Daily News Roundup - PRICKLY PEAR

Estimated Reading Time: 33 minutes

NOTABLE QUOTES

James A. Nollet contributor to American Thinker: The United States has committed numerous Acts of War against Russia this year. This is not a value judgment. I make no claim here about whether the United States has acted wisely, or has acted with justification. I simply note it. And the world may now be tumbling into an interlocking cycle of escalation beyond control and foreseeable consequences, just as it did in 1914.

Anthony J. DeBlasi contributor to American Thinker: Are those who lead in this country blind to the parallel between what is happening in America and what happened to Europe under Hitler, to Russia under Stalin, to China under Mao? The face should turn red on oath-swearing violators of our Constitution for allowing haters of America to destroy this country, for defying the law of the land, and for betraying the people whom they are elected to serve.

Mort Klein, CEO of the Zionist Organization on America questioned Biden’s pick to replace WH Press Secretary Jen Psaki: “As a child of Holocaust survivors and as an American Jew, I am both appalled and frightened that Biden has chosen as his principal deputy press secretary, Ms. Jean-Pierre, who has shown essentially antisemitic hostility toward Israel and is willing to lie about and vilify Israel and Jews to promote her ugly Israelophobic agenda.”

Revolver.news: Quietly, over the past year, the Biden Administration has put the “great replacement theory” in its crosshairs as dangerous “disinformation” pertaining to migration, even as it enables illegal migration to an unprecedented degree. Now, in May 2022, DHS is eagerly creating a special board to police against disinformation about “irregular migration.” The real intent is obvious: This isn’t about telling Salvadorans and Haitians that America actually does have a secure border. It’s about targeting and crushing the American dissidents who try to point out that it doesn’t.

Samantha Powers USAID head: “Less fertilizer is coming out of Russia. As a result, we’re working with countries to think about natural solutions, like manure and compost. And this may hasten transitions that would have been in the interest of farmers to make anyway. So, never let a crisis go to waste.”

Thomas Ascik Senior Contributor at The Imaginative Conservative: Not only does the Supreme Court regularly overturn prior precedents, it has established rules for doing so.

Carina Benton contributor to The Federalist: For the left, a “pregnant woman” is an expedient political pawn when she wants to extinguish the life of her unborn baby; the rest of the time, it’s an “offensive” phrase that could get you denounced for using “cisnormative” language. It’s time to stop pretending that the cultural Marxists ever wasted any love on women, their bodies, and their unique biological role as life bearers and nurturers.

Glenn Arbery Wyoming Catholic College president and contributor to The Imaginative Conservative: Abortion long ago became a natural symbol for the loss of a spiritual center. Not divine law, but individual will is the measure, and rejecting the child within the body becomes its expression. Challenging Roe v. Wade is not a matter of standing in judgment against women, but of changing a culture of death.

Andrea Widburg contributor to American Thinker: For those who say it was a hard choice, the logical question is “Why? Why was it a hard choice?” If the pro-abortion side is correct — that the fetus is not a baby, is an insensate bundle of cells, is inseparable from the woman’s body so it’s like having an appendix removed, or is lacking the intellectual or emotional capacity to have an existential desire for life — abortion should be no harder than eating chicken for dinner.

Molly Hemmingway and Carrie Severino The Federalist: Get ready for the next iteration of the Kavanaugh circus. Indeed, protecting Roe is what that circus was about in the first place. Now, with Roe itself facing its imminent demise, the left has made itself more dangerous than ever before.

Robert Malone MD MS co-inventor of mRNA technology on his Substack page: The effectiveness of Vitamin D3 as an immune system-boosting prophylactic treatment for influenza and other respiratory RNA viruses was first discovered in 2006 (4, 5). Despite that fact that this treatment is amazingly effective for preventing death (by strengthening your immune system), it has never been investigated by the NIH, promoted by the CDC or by the US government for the treatment of influenza.

Barbara Loe Fisher, Co-Founder & President, NVIC: Out of the Doctors Trial in Nuremberg came the Nuremberg Code, of which Yale law professor, physician and ethicist Jay Katz has said “if not explicitly then at least implicitly, commanded that the principle of the advancement of science bow to a higher principle: protection of individual inviolability. The rights of individuals to thoroughgoing self-determination and autonomy must come first. Scientific advances may be impeded, perhaps even become impossible at times, but this is a price worth paying.”

Barbara Loe Fisher, Co-Founder & President, NVIC: Bioethicists George Annas and Michael Grodin said “Whenever war, politics or ideology treat humans as objects, we all lose our humanity.” Or, as Elie Weisel said, “When you take an idea or a concept and turn it into an abstraction, that opens the way to take human beings and turn them, also, into abstractions.”

Anthony Esolen contributor to American Greatness: Americans are now so tremendously incompetent that any generation of reasonably provident men, maneuvering themselves into work that only men such as they are can do, will enrich themselves in a generation, and seize the levers of power in the next.

45

Schlichter: Yawn – Yet Another Never Trump Loser Sucks Up to the Media

If there’s a genre that’s worn out its welcome, it’s the self-hagiographical tell-all tome by some second-tier Trump administration hack who tries to leverage his track record of failure into a cash advance and some MSNBCNN hits fielding softballs from guys best known for punishing the primate on Zoom calls. How fitting. The latest example is Mark Esper, who would be the worst Secretary of Defense ever if not for the determined competition from the current one. I would not normally name this pompous tool’s ridiculous book, but his title is just too hysterically funny – “A Sacred Oath.” Yeah, he really named it that on purpose – pretentious, self-important, and so utterly DC that you need a heart of stone not to burst into laughter. I won’t link to oathboy’s book, though – instead I’ll link to my new book, which, in stark contrast, is based and will actually be read instead of stuck on a shelf next to the dusty musings of such comparable luminaries as Omarosa and Anonymous. […] It says something about you that you’re Never Trump and yet you feign loyalty to get a political position, then used it to try to obstruct the man America actually elected. So much for Our Democracy.

(5/5/22) President Trump MAGA Rally, Greensburg Pennsylvania –

Watch the rally: https://rumble.com/v13mc57-live-president-donald-j.-trump-in-greensburg-pa.html

The Right Scoop: WATCH: Trump shows video of Biden’s MENTAL COLLAPSE, says he should take competence test “JUST LIKE I DID!”

“Joe Biden should put the question to rest,” said Donald Trump tonight at the Save America rally in Pennsylvania, “by taking a cognitive test and releasing the results for the entire world to see, just like I did! I did it!” He’s right of course. He said this after showing a video of Biden’s embarrassing mental incompetence that would be shocking if we weren’t used to seeing it by this point. From the video to Trump’s demand for a test, this was a great part of the rally.[…] It’s humiliating to us all, and it’s incredibly dangerous, and the media will continue to pretend it’s not happening.]

The Right Scoop: Dr. Mehmet Oz

Watch the 7:50 minute Oz speech: https://therightscoop.com/watch-live-trump-speaks-at-save-america-rally-in-pa-with-dr-oz-j-d-vance-dsouza-and-more/

Gateway Pundit Assistant Editor: WATCH: Dinesh D’Souza Speaks At Save America Rally In PA: “In This Movie, We Show That There Are At Least 400,000 FRAUDULENT VOTES – TRUMP WON THE 2020 ELECTION”

President Trump brought out his good friend and co-creator of 2000 Mules, Dinesh D’Souza, to warm up the crowd and talk about his new film.

Watch D’Souza’s 6 minute speech: https://therightscoop.com/watch-live-trump-speaks-at-save-america-rally-in-pa-with-dr-oz-j-d-vance-dsouza-and-more/

BIDEN’S ORWELLIAN MINISTRY OF TRUTH

Greenwald: Homeland Security’s “Disinformation Board” is Even More Pernicious Than it Seems

The power to decree what is “disinformation” now determines what can and cannot be discussed on the internet. It is now in the hands of trained disinformation agents of the U.S. Security State. […] Indeed, the concept of “anti-disinformation expert” is itself completely fraudulent. This is not a real expertise but rather a concocted title bestowed on propagandists to make them appear more scholarly and apolitical than they are. But the function of this well-funded industry is the same as the one served by the pre-election letter from “dozens of former intelligence officials”: to discredit dissent and justify its censorship by infusing its condemnation with the pretense of institutional authority. The targeted views are not merely wrong; they have been adjudged by official, credentialed experts to constitute “disinformation.” This scam is the critical context for understanding why the Biden Administration casually announced last week the creation of what it is calling a “Disinformation Board” inside the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). There is no conceivable circumstance in which a domestic law enforcement agency like DHS should be claiming the power to decree truth and falsity. Operatives in the U.S. Security State are not devoted to combatting disinformation. The opposite is true: they are trained, career liars tasked with concocting and spreading disinformation. As Politico’s Jack Schafer wrote: . . . […] just as banality can be a vehicle for evil, it can also be a vehicle for repression and tyrannical control. Jankowicz, reacting with horror to Elon Musk’s vow to restore a modicum of free speech to the internet, just last week on NPR touted the virtues of censorship: “I shudder to think about if free speech absolutists were taking over more platforms, what that would look like for the marginalized communities … which are already shouldering … disproportionate amounts of this abuse,” she said. […] While the First Amendment’s free speech guarantee makes enactment of such a criminal scheme in the U.S. more difficult, there is clearly momentum for far greater government action to restrict and punish whatever is deemed to be “disinformation.” Barack Obama delivered a speech about disinformation on April 21 at Stanford University. While heralding himself as “pretty close to a First Amendment absolutist,” he nonetheless insisted that the current censorship regime imposed by Big Tech is insufficient, and that not only must they do more to solve the problem of what he calls “harmful content,” so, too, must the state: . . .

DURHAM INVESTIGATION

Cleveland: Spygate Judge Tries To Protect Hillary Clinton In Latest Pre-Trial Rulings

The Obama-appointed judge presiding over the criminal case against former Hillary Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann let politics trump the law when he declared in a weekend opinion he would not rule on whether the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee conspired with others to peddle the Russia collusion hoax. Special Counsel John Durham charged Sussmann last September in a one-count indictment with making a false statement to then-FBI General Counsel James Baker when Sussmann provided Baker data and “whitepapers” purporting to show a secret communication network between Donald Trump and the Russian-based Alfa Bank. According to the indictment, Sussmann told Baker he was sharing the information on his own, when, in fact, Sussmann represented both tech executive Rodney Joffe and the Clinton campaign. […] Judge Cooper’s efforts to counter the impact of the case on Clinton, and more broadly the Democratic Party, extend beyond merely declaring the “co-conspirator” exception off limits. Rather, in his weekend opinion, after announcing his plan to punt, Judge Cooper proceeded to question the special counsel’s theory, calling the “contours” of the joint “venture and its participants are not entirely obvious.” He then noted he was “particularly skeptical that the researchers” shared in this common goal. Beyond being an unnecessary annotation to a case in which he expressly declined to address the co-conspirator exception, Judge Cooper’s analysis constructed a strawman to destroy. Durham’s team never claimed that the researchers joined in a conspiracy with Clinton directly, and never claimed they intended to peddle the Alfa Bank hoax to the FBI. Rather, the joint venture concerned . . .

SCOTUS & ROE V WADE

Klukowski: Reports: Justice Samuel Alito Moved to Undisclosed Location

Justice Samuel Alito has reportedly been moved to an undisclosed location for safety, after leftwing radicals attempting to intimidate conservative justices for considering overruling Roe v. Wade, all in the name of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, listed conservative justices’ home addresses online.

Militant leftists, including a group called Ruth Sent Us, are trying to physically intimidate the five justices who are expected to sign the final version of Alito’s leaked opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overruling Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, with the other four justices being Clarence Thomas – appointed by Bush 41 – and the three justices appointed by Donald Trump: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.

Nerozzi: Clarence Thomas references Roe v. Wade draft opinion leak, says Supreme Court can’t be ‘bullied’

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas dismissed the idea of pressuring the court for desirable outcomes at a judicial conference Friday. Thomas spoke at the 11th Circuit judicial conference in Atlanta this week, where he discussed the Supreme Court’s leaked draft opinion for the first time. The opinion would overturn Roe v. Wade if made official, sparking panic among Democrats and protests against the court. “We can’t be an institution that can be bullied into giving you just the outcomes you want. The events from earlier this week are a symptom of that.,” Thomas said, according to reports.

Volokh: Federal Statute Bans Picketing Judges’ Residences “With The Intent of Influencing [the] Judge”

There’s been talk of protests outside Supreme Court Justices’ homes; but it appears likely that such protests are illegal, under 18 U.S.C. § 1507 (subsection numbers added), 1. Whoever, 2. with the intent of interfering with, obstructing, or impeding the administration of justice, or with the intent of influencing any judge, juror, witness, or court officer, in the discharge of his duty, 3. pickets or parades in or near a building housing a court of the United States, or 4. . . . 5 . . .6 . . . A similar provision focused just on picketing outside courts (equivalent to subsection 3 above) was upheld in Cox v. Louisiana (1965); and the logic of that decision would apply equally to residential picketing (subsection 4 above). [UPDATE: Note that U.S. v. Grace (1983), struck down a total ban on demonstrations near the Supreme Court; but the law there was “not limited to expressive activities that are intended to interfere with, obstruct, or impede the administration of justice,” as Justice Marshall’s separate opinion noted.] Here is Cox’s logic, which was set forth in a protest of an impending trial, but which I think would apply to protests of an impending appellate decision as well: . . .

Martinez & Anderson: ‘You don’t care if people die’: Pro-abortion protestors target homes of Justices Kavanaugh and Roberts after White House failed to deter them

Furious pro-choice protesters screamed ‘you don’t care if people die’ while picketing the house of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. Dozens of demonstrators on Saturday gathered in the rain in DC and marched towards the homes of conservative Justices Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh in response to the leaked Supreme Court draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Images of coat hangers were chalked on the street outside the justices’ homes, an apparent attempt to reinforce the pro-choice argument that overturning Roe v. Wade will not put an end to abortion, but instead will end safe abortions.

‘Keep abortion safe and legal,’ the pro-abortion protesters chanted while they stood in the streets holding candles and signs. Others shouted: ‘Your life is a lie!’ and ‘We will not go back!’ […] Fox News reporter Peter Doocy, who has a history of clashing with Psaki, questioned an earlier statement from Joe Biden, alleging the ‘MAGA crowd’ was the ‘most extreme political organization’ in recent history. ‘Do you think the progressive activists that are now planning protests outside some of the justices’ houses are extreme?’ he asked the press secretary. ‘Peaceful protest, no. Peaceful protest is not extreme,’ Psaki answered. ‘We certainly encourage people to keep it peaceful and not resort to any level of violence.’ ‘The president’s view is that there’s a lot of passion, a lot of fear, a lot of sadness, from many, many people across this country about what they saw in that leaked document.’

When further pressed about the planned residential protests, Psaki declined to discourage the demonstrations.

PELOSI’S ARMY: THE CAPITOL POLICE

Ballasy: Congressman says watchdog found police entered his office for ‘criminal’ probe, not open door

Texas Republican Rep. Troy Nehls says a forthcoming Inspector General report will show he was “under criminal investigation” when Capitol Police officers entered his Capitol Hill office and began taking photos in November 2021. […] Chief J. Thomas Manger said an officer saw that Nehls’ office door was left “wide open,” and that if a member’s office is vacant, left open and unsecured, “officers are directed to document that and secure the office to ensure nobody can wander in and steal or do anything else nefarious,” according to the newspaper Roll Call. A couple of days later, Capitol Police personnel reportedly followed up with Nehls’ staff and determined there was no need for investigation or further action, Manger said. Nehls said that on Nov. 22, three department intelligence officers tried to enter his office and that upon discovering that one of his staffers was present, the Capitol Police special agents, who he said were dressed like construction workers, questioned the staffer on the contents of a photograph that was taken. Nehls said the department never told him or senior staff of “their investigation,” Roll Call also reports.

2020 ELECTION

Doc’s FidoSysop Archive: Tucker Carlson Interview Catherine Engelbrecht True The Vote

Tucker Carlson’s eye-dropping interview on 05/05/22 with Catherine Engelbrecht of #TrueTheVote who compiled the data in the #2000MulesMovie exposes the blatant drop-off ballot fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election.

Watch the 11:43 minute video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8fsx1PcxPk

Hoft: NOTE TO STACEY ABRAMS – FIND A GOOD LAWYER: True the Vote Announces They Are Releasing Addresses of ALL Ballot Trafficking Stash Houses

Last night Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips announced they will be releasing ALL of the addresses of the ballot stash houses. Stacey Abrams may want to find a good lawyer. On Saturday night, political columnist Brian Cates posted this on the stash houses: Tonight during the virtual premiere of “2000 Mules”, Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips announced they will be releasing ALL the addresses of the stash houses run by the NGOs that were orchestrating this massive criminal racketeering operation in multiple states.

Grayer & Cohen: Michigan State Police seize voting machine, expand investigation into possible breaches

In a raid last Friday, state police seized one voting machine tabulator in Irving Township, Barry County Clerk Pamela Palmer told CNN on Thursday. Palmer told CNN that she was not aware of any issues until police notified her of the voting machine seizure. Michigan State Police first opened its investigation into potential voting machine breaches in February after the Secretary of State’s Office notified it that an unnamed third party was allowed to access vote tabulator components and technology in Roscommon County. Michigan State Police Lt. Derrick Carroll told CNN on Wednesday that the department’s investigation has expanded to more counties where they were notified of breaches of election systems, but would not confirm the seizure in Irving Township specifically.

2022/2024 ELECTIONS

Hoft: Conservative Candidates WIN BIG in Tarrant County Texas School Board Elections — 10 of 11 Conservatives Win in a Blow to the Radical Left

The one candidate backed by the groups who didn’t win outright advances to a runoff election in June. The 10 candidates won the school board races for the Grapevine-Colleyville, Keller, Mansfield and Carroll school districts. The candidates’ sweep shows a large swath of voters across the county responded to their calls to eradicate so-called critical race theory from classrooms and remove books discussing LGBTQ issues, which concerned parents have described as “pornographic.”

Martin: Why Won’t Biden Explain Why He’s Getting Federal Agencies To Meddle In Local Elections?

Despite promises of transparency, the Biden administration is hiding its plans to undermine state control over election laws. Last spring, the White House issued Executive Order (EO) 14019, “Promoting Access to Voting.” The EO required every federal agency to submit a plan to register voters and encourage voter participation. It also required agencies to form strategies to invite non-governmental third parties to register voters. To date, few details have been released—and naturally, there are questions. What will these plans involve? To what degree and why will federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Defense, the Bureau of Land Management, and others be involved in get-out-the-vote drives? Who will determine that third parties selected to register voters are appropriately non-partisan? The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) responded to rising concerns about the ambiguity and radio silence on the details of this EO by submitting a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in July 2021. We wanted answers to completely reasonable questions about the EO, but the administration ignored our FOIA request. To date, no federal agency has responded with the records we requested. What is the administration trying to hide? We’ve got an answer: . . .

Kruta: ‘You Weasel’: Arizona Senate Candidate Blows Up At Reporter Over Hit Piece Claiming He’d Ban Birth Control

Arizona Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters unloaded on a local reporter over a hit piece claiming that he was in favor of banning the use of contraception. “Hey @DillonReedRose you are a hack. This piece wildly misrepresents my views, which was your goal. Time for a thread about journalistic ethics & the way reporters shamelessly attack anyone to the right of AOC,” Masters began. […] Masters went on to argue that the reason for the dishonest reporting could be rooted in the fact that unlimited abortion through all nine months of pregnancy is less popular than the left would like — and the response was a media willing to resort to “baselessly smearing Republicans, and calling it ‘fact checking.’”

VDH: The Exasperated American

A large majority of Americans now have no confidence in Joe Biden and his administration, which often polls below 40 percent, with negatives nearing 60 percent. Despite the 15-month catastrophe of his regime, the level of his own unpopularity remains understandable but still remarkable. After all, in 2020 voters already knew well of his cognitive deficits and the radicalism of his agenda. They saw both clearly starting in 2019 and during the 2020 Democratic primaries, the primary debates, and the general election. So what did Biden’s voters imagine would happen when a cognitively challenged president, controlled by hard-Left subordinates, entered office—other than what he has done? Now, as then, the media is fused to the progressive agenda and does—and did—its best to turn a non-compos mentis Biden into a bite-your-lip centrist empath in the Bill Clinton “I feel your pain” mode. The American people know that on every occasion their president speaks, he . . .

JANUARY 6

Sundance: Sunday Talks, Eric Holder Says AG Garland Should use J6 Investigation to Indict Donald Trump

In this interview former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, a man of highly corrupt character, is asked about current Attorney General Merrick Garland and the January 6, 2021, DC insurrection witch trials [06:49 prompted].

Kelly: Justice Department Threatens Oath Keepers with Life in Prison

In a letter obtained by American Greatness, the U.S. Department of Justice is threatening defendants charged with seditious conspiracy in the sprawling Oath Keepers case to accept plea deals or face life in prison. Matthew Graves, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia handling every prosecution related to the events of January 6, 2021, imposed a May 6 deadline for the remaining defendants to accept plea deals. Three men have pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy; nine others, including Oath Keepers’ founder Stewart Rhodes, have rejected government attempts to reach a plea. “We write to advise you of applicable penalties that could apply upon conviction at trial,” Graves’ chief prosecutor in the case, Kathyrn Rakoczy, wrote to defense attorneys in a letter dated May 2. (Every January 6 defendant who has faced a jury trial in Washington, D.C. has been found guilty on all charges by jurors following brief deliberations.) After detailing the hefty prison sentences and fines associated with other offenses charged in the case, Rakoczy turned to the potential sentence for seditious conspiracy, a crime so rare that federal sentencing guidelines don’t cover it. “The United States takes the position that the most analogous offense to seditious conspiracy is ‘Treason,’” Rakoczy wrote. If a jury concludes the conspiracy involved conduct “that is tantamount to waging war against the United States,” Rakoczy explained, the government could seek a life sentence upon conviction.

Folmar: Jim Jordan condemns FBI for alleged plans to fire Jan. 6 protesters

House representatives learned of the FBI’s plans from whistleblowers who were present at Jan. 6 protests. “Because a security clearance is required for FBI positions, the suspension of the security clearance means the FBI has suspended these employees from work indefinitely. Such a suspension is likely to be the first step in terminating employment,” the letter said. The FBI allegedly cited a guideline pertaining to “Allegiance to the United States” in its alerts to suspend the security clearances of the protesters, “implying that the FBI believes the employees who attended protests on January 6 are no longer loyal to the United States.” […] “The totality of the FBI’s actions as relayed to us present the appearance that the FBI may be retaliating against these employees for disfavored political speech,” he added.

Brumback: Judge: Marjorie Taylor Greene is qualified for reelection

A judge in Georgia on Friday found that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) can run for reelection, rejecting arguments from a group of voters who had challenged her eligibility over allegations that she engaged in insurrection. But the decision will ultimately be up to Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. State Administrative Law Judge Charles Beaudrot announced his decision after a daylong hearing in April that included arguments from lawyers for the voters and for Greene, as well as extensive questioning of Greene herself. State law says Beaudrot must submit his findings to Raffensperger, who has to decide whether Greene should be removed from the ballot.

BIDEN’S UNCONSTITUTIONAL VACCINE MANDATES

Laila: Biden Regime Warns Covid Could Infect 100 Million This Fall… Just in Time For the Midterm Elections

Without offering up any new data, a senior Biden Administration official on Friday projected 100 million Americans – or approximately 1/3 of the population – could get infected with Covid this fall/early winter if Congress doesn’t provide more funding for vaccines and treatment. And several so-called ‘experts’ agreed that a major Covid wave is around the corner because of waning immunity from Covid vaccines.

Redshaw: More Than 8,000 New COVID Vaccine Injuries Reported to VAERS, CDC Data Show

VAERS data released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention included a total of 1,255,355 reports of adverse events from all age groups following COVID-19 vaccines, including 27,758 deaths and 226,703 serious injuries between Dec. 14, 2020, and April 29, 2022. […] In the U.S., 575 million COVID-19 vaccine doses had been administered as of April 29, including 339 million doses of Pfizer, 217 million doses of Moderna and 19 million doses of Johnson & Johnson (J&J).

The Defender Staff: Bill Allowing Preteen Vaccines Without Parental OK Advances

A California measure that would allow children age 12 and up to be vaccinated without their parents’ consent, including against the coronavirus, cleared its first legislative hurdle Thursday. If the proposal becomes law, California would allow the youngest age group of any state to be vaccinated without parental permission. California state law already allows people 12 and older to consent to the Hepatitis B and Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines.

Fisher: The Moral Right to Conscientious, Philosophical and Personal Belief: Exemption to Vaccination

The right to informed consent as an overarching ethical principle in the practice of medicine for which vaccination should be no exception. We maintain this is a responsible and ethically justifiable position to take in light of the fact that vaccination is a medical intervention performed on a healthy person that has the inherent ability to result in the injury or death of that healthy person. The reason that informed consent has been increasingly adopted, since World War II, as the guiding ethical principle governing the patient-physician relationship, is as deeply rooted in the comparatively new discipline of political science as it is in more ancient philosophies. At the heart of medicine’s struggle to come to grips with a human being’s right to informed consent to medical intervention, is a challenge to one tenet of the Hippocratic philosophy in the practice of medicine, that is, that the physician and the physician alone should determine which medical intervention will benefit the patient. […] But even if the Nuremberg Code and Helsinki Declarations had never been promulgated and pointed us toward the morality of accepting the human right to informed consent to medical interventions that can kill or injure us, there is the strong Judeo-Christian ethical tradition that protects the sacred right of the individual to exercise freedom of conscience even if it conflicts with a secular law of the state. […] Bioethicists George Annas and Michael Grodin said “Whenever war, politics or ideology treat humans as objects, we all lose our humanity.” Or, as Elie Weisel said, “When you take an idea or a concept and turn it into an abstraction, that opens the way to take human beings and turn them, also, into abstractions.” […] Philosopher Hans Jonas, in one of the most brilliant and moving essays I have ever read on the subject of bioethics, reminds us that a state may have the right to ask an individual to volunteer to die for what the state has defined as the common good but rarely, if ever, does a state have the moral authority to command it. Like Dr. Walsh, Jonas warned of the extraordinary emergency circumstances that should be in effect before the state can ethically override individual autonomy. He concluded: . . .

BIDEN/HARRIS/OBAMA REGIME: TRANSFORMING FOREIGN POLICY

Nollet: The United States Has Committed Numerous Acts of War Against Russia

The American Acts of War against Russia come in two flavors: 1) economic sanctions, and 2) transfer of weapons and intelligence to a belligerent with whom Russia is at war. The history of the lead-up to World War II shows both of these at work. Economic Acts of War Japan attacked the United States in 1941 despite the fact that America had never fired a shot at Japan, had never invaded any Japanese-held territory, and had never armed anybody Japan was fighting. Japan attacked the United States purely for economic reasons. It attacked in response to American economic sanctions against Japan, which in turn were in response to Japan’s ongoing war in China. America had embargoed exports of oil, steel, and rubber to Japan, all vital war materials. To assure its continued access to these things, Japan felt it was forced to attack Southeast Asia and various islands in the Indo-Pacific Oceans. Knowing that this would draw the United States into war, Japan decided on pre-emptive attacks on Pearl Harbor and the Philippine Islands, and so began America’s participation in World War II. Japan regard economic sanctions as Acts of War, and acted accordingly. In the Atlantic Ocean, the United States committed numerous overt Acts of War against Nazi Germany, in violation of its own and Germany’s neutrality. Four days after Pearl Harbor, Adolf Hitler asked his Reichstag for a Declaration of War against the United States. Below are some of the purported violations of German neutrality committed by the United States which Hitler cited in his speech: . . .

CHINA: AMERICA’S MORTAL ENEMY

Bergman: China Accelerates Nuclear Buildup, Military Modernization; Biden Speeding U.S. to Defeat

“The PRC likely intends to have at least 1,000 warheads by 2030, exceeding the pace and size the DoD projected in 2020.” — Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2021, US Dept. of Defense. “In space, China is putting up satellites at twice the rate of the United States and “fielding operational systems at an incredible rate.” — General David Thompson, the Space Force’s first vice chief of space operations, quoted in The Washington Post, November 30, 2021. “Look at what they [CCP) have today…. We’re witnessing one of the largest shifts in global geostrategic power that the world has witnessed.” — General Mark Milley, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, breakingdefense.com, November 4, 2021. […] China is no longer merely “pursuing” a nuclear triad but appears to have already achieved the basics of it: “The PRC has possibly already established a nascent ‘nuclear triad’ with the development of a nuclear-capable air-launched ballistic missile (ALBM) and improvement of its ground and sea-based nuclear capabilities.” China, according to the report, is also “constructing the infrastructure necessary to support this force expansion, including increasing its capacity to produce and separate plutonium by constructing fast breeder reactors and reprocessing facilities,” while “building hundreds of new ICBM silos, and is on the cusp of a large silo-based ICBM force expansion comparable to those undertaken by other major powers.”

Reuters & Solomons: China carries out fresh round of military exercises near Taiwan after sending 18 warplanes into its air defence zone last week

The Chinese army sent aircraft into Taiwan‘s air defence zone over the weekend to ‘test and improve their combat capability’, Beijing said. Taiwan had scrambled aircraft and readied missile defences when 18 Chinese jets violated its air defence identification zone (ADIZ) on Friday. The People’s Liberation Army manoeuvres were repeated on Saturday and Sunday. Beijing’s Eastern Theatre Command said in a statement that naval and air force assets carried out the drills to ‘further test and improve the joint combat capability of multiple services and arms’.

BIDEN/HARRIS/OBAMA REGIME: TRANSFORMING AMERICA

Hammer : Why is Joe Biden doing nothing to help desperate US babies? Parents and politicians slam president for failing to intervene in baby formula crisis as distressed dad says ‘never did I think I would have a problem finding food for my baby in America’

Parents and politicians alike are slamming President Biden for his failure to address the US’ ongoing baby formula shortage – with one distressed dad saying ‘never did I think I would have a problem finding food for my baby in America.’ The backlash against Biden comes as the formula shortage has reached crisis levels in recent weeks, with at least 12 states facing 40 percent or higher out of stock rates. As shelves across the country meant to carry formula remain largely barren, parents such as Russell Bleck, a husband and father in Lexington, Kentucky, have become desperate to get their hands on the all important product.

Fox News: Mother speaking out against baby formula crisis as supply sinks 40% since April: ‘Unbelievable’ Watch the video:https://video.foxnews.com/v/6305816871112#sp=show-clips

Fox News: Baby formula shortage sends Tennessee mom of 8-month-old into a ‘panic’: ‘I broke down’ (44% of baby formula is produced in China) Watch the video:https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/baby-formula-shortage-tennessee-mom-panic

Rigolizzo: Biden’s Job Approval Is Underwater In All But Four States: Poll

The Civiqs poll of nearly 200,000 respondents across all 50 states found that just 36% of registered voters approve of the job Biden is doing so far, compared to 54% who disapprove. The poll also found that Biden is seeing a positive net approval rating in just four states: Vermont, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Hawaii.

War Room: Lara Logan on the Southern Border: The Destruction of a Nation

Report Lara Logan joins Steve Bannon in the “War Room” to talk about election fraud, immigration insanity and more. “I’ve never experienced the sort of intentional and wanton destruction of a nation. All the places that I’ve been, sure there’s been combat which is uncontrollable… and very dangerous, but what we are seeing at the southern border is like nothing we have witnessed or experienced in our lifetime. Here you have literally an administration in place that doesn’t believe in sovereignty…. They believe in open borders.”

Watch the 14:29 minute interview: https://warroom.org/2022/05/07/lara-logan-on-the-southern-border-the-destruction-of-a-nation/

Brownstein: The Threat to Liberty is Coming from Inside the House

You might be, as I am, alarmed about the future of liberty. How deep are the roots of liberty when so many submit to authoritarian measures in response to COVID, and approve the use of coercion against those less eager to comply? Unable to visualize alternatives, public acceptance of top-down coercive solutions to COVID demonstrates a willingness to sacrifice liberty for the promise of safety. To restore liberty, our understanding of liberty needs to deepen. The prolific author and educator Leonard Read is most famous for his timeless essay “I, Pencil.” In one of his earlier works, Students of Liberty, based on a 1950 talk he delivered to economics students at the University of Pittsburgh, Read clarifies in simple terms what liberty is and the mindset that must be restored. Read writes, “Liberty— the absence of coercion or violence— is not readily comprehended.” He explains that the absence of coercion and violence is not readily comprehended because “relatively few among those who have lived on this earth have been able to visualize any order in society, or any progress by those who compose it, except as the will of some has been imposed on the actions of others.” Tellingly, Read adds, “History, for the most part, is a record of violence. Present-day talk and writing— history in the making— for the most part is an argument for the rearrangement of the rules of violence.” History is being made not merely by governments and bureaucrats but by our fellow Americans. The results of this Rasmussen poll conducted earlier this year reveal a readiness of the American public to rearrange the “rules of violence:”

Sundance: Good News 428,000 Jobs Added in April, Bad News April Employment Drops by 363,000 Workers

The employment news has everyone confused. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) reports today 428,000 jobs were added [DATA HERE] which is good. We want to see people getting back to work. However, simultaneously the number of people employed dropped by 363,000 and the labor participation rate dropped from 62.4 last month to 62.2 this month [Table A, DATA]. The unemployment rate remains unchanged at 3.6 percent. That wildly conflicting set of data has led to a seriously frantic discussion about what is going on. Here’s my take…. The majority of the irreconcilable data can be reconciled on this one basic Main Street employment scenario that is never tracked, people are job jumping.

Hemmingway: The Kavanaugh Circus Continues, More Dangerous Than Ever

The left failed to defeat Kavanaugh in 2018, but they did not shed their radicalism — they only got more strident. Less than a year went by before Democratic senators threatened the Court in an amicus brief with restructuring if it did not rule the way they preferred. In 2020, then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer threatened Justices Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch by name in front of the Supreme Court after oral arguments in an abortion case, warning that they would “pay the price” for a disagreeable decision. Now that the Court appears poised to finally overturn Roe v. Wade and correct one of the greatest acts of judicial arrogance in American history, the radical Left appears intent on following through with Senator Schumer’s threat. When asked whether President Biden supports the doxxing of Supreme Court justices, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki refused to criticize the tactic, glibly remarking that “I think the president’s view is that there is a lot of passion.” What an appalling abdication of responsibility. Who Funds ‘Ruth Sent Us’? The website links to a different organization, Strike for Choice, which shows connections to groups including Black Lives Matter, Code Pink, Women’s March SF, Kavanaugh Off Our Court, and Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights. How exactly are these groups connected?

Bonchie: Joe Biden to Skate on Possible Tax Evasion After His Extreme Hypocrisy Is Revealed

In news that will surprise absolutely no one, it is being reported that Joe Biden is not going to be held accountable for possibly evading taxes. That comes after the IRS rejected a whistleblower complaint alleging the president owes at least $127,000 in back taxes, with others suggesting it’s as much as $500,000.

The news comes per The New York Post, which saw a copy of the denial letter. President Biden is likely to avoid an audit that could reveal whether he made money from his son Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings — because the Internal Revenue Service . . ..[…] But while the IRS will target conservative non-profits and audit Donald Trump every year, they apparently just don’t have the will to look into Biden’s screwed-up finances. I’m sure that’s just a coincidence and not at all a politicized decision, right? […] Apparently, paying one’s “fair share” doesn’t apply to Democrat presidents, though. I mean, if you are going to skip out on taxes . . .

RNC Research tweet: BIDEN: “Even back in the old days when we had real segregationists — like [James] Eastland and [Strom] Thurmond and all those guys — at least we’d end up eating lunch together”

Watch the 10 second clip: https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1522658735272902656?cxt=HHwWgICy4ayDyaEqAAAA

FROM HIS DELAWARE BASEMENT TO A FAUX WHITE HOUSE SET

Anderson: Tethered to the Teleprompter: Biden Steers Clear of Oval Office for Rooms That Accommodate Bulky Device

Sixteen months into his term, President Joe Biden has delivered fewer than half as many public remarks from the Oval Office as his predecessor. The reason: The office is too small to accommodate the geriatric president’s teleprompter. […] Biden’s need to use a sizable teleprompter for routine press events calls into question his ability to campaign for a second term. The 79-year-old president used the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 to largely campaign from his Delaware mansion’s basement, a luxury he almost certainly cannot afford in 2024. […] Biden’s White House set features fake windows that show a digital view of the Rose Garden. In late September, the Democrat used the space to receive his COVID-19 booster shot on live television. Roughly one week later, in October, Biden sat in front of the digital window to hold a roundtable with business leaders and CEOs.

THE BIG GUY’S SON

Devine, Hernandez & Reilly: Hollywood lawyer paid off over $2M of Hunter Biden’s delinquent taxes

Kevin Morris, an entertainment attorney and novelist who earned a fortune representing the co-creators of “South Park” and won a Tony Award as the co-producer of “The Book of Mormon,” footed Hunter Biden’s overdue taxes totaling over $2 million — more than twice what was previously reported, a source familiar with conversations between the two told The Post. Morris, whom Hunter Biden’s friends call his latest “sugar brother,” has also been funding the 52-year-old’s lifestyle in Los Angeles — including his rent and living expenses, the source said. The attorney has also been advising the president’s son on how to structure his art sales, according to the source.

Wilson: Mac Shop Repairman Reveals Hunter Biden’s Obscene Password In New Book

A new book reveals the password Hunter Biden used on one of the laptops he abandoned at a Delaware repair shop, and it is just as sick and perverted as critics of the president’s son might expect.

In his new book, “American Injustice: My Battle to Expose the Truth,” John Paul Mac Isaac described the events of April 12, 2019, when a tipsy Biden came into his shop with three damaged MacBook Pro computers and asked for help retrieving data, according to an excerpt obtained by the New York Post.

“I need the data recovered off these, but they all have liquid damage and won’t turn on,” Mac Isaac wrote, recalling the first son’s instructions. When Isaac examined one of the laptops and asked Biden for his password, Biden started laughing, according to the book. […] Isaac, whose book is due out November 22, on Wednesday filed suit against Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), CNN, the Daily Beast, and Politico, claiming they falsely accused him of promoting Russian disinformation.

PEACEFULLY & PATRIOTICALLY HAVE YOUR VOICES HEARD

Wilson: Arizona Parents Sue Woke School Board Over Spying, ‘Dossier’ Claims

The parents, Amanda Wray, Kimberly Stafford, and Edmond Richard, filed suit against the Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) board and Jann-Michael Greenburg, saying they were targeted for raising objections. Greenburg’s father, Mark Greenburg, was allegedly behind a Google drive that contained the personal information, business and mortgage records, photos, and even video of dozens of people, including children. “[These] tactics went far beyond the usual bag of dirty tricks common in politics,” said Harmeet Dhillon, the attorney representing the parents. “The Greenburgs made strategic use of the dossier Mark maintained in order bully critics into silence.

CLIMATE EMERGENCY: IT’S POLITICAL

Worcester: US and World Gripped by Fertilizer Crisis

Fertilizer shortages should be used to hasten environmental transitions, official says. […] While political rhetoric has often focused on Russia, the rise in fertilizer prices did not begin with its invasion of Ukraine. An analysis from the Peterson Institute of International Economics shows that fertilizer prices have rapidly climbed since mid-2021, spiking first in late 2021 and again around the time of the invasion. Industry observers have pointed out that commodity prices are not solely affected by Vladimir Putin. […] Natural gas is used in the Haber-Bosch process, which generates the ammonia in nitrogen fertilizers. Those fertilizers feed half the planet. Gagliardi thinks the picture is more complicated at home, where environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) has become a controversial tool of stakeholder capitalism, often used to force divestment from fossil fuels or other industries disfavored by the left.

[…] In the case of increasing costs for oil, natural gas, and coal, some politicians and green activists have argued that those fast-rising prices mark an opportunity to accelerate a move from hydrocarbons to wind, solar, and electrification. […] Though Power’s remarks were consistent with talking points from Democrats, WEF, the EU, and similar factions, they came at a particularly inconvenient moment for advocates of organic fertilizer—Sri Lanka’s recent experiment with abandoning chemical fertilizer has plunged the island nation into chaos that shows no signs of letting up.

According to a 2021 report from the USDA Foreign Agriculture service, Sri Lankan agricultural economists warned that a rapid shift from chemical to organic fertilizers “will result in significant drops in crop yields.” The country has since had to compensate one million of its farmers to the tune of $200 million, as reported by Al Jazeera.

Harris: How The Climate Crusade Hijacked the Environmental Movement

Modern environmentalism has been taken over by an extremist cult that threatens to destroy the movement. This cult preys especially on young and impressionable people who lack the life experience to recognize when their goodwill and altruism are being taken advantage of. Like most cults, it is not backed by sound science, engineering, economics, or public policy. Yet it has been adopted by the elites in society—media, government, educators, corporate leaders, and even church officials—as a de facto social good that cannot be contested. The cult is a belief in dangerous man-made climate change, of course. This entirely bogus crusade now thoroughly dominates the environmental movement. Take Earth Day, just past April 22^nd, for example. On Earth Day, “climate” appeared 10 times on the earthday.org home page. The first action item on the Greenpeace USA home page was a link to a new climate communications report. The United Nations International Mother Earth Day home page cited . . . […] “The primary focus of the environmental movement has shifted toward long-term threats like global warming — issues about which Americans tend to worry less than about more immediate threats like pollution. Importantly, even as global warming has received greater attention as an environmental problem from politicians and the media in recent years, Americans’ worry about it is no higher now than when Gallup first asked about it in 1989.”

OTHER NEWS

Lepore: Elon Musk is threatened by the head of Russia’s space agency for providing internet to Ukrainians: SpaceX CEO jokes ‘if I die under mysterious circumstances, it’s been nice knowin’ ya’ – but his mom Maye doesn’t find it funny

Musk, 50, has been using Starlink – a constellation of more than 2,000 satellites in low Earth orbit – to beam internet connections to dishes around the world. The service has a large presence in Ukraine, introduced with the explicit intention of keeping the country online amid the ongoing Russian invasion.

The billionaire said they had ‘resisted hacking and jamming attempts’ from the Russians back in April and were focusing SpaceX efforts on counter measures – at the expense of other projects. Musk tweeted out information provided by Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, to the Russian media on Sunday night. Rogozin posted the statement himself on Telegram. Rogozin – who just yesterday boasted that Russia could destroy all NATO countries ‘in half a hour’ – accuses Musk of giving Starlink equipment to what they refer to as the ‘Nazi Azov Battalion’ as well as branches of the Ukrainian military.

Barkoukis: Major Company Bails on Crime-plagued Chicago

While the company said it will maintain a “strong presence” in Chicago and the state of Illinois, its new global headquarters will be based in Arlington, Virginia. “We are excited to build on our foundation here in Northern Virginia. The region makes strategic sense for our global headquarters given its proximity to our customers and stakeholders, and its access to world-class engineering and technical talent,” said Boeing President and Chief Executive Officer Dave Calhoun.

Bonchie: Latest Hit Piece on Madison Cawthorn Is Laughably Dumb

There are people who really, really don’t want Rep. Madison Cawthorn to be re-elected to the House. First, leftwing activist groups tried to get him thrown off the ballot, asserting that he fomented an “insurrection.” Then, a series of opposition research dumps focusing on his immature antics have come to haunt the congressman. […] Now, as weird and ill-advised as that stuff is, there is a level of “guys doing stupid crap” in all of it. More than a fair share of men will likely admit to making homoerotic jokes with friends in their younger years. Still, I can understand if someone looks at those instances and says, “Yeah, I don’t think this person should be in Congress.” […] Yet, the latest hit piece on Cawthorn is enough that I’ll jump in and defend him. Read the following headline and tell me what you think it’s trying to project. […] Meanwhile, if news organizations are looking for actual scandals involving campaign funds being paid to family members, they should start with Ilhan Omar and Maxine Waters. The former has funneled over a million dollars to the “consulting” company of her now-husband (and payments were made while they were having an affair). The latter has paid her daughter over a million dollars with campaign funds.

Lodewick: Job interest in Twitter skyrocketed more than 250% since Elon Musk moved to take over. But current employees are nervous.

While countless Musk fans, and a slight majority of Americans—59%—approve of the takeover according to recent data from The Harris Poll, some current Twitter staff worry that it will dramatically change the company’s culture, and overall direction. It’s still unclear how a Musk-run Twitter might impact the company’s ability to retain current staff and recruit new employees. The company presented the takeover as a potential threat to its staffing abilities in an SEC filing Monday. But at least casual interest in open positions at the company has skyrocketed since the Tesla billionaire showed serious interest in taking over the company. On Thursday, Daniel Zhao, a senior economist and data scientist at the job insights platform Glassdoor, tweeted that interest in job openings at the social media giant was up 263% between April 24 and April 30.

Hoft: Elon Musk’s Tesla Will Pay Travel and Living Costs for Employees Seeking Out-of-State Abortions

According to the company’s 2021 impact report released on Friday, since 2021, “an expanded Safety Net program and health insurance offering that includes travel and lodging support for those who may need to seek healthcare services that are unavailable in their home state.”

Last year, Tesla moved its headquarters from Palo Alto, California to Austin, Texas which has a strict abortion law.

May: This is what a black hole sounds like: NASA releases audio recorded by its Chandra X-ray observatory and it sounds like a Hans Zimmer score

NASA scientists have released the audio of a black hole at the centre of Perseus galaxy cluster more than 200 million lightyears away from earth. The sound waves in the were recorded by NASA’s space telescope, the Chandra X-ray observatory, in the form of astronomical data, then translated into sound that humans can hear. Although there is a ‘popular misconception’ that there is ‘no sound in space’ because there is no medium for sound waves to travel, the newly-released audio sounds a lot like a Hans Zimmer score. […] Composer Hans Zimmer, who has written the soundtracks to Oscar-winning science fiction film Interstellar, has created music eerily similar to that of NASA’s latest sound bite.

The Prickly Pear’s TAKE ACTION focus this year is to help achieve a winning 2024 national and state November 5th election with the removal of the Biden/Obama leftist executive branch disaster, win one U.S. Senate seat, maintain and win strong majorities in all Arizona state offices on the ballot and to insure that unrestricted abortion is not constitutionally embedded in our laws and culture.

Please click the TAKE ACTION link to learn to do’s and don’ts for voting in 2024. Our state and national elections are at great risk from the very aggressive and radical leftist Democrat operatives with documented rigging, mail-in voter fraud and illegals voting across the country (yes, with illegals voting across the country) in the last several election cycles.

Read Part 1 and Part 2 of The Prickly Pear essays entitled How NOT to Vote in the November 5, 2024 Election in Arizona to be well informed of the above issues and to vote in a way to ensure the most likely chance your vote will be counted and counted as you intend.

Please click the following link to learn more.

TAKE ACTION