Author: J.P. Knowles

Since the mainstream media has become obsessed with blasting President Trump’s every move, it’s become harder to pay attention to issues that really matter. For example, last week Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted to lying to Americans about the coronavirus and what needed to be done before the nation could fully recover.

For most of the pandemic, Dr. Fauci and other scientists in the public health establishment have been pushing the narrative that 60-70% of Americans would need to receive the COVID vaccine in order for the country to reach herd immunity and make the coronavirus a thing of the past.

But, recently, while speaking with The New York Times, Fauci admitted that number is actually much higher, perhaps even around the 75-90% mark. He claimed that he withheld the truth because the country wasn’t ready to hear it. Fauci said he now feels he has the freedom to “nudge this up a bit” without damaging the country’s morale.

So Dr. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, flat out lied to the American people to manipulate their behavior.

In times like these with so much sickness and death and violence, the American people deserve the truth and accountability. When elected officials make bad decisions they must answer to the people but when public health officials with lifetimes of experience within this country’s institutions impede the truth and make bad decisions they deny the American people the right to decide for themselves.

Accountability is, after all, a central principle of representative government and is the only way to guarantee that what is being enforced by our trusted lawmakers is equal to the values of the people who elected them.

Twitter users tore into CNN’s Jim Acosta after he admitted he did not plan on covering Joe Biden’s presidency with the same active ruthlessness that he gave to the Trump administration. Users accused him of being “literally delusional” for claiming that covering Trump was “an experience that might merit hazard pay.”

Acosta emerged as a quasi-celebrity for leading the media’s anti-Trump “resistance” with his combative style of questioning members of the administration. Critics accused the White House correspondent of “showboating” by pulling stunts like walking out of a press conference after then-Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee would not say reporters weren’t the people’s enemy.

But Acosta always insists that his on-air umbrage has always been authentic.

If Acosta’s “double standard” wasn’t enough to stir up some negative emotions, his comparing Trump’s treatment of the press to a “nonstop national emergency” warranted some harsh feedback.

CNN “fact checker” admitting that he’s pivoting from fact checking Biden to focusing on “online disinformation,” AKA CNN code for Republicans who use the internet + "congressional leaders" which will almost undoubtedly = congressional Republicans in practice.

So predictable 🙄 https://t.co/SzkFuYKIFJ

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) December 29, 2020

Journalist Steve Krakauer wrote that Acosta was either “literally delusional” or it was “continued kayfabe,” referring to Acosta’s on-air antics that sometimes feel less than genuine.

Twitter user @AdamInHTownTX pulled a quote straight from The Atlantic then offered a more honest translation of the statement.

"Dale hopes to spend more time debunking online disinformation and digging into claims made by congressional leaders."

TRANSLATION: CNN will be providing cover for Biden and Harris and go after anyone who attacks them.

— AdamInHTownTX (@AdamInHTownTX) December 29, 2020

User @philllosoraptor gets straight to the point by writing, “Biden lies as much as anyone in politics.”

The new network The First called out the mainstream media for its continued unfair treatment by always playing softball with Biden. Like during the ABC News town hall the audience members seemed to only ask the former vice president rehearsed questions that required simple easy answers instead of forcing him to address the bombshell report on his son, Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings.

We all knew that @JoeBiden would get the kid gloves compared to the 24/7, wall-to-wall screeching coverage of @realDonaldTrump… but reporters openly admitting it is just a little surprising.

Kudos for the honesty??? https://t.co/CoqGldqUe3

— The First (@TheFirstonTV) December 29, 2020

According to user @EdAsante77, most of the drama that came out of the Trump Era was created by “reporters like Acosta being rude and self-aggrandizing.”

And @FindingTheGood4 believes that this kind of media coverage is “Mind control. Feeding us only what they want us to know.”

Then @vlhill1 went in for the kill with this harsh dose of reality.

My dad served in WWII. My mother was on the home front with 2 small children, not knowing when, or if, he would be able to come back home. WWII was a 'nonstop national emergency". Acosta debases that phrase to compare his treatment in the White House.

— Vicki Hill (@vlhill1) December 29, 2020

Acosta’s colleague, CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale, also said he won’t be covering Biden the way he did President Trump.

Dale claimed that the president-elect doesn’t lie as often as Trump so “it will not be a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week job to fact-check Biden.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would not commit to granting President Trump’s request to increase stimulus checks sent directly to Americans to $2,000 and blocked Senator Bernie Sanders and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer from putting the House bill up for quick consideration.

This led Trump to launch a Twitter assault against Senate Republicans, warning that “Unless Republicans have a death wish… they must approve the $2000 payments ASAP.”

Schumer’s request would have passed the bigger checks Tuesday afternoon and Sander’s request would have set a vote on the bill on the very next day.

Sen. Mitch McConnell objected to Sen. Schumer asking the Senate to pass by unanimous consent the $2000 direct payments bill that the House passed last night by 2/3 bipartisan vote.

— Jason Donner (@jason_donner) December 29, 2020

McConnell did address Trump’s need for “further direct financial support for American households” while speaking on the Senate floor and mentioned that the president wants Congress to direct their attention to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides certain protections for companies like Facebook and Twitter that share third-party content on their platforms. He also acknowledged that Trump wants Congress to take a closer look at election security.

“Those are the three important subjects the president has linked together,” he said. “This week the Senate will begin a process to bring these three priorities into focus.”

McConnell did not directly commit to allowing Senate to vote on the $2,000 stimulus checks but if Trump gets his way the checks will go up for a vote.

Unless Republicans have a death wish, and it is also the right thing to do, they must approve the $2000 payments ASAP. $600 IS NOT ENOUGH! Also, get rid of Section 230 – Don’t let Big Tech steal our Country, and don’t let the Democrats steal the Presidential Election. Get tough! https://t.co/GMotstu7OI

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 29, 2020

In a tweet from President Trump Tuesday he argues, “$600 IS NOT ENOUGH! Also, get rid of Section 230 – Don’t let Big Tech steal our Country, and don’t let the Democrats steal the Presidential Election. Get tough!”

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris had a huge audience while receiving her coronavirus vaccine that just gained approval from the FDA earlier this month.

In a live event covered by all three major national cable news networks, Harris was administered the first of the two shots of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at United Medical Center located in the southeast portion of the District of Columbia.

“I want to encourage everyone to get the vaccine,” she said after receiving the shot. “It is relatively painless, it happens really quickly. It is safe.”

“This is about saving lives. It’s literally about saving lives,” the vice president-elect stressed to the millions of Americans watching. “I trust the scientists, and it is the scientists who created and approved this vaccine everyone. So I urge everyone, when it is your turn, get vaccinated.”

She added, “It’s about saving your life, the life of your family members, and the life of your community.”

Back in September during the general election campaign Harris made headlines when she refused to take President Trump’s word on the reliability of any coronavirus vaccine that would be produced as long as he were president.

One month later, Harris and Vice President Mike Harris clashed during a heated debate when she continued to stand her ground by vowing to only take the vaccine if it was approved by scientific leaders, including the notorious infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci.

“If the public health professionals, if Dr. Fauci, if the doctors tell us we should take it, I’ll be the first in line to take it, absolutely,” Harris claimed at the time. “But if Donald Trump tells us we should take it, I’m not taking it.”

Pence took personal offense to her comment and criticized Harris for continuing “to undermine public confidence in a vaccine.”

The Vice President went on to say that it was “unconscionable” and asked Harris “to stop playing politics with peoples’ lives.”

Anthony Quinn Warner, the man suspected by police to have detonated a bomb from within an RV in downtown Nashville in the early hours of Christmas morning may have had some negative feelings toward law enforcement. According to a former co-worker, Warner used to regularly spout anti-police rhetoric.

Over 40 years ago Warner would allegedly speak to his co-worker Tom Lundborg about his disdain for police officers.

Around the late 1970s when the two men worked together for Lundborg’s father’s security system company, A.C.E. Alarms, Lundborg recalls Warner telling him, “I hate cops. They’re all corrupt.”

For at least “a couple years” the two would work together almost daily driving to different job sites. The long car rides would sometimes turn to conversations about the police.

Lundborg remembers Warner saying, “Never trust a cop” during one of their now decades-old car-ride chats.

These photos were taken in #Nashville at the blast site. #FBI and #ATF Evidence Response Teams (ERT) continue to process the scene of the Christmas Day explosion in Nashville, TN. The teams are searching for evidence to assist in the ongoing investigation. pic.twitter.com/zhit76L1k5

— FBI Memphis (@FBIMemphis) December 29, 2020

Police were already in the area responding to a report of shots being fired when they spotted the suspicious RV, which played an ominous warning before switching to Petula Clark’s “Downtown.”

In the minutes leading up to the explosion recorded audio could be heard blasting from the RV warning people to evacuate the area.

The bomb went off as promised just minutes later at approximately 6:30 a.m., damaging dozens of business and apartment buildings and wounding three people, and killing only Warner inside the RV.

After the blast investigators discovered human tissue found among the rubble that was a direct match for Warner’s DNA.

Fox News contributor David Webb argues that Americans would benefit more from the reopening of the country rather than receiving an increased amount of money in the form of a direct deposit stimulus check.

“The fact is that what America doesn’t really need is a pittance from our tax dollars that we sent to the federal government to come back to us minus real money,” Webb said. “What we need is to reopen America, reopen America safely.”

This week House lawmakers voted on raising stimulus checks from $600 to $2,000 and the bill was passed. This is something President Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have pushed for since the massive $900 billion relief package was approved last week.

The president issued a statement over the weekend saying, “As president, I have told Congress that I want far less wasteful spending and more money going to the American people in the form of $2,000 checks per adult and $600 per child.”

This standalone bill is expected to be on the Senate floor by Monday.

But Webb thinks the focus should be shifted elsewhere.

“We’ve learned a lot about the virus,” he noted. “Businesses are able to make the adjustments locally.”

Webb also expresses concern on the belief that the stimulus checks will go to people who don’t really need the money or who don’t qualify for the money.

“There are a lot of people out there who will have to pay back the money,” he said. “You know who they are? All of the taxpayers, our children, our grandchildren.”

Webb warned, “We’re literally spending our way into more poverty and more debt as a country. That’s not fair.”

On Monday lawmakers in the House of Representatives passed a standalone bill that would significantly raise direct payments being sent to most Americans under the new COVID-19 legislation from just $600 to $2,000.

Both President Trump and Democrats support the measure that will now be sent to the Senate for approval, where its chances of passage will be slightly slimmer in the Republican-controlled chamber.

Over the weekend President Trump signed a $900 billion relief legislation into law even though he had slammed it as a “disgrace” because it had “almost nothing to do with COVID.” He was very resistant to the bill due to the meager $600 direct payments and many other spending measures.

Even though he gave in and signed the bill, Trump continued to advocate for increasing the direct payments to $2,000, which Democrats largely agree with.

In fact, it was the Republican lawmakers who were resistant to the increase of payments.

According to what a senior Treasury Department official told NBC News, the government is still planning to begin delivering stimulus payments to direct deposit accounts by the end of the week.

Anthony Quinn Warner, the man police identified as the suspect responsible for the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville reportedly gave his neighbor an eerie warning in the days leading up to the explosion.

Rick Laude said he saw Warner standing at his mailbox on December 21 as he drove by and pulled over to speak with him. Laude asked Warner about his elderly mother and jokingly asked, “Is Santa going to bring you anything good for Christmas?”

Laude said Warner smiled and responded, “Oh yeah, Nashville and the world is never going to forget me.”

The unsuspecting neighbor said he didn’t give the comment much thought and believed Warner only meant that “something good” was going to happen for him.

Days later, Laude said he was “speechless” when he discovered that authorities identified Warner as the suspected bomber by linking his DNA to pieces of human tissue found in the debris after the explosion.

“Nothing about this guy raised any red flags,” Laude recalled. “He was just quiet.”

Investigators are still working to determine a motive behind the attack that left dozens of downtown buildings damaged and three people injured.

Director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, David Rausch said, “We hope to get an answer. Sometimes, it’s just not possible. The best way to find a motive is to talk to the individual. We will not be able to do that in this case.”

According to authorities Warner was not anywhere near their radar before the bombing. A records report showed that Warner’s only arrest was for a marijuana-related charge over 40 years ago.

“It does appear that the intent was more destruction than death,” said Rausch, “but again that’s all still speculation at this point as we continue in our investigation with all our partners.”

A New York federal appeals court ruled against some of the extreme restrictions put in place by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit blocked the enforcement of an executive order that set limitations on religious gatherings, which in some of the country’s “hot spots” have been capped at 10 or 25 persons depending on that area’s infection rate.

In some of the more high-risk areas known as “red zone” hot spots, Cuomo required all nonessential businesses to halt all in-person workforce and forced restaurants to relegate to takeout and delivery services only.

Houses of worship were also limited to just 10 people, or 25% capacity, whichever happened to be fewer.

According to the plaintiff’s arguments, the restrictions infringed on the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.

The court unanimously agreed that the order placed greater unnecessary restrictions on religious gatherings than secular ones.

Several religious groups, including the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and Agudath Israel of America, filled the lawsuit. New York’s Orthodox Jewish community has also protested Cuomo’s restrictions on religious gatherings.

The number of coronavirus cases has spiked all over the country since the holidays causing some of these “red zones” to experience higher infection rates and therefore restrictions have become tighter.

Dr. Anthony Fauci is trying to deny that he deliberately pushed back the finish line for when the country would have enough people vaccinated against COVID-19 to reach herd immunity.

Fauci claims to have been previously offering “guestimates” but others are calling it a “confession.” The doctor told The New York Times, “When polls said only about half of all Americans would take a vaccine, I was saying herd immunity would take 70 to 75 percent…”

“Then, when newer surveys said 60 percent or more would take it,” he continued, “I thought, ‘I can nudge this up a bit,’ so I went to 80, 85.”

In later interviews, Fauci tried to direct attention to other parts of that Times report where he compared COVID-19 to measles, stating that he would “bet my house that COVID isn’t as contagious as measles.”

“Measles is about 98% effective vaccine; the COVID-19 vaccine is about 94%,” he explained. “When you get below 90% of the population vaccinated with measles, you start seeing a breakthrough against the herd immunity, people starting to get infected, like we saw in upper New York State and in New York City, with the Orthodox Jewish group, when we had the measles outbreak.”

“So I made a calculation that COVID-19 is not as nearly as transmissible as measles,” Fauci added and stressed that measles is “the most transmissible” virus.

Still, Fauci remained firm on his new guess of 75-80% of Americans needing to be vaccinated before the country would reach herd immunity.

“I think 75-80% for herd immunity for COVID-19 is a reasonable estimate, and in fact, most of my epidemiology colleagues agree with me,” Fauci said.

He went on to say that he is doing all he can to encourage people, not just in the United States but all over the world, to get the vaccine.

When questioned as to when he thought the country would reach the threshold for herd immunity, Fauci said it could be March before the vaccine is available to the general public.

In this case, general public vaccinations beginning in April would mean potentially reaching herd immunity around the end of summer even though numbers projected by Operation Warp Speed are still lower than they were when the vaccine was still awaiting approval.