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Michigan officials asked police to help levy ‘threat’ for COVID violators, emails show

June 16, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: INVESTIGATIONS, Judicial Watch

From The Detroit News:

Lansing — Members of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration encouraged local police agencies in October to more aggressively help the state enforce restrictions on mask-wearing and social distancing — invitations they declined — according to emails released through an open records request.

The messages show Robert Gordon, then-director of the state’s health department, pitched the leaders of the Michigan Sheriffs’ Association and Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police on a plan to ask people who saw violations of COVID-19 orders to “contact local police or sheriffs as appropriate.” The organizations rejected the proposal, contending an educational effort would be more effective to gain compliance.

“With COVID-19 cases surging, there is great urgency to encourage masking and social distancing,” Gordon wrote in one email on Oct. 17. “These are the best tools available to slow the rise in cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

“While some people will act because they believe it is important, for others, a credible threat of sanction is likely to be critical.”

…

The emails were included in more than 1,200 pages of documents recently obtained by the conservative group Judicial Watch, which is based in Washington, D.C. The messages reveal a tougher approach Whitmer’s administration was considering taking on enforcement last fall after the Michigan Supreme Court struck down the governor’s ability to issue unilateral executive orders and as a second COVID-19 spike began to take hold.

Col. Joseph Gasper, director of the Michigan State Police, was involved in the discussions, including sending an email that introduced Gordon to Bob Stevenson, executive director of the police chiefs’ association, and Matthew Saxton, executive director of the sheriffs’ association.

Gordon forwarded some of the messages to Mark Totten, Whitmer’s chief legal counsel, including a final note from Saxton, in which he declined to participate in the plan. The request by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services was for the police chiefs’ association and sheriffs’ association to issue statements of support for helping to enforce COVID-19 epidemic orders and to appear at a press conference where the plan would be detailed.

In an Oct. 19 message, Gordon described the proposal as “people who see local violations regarding masks or social distancing can contact local police or sheriffs as appropriate, and they will handle them (with default pathway as report and referral as civil matter; criminal only for egregious).”

Gregg Jarrett: Rep. Adam Schiff’s fury and outrage over seized phone records is a perverse irony

June 16, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: INVESTIGATIONS, Judicial Watch

From Fox News:

Spare me the pious lecture and phony indignation.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., threw an apoplectic fit the other day when he learned that what he did to others was done to him. There is some perverse irony in all of this. But, of course, Schiff neglected to mention his own hypocrisy.

Schiff’s tantrum was triggered by the recent disclosure that the Trump Department of Justice obtained his phone records, along with another California Democrat, Eric Swalwell and several journalists. Their data was seized pursuant to grand jury subpoenas served on Apple in 2017 and 2018 when Schiff was the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and Swalwell was his lackey-in-chief.

At the time, the DOJ was trying to track down government leaks to reporters of classified information involving sensitive national security matters, which constitutes crimes. The Intel Committee was a natural focus, given Schiff’s reputation for politically motivated leaks aimed at harming then-President Trump.

When Schiff learned last Thursday that his phone records had been collected he predictably accused Trump of using the DOJ as a “cudgel against his political opponents and members of the media.” The House Democrat called it “a blatant attack on our democracy.” Cue the feigned outrage and sanctimony.

The insufferably self-righteous Schiff didn’t bother to note that he was guilty of engaging in the exact same tactics. Moreover, he was counting on the mainstream media to conceal it. Naturally, they complied.

Market Extra: Taper tantrum after the Federal Reserve update? Chairman Jerome Powell’s stock-market record is poor

June 16, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: BUSINESS, MarketWatch

Another big update from interest rate-setters at the Federal Open Market Committee is due Wednesday afternoon and investors shouldn’t be faulted for bracing for a bearish reaction to the June Fed policy statement which has market participants on edge watching for a word on tapering asset purchases and inflation.

‘No One Comes Through the Border Illegally Without the Cartels’ Authorization’: How Biden’s Policies Feed a Criminal Monopoly

June 16, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: INVESTIGATIONS, Judicial Watch

From The Daily Signal:

Mexican criminal cartels—not U.S. border communities, nor illegal immigrants—are the beneficiaries of President Joe Biden’s open border policies.

Biden’s neglect of border security is feeding the money-making machine of the Mexican cartels, a criminal enterprise that exploits immigrants by taking their money—and sometimes their lives.

“[The cartels] have the northern border of Mexico sealed,” Jay Whetten, a rancher residing in Cochise County, Arizona, told me in an interview. “Nobody comes through that border illegally without their authorization.”

In May 2021, Border Patrol encounters with illegal immigrants from the Mexican border increased 674% as compared to May 2020, demonstrating the magnitude of the increase in business for Mexican cartels. And, according to a veteran Department of Homeland Security law enforcement officer, these are only the crossings of which Border Patrol is aware.

The officer, who wished to remain anonymous, has extensive border experience and estimates the number to be 20% higher. He told me in an interview, “The cartel makes more money on people than they do on dope.”

…

Chris Farrell, director of investigations and research at Judicial Watch, explained to me in an interview how the cartels’ control of the Mexican border is driven by profit and dehumanizes the people they traffic. Farrell, a former Army counterintelligence officer, has over 18 years of experience investigating the U.S.-Mexican border, including a narco terror plot against Chicago launched from Juarez, Mexico.

“When Americans hear about the humanitarian crisis at the border,” said Farrell, “they should remember that it is fueled by a sophisticated criminal enterprise that is subsidized by the Biden administration’s failure to secure our border.”

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, former head of the Sinaloa Cartel, was listed in Forbes magazine as one of “The World’s Most Powerful People” from 2009 to 2014 and in Forbes “World’s Billionaires List” in 2012. “The Mexican cartels have a valuation greater than Walmart,” said Farrell. “They are not a bunch of thugs hanging out in a trailer someplace.”

As Farrell explained, illegal immigrants who pay cartels are considered “contraband units” that must be moved across the border, not valuable human beings.

“Once they cross the border… humans are a commodity that are expendable. If they die in the desert, the ‘coyotes’ won’t be held accountable,” Farrell said. “Let’s say an alien is injured and can’t continue. They will leave them to die in the desert. A coyote would never leave a bundle of drugs out in the desert.”

The Moneyist: Should we rent out the apartment over our garage in exchange for free housekeeping?

June 15, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: BUSINESS, MarketWatch

‘We are both in our mid-70s and are unlikely to downsize from our present home, which has three bedrooms and offers single-floor living.’

‘Lovecraft Country’ Star Jonathan Majors on ‘Ant-Man 3,’ Joining the MCU and Those ‘Creed’ Rumors

June 15, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: ENTERTAINMENT, Variety

Jonathan Majors had just come from a boxing session with his trainer when he joined me for an interview for Tuesday’s episode of “Just for Variety.” I couldn’t help but wonder if the workout was to prepare him for his upcoming work in the next “Ant-Man” movie or the third “Creed” to be directed by […]

‘Cancel culture, virtue signaling cesspool’: Publishing company launched for conservative authors

June 15, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: INVESTIGATIONS, WND

Quartermaster 2nd Class Margaret Pumphrey, from Richmond, Virginia, lowers the national ensign aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Paul Ignatius during exercise At-Sea Demo/Formidable Shield, May 29, 2021. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Nathan T. Beard)

By Thomas Catenacci
Daily Caller News Foundation

Two former publishing executives have launched a pro-free speech book publisher that will avail its presses to conservatives whose platforms have been canceled.

Conservative authors have increasingly had more trouble getting their books published in major publishing houses recently as the U.S. political environment has become more polarized, the executives, Louise Burke and Kate Hartson told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. The two joined forces to create All Seasons Press as a response to the trend of major book publishers de-platforming conservatives.

“I’m increasingly concerned and somewhat outraged about what’s going on in terms of free speech and free press,” Burke said, according to the WSJ.

“I’m concerned about the canceling of voices that traditionally were always allowed to publish and are meeting resistance from mainstream publishers, particularly former Trump administration members,” she continued.

Burke previously led Simon & Schuster’s Gallery Books Group and Hartson had been the editorial director of Center Street, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, according to the WSJ.

All Seasons Press has already agreed to publish books by at least two officials who worked in former President Donald Trump’s administration, the WSJ reported. The new company will publish books by former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro by the end of the year.

All Seasons will also publish a book by Rush Limbaugh’s long-time radio producer James Golden and an undisclosed fourth book in the fall, according to the WSJ. The publishing house’s goal is to print 10 books next year.

“In a publishing world that has devolved into a Cancel Culture, Virtue Signaling cesspool, it is refreshing to see a new publishing house emerge willing to print books such as my forthcoming volume in the Fall that will speak truth to power,” Navarro told the WSJ in a statement.

This year, Simon & Schuster has canceled book deals with Republican Sen. Josh Hawley and the police officer who shot Breonna Taylor during a 2020 drug raid after receiving significant pushback. A large group of the major publishing house’s employees signed a petition asking the company to cancel its deal to publish former Vice President Mike Pence’s forthcoming memoir, arguing it was “legitimizing bigotry,” the WSJ reported.

“We want to publish authors with great platforms where we can sell hundreds of thousands of books,” Hartson told the WSJ.

This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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 [email protected]

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NewsWatch: It’s meme stock Whac-A-Mole as retail crowd shifts from Petco to pickles to electric cars in two days

June 15, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: BUSINESS, MarketWatch

Meme traders are rushing from pet food to canned food to electric minivans? Must be Reddit working the short sellers again.

GOP senators call for HHS and NIH to hand over records on COVID-19 origins and Wuhan lab

June 15, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: INVESTIGATIONS, Judicial Watch

From The Washington Examiner:

Five Senate Republicans are urging the leaders of the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health to hand over records related to the origins of COVID-19 and China‘s Wuhan Institute of Virology following recent revelations within heavily-redacted emails from Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Sen. Ron Johnson, ranking member on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, along with Sens. Josh Hawley, James Lankford, Rand Paul, and Rick Scott, sent a letter obtained by the Washington Examiner to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and NIH Director Francis Collins on Monday. In the letter, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee members wrote they wanted answers about NIH’s “handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“The recent release of approximately 4,000 pages of NIH email communications and other documents from early 2020 has raised serious questions about NIH’s handling of COVID-19,” the GOP letter said. “Between June 1 and June 4, 2021, the news media and public interest groups released approximately 4,000 pages of NIH emails and other documents these organizations received through Freedom of Information Act requests. These documents, though heavily redacted, have shed new light on NIH’s awareness of the virus’ origins in the early stages of the COVID19 pandemic.”

Newly released emails from early 2020 sent by Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, show he seemed aware of the looming gain-of-function research and Chinese collaboration controversies. They also indicate Fauci worked behind the scenes to promote the natural origins hypothesis.

Lightfoot slammed by member of US Commission on Civil Rights for ‘immoral’ race-based interview policy

June 15, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: INVESTIGATIONS, Judicial Watch

From Fox News:

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was slammed by a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) over her policy that barred White reporters from being granted interviews to mark the midway point of her first term in office.

In a letter sent to Lightfoot that was shared by The Daily Caller’s Thomas Catenacci, USCCR Commissioner Peter Kirsanow invoked the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment which prevents “official conduct discriminating on the basis of race,” something “any elected official in the United States should know.”

“A government official, such as yourself, depriving individuals of opportunities, on the basis of their race is explicitly discriminatory,” Kirsanow wrote. “Government-sanctioned bigotry is the same sort of horrid behavior that Americans of all stripes rejected, fought against, and ultimately conquered decades ago. An objective observer cannot help but wonder why such immoral and un-American attitudes are coming from the Office of the Mayor of Chicago.”