The Extremely Boring Idea That Could Save the Economy

Automatic stabilizers: learn them, live them, love them.

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The Troubling Goals of the Black Lives Matter Movement

Politicians and various social justice groups have long used labels that have nothing to do with the real intent of legislation, or an organization, to dupe the public. But, to paraphrase Shakespeare, a rose by any other name is still a rose.

Numerous “civil rights” bills have been passed by Congress over the years that have nothing to do with civil rights, but how many members are brave enough to point that out and vote against them?

Which brings me to the Black Lives Matter movement. How many mainstream reporters have bothered to delve into the background and founding principles of the rapidly spreading organization to which even white CEOs are contributing gobs of money in what appears to be an attempt to protect themselves and their businesses from any potential charge of racism?

The Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, which self-describes as “an ecumenical, nonprofit research organization that promotes the benefits of free enterprise to religious communities, business people, students and educators,” has exposed the ideology of Black Lives Matter.

According to Acton, the founding principles of BLM include a guaranteed minimum income for all black people, free health care, free schooling, free food, free real estate, gender reassignment surgery, and free abortion (already disproportionately high among African American women, “27.1 per 1,000 women compared with 10 per 1,000 for white women,” but apparently unborn black lives don’t matter to BLM).

Washington, D.C.’s local BLM chapter has even called for “no new jails” (which would likely guarantee an increase in crime, much of it perpetrated in black communities—see the District’s crime stats, see Chicago, see Los Angeles). BLM also demands reparations and wants to create a “global liberation movement” that will “overturn U.S. imperialism [and] capitalism.”

According to The New York Post, “Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors said in a newly surfaced video from 2015 that she and her fellow organizers are ‘trained Marxists.'”

Breitbart News, a conservative syndicated news website, reported that “Cullors, 36, was the protege of Eric Mann, former agitator of the Weather Underground domestic terror organization, and spent years absorbing the Marxist-Leninist ideology that shaped her worldview.”

Driving through what appeared to be a mostly white neighborhood in Washington, D.C., last weekend I was surprised, though I probably shouldn’t have been, to see quite a few “Black Lives Matter” signs on front lawns and on cars. A few friends have posted the BLM sign on their social media pages. I wonder if any of these people know the background and goals of the movement, or the radical ideology behind it.

There are a growing number, especially among the young, who have been “educated” in our once-great universities by some professors who support the BLM movement and promote similar or identical ideologies.

Part of what they are taught is that America began as a white, slave-owning patriarchy and that slaves actually built America. They quickly absorb this, then come home to tell their parents they are part of the problem.

This is a major reason school choice is important if the nation is to be preserved. It should also be obvious that parents must be more selective in where they allow—and in many cases pay for—their children to attend colleges and universities and choose one where their values are strengthened and the nation not undermined.

Black lives matter because like all lives, everyone is endowed with unalienable rights. But the BLM movement might be more harmful than helpful to African Americans.

BLM’s foundational principles and goals seem closer to those of China and the former Soviet Union. If more people understood that, they might wake up and realize that the United States, as Ronald Reagan used to say, is only one generation from losing it all.

(C) 2020 TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

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Plunge in Investment, Production, and Consumption Requires Smart Reopening, Not More ‘Stimulus’

This week’s gross domestic product report painted a stark picture; namely, a historic plunge in the production of goods, provision of services, and private investment.

The nation’s economy shrank at a 32.9% annualized rate. That marks an actual decline of 9.5% from earlier this year.

Meanwhile, massive government transfer payments funded by borrowing and printing of money caused disposable personal income to soar at a 42.1% annual clip despite the loss of more than 24 million jobs accompanying this economic contraction.

>>> What’s the best way for America to reopen and return to business? The National Coronavirus Recovery Commission, a project of The Heritage Foundation, assembled America’s top thinkers to figure that out. So far, it has made more than 260 recommendations.  Learn more here.

The data bear out the everyday experience of millions of Americans. Government-mandated closures and people responding to what they heard from some public health officials shriveled economic output over the past six months.

Personal consumption dropped at a 34.6% annualized rate. In fact, the plunge in consumption exceeded the record rise in personal income.

Durable goods sales were down only slightly, by 1.4% annualized, thanks to a slight increase in sales of vehicles and recreational equipment. However, sales of household furnishings and equipment decreased modestly. Non-durable goods (items such as shoes, clothing, and groceries) dropped by 15.9% annualized.

Elsewhere, the situation proved far more dire. Consumption of personal services fell off a cliff, down 43.5% annualized.

Zooming out year over year, we get a clearer picture of the damage. Overall household consumption of services declined 18%. Spending on food services and accommodations (bars, restaurants, movie theaters, etc.) fell 40%.

Jarringly, spending on health care services dropped by 24.2% compared with last year as people postponed elective procedures. In some instances, treatment of serious health conditions is being delayed.  

Even the surge in personal income—the bright spot in the report—is problematic. Instead of representing compensation for productive enterprise, this reflects federal stimulus checks combined with enhanced unemployment benefits of $600 weekly.

Now, 70% of the unemployed earn more off the job than on the job, and 20% earn double their prior salary. That creates a danger: There’s no reason to worry about inflation now, but eventually the Federal Reserve will have to reverse those actions and tighten.

So, what happens then? Nobody really knows, but it could be a disaster. Friday afternoon, Fitch Ratings downgraded the outlook on U.S. government debt to negative, warning of the “risks to U.S. economic dynamism and reserve currency status” from the rising debtload.  Indenturing future Americans to pay for this extravagant spending is generational robbery.

For now, Americans are saving the surplus in cash as a result of an uncertain economic future, combined with large swaths of the market being closed for business.

The personal savings rate rocketed to 25.7%, far higher than the average of under 7% over the past 30 years. Because this influx of cash is temporarily being saved rather than spent, it hasn’t resulted in an increase in inflation.

Prices declined overall in the quarter on the heels of the drop in demand. Once families start spending these savings—or the banks start lending the new deposits—inflation pressures could rapidly grow.

Unlike typical savings, these savings do not represent capital acquired from productive output. Instead, these trillions are a ticking inflation time bomb. 

Unfortunately, politicians in both parties are calling for more government spending to stimulate personal consumption. Yet, the federal government and central bank have injected more than $5.5 trillion into the economy already in a series of bailouts and transfer payments. That’s nearly $17,000 for each adult and child living in the U.S.

More borrowing and money printing is not the solution to restoring consumption. So long as businesses remain forcibly closed, and people are prohibited from life activities, consumption will lag.

Look at the nearly 8 million jobs returned in May and June as Americans eagerly emerged from forced hibernation. A lifting of restrictions—not government spending—deserves credit for this partial rebound.

The report also highlights the drop in private domestic investment of 49%. Every category outside information-processing suffered a large decline, including residential and nonresidential, structures, and equipment.

Those investments are crucial to enhancing productivity, which in turn enables income earners of all levels to enjoy higher standards of living and job opportunities.

Lawmakers should keep those numbers in mind when crafting monetary and fiscal stimulus.

Our economic misery stems from the suppression by government edict of the supply of goods and services. Likewise, those same edicts artificially suppress demand as consumers remain unable to engage in commercial activity.

Masking this economic misery by racking up trillions more in debt and instructing the central bank to distribute trillions more to favored interests might be politically expedient. After all, who doesn’t want “free” money to cover business expenses or bonuses for losing a job? However, it’s irresponsible.

Government-mandated closures and public perception of the crisis continue to deter investment and suppress economic activity. The skyrocketing federal debt and rapidly expanding central bank balance sheet creates the additional risk of a monetary crisis.

A full recovery requires a safe reopening rather than more fiat currency, borrowing, and government spending. Only then will we see both investment and consumption return in full force.

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China’s Repression of Religion Gets Worse

In the campaign against people of faith, there is no line the Chinese government won’t cross.

On Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testified at a congressional hearing, highlighting the Trump administration’s efforts to stop China’s human rights violations and international aggression in its tracks.

Proud of the administration’s track record, Pompeo stated,

No administration, Republican or Democrat, has been as aggressive in confronting China’s malign actions as President [Donald] Trump’s … We’ve sanctioned Chinese leaders for their brutality in Xinjiang, imposed export controls on companies supporting it, and warned U.S. companies against using slave labor in their supply chains. We’ve terminated special treatment agreements with Hong Kong in response to the [Chinese Communist Party’s] crackdown.

This is an impressive list of accomplishments, and the Chinese government proves every day that it deserves to be targeted in this way. China’s campaign of repression against those of all faiths is almost unparalleled.

Just this week, more reports emerged detailing how China is using the coronavirus pandemic to crack down on Christian house churches. The Family Research Council’s Bob Fu explained the situation to CBN News:

[Chinese President] Xi Jinping’s portrait was even put on the church pulpit along with Chairman Mao and the first line item of worship by the government-sanctioned church before COVID-19 was to sing the Communist Party national anthem.

If the Chinese government cannot crush Christianity altogether, it will attempt to reshape it in the image of the Chinese Communist Party.

News also surfaced this month that low-income Christian families are pressured to abandon their religious practices before they receive government aid.

Local officials in one province told Christians to stop attending church services and instructed them to hang portraits of Mao Zedong and Jinping in their homes. One woman even lost her financial aid after she said “thank God” upon receiving her small monthly stipend.

At Thursday’s hearing, Pompeo once again reiterated that China’s abuses against Uighur Muslims is the “stain of the century.”

The most recent horrors committed against Uighurs to be exposed is China’s efforts to limit Uighur births. New research estimates that hundreds of thousands of Uighur women have been subjected to mandatory pregnancy checks, forced sterilization, and even forced abortion.

One Uighur woman who worked at a hospital recounted witnessing forced abortions:

The husbands were not allowed inside. They take in the women, who are always crying. Afterwards, they just threw the fetus in a plastic bag like it was trash. One mother begged to die after her 7-month-old baby was killed.

Such tragic accounts are a grave reminder of the suffering Uighurs endure every day in China.

And while as many as 3 million Uighurs languish in “reeducation” camps, the Chinese government has been putting many of these arbitrarily detained victims to work in its forced labor program.

As China seeks to financially profit from its vast internment camp system, American companies, consumers, and politicians should be making every feasible effort to avoid funding these atrocities.

In what is often described as the “open-air prison” of Xinjiang, advanced surveillance technology is used to track and control ordinary people as they go about their day.

Unfortunately, American technology companies have directly and indirectly aided the Chinese government in its use of technology to repress the Uighur people. And major technology companies, including Apple, have been linked to forced labor in Xinjiang as well.

Reports of the Chinese government’s repression of religion continue to get worse, even when it seems that’s not possible.

The Trump administration’s effort to expose China’s abuses, spearheaded by Pompeo, is important work. Nothing will change until the world knows about it. Now that China’s repression is out in the open, it is time for free countries around the world to join with the United States in pushing back on China’s oppressive agenda.

Originally published in Tony Perkins’ Washington Update, which is written with the aid of Family Research Council senior writers.

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Obama Encourages Senate Democrats to Eliminate Filibuster

Democrats are looking again at eliminating the filibuster so that they can pass legislation in the Senate without difficulty if they retake the majority, and they gained an ally this week in former President Barack Obama. 

Obama said during a politically charged eulogy Thursday at the Atlanta funeral service for Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., that it may be necessary to do away with the filibuster and inaccurately called the procedure a “Jim Crow relic.” 

First, Obama called for legislation giving voting representation in Congress to the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, making Election Day a federal holiday, and guaranteeing that all Americans automatically are registered to vote, Politico and other news outlets reported.

 “And if all this takes eliminating the filibuster, another Jim Crow relic, in order to secure the God-given rights of every American, then that’s what we should do,” Obama said.

The filibuster as a potential tactic to block a Senate vote actually dates to 1806, not to the so-called Jim Crow laws that, beginning in the late 19th century, denied equal rights to blacks in the South. 

The first Senate filibuster actually occurred in 1837, although segregationist Democrats did use it to block passage of civil rights laws in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., apparently agrees with Obama on the filibuster.

“Job No. 1 is for us to get the majority,” Schumer told reporters last week. “We don’t take anything for granted, but it’s looking better and better. Once we get the majority, we’ll discuss it in our caucus. Nothing’s off the table.”

On Friday, former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican, called out Obama for saying the filibuster should be put aside. 

“@BarackObama tried to use filibuster to stop [Samuel] Alito nomination [to the Supreme Court] in ’06; 60 senators opposed @realDonaldTrump effort to remove filibuster in 2017,” Jindal tweeted. “Obama now says filibuster a ‘Jim Crow relic.’ Dems should stop pretending they are fighting for principles, and admit it’s about power.”

Currently, three-fifths, or 60, of the 100 senators can “invoke cloture,” bypass a filibuster, and proceed to a vote, but Democrats again are looking at abolishing the practice. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said later Thursday that he agrees with Obama. 

“President Obama is absolutely right,” Sanders tweeted. “It is an outrage that modern-day poll taxes, gerrymandering, I.D. requirements, and other forms of voter suppression still exist today. If expanding the Voting Rights Act requires us to eliminate the filibuster, then that is what we must do.”

Eliminating the filibuster and allowing the nuclear option would let Democrats pass legislation with just 51 votes rather than needing 60 to advance to a floor vote.

Not every Democrat is signing off on eliminating the filibuster, however. 

“I have never supported a repeal of the filibuster and I don’t support one now,” Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., tweeted. “I am willing to consider solutions that promote collaboration so the Senate is able to be a productive body again. But repealing the filibuster would result in even more partisanship.”

Republicans, who currently control the Senate with 53 seats, aren’t taking kindly to the idea. 

“It is all about power, folks, not for the good of the country: Joe Biden says Democrats will kill the 60-vote barrier if Senate Republicans are too ‘obstreperous,’” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, tweeted July 17. 

Tom Jipping, deputy director of The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, told The Daily Signal in an email that Democrats already went too far in 2013, when they eliminated the filibuster for a majority of presidential nominees. 

“Senate Democrats showed in 2013 how reckless they are willing to be when they think rigging the Senate’s rules will lead to short-term political gain,” Jipping said.

“Abandoning the legislative filibuster, the Senate’s most distinctive feature for more than 200 years, would do even greater damage and upset the balance that America’s Founders struck when they designed our system of government.”

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The Chicago Gun Myth

The tragically incompetent mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” last weekend to deflect attention from the horror show unfolding in her city by blaming interlopers for its spiking murder rate: “We are being inundated with guns from states that have virtually no gun control, no background checks, no ban on assault weapons—that is hurting cities like Chicago.”

Although these accusations have been leveled by Chicago politicians for decades now, they are a myth.

For one thing, there is no state in the nation with “virtually no gun control” or “no background checks.” Every time anyone in the United States purchases a gun from a federal firearms licensee—a gun store, a gun show, it doesn’t matter—the seller runs a background check on the buyer through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System database.

In some cases, the federal firearm license checks to see if the buyer has passed a background check via a state-issued concealed-carry permit. In states that allow individual private sales, it is illegal to knowingly sell to anyone who you believe is obtaining a firearm for criminal purposes.

Those who cross state lines to buy guns undergo the same background check, and the sale is processed by a federal firearms license in the buyer’s home state. The exact same laws apply to all online sales.

The vast majority of Americans obtain their guns in this manner, and they rarely commit crimes. Around 7% of criminals in prison bought weapons using their real names. Fewer than 1% obtained them at gun shows.

As The Heritage Foundation’s Amy Swearer points out, there have been around 18 million concealed-carry permit holders over the past 15 years, and they have committed 801 firearm-related homicides over that span, or somewhere around 0.7% of all firearm-related murders. Concealed-carry holders not only are more law-abiding than the general population as a group; they are more law-abiding than law enforcement.

On top of all this, federal law requires every federal firearm license holder to report the purchase of two or more handguns by the same person within a week to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. This is one of the reasons straw purchasers–people with a clean record who buy for criminals—spread their operations to other states.

This is not unique to Illinois or Chicago. It has nothing to do with strict or lenient laws. It has mostly to do with cities and states failing to prosecute straw purchases.

Lightfoot claims that 60% of the guns used in Chicago murders are bought from out of state. I assume she is relying on 2017’s suspect “gun trace report,” which looked at guns confiscated in criminal acts from 2013 and 2016.

Even if we trusted the city’s data, most guns used in Illinois crimes are bought in-state. If gun laws in Illinois—which earns a grade of “A-” from the pro-gun control Giffords Law Center, tied for second-highest in the country after New Jersey—are more effective than gun laws in Missouri, Wisconsin, or Indiana, why is it that federal firearms license dealers in suburban Cook County are the origin point for a third of the crime guns recovered in Chicago, and home to “seven of the top 10 source dealers”?

The only reason, it seems, criminals take the drive to Indiana is because local gun shops are tapped out. There is a tremendous demand for weapons in Chicago.

Lightfoot may also be surprised to learn that California borders on states with liberal gun laws, such as Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon. Yet no big city in California has quite the murder and criminality of Chicago.

New York borders on states with liberal gun laws, such as Vermont, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire. Yet, New York City’s murder rate is only a fraction of Chicago’s.

Texas gets an “F” from Giffords Law Center, yet Houston and Dallas have murder rates that are half of that in Chicago. The rates in Austin and El Paso are tiny in comparison.

Then, of course, the “assault weapons bans” that Lightfoot brings up have absolutely no bearing on Chicago’s murder rate, even if such prohibitions actually worked.

There were 864 murders in the state of Illinois in 2018 (the last year for which the FBI has full stats). Of homicides where the type of weapon is reported by law enforcement, 592 were perpetrated using handguns, 14 with rifles, and four with shotguns. Over 100 murders were committed using knives, other cutting instruments, hands, feet, and other types of weapons. And of the 14 “rifles” used, it’s almost surely the case that not all of them were “assault weapons.”

In the states in Illinois’s neighborhood with no bans on “assault weapons,” the number of murders committed with a “rifle” is correspondingly small—10 in Indiana, eight in Tennessee, six in Kentucky, four in Wisconsin, and three in Mississippi.

Nearly 400 people have already been murdered in Chicago this year, around 100 more than in the entire year of 2019. On the night of May 29, 25 people were murdered and another 85 wounded by gunfire, more than any day in 60 years.

And yet, the mayor is appearing on TV to blame Mississippi and Texas. It is far more likely that black-market guns find their way to Chicago because the place has been a poorly-run criminal mecca for decades.

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The COVID-19 Double Standard

Decent Americans who are feeling perplexed today shouldn’t be ashamed about it. There is good reason to be perplexed.

On the one hand, in the name of health and safety, we are being asked by government to compromise personal freedoms that we have always taken for granted: going to work, going to church, sending our children off to school, meeting our friends in our favorite restaurant.

We walk around wearing annoying masks and try to respect social distancing limits.

But decent Americans are perplexed because we would expect that allowing more government into our personal space would happen uniformly, that in allowing more government, we are all sacrificing together for some greater good, some greater necessity.

But instead, we look around and see chaos. We see no uniformity.

>>> What’s the best way for America to reopen and return to business? The National Coronavirus Recovery Commission, a project of The Heritage Foundation, assembled America’s top thinkers to figure that out. So far, it has made more than 260 recommendations. Learn more here.

Protests, often violent, are sweeping our cities. The same public officials who tell us to keep our kids at home; who tell us to not pray in church, as we have always prayed; who limit our places of work and livelihood look the other way, often with approval, as hooligans tear apart our cities.

Greater demands from government should mean increasing respect for the law.

But we’re seeing the opposite: government making more demands while disrespect for the law increases across the nation.

We just saw a decision in the nation’s Supreme Court where a Nevada church petition to be treated equally to Nevada’s casinos regarding COVID-19 attendance limits was rejected with no explanation.

Justice Samuel Alito got to the heart of the matter in his dissenting opinion, saying: “For months now, States and their subdivisions, have responded to the pandemic by imposing unprecedented restrictions on personal liberty, including free exercise of religion. … Now four months have passed since the original declaration. The problem is no longer one of exigency, but one of considered yet discriminatory treatment of places of worship.”

“Calvary Chapel has also brought to our attention,” continued Alito, “evidence that the Governor has favored certain speakers over others. When large numbers of protestors openly violated provisions of the Directive, such as the rule against groups of more than 50 people, the Governor not only declined to enforce the directive but publicly supported and participated in a protest.”

I am looking at a photograph of a mass of protesters marching, shoulder to shoulder, through the streets of Oakland, California, this in the same state that is limiting church attendance to 25% capacity and prohibiting singing in church.

In May, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge by South Bay United Pentecostal Church in Chula Vista, California, to the state’s restrictions on church attendance. Justice Brett Kavanaugh noted in his dissent that secular businesses like supermarkets, restaurants, and hair salons are not subject to the same restrictions as houses of worship.

A group of Orthodox Jewish Americans sued the New York governor and New York City mayor for lack of uniformity in gathering limits between houses of worship, and secular business activity, protests and demonstrations.

Going hand in hand with the rioting and violence is a nationwide surge in crime.

The Wall Street Journal reports increases in homicides in Milwaukee, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Kansas City.

At the same time, there is violence and damage from protesters in Seattle, Portland, and Louisville.

We can’t have a free and civil society without law. And law means nothing if we can’t agree on what the law is and if it is not applied uniformly. Politics needs to follow law. Today’s chaos is symptomatic of law following politics.

Well-intentioned citizens cannot sacrifice their freedom in an environment like this. We must take the initiative to open our schools, our churches, and our businesses.

Amidst the chaos, citizens need to take control of their own lives. They have a civic duty to do it. It will help the nation and its recovery.

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Anti-Americanism: The New Anti-Semitism

What are the two most hated countries in the world?

America and Israel.

Who hates both America and Israel?

The left (and Islamists).

And why is that? Why does the left (not liberals, the left) hate America and Israel?

In “Why the Jews?: The Reason for Antisemitism,” a book I co-authored with Rabbi Joseph Telushkin in 1983 (the latest edition was published in 2016), we compared hatred of America with hatred of Jews.

This is what we wrote. It precisely explains what is happening in America today.

“Perhaps the best way to understand the admiration and resentment elicited by the quality of Jewish life is to compare the reactions of the world to America’s quality of life. No other country has so many people seeking to move there. At the same time, no country, with the exception of Israel, is the target of so many hateful and false attacks.

“The United States, because of its success and its ideals, challenges many people throughout the world. How did America, a nation composed largely of those rejected by other societies (‘The wretched refuse of your teeming shore’ declare the words at the base of the Statue of Liberty), become the most affluent, freest, most powerful, and most influential society in the world?

“Americans generally attribute this success to the values of America’s founding generations (such as individual liberty, religious tolerance, Judeo-Christian morality, and secular government), to a work ethic, and to the subsequent waves of immigrants who embraced these values.

“Enemies of America attribute it to the country’s natural resources, just as many people attribute Jewish success to their natural resource, alleged greater innate intelligence.

“Others claim that through capitalist exploitation, America cheated poorer countries, paralleling charges that Jewish success has been attained through economic ‘bloodsucking.’ Still others develop an imperialist version of America’s past and present, similar to the anti-Jewish charge of a world Jewish conspiracy.

“But the United States is hardly the only society with great natural resources, and it has been the least imperialistic of the world’s powers. America’s values, not unfair resource distribution or world exploitation, have made the United States better, just as Judaism and its values, not genetic advantage or economic conspiracies, account for the quality of life led by Jews. The two people’s quality of life has provoked similar reactions—many admire them, and many resent them.”

Just like the Jews, America is hated because it is successful. For over a century, it has been the most successful country in the world—in virtually every way.

If having had slavery was a real issue in the left’s anti-Americanism, the left would hate the Arab world and Latin American countries such as Brazil more than it hates the United States.

While The New York Times and other left-wing institutions are preoccupied with slavery in America, they ignore—out of ideological nonconcern or out of sheer ignorance—the vastly larger number of Africans enslaved by Muslim and South American nations.

Of the more than 12 million African slaves shipped to the Western Hemisphere, only about 3%—between 306,000 and 380,000—were sent to the United States. The other 97% were sent to the Caribbean and Brazil. And the slaves in the U.S. South lived longer and made larger families than the slaves of Latin America.

Yet, the U.S. is singled out for hatred. Why? Because the left doesn’t resent Brazil. Brazil is not an object of envy.

Likewise, there is no left-wing hatred of the Arab world, which enslaved far more blacks than the North and South Americas combined. The internationally recognized expert on African history, Senegalese anthropologist Tidiane N’Diaye, wrote:

Most people still have the so-called Transatlantic [slave] trade by Europeans into the New World in mind. But in reality the Arab-Muslim slavery was much greater. … The Arab Muslims were the most murderous of all those involved in the slave trade.

Part of that murderous treatment of African slaves involved castrating the males so they could not reproduce. And the women and girls were traded as sex slaves.

Where is the leftist anger at the Arab and Muslim world? There is, of course, none. On the contrary, the left protects the Muslim and Arab world against moral criticism.

The left hates America for its success and influence on the world, just as anti-Semites hated Jews for their success and influence on the world.

The left doesn’t hate America because it is bad. It hates America because it is good. If the left hated evil, it would love America and hate its enemies.

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The Risks of Mail-In Voting

Many people misinterpreted President Donald Trump’s tweet Thursday morning about a possible delay in the Nov. 3 election as a threat by him to postpone the election. But that’s not what his tweet said—and in any event, no president has the power to delay Election Day.

“The president is simply raising a question, whereas Democrats are proposing an entirely new system (of massive mail-in voting) that will result in enormous delays in the election results,” a senior Trump administration official told Fox News Thursday afternoon.

In a morning tweet, the president wrote: “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”

As I have explained previously, only Congress has the constitutional authority to change the date of the federal general election.

Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution gives Congress the authority to set the “Times, Places and Manner” of congressional elections. Similarly, Article II, Section 1 gives Congress the authority to set the date on which we vote for the slates of presidential electors through the Electoral College.

The date for both congressional and presidential elections has been set by law as the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November since 1845.

Congress could delay the November election if it passed an amendment to federal law and the president signed it. But the likelihood of that happening is virtually nil, and this was made clear by bipartisan criticism of the president’s morning tweet from House and Senate members.

Congress has never delayed a federal election, even during the Civil War and World War II. Doing so would be a mistake, and it’s clear that isn’t going to happen.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, experience shows that we can vote safely in-person as long as election officials implement the safety protocols recommended by health experts in polling places—the same protocols we are all using when we go to the grocery store or pharmacy.

>>> What’s the best way for America to reopen and return to business? The National Coronavirus Recovery Commission, a project of The Heritage Foundation, assembled America’s top thinkers to figure that out. So far, it has made more than 260 recommendations. Learn more here.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released such guidelines June 22. I voted safely in-person in my town council election recently in Virginia with those types of health precautions in place.

Even during the coronavirus pandemic that has so disrupted our lives, it would be a mistake to go to an all-mail election. Concerns that Trump has raised about mail-in voting are based on documented problems we have seen with such voting.

Mail-in ballots are the ballots most vulnerable to being altered, stolen, or forged. Just look at the current investigation going on in Paterson, New Jersey, over a recent municipal election conducted entirely by mail.

Four Paterson residents have already been charged with criminal election fraud, including a councilman and councilman-elect. Evidence is surfacing of everything from voters reporting that they never received their absentee ballots (even though they are recorded as having voted) to accusations that one of the campaigns may have submitted fraudulent ballots.

Mail-in ballots also have a higher rejection rate than votes cast in person. In the Paterson case, election officials apparently rejected 1 in 5 ballots for everything from signatures on the ballots not matching the signatures of voters on file, to ballots not complying with the technical rules that apply to absentee ballots.

New York, which has taken more than a month to count the ballots from its June 23 primary election, is also reporting a similar rejection rate. This should be considered unacceptable by anyone believing in fair and accurate elections.

These kinds of technical problems—when a voter doesn’t provide all of the information required with an absentee ballot—occur because there is no election official in people’s homes to answer their questions. At polling places, by contrast, election officials can try to remedy any problems a voter encounters.

Then there is the problem of mail-in ballots being miscarried or not delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. States with recent primaries, including Wisconsin and Maryland, have reported voters not receiving their ballots or not getting them in time to be voted and returned.

In addition, there have been problems with the Postal Service not postmarking ballots, making it impossible for election officials to determine whether the ballots were mailed in time to be counted. The U.S. Election Assistance Commission says that in the last four federal elections, 2.7 million mail-in ballots were misdelivered and 1.3 million were rejected by election officials.

In the 2016 election, almost 130 million Americans voted. Does anyone really think the Postal Service will be able to suddenly handle 260 million pieces of additional mail—that is, the ballots being mailed out by election officials, and then mailed back by voters?

Just from a practical standpoint, that is asking for chaos and mass disenfranchisement.

Inevitably, it will take longer to tabulate the results of the election if there is a massive amount of mail-in voting, particularly in close races for the presidency and down-ballot offices.

But if the outcome of the election is still in doubt by Jan. 20, 2021—the day the Constitution says the winner of the presidential election is supposed to be sworn into office—due to litigation and/or the long delays in counting mailed ballots, the 20th Amendment to the Constitution provides that Congress “may by law provide … who shall then act as President.”

Under 3 U.S.C. § 19, Congress has provided that the speaker of the House shall upon his or her “resignation as Speaker and Representative” act as president until a president or vice president has been determined.

Americans should insist on their right to vote in-person in their polling places in November, where they can be sure their ballots are safely received and counted.

No one disputes that those most at risk from the coronavirus pandemic may want to vote by absentee ballot. But as The New York Times correctly said back in 2012, “votes cast by mail are less likely to be counted, more likely to be compromised and more likely to be contested than those cast in a voting booth.”                                             

That assessment is just as true today as it was eight years ago. Voters should not be forced to deal with the problems that massive voting by mail would create.

Originally published by Fox News

The post The Risks of Mail-In Voting appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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‘Peaceful Riots’? Journalism Bows to the Woke Mob

Just a few weeks ago the idea of “peaceful riots” would have seemed absurd, but the American media is nothing if not inventive these days.

Earlier this week, ABC News reported, “Protesters in California set fire to a courthouse, damaged a police station and assaulted officers after a peaceful demonstration intensified.” Legal scholar Eugene Volokh wonders how this terminology would work in the real world: “You are being charged with an intensified peaceful demonstration, in the second degree. How do you plead?”

Indeed, the media’s commitment to tempering their descriptions of violent riots sweeping the nation as “mostly peaceful” is relentless—that particular phrase has become a media cliché practically overnight.

Of course, America’s police officers could also be accurately described as “mostly peaceful,” but any journalist who dared to give cops the same generous benefit of the doubt would likely cause a riot in their own newsroom.

That’s why it was almost shocking to read an Associated Press report earlier this week from reporter Mike Balsamo, who embedded with federal law enforcement protecting the Mark O. Hatfield courthouse in downtown Portland.

“I watched as injured officers were hauled inside. In one case, the commercial firework came over so fast the officer didn’t have time to respond. It burned through his sleeves and he had bloody gashes on both forearms. Another had a concussion from being hit in the head with a mortar,” Balsamo reported. “The lights inside the courthouse have to be turned off for safety and the light from high-powered lasers bounced across the lobby almost all night. The fear is palpable. Three officers were struck in the last few weeks and still haven’t regained their vision.”

Despite the obvious evidence of organized violence, Balsamo’s report is about the only good-faith effort from the national press attempting to inform the public about the current plight of law enforcement. Meanwhile, the media have spent weeks going out of their way to portray rioters as unambiguous freedom fighters.

When protesters in Portland organized a “Wall of Moms” to stand between federal marshals protecting the courthouse and the rioters throwing bricks and shooting fireworks, it prompted gushing media coverage. Columnist Jonathan Alter called the Wall of Moms a “brilliant tactic that may forever change social protest,” apparently unaware that groups such as Hamas have been cynically using human shields for decades.

Following their 15 minutes of fame, you will not be surprised to learn that the group has descended into infighting over the leader’s allegedly insufficient fealty to Black Lives Matter. In spite of media wish-casting, the Wall of Moms was never a morally serious effort.

Naturally, the big beneficiaries of this one-sided media narrative about riots are Democratic Party politicians. On Wednesday, acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf announced that the federal government had reached a deal with the city of Portland to downsize the federal law enforcement presence at the courthouse that was clashing with protesters.

However, Wolf’s statement made it clear that the deal was contingent on the city stepping up its own police presence to protect the building, which was all the federal government had asked the city to do months ago.

Rather than admit the deal was a tacit acknowledgement Portland had failed its basic responsibility to maintain law and order, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown pretended it was a victory against jackbooted feds who “acted as an occupying force and brought violence.”

But Brown’s rhetoric is dishonest, as she knows better than most. There were nightly riots for weeks before the feds arrived in downtown Portland. Along with Minneapolis and Seattle, Portland holds the dubious distinction of being a city that has failed to protect its own buildings.

Rioters had already burned the Multnomah County Justice Center jail and the Portland Police Bureau headquarters, just a few blocks away from the federal courthouse.

Speaking as an Oregonian and former resident of Portland, I’ll note that the city’s problems go far beyond the recent riots. Business leaders have been begging city hall to address law and order issues for years.

In 2017, the chief executive officer of Columbia Sportswear, one of Oregon’s most beloved companies, wrote a blistering op-ed about the city’s problems.

“A few days ago, one of our employees had to run into traffic when a stranger outside our office followed her and threatened to kill her,” Tim Boyle wrote. “On other occasions, our employees have arrived at work only to be menaced by individuals camping in the doorway. And our employees have had so many car break-ins downtown that we have started referring to parking in Portland as our ‘laptop donation program.’ Given these experiences, it is a relief when the only thing we are dealing with is the garbage and human waste by our front door. Think about that for a minute. This is outrageous and unacceptable.”

Anyone who has spent time in Portland comes to understand the mutually beneficial relationship between the homeless and itinerant gutter-punks who are the main source of the city’s crime and violence, and the left-wing activists whose radical agenda of decriminalization lets them control the streets.

After police responded to Boyle’s plea to keep excrement out of the doorway of his business, Boyle found himself on the receiving end of organized protests, forcing him to shut down Columbia’s flagship store downtown.

The city has also been capitulating to threats of left-wing political violence for years. Also in 2017, Portland canceled its annual rose parade after “anti-fascists” threatened violence because members of the Multnomah County Republican Party were among the many civic groups slated to march.

It’s one thing to claim that violence is justified against unwanted federal officers invading your city—but threatening local residents with violence because they are Republicans?

Even then, the city rolled over, and in doing so conceded that violent left-wing activists control Portland. That’s not hyperbole—taking control of the city was literally one of the threats made in the anonymous email that caused officials to cancel the parade: “You have seen how much power we have downtown and that the police cannot stop us from shutting down roads so please consider your decision wisely.”

Who exactly is in charge in Portland? Well, it’s not Mayor Ted Wheeler, who’s spent years openly disparaging and undermining his own police force even as he let Antifa direct traffic in his city. You’d think this would endear Wheeler to the radicals he’s trying to appease, but when he recently made a supportive appearance at the courthouse protests downtown the crowd booed and yelled at him to resign.

At this point, it’s insulting to insist that American consumers of news can’t distinguish legitimate protest from violent rioting that has devastated Portland and dozens of other cities.

Similarly, there’s plenty of room for criticism of heavy-handed federal and police tactics, while still understanding that we can’t stand by and let violent mobs burn courthouses. But if covering a story from multiple angles used to be the norm in the media, it’s not anymore.

Ultimately, members of the media have a choice to make—you can be honest about the alarming evidence of law and order breaking down in American cities. Or you can continue to torch your credibility by downplaying the nightly violence for reasons that appear overtly partisan. Please consider your decision wisely.

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The Troubling Goals of the Black Lives Matter Movement

Politicians and various social justice groups have long used labels that have nothing to do with the real intent of legislation, or an organization, to dupe the public. But, to paraphrase Shakespeare, a rose by any other name is still a rose.

Numerous “civil rights” bills have been passed by Congress over the years that have nothing to do with civil rights, but how many members are brave enough to point that out and vote against them?

Which brings me to the Black Lives Matter movement. How many mainstream reporters have bothered to delve into the background and founding principles of the rapidly spreading organization to which even white CEOs are contributing gobs of money in what appears to be an attempt to protect themselves and their businesses from any potential charge of racism?

The Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, which self-describes as “an ecumenical, nonprofit research organization that promotes the benefits of free enterprise to religious communities, business people, students and educators,” has exposed the ideology of Black Lives Matter.

According to Acton, the founding principles of BLM include a guaranteed minimum income for all black people, free health care, free schooling, free food, free real estate, gender reassignment surgery, and free abortion (already disproportionately high among African American women, “27.1 per 1,000 women compared with 10 per 1,000 for white women,” but apparently unborn black lives don’t matter to BLM).

Washington, D.C.’s local BLM chapter has even called for “no new jails” (which would likely guarantee an increase in crime, much of it perpetrated in black communities—see the District’s crime stats, see Chicago, see Los Angeles). BLM also demands reparations and wants to create a “global liberation movement” that will “overturn U.S. imperialism [and] capitalism.”

According to The New York Post, “Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors said in a newly surfaced video from 2015 that she and her fellow organizers are ‘trained Marxists.'”

Breitbart News, a conservative syndicated news website, reported that “Cullors, 36, was the protege of Eric Mann, former agitator of the Weather Underground domestic terror organization, and spent years absorbing the Marxist-Leninist ideology that shaped her worldview.”

Driving through what appeared to be a mostly white neighborhood in Washington, D.C., last weekend I was surprised, though I probably shouldn’t have been, to see quite a few “Black Lives Matter” signs on front lawns and on cars. A few friends have posted the BLM sign on their social media pages. I wonder if any of these people know the background and goals of the movement, or the radical ideology behind it.

There are a growing number, especially among the young, who have been “educated” in our once-great universities by some professors who support the BLM movement and promote similar or identical ideologies.

Part of what they are taught is that America began as a white, slave-owning patriarchy and that slaves actually built America. They quickly absorb this, then come home to tell their parents they are part of the problem.

This is a major reason school choice is important if the nation is to be preserved. It should also be obvious that parents must be more selective in where they allow—and in many cases pay for—their children to attend colleges and universities and choose one where their values are strengthened and the nation not undermined.

Black lives matter because like all lives, everyone is endowed with unalienable rights. But the BLM movement might be more harmful than helpful to African Americans.

BLM’s foundational principles and goals seem closer to those of China and the former Soviet Union. If more people understood that, they might wake up and realize that the United States, as Ronald Reagan used to say, is only one generation from losing it all.

(C) 2020 TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

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Plunge in Investment, Production, and Consumption Requires Smart Reopening, Not More ‘Stimulus’

This week’s gross domestic product report painted a stark picture; namely, a historic plunge in the production of goods, provision of services, and private investment.

The nation’s economy shrank at a 32.9% annualized rate. That marks an actual decline of 9.5% from earlier this year.

Meanwhile, massive government transfer payments funded by borrowing and printing of money caused disposable personal income to soar at a 42.1% annual clip despite the loss of more than 24 million jobs accompanying this economic contraction.

>>> What’s the best way for America to reopen and return to business? The National Coronavirus Recovery Commission, a project of The Heritage Foundation, assembled America’s top thinkers to figure that out. So far, it has made more than 260 recommendations.  Learn more here.

The data bear out the everyday experience of millions of Americans. Government-mandated closures and people responding to what they heard from some public health officials shriveled economic output over the past six months.

Personal consumption dropped at a 34.6% annualized rate. In fact, the plunge in consumption exceeded the record rise in personal income.

Durable goods sales were down only slightly, by 1.4% annualized, thanks to a slight increase in sales of vehicles and recreational equipment. However, sales of household furnishings and equipment decreased modestly. Non-durable goods (items such as shoes, clothing, and groceries) dropped by 15.9% annualized.

Elsewhere, the situation proved far more dire. Consumption of personal services fell off a cliff, down 43.5% annualized.

Zooming out year over year, we get a clearer picture of the damage. Overall household consumption of services declined 18%. Spending on food services and accommodations (bars, restaurants, movie theaters, etc.) fell 40%.

Jarringly, spending on health care services dropped by 24.2% compared with last year as people postponed elective procedures. In some instances, treatment of serious health conditions is being delayed.  

Even the surge in personal income—the bright spot in the report—is problematic. Instead of representing compensation for productive enterprise, this reflects federal stimulus checks combined with enhanced unemployment benefits of $600 weekly.

Now, 70% of the unemployed earn more off the job than on the job, and 20% earn double their prior salary. That creates a danger: There’s no reason to worry about inflation now, but eventually the Federal Reserve will have to reverse those actions and tighten.

So, what happens then? Nobody really knows, but it could be a disaster. Friday afternoon, Fitch Ratings downgraded the outlook on U.S. government debt to negative, warning of the “risks to U.S. economic dynamism and reserve currency status” from the rising debtload.  Indenturing future Americans to pay for this extravagant spending is generational robbery.

For now, Americans are saving the surplus in cash as a result of an uncertain economic future, combined with large swaths of the market being closed for business.

The personal savings rate rocketed to 25.7%, far higher than the average of under 7% over the past 30 years. Because this influx of cash is temporarily being saved rather than spent, it hasn’t resulted in an increase in inflation.

Prices declined overall in the quarter on the heels of the drop in demand. Once families start spending these savings—or the banks start lending the new deposits—inflation pressures could rapidly grow.

Unlike typical savings, these savings do not represent capital acquired from productive output. Instead, these trillions are a ticking inflation time bomb. 

Unfortunately, politicians in both parties are calling for more government spending to stimulate personal consumption. Yet, the federal government and central bank have injected more than $5.5 trillion into the economy already in a series of bailouts and transfer payments. That’s nearly $17,000 for each adult and child living in the U.S.

More borrowing and money printing is not the solution to restoring consumption. So long as businesses remain forcibly closed, and people are prohibited from life activities, consumption will lag.

Look at the nearly 8 million jobs returned in May and June as Americans eagerly emerged from forced hibernation. A lifting of restrictions—not government spending—deserves credit for this partial rebound.

The report also highlights the drop in private domestic investment of 49%. Every category outside information-processing suffered a large decline, including residential and nonresidential, structures, and equipment.

Those investments are crucial to enhancing productivity, which in turn enables income earners of all levels to enjoy higher standards of living and job opportunities.

Lawmakers should keep those numbers in mind when crafting monetary and fiscal stimulus.

Our economic misery stems from the suppression by government edict of the supply of goods and services. Likewise, those same edicts artificially suppress demand as consumers remain unable to engage in commercial activity.

Masking this economic misery by racking up trillions more in debt and instructing the central bank to distribute trillions more to favored interests might be politically expedient. After all, who doesn’t want “free” money to cover business expenses or bonuses for losing a job? However, it’s irresponsible.

Government-mandated closures and public perception of the crisis continue to deter investment and suppress economic activity. The skyrocketing federal debt and rapidly expanding central bank balance sheet creates the additional risk of a monetary crisis.

A full recovery requires a safe reopening rather than more fiat currency, borrowing, and government spending. Only then will we see both investment and consumption return in full force.

The post Plunge in Investment, Production, and Consumption Requires Smart Reopening, Not More ‘Stimulus’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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China’s Repression of Religion Gets Worse

In the campaign against people of faith, there is no line the Chinese government won’t cross.

On Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testified at a congressional hearing, highlighting the Trump administration’s efforts to stop China’s human rights violations and international aggression in its tracks.

Proud of the administration’s track record, Pompeo stated,

No administration, Republican or Democrat, has been as aggressive in confronting China’s malign actions as President [Donald] Trump’s … We’ve sanctioned Chinese leaders for their brutality in Xinjiang, imposed export controls on companies supporting it, and warned U.S. companies against using slave labor in their supply chains. We’ve terminated special treatment agreements with Hong Kong in response to the [Chinese Communist Party’s] crackdown.

This is an impressive list of accomplishments, and the Chinese government proves every day that it deserves to be targeted in this way. China’s campaign of repression against those of all faiths is almost unparalleled.

Just this week, more reports emerged detailing how China is using the coronavirus pandemic to crack down on Christian house churches. The Family Research Council’s Bob Fu explained the situation to CBN News:

[Chinese President] Xi Jinping’s portrait was even put on the church pulpit along with Chairman Mao and the first line item of worship by the government-sanctioned church before COVID-19 was to sing the Communist Party national anthem.

If the Chinese government cannot crush Christianity altogether, it will attempt to reshape it in the image of the Chinese Communist Party.

News also surfaced this month that low-income Christian families are pressured to abandon their religious practices before they receive government aid.

Local officials in one province told Christians to stop attending church services and instructed them to hang portraits of Mao Zedong and Jinping in their homes. One woman even lost her financial aid after she said “thank God” upon receiving her small monthly stipend.

At Thursday’s hearing, Pompeo once again reiterated that China’s abuses against Uighur Muslims is the “stain of the century.”

The most recent horrors committed against Uighurs to be exposed is China’s efforts to limit Uighur births. New research estimates that hundreds of thousands of Uighur women have been subjected to mandatory pregnancy checks, forced sterilization, and even forced abortion.

One Uighur woman who worked at a hospital recounted witnessing forced abortions:

The husbands were not allowed inside. They take in the women, who are always crying. Afterwards, they just threw the fetus in a plastic bag like it was trash. One mother begged to die after her 7-month-old baby was killed.

Such tragic accounts are a grave reminder of the suffering Uighurs endure every day in China.

And while as many as 3 million Uighurs languish in “reeducation” camps, the Chinese government has been putting many of these arbitrarily detained victims to work in its forced labor program.

As China seeks to financially profit from its vast internment camp system, American companies, consumers, and politicians should be making every feasible effort to avoid funding these atrocities.

In what is often described as the “open-air prison” of Xinjiang, advanced surveillance technology is used to track and control ordinary people as they go about their day.

Unfortunately, American technology companies have directly and indirectly aided the Chinese government in its use of technology to repress the Uighur people. And major technology companies, including Apple, have been linked to forced labor in Xinjiang as well.

Reports of the Chinese government’s repression of religion continue to get worse, even when it seems that’s not possible.

The Trump administration’s effort to expose China’s abuses, spearheaded by Pompeo, is important work. Nothing will change until the world knows about it. Now that China’s repression is out in the open, it is time for free countries around the world to join with the United States in pushing back on China’s oppressive agenda.

Originally published in Tony Perkins’ Washington Update, which is written with the aid of Family Research Council senior writers.

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‘Inexplicable’: Sen. Brown on GOP leaving town as unemployment benefits expire

“I hear senators making $175,000 a year complaining that these ‘lazy workers are getting so much money.’” says Sen. Sherrod Brown. “People haven’t sunk into poverty in significant numbers at all during this pandemic because of the $600 a week.”

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Who won the week? Xernona Clayton, Lebron James, those who followed celebration of John Lewis

Al Franken and Jonathan Capehart join for this week’s “Who Won The Week?”

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Al Franken: Trump’s handling of the pandemic ‘is the American carnage he was talking about’

On Trump’s handling of the coronavirus response, Al Franken says "This is the American carnage he was talking about,” a reference to the president’s inauguration speech.

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Amidst Trump era racial reckoning, Louis Gossett on Hollywood's racial dilemma

Academy award winning actor Louis Gossett Junior and former Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill join MSNBC’S Ari Melber for the latest edition of Fallback Friday. Gossett criticizes the media for its oftentimes simplistic representation of Black lives in

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How to Clean an Instant Pot

Thanks to all the different functions, having an Instant Pot can be a terrific experience. But it's a device with a number of small parts and lots of crevices where food can get stuck. That's why proper maintenance is key if you want this appliance to last. Make sure you get the most out of it by learning how to give your Instant Pot a thorough cleaning, one part at a time.

[Edit]Steps

[Edit]Cleaning the Cooker Base

1. Unplug the appliance and let it cool down. Make sure it's cool to the touch before you get started. This is important because the cooker base is the main part of the Instant Pot that contains the device's microprocessor. That's why it's highly sensitive to getting wet and should never be cleaned while still hot.^[1]
   
2. Use a clean cloth to remove stains. You can use a damp cloth for cleaning the exterior. To clean the interior, make sure the cloth is only slightly damp. If at any point you get the cooker base wet, try to dry it as quickly as possible.^[2]
   
3. Use a toothbrush to reach into the crevices of the cooker base. There's a narrow opening between the heating element and the housing of your Instant Pot. That's where food can get stuck while you use the appliance to prepare meals. A toothbrush can reach into that opening and clean out any possible build-up, so you can just wipe it off with a cloth once it's out.^[3]
   

[Edit]Cleaning the Inner Pot and Anti-Block Shield

1. Take out and wash the inner pot. This part of your Instant Pot is dishwasher safe. That means you can just toss it in there along with the dirty dishes. If you don't have a dishwasher, wash the inner pot by hand, using warm water and dish soap.^[4]
   
   • Use baking soda to remove burnt food. Fill the inner pot with water and add of baking soda. Cook this on low heat for a couple of hours. Leave the solution to cool, pour it down the drain, and then use some more baking soda to gently scrub off the remaining burnt food.^[5]
   • If you've noticed bluish marks or rainbow colors appearing on the surface of the inner pot, remove them with white vinegar. Pour it in and let it sit for 5 minutes. Rinse out the pot and let it dry.^[6]
2. Remove and wash the anti-block shield. The shield is a round, metal cap that you'll find on the inner side of the lid. Remove it by pushing it toward the rim and then lifting it up. Use warm water and dish soap to wash it, but you can also put it in the dishwasher. ^[7]
   
3. Wipe the anti-block shield dry and put it back in place. This is a small part that you can easily misplace, and your Instant Pot can't work properly without it. That's why you should put it back onto the lid right away. Use a clean cloth to dry it and then push it back into its original position. ^[8]
   

[Edit]Cleaning the Remaining Parts

1. Take out the sealing ring and wash the lid. You can put it in the dishwasher if you use one. But make sure to use the top rack only. If you don't have a dishwasher, simply give the lid a more thorough washing-up using hot water and dish soap.^[9]
   
   • Before you wash the lid, check its valves for dirt and food residues. If you find any, rinse the valves thoroughly using hot water.^[10]
2. Wash the sealing ring separately. You can either toss it in the dishwasher or use warm water and dish soap to wash it by hand. Either way, you should do this regularly since silicone retains smells. When putting it back in place, make sure it sits right. ^[11]
   
   • Do a vinegar steam to remove bad smells. Put equal parts water and white vinegar into the inner pot. Toss in a couple of lemon peels and close the lid. Select the Steam function and set it to 2 minutes, after which the Instant Pot should smell nice and fresh.^[12]
   • If you'd like to avoid bad smells, you can always do it by switching between 2 different sealing rings. Simply use one for making sweet food and another for savory dishes.^[13]
3. Wash the steam rack and condensation collector. The steam rack is dishwasher safe, but you can wash it using warm water and dish soap as well. You might want to use a brush to avoid getting sponge fibers caught on the edges of the rack. The condensation collector should only be washed by hand, also using dish soap.^[14]
   

[Edit]References

_PARTS_

1. ↑ https://instantpot.com/care-use/
2. ↑ [v161113_b03]. 8 May 2020.
3. ↑ [v161113_b03]. 8 May 2020.
4. ↑ https://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/cleaning-your-instant-pot
5. ↑ https://food.ndtv.com/food-drinks/5-easy-ways-to-remove-burnt-food-and-black-stains-from-your-pressure-cooker-1693827
6. ↑ https://instantpot.com/care-use/
7. ↑ https://instantpot.com/care-use/
8. ↑ https://instantpot.com/care-use/
9. ↑ https://instantpot.com/care-use/
10. ↑ https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-clean-instant-pot-smell-new/
11. ↑ https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-clean-an-instant-pot-pressure-cooker-229334
12. ↑ [v161113_b03]. 8 May 2020.
13. ↑ https://instantpot.com/care-use/
14. ↑ https://instantpot.com/care-use/

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Stuck in the Suburbs

Trump doesn’t understand that even the people who live there don’t like them.

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MakeCode Minute: Password Keeper PyBadge @adafruit @johnedgarpark #adafruit @MSMakeCode #makecode

In this week’s MakeCode Minute: Password Keeper PyBadge

Build a password keeper for PyBadge that types in your username and password for you. All made in MakeCode Arcade!

To learn about MakeCode: makecode.adafruit.com

@adafruit @johnedgarpark #adafruit @MSMakeCode #makecode
To learn more about MakeCode, check out this guide.

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