Category: Opinion

The new coronavirus relief package proposed by President-elect Joe Biden comes with a high price tag for taxpayers at a total of $1.9 trillion, and his economic advisor, Brian Deese, fought to include several Democratic agenda items.

Deese said during an interview with “Fox News Sunday” that $1,400 stimulus payments to all Americans, $20 billion for public transit, $9 billion toward cybersecurity, and raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour were all necessary to help Americans suffering during the pandemic.

“Let’s look at each of those. The cybersecurity resources there are in the wake of the SolarWinds hack. We have seen, and now understand significant vulnerabilities that are exacerbated by COVID, and the fact so much federal operations are happening online,” said Deese. “We need those resources to secure our systems now.”

Deese did not say how transit funding was connected to the COVID-19 relief, just a short explanation saying, “…our transit systems across the country are facing acute crisis…” and improving them while people are still working remotely will prevent difficulties when people eventually begin commuting again.

As for raising the minimum wage, he said it “is a concrete and direct way to help support those workers who are out there on the front lines right now, providing services to all of us, and give them direct support and a direct boost right now.”

Republicans were unwilling to spend more than $1 trillion in the last package and that was with a Republican president. Now with Biden saying “there’s not time to waste” and “we have to act now,” host of “Fox News Sunday” Chris Wallace asked if the President-elect would support ending the filibuster if the GOP rejected his plan that nearly doubles their spending limit. Deese would not give a straight answer but pointed to Biden’s previous calls for unity.

“Well look, we think we need to move quickly here, but I would also say there’s a lot of skepticism that the president-elect’s call for unity and working together was going to resonate and he won the election resoundingly. There’s a lot of skepticism that Congress would come together in a bipartisan way and deliver a down payment on this relief, and that happened. So let’s see where we can get here,” said Deese. “There is a lot of, again, a lot of elements of this plan that have support across the board, both in Washington and in state capitals and around the country.”

“But we need to act,” he added. “We need to act quickly. That’s what the economy is telling us, that’s what the experts are telling us and so that’s our priority.”

Growing concerns of Chinese infiltration in the United States have raised new questions about Representative Eric Swalwell and his relationship with a suspected Chinese spy.

A new special, “The China Showdown,” on Fox Nation rehashes scrutiny on the California Reps. connection to the Chinese Communist Party with the main focus being on unanswered questions as the House Intelligence Committee member is still allowed access to the country’s most sensitive secrets.

China analyst Gordon Chang said Swalwell’s failure to address his relationship with a woman named Fang Fang, aka Christine Fang, indicates that “China may still have leverage” over the Democratic lawmaker.

“We need to know more, we need to hear him give a public accounting,” Chang told host Bill Hemmer. 

Former CIA station chief Dan Hoffman explained that Fang specifically targeted Swalwell and other up-and-coming politicians with a goal of infiltrating the highest levels of power in the U.S. 

“Christine came to the United States in 2011, established what we call ‘cover’ by enrolling in California State University with an eye towards making contact with young but promising politicians, and she did that,” Hoffman told Fox Nation. 

“She found that if she could be the person who could provide fundraising assistance, that she would be someone who is considered to be part of the inner circle, and of value, and trusted.”

Chang concurred, warning that Fang “tried to infiltrate his campaign, influence him, [and] God knows, maybe she even corrupted him.”

Swalwell to date has not commented publicly about the extent of his relationship with Fang, who also reportedly had sexual interactions with at least two Midwestern mayors. The congressman’s record on China has come under scrutiny in the days since, revealing a legislative history that does little to address the growing threat of the Communist regime.

Peter Schweizer claimed that “refusing to come clean about exactly what his relationship was, [Swalwell] has made the situation worse.”

He says any information they may have on Swalwell in Beijing “is basically a ticking time bomb that they can use to deploy at any time to extract information or to gain information from him.”

President-elect Joe Biden has announced that a huge stimulus package proposal is in the works. But it will be no easy feat combating the coronavirus and rebuild an economy that has been torn down by the worst pandemic to strike the globe in over 100 years.

So taking on such a major endeavor will cost more than just a pretty penny. 

The president, in an address to the nation from his hometown of Wilmington, Del., is expected to spell out his plans to speed up the nation’s COVID vaccination program, boost coronavirus testing capacity to help reopen businesses and schools, provide for $1,400 stimulus checks for Americans and federal funds for state and local governments to use to avoid laying off police officers, fire fighters and other first responders, as well as teachers and health workers.

But the price tag will be high. On Wednesday senior officials from the incoming Biden administration put the overall tab at $1.9 trillion. 

Officials said the package includes “sending $1,400 per-person checks to households across America, providing direct housing and nutrition assistance, expanding access to safe and reliable childcare and affordable healthcare, increasing the minimum wage, extending unemployment insurance, and giving families with kids and childless workers an emergency boost this year.”

Another $440 billion would be targeted to support communities and businesses that are struggling amid the pandemic “by providing support for the hardest-hit small businesses, especially small businesses owned by entrepreneurs of color, and protecting the jobs of the first responders, transit workers, and other essential workers we depend on,” a senior official said.

An additional $400 billion would be aimed at directly combating the coronavirus.

Among many other things, Biden’s plan would also widen unemployment insurance benefits “so American workers can pay their bills” and the minimum wage would be pushed up to at least $15 per hour.

The events on January 6th caused President Trump to be put in a permanent Twitter time out. After posting some tweets that day the social media platform claims his remarks are what caused the riots that shook the Capitol so they deleted his account for good.

President Trump wasn’t the only one to be silenced in the media, many other conservatives have been censored on several major platforms. Now, according to some leaked recordings of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, it appears that this trend isn’t slowing down any time soon.

The right-wing guerilla news outlet Project Veritas released a clip on Thursday given to them by a purported Twitter “insider whistleblower” who secretly recorded remarks by Dorsey to staff.

“You should always feel free to express yourself in whatever format manifestation feels right,” Dorsey said in the clip. 

Dorsey, who recently addressed the controversy over his company’s decision to permanently suspend the president, told staff in a virtual meeting that Twitter will do a “full retro” that will “take some time,” but drew focus to the platform’s former most high-profile account. 

“We know we are focused on one account right now, but this is going to be much bigger than just one account, and it’s going to go on for much longer than just this day, this week, and the next few weeks, and go on beyond the inauguration,” Dorsey said. “So, the focus is certainly on this account and how it ties to real-world violence. But also, we need to think much longer-term around how these dynamics play out over time. I don’t believe this is going away anytime soon.”

BREAKING: @Twitter Insider Secretly Records CEO @jack Detailing Agenda For Further Political Censorship

“We are focused on one account [@realDonaldTrump] right now but this is going to be MUCH BIGGER than just one account & it’s going to go on for much longer…"#ExposeTwitter pic.twitter.com/QhyyUTHlM9

— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) January 14, 2021

Dorsey then referenced actions taken against QAnon conspiracy theorists as part of a recent purge of Twitter accounts, telling staff it’s part of a “much broader approach that we should be looking at and going deeper on.”

“You know, the U.S. is extremely divided. Our platform is showing that every single day,” Dorsey later said. “And our role is to protect the integrity of that conversation and do what we can to make sure that no one is being harmed based off that. And that is our focus.”

Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe teased Thursday that more leaks from Twitter may come, saying “we’ve had over a dozen people reach out to us this week with video evidence inside Twitter.”

“Stay tuned,” O’Keefe told viewers. “They may be private companies, but they have more power than all three branches of government.”

A spokesperson for Twitter offered an explanation for the video saying, “The remarks shown in the video were delivered to our more than 5,400 employees and are nearly the same words Jack shared in a recent Tweet Thread offering context around and reflections on our work to protect the conversation in recent weeks.”

Democrats are on a mission to eradicate anyone and everyone who has ever been associated with President Trump. If you ever shared a park bench with Donald Trump, they would use it as an excuse to throw you out of Washington.

Now, GOP Representative Madison Cawthorn is under fire from Democratic leaders who are calling for his immediate expulsion claiming that he incited the “insurrection” on the United States Capitol.

State Democrats from Cawthorn’s 11th District wrote a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi Thursday, asking for an investigation into the Republican congressman. They claim there was an ethics violation for “violent language” on his Twitter feed during the unrest last week at the Capitol, The Mountaineer reported.

“Mr. Cawthorn needs to be held accountable for his seditious behavior and for consequences resulting from said behavior,” the letter to Pelosi read. “We will not tolerate misinformation, conspiracy theories, and lies from our Representatives.”

The letter – signed by the 11th District Democratic Party Chair Kathy Sinclair, along with four other party officials – asked that if the two-thirds vote needed for his expulsion could not be met, that the Speaker censure Cawthorn instead.

Pelosi could not be reached by Fox News for a comment.

But a petition for Change.org has garnered over 27,000 signatures and has demanded Cawthorn’s resignation, pointing to a speech he gave in December advising pro-Trump supporters to “lightly threaten” congressman who refused to condemn the Presidential Election as fraudulent.

“Call your congressman and feel free, you can lightly threaten them and say, you know what, if you don’t start supporting election integrity, I’m coming after you, Madison Cawthorn is coming after you, everybody’s coming after you,” Cawthorn said, first reported the Charlotte Observer.

Here's a video of Congressman Madison Cawthorn telling a rally of young people to call their representatives to "lightly threaten" them and say they are "coming after them" pic.twitter.com/WOBeppCR6c

— Andrew Rose Gregory (@arosegregory) January 12, 2021

Cawthron could not be immediately reached for comment, but he is not the only Republican facing threats of censure, following the Capitol attacks.

Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., faced calls for censure earlier this week, after he became the first House Republican to openly claim the election was fraudulent. 

Democratic Representative Cori Bush also filed a resolution the day of the attack calling for all House members who incited violence by supporting claims of election fraud to be investigated and removed. It is unclear what Pelosi will do to satisfy these expulsion and censure demands.

CNN anchor Don Lemon has made a career out of bashing President Trump and all of his supporters. Earlier this month he refused the idea of respecting Trump voters because they “believe b*llsh*t.” And in August he accused them of having “cognitive dissonance” in order for them to follow such a “bad person.”

During his segment on Thursday, he threw a blanket over every Trump supporter and argued that anyone who voted for him was a neo-Nazi or a member of the Klu Klux Klan.

“If you voted for Trump, you voted for the person who the Klan supported. You voted for the person who Nazis support. You voted for the person who the alt-right supports. You voted for the person who incited a crowd to go into the Capitol and potentially take the lives of lawmakers … You voted on that side, and the people in Washington are continuing to vote on that side,” Lemon explained to his colleague Chris Cuomo. 

CNN's @DonLemon: If you voted for Trump, you're with the Klan & the Capitol Hill rioters pic.twitter.com/xDi7zQwt9O

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 14, 2021

Lemon remained unapologetic Thursay night.

“I truly believe that, 100%,” Lemon told Cuomo. “They are allowed to their own opinion. It doesn’t mean that they’re right, but they’re allowed to their own opinion and I believe what I said last night.”

After Cuomo suggested that not all Trump voters associate themselves with the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol building, Lemon continued to argue that they’re ultimately one and the same.  

CNN's Don Lemon doubles down on his smear of all 74 million voters. Suggesting that they all are racist and are in league with the Klan.
"You vote for people who have common interests. If someone has a common interest, people who vote like you have a common interest as you." pic.twitter.com/XRPDd1WKUB

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) January 15, 2021

“Those people voted the way you voted and who you voted for, I’m just saying,” Lemon dismissed Cuomo’s tepid defense of Trump voters. “It puts you in the same crowd … You vote for people who have common interests. If someone has a common interest, people who vote like you have a common interest as you. That’s just how it is … That’s how political affiliation works.”

Well if that’s true then does every person who voted for Biden like to sniff and touch children inappropriately? But it’s unlikely that Lemon or anyone at CNN would ever go there.

Bill de Blasio, Mayor of New York City, was proud to announce that over 26,000 people in the city have received the coronavirus vaccine but warned that doses are on track to run out very soon.

“To make this work,” de Blasio explained during a press conference, “we’re going to need the help of the federal government, the state government, and the manufactures to keep getting us the vaccine. At the rate we’re going, we’re going to be out in less than two weeks.”

The city is heading toward its goal of 175,000 vaccinations in a week and has plans to launch a “mega” vaccination site at Citi Field by the end of January.

“Freedom to vaccinate is what allowed us to do this, and we’re now going to take full advantage of this freedom and reach New Yorkers in every part of the five boroughs,” said the mayor. “We want the freedom to vaccinate delivery workers. We want the freedom to vaccinate folks who work in bodegas and delis. They’re there on the front lines.”

“We’re asking the state to help us clarify the rules,” he added, “so we can reach all kinds of delivery workers, deli workers, bodega workers and keep everyone safe.”

De Blasio became frustrated with the vaccine eligibility rules put in place by New York City Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Starting Monday, NYS will begin scheduling vaccinations for the next group of people (Phase 1b):

-People age 75+
-Education workers
-First responders (police, fire)
-Public transit workers
-Public safety workers

Sites will include pharmacies, drs' offices, Javits Center & more.

— Archive: Governor Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) January 8, 2021

Friday, Cuomo announced that his state would start brodening eligibility for the vaccine to seniors over 75-years-old. The governor’s decision came after de Blasio pleaded with him to loosen regulations after his plan to vaccinate the New York Police Department was denied.

The original New York guidelines stated the first wave of vaccines were to be distributed to front line hospital workers, EMS workers, urgent care providers, residents and staff at nursing homes, and a few other select groups considered to be high-risk.

At the beginning of the week, the United States had already distributed over 25.4 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine, but only 8.9 million have been administered. President Trump is asking that the second batch of doses that were being reserved for those who already had the first dose be distributed to people 65 and older, as well as those at high risk for severe illness.

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.

Democratic Representative Pramila Jayapal was apart of the group of lawmakers who had to shelter in place as a mob of pro-Trump protesters stormed the Capitol was recently diagnosed with the coronavirus. She slammed Republicans hiding alongside her who refused to wear their masks but some video has surfaced of Jayapal not wearing a mask during the chaos.

“I just received a positive COVID-19 test result after being locked down in a secured room at the Capitol where several Republicans not only cruelly refused to wear a mask but recklessly mocked colleagues and staff who offered them one,” said Jayapal.

The Washington Rep. is just one of several members of Congress who has tested positive since sheltering with many lawmakers from both sides of the aisle during the attack. Images from the day show several GOP lawmakers not wearing masks as members of Congress huddled together while hiding from the mob. Because of the situation, Brian Monahan, the House attending physician, suggested that everyone involved gets tested for the virus.

But a video floating around the internet shows Jayapal hiding in the House gallery within close proximity to other lawmakers while not wearing a mask herself for the entire two-minute duration of the video. While Jayapal can be seen holding a type of gas mask referred to as an “escape pod,” at no point during the video did she put it on.

This u? https://t.co/ZJgH5JB8wc pic.twitter.com/YLJi2fVqoz

— Peter Condyles (@PeterTC123) January 12, 2021

Jayapal described the moment during the chaos she could be seen holding the mask, “You see that was a gas mask that some people actually put their gas masks on immediately, as they were really afraid for what was happening.

It’s unknown whether Jayapal ever put the escape pod on or how long she went without any kind of face-covering during the entire ordeal.

Author Dave Rubin warned that if the Big Tech censorship of President Trump and conservatives needs to be addressed immediately or soon the entire country will be silenced.

“So when Joe Biden or Kamala Harris says they want healing, well, it’ll be pretty easy for the country to heal when there’s no political opposition,” Rubin told “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday. “That’s really where we’re at, at the moment.”

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris demanded Twitter suspend the President’s account all the way back in 2019 during a CNN primary debate.

At the time she said, “He and his account should be taken down,” which is exactly what happened just days before she and President-elect Joe Biden are set to take office.

According to Rubin, the political establishment has joined forces with Big Tech which is causing “massive issues.”

“We all got on these websites 20 years ago,” said Rubin, “we didn’t know what we were doing and suddenly we found out, hey, we’re the product and we need to revisit this.”

This is in contrast to former President Barack Obama’s campaign being praised for its strong digital game, but when Trump won it was described as “nefarious” and an “illegitimate election.”

To this Rubin said, “You can’t say it’s an illegitimate election now, but Nancy Pelosi still has tweets saying that Trump’s election was illegitimate…”