COTTON: Wuhan Virus Cover-Up 'Biggest,' 'Costliest,' 'Most Deadly' in History

Joshua Paladino
-
0

‘It’s only appropriate that we hold the Chinese government accountable for the damage it has caused…’

(Joshua Paladino, Liberty Headlines) Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said on Fox and Friends that the Chinese Communist Party’s negligence regarding the Wuhan virus “really is the biggest, the costliest, the most deadly cover up in the history of mankind.”

In response to China’s cover up, Cotton and Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, introduced a bill on Thursday that would let American citizens sue the Chinese Communist Party for damages related to the coronavirus outbreak.
The bill would amend the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which currently forbids Americans from suing foreign nations, according to Cotton’s press release.
They introduced the bill as new evidence emerges that the Wuhan virus did not naturally arise from a wet market but that it escaped from a high-security virus laboratory.
He said the world has known from the “very beginning” that the wet-market origin story was “probably wrong.”
Cotton suggested in January that the novel coronavirus likely originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“For one, it appears that they don’t even sell the kind of bats at that market from which this virus originated,” Cotton said. “And two, Chinese scientists in an authoritative study as early as January found that about a third of the early cases had no contact with the food market whatsoever.”
The Washington Post reported in a so-called news article on Feb. 17 that Cotton was repeating a “debunked” “fringe theory” about the origins of the Wuhan virus.
CBS’s Face the Nation invited Cui Tiankai, the Chinese Ambassador to the U.S., on the program to dismiss Cotton’s questions about the virus’s origins as “absolutely crazy.”
Now the Washington Post has reported that State Department officials warned about safety lapses at the Wuhan laboratory in 2018.
The laboratory should be following level-4 safety protocols, which are “reserved for labs dealing with the most dangerous pathogens for which there are few available vaccines or treatment,” BBC reported.
Cotton and Crenshaw alleged that the Chinese Communist Party acted negligently, since it could have warned the world about the novel coronavirus outbreak and taken earlier actions to mitigate its international impact.
“By silencing doctors and journalists who tried to warn the world about the coronavirus, the Chinese Communist Party allowed the virus to spread quickly around the globe,” Cotton said.
“Their decision to cover up the virus led to thousands of needless deaths and untold economic harm” he added. “It’s only appropriate that we hold the Chinese government accountable for the damage it has caused.”
Their bill follows the idea of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, a 2016 bill that passed without objection in both the House and the Senate.
JASTA lets families sue Saudi Arabia for the nation’s role in perpetrating the 9/11 attacks.
The Holding the Chinese Communist Party Accountable for Infecting Americans Act of 2020 would function in a similar fashion.
If the CCP and the US federal government reach a settlement, then private lawsuits against the government would be dismissed.
If the CCP does not agree to a settlement, then millions of Americans could join the lawsuit.

Why Are Liquor Stores ‘Essential’ While Other Businesses Are Not?

Contributing Writer
-
0

‘It’s mind-boggling. Ninety-five percent of our customers are from Pennsylvania…’

Why Are Liquor Stores ‘Essential’ While Other Businesses Are Not? 1
Photo by pasa47 (CC)

(Michael Barnes, Liberty Headlines) The vast majority of private businesses have been deemed “non-essential” by virtue of government edict and they’ve been forced to shutter their doors in an attempt to stop the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus.

So why are liquor stores still open?

Perhaps no other datapoint better captures government hypocrisy, ignorance and blatant self-interest during the nation’s coronavirus-induced economic shutdown than to allow business-as-usual for liquor stores while crushing the livelihoods of millions of working Americans.

At least 46 states have enacted policies to close non-essential businesses, and the result has been the loss of 22 million jobs in the past four weeks.

“There’s nowhere to hide,” Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton in Chicago, told the New York Times on Thursday. “This is the deepest, fastest, most broad-based recession we’ve ever seen.”

But while construction workers, restaurant employees, retail clerks, office managers, business owners and millions of other willing workers in every corner of the economy are collateral damage, liquor stores are getting special treatment.

New Jersey’s Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy has defined essential businesses as those “critical to our response.” But somehow that includes selling booze to alcoholics and the depressed.

When asked why, Murphy spun a tale about saving needy state residents.

“She was on her knees profusely thanking me for keeping the liquor stores open as it relates to just the whole addiction front,” he told reporters, casting himself as the anecdote’s hero.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has imposed the strictest stay-at-home orders in the country, even banning gardening seeds and visits between private residences. But not only has she declared liquor stores essential, she’s also allowed marijuana dispensaries to continue serving both medical and recreational customers.

Somehow, Whitmer has decided that Wuhan virus concerns don’t apply to Michigan’s liquor stores and marijuana establishments as much as religious services and trips to family residences.

Free-market-leaning critics have always warned about government officials picking winners and losers, but under the stress of economic disaster and the current public-health crisis, such blatantly dictatorial decisions could be dangerous.

Thousands gathered in Lansing, Mich. this week to protest Whitmer’s draconian orders, as well as her threats to ban pharmaceutical treatments for the coronavirus  that were popularized by President Donald Trump.

Whitmer is considered a Democrat “rising star,” even rumored to be on presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden’s short list of potential running mates.

Ohio, led by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, is also feeling the heat for its duplicitous stay-at-home orders while deeming liquor stores essential.

In addition to being nonsensical, DeWine’s decision has caused a wholly separate public health concern.

Thousands upon thousands of Pennsylvania residents have rushed back and forth from Ohio border counties to buy liquor because Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, deemed liquor stores non-essential.

“It’s mind-boggling,” a liquor store manager in a small town five minutes from the Ohio–Pennsylvania border told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Ninety-five percent of our customers are from Pennsylvania.”

In response, DeWine recently issued another arbitrary order. Ohio border counties can now only sell liquor to people with Ohio identification.

“Any other time we would love to have visitors from Pennsylvania,” he said at a news conference this week. “But during this time, those who are coming in to buy liquor are creating a health hazard.”

Alcohol sales are booming during the Wuhan virus shutdown, with total sales up 25 percent in the week ending April 4 according to Nielsen. In fact, business is so good that sellers are scrambling for more product even as workers are presumably at increased risk of contagion.

The Wuhan virus has been a gold rush of sorts for the liquor industry, but it’s also been lucrative for state governments.

Like Ohio and Michigan, North Carolina is one of 17 alcohol “control” states. It has an Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission that keeps a tight grip on the sale, purchase, transportation, manufacture, consumption and possession of all alcoholic beverages.

North Carolina’s ABC Commission is housed within the Department of Public Safety, and that agency reports directly to Gov. Roy Cooper’s office. To many, it came as no surprise when Cooper, a Democrat, issued a statewide stay-at-home executive order on March 27 that exempted liquor stores.

The executive order has the added effect of killing off bars, restaurants, breweries and other sources of competition.

On its website, the North Carolina’s ABC Commission brags about tax revenues of more than $430 million in fiscal year 2018 from $1.1 billion in liquor sales.

This year looks to deliver much, much more to state government coffers despite the record private sector business and job losses.

Texas University Sued for Firing Math Prof. Who Mocked 'Microaggressions'

Joshua Paladino
-
0

‘Tolerance is a two-way street…’

Texas University Sued for Firing Math Professor Who Mocked 'Microaggressions'
University of North Texas / IMAGE: Alliance Defending Freedom

(Joshua Paladino, Liberty Headlines) The University of North Texas fired a mathematics professor after he joked about a flyer, which was anonymously placed in the faculty lounge, that called attention to “microaggressions,” the Alliance Defending Freedom reported.
ADF filed a federal lawsuit on April 16 that alleges the university violated Dr. Nathaniel Hier’s First Amendment rights.
Dr. Ralf Schmidt, who chairs UNT’s mathematics department, fired Hiers for mocking the microaggressions flyer and then failing to show “honest regret” for doing so.
Identity-politics leftists use the term microaggression to label what they perceive as indirect, subtle and even unintentional racism, sexism or any other “ism” that offends somebody.
“The right to free speech is for everyone—not just those in power. Tolerance is a two-way street,” said ADF Legal Counsel Michael Ross.
“Public universities can’t fire professors just because they don’t endorse every message someone communicates in the faculty lounge,” Ross continued. “By firing Dr. Hiers, the university sent an explicit message: ‘Agree with us or else.’”
Hiers earned his doctorate in mathematics in the spring of 2019. He started teaching at UNT in the fall of 2019.
Hiers said the flyers were left in the mathematics department’s faculty lounge, where professors chat, discuss ideas and banter with one another.
When someone anonymously dropped off the flyers, he drew an arrow on the chalkboard that pointed to the stack with the statement, “Don’t leave garbage lying around.”
Schmidt did not have a sense of humor about it. He called Hiers’ actions “stupid” and “cowardly.”
Hiers said he has the freedom to comment on flyers if someone else has the freedom to anonymously put them in the lounge.
The week after the incident, Schmidt fired Hiers without warning.
Schmidt said the flyers were not “political” and made “very much sense.”
There is no scientific evidence that demonstrates the existence of microaggressions.
“In so doing, Defendant Schmidt was expressing his own views on the topic of ‘microaggressions,’ disagreeing with Dr. Hiers’ views, and punishing Dr. Hiers for expressing his views,” ADF said.
“Schmidt used his opinion to ignore reasonable views opposing the ‘microaggression’ fliers and ultimately to punish Dr. Hiers for expressing his own opinion.”

NASA Resists Removing Debunked 97% Climate-Change Claim from Website

Contributing Writer
-
0

‘I just think there was political pressure to get it added, and no one questioned NASA directly on it at the time…’

REPORT: Climate-Change Canard Leaves Regions Unprepared for Disasters
Dr. Judith Curry / IMAGE: House Oversight via Youtube

(Michael Barnes, Liberty Headlines) The Obama-era claim that 97 percent of scientists agree about man-made global warming has been repeatedly debunked. But officials at NASA refuse to remove the pro-climate change statement from the agency’s government website.

Refusing to do so puts NASA at odds with President Donald Trump. It also puts the space agency at odds with the truth, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

The free-market think tank attempted to force a correction under the Information Quality Act last year but was told by agency officials that “changes to the website are not needed at this time.”

CEI recently filed an appeal to what it considers an “inaccurate, unreliable, and biased” approach to the climate-change issue.

CEI attorney Devin Watkins told the Washington Times this week that NASA’s approach also defies President Trump.

Trump has expressed skepticism about the political aspects of the liberal climate-change agenda and has singled-out the 97 percent figure, specifically. In 2017, he was assailed for acknowledging that there are “scientists on both sides of the picture.”

Trump also serves as the chief executive of the federal bureaucracy, of which NASA is part.

“It’s really weird when the President of the United States seems to say the 97 percent figure is incorrect, but an agency he is responsible for overseeing continues to say on their website that the President is wrong,” Watkins said.

On its Global Climate Change page, NASA states: “Multiple studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals show that 97 percent or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree: Climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities.”

The claim originates from a 2004 Science magazine essay called the “The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change.”

Author Naomi Oreskes, a science professor at Harvard, reviewed 928 study abstracts—not full studies—published over a 10-year period with the words “climate change.”

Oreskes concluded that 75 percent implicitly or explicitly endorsed the liberal consensus view and 25 percent took no position. However, “none of the papers disagreed with the consensus position,” she wrote.

In 2013, the 97-percent claim exploded into mainstream media and Democratic political rhetoric when the pro-climate-change echo chamber latched onto a George Mason University study that reviewed peer-reviewed paper abstracts with the words “global warming” or “global climate change” over a 20-year period.

Of the 12,000 reviewed climate-oriented abstracts, only 4,000 abstracts mentioned the selected terms. But it was concluded that 97 percent of the authors agreed and that they, once again, confirmed a climate-change consensus.

Skepticism immediately ensued but was either demonized or ignored.

Eminent climate scientist Judith Curry said at the time that the concept of scientific “consensus” had been so manipulated for political purposes that the term was “increasingly meaningless.”

Curry, and other climate change agenda skeptics, noted that they had been included in the 97 percent figure even though they disagreed with much of what the so-called climate-change consensus was saying.

In addition, PopularTechnology.com interviewed prominent scientists who said the 2013 study mischaracterized their work. More recently, CEI has shown that NASA failed to acknowledge documents signed by researchers—one with 31,000 signatures—who reject the consensus position that man-made global warming presents a climate-catastrophe scenario.

“I just think there was political pressure to get it added, and no one questioned NASA directly on it at the time,” said Watkins.

Once ‘Skeptical’ Doctor Has Treated 39 COVID Patients w/ Hydroxychloroquine

Contributing Author
-
0

‘I thought the risk of seeing 15% of that nursing home die was just not an acceptable…’

UPDATE: Police Say Aquarium Cleaner Hoax NOT Being Criminally Investigated
Hydroxychloroquine / IMAGE: CBS Evening News via Youtube

(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) The medical director at a Texas nursing home said he’s successfully used hydroxychloroquine, a well-known anti-malarial drug, to treat 39 coronavirus patients.

The scientific community and the mainstream media have been skeptical toward hydroxychloroquine, which could help the body fight off COVID-19, according to numerous doctors.

But Dr. Robin Armstrong, the medical director at The Resort nursing home, said each of the patients to whom he’s prescribed hydroxychloroquine recovered from the coronavirus within five days.

“I thought the risk of seeing 15% of that nursing home die was just not an acceptable,” Armstrong told WFAA-TV.

“Most of the patients have done well,” he continued. “And, you know, and I think that that is suggestive that the medication is helpful.”

Hydroxychloroquine isn’t a cure, Armstrong added, but it could have therapeutic effects for patients with severe cases of COVID-19.

“The people who are on it were still getting sicker, but were not so sick that they had to go to the hospital,” Armstrong told NPR, adding that he believes hydroxychloroquine helped speed his patients’ recovery process.

Armstrong admitted that he, too, was skeptical of the drug’s use at first, but now that he’s seen the benefits firsthand he said he will be more likely to recommend the drug to patients.

“When this hydroxychloroquine came out, I was a bit skeptical,” he explained, “because I know the World Health Organization actually was not initially including it in their study, because they didn’t think that it was very effective.”

Trump has touted the drug as a “game changer” in the fight against COVID-19.

If it wasn’t for Trump, Armstrong said, it’s unlikely the medical community would have even thought to prescribe hydroxychloroquine to coronavirus patients.

And if they had thought to do so, there wouldn’t be any political controversy surrounding the drug’s use, he said.

“I don’t think this would even be a conversation, honestly,” Armstrong said.

NEW: Russian Disinformation INTENTIONALLY Placed in Steele Dossier

Ben Sellers
-
0

‘Russian intelligence was aware of the dossier before the FBI even began its investigation…’

Sen. Ron Johnson Grills Horowitz on FBI Bias and McCabe's Role in Trump Spying
Ron Johnson / IMAGE: screenshot via hsgac.senate.gov

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Formerly redacted details about FBI domestic-surveillance abuse during the 2016 presidential campaign suggested that Russia may, in fact, have colluded—directly or indirectly—in the deep-state effort to smear then-Republican candidate Donald Trump.

After the declassification of three footnotes last week from  Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz‘s December report on the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” operation, two powerful GOP senators announced more new pieces to the puzzle had emerged.

Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., who chair the Senate Finance and Homeland Security committees, respectively, added newly unredacted dates, courtesy of acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, to the previously declassified footnotes.

The newly public information further revealed that the FBI was fully aware of credibility issues surrounding the Steele Dossier when it initiated its sting operation, resulting in a series of warrants to spy on the Trump campaign.

The FBI relied exclusively on the dossier, commissioned as opposition research by Hillary Clinton’s campaign, when filing applications under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to wiretap Trump adviser Carter Page.

The newly provided dates call into question Horowitz’s conclusion—based largely on interviews with the FBI officials who conducted it—that the investigation was properly predicated.

“As we can see from these now-declassified footnotes in the IG’s report, Russian intelligence was aware of the dossier before the FBI even began its investigation,” Johnson and Grassley said in a press release, “and the FBI had reports in hand that their central piece of evidence was most likely tainted with Russian disinformation.”

Also among the notes was further evidence that dossier author Christopher Steele, a former British spy and FBI resource, may have been working directly with pro-Clinton operatives in Russian intelligence to smear Trump in the disinformation campaign by, ironically, linking him to the Kremlin.

Steele’s since-discredited report suggested, among other things, that Russia had compromising information about Trump’s sexual activities during a 2013 visit to Moscow. The sources of that information, however, were unreliable, as the FBI came to realize after conducting interviews.

But the new footnote revelations lend additional weight to at least one of the 17 critical investigative flaws Horowitz’s report highlighted: that biased and corrupt FBI agents engaged in an active campaign to conceal exculpatory information from the FISA court when renewing its wiretap requests.

And it appears FBI officials also withheld that information from special counsel Robert Mueller, whom Congress appointed to take charge of the probe in July 2016, a few months after the firing of disgraced FBI Director James Comey.

“Thanks to Attorney General Barr’s and Acting Director Grenell’s declassification of the footnotes, we know the FBI’s justification to target an American Citizen was riddled with significant flaws,” said Johnson and Grassley.

“Inspector General Michael Horowitz and his team did what neither the FBI nor Special Counsel Mueller cared to do: examine and investigate corruption at the FBI, the sources of the Steele dossier, how it was disseminated, and reporting that it contained Russian disinformation.”

FISA footnotes by Chuck Ross on Scribd

Michigan Dems. Join GOP in Criticizing Whitmer's Disastrous COVID Handling

Joshua Paladino
-
0

‘I have people dying in my city. I don’t have time to waste…’

Michigan GOP Leader Apologizes for Saying Dem. Governor 'Batsh** Crazy'
Gretchen Whitmer/Photo by University of Michigan’s Ford School (CC)

(Joshua Paladino, Liberty Headlines) After thousands gathered in Lansing yesterday to protest Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer‘s tyrannical coronavirus decrees, bipartisan anger at the alleged Democrat “rising-star” continued to build.
State Rep. Karen Whitsett, D-Detroit, accused Whitmer of providing “false reports” to federal officials about the coronavirus situation in Detroit.
Whitsett, who credited President Donald Trump’s advocacy of hydroxychloroquine with saving her life after she contracted the virus said Trump has handled the crisis better than Whitmer.
Whitmer initially threatened to ban the drug from being used on coronavirus patients in her state, later relented.
“If you are not going to do anything, I don’t have time to have a conversation with you,” Whitsett said in an open statement directed at the governor.
“I have people dying in my city,” she continued. “I don’t have time to waste.”
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, also a Democrat, criticized the state’s handling of the crisis.
He said the COVID-19 reporting system “is just not reliable,” Michigan Rising Action reported.
John Fox, CEO of Beaumont Health, which operates some of Detroit’s largest hospitals, said Michigan’s poor reporting is leading to longer than necessary emergency room wait times, The Detroit Free Press reported.
Fox, who has donated to several Democratic campaigns in the past, said patients come to hospitals and wait for hours, even though a nearby hospital may have the resources to help them immediately.
“If somebody has to wait 12 hours in one of our ERs, but they can be seen within two hours, five miles away, I think we have a moral obligation to tell the patient,” Fox said.
Thirty-three states report every day how many new hospitalizations from coronavirus there are, while 18 states release data on how many coronavirus patients have recovered,
Michigan has not made either statistic publicly available, despite having the third-most cases in the nation, reported the nonpartisan Center for Michigan’s Bridge magazine.
Some have summarized Whitmer’s orders by saying, “Citizens can smoke grass, but they can’t mow it.”
That popular phrase comes from the fact that the progressivist-minded Whitmer banned the sale of gardening and yardwork supplies, including seeds and all lawn-care services.
Yet, under the state’s arbitrary definition of “essential” services, Michigan’s citizens can still head down to a pot dispensary to buy marijuana, which was recently legalized there for recreational use.
Examples of Whitmer’s numerous confusing orders abound.

  • Citizens can travel to their cottage from out of state, but they cannot travel to their cottage if they live within the state.
  • Citizens cannot travel to their family and friends’s houses.
  • Citizens can canoe, kayak and paddleboard, but they cannot fish out of a motorboat.
  • Citizens cannot buy paint, carpet, flooring or furniture, but they can buy lottery tickets, alcohol and Big Macs.

Localities throughout the state are refusing to enforce some of these orders.
Warren Mayor Jim Fouts, an independent, said he worried that Whitmer’s orders to slow the coronavirus might harm the state more than help it, The Detroit News reported.
He commented specifically on the ban on single-person lawn-mowing operations, which he said could easily be done while complying with social-distancing mandates.
“I’m not going to support giving any citation,” Fouts said. “We have a large number of senior citizens, and many of them have special needs. They don’t own lawnmowers; they rely on commercial services.”
He said Whitmer’s lawn-mowing ban could lead to tall weeds that would attract disease-carrying rats and mice.
Sheriffs in Leelanau, Benzie, Manistee and Mason counties said they will not enforce Whitmer’s decrees to the full extent but will instead “deal with every case as an individual situation and apply common sense,” MLive reported.
“While we understand her desire to protect the public, we question some restrictions that she has imposed as overstepping her executive authority,” the sheriffs wrote in a letter to Whitmer. “She has created a vague framework of emergency laws that only confuse Michigan citizens.”

Kentucky's Dem. Gov. Forces Orwellian 'Contracts' on Easter Worshipers

Joshua Paladino
-
0

‘Had they parked in the nearby Kroger or Walmart they would not have been targeted…’

Kentucky Gov. Beshear Sends Orwellian Mandatory Contracts to Easter Worshipers
Andy Beshear / IMAGE: Kentucky Educational Television via Youtube

(Joshua Paladino, Liberty Headlines) Kentucky State Police officers dropped quarantine notices on cars and documented the license plate numbers of parishioners who attended the Easter Church service at Maryville Baptist Church in Hillview, The Courier-Journal reported.
Some worshipers listened to the service from their cars, while about 50 went inside the church (maintaining interpersonal distancing guidelines). Others fearfully drove away when the police arrived.
Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, announced two days prior to the service, on Good Friday that the state would force those who attend gatherings, including Easter Sunday services, into a 14-day mandatory quarantine.
He told churches to cancel their services, WDRB reported.
“No one is being charged with anything,” he said.
Kentucky Health Commissioner Steven Stack accused church-goers of killing their fellow citizens.
“At what point do our rights to gather entitle us to have other people die as a result?”
Easter Sunday attendees at Maryville church have started to receive letters from the state’s Department for Public Health, Liberty Counsel reported.
Those who attended the service must sign a contract in which they “acknowledge the authority granted to the Kentucky Department for Public Health…[requiring] me to implement the following control measures.
They must:

  • Monitor themselves for fever, cough, sore throat, or difficulty breathing.”
  • Inform the Bullitt County Health Department of any symptoms.
  • Self-isolate if they experience any symptoms.
  • Call BCHD “before going to my medical provider or the emergency department.”
  • Check their temperature “at approximately the same time each day and contact BCHD after each reading.”
  • Stop going to “work, school, shopping centers, movie theaters, stadiums, church, or any public place.”
  • Not travel outside their county of residence or Kentucky without the state’s approval.
  • “Not travel by any public, commercial, or emergency conveyance such as a bus, taxi, airplane, train, boat or without the prior approval.”

On Saturday, U.S. District Judge Justin Walker ruled that the Kentucky mayor could not ban drive-in services.
“On Holy Thursday, an American mayor criminalized the communal celebration of Easter,” he wrote in his decision.
Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel’s founder and chairman, said Beshear intentionally and unconstitutionally targeted churches.
“The only reason these cars were ticketed is because they were in a church parking lot. Had they parked in the nearby Kroger or Walmart they would not have been targeted,” Staver said.
“These people have no symptoms,” he continued. “They were targeted solely because of Gov. Andy Behear’s discriminatory actions against churches. News Flash: The First Amendment does not have a pause button.”

NJ Gov. ‘Wasn’t Thinking’ about Bill of Rights When He Banned Worship Services

Contributing Author
-
0

‘That’s above my pay grade, Tucker…’

(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) New Jersey’s Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy admitted that he “wasn’t thinking” about the Bill of Rights when he passed an executive order prohibiting churches and other houses of worship from gathering.

In an interview with Tucker Carlson, the conservative Fox News host asked Murphy about arrests made in early April when New Jersey officials detained 15 men who were congregating for a rabbi’s funeral at a Lakewood synagogue.

Carlson reminded Murphy that Americans have the “right to practice their religion as they see fit and to congregate together to assemble peacefully”under the First Amendment.

“By what authority did you nullify the Bill of Rights in issuing this order?” Carlson asked. “How do you have the power to do that?”

Murphy responded: “That’s above my pay grade, Tucker.”

Murphy went on to say that he “wasn’t thinking of the Bill of Rights,” and that he was only concerned with the number of people in his state who have died from the coronavirus over the past month.

“We looked at all the data and the science and it says people have to stay away from each other,” Murphy explained.

“That is the best thing we can do to break the back of the curve of this virus, that leads to lower hospitalization and ultimately fatalities,” he added.

Carlson continued to press Murphy, asking the Democratic governor again where he found the authority to suspend citizens’ constitutional rights.

Murphy claimed that he has “broad authority within the state” that allows him to take drastic action, but clarified that this drastic action was only taken after “coordinating, discussing, and hashing it out with the variety of the leaders of the faiths of New Jersey.”

Murphy insisted that he was not prohibiting religious belief but only the right to assemble—which also is protected under the First Amendment.

“[People] have to find a different way to worship,” he concluded.

Fla. Sheriff, Who Arrested Pastor, Releases Inmate Who Then Commits Murder

Contributing Author
-
0

‘Sheriff Chronister has his priorities reversed—he arrested a pastor and released a killer…’

Tampa-Area Police Arrest Pastor for Holding Church Services
Rodney Howard-Browne/PHOTO: Facebook

(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) Florida law enforcement officials arrested a Christian pastor for holding a church service a few weeks ago, but released an imprisoned criminal who reportedly murdered a man the day after being let out.

The criminal, 26-year-old Edward Williams, was re-arrested in Tampa, Florida on Monday and is now facing  charges of second-degree murder, gun possession, violently resisting an officer, drug possession and paraphernalia possession, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.

Williams was released from prison in late March due to concerns about the spread of the coronavirus within Florida’s prison system. The release came just six days after he had originally been arrested on suspicion of heroin possession, which is a third-degree felony.

Less than one day after his release, he was involved in a fatal shoot-out in Tampa.

“There is no question Joseph Williams took advantage of this health emergency to commit crimes while he was out of jail awaiting resolution of a low-level, non-violent offense,” Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a statement Tuesday, according to NBC News.

While officials were busy releasing “any pretrial detainee for a municipal or county ordinance violation, a misdemeanor offense, a criminal traffic offense, or a third-degree felony offense” in March, they also arrested Pastor Rodney Howard–Browne, who held church services despite the state’s shelter-in-place order.

Howard-Browne, however, has said the services followed the federal government’s social distancing guidelines: hand sanitizer was passed out throughout the church, attendees maintained 6 feet of distance, and socializing was kept to a minimum.

“My heart and prayers go out to the family and friends of the victim murdered by a criminal that [Hillsborough law enforcement] released,” said Mat Staver, founder and chairman of the nonprofit litigation group Liberty Counsel, which was representing Howard–Browne.

“Sheriff Chronister has his priorities reversed—he arrested a pastor and released a killer,” Shaver added. “The people of Hillsborough County deserve much better.”

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office has released 164 “non-violent” offenders over the past few months, according to NBC News affiliate WFLA.

1...3,6973,6983,699...3,814Page 3,698 of 3,814