J Street misled them. J Street led them to think that the Israeli government has a racist policy of targeting Arab houses.Comment:

The Israeli government demolishes with equal firmness both Arab and Jewish houses that have been built illegally, or that for security reasons needs to be demolished. Some Arab homes have been built on state or waste land the Palestinians did not own. In other cases, demolitions may be carried out to enforce building codes and regulations that have been repeatedly flouted. The IDF also carries out house demolitions as a counter-insurgency measure to impede or halt militant operations. An Arab house may have been strategically built just above an Israeli settlement, from where those in the house could do the most damage to Jewish civilians living below. That could be grounds for its demolition.

House demolitions are also carried out to discourage terrorism. The demolition of houses belonging to the families of convicted terrorists is used both to punish terrorists and to deter future would-be terrorists, who might not want their families to suffer. As a policy, it seems to have worked, in significantly decreasing Palestinian terrorist attacks.

If J Street had fully informed these 60 Congresspeople about the situation, then the entire premise of the anti-Israel letter would have collapsed.

Racism has no place on Capitol Hill. There should be no discrimination between houses owned by Arabs or Jews, whites or blacks, or any other racial or ethnic groups.

J Street, the so-called “pro-Israel, pro-peace” lobby, should be ashamed of itself.

In 2005, the Israeli government demolished many houses of Israeli settlers who were transferred in accordance with the Israeli disengagement from Gaza. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said this was done by request of the Palestinian Authorities.

In addition to removing all traces of the Israeli settlements in Gaza, as demanded by the Palestinians, who might have used for their own purposes both the residential housing and the greenhouses left intact by Israelis, were they not so consumed with hate, Israel has routinely demolished “illegal” buildings put up by settlers in the West Bank — that is, “illegal” because their builders had failed to obtain permission from the Israeli state. Sometimes entire outposts have been demolished, if the Israeli government determines they were built “illegally.” Yet very little attention is given to these Israeli actions in the world media, for it would not do to deflect attention from what so many see as the only outrage, that committed by those oppressive Israelis, in destroying structures put up by the inoffensive Palestinians.

When Israel tears down “illegal” buildings or settlements put up by Jews, it does so either because the land on which the settlement was built turns out, according to scrupulous investigation by the Israeli officials, to be owned by Palestinians, or it is state land on which the Israeli government had refused to give permission for Jews to build. It may, for security reasons, want to prevent new Israeli settlements to be built too perilously close to Arab villages – given the enormous effort that might be necessary to defend their inhabitants in case of hostilities. Some settlements or outposts may actually weaken the state if they are likely to prove hellishly difficult to defend.

The government of Israel has not hesitated to remove settlers, and demolish their settlements if, after judicial decisions and appeals that go all the way up to the Supreme Court, they are given the go-ahead. Israeli decisions to demolish Arab structures are also subject to the same judgements and appeals.

In February 2017, Israeli forces began an operation to evacuate settlers from the West Bank outpost of Amona after the Supreme Court stated that it must be demolished by 8 February. According to the Supreme Court the outpost had been built on private Palestinian land settlers claimed they had bought; the land had been declared a “closed military area” by the government.

At Amona, it took thousands of Border Police to subdue a crowd of 10,000, who had come from all over Israel to protest the decision. But the sight of Israeli police violently subduing fellow Jews who were protesting the demolishment of Jewish homes did not make it to Western media; it didn’t fit the story that the media likes to present of ruthless Israelis demolishing, for no conceivable reason, Arab houses.

Perhaps some of those 60 Democratic Congressmen will take the time to find out more about the reasons for Israel’s demolishment of Jewish settlers’ houses, demolishments about which they appear not to have heard, which might provide them with a more nuanced view of the matter. And then they should have the decency to listen to the Israeli government’s explanation of the reasons for its demolition of a handful of Arab homes – an infinitesimal number, though you wouldn’t think so from the mainstream media reports — including gross violations of building codes, and erecting structures — without permission — on state and waste lands. Finally, the Congressmen should understand that demolishing the family homes of terrorists in order both to punish them and to discourage other would-be terrorists, does, in fact, work. It took the Israelis quite a while to fully comprehend, but now they do. They know that given their merciless and relentless enemy, there is no point in gentle persuasion or observing Marquess of Queensberry rules. This is the Middle East.

COLUMN BY

HUGH FITZGERALD

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Minneapolis’ Islamic Call to Prayer Ushered in by Communist-Jihadi Cabal in Minnesota

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Jacob Frey, working directly with Hamas doing business as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Dar al Hijrah Islamic Center, approved the Muslim call to prayer over loudspeakers in Minneapolis for the first time in history

Minneapolis becomes only the third city in America to allow the call to prayer like this. The others are Dearborn, Michigan and Paterson, New Jersey.

You can see a brief video of this call to prayer here.

The approval of the call to prayer by Mayor Frey may be the last nail in Minnesota’s coffin, and represents, to the Muslim community, total submission by leaders of Minnesota to Islam.

This great achievement by the enemies of liberty – communists and jihadis – did not happen overnight. Minnesota has a long history of communists in leadership positions willing to pave the way for other “like-minded” revolutionaries, like the jihadis, overrunning Minneapolis-St Paul.

Arvo Kustaa Halberg, also known as Gus Hall, was recruited by his father into Communist Party USA as a teenager and moved to Minneapolis after his studies in the Soviet Union. He spent two stints in federal prison for his activities as a communist. He went on to be the leader of Communist Party USA for over 40 years, until his death in 2000. Hall ran for President in the 1972.1976, 1980, and 1984 U.S. elections.

Hall’s students are still plentiful in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Former Saint Paul Mayor Jim Scheibel (1990-1994) was an Alinsky “community organizater” and a member of the largest Marxist group in the United States – the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

Saul Alinsky was the author of the Marxist revolutionaries’ operational handbook, Rules for Radicals, which details how to overthrow the government, and the book is dedicated to Satan. In it, the ground level operator is called a “community organizer.”

Mark Ritchie, Minnesota’s Secretary of State from 2006 to 2014, was identified in a 2008 Huffington Post article written by DSA Member Peter Dreier as one of dozens of elected officials in the United States who started out as “community organizers.” In 1999, Ritchie attended a Communist Party event, at which he was introduced as a “friend” of the Communist party.

Also present at that 1999 Communist Party meeting was Mark Froemke, the man Trevor Loudon has dubbed “The Most Influential Communist in Minnesota.”

Froemke is the President of the Western Area Labor Council (AFL-CIO), which represents union members in 11 North Dakota counties and 7 Minnesota counties. Froemke is also a member of Communist Party USA.

These people, and many like them on city councils and in positions of influence around the Minneapolis-St Paul area, are the advocates for jihadis and the ones encouraging more to enter Minnesota via the “refugee resettlement program.”

On October 24, 2016, after Understanding the Threat (UTT) spent a week traveling across Minnesota speaking to citizens and leaders, we published an article entitled “In This War Minnesota’s Twin Cities Are Lost.” The article detailed the penetration of Minnesota by several subversive Islamic organizations including the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and others, and the Marxist/communist ties of Minnesota’s leaders.

In the 3 1/2 years since that article, things have only become more dangerous in Minnesota, especially in the Minneapolis-St Paul area.

Let’s look at the key leaders in Minnesota today and how they are supporting and encouraging jihadis in the state.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz wasted no time bringing terrorists into his camp. After his election in November 2018, his Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan led and set up his transition team, which included the local leader of the designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) Hamas doing business as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Jaylani Hussein.

But even as a candidate, Governor Walz was courting jihadis. In February 2018, he spoke at an event at the South Metro Islamic Center (mosque) sponsored by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Muslim American Society (MAS-MN). Peggy Flanagan also attended this event.

In August of 2018, candidate Walz attended the Eid al Fitr event which was held at the U.S. Bank Stadium. Is Mr. Walz aware Eid al Fitr celebrates Islam’s first military victory over non-Muslims in battle?

On March 28, 2019, Minnesota’s Governor Tim Walz spoke at an “Islamophobia” conference hosted by the designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) Hamas doing business as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)

At this conference, he told the audience he wanted to open three new “human rights offices” in Minnesota. Is Mr. Walz aware that the international Muslim world has legally defined the phrase “human rights” as the imposition of sharia on the world? Is he aware the leadership of every Islamic nation on earth, under the banner of the OIC (Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation), served the “Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam” to the United Nations in 1993, which clearly states that Islam views “human rights” only through the lens of sharia?

As if it were scripted and well timed, in April 2019 Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, himself a sharia-adherent Muslim, began publicly discussing establishing a “Task Force on Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism,” which would include leaders from the Muslim Brotherhood’s Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), Muslim American Society (MAS), Hamas/CAIR, and others.

Ellison is very close friends with the leader of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood and U.S. Hamas Nihad Awad, and works closely with other senior U.S. Muslim Brotherhood leaders.

On April 3, 2019, for the first time in Minnesota history, three “faith” leaders offered prayers prior to the State of the State address by Governor Walz. Who represented the Muslims? Muslim Brotherhood leader Imam Asad Zaman of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota (MAS-MN).

This past December (2019), Governor Walz gave his formal consent to allow Muslims to keep resettling in Minnesota.

The Congresswoman representing Minneapolis, Minnesota is a Somali named Ilhan Omar. UTT has written about her several times, including here and here. The fact that she is a Member of Congress is evidence of how lost Minnesota is.

Hours after President Trump announced he would hold a rally at Target Center in downtown Minneapolis on October 10, 2019, Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo announced that uniformed officers were not allowed to attend.

This followed a tweet from Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey as seen below.

Below is a photo of Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo at his swearing-in ceremony with his son and daughter. The Chief’s son, Medaria Arradondo Jr., has a Sunnah beard and a shaved head. In Islam, a Muslim man shaves his head to draw closer to Allah, and this is often done by male Muslims attending hajj in Mecca Saudi Arabia. The below photo was taken on September 8, 2017, and the hajj that year ended on September 4.

In summary, Minnesota is in a very dangerous situation. Minnesota’s capital has a pro-jihad Attorney General and a pro-jihad Member of Congress. The Governor is working directly with people who are aiding and enabling jihadis.

What happens to truth speakers in this environment?

In January 2020, Catholic Priest Father Nick VanDenBroeke from the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Lonsdale, MN (Rice County) told his flock during his homily the U.S. “should not be allowing large numbers of Muslims asylum or immigration into our country.” He further said that Muslims were the “greatest threat to Christianity and to America” and that “our laws of immigration need to reflect that.”

This priest was accurately assessing the situation based on normative and universally accepted Islamic teachings. Yet Catholic Archbishop Bernard Hebda issued an apologetic statement regarding this event after the designated Foreign Terrorist Organization Hamas doing business as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) publicly complained and called out Church leaders.

U.S. Islamic schools teach Muslim children that the purpose of Islam is to impose “Allah’s divine law”/sharia on all people on earth through all means necessary, including physical violence.

In fact, what Muslims teach their children in Islamic schools across Minnesota is exactly the opposite of what the non-Muslim leaders in Minneapolis are telling the people of Minnesota about Islam.

Now the question for the citizens of Minnesota is “What do I do?”

This is a war, and as UTT assessed in 2016, Minneapolis-St Paul is lost and deeply under the control of the communists and jihadis. It is likely that at some point in time, the U.S. military will have to retake Minnesota if the citizens are unable or unwilling to do it.

An adequate military analogy is that the capital of Minnesota has an enemy Division headquartered there. The citizens can organize and conduct small harassing and disruption operations inside Minneapolis to slow the enemy’s progress. Another option, or a simultaneous action, might be to organize citizens in the patriotic counties away from the state capital until they have the strength to bring real pressure on the communist and jihadi forces.

One thing is clear – Minneapolis is as overrun as any area of America. Federal government entities are not producing any positive net effects in this war in Minnesota.

It is time for Minnesota’s citizens to choose their course of action. Apathy and inaction are not among the list of choices.

Leaders must rise up, assess the situation, make a plan, and execute the plan.

UTT RESOURCES FOR EMPOWERING CITIZENS CAN BE FOUND HERE

COLUMN BY

John Guandolo is a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, served as an Infantry/Reconnaissance officer in the United States Marines and is a combat veteran, served as a Special Agent in the FBI from 1996-2008, and was recruited out of the FBI by the Department of Defense to conduct strategic analysis of the Islamic threat. He is the President and Founder of Understanding the Threat (UTT).

RELATED ARTICLES:

CAIR slams General for “revolting promotion of the anti-Muslim trope that Muslim youth in UK engage in sex crimes”

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Germany bans Hizballah activity and designates it a terror organization, raids mosques

Canada: Mississauga amends noise bylaw to allow Islamic call to prayer

Islam prohibits suicide — or so the world has been told for far too long

Denmark: Authorities carry out “co-ordinated police action” to thwart “terror attack with militant Islamic motive”

EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

Ascent To The Summit

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Two men who meet in the name of peace believe themselves capable of declaring what is right and just for the entire world.

Early February 2019 ushered in a momentous event, the joint signing of a covenant, “The Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together,“ by the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed el-Tayeb, the head of Sunni Islam, and the Roman Pope Francis for a One World Religion.  The historic ceremony was held in front of religious leaders of other faiths as a call for peace between nations, religions, and races, although historically, Islamic peace is never achieved and it is they who continue to wage war.  The declaration of peace, freedom, and women’s rights is indeed a beautiful document as described by Vatican News.  Yet the imam is one man and the Islamic blood lust has maintained its presence in our world for 1400 years as a tribute to its founder, affecting even its own with intimidation and rules of torture, murder, and suicide. Islam is the one religion that has been incompatible with the others and the Pope would do well to question whether Catholicism and the others would be willing to relinquish their own laws to accommodate the one that demands their elimination, in the quest for peace and a one-world religion.

Indonesian Muslim scholars also agreed to boost harmony and spirituality over the violence of the past by encouraging a school curriculum for “teaching Islamic history that contains the compassionate character of the prophet.”  The suggestion is hardly comforting if it is the same prophet who beheaded the 600 to 800 Jewish men of Medina and enslaved the women and children, and whose descendants continue to engage in the same art of decapitation by the sword and bondage into the perpetual future.

Islam is a complete 100% system of life with religion being the camouflage for the legal, political, economic, social, and military components.  The Koran is designed to emotionally and physically control every aspect of human life for the devotee and the kafir (non-Muslim) through mind control via five-times-daily prayers and speech control, as well as through threats and wanton violence. Worldwide, Muslims exercise a disproportionate influence on others and work to get the ruling government of the nation they invade to permit them self-rule, sharia, first within the confines of their limited living quarters but eventually with the immutable goal of establishing Islamic law throughout the land.   They are commanded never to assimilate in their host culture and to destroy crosses and overtake churches.  Thus are the indigenous people victimized and engulfed.   It is safe to say that Muslims, through Hijrah, are making headway in virtually all the countries of the world, although recognizably not at the same pace or using the same technique.  Muslims are a factor in 95% of the world’s wars and gaining ground so that a totalitarian regime’s signature to such a virtually submissive pact is suspect.

Islam sees itself as superior to all other peoples and takes offense at signs of progress accomplished by cultures that preceded it.  To that end, its goals are to destroy those cultures’ histories and replace them with their own – to present themselves as the original and best of humanity when all others are gone.  Allah’s Messenger said: “By Him (Allah) in Whose Hand my soul is, surely the son of Mary [Isa (Jesus)] will shortly descend amongst you people (Muslims), and will judge mankind justly by the Law of the Quran (as a just ruler) and will break the Cross and kill pigs and abolish the Jizyah [a tax] ….” (Bukhari 3:2222)

Christians who do not accept Muhammad and the Qur’an are considered the vilest of created beings:

“Nor did those who were given the Scripture become divided until after there had come to them clear evidence. And they were not commanded except to worship Allah, sincere to Him in religion, inclining to truth, and to establish prayer and to give zakah (alms). And that is the correct religion. Indeed, they who disbelieved among the People of the Book and the polytheists will be in the fire of Hell, abiding eternally therein. Those are the most vile of created beings.” — Qur’an 98:6

It is prudent to note that while most religions give alms (tzedakah, in Hebrew), and Israel is invariably the first responder to any nations in need of help during natural disasters, Islam specifies that alms and aid not be given to those who do not honor Islam.

Just as Mohammed captured and has since had full control over Mecca and Medina, Islam established a mythic link to overtake Jerusalem, and Rome is in its sights once again as its fourth holiest city. Vatican City is 100% surrounded by massive, 39-foot-high walls built in the 9th century for protection against the Saracen pirates who pillaged St. Peter’s in 846.  From that first jihad attack into Rome in 846, Islam declared Rome would follow the fate of Constantinople 500 years before, and the Christian basilica would become a mosque.   This, then, is tyrannical globalism and its underlying raison d’etre, with which the Pontiff has signed a peace pact.  Although his is a noble mission, without written rules of agreement and, indeed, trustworthy mutual compromises, it may still be too soon to prepare for celebration.

There is no doubt that there were some globalist spectators to the historic event, who, if included in the event, would tirelessly campaign for eliminating nationalism and border sovereignty.  To facilitate the control of the world population, they prefer overarching establishments, such as the EU (European Union) and WTO (World Trade Organization) to have control and make decisions for all others.  Can we – and should we – trust someone at the top to decide our fuel needs? food and quantity requirements? How about medicines and treatment accessibility?  our education, entertainment, and available technology?  Can the administrator be capable of making impartial, unemotional judgments, and what if he/she allows personal biases to direct the making of decisions that affect the rest of us?  We must be guided by our own local supply and demand issues, the obtainability of goods and services, or be overtaken by a socialist economy that always results in scarcity, poverty, hunger, and death.

if one or some of the attendees hold communist leanings, with the belief that man is incapable of self-governing, the stronger master will be put in charge. Such an ideology controls the information circulated, the art produced, the leaders to follow and the thoughts to ponder, and leads to arrests without due cause, punishment without trial, forced labor by humans owned by the state.  Contrary to the Commandment, Thou shalt not steal, private property will be eliminated, goods commonly owned, production controlled and distributed to others, and the freedom to earn and benefit in accordance with the individual’s productions seized.

Judaism has been a persistent annoyance to Islam for 1400 years.  Would the Roman Catholic Church now consider joining Islamic forces or would Islam agree to lay down its billion swords?  Is the Holy Father aware that Islam’s open warfare has already declared, “First comes Saturday, then comes Sunday,” meaning, once Judaism is obliterated, Christianity will follow.  Yet, how can there be an agreement when even word definitions differ so drastically?  To the Pontiff, peace is the absence of war and the hope of amity throughout the lands. To the imam, peace is Allah’s blessing to make war against the infidel and bring all to submission, and it is the submission of all that is seen as peace.

Although I have no personal investment in anyone’s belief choice, I am fully attentive regarding their future deeds. I favor the continuation of the Church’s position of “subsidiarity,” which is to support, but to not interfere with, a community’s internal life, whereas Islam has its finger firmly positioned on every aspect of human and communal life.  Would Islam agree to alter the Koranic dictates and eliminate corporal punishment in its rule or would the pope acquiesce to meting out severe pain for select insubordination?  How would their view change the people’s autonomy over their own culture, health, and safety and over individual national sovereignty?  Would any group that’s given complete dominion over how we live, how we conduct our personal lives or our business affairs, and how our wealth is spent, truly rule with our best interests in mind?  Globalists seek a dictatorial society.

History has provided us with many leaders.  Would the ruler of the new globalist world be a Pericles? a Moses? a Charlemagne?  Or a Mugabe? a Pol Pot, or a Hitler?

Does the Pope understand that his new friend may represent his steadfast adversary?  Putting our future in the hands of a few is a decided threat to the United States Constitution.  We have had enough history to learn what should be obvious, that the more power is removed from the people, the more power would be consolidated to those in control.  This is a menace not to be ignored, no matter who sits at the summit.

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Trump Says He Might Bring ‘Exonerated’ Michael Flynn Back Into Administration

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President Donald Trump said Thursday he was open to bringing his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, back into the administration, amid new information casting a shadow of impropriety over the FBI’s case against the retired lieutenant general.

“I would certainly consider it. Yeah, I would,” Trump said at a White House press conference Thursday. He later said of Flynn: “He would be capable of coming back.”

Trump was also asked whether he would pardon Flynn over charges he lied to the FBI after newly released Justice Department documents showed notes about a conversation between FBI officials who considered whether to try “to get him to lie.” In late 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, but later withdrew the plea.

“It looks to me like Michael Flynn would be exonerated, based on everything that I’ve seen,” Trump said. “I’m not the judge, but I have a different kind of power. But I don’t know if anybody would have to use that power. I’ve never seen anything like it. What they did, what they wrote … it’s just disgraceful.”

In these trying times, we must turn to the greatest document in the history of the world to promise freedom and opportunity to its citizens for guidance. Find out more now >>

The president called Flynn “a fine man.”

“They did everything possible to destroy him. He’s still breathing very strongly. But they hurt him very badly,” Trump said.

FBI documents unsealed on Wednesday show handwritten notes from then-FBI head of counterintelligence Bill Priestap after he met with then-FBI Director James Comey. One of the notes asked, “What is our goal? Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?”

Documents go on to show there were discussions about following procedures: “If we’re seen as playing games, [White House] will be furious.”

After initial remarks about COVID-19 and its impact on senior citizens, all of the initial questions from the press pool for Trump were about Flynn, a major departure from the typical coronavirus press briefing. But he was also asked several questions about holding China accountable for the pandemic.

“We’re looking at exactly where it came from, who it came from, how it happened, separately from intelligence and also scientifically,” Trump said. “So we are going to be able to find out.”

When asked if he saw any information indicating it came from a lab in Wuhan, China, he said, “Yes, I have.” However, he later said he couldn’t publicly discuss the nature of the information he saw.

“I think that the World Health Organization should be ashamed of themselves, because they are like the public relations agency for China,” Trump said. “This country pays them almost $500 million a year, and China pays them $38 million a year. Whether it’s a lot, or more, it doesn’t matter. They shouldn’t be making excuses when people make horrible mistakes, especially mistakes that are causing hundreds of thousands of people around the world to die.”

Before taking questions, Trump discussed what the administration is doing for seniors, the demographic with the largest death rate from the coronavirus. In particular, nursing homes have been beset with large numbers of deaths.

“To ensure that our nursing homes are prepared for any future outbreaks, we are announcing the Coronavirus Commission for Safety and Quality in Nursing Homes,” he said.

Trump said the commission will be composed of leading industry experts, doctors, scientists, patient advocates, and state and local authorities.

“It’s a big deal,” the president said. “The commission will convene in May and issue recommendations for further steps we can take to protect our nation’s seniors.”

COLUMN BYY

Fred Lucas

Fred Lucas is the White House correspondent for The Daily Signal and co-host of “The Right Side of History” podcast. Lucas is also the author of “Tainted by Suspicion: The Secret Deals and Electoral Chaos of Disputed Presidential Elections.” . Twitter: @FredLucasWH.

RELATED ARTICLE: Text Messages Reveal Peter Strzok Intervened in FBI’s Planned Closure of Michael Flynn Investigation

A Note for our Readers:

This is a critical year in the history of our country. With the country polarized and divided on a number of issues and with roughly half of the country clamoring for increased government control—over health care, socialism, increased regulations, and open borders—we must turn to America’s founding for the answers on how best to proceed into the future.

The Heritage Foundation has compiled input from more than 100 constitutional scholars and legal experts into the country’s most thorough and compelling review of the freedoms promised to us within the United States Constitution into a free digital guide called Heritage’s Guide to the Constitution.

They’re making this guide available to all readers of The Daily Signal for free today!

GET ACCESS NOW! >>

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

EXCLUSIVE: Trump Denies COVID-19 Funds to Planned Parenthood

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The Trump administration has acted to ensure that no funds from the new Paycheck Protection Program, set up to assist small businesses battered by COVID-19, will go to Planned Parenthood.

“President Trump is committed to ensuring Paycheck Protection Program money is used for saving jobs at small businesses, not getting the government into the business of funding abortion,” a senior administration official told The Daily Signal.

“While not all Americans share President Trump’s pro-life beliefs, there is broad bipartisan support for the idea that American taxpayers should not have to fund abortion,” the official said Wednesday night.

When can America reopen? The National Coronavirus Recovery Commission, a project of The Heritage Foundation, is gathering America’s top thinkers together to figure that out. Learn more here>>.

In these trying times, we must turn to the greatest document in the history of the world to promise freedom and opportunity to its citizens for guidance. Find out more now >>

The Paycheck Protection Program, designed to shore up small businesses that had to close or otherwise were affected by the coronavirus pandemic, allows businesses with fewer than 500 employees to be forgiven for the principal of a government loan if they don’t lay off their employees. The employers still have to pay the interest on the loans, overseen by the Small Business Administration.

The program’s initial $350 billion fund, established in legislation passed March 30 by the House, was depleted April 16. The program received $320 billion in new funding in a bill passed Thursday by the House and signed into law Friday by Trump.

The senior administration official told The Daily Signal that the Small Business Administration’s mission already excludes big enterprises such as Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider.

“The SB in SBA is for ‘small business,’ so SBA has regulations called ‘affiliation rules’ to define when small employers might be so closely affiliated with a parent organization that they should be considered one large employer,” the official said, adding:

While each Planned Parenthood affiliate has fewer than 500 employees, nationwide it has over 16,000 employees. So when applying PPP’s affiliation rules neutrally, it’s clear that Planned Parenthood is one large employer and not eligible for PPP money.

The interim final rule made crystal clear that an organization with Planned Parenthood’s corporate structure doesn’t qualify.

So far, over 1.6 million businesses have received forgivable loans from the Paycheck Protection Program, with Trump saying that the SBA processed more loans in 14 days than it had in the previous 14 years.

A quote was added to this report shortly after initial publication.

COLUMN BY

Rachel del Guidice

Rachel del Guidice is a congressional reporter for The Daily Signal. She is a graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville, Forge Leadership Network, and The Heritage Foundation’s Young Leaders Program. Send an email to Rachel. Twitter: @LRacheldG

RELATED ARTICLES:

10 Steps America Should Take Now to Respond to the China Challenge

The Consequences of a Federal Bailout for the States

Governors Need Some Skin in Game With Stay-at-Home Orders

Lessons to Learn From COVID-19

A Note for our Readers:

This is a critical year in the history of our country. With the country polarized and divided on a number of issues and with roughly half of the country clamoring for increased government control—over health care, socialism, increased regulations, and open borders—we must turn to America’s founding for the answers on how best to proceed into the future.

The Heritage Foundation has compiled input from more than 100 constitutional scholars and legal experts into the country’s most thorough and compelling review of the freedoms promised to us within the United States Constitution into a free digital guide called Heritage’s Guide to the Constitution.

They’re making this guide available to all readers of The Daily Signal for free today!

GET ACCESS NOW! >>

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

The Chinese Communists Lied and the People Died

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Worldviews have consequences. The pandemic that grips the whole world is symptomatic of the deadly grip that the ungodly leadership in China holds over a wide populous (including tens of millions of Chinese Christians).

The coronavirus did not just come out of nowhere. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) claims that it came out of the wet markets of Wuhan, a city of about 11 million people. But there is  evidence that it may have originated in a biolab, the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Steven Mosher, the president of the Population Research Institute, certainly thinks so. He says corners were being cut, leading to the virus escaping from the lab. But the CCP tried to hide these things. As we know now, they allowed flights from Wuhan to the rest of the world, but not flights from Wuhan to other parts of China.

Recently I interviewed Mosher on my radio show. He argued,

“This didn’t come from nature. This came from man. This came from the leadership of the Communist Party, which was putting a rush on research in their biolab in Wuhan. And I think they were putting so much pressure on the research that the researchers cut corners, and this dangerous coronavirus…escaped from the lab.”

Mosher continued, “And there the story gets even worse. Because after it escapes, it could have been contained very, very quickly by using means that we’re all familiar with—contact-tracing, finding out who Patient Zero was, tracing that person’s contacts, putting those people under quarantine. Instead, the deadly virus was allowed to spread throughout the city of Wuhan. China hid it….Even to this present day, they are still hiding what they know about the virus.”

And yet millions of Americans are ready to blame President Trump for the virus crisis rather the actual perpetrators.

Furthermore, millions of young Americans want to see America become a socialist nation—which often leads to communism. They think socialism means sharing and fairness to everybody.

A recent Gallup poll found that the younger you are in America, the higher your view of socialism. Only 51% of Americans aged 18-39 had a high view of capitalism with 49% preferring socialism. At the same time, of those older than 55, 68% were positive toward capitalism with only 32% in favor of socialism.

Gary Bauer of American Values told me in a recent TV interview: “I think all of us have been disturbed by polling data that shows that young Americans particularly seem to be very open, if not outwardly and completely supportive, of socialism….The majority of students that are saying that socialism is a good thing have not been educated in any way shape or form about what socialism is.”

Mosher noted the CCP (and communism everywhere) is built on a series of lies:

  • There is no God.
  • Man is not made in the image of God; instead he’s just a little higher than the apes.
  • The Party can create paradise on earth, if you give it all power.

Chairman Mao who forced communism on China in 1949 is the greatest mass-murderer in the history of humanity, exterminating as many as 45 million of his own people. When he took over the world’s most populated country, one of the goals was to “dominate wider parts of the world,” notes Mosher. And in 1958, Mao set up the “Earth Control Committee.”

Thus, it is possible that the whole world has been upended by a group of atheists who reacted criminally in response to accidents in a lab that was dealing with very dangerous substances. No wonder the state of Missouri filed a lawsuit last week against the government of China.

At least we can say that their irresponsible reaction to the virus once it began to spread has brought misery to many parts of the world. Many Chinese people themselves would gladly not have the Communists rule over them. But, amazingly, as noted, we have many in America who want communism or socialism.

I asked Mosher about this trend among young people. He chalked it up to the naivete of the young and the “miseducation” many of them receive in the schools.

They think socialism can work—if just the right people put it into practice. But in every communist regime, Mosher observes, they kill at least about 10-15% of their own people in order to remove the “counter-revolutionaries.”

Of all the sins and crimes of communism throughout the last century and a half—and there have been many—the outbreak of the coronavirus and the failure of the CCP to truly cooperate with other agencies to control this before it became a pandemic has got to be among the greatest crimes of all.

There was an old saying during the Cold War, “You can trust the communists to act like communists.”  It is about time naïve Americans woke up to the rotten fruit of communism.

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Here’s Everything You Need To Know About Biden Accuser Tara Reade And Her Sexual Assault Allegation, All In One Place

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  • Former Senate staffer Tara Reade has accused 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her in 1993. Biden has denied the allegations through a spokeswoman but has not personally addressed the allegation.
  • Since Reade came forward with her allegations in March, two more people have corroborated details of her story and a video of what appears to be her mother discussing her assault in the 1990s has been uncovered.
  • Reade demanded Tuesday that Biden release Senate papers pertinent to her time serving as his staffer in 1993. He has yet to do so.

A former Senate staffer for 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden has accused him of sexually assaulting her, and as more and more details emerge about her allegations, the former vice president continues to remain silent.

Tara Reade worked as a Senate staffer for Biden in 1993 and has accused the then-senator of kissing her, touching her and penetrating her with his fingers without her consent.

Reade came forward with her allegations March 24 and on April 9 filed a police report with the D.C. Metropolitan police – a police report which is now inactive, the MPD told the Daily Caller News Foundation Wednesday.

The Biden campaign, which has not responded to repeated requests for comment from the DCNF, has denied the assault and said it “absolutely did not happen,” though Biden has yet to personally address the matter.

An analysis by the Free Beacon Wednesday found that Biden has faced 19 interviews spanning almost 4 hours since Reade came forward. During these interviews, he has faced 142 questions without being asked about Reade.

Five people have corroborated different details of Reade’s account against Biden, a DCNF review of public statements found: her mother, her brother, her close friend, her former neighbor, and her former coworker.

And as pressure mounts for Biden to respond to the allegations, so do Democratic anxieties for their presidential candidate.

Tara Reade’s Allegations Of Sexual Assault

In the spring of 1993, Reade described to the Intercept, she met Biden in a tucked away corner of a hallway in the Russell Senate Office Building. She said a manager had told her to bring him his bag.

Before she was aware what was going on, Reade said, Biden had pressed her against the wall, kissed her, and had put one of his hands under her blouse and the other up her skirt, penetrating her with his fingers.

Reade told the New York Times: “It happened at once. He’s talking to me and his hands are everywhere and everything is happening very quickly. He was kissing me and he said, very low, ‘Do you want to go somewhere else?’”

The former senate staffer told the Intercept she thinks Biden was surprised when she rejected him and pushed him off.

“There was no flirtation, he had no consent. He was by my ears when he said, ‘Do you wanna go somewhere else,’” she said, adding that Biden gave her a big smile.

“He pointed his finger at me and he just goes: ‘You’re nothing to me. Nothing,’” Reade told the Times. “Then, he took my shoulders and said, ‘You’re OK, you’re fine.’”

After Biden left, Reade told the Times, she cleaned herself up in a bathroom and went home sobbing. She called her mother who told her to file a police report immediately, she said.

Reade said that instead, she complained to three Biden staffers: Marianne Baker, Biden’s executive assistant, and Dennis Toner and Ted Kaufman, who were both top Biden aides.

But these people would not take action, so Reade filed a written complaint with a Senate personnel office, she told the DCNF. She was told that someone would call her in for a full discussion and meeting – but “that never happened,” she said.

Reade told the DCNF that she does not have this complaint. She tried to track it down in 2019 and was told that “it would have gone back to Joe Biden’s office, to the Chief of Staff,” she said.

If this complaint were located, she says, it would show that Biden’s staff members lied on the record when they said they did not have meetings with her. She had more than five meetings with them at different times through her time in the Senate office, she said.

Staff members then took away most of Reade’s duties, she told the DCNF. She described how she was put in a an isolated workstation where staff members put a computer and a phone line.

Dennis Toner told her to put “special projects” on her resume as her new title, she said, and she was told that she had 12 months to find a new job.

“My job was to find a job,” she said. “And then every time I left my desk I had to check in with Dennis Toner and I had to check with him first thing in the morning and then when I left for the day.”

She told the DCNF this treatment was new and had not occurred before the alleged incident with Biden took place.

“Before, I was I was supervising interns, I was doing staff assisting, I would go to legislative meetings and take notes,” she said. “I would help some of the assistant press secretaries with edits and with writing things, I would give whatever clerical support was needed to legislative assistants and press assistants.”

“And then all of that was taken away,” she added. She said she was told not to interact with  staff or interns — only with Toner or Kaufman, who she says told her she was not a good fit. She called this retaliation, and said this is why she filed her complaint.

Both Kaufman and Toner have said they do not know Reade in interviews with the Times. The Biden campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the matter.

Kaufman told the Times: “I did not know her. She did not come to me. If she had, I would have remembered her.”

“It’s just so preposterous that Senator Biden would be faced with these allegations,” Toner told the publication. “I don’t remember her. I don’t remember this conversation. And I would remember this conversation.”

Baker also produced a statement through the Biden campaign, saying: “I never once witnessed, or heard of, or received, any reports of inappropriate conduct, period — not from Ms. Reade, not from anyone. I have absolutely no knowledge or memory of Ms. Reade’s accounting of events, which would have left a searing impression on me as a woman professional, and as a manager.”

Biden’s Response – Or Lack Thereof

Biden has not addressed Reade’s allegations in a live TV appearance or any other media hit. Through a campaign spokeswoman, his campaign has denied the claims.

“Vice President Biden has dedicated his public life to changing the culture and the laws around violence against women,” deputy Biden campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said in a statement to the Times.

She continued: “He authored and fought for the passage and reauthorization of the landmark Violence Against Women Act. He firmly believes that women have a right to be heard — and heard respectfully.”

“Such claims should also be diligently reviewed by an independent press,” she added. “What is clear about this claim: It is untrue. This absolutely did not happen.”

The Biden campaign began circulating talking points regarding Reade’s allegations early in April, memos that show Biden staffers were taking the allegations seriously enough to coordinate messaging among their Democratic counterparts, BuzzFeed reported.

The memo insists that Reade’s allegations have already been investigated and found false, relying heavily on an early April New York Times investigation that “found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden.”

“Biden believes that all women have the right to be heard and to have their claims thoroughly reviewed,” the talking points say, according to a copy sent to two Democratic operatives that was obtained by BuzzFeed. “In this case, a thorough review by the New York Times has led to the truth: this incident did not happen.”

The points continued: “Here’s the bottom line. Vice President Joe Biden has spent over 40 years in public life: 36 years in the Senate; 7 Senate campaigns, 2 previous presidential runs, two vice presidential campaigns, and 8 years in the White House. There has never been a complaint, allegation, hint or rumor of any impropriety or inappropriate conduct like this regarding him — ever.”

But the Times pushed back against these talking points in a Wednesday statement, noting that the Biden campaign’s claim that the Times investigation found Reade’s allegations to be false is incorrect.

“Buzzfeed reported on the existence of talking points being circulated by the Biden campaign that incorrectly suggest a New York Times investigation found that Tara Reade’s allegation ‘did not happen,’” a Times spokesperson said, according to the Hill reporter Jonathan Easley. “Our investigation made no conclusion either way.”

The Times’ investigation originally said that they “found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Biden, beyond hugs, kisses and touching that women previously said made them uncomfortable,” but the publication edited this line out following pushback from the Biden campaign, which New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet appears to have admitted April 13.

A second set of Biden talking points were released Saturday and obtained by Bloomberg News following the release of a “Larry King Live” video from the 1990s which appears to show Reade’s mother discussing her assault.

“All women have the right to be heard, and heard respectfully. And the independent press has the obligation to review those claims,” the talking points say, according to Bloomberg. The talking points also say that the CNN clip does not “corroborate” Reade’s claims.

Corroboration – Possibly From The Grave

Reade had previously told The Intercept that her late mother called into “Larry King Live” on CNN regarding Biden’s alleged assault.

A transcript obtained by The Intercept April 24, as well as a video uncovered by the Media Research Center later that day, show that someone from her mother’s city did indeed call into CNN in 1993 and asked for advice about her daughter’s problems with a “prominent senator.”

In the transcript of the Larry King program titled “Washington: The Cruelest City on Earth,” King introduced a caller from San Luis Obispo, California — the California city where Reade’s mother resided, according to The Intercept.

“San Luis Obispo, California, hello,” King said, according to the transcript.

“Yes, hello,” the caller responded. “I’m wondering what a staffer would do besides go to the press in Washington? My daughter has just left there, after working for a prominent senator, and could not get through with her problems at all, and the only thing she could have done was go to the press, and she chose not to do it out of respect for him.”

“In other words, she had a story to tell but, out of respect for the person she worked for, she didn’t tell it,” King responded, to which the caller said, “That’s true.”

Reade said she is sure that the call was from her mother. “I just heard audio, my mother died and hearing her voice made me cry,” she told the DCNF April 24.

“She was such a good mom and always watching out for me even now,” she said, adding that the video proves what she has been saying: “that I was forced out and wanted to come forward in 1993.”

Two More People Come Forward To Corroborate Reade’s Story

Following the release of the video and transcript, a woman who formerly lived next to Reade confirmed multiple details of the former senate staffer’s allegations against Joe Biden in an interview with Business Insider. 60-year-old Lynda LaCasse said that Reade told her about the alleged assault in 1995 or 1996 while they were smoking on LaCasse’s front stoop in Morro Bay, California.

Lorraine Sanchez, who worked alongside Reade in the mid 1990’s for a California state senator, also told Insider that Reade had complained to her that her former Washington, D.C. boss had sexually harassed her and caused her to be fired after she complained.

“I remember her saying, here was this person that she was working for and she idolized him,” LaCasse said. “And he kind of put her up against a wall. And he put his hand up her skirt and he put his fingers inside her. She felt like she was assaulted, and she really didn’t feel there was anything she could do.”

LaCasse said she does not remember all the details, but she remembers “the skirt” and “the fingers,” and that Reade was devastated. Reade was crying as she told the story, LaCasse told the publication.

“She was crying. She was upset. And the more she talked about it, the more she started crying. I remember saying that she needed to file a police report.”

LaCasse said that she understands that coming forward to corroborate Reade’s allegations against Biden “may have repercussions for me,” but notes that her corroboration is not politically motivated and that she will still be voting for Biden.

‘Joe Biden, I Want You To Release The Personnel Records’

As Biden faces increased scrutiny for allegations of sexual assault made against him by Tara Reade, pressure is mounting for the former vice president to unseal documents related to his time in the Senate.

These Senate documents are housed by the University of Delaware Library and cover a wide swath of Biden’s political career, but are being kept secret until he “retires from public life,” spokeswoman Andrea Boyle Tippett told The Washington Post in July 2019.

Tippett told the DCNF on Tuesday that the University of Delaware would not share the terms of the agreement between the university and Biden detailing why the Senate records may not be released.

“The gift agreement signed when the papers were donated is not a public document,” Tippett told the DCNF.

The collection of these documents fills 1,875 boxes and includes 415 gigabytes of electronic records, according to the Post, containing committee reports, drafts of legislation and correspondence.

Reade called on the former vice president to release these Senate documents in an exclusive interview with the DCNF Tuesday.

“Joe Biden, I want you to release all the personnel records from 1973 to 2009 and be transparent about your office practices,” Reade told the DCNF. “I would like to hold you accountable for what happened to me, to how your staff protected you and enabled you, bullied me multiple times into silence.”

“You ended my career,” she said, referring to Biden. “You ended my job after you assaulted me. You claim to be the champion of women’s rights, but your public persona does not match your personal actions.”

She added: “I want this brought to light and I want you to admit it in public. I want a public apology for calling me a Russian agent and having other people try to smear my character in order to cover your crimes.”

COLUMN BY

Mary Margaret Olohan

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

U.S. Won’t Give Gaza Covid-19 Aid That Could Be Used For Jihad Terror Attacks

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The relentless war on Israel by Hamas is being answered by the Trump Administration with a relentless war of its own on funding for that terrorist group. That includes a refusal by the Americans to supply Gaza – that is, Hamas – with money to fight the coronavirus. After all, cash intended by donors for PPE (masks, gowns, gloves) and ventilators can be diverted to pay for rockets and terror tunnels.

The latest installment in this campaign to cut funding for Hamas appeared in the New York Post:

The United States Agency for International Development has moved to aggressively block the distribution of coronavirus relief funds to the entire Gaza strip over concerns the money could fall into the hands of Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

No doubt Hamas thought the coronavirus pandemic would make it hard for the Trump Administration to refuse to give aid to Gaza – which today is the same thing as giving aid to Hamas, the terror group that controls every aspect of life in the Strip. But Hamas was wrong.

“The Trump administration is not supporting assistance to Gaza,” a senior administration official with knowledge of USAID plans told The Post. “There is a Hamas government in Gaza. They have indicated no interest in engaging with us, no interest in peace with Israel and in fact they continue — despite having coronavirus cases in Gaza — to fire rockets at the Israelis on a regular basis.”

The issue of Gaza funding came to the fore internally after the United States pledged $5 million to help Palestinian relief services in their fight against the deadly pandemic.

“I’m very pleased the USA is providing $5M for Palestinian hospitals and households to meet immediate, life-saving needs in combating COVID-19. The USA, as the world’s top humanitarian aid donor, is committed to assisting the Palestinian people, & others worldwide, in this crisis,” U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman announced in an April 16 tweet.

The plan currently calls for USAID to distribute the funds entirely within the West Bank, ruled by the comparatively more moderate Palestinian Authority and its aging leading Mahmoud Abbas. The funds will be released to a contractor, who would then have discretion to divvy up the cash on the ground as they see fit.

First, notice the derisory sum involved — $5 million. It’s almost breathtaking in its paltriness, and the clear intent to belittle the demands of the Palestinians, with their hands perennially outstretched for ever more aid. Some might describe the sum as deliberately derisory. One is surprised that Mahmoud Abbas didn’t turn it down, in one of his well-known rants, as an “insult to the Palestinian people, and the Palestinian people do not accept insults from anyone.” He may still be nursing a stunned fury: “how dare the Americans offer me so little?” But that’s just the point: the days of big handouts to the Palestinians are over, even during this pandemic. The sum the Americans offered was designed to be just enough to forestall accusations that Washington was unwilling to offer aid “at a time like this,” but the amount shows a clear intent to provide the absolute minimum. Never before have the Palestinians had to deal with an administration like this. They are at their wit’s end.

Of course this $5 million, which is being given to the PA for use in the West Bank, may be supplemented by a subsequent separate sum for Gaza; that will depend on whether the Trump Administration can find a local contractor in Gaza it trusts to distribute aid in the Strip, without any involvement by Hamas. If that happens, the donated sum is likely to be a similarly paltry amount.

Finding a trusted contractor to ensure the money flows exclusively to COVID-19 efforts instead of rockets and terror tunnels in Gaza has proved difficult. The leading contender for the job right now, Catholic Relief Services, has repeatedly expressed interest in distributing cash in the Hamas-controlled territory and has petitioned both the State Department and USAID to release funds previously awarded to them to spend in Gaza.

The CRS puts itself forward as the best candidate to distribute cash to the Palestinians, but obviously the Administration has had grave doubts about the CRS for some time; the State Department and USAID previously refused to release funds that the CRS had been awarded and wanted to spend in Gaza. The Administration is unlikely to change its mind about the CRS now. The problem remains of finding a group in Gaza that can distribute cash to both hospitals and people without involving Hamas. For if the past is any guide, if,Hamas is involved with that distribution, itwill find a way to take a cut for its leaders or to allocate whatever American aid is forthcoming to its members alone.

Catholic Relief Services (CRS), along with other faith-based and U.S. private voluntary agencies, is desperately mobilizing to mitigate the potentially catastrophic impact of COVID-19 in Gaza,” wrote CRS chief Sean Callahan in a March 20 missive to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and USAID administrator Mark Andrew Green. “We are urgently requesting the support of USAID in these efforts. ”

The Catholic Relief pitch to distribute funds has also raised eyebrows among staff at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem — who raised a number of possible concerns about how the relief organization would allocate funds.

Catholic Relief Services thinks it is beyond reproach, an organization that needs no vetting, as a dispenser of charity with a holier-than-thou halo around its institutional head. Not everyone agrees. Those in the Trump Administration who are familiar with the organization, which in the U.S.and Europe has pushed for more Muslim migrants, has parroted the Pope’s line that “authentic Islam” has nothing to do with Islam, has been enthusiastically involved in interfaith outreach that always ends up with Christians apologizing for their islamophobia and with Muslims accepting the apology –are not enthusiastic about entrusting the CRS with the task of distributing funds to Muslims in Gaza.

USAID should ask up front the entire list of ‘local partners’ and ‘key partners’ who will receive any U.S. taxpayer dollars so that USAID can do thorough and proper vetting of each ahead of time,” embassy staff wrote.

American diplomats in Jerusalem remain impressively unimpressed by the CRS’s pretense of pure motives; they want to know exactly to whom in Gaza CRS intends to give American taxpayers’ money, so that these would-be recipients can be investigated for possible ties to terrorism. Assurances from CRS that it would never support terrorists simply won’t wash.

Here’s one possibility: Washington could provide another $5 million in aid for Gaza, but insist that it be distributed by the one group that would certainly steer clear of Hamas – that is, those who are loyal to the PA. Perhaps the money ultimately intended for Gaza could be sent to the PA in Ramallah, which would then be asked to have its loyalists in Gaza distribute the aid directly to hospitals and sufferers from the coronavirus. Would Hamas try to stop this? Unlikely, given the wrath of Gazans if the terrorist group were to block that infusion of cash. If the PA can resist helping itself to any of that money, and distributes it openly and fairly, it might regain some of its popularity, at the very moment when the mismanagement and greed of Hamas have made that terror group intolerable to many Gazans. Were the PA to be able to renew its rule in Gaza, at the expense of Hamas, which in the last 12 years of misrule has been tried and found wanting, that would be a good thing. The PA is bad, but Hamas is far far worse. It’s a consummation devoutly to be wished.

COLUMN BY

HUGH FITZGERALD

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

What to Expect as 12 States Begin to Reopen After COVID-19 Shutdown

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Come Friday in Texas, the nation’s second-largest economy, businesses such as restaurants and retail stores will be open again, but at a 25% occupancy rate. After that, public health officials will reevaluate the data and decide whether to allow a 50% occupancy rate.

The Lone Star State is among nine states where governors’ stay-at-home orders expire at the end of Thursday, allowing for a gradual reopening of their economies, according to Pew Research Center’s Stateline, which monitors state governments.

“If we go back to work and there is no increase [in COVID-19 cases], people could become complacent about social distancing and think it’s not dangerous,” Amy Anderson, a registered nurse in Texas, told The Daily Signal. “It’s important to maintain our vigilance.”

When can America reopen? The National Coronavirus Recovery Commission, a project of The Heritage Foundation, is gathering America’s top thinkers together to figure that out. Learn more here>>>.

In these trying times, we must turn to the greatest document in the history of the world to promise freedom and opportunity to its citizens for guidance. Find out more now >>

Anderson noted that business owners likely will continue to be responsible, since they face a fine of up to $1,000 and even jail time for not complying with government restrictions. Plus, most businesses are licensed by state and local governments.

Various states have different rules for reentry, but most are in line with the guidance by the White House coronavirus task force, said Anderson, co-founder of the Global Nurse Consultants Alliance and an assistant professor at the School of Nursing and School of Medicine at Texas Christian University.

There’s no real economic alternative but to reopen soon, contends Alfredo Ortiz, president of the Job Creators Network, a business group.

“I don’t think we have a real choice but to open the doors up. My concern is demand won’t be high enough,” Ortiz told The Daily Signal in a phone interview. “If we wait for the unattainable goal of zero cases of COVID-19, the economy would be closed for months and you would see an increase in depressions and suicides.”

The other states besides Texas where stay-at-home orders were set to expire Thursday are Alabama, Arizona, Idaho, Maine, Nevada, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Florida, where some beaches already have reopened.

On Friday, stay-at-home orders in Indiana, Ohio, and Utah are set to expire, meaning some businesses will reopen Saturday.

“In Florida, it hit the Miami-Dade County area worst,” Dr. Lee Gross, who practices family medicine in North Port, Florida, said of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

“In general, in population centers now, we are seeing a decline, while in rural areas, we are seeing a steady increase,” Gross, also president of the advocacy group Docs 4 Patient Care, said.

“Here in Charlotte County, the beaches are opened and people are still standing 6 feet apart, but they seem packed,” Gross added during a phone interview with The Daily Signal.

Meanwhile, in Georgia and Colorado, Govs. Brian Kemp and Jared Polis, respectively, moved last week to reopen their economies, including allowing hair salons and tattoo parlors to resume business, a controversial move.

“Salons could be safe if there is a determined amount of people allowed in and a way to be responsible,” Gross said. “Outdoor venues are generally safer than indoor venues. But, you don’t want kids climbing around on monkey bars.”

Colorado has had 122.6 deaths per million from COVID-19, while Georgia has had 93.6 deaths per million, according to the RealClearPolitics coronavirus tracker. In raw numbers, the larger Georgia had 994 deaths, while Colorado had 770.

President Donald Trump criticized Kemp, a fellow Republican, for his decision to reopen without following the White House guidelines. However, Trump did not criticize Polis, a Democrat.

“Government guidance is just that, guidance. It’s not a proclamation or law,” Gross said. “States should take guidance into consideration.”

Governors generally are leaving discretion to local communities, said Dr. Kevin Pham, a medical doctor and contributor to The Daily Signal.

“If states are less draconian and trust people, they will likely get better cooperation longer, rather than revolt in protest,” Pham said. “It is a risk to reopen, but if you don’t reopen, there are other risks. Life and livelihood are connected to one another.”

Pham also looked at the realistic outcomes from reopening, positive and negative.

“The worst-case scenario is a huge spike in [COVID-19] cases and hospitalizations and all the gains that were made from the mitigation efforts will be wiped out, the need for personal protective equipment will skyrocket again, and we’ll have crisis care that will require more ventilators,” Pham said.

“The best-case scenario is that we will have a gradual and deliberate reopening with continued social distancing, and we’ll see a lower spread rate,” Pham added.

Other states that are ready to drop their stay-at-home orders logged varying rates of death from COVID-19.

Alabama had 49.4 deaths per million; Arizona had 37.8 deaths per million; Florida, 54.5; Idaho, 42.4; Maine, 37.9; Tennessee, 26.9; and West Virginia, 20.7.

Of the states slated to begin reopening gradually after Friday, Indiana had 138.4 deaths per million; Ohio had 68.4; and Utah, 14, according to the RealClearPolitics tracker.

Next week, the states of Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island will begin to reopen, according to Pew’s Stateline.

The state with the largest number of deaths and highest death rate was New York, where 22,806 have died, a rate of 1,175.4 per million.

The Empire State’s stay-at-home order is set to expire May 15. That’s the same day as Delaware, Louisiana, Michigan, New Mexico, Vermont, and the District of Columbia are set to drop their stay-at-home orders.

In Connecticut, with the third-highest death rate in the nation at 564.3 per million, the stay-at-home order is set to expire May 20. Illinois and Hawaii are slated to open May 30 and 31, respectively.

As of now, Virginia will reopen June 10. In seven other states, according to Pew, no dates are set for stay-at-home orders to expire.

Another eight states had no stay-at-home orders: Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming. In most of these cases, the states issued guidance and local governments and businesses were free to take action.

COLUMN BY

Fred Lucas

Fred Lucas is the White House correspondent for The Daily Signal and co-host of “The Right Side of History” podcast. Lucas is also the author of “Tainted by Suspicion: The Secret Deals and Electoral Chaos of Disputed Presidential Elections.” Send an email to Fred. Twitter: @FredLucasWH.

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This is a critical year in the history of our country. With the country polarized and divided on a number of issues and with roughly half of the country clamoring for increased government control—over health care, socialism, increased regulations, and open borders—we must turn to America’s founding for the answers on how best to proceed into the future.

The Heritage Foundation has compiled input from more than 100 constitutional scholars and legal experts into the country’s most thorough and compelling review of the freedoms promised to us within the United States Constitution into a free digital guide called Heritage’s Guide to the Constitution.

They’re making this guide available to all readers of The Daily Signal for free today!

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

Government Should Stop Promoting Unemployment During COVID-19

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American prosperity always has relied on the fact that we are the most productive people in human history.

Unfortunately, some short-term Band-Aids for the widespread economic distress caused by the coronavirus lockdowns may have substantial negative effects that make it harder for Americans to get back on their feet.

While much of what is in the CARES Act passed by Congress will be important in mitigating the damage of the COVID-19 pandemic, some provisions already are creating bad, unintended consequences.

One problem has been the federal unemployment insurance that gives unemployed Americans $600 a week no matter what they were making before they lost their jobs.

In these trying times, we must turn to the greatest document in the history of the world to promise freedom and opportunity to its citizens for guidance. Find out more now >>

A coffee shop owner in Harlan, Kentucky, explained why it’s hard for small businesses to retain staff right now.

“The very people we hired have now asked us to be laid off,” wrote Sky Marietta, who owns the shop with her husband, Geoff, according to NPR. “Not because they did not like their jobs or because they did not want to work, but because it would cost them literally hundreds of dollars per week to be employed.”

The federal government is offering $600 a week on top of state unemployment benefits, which means that for many, being unemployed is more lucrative than staying at work.

“You also have to think [of] the benefit of not having to go to work, especially during a pandemic,” Marietta said in her interview with NPR. “It’s not that we don’t wish that we could pay our employees at that level all the time. You’re always wanting to pay your staff the best you possibly can. But to be put in a position where you can’t compete with them being at home, unemployed, it’s really tricky. It’s a really difficult situation to be in.”

Other issues have cropped up too.

For instance, when Jamie Black-Lewis, owner of the Oasis Medspa & Salon and Amai Day Spa in Washington state, received two forgivable loans through the new federal Paycheck Protection Program, she said she thought it was a godsend to help retain her 35 employees who had their pay halted.

However, she said, the loans actually made many of her employees angry. The reaction she got was a “firestorm of hatred about the situation,” Black-Lewis said, according to CNBC.

Why?

Because these employees figured out they can make more money from unemployment than employment.

“It’s a windfall they see coming,” Black-Lewis said of unemployment in the CNBC interview. “In their mind, I took it away.”

The problem is, again, the extra $600 that people receive per week through the federal program, set to continue through July, can exceed what they’d make otherwise.

In a paper for The Heritage Foundation published Tuesday, Drew Gonshorowski and Rachel Greszler laid out what this looks like nationally:

The median full-time worker in America (who earns $933 per week, or $48,500 per year) would earn about 15% more from unemployment insurance—an additional $2,300 over the course of four months of unemployment—than if he had remained employed. The lower that workers’ earnings are, the greater financial incentive they will have to collect unemployment insurance instead of staying employed.

A full-time minimum-wage worker would receive 157% more from unemployment—a total of $7,900 more over four months—than from employment. Part-time and low-wage workers would benefit the most. Someone working 10 hours per week at the minimum wage—perhaps a high school student with a part-time job—would receive 778% more, or a total of $9,800 extra, over four months of unemployment than she would [in] remaining employed.

While the temporary nature of this program—for now—may mitigate some of the long-term negative effects, consider this: What’s going to happen to businesses that stay open or try to reopen in coming months but can’t retain employees?

Some business owners may simply use the increased unemployment benefits as an excuse to lay off workers, but many simply won’t be in business much longer.

When the enlarged unemployment benefits run out, countless Americans will find no work to return to. In many cases, they potentially also will be severed from health care coverage, which in America is typically tied to employers.

So, back on the dole. Not good.

This unemployment provision, created in a time of unquestioned crisis, reveals the fundamental problem of making it more lucrative not to work than to work.

Yet, some have suggested that an expanded version of these payments become a permanent part of the American system. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently suggested that in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, America should consider a minimum income guarantee.

As Gonshorowski and Greszler recommend, changing the unemployment benefit so that it doesn’t exceed 100% of a worker’s previous wages could help prevent abuse of the system and ensure we aren’t encouraging people to abandon their jobs.

More than that, we must reject calls to make such a system a permanent feature of American life.

COMMENTARY BY

Jarrett Stepman

Jarrett Stepman is a contributor to The Daily Signal and co-host of The Right Side of History podcast. Send an email to Jarrett. He is also the author of the new book, “The War on History: The Conspiracy to Rewrite America’s Past.”Twitter: .

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A Note for our Readers:

This is a critical year in the history of our country. With the country polarized and divided on a number of issues and with roughly half of the country clamoring for increased government control—over health care, socialism, increased regulations, and open borders—we must turn to America’s founding for the answers on how best to proceed into the future.

The Heritage Foundation has compiled input from more than 100 constitutional scholars and legal experts into the country’s most thorough and compelling review of the freedoms promised to us within the United States Constitution into a free digital guide called Heritage’s Guide to the Constitution.

They’re making this guide available to all readers of The Daily Signal for free today!

GET ACCESS NOW! >>

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

The Famous Video of 2 California Doctors That YouTube Removed

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In what may be the best indicator of the nature of this pandemic yet, a video with two prominent and experienced field doctors in California, that has been seen by many people and referred to by many authorities not locked into the Fauci paradigm, has been removed by YouTube. Not for any violation of any of their terms of service. Not hate speech, or any of the other excuses YouTube needs to secure the narrative at all.

YouTube in fact seems to be beyond the need for excuses. They just ban things that contradict what they need people to believe.

So this deserves extra attention. Even if they are wrong.

There is nothing so appealing about an opinion more than we are not allowed to hear it.

Summit news offers this analysis

RELATED VIDEO: Fox News’ Laura Ingram comments on YouTube censorship of the 2 California Doctors.

EDITORS NOTE: This Vlad Tepes Blog column with video is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

Trump Showcases Jobs Preserved by Paycheck Protection Program Amid COVID-19 Shutdown

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Michael Heup not only got his job back at Bitty & Beau’s Coffee, which was temporarily closed because of the COVID-19 crisis, but he also had the chance to talk about it at the White House on Tuesday.

“I love my job, and I am excited about going back to work,” Heup, a disabled employee, said at the East Room event. “At Bitty & Beau’s, we like to use the phrase called ‘not broken.’ That means me and all my amazing co-workers are not broken, and we have lots to offer. I know the great country of the United States isn’t broken either.”

The Wilmington, North Carolina-based Bitty & Beau’s Coffee had to temporarily close and lay off 120 employees at the company, most with intellectual and developmental disabilities. But it was able to rehire all the employees after getting a federal loan through the Paycheck Protection Program.

The White House had representatives from eight companies at the event sharing their stories of staying afloat after governments’ COVID-19 mitigation efforts forced much of the economy to close.

In these trying times, we must turn to the greatest document in the history of the world to promise freedom and opportunity to its citizens for guidance. Find out more now >>

Under the program, if businesses with fewer than 500 employees do not lay off employees, the principal on the loan is forgivable. Employers still have to pay the interest.

Bitty & Beau’s Coffee has locations in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Maryland. For most of the employees, it’s their first paying job. The employees are now “working from home, writing handwritten notes that we include with each online order we ship,” said Amy Wright, CEO of Bitty & Beau’s, also speaking at the event.

“I know everyone is ready to return to normal,” Wright said. “I believe it’s time for a new normal, one where people with disabilities are valued, especially in the workplace. As a recipient of the [Paycheck Protection Program] loan, we will continue to take up the charge and help everyone, especially people with disabilities, pursue the American dream.”

The Paycheck Protection Program has disbursed $350 billion to small businesses across the United States, and more than 1.6 million forgivable loans have been approved by the Small Business Administration. Trump said the SBA has issued more loans in the past 14 days than it has in the past 14 years.

However, the program has come under scrutiny for doling out loans to large employers, such as Harvard University and Shake Shack. Several of the big businesses returned the loans after the rash of bad publicity.

“The press has commented on a lot of big companies that inappropriately took the money,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said at the event. “We’ve been very clear. We’ve announced today that any loan over $2 million will have a full review for forgiveness before they are repaid because this is the story of small business here.”

When taking questions from reporters, Trump was asked about Democrats in Congress calling for guaranteed incomes that could go on for months.

“I like payroll tax cuts. I’ve liked that from the beginning. That was a thing that I would really love to see happen. Most economists agree with me,” Trump said.

The president expressed skepticism of bailing out states, but he said aid could come with the precondition of changing sanctuary policies, in which local jurisdictions refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

“We are not looking to recover 25 years of bad management and to give them the money they lost. That’s unfair to other states. Now, if it’s COVID-related, I guess we could talk about it,” Trump said, adding:

But we’d want certain things also, including sanctuary city adjustments, because we have so many people in sanctuary cities, which I don’t even think are popular by radical left folks.

What’s happening is, people are being protected that shouldn’t be protected, and a lot of bad things are happening with sanctuary cities.

COLUMN BY

Fred Lucas

Fred Lucas is the White House correspondent for The Daily Signal and co-host of “The Right Side of History” podcast. Lucas is also the author of “Tainted by Suspicion: The Secret Deals and Electoral Chaos of Disputed Presidential Elections.” Send an email to Fred. Twitter: @FredLucasWH.

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Today’s Americans and Yesteryear’s Americans

A Note for our Readers:

This is a critical year in the history of our country. With the country polarized and divided on a number of issues and with roughly half of the country clamoring for increased government control—over health care, socialism, increased regulations, and open borders—we must turn to America’s founding for the answers on how best to proceed into the future.

The Heritage Foundation has compiled input from more than 100 constitutional scholars and legal experts into the country’s most thorough and compelling review of the freedoms promised to us within the United States Constitution into a free digital guide called Heritage’s Guide to the Constitution.

They’re making this guide available to all readers of The Daily Signal for free today!

GET ACCESS NOW! >>

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.