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“You Will Show Us Your Papers!” New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio announced that starting next month, proof of COVID vaccination will be required to engage in a range of indoor activities in the city, including dining, fitness, entertainment and others.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2021/08/03/de-blasio-announces-nyc-proof-of-vaccine-mandate-for-indoor-activities-n2593514

So having forcibly shut down businesses for months to stop the spread of COVID, he’s now going to allow the businesses to open but ban large numbers of potential customers from entering them -- to stop the spread of COVID. “Full enforcement” will begin on September 13th, marking perhaps the first time since taking office that DeBlasio has actually enforced something.

Since this makes no exceptions for people who had COVID and have natural immunity or who object on religious grounds, or who have been advised against vaccinations by their doctors, or who just have personal objections, it’s being described by critics as madness and tyranny. But New Yorkers should be used to that by now.

Incidentally, how will people prove they’ve been vaccinated? They’re required to show either their paper CDC vaccine record card or the New York City or State's vaccine record app. That means not only forcing people to make their private medical records public to strangers, but also forcing them to show a government-issued ID. And since blacks and Hispanics have declined vaccination in higher percentages than whites, and will be disproportionately affected by the policy, that means it’s straight-up racism under the Democrats’ own definition.

To the surprise of many, New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, the first transgender Olympic athlete to compete in women’s events, flamed out and lost to weightlifters who were, you know…actually born female.

https://redstate.com/bonchie/2021/08/02/heres-how-that-transgender-weightlifter-fared-at-the-olympics-n420030

As the article at Redstate.com notes, defenders of allowing biological males who’ve “transitioned” to compete against women will treat Hubbard’s failure as evidence that they have no unfair physical advantage. But there were two major factors in this case that worked to counter Hubbard’s unfair advantage. The first is age: Hubbard didn’t start taking female hormones until the age of 34 and is now 43, by far the oldest person in the competition.

The second is that weightlifters don’t all lift the same weight. They choose how much they’ll lift with the total of three lifts comprising their scores. By attempting to lift 120 kg (264.5 lbs.), 125 kg (275.5 lbs.) and 120 kg (failing on the first and third lifts), Hubbard tried to lift too much weight. I hope she didn't give herself a hernia. Some might attribute this to “male ego,” but I’m sure that was surgically removed.

Frankly, Hubbard’s loss was the best thing that could have happened to the transgender movement. Imagine how it would have looked on TV to millions of viewers if Hubbard had cleanly lifted so much weight, then stood there towering over the competition and accepting the gold.

Also as noted, Hubbard still got lots of adulatory press coverage for “making history” while the actual winners of the event were completely overlooked. None of the stories that I saw that fawned over Hubbard’s “accomplishment” even mentioned the winners. I had to do a Google search and dig deep into the Olympics website to discover that the gold went to China’s Li Wenwen, the silver to Great Britain’s Emily Jade Campbell and the bronze to American Sarah Elizabeth Robles. Congratulations, ladies: you’re the ones who made Olympic history.

Rep. Ilhan Omar and some of her fellow far-far-left colleagues are pushing a bill they call the SUPPORT Act (I guess that sounded better than the HAMMOCK Act) that would give $1200 a month to people making less than $75,000 a year or heads of household making less than $112,500 a year, plus $600 per child. This would be a first step toward a national “guaranteed income.” Because paying people for doing nothing is working out so well right now.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ilhan-omar-guaranteed-income-1200-monthly-checks

Omar declared, "Poverty is a choice. For too long we have prioritized endless growth while millions are homeless, hungry or without healthcare. We as a nation have the ability to make sure everyone has their basic needs like food, housing and healthcare met.”

Hoo-boy, where to start? I guess with the fact that America already takes care of those who genuinely need food, housing and healthcare. We spend hundreds of billions of dollars every year on programs like Medicaid, Section 8 housing and SNAP food assistance. If we wanted to spend even more on those programs, maybe we could secure the border and stop letting millions of illegal immigrants suck up so much public assistance funding that could go to Americans, especially veterans. Just spit-balling here.

Second, prioritizing growth has enabled us to create the most dynamic economy in the world, one that was creating plenty of jobs and rising wages up until a Chinese virus and Democrat politicians strangled it (and somehow, Trump got blamed for that.)

I do agree with her on one thing: in some cases, poverty is a choice. Don’t get me wrong: there are plenty of people who are poor through no fault of their own. But then, there are those who make the mistake of listening to the false promises of leftist politicians who promise them things for free in exchange for their freedom. Like a subsistence wage for no work. Leftists hope you choose to stay in poverty because that keeps you dependent on government and them in power.

But one of the problems with socialist ides like this is that there is no magical forest full of money trees, so all that free stuff has to be paid for by someone else. As soon the people paying for it realize it’s not worth it to keep producing when the government is just going to take away the fruits of their labor and give it to the non-productive, then they become nonproductive, too.

And that’s when America becomes Venezuela.

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One thing that really stands out about Attorney General Merrick Garland’s attempted smackdown of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is how much Garland cares about PROTECTING people, as long as they're here illegally.

In case you didn’t see yesterday’s commentary about the legal fight between President Biden’s “Justice” Department and the Lone Star State, it’s here at the link. The case boils down to whether or not the federal government always has supremacy over a state, even when it causes harm to that state.

https://www.mikehuckabee.com/latest-news?id=D4342846-F6F2-4D33-A822-930438E55E44

Garland argues that Gov. Abbott’s order to stop contractors hired by the federal government to transport “noncitizens” (their word for illegals) causes injury to those the government is charged to protect,”jeopardizing the health and safety of noncitizens in federal custody...”

Sarcasm alert: Ah, I see that I’ve been looking at this all wrong! For some reason, I had it in my head that the government’s priority was to look after the health and safety of its own citizens. But obviously, my view is outdated. The most important consideration in 2021 is not to cause injury to our country's honored guests. That means citizens and legal residents will just have to deal with any injury THEY receive as a result, because we are a compassionate nation.

While many citizens face renewed requirements to mask up to go to work or school, as the pandemic reportedly rages on, the ”noncitizens” get to hop a bus or plane –- chartered for them by Uncle Sam at taxpayer expense –- and head from border towns to big cities within Texas and far beyond, many spreading COVID-19 across the land.

https://news.yahoo.com/surge-raises-suspicions-migrants-propelling-185900170.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

Gov. Abbott made the mistake of being concerned about Texans who might get exposed to the virus. The AG is just trying to show him the truth: that government is there not to protect Texans but to make sure everything possible is being done for hundreds of thousands of new Democrat voters---I mean, our new guests.

To that end, Biden’s newly proposed immigration plan says Congress should make available $15 million to cover the cost of private lawyers for “families and vulnerable individuals” who have entered our country illegally (though he doesn’t use the word “illegally”). It also calls for $23 million more to cover “legal orientation programs” administered by the Justice Department.

This is the first time an administration has proposed covering such an expense.

These lawyers would be making an estimated $150 to $300 per hour. We learn from this that the Biden administration is looking out for not only the “noncitizens” crossing the Rio Grande but also the immigration lawyers who will guide them through the legal territory that still must be crossed. That initial $15 million really won’t go very far, though, as it’s only enough to cover several thousand people. But since taking good care of “non-citizens” and the immigration lawyers representing them is so very important, that amount is sure to be just the starting point.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/biden-to-cover-cost-lawyers-migrants-at-border

The WASHINGTON EXAMINER did some math and says that in the past four months alone, 190,000 people illegally crossed our southern border with a family member and 64,000 unaccompanied children also arrived. Just how the Biden administration plans to apply the money is vague, but the EXAMINER estimates the cost of providing lawyers for all of these people at $500 million. Again, that’s for four months.

I’d like to ask Merrick Garland about Section 292 of the Immigration Nationality Act, which specifies that the government is not supposed to pay for legal representation in immigration proceedings. Immigrants have the option of paying for their own representation, or they can receive help from one of the many pro bono and advocacy organizations that are there to assist in such cases. In other words, the American taxpayer is not supposed to be on the hook for this. These are civil cases, and since American citizens and legal permanent residents don’t get taxpayer-funded representation when they’re involved in civil litigation, then “noncitizens” certainly should not.

Obviously, the Biden administration doesn’t view it that way. “Noncitizens” get special privileges that we citizens don’t have. And the attorney general, as we have seen, takes it as his responsibility to keep them safe from harm as they pour into the Lone Star State.

But if the AG really feels that way, he might want to rethink his support of Biden’s border policy. We found a must-read article in the NEW YORK POST from April that would surely change his mind, as it details the nightmare that waits for many children, particularly young girls, who are brought across the border by the drug cartels.

https://nypost.com/2021/04/17/how-bidens-border-policy-will-increase-child-sex-trafficking-to-us/

Many have already been raped and beaten by the time they get here, if they do manage to get here alive. The cartels exploit them in child pornography and as drug mules. Because they’re indebted to the cartels for the cost of bringing them here, they become indentured servants working as prostitutes. One homeland security agent describes the “direct human pipeline” from Tenancingo, Mexico, to New York City, saying his office has prosecuted cases involving girls as young as 14.

The girls are held against their will in apartments in Queens and driven around to be made to have sex with men, typically 15-20 men in one evening. All the money is handed over to the trafficker, to pay the girls’ “debt.”

As for the situation in Texas, here’s more of the reality: So many are crossing the border that they have overflowed the facilities and are being massed under bridges to await being processed. The attorney general’s solution is to keep those buses rolling, throughout the State of Texas and to points north, east and west! And the governor had better not “interfere.” The VICTORY GIRLS BLOG has an outstanding report from South Texas, complete with unbelievable photos of this catastrophe.

https://victorygirlsblog.com/illegals-housed-under-bridge-and-bused-everywhere/

Finally, a legal immigrant and naturalized U.S. citizen who also happens to work as a health care policy analyst tells us just what is wrong with the current border policy and why. She sees the policy of allowing illegal immigrants to pour into America as “a slap in the face” to legal immigrants. She notes that while the administration is using the threat of COVID-19 to restrict Americans’ freedom, Biden has allowed over a million illegal immigrants, many infected with COVID and other serious diseases, to come here.

Op-Ed: I'm a Legal Immigrant - Here's Why Biden's Border Crisis Angers Me

So this is the reality of illegal immigration. Not only is it spreading COVID and crime, but we can’t “protect” the many thousands of young people who are brought over. Some on the left support this open-border policy because they are naive and think they’re being compassionate, but those at the highest levels of government such as Merrick Garland and Joe Biden, as well as those who promote open borders with their billions, know good and well the damage it causes but don’t care, because, you know, politics.

GOP report on Wuhan lab

August 3, 2021

Monday, Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee issued a report that the preponderance of evidence, including recently uncovered evidence, points to COVID-19 being accidentally released from the virus lab in Wuhan, China, sometime before September 12, 2019.

https://gop-foreignaffairs.house.gov/press-release/mccaul-releases-addendum-to-origins-of-covid-19-report/

Texas Rep. Michael McCaul said the Wuhan virologists were “playing with fire. They were genetically manipulating at the lab this gain-of-function that was taking place." McCaul called for top researchers involved with the Wuhan lab to be sanctioned and for Peter Daszak, the head of EcoHealth Alliances that sent $3.4 million in NIH grants to the Wuhan lab, to be called to testify before Congress.

https://www.foxnews.com/world/wuhan-lab-report-raises-further-questions-about-possible-covid-19-lab-leak

McCaul also accused the Chinese Communist Party of engaging in “the greatest cover-up in human history.” I don’t know if there’s an award ceremony for that, but if so, I hope the CCP remembers to thank all the US-based social media sites that made their win possible.

There’s a key difference between how those on the right and the left view the economy and the role of the government. We’re experiencing the stark contrasts as the Biden administration carries out its policies that lean to the left—in some cases to the far left.

Here are some basic truths about how the economy works. The rule of supply and demand says that if the demand is higher than the supply, prices go up. So if a lot of people want a car or a house but there is a low inventory of cars and houses, the prices will go up. The more demand, the higher the price. That’s true for gasoline, groceries, or gravel. Conversely, if there is a huge supply and little demand, prices will plummet. This is true of labor as well. If there are lots of help wanted signs and job openings but not many workers willing to take the jobs, employers will have to bid up the wages and pay more. But they may try to function with fewer employees, which in the long run means fewer jobs.

Another truth is that taxes taken by the government mean less money for a family or a business. We need taxes to pay for essential services and functions, whether having a military, having airports, waterways, police departments, fire trucks, roads and highways, parks, or sewer systems. But whatever the government does for you, it takes FROM you to do it. If they do stuff you don’t want or need, it costs you in real money. That’s money you don’t keep to buy clothes for your teenager, buy food, pay your housing costs or utilities, or put gas in your car.

When prices go up but wages don’t, that’s inflation. Inflation is a silent tax on you. If the cost of your electricity, gasoline, food, building supplies, and the cost of labor goes up, you have less money left to do things you want to do and less money to buy things you want to buy. The decrease in what you can afford to buy leads to fewer things being sold, which means fewer things will be manufactured and transported which means some people who made, shipped, or sold those things will lose their jobs. Everyone gets hurt by inflation and we are seeing a uptick in inflation right now under the policies of the Biden administration and the Democrats in Congress. Those on the left believes that government should do more to redistribute the money in the economy by taking more from the people who have worked and giving it to those who either didn’t work or who didn’t earn as much as others. Sometimes government promises to “do things” for people for providing “FREE college or childcare.” But it isn’t free at all. The government will have to take more of your money to pay for it. And when taxes are higher, you have less money. And your employer has less money. You can’t buy things you want and your employer can’t increase your wages or benefits. And a store can’t afford to put more items on the shelf which means fewer things are ordered, fewer things are shipped, and fewer things are made. Get the picture? Good, because the folks on the left don’t seem to. They truly believe they can spend your money better than you can. If you actually believe that, you will love those who govern from the left. If you believe you’d spend your money better than the government would, then you’ll want to vote for people on the right.

It’s really not that complicated. How you vote will determine how you live. Elections do have consequences. And if you’ve bought gasoline, clothes, food or planned a vacation lately, I hope you’ve noticed the consequences!