Month: July 2020

4 LA men admit to Skid Row voter-fraud scheme, DA announces

Four men have admitted to offering homeless people in Los Angeles money and cigarettes in exchange for false and forged signatures on ballot petitions and voter registration forms, authorities said Wednesday. Richard Howard, 64, and Louis Thomas Wise, 37, pleaded no contest last week to one felony count each of subscribing a fictitious name, or the name of another to an initiative petition and registration of a fictitious person, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said. Christopher Joseph Williams, 41, and Nickey Demelvin Huntley, 45, each pleaded no contest to one felony count of circulating an initiative or petition containing false, forged or fictitious names. Four defendants — one of whom is still being sought by authorities — have yet to be sentenced, the district attorney’s office said. An office spokesperson declined to specify what group or organization the defendants were working with when they committed the alleged fraud. Prosecutors said the group solicited hundreds of false and forged signatures on state ballot petitions and voter registration forms in Los Angeles’s Skid Row neighborhood, a downtown area long plagued by homelessness. They allegedly offered individuals $1 and cigarettes for their participation in the scheme during the 2016 and 2018 election cycles. Howard was given a three-year suspended sentence and three years of formal probation. Wise received a suspended sentence of 16 months. Williams and Huntley were each given three years of formal probation. Another defendant, Norman Hall, 62, was sentenced in February to a year in jail, formal probation and 100 hours of community service.

Normally we avoid the crime beat reporting here at The Daily Buzz.  But, for this story we’ll make an exception.  After all, we are told all the time by Democrats that there is no voter fraud in this country.  Soo.. when we see stories like this, we’ll be sure to post them here for you.      🙂

Supreme Court denies request to halt construction of the border wall

The Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote has denied a request to halt construction of President Trump’s border wall over environmental concerns. A number of groups, including the ACLU and Sierra Club, had asked the high court to get involved again after the justices last year cleared the way for the administration to use military funds for construction while the case played out in the courts. A federal appeals court had ruled against the administration last month, but the justices, for now, have given another temporary victory to the administration. “The fight continues,” said Dror Ladin, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project. “Every lower court to consider the question has ruled President Trump’s border wall illegal, and the Supreme Court’s temporary order does not decide the case. We’ll be back before the Supreme Court soon to put a stop to Trump’s xenophobic border wall once and for all.” The four liberal justices dissented from Friday’s order. In June, the Supreme Court also declined to hear an appeal from a coalition of environmental groups that pushed back against the Trump administration’s construction of the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The groups, led by the Center for Biological Diversity, challenged a 1996 law giving the president authority to fight illegal immigration and border crossings, and limiting some legal challenges. The coalition claimed that the Trump administration did not conduct sufficient environmental impact studies for the construction and that endangered species like the jaguar and Mexican wolf would be adversely affected by the barrier. They had asserted in their case that the law’s allowance for the secretary of Homeland Security to waive any laws necessary to allow the quick construction of border fencing violates the Constitution’s separation of powers. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals had dismissed the case, citing a prior case from 2007 with “a nearly identical context.” “This Court finds that precedent persuasive, and it compels the conclusion that Plaintiffs’ complaint fails to state plausible constitutional claims as a matter of law,” the Circuit Court’s ruling said.

This is great news!!  Kudos to the Supremes for this excellent decision.    🙂

Apple soars to record, lifting Dow, S&P, Nasdaq to 4th straight monthly gains

Tech stocks led the charge on Friday, pushing all three of the major averages higher after stellar earnings from Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Google. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, snapped a two-week losing streak, rising 1.5 percent, while the S&P 500 climbed 0.77 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 115 points, or 0.44 percent. All three indexes notched their fourth straight month of gains. Looking at stocks, Apple Inc. announced a 4-for-1 stock split after reporting record revenue and earnings growth for the three months through June. The tech giant’s revenue rose 11 percent during the quarter while earnings grew by 18 percent. CEO Tim Cook also told FOX Business he is confident in a “strong bounce back” for the U.S. economy. Apple shares settled at an all-time as the company approaches a $2 trillion value. Amazon Inc. reported quarterly revenue surged 40 percent year-over-year as the COVID-19 pandemic boosted its online shopping and cloud services businesses. The e-commerce behemoth’s profit doubled to a record $5.2 billion. Google-parent Alphabet Inc. beat Wall Street expectations on both the top and bottom lines, but advertising revenue fell 8 percent from a year ago, driven by weakness in its search business. Facebook Inc. revenue grew 11 percent from a year ago as user-engagement increased while Americans hunkered down at home to ride out the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the better-than-expected results, some analysts made note of the slowdown in revenue growth, which had averaged gains of almost 25 percent over the previous four quarters. Elsewhere on the earnings front, Dow component Caterpillar Inc. reported its quarterly profit plunged 70 percent from a year ago, but managed to exceed Wall Street estimates. Oil giant Chevron Corp. booked a $2.6 billion writedown of its Venezuela operations and another $1.8 billion charge due to its forecast for lower commodities prices. Overall, the company lost $8.3 billion during the quarter as the COVID-19 pandemic zapped oil demand. Rival Exxon Mobil Corp., meanwhile, lost money for the second quarter in a row, recording a $1.1 billion loss. Ford Motor Co. saw its quarterly profit increase 11-fold versus last year to $1.1 billion, but warned it expects a loss for 2020. The automaker paid down $7.7 billion of $15.4 billion borrowed through revolving credit facilities and said it has plenty of cash on hand should COVID-19 cause more production to go offline. Athletic apparel maker Under Armour Inc. sales fell 41 percent as stay-at-home orders shuttered retailers across the country, but results topped expectations as online sales experienced “significant” growth. Looking at commodities, gold gained more than $169 for the month, wrapping its biggest monthly gain since January 2012. The precious metal ended July at $1,962.80 an ounce after earlier on Friday crossing $2,000 for the first time. Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose $1 for the month to close at $40.27 per barrel. U.S. Treasurys were little changed with the yield on the 10-year note holding near 0.536 percent. In Europe, Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC fell 0.54 percent and 1.43 percent, respectively, after data showed European Union gross domestic product slumped by a record 11.9 percent from the prior quarter. Meanwhile, Britain’s FTSE was weaker by 1.54 percent. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei fell 2.82 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.47 percent and China’s Shanghai Composite added 0.71 percent.

Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein Praises China, Claims It Is ‘Growing into a Respectable Nation’

Allowing citizens to sue China for damages caused by the novel coronavirus would backfire and open up the United States to the same level of scrutiny from other countries around the world, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said Thursday. Feinstein, whose remarks came during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, said, “We launch a series of unknown events that could be very, very dangerous. I think this is a huge mistake.” “Where I live… we hold China as a potential trading partner,” she said earlier. “As a country that has pulled tens of millions of people out of poverty in a short period of time. And as a country growing into a respectable nation among other nations. And I deeply believe that. I’ve been to China a number of times. I’ve studied the issues.” Feinstein claimed other countries, including China, may decide to use the new legal precedent against the U.S., setting off a chain reaction, resulting in global chaos. Her comments come three months after Missouri’s Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Republican, provided a statement to Fox News about a lawsuit he filed against China on behalf of the state, saying that the impact of COVID-19 has led to thousands of Missourians being infected, killed and economically devastated. “In Missouri, the impact of the virus is very real — thousands have been infected and many have died, families have been separated from dying loved ones, small businesses are shuttering their doors, and those living paycheck to paycheck are struggling to put food on their table,” he wrote. After the lawsuit was filed, an article posted on the Global Times, which is a branch of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP’s) People’s Daily, said the nation is “extremely dissatisfied with the abuse of litigation” by U.S. leadership,” and is considering punitive countermeasures against U.S. individuals, entities and state officials, including Schmitt. As the partisan divide with respect to China continues to deepen, Democrats have refrained from condemning the CCP’s actions while Senate Republicans — along with members of the Trump administration — have chosen to take the Chinese government head-on. In addition to Schmitt’s efforts, GOP Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Rich Scott, R-Fla., have been publically critical of the CCP, with Scott going so far as to introduce a Senate bill to shield vaccine research from Chinese spies and infiltrators. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has also taken a hardline stance against China, warning state governors of China’s sophisticated practices with regard to U.S. infiltration and later claiming the CCP poses a real “risk” to the safety and security of America. In 2018, President Trump slammed Feinstein for having a Chinese spy on her staff serving as her driver. Feinstein was said to have been “mortified” when she learned the news, according to Politico. The FBI wasn’t able to charge the individual, but Feinstein “forced him to retire,” a source told the San Francisco Chronicle. Feinstein’s comments come as the results of a new Pew Research Center survey were released, showing that over three-quarters of American adults blame the Chinese government for the global spread of the coronavirus and over 60 percent of respondents said the country has done a poor job handling the aftermath of the outbreak. The survey, which polled 1,003 individuals and was conducted from June 16 to July 14, showed 73 percent of U.S. adults have an unfavorable view of China, which marks the most negative rating in the 15 years that Pew Research Center has been conducting polling on the subject.

Again, we see another high-profile Democrat lauding and kissing up to China, even while we’re all suffering in one way or another from the Wuhan virus.  In the case of Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA)…she’s in her late 80s (currently 87), and is an old-school, liberal globalist.  So, this totally makes sense for someone like her.  She was also the former mayor of San Francisco, which is over 35% Asian.  So, probably on some level, it’s ethnic pandering.  But, her timing couldn’t be worse.  She’s utterly clueless about the current paradigm, and how a solid majority of Americans feel about the Wuhan virus , and whom they rightfully blame; China.  So, her comments here are at best ill considered, ill timed, and shows just how tone-deaf and out of touch with Americans she is.  She is clearly more worried about China and appeasing them, then Americans.  As a U.S. Senator, she should be far more worried about putting Americans FIRST.

Why are coins hard to find during the pandemic?

Why are coins hard to find during the pandemic? The Federal Reserve has seen a significant decline of coins in circulation because people are not spending them as regularly at businesses, many of which are either temporarily closed or not accepting cash. Coins are still plentiful. In April, the U.S. Treasury estimated more than $47.8 billion were in the market, up by more than a billion dollars compared to last year. But in recent months, people have not been spending those coins at places like laundromats, banks, restaurants, or shops because the businesses are closed, or people are not visiting them as often as they were before the pandemic. “The typical places where coin enters our society have slowed or even stopped the normal circulation of coin,” said the Federal Reserve, which manages coin inventory, in a June statement. Sales at restaurants, bars and gas stations dropped more than 40% in April compared with a year ago. Sales have since picked up, but some businesses — like bars — remain shuttered in certain states, while others can only operate at a limited capacity. The Federal Reserve has encouraged banks to order only the coins they need and to make depositing coins easy for customers. One Wisconsin bank system offered its customers a $5 bonus for every $100 in coins they brought into exchange at a branch. The program was so successful, the bank suspended it after only a week.

FNC’s Carlson Rips Obama for ‘Desecrating’ John Lewis Funeral with Campaign Slogans — ‘Political Power Is Their Religion’

Thursday, Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson took a shot at former President Barack Obama for the political tones of his eulogy delivered at Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) funeral earlier in the day. Obama said of ways to continue Lewis’ legacy, “By ending some of the partisan gerrymandering — so that all voters have the power to choose their politicians, not the other way around. 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.” After airing a video clip of the speech, Carlson criticized Obama, adding the speech was proof of a cynical effort by the left and Democrats to gain power. “It’s hard to believe that clip is real, but it is, down to the clawing fake accent, Mr. Hawaii guy,” Carlson said. “But take three steps back — imagine if some greasy politician showed up at your loved one’s funeral and started throwing around stupid partisan talking points about Senate procedure. Can you imagine that? You would be shocked if that happened. You’d probably walk out. Desecrating a funeral with campaign slogans — what kind of person would do that? But Democrats in the audience didn’t seem offended. They didn’t blink. They cheered. It all seemed normal to them. And why wouldn’t it? Political power is their religion. It’s not out of place in a church. It’s what they worship. People who will politicize a funeral will do anything, and they’re trying to.”

Tucker nailed it Thursday night.  He’s exactly right.  What Obama did wasn’t just inappropriate and in poor taste.  It was appalling.  His so-called eulogy had NOTHING to do with the late Rep. John Lewis (D-GA).  It was just a campaign speech, and he threw in a fake southern black accent in order to pander to the members of the black church in Atlanta he was at, for good measure.  What a nauseating tool..  And he had the nerve to say that what the President and GOP members of Congress was “playing politics.”  Are you kidding me?!?  What the heck do you think you were doing at a funeral in church, Mr. former President?!?  What a spectacular hypocrite.  Tucker is exactly right.  If I had been a funeral and someone ostensibly giving the eulogy was ranting about something so brazenly overt as some Senate procedure that has been around for over a half a century and used by politicians on BOTH sides of the aisle (including Obama when HE was in the Senate),  I’d have walked out in disgust.  What a hypocritical, self-righteous, self-serving, nauseating tool..   To see the video of this, and more, click on the text above.  Thanks Tucker for saying what needed to be said.

Americans blame China for its role in the spread of coronavirus, survey finds

A new Pew Research Center survey found over three-quarters of American adults blame the Chinese government for the global spread of the coronavirus and over 60 percent of respondents said the country has done a poor job handling the aftermath of the outbreak. The survey, which polled 1,003 individuals and was conducted from June 16 to July 14, showed 73 percent of U.S. adults have an unfavorable view of China, which marks the most negative rating in the 15 years that Pew Research Center has been conducting polling on the subject, according to a press release. Negative sentiment has also increased by 7 percentage points over the last four months alone and has gone up 26 points since 2018. The survey claimed 83 percent of Republicans have an unfavorable view of China compared to 68 percent of Democrats. Republicans are also more likely to publicly say they have a very unfavorable view towards China at 54 percent, versus only 35 percent Democrats. Around 64 percent of those surveyed said China has done a poor job dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak and 78 percent place “a great deal or fair amount of blame for the global spread of the coronavirus on the Chinese government’s initial handling of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan.” By a more than two-to-one margin, 68 percent of Americans said the nation’s economic ties to China are bad, while a quarter said they are “very bad.” Half of Americans think the U.S. should hold China responsible for the role it played in the outbreak of the coronavirus, even if it means worsening economic and trade relations. When asked if the U.S. should sacrifice economic relations with China or promote human rights, 73 percent choose human rights. About 77 percent of respondents had “little or no confidence” in President Xi Jinping. News of the survey comes just one day after China garnered negative headlines following a House subcommittee hearing with America’s big tech CEOs. Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., criticized Google on Wednesday for its connections to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and said, “If Google wants to cozy up to Communist China, Sundar Pichai must answer for the atrocities committed by the Chinese Communist Party.” This news also comes one day after Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) called on NBA commissioner Adam Silver to testify before Congress about the league’s controversial relationship with the CCP. He said China’s presence within the sport is deepening as they continue to use the NBA as a platform to push their political agenda. “The league’s new policy suggests a newfound commitment to enhanced employee expression. But that free expression appears to stop at the edge of your corporate sponsors’ sensibilities,” Hawley wrote in a letter to the league. “And for woke capital today, profits from the Chinese market are more popular than patriotism… If I am right – if the NBA is more committed to promoting the CCP’s interests than to celebrating its home nation – your fans deserve to know that is your view. If not, prove me wrong.”

Agreed!!  Well said, Senator Hawley!  The way the NBA kisses up to China is nauseating.  And, how about this poll?!  Over 73% of Americans rightfully blame China for COVID…and that’s in spite of CNN, MSNBC and other liberal news outlets trying desperately to pin it all on Trump.

Portland police uncover sledgehammer, pipe, other weapons while clearing park outside courthouse

Several items that included a sledgehammer, pipe and a chain with a lock were found Thursday during the cleanup of downtown Portland, Ore., parks near where protests have raged for weeks, police officials said Thursday. The maintenance of Chapman and Lownsdale squares — which sit adjacent to one another — was conducted following a night of confrontation between authorities and protesters at the nearby Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse, the Portland Police Bureau said. Officers gave people inside 10 minutes to clear the area and no arrests were initially made at the time. Aside from the weapons, other items recovered at the parks included body armor, helmets, a shield and leaf blowers. “There were shocking amounts of refuse in the parks as well,” a police news release said. Police officers providing security for the cleanup arrested two people. Kristina Naranja Rivera, 34, faces disorderly conduct and criminal mischief charges and 25-year-old Camillo Massagli faces charges of criminal mischief, trespassing and interfering with a peace officer. On Wednesday night, several hundred people gathered outside the courthouse. A group that remained until later in the night wore gas masks and were seen carrying signs, hockey sticks, lacrosse sticks, umbrellas, leaf blowers and fireworks, police said. At one point, the building was targeted with bottles, gas canisters and other objects. In addition to the protest Wednesday night, the city experienced multiple shootings and reports of people being assaulted nearby by a group with a pellet gun. Two minors were taken into custody on suspicion for the assaults.

Wait.  I’m SO confused!  The mayor of Portland and the governor of Oregon (both liberal Democrats, of course) are telling us that it’s just “peaceful protests” going on there.  How can this be?  John Adams famously said, “facts are stubborn things.”  Indeed.  To see photos and more (proof) of this insanity going on in Portland, click on the text above.  Then, remember what the liberal idiots at CNN (like Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon) and MSNBC, etc. calling what’s going on there, simply “peaceful protests,”…or they’re latest talking point; “mostly peaceful protests.”  It’s no wonder more and more people are turning away from CNN and MSNBC.  You can’t see what’s going on there, and then hear idiots like Chris Cuomo, Don Lemon, and Joy Reid saying it’s all simply “peaceful protests” and somehow spin it to attack Trump for sending in federal marshals to protect the U.S. federal courthouse there….which was, of course, the right decision.  The alternative was to allow the thugs in Portland to just burn it down.  Total insanity.

NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover launches to the Red Planet

NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover has launched on its epic mission to the Red Planet. The rover launched into space atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at 7:50 a.m. EDT from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Rover lifted off right at the start of the mission’s launch window, which had been planned for when Earth and Mars are in perfect alignment. Lifted by 2 million pounds of thrust, it took the rocket about 5 seconds to clear the launch tower at Cape Canaveral. “We’re in touch with the spacecraft, everything is nominal,” Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, told NASA TV shortly after launch. The successful launch, he said, was “like punching a hole in the sky.” The journey to Mars will take seven months. The rover is scheduled to land on Mars’ Jezero Crater on Feb 18, 2021. The mission’s duration on the Red Planet’s surface is at least one Martian year or about 687 days. A Mars helicopter is also being transported with the rover. Dubbed Ingenuity, the helicopter will be the first aircraft to attempt powered flight on another planet. During its time on Mars, the Perseverance Rover will search for evidence of ancient life on the Red Planet. Mars is looming large for a number of other countries. China, for example, recently launched its own Tianwen-1 mission to land a rover on Mars. The United Arab Emirates also recently launched its Amal orbiter to the Red Planet. Amal, which is Arabic for Hope, will not land on Mars, but is the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission. So far, the U.S. has been the only country to successfully put a spacecraft on Mars, doing it eight times. Two NASA landers are operating there, InSight and Curiosity. Six other spacecraft are exploring the planet from orbit: three U.S., two European and one from India. NASA’s longer-term goal is to send a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s. However, former astronaut Buzz Aldrin said he thought a slightly later target date of 2040 was more realistic. In an interview in 2016, the Gemini 12 and Apollo 11 astronaut told Fox News that by 2040, astronauts could visit Mars’ moon Phobos, which could serve as a sort of stepping stone to the Red Planet. Set against this backdrop, the Perseverance Rover will conduct historic science experiments when it reaches Mars. Chris Carberry, the CEO of Explore Mars, a nonprofit organization aiming to advance the goal of sending people to Mars within the next two decades, said that Perseverance is a mission of numerous firsts. “It will collect samples from the Martian surface that will be collected later this decade which will be the first time Martian samples have ever been returned to Earth,” he explained. “Perseverance carries an experiment called MOXIE (Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment) that will attempt for the first time to manufacture oxygen from the carbon dioxide Martian atmosphere – proving whether future explorers will be able to ‘live off the land’ on Mars.”

Awesome!!!   For on Perseverance’s mission to Mars, and to see videos, click on the text above.  Major kudos to the folks at NASA, ULA, and the JPL for making this happen!  Best of luck to all involved!!      🙂

Gutfeld on teachers’ unions going after charter schools

As America struggles with COVID-19, rising crime and riots, it’s nice that the teachers’ unions are helping out. I kid. In their demands for reopening schools, the United Teachers of Los Angeles — a union for public school teachers — has included, surprise: defunding police. And … a shutdown of publicly funded, privately operated charter schools. Now, these go beyond what normal unions demand. Worse, the teachers use this crisis to preserve power by destroying those who won’t conform. By trying to shut down charter schools, the teachers union is demanding the elimination of any competition, and depriving desperate poor families of an education that might change their children’s lives. This speaks to the real truth of a big American problem. It’s not systemic racism. It’s our systemically corrupt education system. It’s the teachers’ unions, led by leftists, whose only goal is to cancel competition that might reveal their incompetence. And so, at the start of life, poor students are placed in a system where no matter how many billions of tax dollars are shoveled into it, it just gets worse. The students don’t stand a chance, and the unions prefer it that way. Yet charter schools produce better-educated kids, with a far better head start in life. You’d think that would be embraced. But the price of union success is student failure. Once we see the results of charter schools, we realize the cause of all our inequalities isn’t racism, it’s the scandalous lack of choices left for poor Blacks, poor Whites, poor everyone victimized by urban liberals.] So these kids begin their lives in a hole — a hole that isn’t a grave, but might as well be one. At least for their futures.

No kidding!!  As usual, Greg nails it.  This was adapted from Greg Gutfeld’s monologue, known as a “Gregologue” on “The Five” on July 29, 2020.  To see the actual video and the following discussion with his co-hosts on The Five, click on the text above.  Thanks Greg!   🙂