GOP senators vow COVID won't stop them from confirming Amy Coney Barrett: 'I'll go in a moon suit'

'There is a long and venerable tradition of ill or medically infirmed senators being wheeled in to cast critical votes on the Senate floor'

Amid speculation that positive coronavirus tests will interrupt Republican efforts to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, GOP senators are signaling they will do whatever it takes to ensure that President Donald Trump's nominee receives a floor vote.

One senator who tested positive for COVID-19 even vowed to show up in "a moon suit" to vote if need be.

It was Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) who made the astronomic promise in a radio interview Monday, the Daily Caller reported. Johnson tested positive for coronavirus Friday, but has so far not presented any symptoms. Speaking to KHOW-AM, Johnson said he feels "perfectly fine" and vowed to be present for a confirmation vote on Barrett's nomination.

"If we have to go in and vote, I've already told leadership I'll go in a moon suit," Johnson said.

Johnson is one of three Republican senators who announced positive coronavirus tests in a 24-hour-span over the weekend. The first was Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who attended the White House ceremony announcing Judge Barrett as Trump's nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the late Justice Ruth Bader GInsburg. Lee sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will conduct confirmation hearings for Barrett. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who also sits on the Judiciary Committee, was the third Republican to test positive for the virus over the weekend. He and Lee have each reported mild symptoms.

In response to the positive tests, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has called for the immediate postponement of Barrett's confirmation hearings.

"We now have two members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who have tested positive for COVID, and there may be more," Schumer tweeted. "I wish my colleagues well. It is irresponsible and dangerous to move forward with a hearing, and there is absolutely no good reason to do so."

GOP Leader McConnell over the weekend announced a temporary halt to Senate activity, but said Barret's confirmation hearing will move forward on Oct. 12.

Some have speculated that positive coronavirus tests may prevent Republicans from confirming Barrett to the court before Election Day.

"McConnell can only afford to lose three Republican senators' votes and still push through a Supreme Court nominee, and he can't risk exposing his members over the next several weeks to an unpredictable and relentless virus," Lauren Fox wrote for CNN.

Fox pointed out that "both Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska have already said they won't back any GOP nominee ahead of Election Day. We are still weeks away from a floor vote, but that leaves little room for McConnell to find the votes if members of his conference contract or remain sick with Covid-19."

She also noted that the Senate Judiciary Committee, composed of 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats, needs a quorum to begin confirmation hearing proceedings. "In order to have a quorum, Graham needs at least one of the two — Lee or Tillis — to be back. The fear is that if both were out, Democrats could boycott and keep Graham from having a quorum," Fox said.

Republican senators say they are intent on being present for votes.

In a statement, Sen. Lee announced he would self-isolate for 10 days and said he has assured GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) that he "will be back to work in time to join my Judiciary Committee colleagues in advancing the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett in the Committee and then to the full Senate."

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) also spoke to this issue over the weekend. Cotton does not sit on the Judiciary Committee, but he did express confidence every senator who needs to be present will vote, going as far to say in an interview with Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo they will be "wheeled in" to the floor.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/gop-senators-covid-confirming-barrett

Protesters Break Into Area of Parliament and Presidential Administration in Kyrgyzstan

The capital of Kyrgyzstan saw mass protests after the preliminary results of Sunday's parliamentary election, supporting the parties that failed to qualify and demanding re-voting.

Protesters in Bishkek broke into area of the White House where the parliament and the presidential administration of Kyrgyzstan are situated, according to a Sputnik correspondent.

Protesters supporting the parties that did not make it into parliament rammed the gate with the truck and then rushed inside.

According to witnesses, a convoy of cars left the parliament building a few minutes before the incident. When the protesters arrived, there were no officials or guards in the building.

A caption says: "The protesters entered the White House. The son of former President Almazbek Atambayev, Kadyr Atambayev, was taken into the building".

A caption says: "Territory near the White House in Kyrgyzstan right now".

The Kyrgyz capital saw protests after the preliminary results of parliamentary election were released on Sunday. Estimated 2,000 demonstrators gathered on Monday in Bishkek to demand re-voting and support parties that did not pass the seven percent vote threshold to gain seats in parliament.

Political party Birimdik ("Unity"), which is leading in the parliamentary election, agreed for the re-voting in the elections of members of the parliament "if they are announced".

Amid the protests, Kyrgyz President Sooronbay Jeenbekov announced plans to meet on Tuesday with leaders of political parties that participated in the election.

https://sputniknews.com/asia/202010051080676891-protesters-broke-into-area-of-parliament-and-presidential-administration-in-kyrgyzstan/

Mark Levin says Facebook is censoring his content

It's "clear Facebook is pushing a leftwing agenda," the fiery conservative radio talker posted this morning on the social media platform.

Radio host Mark Levin, affectionately known as "The Great One," says Facebook is censoring his content.

"Facebook has just sent us this message. It’s a clear effort at censorship," Levin wrote on Monday morning.

Facebook

"Every link I post is from a legitimate source," Levin wrote on his Facebook page. "But because so many people are seeing what I'm posting and we're within weeks of the election it's clear that Facebook is trying to influence the election's outcome. It's also clear Facebook is pushing a leftwing agenda. I’ll address this tonight on radio."

Levin also took to Twitter with a similar message:

Levin has a huge following on social media, with 2.5 million on Twitter and more than 1.5 million on Facebook. He reaches an estimated seven million weekly listeners, according to Talkers Magazine.

Levin has been an unabashed supporter of President Trump, so the sudden "censorship" of his Facebook page with fewer than 30 days to go in the presidential campaign raised eyebrows and drew criticism on social media.

"It seems apparent both traditional and social media have abandoned truth and integrity in order to push the false narratives of systemic racism and oppression and to push forward socialism that leads to communism. This is a blatant attempt to undermine and destroy our republic," wrote one Twitterer.

"Who gave Facebook the authority to determine what is true or false? Who gave the “independent fact check” credentials and legitimacy to evaluate what is true or not?" wrote another.

Facebook is one of several mass social media platforms that have been repeatedly cited for ideologically selective controls on conservative-leaning user content.

Last month, nine state attorneys general concerned that tech giants like Facebook, Twitter and Google are censoring conservatives met at the White House with President Trump and Attorney General William Barr to discuss viewpoint discrimination by the platforms and ways to level the playing field.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/mark-levin-says-facebook-censoring-his-content

Lockdown: The New Totalitarianism

Every political ideology has three elements:

a vision of hell with an enemy that needs to be crushed,

a vision of a more perfect world, and

a plan for transitioning from one to the other.

The means of transition usually involve the takeover and deployment of society’s most powerful tool: the state. For this reason, ideologies trend totalitarian. They depend fundamentally on overriding people’s preferences and choices and replacing them with scripted and planned belief systems and behaviors.

An obvious case is communism. Capitalism is the enemy, while worker control and the end of private property is the heaven, and the means to achieve the goal is violent expropriation. Socialism is a softer version of the same: in the Fabian tradition, you get there through piecemeal economic planning.

The ideology of racism posits something different. The hell is ethnic integration and race mixing, the heaven is racial homogeneity, and the means of change is the marginalization or killing off of some races. Fascism imagines global trade, individualism, and immigration to be the enemy while a mighty nationalism is heaven: the means of change is a great leader. You can observe the same about certain brands of theocratic religious traditionalism.

Each of these ideologies comes with a primary intellectual focus, a kind of story designed to occupy the mind. Think about exploitation. Think about inequality. Think about race theory. Think about national identity. Think about salvation. Each comes with its own language to signal one’s attachment to the ideology.

Most of the above ideologies are well worn. We have plenty of experience to draw on from history to observe the patterns, recognize the adherents, and refute the theories.

This year has given us a new ideology with totalitarian tendencies. It has a vision of hell, of heaven, and a means of transition. It has a unique language apparatus. It has a mental focus. It has signalling systems to reveal and recruit adherents.

That ideology is called lockdown. We might as well add the ism to the word: lockdownism.

Its vision of hell is a society in which pathogens run freely. Its heaven is a society managed entirely by medical technocrats whose main job is the suppression of all disease. The mental focus is the viruses and other bugs. The anthropology is to regard all human beings as little more than sacks of deadly pathogens. The people susceptible to the ideology are the people with various degrees of mysophobia, once regarded as a mental problem now elevated to the status of social awareness.

https://www.aier.org/article/lockdown-the-new-totalitarianism/