News of the Week for May 17th<\/sup>, 2020<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nearly 3 in 4 Americans Blame the Chinese Government for America’s High Death Rate<\/a> China Lied to Us, Hoarded PPE, and Blamed America for Coronavirus. But It Gets Worse…<\/a> To Stanch COVID-19 Meat Crisis, Let Small Farmers Sell Meat to Local Grocers<\/a> Wuhan Virus Watch: Carnival Cruise Bookings Reportedly Surge 600% After Announcing August Relaunch<\/a> More Than You Ever Wanted to Know about Viral Mutation<\/a> China’s Incestuous Relationship with the WHO Might Be Worse Than We Originally Thought<\/a> Laid-Off Workers More Likely To Say Country Should Focus On Stopping The Spread Of COVID-19 Than Reopening Soon<\/a> Another Critic Of China’s Coronavirus Response Disappears<\/a> Florida Designates Pro Wrestling ‘Essential Business’<\/a> Most Americans stayed home before government COVID-19 mandates<\/a> LA County Investigating Possible Coronavirus Outbreaks At 23 Homeless Shelters<\/a> Wisconsin Supreme Court strikes down “Safer-at-Home” order<\/a> Incorrect media reporting about children and transmission of COVID-19<\/a> The Era of Hard Truths<\/a> How Clark County COVID-19 contact sleuths trace, notify those at risk<\/a> Being Wrong Is Human and Will Happen. But Staying Wrong Is a Choice.<\/a> Wuhan Virus Watch: Leaked Data Shows China May Have 640k Coronavirus Cases, Not 80k As Claimed<\/a> Dining Out Has Changed In The Era Of The Virus<\/a> Pasadena Whole Foods Employee Dies After Contracting COVID-19<\/a> T cells found in COVID-19 patients “bode well” for long-term immunity<\/a> Two Coasts. One Virus. How New York Suffered Nearly 10 Times the Number of Deaths as California.<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kamala Harris Now Being Touted as Top Choice for Biden VP<\/a> Will Republicans “lose it all: in November ?<\/a> Why the GOP may lose everything<\/a> Republican Mike Garcia picks up Katie Hill’s California seat as Dem candidate concedes race<\/a> FBI serves warrant on senator in stock investigation<\/a> Chinese State Media Warn Country Will Interfere in U.S. Election<\/a> Nevada’s vote-by-mail primary stirs fraud concerns, as unclaimed ballots pile up: ‘Something stinks here’<\/a> Voting by mail helps the GOP. California’s special election proved that.<\/a> Nevada’s Mail-In Ballot System Wide Open to Fraud and Abuse<\/a> Justin Amash Drops Out of Presidential Race<\/a> State polls suggest Biden has a clear national lead<\/a> Mark Kelly’s business subsidies, ties to Chinese tech firm under fire<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 11 More Cases in Which Responsible Gun Owners Saved Lives<\/a> Judge Orders Massachusetts Gun Shops to Reopen, But Imposes Unfair Restrictions<\/a> Ninth Circuit Restores Ammo Background Checks In CA<\/a> Proposed Rule Would Ease Firearm Restrictions at Parks Managed by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n New Zealand Budget Ditches Climate Change, Prioritises the Economy<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Travel Medical vs CV-19<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n COVID-19 Not the Only Threat From China<\/a> China tries to calm “nationalist fever” as calls for invasion of Taiwan grow<\/a> Indian and Chinese forces involved in fierce clashes along border region<\/a> China’s “Wolf-Warrior Diplomacy” in Context<\/a> Hong Kong shop offers ‘tear gas’ flavor ice cream<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here are the Chinese ‘propaganda’ centers currently operating in the US<\/a> Wuhan Virus Watch: Carnival Cruise Bookings Reportedly Surge 600% After Announcing August Relaunch<\/a> Seven Sex Attacks by “Transgender” Inmates in Women’s Prisons<\/a> Abortion-Advocacy Groups Celebrate Mother’s Day<\/a> Attorneys for Conn. High School Runners Ask Judge to Recuse after He Forbids Them from Describing Trans Athletes as “Male”<\/a> Is California Backsliding on Racial Preferences?<\/a> Northwestern hosts “Masturbation for Manifestation” virtual event as part of online sex week<\/a> United against China: College Dems join College Republicans in demand to close ALL Chinese “propaganda” centers on campus<\/a> What You Need to Know About 4 Pivotal Supreme Court Cases This Term<\/a> Supreme Court to Hear Presidential Elector Case that Could Doom the Electoral College<\/a> SCOTUS Sounds Unlikely To Support Faithless Electors<\/a> A move to reinstate racial preferences in California<\/a> A Secret Space Plane is Carrying a Solar Experiment to Orbit<\/a> Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption<\/a> And Now For . . . Data Feminism?<\/a> Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Why Trade Freedom Will Be Key to Post-COVID-19 Global Economic Rebound<\/a> Is Trump’s Optimism About A Quick Economic Recovery Backfiring On The “Reopen Now” Crowd?<\/a> Taiwan Firm to Build Chip Factory in U.S.<\/a> Sweden Has Avoided a Coronavirus Lockdown. Its Economy Is Hurting Anyway.<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n People In Hong Kong Are Becoming Ill With Rat Hepatitis For First Time Ever. No One Knows How It’s Happening.<\/a> Majority of remote workers are more productive and communicative<\/a> German cannibal gets supervised day trips while wearing disguise<\/a> Burning EU and other flags can now bring German jail term<\/a> Britain to publish ALL documents to show EU threats as trade talks row explodes<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Newsboy.jpg\" "\\"News")
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<\/a>Corona Virus<\/h1>\n
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<\/p>\n
\nChina is the most blamed entity among Republicans, and the fourth most among Democrats<\/p>\n
\nAs American researchers are working hard to develop a vaccine and a cure for the Chinese coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China, Chinese Communist Party hackers are targeting American research for cyberattacks, according to the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Rogue actors have increased cybertheft and attacks amid the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n
\nThe ability of Americans to buy meat in grocery stores is at risk due to serious supply-chain issues caused by COVID-19.<\/p>\n
\nCarnival Cruise Bookings Surge 600% After Announcing August Relaunch. Georgia reports lowest number of COVID patients in a month. MLB employee infection rate under 1%. San Francisco neighborhood suing city over COVID-related homeless problems.<\/p>\n
\nViruses mutate \u2014 meaning they change and evolve as they multiply and spread \u2014 and one of the big fears about SARS-CoV-2 is that at some point it could mutate into something even more deadly and even more contagious. Thankfully, so far that hasn’t happened. A University College London team analyzing virus genomes from more than 7,500 infected people identified 198 recurrent genetic mutations in the virus, and a lead researcher concluded, “there is nothing to suggest SARS-CoV-2 is mutating faster or slower than expected. So far we cannot say whether SARS-CoV-2 is becoming more or less lethal and contagious.”<\/p>\n
\nSince the Wuhan coronavirus became a pandemic, we have learned more and more about China’s incestuous relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO). When Taiwan attempted to blow the whistle on the virus that was raging on in China, the WHO turned their back and acted as though nothing was going on. In late January, the WHO parrotted the Chinese Communist Party’s talking points, particularly that the Wuhan coronavirus was not transmitted from human-to-human. And the WHO knew they were wrong for ignoring Taiwan, which is why Bruce Alyward, the senior advisor to Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, hung up a Skype call with a reporter when asked about that very warning.<\/p>\n
\nThere are lots of things driving that result, I’d guess. One is plain old-fashioned fear. Most doctors, including Anthony Fauci in testimony today before the Senate, are palpably concerned about a second wave triggered by reopening prematurely. That’s bound to influence workers, even ones who really need the money.<\/p>\n
\nA Chinese attorney named Zhang Xuezhong has been arrested at his home after posting a statement on Chinese social media questioning the leadership of Xi Jinping and suggesting the government’s response to the coronavirus showed government suppression of society was too severe<\/p>\n
\nWorld Wrestling Entertainment resumed its live televised shows Monday at its facility in Orlando without fans present. After weeks of airing taped pro wrestling matches, WWE received permission last week with a signed order from Florida’s Emergency Management Director. The order says “employees at a professional sports and media production with a national audience” are exempt from a stay-at-home order as long as “the location is closed to the general public.”<\/p>\n
\nMost Americans voluntarily stayed at home during the early days of the COVID-19 tsunami, before states began issuing official “shelter-in-place” orders, new research indicates.<\/p>\n
\nDespite the best efforts of LA\u2019s homeless shelters, the coronavirus is now spreading among residents of 4 out of 5 shelters near Skid Row. The county is currently investigating possible outbreaks at a total of 23 shelters<\/p>\n
\n“Palm’s Emergency Order 28 is declared unlawful, invalid, and unenforceable.”<\/p>\n
\nA statement about media reports, citing RCPCH, on the transmission of COVID-19 by children.<\/p>\n
\nOn the menu today: why our response to the virus has always been hobbled by our individual and collective difficulty accepting hard truths; why we shouldn\u2019t be surprised that doctors and politicians disagree because of their different incentives; a tough question of matching the most vulnerable workers to the work that needs to be done before the pandemic can come to an end; and all kinds of helpful advice to parents from all of those wise sages on Twitter.<\/p>\n
\nThe Southern Nevada Health District has tapped swimming pool and restaurant inspectors along with investigators of sexually transmitted diseases to help with the enormous job of notifying close contacts of people who test positive for COVID-19 that they may have been infected by the coronavirus.<\/p>\n
\nOn the menu today: We could all dunk on people who were wrong in their early assessments of this pandemic, but the more pressing question is who is not learning from getting things wrong during this outbreak; one mainstream publication notices that the conventional wisdom on Florida was far from the truth; why the media’s reflexive partisan sympathies are leading Americans to not understand the virus and what policies work best to mitigate it; and a funny and brutally honest assessment of what’s coming to higher education.<\/p>\n
\nPLUS: Could plasma from those who recovered from the coronavirus be used as a possible treatment? A few studies have optimistic results.<\/p>\n
\nTexas is in the process of reopening for business, and that includes bars and restaurants. Most eateries have either been closed for the past couple of months or restricted to curbside takeout service. But as diners venture out for their first restaurant experience in many weeks, they\u2019re discovering that the old practices are no longer in place. NBC News talked to some of the wait staff at Coltivare, a popular Italian restaurant in Houston, about some of the changes that have been made. They also interviewed one couple who went to dinner there, Nisha Oza and her husband, Ted Mellen, about how the experience differed from the pre-virus era.<\/p>\n
\nAn employee at a Pasadena Whole Foods has died after contracting the novel coronavirus, the supermarket chain confirmed Friday.<\/p>\n
\nScience’s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center.<\/p>\n
\nCalifornia\u2019s governor and San Francisco\u2019s mayor worked together to act early in confronting the COVID threat. For Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio, it was a different story, and 27,000 New Yorkers have died so far.<\/p>\n<\/a>Election 2020<\/h1>\n
\n“Harris is not only in top contention, but Biden aides, surrogates and major donors see her as the best fit at the onset of the process”<\/p>\n
\nE.J. Dionne thinks they very well might, and for once I agree with him. So, apparently, do some Republican Senators. (I hope I’m wrong. If I am, it won’t be the first time I have underestimated President Trump and the American public.)<\/p>\n
\nMontana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) says that when he first announced he would run for the U.S. Senate, he \u201cdidn\u2019t know what Montana and the country was going to look like in the short period thereafter.\u201d With the covid-19 crisis, all his time has been taken up by being a governor, not a candidate. So far, that has only helped him in his campaign to unseat Republican Sen. Steve Daines.<\/p>\n
\nDemocrat Christy Smith conceded the special election race for California’s 25th Congressional District to Republican Mike Garcia on Wednesday, marking the first time Republicans will retake a Democratic-held congressional seat in the state since 1998 — and, Republicans said, indicating that enthusiasm for President Trump is strong heading into the 2020 elections.<\/p>\n
\nFederal agents seized a cellphone belonging to a prominent Republican senator on Wednesday night as part of the Justice Department’s investigation into controversial stock trades he made as the coronavirus first struck the U.S., a law enforcement official said.<\/p>\n
\nChina is threatening to meddle in the upcoming U.S. presidential election as retribution for a flurry of American lawsuits seeking to hold Beijing accountable for the spread of the coronavirus.<\/p>\n
\nRed flags are being raised about the all-mail voting system being used in Nevada\u2019s most populous county ahead of the state\u2019s June 9 primary election amid reports that thousands of ballots are being sent to inactive voters — fueling concerns about the possibility of voter fraud and ballot harvesting.<\/p>\n
\nA socially isolated election was held this week, and although it’s never wise to draw big conclusions from one-off events, the clear lesson in Tuesday’s race for California’s 25th Congressional District is this: It is time for Republicans to get on the vote-by-mail train.<\/p>\n
\nThe state of Nevada will hold it\u2019s primary on June 9. The election will be held entirely by mail-in ballot and it’s already raising red flags over concerns about vote fraud and ballot harvesting.<\/p>\n
\nMichigan congressman Justin Amash, who left the Republican party over his opposition to President Trump, announced on April 28 that he was considering running for president in 2020 as the Libertarian Party’s nominee. On Saturday, he wrote on Twitter that he’s closing down his exploratory committee<\/p>\n
\nPoll of the week: A new Marquette Law School poll finds former Vice President Joe Biden with a 46% to 43% lead over President Donald Trump in Wisconsin. <\/p>\n
\nDemocratic Senate candidate Mark Kelly has cast himself as a successful astronaut-turned-entrepreneur who has made millions from good investments and generous speaking fees.<\/p>\n<\/a>Gun Rights<\/h1>\n
\nIn recent weeks, several instances involving the reckless use of firearms dominated national headlines. In one case, a Georgia man tragically lost his life when armed civilians crossed the line between defensive necessity and vigilantism. <\/p>\n
\nGun shops in Massachusetts are officially open after a federal judge found that state officials overstepped their bounds by ordering their businesses closed and deemed non-essential. <\/p>\n
\nA three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling Thursday that California’s requirement for background checks on all ammunition purchases can remain in place while the law is being challenged, overturning a district judge’s decision to block the background checks during the litigation.<\/p>\n
\nIf the change is approved, LTC holders would no longer be required to obtain written consent to carry weapons in recreational facilities managed by the government agency.<\/p>\n<\/a>Hide the Decline<\/h1>\n
Environment &
\n“Green Energy”<\/h2>\n
\nGreen New Zealand has disappointed activists, by ditching climate idealism in favour of trying to restart their economy.<\/p>\n<\/a>Obamacare<\/h1>\n
Government in Healthcare<\/h2>\n
\nRegular readers will recall that most health insurance stops at the border, which is why so many folks opt to purchase travel medical plans<\/p>\n<\/a>War & Terror<\/h1>\n
\nThe destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the subsequent demise of the Soviet Union two years later lulled the West into a false sense of security. Many appeared to believe that an age of unending peace and prosperity had been ushered in. <\/p>\n
\nLoud calls on social media urge Beijing to strike while world is busy with coronavirus crisis, but observers say the authorities do not want to be rushed<\/p>\n
\nThe Indian Armed Forces launched an attack against the Chinese border guards this past weekend, injuring a number of military personnel in the process.<\/p>\n
\nXi’s aggressive nationalism is backfiring.<\/p>\n
\nTear gas is among the new flavors at a Hong Kong ice cream shop. The main ingredient is black peppercorns, a reminder of the pungent, peppery rounds fired by police on the streets of the semi-autonomous Chinese city during months of demonstrations last year. <\/p>\n<\/a>National<\/h1>\n
\nDespite multiple warnings from U.S. intelligence officials, multiple Chinese-funded Confucius Institutes still operate on American soil.<\/p>\n
\nCarnival Cruise Bookings Surge 600% After Announcing August Relaunch. Georgia reports lowest number of COVID patients in a month. MLB employee infection rate under 1%. San Francisco neighborhood suing city over COVID-related homeless problems.<\/p>\n
\nOn Saturday, the Daily Mail reported that “transgender prisoners have carried out seven sex attacks on women in jail” in the United Kingdom in recent years. Since 2016, male prisoners have been permitted to transfer to women’s prisons in England and Wales if they identify as women. In 2017, concerns were raised after a convicted rapist, “Karen” White \u2014 who was still legally male and had undergone no surgical changes \u2014 was moved to a women’s prison where he sexually assaulted two inmates. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that, under such a policy, such an instance is unlikely to be a one-off. <\/p>\n
\nIt’s become something of an annual tradition for abortion-advocacy groups to celebrate Mother’s Day with tweets and email campaigns, attempting to sidestep that they exist to protect the right to kill unborn children \u2014 the antithesis of motherhood.<\/p>\n
\nAttorneys representing three female high school track athletes in their effort to bar biological males from competing against them filed a motion on Saturday calling for the presiding judge to recuse himself after he forbid the attorneys from referring to the transgender athletes at issue as “males.”<\/p>\n
\nRacial preferences are never quite dead, no matter how many times you put a stake through them.<\/p>\n
\nOther events include Burlesque workshop, drag makeup tutorial, Cunty MeMe performance<\/p>\n
\nBoth the national College Democrats and College Republicans have come together to issue a list of demands to American universities to put a stop on the Chinese Communist Party’s campaign to influence academia.<\/p>\n
\nThe Supreme Court is hearing some major cases this term that could have longstanding implications. The cases span a variety of issues: President Donald Trump’s financial records, the Electoral College, and religious liberty, and more. Tom Jipping, deputy director of the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies and senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, joins the podcast to break these cases down. <\/p>\n
\nThe left has been trying to get rid of the electoral college for years and now they appear to have their best chance ever: a case in the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
\nWhen I previewed the Supreme Court’s choices in the faithless elector cases of Chiafalo v. Washington and Colorado Department of State v. Baca, I attempted to highlight the conflicting urges to honor the results of valid elections and respect the intentions of the Founders when they wrote the Constitution. That conflict appeared to be on display yesterday when the justices heard arguments in both cases. Attorneys for the electors in question consistently argued that the states were given no role in controlling the actions of the electors once they’ve been selected. But several of the justices, both conservative and liberal, sounded dubious about that argument at best. The arguments also included the invocation, probably for the first time ever, of the name of a character from The Lord of the Rings. <\/p>\n
\nCalifornia Proposition 209, enacted by the state’s voters in 1996, amended the California Constitution to prohibit public institutions from discriminating on the basis of race, sex, or ethnicity. Now, the California legislature is considering legislation to reinstate racial preferences.<\/p>\n
\nThe idea of beaming solar energy to Earth with radio waves is decades old. But this weekend, the technology gets its first test in orbit.<\/p>\n
\nThe neighborhood church casts a breast-shaped shadow that locals have come to call the “two o’clock titty.”<\/p>\n
\nFeminists were rightly annoyed a couple decades back when Mattel released a talking Barbie doll who had among its canned sound bites the phrase \u201cMath is hard!\u201d But does it help the cause of gender parity in math and science to propose that there is a distinct feminist perspective on data?<\/p>\n
\nBotanical accuracy, puppycide, and accusations of impropriety.<\/p>\n<\/a>Economy & Taxes<\/h1>\n
\nThe World Trade Organization recently reported that half of its member countries currently imposing coronavirus pandemic-related export-control restrictions were not reporting those controls. <\/p>\n
\nThis Axios post grabbed my attention because it’s part of an apparent trend of workers seeming waaaaay too optimistic about their employment prospects given the depths of the economic misery we\u2019re in. And since most economists are quite blunt about how deep the hole is, we’re left wondering where the public is getting the impression that a turnaround will be quick and easy-ish.<\/p>\n
\nPlans for TSMC’s Arizona plant come as Trump seeks to cut dependence on Asia<\/p>\n
\nEven without legal prohibitions, many Swedes are following social-distancing recommendations and limiting travel<\/p>\n<\/a>International<\/h1>\n
\nA new report this week outlined an increasing virus problem in Hong Kong, which is attached to mainland China, where rat hepatitis E is jumping from rats to humans for the first time in history, and no one seems to know how it’s happening.<\/p>\n
\nAll companies, even those with no remote work culture, have had to mandate and effectively manage their employees working from home. Research shows how the workforce is experiencing the shift, and what employees need to stay productive and engaged. The future of work after the COVID-19 pandemic will not be the same.<\/p>\n
\nA German cannibal who got a life sentence for killing and devouring a man whom he cut into steaks is being treated to police-supervised strolls while wearing a disguise, according to a report.<\/p>\n
\nGermany has made public burning of the EU flag or that of another country punishable by up to three years in jail, classing it as a hate crime.<\/p>\n
\nBRITAIN is set to publish documents revealing all EU’s threats made to the UK during the Brexit negotiations after trade talks resulted in another “downbeat” day of no concrete progress.<\/p>\n<\/a>Opinion<\/h1>\n