Category: Goobermint

with apologies to the Bard.
“Sounds? Nay, it is. I know not ‘sounds’. ”

Joe Biden’s ‘Vaccine Passport’ Sounds Like Precursor to China’s Social Credit Score.

Even as the nation begins to round the corner on the coronavirus pandemic, Joe Biden and his Democratic buddies don’t want what’s left of the crisis to go to waste. Enter his “vaccine passports.”

Biden’s White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki says any vaccine passports will be outsourced to Big Tech, but Acting Medicare and Medicaid Services chief, Andy Slavitt, says, “This is going to hit all parts of society, and so naturally, the government is involved.”

Outsourcing Vaccine Passport to Big Tech

The passport sounds like the continuation of ObamaCare, but hitting “all parts of society” to achieve compliance. As I reported in PJ Media, the current goal is to have everyone get a COVID shot, but one could imagine the “existential threat” of global warming or any other scheme Democrats come up with to curb your use of energy or affect the kind of car you drive, for example. If you’re lugging around too many pounds, one could imagine giving brownie points for eating well, which conversely means you’d get docked for eating French fries.

New York Magazine reports the passport would be wide in scope.

[P]roof of vaccination “may be a critical driver for restoring baseline population health and promoting safe return to social, commercial, and leisure activities.” There is also some focus-group evidence that vaccine passports could help convince Americans who do not want to get inoculated to sign up for a shot. [emphasis added]

As I wrote at PJ Media, liberal author and feminist Naomi Wolf notes that the government and its buddies in Big Tech could put anything on the existing platform in the future and it would be the “end of human liberty in the West.” Not to mention destroying constitutional protections and breaking several laws.

A government interagency committee has been convened to consider how Big Tech might implement vaccine passports to determine if you may travel or go to large events.

Somewhere left behind is the question of constitutionality or ethics.

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Want a preview of ‘Vaccine Passports’ in the U.S.?

5,000 Foreigners Flagged by China in Advanced Surveillance Sweep: Another Data Leak

Over 5,000 foreigners were tracked during visits to mainland China between 2017 to 2018, according to the latest data leak from a Chinese institution. Some individuals on the list say they were only in China for a day or were transiting through Shanghai.

One cybersecurity expert says the latest data leak is unique in its increased sophistication, including the use of facial recognition and the collection of passport IDs.

The information was compiled by the Shanghai Public Security Bureau, a local level branch of Beijing’s main surveillance body, the Ministry of Public Security.

The data leak contains over 1.1 million surveillance records and includes information on 25,000 “persons of interest” in China, and 5,000 foreigners, including government officials and employees of Mitsubishi and U.S. manufacturing giant 3M.

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Armed Antifa Attack ‘Freedom Rally’ at Oregon’s Capitol and Police Only Help When Old Man Pulls Gun on Attackers.

Black-bloc-clad antifa protesters carrying “guns, bats, skateboards” attacked cars and trucks participating in a “freedom rally caravan” in front of the Oregon State Capitol building on Sunday afternoon. No one called the massing of weapons, personnel, offensive weapons, defensive gas masks, and ballistic vests an “insurrection,” however.

…Except for military expert, retired US Army Reserve Lt. Colonel, Tony Shaffer, who wondered, perhaps tongue in cheek, where the National Guard was to put down the planned violence by antifa.

Vehicles bearing Gadsden and American flags were attacked, including a pickup truck bearing a window sticker reading “Don’t Portland My Oregon.”

The truck was pelted with paint and beaten with bats. The driver got out and brandished a gun. As antifa called “gun! gun!” police, who had up to this point remained on the sidelines hoping for peace, moved into action, ordering the man to the ground.

That man was stopped but not arrested.  Nor was he shot by the taser-wielding police officer, which upset at least one live-streamer who cried, “if he were black he’d be dead by now!”

Antifa insurgents smashed the driver’s side window of another truck flying the pro-police Thin Blue Line flag. Later, they used a large branch to impale the windshield.

Police say the antifa members planned the assaults in advance, urging people to come to create a “fascist free 503,” the 503 referring to Oregon’s legacy area code, to counter-protest the “freedom rally.” The latest clash was planned to stop the flag-wavers – known by antifa as “fascists” – proving again that antifa isn’t anti-fascist as much as it’s anti-First Amendment.

Salem Police said in a news release that the fenced-off capitol building was becoming a “draw for demonstrations and protestors.”

The first event billed as the Freedom Rally appeared on social media streams in February. A second event appeared soon after, named Fascist Free 503, indicating a counter response to the Freedom Rally. Social media posts connected to the group indicated their intention to prevent the Freedom Rally caravan from meeting at the state capitol.

Shortly before noon, approximately 100 individuals wearing black clothing and ballistic vests and carrying firearms, bats, skateboards, umbrellas, shields and gas masks arrived on the capitol mall grounds. Some individuals from the group carried Youth Liberation Front flags, a group known to espouse leftwing ideologies. The group congregated along Court Street in front of the capitol building.

Media executive Tom Elliott said, “self defense, a human right dating back more than 2,000 years, has been rescinded.”

 

While I pointed out that the man had not been arrested – yet — the point should not be lost. Self-defense is on trial in America. It’s on trial in Missouri with the McCloskey case. In the Michael Strickland case in Portland, Oregon, in which he  pulled a gun (never firing) to stop an advancing antifa mob, the judge determined that what antifa did didn’t matter, Strickland pulled a gun “inappropriately” and that made him guilty. Self-defense was essentially tossed from the courtroom.

The Oregon man who got out of his truck to brush back the mob by brandishing his gun may find out that self-defense is on tenuous grounds in Wokeville. But his “Don’t Portland My Oregon” sticker shows he more than understands the stakes.

BLUF:
Though it is not clear when the directive was sent, the report comes in the wake of Biden’s infamous fall on the stairs to Air Force One, which followed his most recent reference to Kamala Harris as “President Harris.” Kamala Harris has also reportedly taken calls from world leaders without Biden…….

Conservatives have long believed Biden’s purpose in the 2020 election was that of a puppet or a Trojan Horse…..His selection of Kamala Harris, a San Francisco liberal, as his running mate, made this theory seem even more credible.

New White House Directive Suggests They’re Preparing for Kamala’s Takeover.

There is no Biden administration. Officially, it’s the Biden-Harris administration, and federal agencies have been instructed to include Kamala Harris’s name in a directive sent to all federal agencies from “a top White House communications team member.”

“Please be sure to reference the current administration as the ‘Biden-Harris Administration’ in official public communications,” read the directive, which was provided to Outspoken by “an employee of a federal government agency.”

And yes, “Biden-Harris Administration” was in bold in the email.

According to Outspoken,

The highly specific language also appears on the websites of all 15 executive departments. Press releases and other communications from the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, and the Attorney General all exclusively refer to the Biden-Harris Administration, in lieu of only naming the president, which has been customary until now.

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I took the opportunity to post a comment to inform Ms Green that “Or maybe he simply doesn’t remember we are a nation built upon a constitution, one that grants its citizens certain rights”  was wrong.
We shall see how she responds.

Biden Stumbles, Fumbles & Bumbles As Country Burns

Our country is screwed, or as close to it as we’ve been in a very long time. President Joe Biden, someone who has spent decades in Washington DC, admits he’s having trouble adjusting to life in our nation’s capital. He’s become the master of ruling by executive order instead of letting Congress do its job. His performance at his one and only press conference since taking office has a number of people questioning his ability to perform his duties as president. And now we have confirmation from Jen Psaki that he plans to erode our Second Amendment rights even more through–drum roll, please–more executive orders. How do you support an administration that seems hell-bent on destroying the nation you love?

According to NBC News, Biden has fled the Capital six out of 10 weekends since taking office. This during a so-called pandemic. This during one of the worst border crises in our nation’s history. Instead of setting the example for our nation, instead of showing us he has our backs, he runs home where he can relax with his grandchildren.

By the way, these are grandchildren who do not live with him. Tell me, Mr. President, how is it you can see your family and spend time with them when the rest of the nation is being told they can’t be with their kids and grandkids?

I wish that was the worst of it. If it was, perhaps so many Americans wouldn’t be wondering if our nation can survive four years of a Biden Administration–assuming he manages to serve all four years of the term.

We’ve written about Biden’s love of the executive order. We’ve watched as his failed immigration policies have led to a border crisis that could have easily been avoided.

But what do you do when the president ignores the Constitution? He might call Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin autocrats but his actions prove he is as well. Or at least that he wants to be one. Why else would he rely on executive orders instead of letting the members of Congress represent their districts, propose, debate and enact legislation? He has control, at least on paper, of both the House and the Senate. Does he not trust his own party to do his bidding?

If he did, why did his press secretary, Jen Psaki, confirm he plans to use executive orders to further limit our Second Amendment rights? There are already several gun control measures up for consideration by Congress. Is Biden trying to move from president to dictator by cutting out our legislative body?

Or maybe he simply doesn’t remember we are a nation built upon a constitution, one that grants its citizens certain rights and redresses. I dislike raising that sort of question, but it has to be asked. . . especially after his press conference this week.

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My goodness! *gasp* Horrors! It’s, it’s, it’s like criminals intent on murder and mayhem don’t seem to care about observing any other laws!
It’s Amazing I tells Ya!

Boulder Shooting Investigators Examine Whether an Illegal Ammunition Magazine Was Used

Investigators are trying to determine whether the suspect in Monday’s Boulder supermarket shooting used an illegal 30-round magazine, law-enforcement officials said.

Colorado banned the sale and possession of magazines that hold more than 15 rounds in 2013, one year after the Aurora theater shooting that left 12 dead and dozens injured.

Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, the suspect in Monday’s shooting, legally purchased a Ruger AR-556 pistol—a smaller version of an AR-style rifle—that he used in the attack at a local gun store, Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold said at a news conference Friday.

Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty declined to address questions about the ammunition magazine at the news conference, saying more information about the gun would be released in the coming weeks.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has been working to trace the weapon used in the attack, police said.

Mr. Alissa allegedly used the gun to open fire on shoppers, employees and police at a King Soopers store Monday before he was taken into custody, law-enforcement officials say.

John Eagleton, owner of Eagle’s Nest Armory, said Mr. Alissa bought the gun at this store and that he passed a state background check. Mr. Eagleton said the store is cooperating with investigators. An attorney for the store did not respond to a request for comment about whether it sold him a magazine.

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If you aren’t on a watch list by now, you haven’t been working hard enough.

DHS Preparing to Use Private Contractors to “Scour Public Data and Social Media” To Compile Dissident Citizens for Watch List and No Fly Lists

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is now getting ready to hire public companies, individual contractors outside government, to scour public data and social media in order to provide information for the new “domestic terror watch lists.”  From the description it appears DHS is going to pay “big tech” (Google, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, SnapChat, Twitter, etc.), via contracts, to hire and organize internal monitoring teams to assist the government by sending information on citizens they deem “dangerous.”

Gee, what could possibly go wrong with this?…

NBC is reporting on these new developments as the U.S. intelligence apparatus is preparing to go live with the assembly of lists of Americans who “could be” potential threats to the government; and need to be watched.

However, even NBC is beginning to realize the consequences: “DHS planning to expand relationships with companies that scour public data for intelligence and to better harness the vast trove of data it already collects on Americans. The department is also contemplating changes to its terrorist watch listing process.”

Here’s the article:

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security, created after the 9/11 attacks to protect the country from international terrorism, is moving toward a sweeping set of policy changes aimed at detecting and stopping what intelligence officials say is now a top threat to the homeland: domestic violent extremism.

Two senior Biden administration officials told NBC News that DHS, whose intelligence division did not publish a warning of potential violence before the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, is seeking to improve its ability to collect and analyze data about domestic terrorism — including the sorts of public social media posts that threatened a potential attack on the Capitol, but were not deemed “actionable” by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.

DHS is planning to expand its relationships with companies that scour public data for intelligence, one of the senior officials said, and also to better harness the vast trove of data it already collects on Americans, including travel and commercial data through Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service and other DHS components. (read more)

Expand your thinking to what was initiated with the COVID model for “contact tracing” and you can quickly see how physical proximity to a rogue dissident, a person with wrong thoughts – aka a domestic extremist, can result in you being labeled along with that dissident…. and you are on the list. Then overlay the efforts of Big Tech to assist the administrative state with an electronic trail of your habits, contacts, phone calls, text messages and internet patterns…. and you are on the list.

Remind yourself what FBI “contractors’ with access to the NSA database already did in their quest for political opposition research and surveillance {Go Deep}. Then overlay all of the above and you get an alarming picture that is not something to dispatch.

 

Golly gee whiz fellas, I wonder what changed in 2020?

Murder rate jumps back to 1990s levels, data show.

US murder rate per 100000 via FBI line graph

A new crime reporting system released by the FBI shows that the murder rate in virtually every city in the United States is at its highest levels in more than two decades.

In 2020, the country saw more homicides than in any year since 1998. Experts came to that conclusion after looking at reported quarterly data from roughly 12,000 agencies in various cities and states.

The spike, totaling at over 20,000 recorded homicides, was the largest one-year increase in U.S. history. Every city that reported data saw at least a 20%-25% jump in murders. Twenty-two percent of cities with a population of over 250,000 that reported data saw the most murders ever recorded since the federal government began keeping logs in 1960.

“We’ve never seen an increase like that. Previously the biggest one-year increase in murder was a 12.5% increase in the 1960s,” statistician and crime analyst Jeff Asher told the Washington Examiner. “We’re really talking about unprecedented increases in murder.”

Asher concluded, using the FBI data, that the murder rate for 2020 sat at roughly 6.22 per 100,000 people. Not since 1998 has the country seen a murder rate that high.

In 2019, the murder rate was an even 5 per 100,000 people, a slight dip from 5.1 in 2018.

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CITING ‘NATIONAL SECURITY’ 18 AGS PUSH BIDEN ADMIN TO BAN 80 % RECEIVERS

A group of 18 attorneys general from 17 mostly blue states and the District of Columbia on Monday asked the Biden Administration to act on unfinished gun frames and receivers.

The AGs wrote a five-page letter to recently installed U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland this week, asking the Justice Department to “close the loophole in the ATF’s interpretation of the federal Gun Control Act” that allows law-abiding citizens to create their own firearms from so-called 80-percent receivers. The AGs said the firearms made from such kits – sometimes referred to as “ghost guns” by gun control advocates – can be used for nefarious purposes, enough of a cause as any to lower the boom on the practice.

“This loophole flies in the face of commonsense gun safety laws,” said Connecticut Attorney General Tong in a statement from his office on the letter. “Here in Connecticut, we have some of the strongest gun safety laws on the books — we banned ghost guns in 2019 — but these statutes can only go so far if we can’t close these dangerous federal loopholes. The ATF interpretation of the Gun Control Act is wrong and a threat to public safety and national security.”

Under longstanding ATF guidelines going back to at least 2006, so-called “80-percent” unfinished pistol frames and rifle receivers aren’t subject to government oversight so long as they are made by individuals who can otherwise legally possess a firearm and don’t cross into National Firearms Act territory (e.g., machine guns, SBRs, suppressors). The push by the AGs is aimed at changing that tradition.

The letter calls on Garland to issue a new interpretation of the Gun Control Act that will include “80-percent receivers” in the category of firearms that require background checks of the same type as for fully finished guns. The biggest problem with that, however, is the ATF has never issued guidance as to exactly what an 80-percent lower or unfinished frame is, only what it is not. Such an effort could have the absurd effect of attempting to regulate raw materials such as the semi-shaped blocks of aluminum or plastic that make up 80-percent kits.

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Yeah, that Background Check System didn’t stop these people from purchasing handguns for a felon

Feds say ‘straw buyer’ purchased 39 handguns for a felon since July, paid more than $25,000 cash to firearms dealers

Law enforcement agents call people who buy guns for those who aren’t legally able to do so — like minors or felons — straw buyers.

A new federal indictment suggests a Milwaukee man might qualify as a super straw buyer.

Court records indicate that over about three months last fall, Keenan D. Hughes, 33, purchased 39 handguns from 15 Wisconsin stores, paying more than $25,000 cash, on behalf of Marvin Powell, 41, of Milwaukee, a repeat felon who can’t legally possess, much less purchase, firearms.

According to the charges, Hughes lied on federal forms he filled out at various Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) stores, saying he intended the weapons for himself. He would buy one, two or three guns at a time at stores big and small from Brookfield to Janesville, Germantown to Waupun.

Using the filled-out form, FFLs are required to do background checks on the buyer. Because Hughes has no felony convictions or other prohibition on gun ownership, he was cleared each time.

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He’s not wrong, but what I think the author misses is that a significant amount of the ‘stimulus’ was payoffs to states and cities, near bankrupt with budget deficits, bond and pension fund obligations.

Biden sleepwalks into a stagflation nightmare
US economy simply doesn’t have the productive capacity to meet the demand created by Biden’s stimulus package

NEW YORK – The Biden administration’s US$1.9 stimulus package, adding to last year’s $2 trillion in Covid-19 related handouts, has the effect of feeding sugar to a diabetic. The patient is on a sugar high, but at risk of collapse.

The US doesn’t have the productive capacity to meet the demand created by the federal government and the Federal Reserve. The result is stagflation—a combination of inflation and economic weakness that we last saw during the Jimmy Carter administration in the 1970s.

There are two big differences between now and the 1970s, though. The first is the explosion of US government debt. The second is China.

Instead of throwing money out of helicopters, the US should invest trillions of dollars in infrastructure, R&D, selective production subsidies (for example semiconductors) and science education. As it is, the Biden administration is putting the credit and future borrowing capacity of the US at risk in return for a temporary boost to output.

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Try this:
Officials (period) have undermined trust in government institutions.

Officials like Fauci have undermined trust in government institutions.

We now have several COVID vaccines. All work, all have passed safety testing, and all are in wide distribution.

This is a huge accomplishment, but there’s one problem: A lot of people aren’t taking the shot.

Are they just ignorant anti-vaxxers?

No. As a recent focus group by Frank Luntz, reported in The Washington Post, demonstrates, a lot of people who won’t take the vaccine aren’t skeptical about vaccines in general. Just about this batch.

So maybe they’re just Red State Luddites?

No. In fact, it’s a worldwide phenomenon. Yes, there’s resistance in the United States: Gallup reported in February that 34 percent of front-line health workers said they wouldn’t get the vaccine, with another 18 percent unsure; fewer than half said they would definitely get jabbed. Only 65 percent of Americans as a whole said they would get the vaccine.

But there’s also resistance abroad. Reuters reported that only about half of French care-home workers are willing to get the vaccine; the rest prefer to wait and see if it’s safe. Reuters quotes a union official who says “there’s a complete lack of trust.”

Reuters reports similar numbers in Germany. Also in Germany, and in Italy, thousands of health-care workers have refused the AstraZeneca vaccine, even though it’s approved in Europe. In the German state of Saarland, The Wall Street Journal reports, over half of health workers slated to get a shot simply failed to show up.

PBS NewsHour reports similar vaccine-skepticism in India. And NBC reports that thousands of serving US military personnel are opting not to take the vaccine.

So what’s the problem? For so much of the lockdown period, we heard the words “until there’s a vaccine.” Now we have a vaccine — several, in fact — and in record time, thanks to Operation Warp Speed. Why are so many people, including health-care workers who should know the most and care the most, refusing it now?

I think it comes down to, in that French trade-union official’s words, “a complete lack of trust.”

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House OKs Dems’ Immigration Bills for Dreamers, Farm Workers

The House voted Thursday to unlatch a gateway to citizenship for young Dreamers, migrant farm workers and immigrants who’ve fled war or natural disasters, giving Democrats wins in the year’s first votes on an issue that once again faces an uphill climb to make progress in the Senate.

On a near party-line 228-197 vote, lawmakers approved one bill offering legal status to around 2 million Dreamers, brought to the U.S. illegally as children, and hundreds of thousands of migrants admitted for humanitarian reasons from a dozen troubled countries.

They then voted 247-174 for a second measure creating similar protections for 1 million farm workers who have worked in the U.S. illegally; the government estimates they comprise half the nation’s agricultural laborers.

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Biden blocks press access at border, constructs false narratives.

In her first press briefing, President Joe Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki promised to bring “truth and transparency” back to the White House.  But it’s now 55 days into the new administration and the Biden team has been anything but transparent.

The Biden administration issued a gag-order on the southern border, blocking all press requests to visit detention centers to take pictures or to tour the facilities. Border Patrol agents have been told to deny all media requests for “ride-alongs” with agents, and all stationed on the southern border are being told to forward all press requests to Washington for approval, according to NBC News.

President Biden hasn’t visited the southern border and likely won’t — because he would need to bring a press pool and cameras for the trip, which would reveal a humanitarian crisis is occurring. The reality of the situation would conflict with the narrative the Biden administration is trying to paint — that this is merely a “challenge” — a situation they “certainly” have a handle on, according to Ms. Psaki.

The U.S. is on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than it has in the last 20 years. The federal government plans to use the downtown Dallas convention center to hold up to 3,000 immigrant teenagers, as other holding centers have exceeded their capacity due to the surge. What’s more, four foreign nationals whose names match with individuals on the terror watch list have been stopped trying to enter the U.S. via the southern border since October, according to Fox News.

Those are the facts the Biden administration would like you to ignore, doing their best to kneecap journalists from seeing and reporting these developments.

President Biden is also one of the least accessible Presidents in history. He booked his first press conference for March 25,  breaking a 100-year-long presidential record by waiting so long into his term to answer questions from the media. At his formal events, President Biden typically ignores the media, or gives brief, one-word answers to questions.

His press office has also come under scrutiny for trying to control the media. Biden’s communication staff was soliciting questions in advance of Ms. Psaki’s press conferences, the Daily Beast reported.

“The requests prompted concerns among the White House press corps, whose members, like many reporters, are sensitive to the perception that they are coordinating with political communications staffers,” The Daily Beast wrote.

In another effort to curb news-media access to the West Wing, the Biden administration has imposed a COVID-19 testing fee on reporters, and has capped the number of reporters allowed on White House grounds per day to 80. By contrast, under the Trump administration, any journalist with a “hard pass” was allowed into the White House.

Truth and transparency has evolved into lies and opacity. The Biden administration has proved in its early days, it’s more interested in controlling the narrative than it is confronting the truth. 

Pelosi, Capitol Police: Oh By the Way, There’s No Actual Threat to the Capitol

Good to know guys. Good to know.

So why was there an extended military occupation of Washington D.C. Why is there still an occupation?

Pelosi’s latest Dear Colleague letter states, “Today, you have received a letter sent by the Acting House Sergeant at Arms regarding the security posture of the Capitol.  The U.S. Capitol Police, working with federal, state and local intelligence partners, has concluded that “there does not exist a known, credible threat against Congress or the Capitol Complex that warrants the temporary security fencing.”  Therefore, alterations to the temporary fencing around the Capitol will soon be made, and the National Guard presence will also begin to draw down.”

So all of this was a bunch of nonsense and lies?

The Department of Homeland Security used its National Terrorism Advisory System to issue a bulletin claiming that “a heightened threat environment across the United States” would continue for weeks.

“There are several upcoming events — we don’t know what they are — over the next several weeks, and they’re concerned that there could be situations where there are lawful protests, First Amendment-protected protests, that could either be used by malicious actors, or other problems that could emerge,” Secretary of the Army John Whitley had argued.

The Capitol Police issued a press release claiming there was, “obtained intelligence that shows a possible plot to breach the Capitol by an identified militia group on Thursday, March 4.”

The occupation was supposed to end on March 12. Instead it’s getting a two month extension.

The Democrat military occupation of Washington D.C. will now be extended until May 23.

Except that they’ve run out of threats and the new argument is the Capitol Police are inept. The extension was made over protests from the Army and the National Guard by Defense Secretary Austin: Biden’s hack.

“It’s not just about a threat assessment, it’s about assisting and supporting capabilities that the Capitol Police may now lack and may need to look at improving,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby claimed.

So there’s no threat. There was never a threat. But now it can be told.

Portland cut police funding and got a 2,000% surge in murders

Last June, the city of Portland, Oregon, hopped on the “defund the police” bandwagon. Now, it is flooded with gun violence, and the mayor is already backtracking from his support for the cuts.

Mayor Ted Wheeler has requested $2 million in emergency funding for the police department, pointing directly to the surge in gun violence. By the end of February 2020, Portland had seen just one homicide year to date. This year, that number was 20, with 208 shootings in the city so far.

Wheeler backed the Portland City Council’s decision to cut $15 million from the police budget last June, which included disbanding police units that investigate gun violence. Predictably, that move backfired in a city that saw 100 consecutive days of violent rioting last year.

Riots are back once again in the city, thanks to Wheeler’s spinelessness. Rioters have once again targeted a federal courthouse in the city, a reprise of the violent storming of the courthouse last July. In June, it was reported that the city lost around $24 million due to the riots. Damage to federal buildings totals roughly $2.3 million.

Portland, like Minneapolis, doesn’t have and never did have an overpolicing problem. The city has an underpolicing problem, compounded by cowardly city leaders who pander to anti-police activists. Portland city leaders, just like their Minneapolis counterparts, humored these leftist ideologues while turning a blind eye to riots. Now, they reap the whirlwind in the form of a surge in violent crime.

And this is Portland, so there is no Republican to blame for this issue. Wheeler is a Democrat. So are the city council members, with one independent who was endorsed by the council’s Democratic members. Gov. Kate Brown, who said that former President Donald Trump was “provoking confrontation for political purposes” by protecting the courthouse, is a Democrat. So is President Biden, who currently has federal agents trying to protect the courthouse.

Nor is there any plausible way to blame the availability of guns in Oregon or in neighboring states. Guns are exactly as available today as they were before this 2,000% surge in murders.

This is what happens when people who are tasked with actually running a city embrace ridiculous ideologies to please activists. I would say that Portland residents deserve better, but this is the leadership they chose for their city. Given the failures of Wheeler and the city council to this point, the voters are the only ones who can change course.

If the 2020 election is any indication, it won’t be happening any time soon.

CBS Reports DHS Has Detained 13,000+ Unaccompanied Kids at the Border, Calls it a ‘Crisis’

Now that the MSM has called it such, it’s official.