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Every American needs to see Angela Marsdens tearful video as she pours out her frustrations as a small restaurant owner in Los Angeles. Forced to drastically curtail her business during Californias brutal shutdowns, she took out an $80,000 loan to meet all the expensive requirements to move her dining outside and salvage what was left of her lifes work. nstead, authorities arbitrarily changed the rules, and shut her down again a death sentence for her ten-year-old restaurant. Yet the same authorities permitted a film production company to offer the very same outdoor dining across the very same parking lot the day she had to close her business.

Im losing everything, she says through her tears. Everything I own is being taken away from me.

In Staten Island, police hauled a restaurant owner away in handcuffs for desperately trying to re-open his establishment just across the tracks from other restaurants where dining was allowed under precisely the same conditions.

When asked to explain these capricious standards, California Gov. Gavin Newsom smarmed, Im deeply empathetic. That must be a load off their minds.

The Fifth Amendment in our Bill of Rights specifically protects Americans from being deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. Where are those rights today?

Congress is now discussing how to provide relief for the thousands of small-business owners, their employees, and the families that depend on them, who have been crushed by these reckless edicts. As usual, politicians measure their empathy by how much theyre willing to spend of other peoples money. But the fine point of the matter is this: Government cannot support the economy for any significant time because government does not finance the economy. The economy finances the government and when you shut down the economy, you shut down the revenues that go to government.

The only genuine relief from the COVID-19 lockdowns is to end the COVID-19 lockdowns. Why is that so hard for some people to understand?

By now, it should be obvious that the lockdowns have failed to contain this virus. After nine months of this unprecedented experiment in social engineering, the virus continues to spread. Common sense should tell us that the more infectious a virus and the deeper it has already penetrated into a population, the less effective mass isolation will be.

The plight of Angela Marsden and countless victims of these policies tell us clearly what we are very effectively accomplishing: we are destroying our society. We have set in motion countless, avoidable deaths by suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence, deferred health treatments and health screenings and poverty that will stalk us for many years to come. We have cost our youth a year of their educations. Nearly half of American retailers say they are now in imminent danger of permanently closing. Forbes magazine reports: The number one worry on most small-business owners minds now is the threat of more government mandated business closures. Eleven million Americans who had jobs in February dont have them today.

Modern science and its many breakthroughs in immunology, epidemiology and virology has given us advanced treatments and vaccines unparalleled in human history. But science is grotesquely incompetent to reorder human societies or to change the laws of human nature. Nor does it give officials the omniscience to know what is best for every person in every circumstance. Nor does it give them the right to wantonly destroy peoples lives and livelihoods. After all, medicines most ancient command is First, do no harm.

We have arbitrarily and indiscriminately destroyed the lifes work and lifes dreams of millions of Americans like Angela Marsden. We have made the most sacred right of Americans to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, into a hollow and bitter mockery.

The American people dont need the governors empathy, and they dont need politicians handouts. They need a government that protects their right to make a living and to lead their own lives according to their own best judgment. They need their Bill of Rights back. And above all, they need their freedom back.

U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Rocklin, represents Californias 4th Congressional District, including Auburn, parts of Nevada County, and north Lake Tahoe.

Read the original:
Tom McClintock: The only relief from lockdowns is to end them - The Union of Grass Valley

December 9, 2020 - On Wednesday, Congressman Tom McClintock (CA-04) delivered the following remarks on the House floor.

Mr. Speaker:

Every American needs to seeAngela Marsdenstearful video as she pours out her frustrations as a small restaurant owner in Los Angeles. Forced to drastically curtail her business during Californias brutal shutdowns, she took out an $80,000 loan to meet all the expensive requirements to move her dining outside and salvage what was left of her lifes work. Instead, authorities arbitrarily changed the rules, and shut her down again a death sentence for her ten-year-old restaurant. Yet the same authorities permitted a film production company to offer the very same outdoor dining across the very same parking lot the day she had to close her business.

Im losing everything, she says through her tears, Everything I own is being taken away from me.

InStaten Island, police hauled a restaurant owner away in handcuffs for desperately trying to re-open his establishment just across the tracks fromother restaurantswhere dining was allowed under precisely the same conditions.

When asked to explain these capricious standards, CaliforniaGov. Gavin Newsomsmarmed,"I'm deeply empathetic."That must be a load off their minds

The Fifth Amendment in our Bill of Rights specifically protects Americans from being deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. Where are those rights today?

Congress is now discussing how to provide relief for the thousands of small business owners, their employees, and the families that depend on them, who have been crushed by these reckless edicts. As usual, politicians measure their empathy by how much theyre willing to spend of other peoples money. But the fine point of the matter is this: government cannot support the economy for any significant period of time because government does not finance the economy. The economy finances the government and when you shut down the economy, you shut down the revenues that go to government.

The only genuine relief from the Covid lockdowns is to end the Covid lockdowns. Why is that so hard for some people to understand?

By now, it should be obvious that the lockdowns have failed to contain this virus. After nine months of this unprecedented experiment in social engineering, the virus continues to spread. Common sense should tell us that the more infectious a virus and the deeper it has already penetrated into a population, the less effective mass isolation will be

The plight of Angela Marsden and countless victims of these policies tell us clearly what we are very effectively accomplishing: we are destroying our society. We have set in motion countless, avoidable deaths by suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence, deferred health treatments and health screenings and poverty that will stalk us for many years to come. We have cost our youth a year of their education.

Nearly half of American retailers say they are now in imminent danger of permanently closing.Forbes magazinereports (quote) the number one worry on most small business owners minds now is the threat of more government mandated business closures.Eleven millionAmericans who had jobs in February dont have them today.

Modern science and its many breakthroughs in immunology, epidemiology and virology has given us advanced treatments and vaccines unparalleled in human history. But science is grotesquely incompetent to reorder human societies or to change the laws of human nature. Nor does it give officials the omniscience to know what is best for every person in every circumstance. Nor does it give them the right to wantonly destroy peoples lives and livelihoods. After all, medicines most ancient command is First, do no harm.

We have arbitrarily and indiscriminately destroyed the lifes work and lifes dreams of millions of Americans like Angela Marsden. We have made the most sacred right of Americans to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, into a hollow and bitter mockery.

The American people dont need the governors empathy and they dont need politicians handouts. They need a government that protects their right to make a living and to lead their own lives according to their own best judgment. They need their Bill of Rights back. And above all, they need their freedom back.Source: Congressman Tom McClintock

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Congressman Tom McClintock Addresses the House Floor: The Only Relief from Lockdowns is to End Them (With Video) - Sierra Sun Times

WEST CHESTER The Delaware County automobile dealership that had sought payment for an SUV used by the Chester County Sheriffs Office K-9 unit it maintained had been improperly transferred to the department has lost its bid to recover the money it says it was owed.

Chester County Common Pleas Judge Edward Griffith has ruled against Videon Chrysler Dodge Jeep in the lawsuit it filed to recover the $30,000 price of the 2014 Dodge Durango and almost $23,000 on repairs and upfits to the vehicle, although he did so on narrow technical grounds and not specifically on the claims of the suit.

Videon, and owner Steve Videon, had simply failed to charge the correct entity when it filed the lawsuit seeking repayment in 2016. It named as the defendant the Sheriffs Office, when as a matter of law it should have sued the county, Griffith ruled in dismissing the case.

The dealership has sued the wrong entity, Griffith wrote in his three-page decision, issued Thursday. The Chester County Office of the Sheriff is merely a department of Chester County and not a separate municipal entity that can be sued. The dealership was required to bring its claim against Chester County, but has failed to do so.

The dismissal came after a one-day, non-jury trial in which both sides argued mostly about whether the Durango, which is still in use by the Sheriffs Office, had meant to have been paid for by the office, or whether it was, as former Lt. Harry McKinney, the hand-picked supervisor of the K-9 Unit, maintained, a gift.

But attorney Guy Donatelli of the West Chester law firm of Lamb McErlane represented the Sheriffs Office, had argued the issue of whether the suit had been filed against the wrong party in pre-trial briefs. In a comment after the ruling, Donatelli expressed satisfaction with the decision, and said that it vindicated the office.

We are delighted that the court recognized that the Sheriffs Office and Mr. McKinney are blameless, he said Friday.

West Chester attorney Michael OHayer, who represented Videon, could not be reached for comment last week.

Interestingly, it was not OHayer who had filed the lawsuit on behalf of Videon. The suit had been filed by attorney Thomas Schindler of Kennett Square in June 2016, who was the attorney that participated in a series of negotiations between the two parties trying to recover the cost of the vehicle and its upgrades from the county over the years. But Schindler was disbarred by the state Supreme Court in July, and the case fell of OHayer.

Although Griffiths decision was based on who the suit should have been filed against, he did find that the transfer from the dealership to the Sheriffs Office was not without problems.

In his findings of fact, Griffith wrote that the title to the Durango was transferred to the county in March 2014 after discussions between McKinney who is the longtime live-in boyfriend of former Sheriff Carolyn Bunny Welsh and was her appointed representative for the K-9 unit and the dealerships general sales manager, Michael McVeigh.

Griffith found that McVeigh arranged for the transfer as a charitable donation to the office. But, the judge ruled, McVeigh lacked the authority with the dealership to make these charitable donations, unbeknownst to McKinney. That authority rested solely with Steve Videon, who was unaware of the donation to the Sheriffs Office and was misled by (McVeigh) as to the nature of the transaction."

When Videon found out what McVeigh had done, he demanded payment, which the office, under McKinney, refused, leading to the suit.

McVeigh did testify at the trial on Dec. 8 but largely declined to answer questions about the transaction, citing his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself. McKinney, who was terminated from his position with the Sheriffs Office in January when new Sheriff Fredda Maddox took over, also testified.

The longtime face of the county Sheriffs Office, Welsh was not a named defendant in the lawsuit. She and McKinney still face other legal challenges in relation to their handling of the K-9 Unit, however.

They were charged late last month with misdemeanor theft counts connected to how they used county sheriff employees as volunteer labor at fundraising events for the private Friends of the Chester County Sheriffs K-9 Unit organization, and McKinneys use of some of those funds for his own pet canine.

Bunny Welsh used her position of power for her and her partner Harry McKinneys own personal gain instead of serving her community as she was elected to do, said state Attorney General Josh Shapiro in filing the criminal complaints against the pair. Welsh and McKinney allegedly used public employees to perform work for private charity events both on and off-duty at the expense of Chester County, and McKinney then used those fundraised dollars to cover his own personal expenses. This blatant misappropriation of funds is unacceptable.

Preliminary hearings for the pair on the charges have been scheduled for Friday.

There is also a separate legal action against Welsh by the county Controllers Office still in the works, seeking repayment of more than $60,000 in overtime payments that Welsh approved for McKinney during his last years of employment by the county. Controller Margaret Reif contends that McKinney had improperly been classified as a low-level department deputy, even though he was given supervisory powers by Welsh that normally would have made him ineligible for overtime payments.

The overtime, Reif claims, was paid to pad McKinneys annual income in order to boost his county pension. She is asking Welsh to repay the money herself. Welsh has denied the accusations and said that McKinney was due overtime for the hours he spent caring for K-9 officers in his command.

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Wrong party sued in K-9 car case, judge rules - The Phoenix

Historical revisionism challenges conventional views about events and personalities. It encourages debate. It encourages thinking. And it forces those who write or teach conventional history to defend their views with facts rather than ideology.

Sadly, the American professoriate clings to conventional views most, if not all, of which are liberal or leftist. The media, meanwhile, reinforces the conventional view with largely superficial observations of historical events and figures. This leads, unfortunately, to a one-size-fits-all history where the heroes are all liberals, the villains are mostly conservative, and events are portrayed to fit within the liberal narrative.

Consider some prominent examples. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) is commonly judged to be a great president for launching the New Deal during the Great Depression and leading the United States to victory in World War II. While FDR is mostly praised for expanding the power of the federal government to help the American people cope with the economic downturn, seldom do you hear from critics who contend that Roosevelts policies actually lengthened and deepened the Great Depression.

Similarly, most portrayals of FDR as a great war leader downplay, if they mention at all, his responsibility (shared with Congress) for Americas unpreparedness for war prior to and for sometime after Pearl Harbor. Historians also seldom take him to task for his careless and costly unconcern about communist infiltration of the government (some at the highest levels) in the 1930s and early 1940s. While it is true that there is more criticism of his appeasement of Stalin toward the end of the war, this is often attributed to his failing health which he and his advisers deliberately hid from the American people.

FDR 'great?' He was deceitful and deceptive

The great Franklin Roosevelt was in truth a deceitful and deceptive man both in his personal life and, more importantly, in his public life. General Douglas MacArthur once remarked about FDR that he was a man who would never tell the truth when a lie would serve him just as well.

Compare the common historical treatment of FDR to Richard Nixon. Nixon, we are endlessly told, was a disgraced president who lied to the American people and engaged in a massive cover-up of criminal activities. Watergate, we are told, was the greatest scandal in the history of the American Presidency. In fact, Watergate was at most a rather routine example of political espionage gone awry political espionage that FDR, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson did not hesitate to engage in. Nixons resignation, as Paul Johnson pointed out, was the result of a liberal media coup aided by a disgruntled high-level FBI official, pro-Kennedy special prosecutors, opportunistic Democrats in Congress, and spineless Republican legislators. Nixon, too, was blamed for a divisive war in Southeast Asia that his liberal Democratic predecessors started but failed to win.

Truman vs. MacArthur in Korean War

Another example of conventional liberal history is Truman vs. MacArthur in the Korean War. President Harry Truman is commonly applauded by historians for his courageous decision to relieve MacArthur of command in Korea and thereby prevent World War III. MacArthur is portrayed as imperious, egotistical, insubordinate, dangerous, and just plain wrong on the merits of the dispute over how to wage war in Korea. Truman, of course, was willing to bask in the generals glory after the brilliant landing at Inchon in September 1950. Truman was more than willing to tolerate MacArthur as long as America was winning the war. Most historians blame MacArthurs actions in North Korea for forcing China to enter the war, but MacArthur did nothing before China entered the war that he was not authorized to do by the Truman administration. Trumans Asia policy as a whole was disastrous, but the liberal takeaway is that he saved us from World War III.

Perhaps nowhere is the liberal historical view more monolithic than its portrayal of Senator Joseph McCarthy and what became known as McCarthyism. The 1950s, we are told, was a decade of fear and witch hunts, all due to the conduct of McCarthy and his efforts to reveal communists within the government and other prominent institutions. McCarthy is sometimes blamed for persecuting the famed Hollywood Ten, writers and directors who invoked the Fifth Amendment when asked if they had ever been communists, and who refused to name names of their communist associates. In fact, Senator McCarthy had no involvement whatsoever in investigating the Hollywood Ten that was done by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), and all of the Hollywood Ten were communists.

McCarthy is accused of engaging in a reign of terror by leveling false accusations of communism against innocent government employees. Seldom do you hear that most of the people that McCarthy specifically identified as potential security risks were communists, fellow travelers, agents of influence, dupes, or at least sympathetic to the communist cause. The Venona Papers released in the 1990s demonstrated that McCarthy underestimated the extent of communist infiltration of our government.

Maybe we should rethink JFK, Coolidge, too

Other examples would include the mostly favorable treatment of John F. Kennedy, the mostly unfavorable treatment of Calvin Coolidge, the favorable portrayal of the Great Society programs and the counter-culture of the 1960s, the unfavorable treatment of Ronald Reagans attempts to modestly revise the Great Society programs, and the repeated efforts to attribute the end of the Cold War to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev instead of President Reagan.

The examples are endless. Fortunately, there are courageous historians and writers Amity Shlaes, Arthur Herman, Paul Johnson, David Horowitz, and the late M. Stanton Evans and Robert Nisbet come immediately to mind who are/were unafraid to let the facts speak for themselves; who have willingly challenged the historical orthodoxy; who have dared to expose long-held shibboleths; who have recognized that historical revisionism can often bring us closer to the truth. Their views may be unpopular, but they should never be censored or silenced.

Censorship is once again a topic of discussion, as some social media outlets have decided to censor views that differ from the liberal narrative and did so, moreover, in the middle of a presidential election. The Founding Fathers cherished political speech and sought to protect it. They welcomed a contest of ideas. Revisionist history at its best is a contest of ideas. It, too, is to be welcomed and cherished.

Excerpt from:
History That Needs Revising | Opinion | fairfieldsuntimes.com - Fairfield Sun Times

Jonathan Davis has been imploring the government for years to either charge him with a crime, move forward with its forfeiture case against him or return his more than $4 million in seized assets.

The Dallas-area businessman finally got his wish, but not the outcome he had hoped for. A federal grand jury in Dallas indicted him last week, more than three years after agents seized his assets, and he now faces a possible life sentence if convicted.

The 13-count indictment accuses Davis of making false or misleading statements about his Garland heating and air-conditioning trade school to the government. He is charged with multiple counts of wire fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft. The now-defunct Retail Ready Career Center received about $70 million in G.I. Bill money, making it one of the biggest recipients for a trade school.

Davis lawyer, Derek Staub, says the indictment amounts to allegations of civil regulatory violations, not crimes, and that three years of investigation yielded no evidence of wrongdoing.

This whole indictment stems from them saying that we werent forthcoming on an application, Staub said. They are just flat-out wrong.

But the U.S. attorneys office said Davis scammed the VA out of more than $71 million in veterans benefits.

The defendant allegedly lied to multiple governmental agencies, said office spokeswoman Erin Dooley. We are confident the evidence will prove our case. To undermine the VA is to insult the sacrifices of military veterans nationwide.

Those comments set the stage for what is likely to be a hotly-contested case. Davis, 43, voluntarily surrendered on Nov. 23. He pleaded not guilty the same day and was released pending trial. He faces up to 184 years in prison if convicted, the U.S. attorneys office said.

Although authorities claim Davis lied about his schools financial condition, he hasnt been accused of scamming student veterans out of an education, unlike other schools targeted by the feds in recent years. In those G.I. Bill fraud cases, prosecutors successfully proved that educational services were either not provided or were significantly less than advertised. Other cases involved fake students and sham or fly-by-night schools.

Lawmakers in Washington D.C. have debated giving the Veterans Affairs department more power to crack down on predatory for-profit schools that receive G.I. Bill funding and take advantage of veterans. Critics say oversight is lacking, and the VA is under pressure to do more to combat fraud and crack down on predatory schools targeting veterans.

The Nov. 18 indictment doesnt accuse Retail Ready of defrauding students. Staub said hes not aware of any student complaints and that on the contrary, Davis students love him. The schools graduation rate was 89%, and it had a placement rate of 81% in its final year, the company has said in court records.

The criminal allegations against Davis differ from whats alleged in the civil forfeiture suit, Staub said. He said federal officials initially claimed his client violated regulations by enrolling too many veterans. This indictment is not what has been threatened for the past three years, he said.

Staub said he believes the government rushed the indictment together at the last minute to prevent a judge from eventually dismissing the forfeiture lawsuit.

The indictment says that from May 2013 to December 2019, Davis made false statements to obtain VA approval for Retail Ready to receive G.I. Bill payments on behalf of students, and that he fraudulently persuaded veterans to enroll in his trade school.

Staub said he doesnt understand how the feds could claim the alleged scheme continued through 2019 since the school has been closed since the September 2017 raid.

How theyre saying that were still out there doing it blows my mind, he said.

Davis also is accused of lying to an accountant, resulting in a false and misleading Retail Ready financial statement. And officials say he sent false financial statements to the Texas Workforce Commission and to the Texas Veterans Commission.

Jack Ternan, another defense lawyer, said the purpose of accurate financial statements is to assure the government that a school will be able to operate. He said his client did so successfully.

They werent harmed in any way even if those things were inaccurate, Ternan said.

The indictment also says Davis misrepresented his students career prospects, and that he falsely certified to the TWC that he had no criminal cases pending against him. Hes also accused of falsely stating that Retail Ready had operated as an educational institution over a certain time.

Davis previously told The Dallas Morning News that the feds forced his school to close its doors for good, stranding many of his out-of-state students. He has filed multiple legal challenges to the civil forfeiture action that were unsuccessful. And he sued the government in September 2019 on behalf of Retail Ready, claiming, among other things, a violation of the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures.

U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr, who is presiding over the forfeiture case, has denied Davis attempts to toss the lawsuit but said in a ruling last month that he would entertain another motion to dismiss in 30 days. Starr wrote that the governments delay in bringing criminal charges did not yet implicate Fifth Amendment due-process concerns.

But he added that the constitutional dynamics in forfeiture cases are in constant flux, and the balance could be different 30 days from now. The forfeiture case remains on hold until the criminal proceedings conclude.

Retail Ready, which opened in the summer of 2014, offered boot-camp style classes, where it took six weeks rather than six months for students to become HVAC technicians. Classes ran from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Students came from all over the country and some from abroad.

Davis charged the VA between $18,000 and $21,000 for each student to attend, the indictment says.

The school provided students with housing assistance at local hotels that included meals and transportation. Retail Ready trained more than 2,500 people, some of whom went on to jobs that paid more than $75,000 annually, the company has said. More than 90% of its students were veterans, school officials said, most of whom needed financial aid.

But the governments forfeiture lawsuit claims Retail Ready violated the 85-15 rule, which prohibits the VA from paying more than 85% of student enrollment costs. The rule is intended to cut down on fraud by preventing schools from only recruiting veterans in order to maximize G.I. Bill funding, according to the forfeiture lawsuit.

Government lawyers also claim in the forfeiture suit that Retail Ready awarded scholarships to students not based on financial need but to artificially meet the 15% requirement. The lead investigator has spoken with former Retail Ready employees and other insiders with knowledge of the facts, court records say.

About 300 students were enrolled when agents raided the school in 2017. The government seized all of Davis bank accounts, and his $2.3 million Dallas house is also part of the forfeiture action, court records show. So are a Lamborghini, Ferrari, Bentley and other luxury cars.

The schools student recruitment practices also have come under fire.

The forfeiture lawsuit alleges that Davis sister formed two companies that posted fake entry-level jobs on multiple job boards. When people responded, the companies sold those leads to Retail Ready for recruitment, according to the lawsuit.

VA regulations prohibit the use of false or misleading advertising or enrollment practices, federal authorities said. The forfeiture suit also said Retail Ready exceeded enrollment limitations and improperly paid bonuses to admissions staff.

In response, Retail Readys lawyers said the school tried to comply with numerous federal regulations and that any inaccuracies were honest mistakes.

Staub said that when he first met with the prosecutor a couple of years ago, his PowerPoint basically said You made too much money too quickly.

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Garland trade school owner charged with bilking VA out of $70 million - The Dallas Morning News