Key Michigan Court Sides with Gretchen Whitmer over Emergency Powers

A Michigan Court of Claims judge sided with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Tuesday, claiming the law grants her “broad authority” to enact executive orders.

Whitmer was sued by Michigan United for Liberty, which asked for the court to invalidate Whitmer’s stay-at-home and other executive orders, MIRS News reported.

“This is good news for our families, our health care workers, and everyone serving on the front lines of this crisis,” Whitmer spokeswoman Tiffany Brown said.

“The governor will continue to use every tool at her disposal to save lives and lower the chance of a second wave of COVID-19.”

The Republican-led legislature has also sued Whitmer in the Court of Claims and the legislative bodies made a separate argument that Whitmer did not have the authority to extend her state of emergency order.

9 and 10 News reported:

The issue is there are two laws on the books that are clashing: One says she needs legislative approval to enforce executive orders, and another that says she does not.

In the hearing the judge asked the Legislature lawyer if there is a second wave of COVID-19 in the fall, would the governor be able to issue another emergency declaration without approval.

The Legislature attorney said a 1945 Emergency Powers Act was for local emergencies, not statewide ones.

A ruling in that case, overseen by a different judge, is expected at any time.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/05/19/key-michigan-court-sides-with-gretchen-whitmer-over-emergency-powers/

NZ Gun Crime Rates Soar Following Gun Bans

American gun control activists looked at New Zealand’s response to the Christchurch massacre with a high degree of awe. They desperately want the United States to follow that lead after the next mass shooting. They would love for our government to swoop in after such an event and snatch away all our guns, but particularly those nasty so-called “assault weapons” that they don’t think we have any business owning.

They applauded Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for her quick response, but what really happened was more of a knee-jerk reaction. She responded with liberal reflexes rather than taking the time to look at the situation rationally, and she’s been applauded by gun grabbers for it.

However, one thing we on the pro-gun side said would happen in response seems to have come to pass.

New figures obtained by RNZ show last year had the highest rates of gun crime and deaths involving firearms for nearly 10 years.

But despite that rise, there has not been a corresponding increase in officers taking out or using their guns.

The figures, obtained from police under the Official Information Act, show the rates of gun crime went up in both 2018 and 2019.

Last year, there were 3540 occasions where an offender was found with a gun.

And in both of the last two years, the rate of deadly incidents involving a firearm was the highest it had been since 2009.

The number of guns seized by police is also on the rise, up almost 50 percent on five years earlier at 1263 last year.

You mean banning guns doesn’t actually reduce gun crime?

I’m shocked.

I’m completely and totally shocked.

No, really.

What’s shocking, though, isn’t that this happened. It’s that this happened yet again and anti-gunners are still able to delude themselves into believing that gun control reduces gun crime. It doesn’t. While some of our gun controlled states have low crime, it has a low crime in spite of those laws, not because of them.

It seems like a universal truth that in the immediate aftermath of enacting tough gun control laws, gun crime goes up. That doesn’t make a lot of sense unless you realize that the very people not complying with the law include a large number of criminals who aren’t going to comply with any law. Now, though, they know that their potential targets are less likely to be able to defend themselves. For them, it’s time to step up and get busy because no one can stop them.

https://bearingarms.com/tom-k/2020/05/18/nz-gun-crime-rates-soar-gun-bans/

How Can Susan Rice Know What Obama and Comey Said if She Was Not Present?

Here is the bottomline in a nutshell–Susan Rice has been caught red handed trying to construct a lie about what Barack Obama knew and did not know with respect to General Michael Flynn. She claimed to be present when Barack Obama discussed the Michael Flynn intercept but, according to Sally Yates, who was interviewed by the FBI, only Yates, Jim Comey and Barack Obama were present. This new revelation–made possible by the declassification of the Susan Rice email written in the last moments of the Obama Administration–actually bolsters Michael Flynn’s contention that he was the victim of a political hit job designed to take out Donald Trump.

Let me remind you of the essential facts that you must have in mind in order to understand Rice’s clumsy attempt to fabricate an excuse for Obama’s inexcusable spying on Donald Trump, his family and his team.

December 29, 2016: Michael Flynn, who was vacationing in the Dominican Republic, returned Russian Ambassador Kislyak’s phone call at the behest of the Trump Transition team back in Mar-a-Lago and requested that Russia not escalate the situation and only respond to the U.S. Sanctions in a reciprocal manner (see here).

January 3, 2017: Deputy FBI Director Andy McCabe tells Department of Justice official, Mary McCord, that the FBI had been planning to close the Flynn investigation but “discovered” his phone calls with the Russian Ambassador. McCabe described the content to the calls (Exhibit 3, page 2).

January 4, 2017: The FBI Agent leading the investigation of the General Flynn sends Peter Strzok the memo recommending the case be close because there was no evidence against the General. (Exhibit 1) Peter Strzok tells the Agent that the “7th Floor” is interested.

January 5, 2017: Barack Obama tells Acting Attorney General Sally Yates in the presence of Jim Comey that he had learned about Flynn’s conversation with the Russian Ambassador on sanctions. (Exhibit 4)

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/larry-c-johnson-can-susan-rice-know-obama-comey-said-not-present/

Planned Parenthood affiliates improperly applied for and received $80 million in coronavirus stimulus funds, feds say

Thirty-seven Planned Parenthood affiliates applied for and received a total of $80 million in loans from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight" has learned – and now the federal government wants the money back, saying the affiliates should have known they weren't eligible for the coronavirus stimulus payouts.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) is reaching out to each involved Planned Parenthood affiliate explaining that affiliates of larger organizations with more than 500 employees aren't eligible for PPP distributions, Fox News is told. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PFFA) alone has had more than 600 employees.

A Planned Parenthood affiliate in Metropolitan Washington (PPMW), for example, will receive a letter stating that although self-certified that it was eligible for a $1,328,000 PPP loan in accordance with the SBA's affiliation rules, it will need to return the money.

PPMW's request for money from the Trump administration came just months after the affiliate's president and CEO, Laura Meyers, promised to turn down federal funds.

"Planned Parenthood is never going to allow the Trump-Pence administration to bully us into withholding critical health information from our patients," Meyers said last August, after the White House banned Planned Parenthood clinics from making abortion referrals if they wanted to continue receiving federal funds. At the time, Planned Parenthood vowed to give up federal funds entirely, rather than comply with the order.

The SBA warned more "severe penalties" were possible, beyond mandatory repayment. In particular, incorrect or false eligibility certifications by PPP recipients could result in criminal or civil sanctions if the SBA determined borrowers made knowingly false statements, the SBA letter read.

The letter explained that PPFA affiliates clearly were covered by the PPP affiliate rules. "PPFA's bylaws, a version of which is publicly available, reveal that becoming a PPFA affiliate requires a certification by the PPFA board," the document continued. "Once certified, "[e]ach Affiliate shall be governed by written bylaws, which conform to PPFA policies."

The largest single government loan was a $7.5 million allotment to the Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties in California. One Planned Parenthood affiliate received a loan but declined it.

After this report was published, Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., called for an investigation and said the money needed to be returned, warning that criminal prosecution may be appropriate. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and James Lankford, R-Okla., also demanded Planned Parenthood return the funds.

Rubio, who has served as chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, said Planned Parenthood's violation of PPP rules was "clear."

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/planned-parenthood-coronavirus-stimulus-money-ppp-return

County accuses Texas Gov. and Lt. Gov. of white supremacy for criticizing black judge who jailed salon owner

The commissioners court is demanding Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) apologize to the judge in the case

The Dallas County Commissioners Court has accused Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) of exhibiting white supremacy after the Republicans condemned the actions of State District Judge Eric Moyé, who jailed salon owner Shelley Luther for reopening her business in defiance of the state's lockdown order.

Moyé is black, and Abbott, Patrick, and Luther are all white.

What are the details?

On Tuesday, the commission passed a resolution declaring that "Dallas County residents suffer as the world gazes upon the travesty of justice caused when the Governor of the State of Texas and Dan Patrick, Lieutenant Governor (who appears to spend an excessive amount of time with his Conservative radio talk show) intervened in a ruling against a media-manufactured cause celebre, a lawbreaker and owner of Salon a la Mode."

The document went on to say that the county "had its reputation questioned and ridiculed as this staged-circus, was reduced to issues of race and the superiority of Anglos over all other Americans, which was exhibited by the Governor and the Lt. Governor's reintroduction of Dred Scott v. Sanford which briefed by any reasonable party reads; 'a Black man (Moyé) has no rights that a White man (Trump, Abbott, Patrick) are bound to respect!"

The resolution also demanded that Abbott and Patrick "issue an earnest apology" to Moyé, and that the money raised to defend Luther "in this firestorm of foolishness be donated to worthy causes and people who are genuinely in need of this State's intervention."

Moyé ordered Luther to be jailed for seven days and fined thousands of dollars for openly defying state and local mandates by reopening her business and refusing to re-close amid the coronavirus shutdown.

The next day, Abbott and Paxton both issued statements condemning Moyé for having Luther incarcerated, and demanded her release from jail. The Supreme Court then intervened and Luther was let out.

In their resolution, the Dallas County Commissioners Court said that the actions by the governor and lieutenant governor led to the judge's life being threatened, and his "professional record" being called into question.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/dallas-county-accuses-texas-gov-and-lt-gov-of-white-supremacy-for-intervening-in-jailing-of-salon-owner

US Extends Policy to Immediately Reject Migrants at Southern Border Indefinitely – DHS

The United States has extended a policy indefinitely that permits US immigration enforcement to immediately return immigrants back to Mexico after being apprehended on the southern border, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.

"Today, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extended Title 42 public health restrictions at the borders until he determines the serious danger from COVID-19 has ceased," the statement said on Tuesday.

Last week, US media reported that as of 21 March only two immigrants who entered through the southern US border have been granted refuge in the United States.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a separate document that the United States also extended its non-essential travel restrictions from Mexico into the United States at land ports of entry along the southern border to 22 June.

On 24 March, the United States closed the US-Mexico border to non-essential travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In April, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order last month to suspend immigration in the United States for at least 60 days, which will apply to those seeking permanent residency, in an effort to conserve jobs and medical resources for Americans in light of the pandemic.

https://sputniknews.com/us/202005201079359551-us-extends-policy-to-immediately-reject-migrants-at-southern-border-indefinitely–dhs/

Johnson & Johnson ends baby powder sales in US & Canada after lawsuits posit links to cancer… but will keep selling it elsewhere

Johnson & Johnson will halt all sales of its talc-based baby powder in North America, after years of lawsuits claiming the product causes cancer – but, undeterred, the firm says it won’t stop selling it to the rest of the world.

The company announced the move in a statement on Tuesday, noting that it had decided to “permanently discontinue” the baby powder in the US and Canada to “prioritize high-demand products” amid the Covid-19 pandemic, attributing the fall in sales in part to “misinformation.”

“Demand for talc-based Johnson’s Baby Powder in North America has been declining due in large part to changes in consumer habits and fueled by misinformation around the safety of the product and a constant barrage of litigation advertising,” the company said, adding that it would also stop selling around 100 other items in addition to the powder.

While Johnson & Johnson insists it is “steadfastly confident” in the safety of its talc-based baby powder, vowing to “vigorously defend the product” from “unfounded allegations,” the company has faced a flurry of lawsuits from customers over the years alleging the powder contains cancer-causing agents like asbestos. Though the firm has emerged victorious from some of the suits, it has also been forced to pay out massive sums to plaintiffs in others, such as a case last February in which it was ordered to shell out $750 million to four cancer patients.

Deeming the decision a “victory for public health,” the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization slammed Johnson & Johnson for being slow to act and misleading customers, while calling on Congress to “ban asbestos once and for all.”

“Americans should be able to trust they are safe from asbestos. Johnson & Johnson [J&J] spent decades misleading the public to think their often asbestos-contaminated baby powder was safe when they knew it was not,”said the group’s president, Linda Reinstein.

A small and influential group of chemical companies in America still rely on asbestos and have stood in the way of a national ban of this deadly substance. We can’t wait for them to follow J&J and see the error of their ways.

https://www.rt.com/news/489146-johnson-johnson-talc-powder-sales/

INSANE VIDEO: Cop Snaps, Threatens to Throw Handcuffed Man Off Bridge for Criticizing His Driving!

A Connecticut state trooper was placed on desk duty after a driver recorded an expletive-laced tirade in which the trooper scorned his job and derided the motoring public.

https://breaking911.com/insane-video-cop-snaps-threatens-to-throw-handcuffed-man-off-bridge-for-criticizing-his-driving/

Graham Asks Grenell, Barr To Reveal Other ‘Unmasked’ Trump Officials

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-SC, sent a letter Tuesday asking Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell and Attorney General William Barr to reveal any names, in addition to Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, whose identities were ‘unmasked’ by former Obama administration officials.

“Given this extensive list of officials making frequent requests to unmask General Flynn’s identity, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) sent a letter to Acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Richard Grenell and Attorney General (AG) William Barr to ask that the Committee be provided with the names of any official who made a request to unmask the identity of individuals associated with the Trump campaign or transition team,” Graham wrote.

Last week, Grenell declassified a list of 39 former Obama administration officials, which included former Vice President Joe Biden and Former United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power, who unmasked Flynn’s identity between November 8, 2016 and January 31, 2017. “Given the extensive number of requests for the unmasking of General Flynn’s name during this short time period, it raises the question of whether these or other officials sought the unmasking of the identities of other individuals associated with the Trump campaign or transition team,” Graham added in a statement.

In his letter, Graham requested the following:

A list of names of any officials who requested, between November 8, 2016, and January 31, 2017, to unmask the identities of those associated with the Trump campaign or transition team, including but not limited to Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Corey Lewandowski, Paul Manafort, Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Sam Clovis, Chris Christie, Carter Page and George Papadopoulos, and the reason given for any such request.

An explanation as to why the list released on May 13th by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not contain a record showing who unmasked General Flynn’s identity for his phone call with Ambassador Kislyak.

https://saraacarter.com/graham-asks-grenell-barr-to-reveal-other-unmasked-trump-officials/

After 17-Year Absence, Billions of Cicadas Projected to Emerge This Month in Some US States

Researchers note that cicada populations ordinarily emerge from the soil together during one particular year and then are absent for up to 17 years. The periodical insect army last emerged in 2003.

“Overwhelming numbers” of periodical cicadas are expected to emerge from the ground this month in the US states of Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina after being underground for 17 years, the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University detailed in a statement.

Experts at Virginia Tech expect the periodical cicadas, which belong to so-called Brood IX, to see as many as 1.5 million insects per acre. They noted that the natural phenomenon took place in the region about 17 years ago, although some parts of the area saw the emergence of Brood II in 2013.

“The scale of these emergence events is astounding, with as many as 1.5 million cicadas emerging per acre. Each periodical cicada brood covers a specific geographical region, with some areas overlapping,” the statement said.

Entomologists note that cicadas emerge either yearly or periodically with a 13- or 17-year interval, depending on the species.

Experts explained that the insects - which are no danger to animals and humans - do not damage plants by feeding on them, although their egg-laying habits can endanger some crops.

“Cicadas can occur in overwhelming numbers and growers in predicted areas of activity should be watchful,” said Doug Pfeiffer, a professor and extension specialist in the Department of Entomology.

The large winged insects, similar to grasshoppers, begin emerging usually in the period between mid-May and June, as they need warm weather rainfall, according to Fox 5 DC.

After recently migrating to North America, periodical cicadas are a common insect species now found on all continents except Antarctica. Generations of the insect usually do not live longer than six weeks before they mate, lay eggs and die off.

Earlier, multiple reports suggested that the United States would see the appearance of a so-called murder hornets native to tropical East Asia, South Asia, mainland Southeast Asia and portions of the Russian Far East. The large Asian wasp has recently been found in the Pacific Northwest of the US.

https://sputniknews.com/environment/202005201079359497-after-17-year-absence-billions-of-cicadas-projected-to-emerge-this-month-in-some-us-states/

Illinois Governor Pritzker Threatens Business Owners with a Year in Prison if They Try to Reopen

Last week Illinois Democrat Governor J. B. Pritzker warned the people of Illinois the state in lockdown and businesses shut down until the end of May. He later told CNN the citizens of Illinois could be ordered to socially distance and wear masks indefinitely.

Now Governor J.B. Pritzker warned small business owners that if they try to reopen their businesses they could face up to a year in prison.

Pritzker the tyrant wants to jail business owners.

Illinois Policy Org. reported:

Small business owners trying to save their livelihoods could face up to a year in prison under Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s new emergency rules, unless a key committee fights back.

Members of a key legislative committee are scheduled to meet May 20 to discuss a newly filed emergency rule that criminalizes businesses who defy Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay at home order.

Pritzker amended Illinois Department of Public Health rules so business owners can be charged with a Class A misdemeanor for violating his closure order. The rule immediately took effect Friday, and now business owners can face a maximum penalty fine of $2,500 and one year in prison. Since this new rule was filed as an emergency rule, it would be effective for 150 days.

The Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, or JCAR, is facing pressure to strike down Pritzker’s new rule at its Wednesday meeting, scheduled for 10:30 a.m.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/illinois-governor-pritzker-threatens-business-owners-year-prison-try-reopen/

"Thousands Are Starving" - Protesters Demanding Food Clash With Police In Santiago

The coronavirus hit Chile at a particularly delicate time. Back in October, the Chilean military deployed tanks and troops onto the streets of Santiago - the Chilean capital - and President Sebastian Pinera declaring a state of emergency to quell a violent uprising triggered by - of all things - a hike in metro fares (can you imagine that happening in NYC?).

Now, some of the nation's poorest are rising up against the government again in a violent protest movement over the lack of government assistance. Specifically, food shortages have left thousands of Chileans with nothing to eat, and the mandatory closures have made it impossible for them to work or buy food.

Video of the crowds of demonstrators and clashes with police were shared by reporters on social media.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/thousands-are-starving-protesters-demanding-food-clash-police-santiago

>>9247559

Clown bakers hide important information and keep it from notables to slow the spread of information!

Nightbaker

DSCSB

MAGAVELI

All clowns all keep based bakers out of the ktichen

>>9247602

And you can add BO