Governor Doug Ducey wasted no time to respond to President Joe Biden’s latest COVID-19 update given Thursday evening, calling the vaccine mandate for private employers “big government overreach,” “dictatorial,” and “un-American.” The governor indicated that court challenges would be sure to follow in the coming days. Ducey promised to push back against Biden’s orders.
Ducey tweeted the following while Biden was still announcing his executive order:
“This is exactly the kind of big government overreach we have tried so hard to prevent in Arizona — now the Biden-Harris administration is hammering down on private businesses and individual freedoms in an unprecedented and dangerous way,” wrote Ducey. “This will never stand up in court. This dictatorial approach is wrong, un-American and will do far more harm than good. How many workers will be displaced? How many kids kept out of classrooms? How many businesses fined? The vaccine is and should be a choice. We must and will push back.”
Biden announced that any employers with over 100 employees must require COVID-19 vaccinations or implement weekly testing. The White House estimated that this will impact over 80 million workers.
Furthermore, those employers must give paid time off (PTO) to those employees who choose to get vaccinated. That PTO rule will come from the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) use of the Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS).
Federal employees will no longer have the opt-out for Biden’s vaccine mandate. Those employed by or contracting with the federal government must now get vaccinated. Additionally, any health care workers whose employers participate in Medicare and Medicaid must be vaccinated. A reported 50,000 providers will be affected – over 17 million health care workers.
Biden also announced that the TSA would increase the fine amount for those who don’t mask up while traveling.
The full list of all the new COVID-19 policies are available here.
As Press Secretary Jen Psaki explained, these new measures are part of the Biden Administration’s “Six Prong Plan” to overcome COVID-19. Psaki promised that these initial updated mandates were only the first to come in a series of new orders over the next few weeks.
The six prong plan is as follows: 1) get more people vaccinated; 2) prepare for booster [shots]; 3) keeping kids safe and in school; 4) increasing testing and masking; 5) protecting our economy; and 6) strengthening our surge response.
Preceding his announcement of updated COVID policies, Biden made a number of claims. He also took aim at elected leadership that opposed mandatory vaccinations or masking.
Biden claimed the COVID-19 vaccine was “safe [and] effective.” He didn’t elaborate on what his standards are for “effective”; the CDC has clarified that the vaccine isn’t 100 percent effective.
“This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” stated Biden. “And it’s caused by the fact that despite America having unprecedented and successful vaccination. Despite the fact that, for almost five months, three vaccines have been available in almost 80,000 different locations, we still have nearly 80 million Americans that have failed to get the shot.”
The president asserted that certain, unnamed elected officials were “actively working to undermine the fight against COVID-19.”
“Instead of encouraging people to get vaccinated and mask up, they’re ordering mobile morgues for the unvaccinated that have died from COVID in their communities,” said Biden. “This is totally unacceptable.”
Biden also claimed that having a 75 percent vaccination rate in the country wasn’t enough. According to the Mayo Clinic, it would take about 70 percent of the population who have recovered from COVID-19 to “halt the pandemic.” They didn’t offer a clear estimate of how many individuals would need to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity.
However, the CDC stated in a study published last month that vaccination offers a higher protection than prior COVID-19 infection.
Last week’s announcement by Gov. Doug Ducey that all state buildings are to lower their flags to half-staff through Aug. 30 in honor of U.S. service members recently killed in Afghanistan has drawn renewed attention to President Joe Biden’s connection to Afghanistan and the Arizona National Guard.
In February 2008, then-Senator Joe Biden, along with Senator John Kerry and Chuck Hagel, were touring Afghanistan when their helicopters made an emergency landing in a mountainous area during a blizzard.
A rescue team with soldiers from the Arizona National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 158th Infantry Regiment “Bushmasters” was sent out to make the treacherous trek from Bagram Airfield to the landing site, according to a news article later posted on the National Guard’s website.
The article noted that the rescue mission was conducted by Combined Joint Task Force-82 which consisted of a 1/158th platoon and other servicemembers. The soldiers were not initially aware of the identity of the VIPs on the helicopters, Maj. John Bozicevic wrote.
Despite the intense weather, limited visibility, and hazardous route, the rescue team found the helicopters and convoyed the senators back to base. Other soldiers remained with the helicopters and crews for more than 15 hours in stormy weather.
Public records show the Arizona National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 158th Infantry arrived in Afghanistan in April 2007 and returned to Arizona the month after the 2008 rescue of the senators. The unit suffered two casualty while deployed.
Ten years later, the 1/158th was deployed back to Afghanistan as part of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. The Bushmasters returned home in May 2019. Several other Arizona National Guard units have been deployed to Afghanistan over the last 20 years.
Kerry later became U.S. Secretary of State under President Barack Obama from 2013 to 2017, while Hagel served as U.S. Secretary of Defense from 2013 to 2015. Biden became Obama’s vice president and was sworn in as President in January, after which he has become a frequent target of Ducey’s.
The governor’s order to lower flags to half-staff called out the Biden White House for how the drawdown of U.S. troops in Afghanistan has been handled.
“As we mourn the dead, we must also recognize the context for this terrible attack,” Ducey noted. “American troops have fought, bled and died in Afghanistan for two decades to keep this country from once again becoming a safe haven for terrorists. We are now seeing in real time how the recent action to withdraw from Afghanistan has made America and the world less safe.”
Ducey also expressed his displeasure with the Biden Administration earlier this month when he announced the extension of the Arizona National Guard’s southern border security support mission through September 2022 with $25 million in state funding. He noted that law enforcement officials are overwhelmed, and the situation is out of control.
“It’s clear that this White House has neither the ability nor the desire to address the border disaster — a crisis of their own making,” Ducey said. “This situation is the direct result of reckless policies and failed communication by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.”
More than 150 Arizona National Guardsmen are serving along with local and state law enforcement agencies in border communities. Guardsmen are assisting those agencies with medical services in detention facilities, data analysis, camera maintenance and surveillance, and logistical and administrative support, according to Ducey.
“The brave men and women of the Arizona National Guard are standing in the gaps,” Ducey said. “Their mission directly contributes to the success of law enforcement officers working to maintain law and order on Arizona’s southern border. I’m grateful to all those who serve our state and are working day and night to keep Arizonans safe.”
In April, Ducey declared a state of emergency regarding Arizona’s shared southern border with Mexico and deployed the Arizona National Guard with $2.5 million in funding for the mission. Then in June, the governor signed state budget legislation which included $25 million in additional funding for the Arizona National Guard’s border mission.
The budget also provided $30 million to law enforcement agencies to assist with their border security operations along with funds for the state’s Border Strike Force.
Data released by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security shows there were more than 212,000 official encounters with illegal immigrants along the country’s southern border in July. That was up from 188,829 in June and represents a 21-year record high.
DHS records also show that illegal immigrant encounters have gone up every month since President Biden took office in January.
“I believe in science, Donald Trump doesn’t. It’s that simple, folks,” Joe Biden tweeted during the 2020 election campaign.
Even by Biden standards, that was a deceitful remark. Not only did his opponent spearhead the unexpectedly efficient development of the Covid vaccine, which has been the cornerstone of pandemic suppression ever since, but the Biden administration has already done the most damage of any in memory by politicizing “the Science“, thus weakening its credibility.
Real science isn’t some facts approved by experts but a philosophical framework for acquiring and evaluating knowledge that originated in the Enlightenment. Science emphasizes reason, observation and methodical analysis rather than loyalty to teachings of authorities.
But “the science“ is also an institution, the mainstream scientific establishment. It has value as a keeper of standards and liaison to the masses.
Like all humans, scientists can become absorbed in self-interest and groupthink. Real science has recently been threatened by a return to dogma science, the veneration of experts and the belief that if a consensus of scientists believe something, that makes it true.
Science history shows the tragic consequences when dissent is disallowed. Galileo in the 16th century was censured and tormented for defying the teaching of Ptolemy that the sun was the center of the universe. Millions of humans suffered needlessly for millennia because medical practice was based on the ancient teachings of Galen, while new observations and innovation were prohibited.
In spite of all the technical achievements and enhanced prestige of science, the struggle between open inquiry versus dogma-as-science is still with us. For those with trouble distinguishing the two, here’s a tip. Real science welcomes dissent, considering it essential to the advancement of knowledge. Dogma science resents noncompliance and tries to eliminate it.
Yet scientific conformity, the enemy of progress, is once again achieving widespread approval. We’re told that 97% of all climate scientists believe in global warming, which is code for: human activity is hurtling us toward a climate catastrophe which can only be avoided by radical changes in human behavior and consumption.
Although the scientific community has closed ranks around this view, many points remain debatable. Some unafraid scientists question the reliability of the models and/or the accuracy of underlying data. Others also question the feasibility of decarbonization when the world’s major polluters show zero interest in compliance and citizens’ movements worldwide already resist even modest sacrifices to avoid the threatened calamity.
But the alarmists arguing the necessity of a dystopian world of deprivation and oppression aren’t brooking any second thoughts. Those who have them are branded “deniers“, morally equivalent to Holocaust deniers. They are silenced and fired and scorned.
Non-standard opinions are branded as “misinformation“ and banished. When over 95% of federal climate research funding goes to committed climate alarmists, working scientists get the message.
Much of the dysfunction is recent. British science writer Matt Ridley remembers how “20 or 30 years ago, you could study how the ice ages happened and discuss competing theories“ without fear of reprisal. No longer.
The science of coronavirus disease too has become so politically charged that rational discussion is no longer possible. Remember that not long ago, Biden and Harris, our two top “science followers“, vowed to refuse the Covid vaccination if Trump was involved.
Those who disagree with the government/consensus line on early-stage medical management, the value of lockdowns, the necessity of school closures or the need for masks are abruptly canceled. The scientific community was so anxious to make us believe that there was no possibility the virus could have originated in a Chinese lab that the notion was designated as “misinformation” until dogged investigation revealed otherwise. Oops.
Today, social media, in collaboration with the government, perform the work that was once the mission of the Inquisition: identifying heretics and punishing them. The common man is in a quandary. With so many people in white coats lending their credibility to the political domain, how can you know the truth?
There are real world consequences to this intellectual chicanery. The distrust engendered has contributed to public skepticism over needed technologies like genetically modified food, nuclear power and – yes – vaccines.
Galileo could have warned us.
Dr. Thomas Patterson, former Chairman of the Goldwater Institute, is a retired emergency physician. He served as an Arizona State senator for 10 years in the 1990s, and as Majority Leader from 93-96. He is the author of Arizona’s original charter schools bill.
“We’re flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation.”
Those were the words of White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki last week, and they should send chills up and down your spine. It’s bad enough that we already have Big Tech playing speech police on a daily basis. Now, the federal government is flagging “problematic posts” FOR Facebook?!?
This is outrageous, and it’s incredibly dangerous.
The federal government is supposed to uphold the U.S. Constitution, not actively aid social media companies in censoring Americans.
But it appears this is only the beginning of their plan…
Officials with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released June 2021 operational statistics for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) last week, and it shows undocumented migrants are still seeking entry -legally and illegally- along the Southwest Border at an overwhelming rate.
According to CBP, there were 188,829 encounters in June 2021 with persons attempting entry along the Southwest Border. June’s total was a 5 percent increase over May 2021, which in turn had one of the highest encounter totals in nearly two years.
But CBP says more than one-third of the persons who attempted entry in June had at least one prior encounter in the previous 12 months. That means the number of people who had first-time encounters with CBP in June was 123,838.
CBP suspects the large number of expulsions during the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the unusually high number of migrants making multiple border crossing attempts.
The majority of all June encounters resulted in a Title 42 expulsion, according to a July 16 statement by CBP. Migrant single adults continue to make up the majority of encounters along the Southwest Border, with nearly 105,000 individuals being expelled.
Encounters with family units (at least one adult with at least one child) increased by 25 percent in June 2021, up to 55,805 from 44,746 in May. However, CBP says this was well below the all-time peak of 88,587 family units in May 2019.
Unfortunately, CBP says the number of encounters along the Southwest Border with unaccompanied children increased to 15,253 in June 2021 from 14,137 in May 2021. The good news is that the average time in CBP custody for unaccompanied children fell from 133 hours on March 29 to 28 hours on June 30.
“This sustained progress is a result of the steps DHS took to reengineer processes and mobilize personnel Department-wide, including designating FEMA to lead a whole of government effort to assist the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS),” according to the July 16 statement. “This support has included establishing temporary facilities that provide safe, sanitary, and secure environments for unaccompanied children as well as continued support from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers to efficiently and effectively verify claimed sponsors to support the reunification process.”
The number of distress calls and medical emergencies that CBP responded to also increased in June as smugglers were more likely to abandon migrants who fell behind due to the summer heat.
“Although CBP does everything it can to locate and rescue individuals who are lost or distressed, the bottom line is this: the terrain along the border is extreme, the summer heat is severe, and the miles of desert migrants must hike after crossing the border in many areas are unforgiving,” according to CBP Acting Commissioner Troy Miller.
For the fiscal year ending June 30, CBP conducted 9,500 rescues nationwide, the vast majority along the Southwest Border. The agency continues to expand its technological capabilities, and has deployed 120 rescue beacons which are equipped with lights and signage visible from a distance.
Rescues are also facilitated through 2,165 placards CBP has deployed in remote areas throughout the Southwest Border. The placards inform migrants to call 911 and are uniquely numbered to provide rescuers with location coordinates.
CBP is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control, and protection of our nation’s borders at and between official ports of entry. The agency is also charged with securing the borders of the United States while enforcing hundreds of laws and facilitating lawful trade and travel.
In April, President Joe Biden announced his intention to nominate Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus to head CBP and its 60,000 employees. As of press time the U.S. Senate has not been asked by the White House to move forward with a confirmation hearing.
